Page 20 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

U sing an active tendril of my Enchantment to light my way, I ran with everything in me along the path, past the fork in the trail which would take me to The Dead Lake, and barreled toward the barracks.

I had snapped at Krew and Keir to stay put, and knowing I was right, Emric had refused to leave me alone. Thus, he ran behind me, unable to keep my pace.

I wasn’t slowing down for him.

As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I couldn’t see smoke around the trees of the forest, but I could smell it.

An acrid fire in these woods? In the dark?

Memories flashed into my mind, one after another.

Krew, Jorah, Keir, and me putting out that fire in the forest, just to weaken us, so the dead king could try to kill Krew in the early hours of the next morning.

The two men sent to put iron gauntlets on me that had broken my collarbone in the effort before I killed them both.

Just that smell in this place was enough to send me reeling, gripping for the fact that the dead king was gone. History could not , would not , repeat itself .

I inhaled deeply. Three long pulls. In through my nose, out through my mouth. I didn’t know who exactly was to blame for this, but it was safe to say that it was probably a loyalist. One that did not deserve another chance.

As I turned to the north, I picked up speed. Half of the front of the barracks was blackened, but the fire was thankfully out, and the wood of the front deck was still there, just charred.

Miles found me immediately. “I came to help, but the team already had it out.” He lowered his voice to whisper and leaned in. “One of these jackasses locked the back exit though, Raikes. There wouldn’t have been a way out.”

Between the Enchantments being used and the two lanterns the women had, I was able to see everything.

Under a tree sat three men wrapped in three different colors of magic. Two were men from the party in Savaryn. The third I didn’t recognize, but it was safe to say he had been there somewhere also.

Registering all Miles had informed me, I moved.

I wasn’t sure if I walked or flew, if my Enchantment had rallied on my behalf and gotten me there faster, but I knew that my fist collided with Bram Stirling’s face seconds later.

That didn’t make me feel even a little bit better.

So I wound back and fired again, into his barely healed nose.

He crumpled around the magic holding him, gasping and groaning with pain.

I moved to swing a third time but was intercepted before I could.

As Miles put himself in between Bram and me, pushing at my chest, the prick on the ground had the audacity to say, “We only wanted to play with them a little.”

Miles tensed. “Then why was the back door locked?”

“I didn’t do that!” Bram yelled.

That was the thing with men like this, nothing was ever their fault.

“That was me. Thought maybe we’d get to swoop in and save the day.” Molly’s magic wound tighter around the man she had pinned down as she learned that bit of information, causing him to cough.

“So let me get this straight.” My voice went low and promised death in a variety of ways.

“You thought you would scare them within an inch of their lives, disregarding the fact that they could have actually gotten hurt, and then you were going to swoop in and play savior for a problem that you yourselves started?”

Their silence was answer enough. I moved fast, spinning around Miles and going back for Bram again.

“I didn’t really want her to get hurt,” Bram pleaded.

I was not exactly feeling merciful in that moment. What kind of men derived their joy from scaring women like that? So, I did the only logical thing I could. I kicked. Hard. I just so happened to connect with some ribs. If they broke, I wouldn’t lose a minute of sleep over it.

Miles was trying to separate us again, but all I saw was red.

I’d been waiting for this. And finally, on the one night I head to the castle to be with the people I love most, they made their move. A move that very well could’ve gotten the women killed. This was no longer a game of cat and mouse.

“Uhh, some help?” Miles asked as I struggled against him.

Emric was there too, both of them pulling me away from Bram and the other men.

Emric’s voice said to me calmly, “They’re going to the mountain, Owen. All three of them.”

I heaved a deep breath, then my sister was there, wrapping her arms around me and holding on.

I wasn’t particularly done with Bram and his friends, I knew I could get free of Miles and Emric if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to fling Wren off me like I had with Miles and get her hurt in the process. More hurt than she already was.

“Owen,” she begged. “Please. This is my fault. It’s all my fault. Don’t kill him.” Her voice caught. “Don’t lose your job and everything you’ve worked for. It’s my fault.”

Her guilt brought me back around to my senses.

I put my arms around her and hugged her back, though my muscles were still tense, my magic begging for a fight.

“This is not your fault, Wren. Your sneaking out to see Bram last time might have been. But this? This is no longer wanting to scare a group of women. This was done out of insecurity. Jealousy. Out of hate .”

Sam moved in, putting an arm around me and one around Wren. Jaya did the same. Jessina. Remy. Fern. Even Zara. All of them but Pippa, Molly, and Vivian who were busy pinning the men down with their Enchantments.

“What the hell is this?” I groaned about to tell them to get off me.

