Page 14 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

“Bram,” I began. “Long time, no see. Since the time you yourself flunked out of your second attempt at training.”

He cursed at me, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before.

I grinned. “How about you pick on someone your own size.” I made a show of turning to leave and then stopping. “Oh, that’s right. You tried, but you couldn’t hang.”

Wren snorted a laugh before putting a hand over her mouth.

I continued, “I was standing here ready to intervene, but the women you were trying to make a spectacle of instead made a spectacle of you. I didn’t even have to help. How about that?”

“This isn’t over!” Bram screamed from around the bloody rag.

“This party is,” I yelled to all the people staring, the music now stopped.

I used my magic to wrap firmly around Molly’s and pull him toward me. “Speak to my sister like that again, speak to any of these women like that again, and you and I can spend some time together in the mountain. Which I would enjoy. Thoroughly. ”

“You wouldn’t. You know who my grandparents are. Peace in Wylan is hanging on by a thread.”

“I don’t give a damn who your grandparents are or aren’t.

The king who sits on the Wylan throne does not appreciate men who threaten women.

Oppression is never acceptable, Bram. No matter what level of the kingdom you currently find yourself in.

” I smacked him on the cheek, a friendly slap.

“So I repeat myself. Pick on someone your own size. This is your one and only warning.”

To Miles I added, “Get them out of here.”

“You got it, Boss. ”

I waited until the women were all out. Molly let her hold on the others fall, so did Viv. But I kept mine on Bram. He had all of my attention. He was glaring at me with as much hatred as I felt for him.

“Stay away from Wren.”

“Get out of my house,” he rasped against my magic. “None of you were invited in the first place!”

I gave him a laugh. “It’s not your house, silly.

It’s your grandparents’. You haven’t earned or worked for it, Bram.

That’s the problem.” I cocked my head. “The only reason I am not taking you to the mountain right here and right now is because I know they came here of their own will, uninvited. But I am sending Team One in to make sure everyone is gone from here within the hour. Tick tock.”

With that, I spun on my heel and headed out. It wasn’t until I heard the door shut behind me that I dropped my magic from Bram.

As I neared the others, Miles was apparently giving the women a scolding.

“Do you not understand all Raikes has done for Wylan? How hard he’s fought for the world we live in?

” He pinned a look at Wren. “A world in which he doesn’t have to stand there and watch you get groped by the dead king.

And you made him look a fool tonight by walking into a loyalist party.

For what? Confirmation that your ex is a sleaze? ”

“I had to know!” She batted at a tear. “I had to know. I didn’t think he was like the rest of his family. I didn’t intend to make Owen look bad.”

“Well, you did,” he snapped.

He was loyal, I’d give him that. “Miles.”

“Yeah?” he snapped at me, a sign of how worked up he was. “Sorry. Yeah?”

“Go back for half of Team One. I don’t think they’ll try anything, but I told them they have an hour to clear out of here. ”

“What about the rest of you?”

I shot him a grin. “Oh, they walked right out of the barracks, so they will be walking right back in.”

He walked over to me and gave me a slap on the shoulder. “See you back at Kavan Keep?”

“Thanks for the backup tonight,” I told him and tipped my head toward the huge house behind me. “Let me know if anything more comes of this.”

“Will do.”

I didn’t say a word, just started walking, the women following behind.

“We are sor?—"

I held up a hand to cut them off. I really didn’t want to hear their apologies right now. “Do not.”

So we continued walking. I took deep, calming breaths. I was damn proud of the women for how they held their own back there. They hadn’t been fighting against Team One, but they handled four spoiled Enchanted brats easily. And I couldn’t fault Zara for punching Bram. If she hadn’t, I would’ve.

Emric’s house was along the way, and I knew he was likely at his parents’ party, still, I walked up the driveway and banged on the door.

To my surprise, he opened the door. Shirtless. “Owen?”

“Em.”

His eyes went to the women behind me and back to me. “Shouldn’t you be at the barracks?”

“Shouldn’t you be at the party at your parents’ house?”

He tipped his head up. “Just doing some late-night reading.”

I choked on a laugh. “I need a place to wait for twenty minutes to ensure we aren’t being followed. I was going to just break in.”

He opened the door wider. “My house is your house, Raikes.”

Some of the girls were whispering, filling Fern in on who Emric was .

I gestured to his living room, a large couch and a few chairs. “Sit,” I told them.

Emric and I headed to the kitchen where I reached into his freeze box, using my magic to wrap around and gather some ice before sending it out to Zara.

She wasn’t Enchanted. I should have warned her, but I heard her gasp as the cold ice hit her hand.

I quickly filled Emric in on the situation. Halfway through, he got me a glass of ice water which I gladly downed.

“I’m going back up there with you,” he told me.

“Team One is en route and helping calm everything down, but I am not going to turn that down right now, Em.”

“And after all that happened with Dixon Hill? I’m not due to go back to Dra Skor for a few months. You need me to stay close?”

“Maybe.”

His head jerked back. “The fact that you didn’t just tell me no right away means you’re more worried than you are letting on.”

