Page 34 of Fractured (Royal Sins #3)

I’d started my search in the Mercove, which was only reasonable, but she wasn’t there, either.

I crossed into Mysthaven next, and I searched every inch of its forests and its houses and its towns.

Sorcerer magic was powerful and could be used to shield and hide things and beings perfectly, and that’s why I’d had to stop every few feet and expand my senses, focus on them, to make sure that I wasn’t being fooled by magic.

That’s why it had taken me almost three days to get through this fucking place.

I stopped again, closer to the edge of town.

Light flickered inside windows now that the sky had turned completely dark.

Hunger made my limbs a bit weak, but I didn’t mind.

I hadn’t eaten since I came into Mysthaven, but I still had energy to travel all across the realm. I would not stop until I found her.

Eyes on the back of my head, but I didn’t turn. Instead, I closed mine and focused on my senses, on the magic that I felt spreading all around me like a large wave, searching for the energy that was uniquely hers.

It wasn’t there, not within half a mile radius.

But somebody else was.

My eyes opened again, but this time I didn’t urge the horse to move forward right away.

I turned around, looked at my surroundings, at the sorcerers who moved away from their windows or the streets, pretending they hadn’t been looking right at me.

Even the animals they had here, caged or free, didn’t make a single sound as I scanned the area.

He wasn’t in plain sight, Lyall, but he was there. He’d found me, and he was in this very town with me. I knew his energy just like I knew Nilah’s, and he was most definitely somewhere behind me.

A bitter smile stretched my lips. I pushed my heel against the horse’s side and continued forward.

Before her energy changed, I felt her, could almost see where she was with perfect accuracy.

I could send my magic to search for her and it would always find her—but maybe that’s just because I knew where she was?

Just like the little bird I made for her had found her in the palace’s jail cell—but I’d known she was in the palace.

Now I had no clue. Whether it was because of whatever the werewolf scratch had done to her or only because I didn’t have the slightest idea where she could be, I didn’t feel her anywhere. Like she suddenly stopped existing—which was where the rage came from ultimately.

And then there was Lyall.

I was certain that he didn’t have Nilah, as I’d seen him walk away defeated with my own eyes from the top of a tree, but now he was here. He’d followed me to Mysthaven, which didn’t surprise me. I hadn’t tried to hide a single time, and it would have been easy for him to pinpoint my location.

But the fact that he’d followed me personally was what made me hesitate. The fact that he hadn’t sent soldiers or a messenger made me curious.

Which was why I had stopped a few feet into the woods at the edge of town, the same woods that bordered with Blackwater. The horse was tied to a branch a few feet away and I was leaning against the tree with my arms crossed, my eyes back between the buildings through which I’d come minutes ago.

He wasn’t trying to hide, Lyall. I didn’t think he was.

And when he finally appeared there on his horse, I knew that he knew I’d be waiting for him right here.

His deep red cloak looked black in the dark. The hood hid half his face, though I didn’t think he’d wanted to hide his identity from passersby. He was no longer faking his death, after all. News had spread. By now the entire realm would have heard about him.

He didn’t have guards with him from what I could see and feel, not close. He was all alone, and he jumped off his horse just at the edge of the buildings. With the reins in hand, he pushed down his hood as if he thought I might not know it was him, and he made his way toward the woods slowly.

Summer fae couldn’t really see in the dark, and I expected a few fae lights to come out of his hand the moment he stepped onto the forest floor. They were small, barely let out light, but his magic would be able to feel where I was standing, and his step didn’t falter .

I kept control of myself, my body relaxed, muscles loose, magic at the ready. It had shaped itself like an arrow ready to launch at him at any given second—but first, I had to know why he’d bothered to follow me all this way.

“Hello, friend.”

His voice irritated me, which hadn’t happened before. He took his time tying the reins of his horse to a branch near mine, and then stepped forward with his chest out, his hair combed back, his eyes glowing golden just like always.

The sight of him irritated me, too.

“You’re nobody’s friend, Lyall.” I pushed myself off the tree and stepped forward—I wasn’t afraid of him.

