Page 31 of Dead Crown (Valentine #2)

Wetness and warmth touched Lumi’s face, and something was covering his body.

“Shh. It’s okay.”

Where was Jacqueline? Why did the voice sound so familiar? It wasn’t Tivar. When he opened his eyes, he knew he had to be hallucinating because there was no way Prince Jaki was there and cleaning off his face.

“Do you recognize me? Lumi?”

Lumi’s left eye was swollen, and his lip protested when he tried to speak. “Yeah…”

“I’m going to get you out of here. Once you’re cleaned up a bit, I’ll put clothes on you, and I’ll get you far away from here. I have a glamor, so nobody knows who I really am. I’ll take you right out.”

Lumi dumbly watched Jaki take a bowl from the bed and drop a red-smeared cloth into it before he went into the privy room. He couldn't leave, and he needed Jacqueline.

He realized the shackle was gone from his wrist, and he stared at the raw flesh from when he’d tried to pull his hand out when he couldn’t get it loose from the headboard. The collar around his neck was gone. He’d grown so used to the feel of it again that the absence was strange.

If everything was real, and Jaki was there…Tivar had left. Or he was dead. Either way, Lumi wanted his daughter, and nothing was going to keep her from him. Not even Jaki.

His limbs protested as he pushed away the blanket and forced himself to stand.

His legs shook, and his skull throbbed as he made his way to the door.

Jaki must have been refreshing the water and cleaning the rag since water came from a pipe in the wall over the tub in the privy room.

The noise faded as he stumbled into the sitting room.

Besides the privy, it was the first time he’d been out of the bedroom in months.

Servants always had a back passage, and Tivar said he’d given Jacqueline to a servant.

What if he was lying, and he’d killed her?

Or what if the servant was cruel to her?

The mere idea was sickening. If she was sick or hurt…

Lumi wobbled down the hall and took a left. The back area was that way, or he was pretty sure it was if his logic was correct. Tivar had never taken him to the servant’s back passage during his short time as a “pleasure slave.”

It was hard to think beyond getting his daughter, but he was right. The back passage was lit with dimmer lanterns so one wouldn’t trip on the stairs, and he clutched onto the wall as he stepped down.

“Lumi!”

The shout was faint, and he tried to hurry. Nobody was taking his daughter away again. Jaki would probably hate her. Lumi didn’t give a fuck. She was his, and Jaki wasn’t keeping them apart.

“Lumi!”

When he made it down the first flight and into a narrow hallway, a woman came from a room, paused, and screamed at the sight of a naked man who looked like he’d gotten the shit beaten out of him.

“Where is she?” yelled Lumi. “Where’s Jacqueline?”

The woman turned and tried to hurry back into the room. He lunged and managed to grab her arm.

“Get off! Let go!” She beat his hand.

“I want my daughter! Where is she?”

“Get off of her!” A strange man he’d never seen before was suddenly pulling Lumi away.

The woman slammed the door shut, and a lock clicked. “Oh, Elira! Get him away from me! Call the guards!”

Lumi shoved at the new guy, remembered he had his magic now without his collar, and raised a hand as he summoned his fire. “Let me go! I need my daughter!”

“It’s me!” hissed the man. "Jaki." He took Lumi’s right wrist. “Please put the fire out.”

Jaki had said something about having a glamor. Lumi still tried to push him away. “You’re not keeping me from her!”

“I’m not trying to. Is your child here in the Castle?”

“She has to be…” Lumi started to sob. He needed to see her and make sure she was safe. What if she was scared or hungry because the servant hadn’t fed her? How could he trust a stranger with her?

Jaki took off his coat. “Let me take you back upstairs, and I’ll come look.”

“No! I need her now!”

The glamor must have been good to change the Prince’s eyes. Something about the way he looked at Lumi made him still seem like Jaki. He put the coat around Lumi and knocked on the door. “Miss, I’m sorry about that. He’s hurt, and it’s a long story. Do you know where his baby is?”

“I don’t have any babies!” the woman shrieked through the door. “Go away, or I’ll call the guards.”

“Nobody’s going to hear you from behind a locked door, and I need to find his child. We…” Jaki paused. “We moved her for a bit because her Father was ill. There was a big issue, and His Majesty was trying to help. I’m not sure who took the baby.”

That barely made sense to Lumi as he held onto the wall and tried to ignore the pain everywhere in his body.

The woman must have felt safer with a lord because she opened the door a crack.

“Lydia downstairs has two. One’s hers, and King Tivar gave her the other.

