Page 27

27

Reyla

F rom their discussion, I suspected High Lord Zeiger was working with Erisandra to depose Merrick and take the throne. They’d discovered the plot, and Lorant had come here to make sure Zeiger knew what would happen if he didn’t publicly make it clear he was loyal to Merrick.

High Lord Zeiger had not enjoyed the result of their conversation.

I’d watched as Lorant strode past the high lord, stopping to deliver one final parting shot. “I never threaten. I act.” He’d continued toward the foyer.

I’d hustled after him, mostly concerned about not brushing against Zeiger as I went by.

I didn’t expect the high lord to rush to the wall arrayed with various swords, some ornamental, others showing clear use. A woman who battled on the regular could recognize a good blade almost with her eyes closed.

So could Zeiger. He lifted a rather dinged-up sword from the wall and gouged the weapon toward Lorant’s back.

I yanked a blade from one of the sheaths at my waist and flung it, impaling it in Zeiger’s back with my usual killing blow. He toppled to the ground, the sword making no sound when it hit the carpet but his body delivering a jarring thud.

My shadows fell away from me with a hiss. They oozed to the closest window and slid through the glass, slinking back to where I’d stolen them from.

Lorant turned, and his eyebrows lifted as he looked from Zeiger to me.

“He was going to kill you.” I raced over to his side. “He grabbed a sword. He thrust it at your back. I…”

“Saved my life.” While my heart thundered, he stooped down beside Zeiger and felt along his neck.

“Dead. I don’t miss.” I’d killed more dregs than I could count. Some people too, especially during battle to save others. But eliminating the highest lord in my court would cause an uproar even if he had been about to murder Lorant.

“Good shot.” I didn’t see pride in his eyes. Alright, maybe I did, just a little. “Thank you.” Still staring at Zeiger, he straightened. “This is going to be a problem.”

“I assume the blow is beyond your healing abilities.”

“You assume correctly.”

Dead was always dead. “It never looks good when a queen kills one of her subjects even if it’s in the defense of the king.”

“Bodyguard, if you please.”

“Right.” I jerked out a nod, shaken more by the fact that someone had nearly killed Lorant than I’d taken a life. “There’s only one thing we can do. ”

He cocked his head. “And that is?”

“Get rid of the body.” I glanced toward the foyer. “That woman who was here earlier. We need to make sure she doesn’t see him like this.”

“When he goes missing, she’ll state that I was the last person seen with him.”

“And you’ll honestly state that you spoke with him and left.” I sniffed. “You will be leaving here after we take care of this, will you not?”

“Someone will note if one of the flowerbeds is disturbed.”

Did he truly think I’d plant a body that close to the house? “What kind of assassin are you that you don’t know how to get rid of a body?”

“What kind of queen are you that you do?”

“A queen who wasn’t raised to be prissy. Disposing of refuse is practically a class at the fortress.”

“They expect you to kill people and find creative ways to get rid of the remains?”

Why did he sound incredulous?

“Don’t they teach that in heir-to-the-throne classes?” I shot back.

“ Bodyguard . And no. It’s assumed that someone else will handle delicate matters like this.”

“The fewer involved, the fewer who can talk. No flowerbed, naturally. Do you remember the lay of the area? How dense are the woods nearby? Any caves in the vicinity?”

“The manor is built close to a set of rolling hills. If there’s a cave there, I don’t remember seeing it.”

“We’ll get him outside and hide his body, and then we can decide where we’ll dispose of him.”

He sucked in a breath and shoved it out. “You take his feet, and I’ll take him under the shoulders. ”

“Move him with your magic.”

“Shifting large objects is his talent, not mine.”

Footsteps echoed from somewhere inside the building, coming in this direction, followed by the woman’s voice. “High Lord Zeiger? I’m about to prepare your room for the night. Would you enjoy a hot toddy tonight?”

We stared at each other.

Her tone lifted. “High Lord?”

Damn.

Lorant’s gaze shot toward the foyer. “Discovery is imminent.”

I pried the sword from Zeiger’s hand and hung it back on the wall, before stooping down beside the body. “Did they teach you how to eliminate evidence in bodyguard school, then?”

“I’m better at creating evidence to frame someone else.”

“Well, start framing the room to look like he… I don’t know. You figure it out. I’ll start eliminating.” I laid my hand on the man’s head. Still warm, but he’d start stiffening soon. “Do your thing and meet me outside.”