“The loyalists already didn’t like this team of women. Tonight just fanned the flames. I’m not really worried about those four brats following us. The women handled them just fine on their own. I am worried about something more organized now though. Retaliation for tonight.”

“Damn.” He strode for the door of the kitchen. “I’m going to get dressed and pack a bag.”

“Thank you, Em.”

Twenty minutes later, we continued our quiet walk back to the barracks. I was up front, setting the pace and constantly scanning our environment, no one brave enough to walk with me. The women were behind me in clumps of two and three, Emric taking up the rear.

A few minutes into our walk, I heard some footsteps quicken before they fell in next to mine.

“General,” she began .

“Zara.” She looked different with her hair down and not in the usual braid.

I again wondered if I had met her before on the streets of Nerede.

“I’m not mad at you for punching him.” Realizing my magic was still holding the ice to the hand she’d punched Bram with, I let it fall.

The ice had pooled into water and slid to the ground in a puddle.

She sucked in a breath and shook out her hand. “Good to know, but that’s not why I’m walking with you.”

“Why are you walking with me, then?”

“I got nominated because I’m not scared of you.”

Without slowing my strides, I turned slightly to look her in the eyes for the first time since the party.

She let out a sigh. “It is your disappointment they cannot bear. It’d be better if you just yelled at us already. I know you’re seething.”

I gave her a look of surprise. “Wait. You aren’t scared of me?”

“I told you, I’ve dealt with far worse.”

Now I was the one letting out a sigh. “Dammit Zara, you have to stop saying stuff like that to me.”

“Why?”

“Do you want me to dig? Do you want me to find out who it is that you are afraid of? Because I can, and I will.”

“There’s a list,” she joked. “So it would be harder than it may first seem.”

I cocked my head. “A challenge doesn’t scare me.”

She smiled, a real full one, the likes of which had been fleeting thus far into training. “Look. Wren knew about this party happening before she left for training.”

“You do not have to explain a thing. She can explain it herself.”

“Yes, but please know we were only planning to sneak out, prove to her what a piece of work he was, and then come back. We weren’t trying to break any rules, but we also were not about to let her go alone. She was going with or without us. ”

“Except you did break the rules. All of them, in fact. If you had the trainer I did, one of Theon’s Generals, you’d all be out. I can kick all of you out, make this the end of the road for this little experiment, if I would so choose.”

“But you won’t.” Her voice was laced thick with determination.

“And how do you know that?”

“Because you are the type of man that taught us how to throw our weight into our punches so that I could break Bram’s nose. You know this isn’t over. We messed up. So get angry. Yell. But don’t give up on us.”

We fell into a content silence the rest of the way, our footsteps the only noise.

As the barracks finally came back into view, Zara said quietly, “And thank you for the ice.”

I stood on the deck of the barrack’s entrance and turned to the women.

“If any of you ever sneak out again, you are done here. I don’t care if it is all of you or one of you.

Done.” I stood there, still so frustrated with the way the night had gone.

They’d snuck out and also managed to fan the flames with the loyalists.

“Be ready extra early for morning workout. Five bells.”

To give them credit, no one groaned.

I moved aside and they headed in, a few whispering variations of “sorry” on their way by.

I stopped Wren, though. She had her arms wrapped around her stomach. And she had been quietly crying since seeing Bram with another woman.

I heaved a sigh. “I am still so damn pissed you snuck out, Wren. That the entire team snuck out because of you . Separately, as your brother, I’m also sorry you had to find out what the rest of us already knew about Bram like that.”

More tears flooded her eyes, and I stepped in, wrapping my arms around her. “Dammit. Stop crying. You know I hate it.”

“Am I out?” she croaked .

“Of the team? No. But I meant what I just said. Don’t do it again or you will be. No more second chances, Wren.”

She nodded as she cried even harder.

“Tell me you are done with Bram. For good. It better have been worth something if I am going to deal with loyalist strife for the next few weeks.”

“I’m done with him. And I should have listened to you a year ago when you told me he wasn’t good enough for me.”

“He’s not.”

She smirked as she pulled back, wiping at her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry they all went with me. I never asked them to.”

I gestured with my head to the barracks. “Go. Try to get some sleep. As sorry as I am that you had to see that tonight, Wren, your ass better be ready to run in the morning.”

“Thank you for having my back, Owen.”

We tended to make things in life far more complicated than they needed to be. “You’re my sister. He comes near you again, I bury him.”

“I didn’t mean to disrespect you, or the team, or make the loyalists mad, or make any of us look bad,” she added.

“You aren’t used to making decisions with a team. Selfish decisions have no room, because of all the ramifications. I had to learn it. You will too.”

She gave my arm a squeeze as she went. “Love you, brother.”

“Love you, Wrenchy.”

The morning was going to come entirely too damn fast, and I still had to get a report ready on all that happened for Jorah and Krew.

It wasn’t until my head finally hit the pillow that I really thought about how well the team handled themselves against Bram and his friends.

Tonight felt like a huge step backward for the team, but also gave me a little glimpse of what they were capable of.