He said he took pity on a homeless woman, and Lydia has milk for two. ”

“You mean a homeless man?” Jaki asked as if she’d heard wrong. “He won’t rest and recuperate without his child. You know how a new parent is. I didn't expect him to get out of bed in such a panic.”

The woman glanced at Lumi. “Er, yes. First floor, second door on the right.”

“Thank you. Keep quiet about this, okay? Don’t embarrass him.”

Lumi started heading down the next flight, and his legs buckled. Jaki was at his side in an instant to scoop him up.

“I need Jacqueline. I’m not going upstairs.”

“We’re getting her, okay? We won’t go back up until she’s in your arms. I promise.”

Lumi sniffled as he studied Jaki’s face in this new form.

His jaw was tight, but his arms were gentle as he carried Lumi down.

Maybe none of this was real because he’d figured out a long time ago that no one would ever come for him.

Even though he’d convinced himself that his freedom at the Ice Court would last forever, he knew that once he returned, he’d never leave because Tivar wouldn’t allow it.

What if his mind had finally cracked? What would happen to Jacqueline?

“You’re really here? I'm not dreaming?”

“Yes, I’m here. I’m Lord Smith like this, so remember that.”

Jaki only put him down when they reached the right door, and he knocked. “Lydia?”

“Er, yes?” came a hesitant voice.

“It’s Lord Smith. I’m supposed to get the baby you were given by King Tivar to watch.”

Lydia opened the door enough to look through. “And just what do you need the baby fo-” She noticed Lumi in the coat that was too big for him and not properly done up, with his bare legs sticking out from the bottom. “Good Elira!”

“This is her Father.”

“His Majesty said he took her from a homeless woman because she begged him, and he felt sorry for the poor girl.”

Jaki tilted his head. “I think you must have gotten mixed up. Her Father gave birth to her. He was seriously hurt. Crime has gotten quite bad lately. Gav won’t rest until his kid is next to him now that he’s awake.

I’m sure you can understand. It's his first child, and while he needs to rest, he's getting too worked up without his daughter by him.”

The woman squinted at him. “King Tivar had him in here? I clean upstairs, and I heard of no such thing.”

“Tivar felt sorry for him and had him brought in to recover. A physician’s been coming for him, and I’m a friend of Tivar, so I helped a bit. We didn't want servants around in case he woke up and was distraught. Too many people could be a bit much. Now, Jacqueline?”

“Um, she’s sleeping next to my girl, Sab.”

As soon as Lydia moved aside, Lumi finally entered. Two little baskets sat on the floor by the bed. One baby had orange skin like her Mother, and the other was Jacqueline.

Lumi burst into tears as he practically fell to his knees by the baskets. She was all right. He gathered her in his arms as he tried to stop crying.

“Jacqueline…I got you.”

Jaki was saying something to Lydia, but he didn’t hear it. Jacqueline shifted a bit in her swaddling and yawned with her little rosebud mouth. Apparently, none of the noise bothered her.

“She cried a lot and must have missed her Father,” Lydia was saying. “It took a while to get her to sleep. I’d freak out too if I woke up and my daughter wasn’t nearby. Some of these beggars are getting terrible if they’ll attack a man with a baby.”

Lumi managed to stand with his baby, and Jaki led him into the hall. “Thank you for watching her. Sorry to bother you.”

Lumi stared down at her. What was he supposed to do when Tivar came back? Or was he dead?

“Is Tivar dead?” he whispered in a low voice once the door shut.

Jaki’s face tightened. “I wish. Come on. You got her?” He scooped up Lumi. “I’ll spare you the stairs. This is your first baby, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I figured.”

“He didn't want a girl, and he was angry I didn’t give him a son.”

“I’m guessing he planned to coronate a boy in secret so he can rule and unite Iceland?”

“Yes.”

It was better if Jaki thought it was Tivar’s and not his since brothers shouldn’t have kids together.

They also shouldn’t lust after each other or fuck, but they hadn’t seemed to be able to help that.

Lumi didn’t feel any lust now. All he wanted to do was hold his daughter and sleep.

Everything hurt so bad, and he could still feel something on his face like dried blood.

It was almost unreal when Jaki set him on the couch in the sitting room. “Look at my finger and follow it. I’m not sure if this works properly or not…” Lumi followed his finger as it moved. “Do you feel like you’ll throw up?”

“No…”

“I guess you're damn lucky. Your pupils are the same size too.”

Lumi had read somewhere that humans were more susceptible to head injuries or even death after a knock to the skull unlike fairies, although he didn’t know why. He couldn’t say he felt well , that was for sure.

“He’s gone to the whorehouse,” Jaki continued. “Do you know if he’ll stay late?”