“Nothing fancy; we call it a group hug,” Sam offered.

Before I could answer, she quickly added, “So Zara felt something was off and alerted us right away. We knew they were there and hid. We let them start the fire, because if we would’ve just caught them before they did anything wrong, they would’ve gone free. ”

If I didn’t have three women at my back, I might have stumbled at her words.

“You allowed them to start the fire?” I asked from around my disbelief.

She gave me a smile that promised violence. “My idea, yeah. I wanted to make sure there were only the three of them.”

One by one, they let go of me as she continued explaining.

“Fern was standing by the showers, ready to put out the fire as soon as they started it, we just wanted to make sure they were actually going to do it. And she would have been faster, but lover boy over there made a crude remark about your sister who bumped into Fern. Zara had to hold Wren back from running out there and getting herself burned. Or more burned than she already is.” She ducked her head in a wince. “Sorry, Wren. Didn’t mean it like?—”

“Not mad,” Wren said, wrapping her arms around herself. “Say what you want. This is my fault.”

Pippa offered in that no nonsense way, “You didn’t beg for them to start the barracks on fire. The only thing you are at fault for here is merely having poor taste in men.”

I couldn’t help it; I snorted a laugh as I told Wren, “She’s not wrong. Listen to Pippa.” I turned and looked over the women. They looked fine. No one appeared to have been burned. Other than the damn smell in the air, they seemed unbothered.

“All of you—” I had to pause to grit my teeth before swallowing down my rage, my Enchantment still swirling in my forearms and palms. “All of you are fine? No one got burned?”

I looked at each of them, most of which were wearing shorts and simple cotton shirts, or some other variation of pajamas.

They all must have done their nails tonight, because the bright fuchsia color was back.

Dammit if I wasn’t proud of them for handling this.

Twice now, they’d handled business before I could even arrive to help.

It wasn’t even that I wanted to be their savior, I was just sick of them being in situations where they shouldn’t have had to handle things.

Situations which went beyond the fine line of hazing and crossed into violent territory.

“We’re good,” Molly told me.

My eyes landed on Zara last. Her necklace she always wore wasn’t even out of place. She gave me a soft smile as if to confirm she was fine.

More people showed up, and Miles beckoned me over.

Much to my dismay, Krew and Keir arrived.

To my king, I snapped, “What if more loyalists are in hiding in the forest right now?”

Krew smirked. “Then I venture to say your team of women would handle them just as adeptly as they did this. You’ve trained them well.”

“I—” he had a point. “You still shouldn’t be here.”

Keir patted me on the shoulder. “Raikes. They knew I was arriving soon and were likely waiting around for it. They knew you would be distracted, as would the wall surveillance with more guards shifted around for our security. These men are not entirely stupid.”

I wasn’t sure that explanation helped anything. I gritted my teeth and turned to Krew. “Get them out of here before I commit murder. Multiple murders.”

Krew gave me a nod. “Will do. Team Three is almost here. They’ll take them to the mountain.

I will assign Team Five to come in tomorrow and oversee the team of construction workers I will have in to rebuild the deck of the barracks.

Some of their clothes might smell like fire, I’ll send a team to help with that too.

By this time tomorrow, you won’t even be able to tell this happened. ”

I shook my head and looked up at the stars. “I will still remember.”

“But don’t let it eat at you,” Krew said, ever his perceptive self.

“That smell in this forest,” I admitted to them, my two closest friends, never mind the fact that they were each kings in their own rights. I closed my eyes and inhaled, the stubborn burn of smoke still lingering in the air. “It got to me. Messed with me a little.”

“I considered that also,” Krew admitted.

Keir added, “Between that fire, and the fire Esta breathed on us to get us out of her lair when everything went down in Dra Skor, I don’t like the smell much either. But I will say that over time, the fear that creeps up on you from the smell does lessen.”

Of course. He lived in a place where dragons could breathe fire and bonfires were a common form of celebration. It wasn’t like it was something he could avoid forever. Maybe that’s what I needed to do. Have a positive memory with fire to balance out the horrifying one.

As the team arrived and took the men away, I stood watch, considering that all of us had scars from Theon’s reign. Even if they weren’t visible. Somehow the ones beneath the surface of our skin were deepest. Slow to heal. Hard to shake.

I had worked so damn hard to carve out a better Wylan. Were some of the things I had lived through finally catching up to me?

If they were, there was only one option: I would bend, not break.

If tonight proved anything, it proved there was still work to be done.

I wasn’t dull enough to believe that getting these three men locked away was going to solve these tensions.

If anything, it would only again fan the flames with the loyalists.

The war on cruelty was not yet won.