Not only had I never been afraid of him, even when I knew his magic was superior to mine, but now I knew that I could kill him with ease if it came to it.

The feeling in my gut that insisted I protect him at all cost be damned—I would watch the light fading from his eyes not only because of my magic, but because of my pain as well.

He’d tried to kill me when he threw me in the Hollow with a giant, and I could forgive that.

But he’d ordered me to kill Nilah and had sent his soldiers for her in the cave. That I would never forgive if I lived a thousand years.

“You hurt my feelings,” he mocked with a hand to his chest.

A hand free of weapons—but he didn’t really need one. Just like me.

“Your ego will find a way to survive, I’m sure,” I said. “I’ll urge you to quickly get to the reason why you’re following me. I’m running very low on patience.”

A laugh—cold and cruel. Lyall spread his arms to the sides and looked at me like he thought I might have forgotten who he was. A fucking snake in disguise, controlled so fully by his ego. A child— albeit one with a lot of power in his hands.

“Look at us—two sons of kings going about it in a forest in Mysthaven. Who would have thought the night would come,” he said. “Though, I’ll admit it’s different when you’re a bastard?—”

“Lyall.” I didn’t raise my voice at all, but he stopped. “I will not show you mercy a second time.”

At this point he would have laughed again—heartily this time—had he not seen me with his own eyes sink his entire feast hall into raw darkness before I ran away.

He would have had the time of his life attacking me right here had he not known that I was no longer restricted by the curse my father put on me.

But he saw. And he knew.

There was no laughter before he said, “Oh, yeah, yeah—that did make me curious. You could have killed me before I woke up.” He pushed the edges of his cloak to the sides and put his hands in his pockets—a gesture meant to make me believe that he wasn’t worried in the least or threatened by me in any way. “Why didn’t you?”

“I am not a coward. To kill you while you were unconscious would have made me one,” I said.

“Right, right—I thought you might say that it was because we were friends once, and…you know, that little detail where I saved your life .”

“And I saved yours—twice now, if we want to be picky.” I smiled and it wasn’t even forced.

His was. “But I’m not unconscious now.” Again, he raised his hands.

“Are you going to attack me? We both know you can now that you broke the traitor’s mark.

You did it.” He hated every word that came out of his mouth and it was plain to see.

“You broke the curse of a king—now you have magic. Maybe as much as I do.”

I went a little closer. “Maybe you’re right.

Maybe I should attack you. Reme knows you deserve it.

And you know you won’t win.” As careful as I’d always been not to hurt his ego, we both knew that I was better with weapons.

And when our magic got too much for the both of us, we would be reaching for our swords.

He was a good swordsman, Lyall. I was just better.

For a long, tense moment, our locked eyes didn’t blink. Neither of us moved a single inch. Magic hung in the air here, too, sorcerer magic, but our presence had begun to radiate fae magic as well. The horses felt it—it made them uneasy, and they kept trying to move farther back.

Five feet between me and the Seelie Prince, yet I felt his aura as if we were standing face to face, and he felt mine.

“I know no such thing—but that is not why I’m here tonight, Rune.” A sigh. Lyall lowered his head and stepped back. It confused me, but only for a second. “I’m here because of Nilah, believe it or not.”

Every drop of my blood turned to stone. I found myself standing right in front of him in a heartbeat, and I wasn’t even sure when I’d moved. His wide golden eyes took me in, and he wasn’t afraid.

He should have been.

“If you have her—” I started because there was always a chance that he’d tricked me somehow. I’d be a fool to trust Lyall—for this or for anything at all.

But he didn’t let me say more.

“I don’t have her and you know it,” he told me, and my mouth clamped shut. “If I did, I wouldn’t be here right now, following you like a dog. ”

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, calmed my racing thoughts, the rage that seemed to infuse my magic.

My hands pulled up in fists to stop the shadows that slipped from the tips of my fingers— this was something I’d never had to deal with before.

My magic had always been in my control. I had never slipped, not for a second, but now I did.

“Get to your point,” I said through gritted teeth, but by now Lyall knew that he had me. That’s why he casually stepped back and smiled and spun around as if the oak trees surrounding us were suddenly of great interest to him.