“What are you going to?—”

I flitted the high lord and myself to the edge of the driveway and after hefting Zeiger under the arms, I dragged him into the deep grass along the side. There was only one flitting rule: You could only travel to a location you’d been to before because the location’s image would be secure in your mind. Otherwise, parts of you might…scatter. No one wanted that.

I crouched down beside the body to remain out of view and wait for Lorant. He didn’t take long, flitting himself to the walkway in front of the house. He peered around before striding toward me.

“Next time, you will tell me what you plan to do before you act,” he growled, coming to a stop beside me.

“Don’t bunch your pants up too tight. You might injure something. ”

“Excuse me?”

Oh, how deadly he sounded. I didn’t have time for that.

I straightened and looked around. “Where can we hide him?” A morbid thought occurred to me. “Merrick told you how to flit.”

He clipped out a nod.

“Have you practiced?”

His sly smile rose.

“Good. Then you can take the body to a location in the hills beyond the wall, someplace where you’ve been enough times it’s solid in your mind. Leave it for someone to find, and let’s hope they think one of those woodland creatures got him.”

“Or that he was murdered, and his body dumped to make it look like a woodland creature got him.”

I peered toward the house. “That woman… What did you do?”

“Something I learned in my bodyguard-to-the-heir-to-the-throne classes.” His lips coiled up. “I told her I’d sent Zeiger on a vital mission for the crown. She was impressed.”

“Why didn’t you flit before she found you and let her draw her own conclusions?”

“I didn’t want to kill her.”

“You wouldn’t have.” I frowned up at him. “Would you?”

His slick smile grew

“I assume you got rid of the blood before she could see it,” I said.

“Naturally.”

“Then flit his body beyond the wall, would you? We can’t remain here all night chatting.”

He grumbled but bent down to lay his hand on High Lord Zeiger’s shoulder. A blink and he was gone, returning a short time later, giving me a nod.

“You’re getting too good with these tricks I’m still struggling to master,” I whined. “It’s not fair. ”

“If you work a little harder, you’ll find success.”

“I’ve worked very hard already.” But such was the way of the world. Some magic came easily; some did not.

Taking my hand, Lorant flitted us to the ballroom where we’d entranced the audience with a dance that for us was more like a duel.

“Care to spin around in my arms?” he asked. “I could hum to create music.”

“I’m not dancing with you again.”

He leaned in close, his words a whisper across my ear. “You will if I tell you to do so.”

“Don’t be an ass.”

He huffed. “Don’t test me. Your stubbornness doesn’t deter me. It’s an invitation.”

I leaned into him, curling my voice in a low purr. “I’m not testing you, sweetums. I’m trying to see how much of that arrogance you’ll trip over if I push you hard enough.” I turned away, letting that hang between us.

He flitted, putting himself between me and the door as I was reaching for the knob. “ Sweetums ?”

“It has a nice, light tone to it, doesn’t it? I believe I’ll use it all the time.”

“I dare you.”

“Do you really think I won’t do whatever I please?”

“What pleases you will also please me.” Dark amusement burned in his eyes. His voice dipped, low and dangerous. “You’ll find the view from underneath me quite enlightening.”

“Arrogant, aren’t you?” I reached around him to open the door and step out into the hall.

“You adore that about me.” His fingertips trailed down my spine. “I’ve changed my mind about these leathers.”

“Oh, you have, have you? ”

We walked down the hall, keeping our voices soft to avoid being overheard.

“Wear them whenever you like. I’ll savor the view almost as much as I’ll enjoy slicing them off your body with your own blades.”

My body roared.

If I wasn’t careful, I truly was going to wind up beneath him, discovering what enlightenment he had to offer. It wasn’t easy, but I pushed the image from my mind as we took the stairs and started down one of the hallways leading to my suite.

We’d only made it halfway down the corridor when Lorant stopped short, his hand snapping out to lock on my arm.

Rolling my eyes, I turned toward him. “Don’t think you're going to talk me into?—”

I caught sight of his face. Tension radiated from him, and his jaw was set in stone.

The air shifted. A biting chill jettisoned around me, lifting strands of my hair, followed by the prickle of unseen eyes crawling over my skin. The hallway shimmered, the walls on either side bending and warping like reflections in turbulent water.

We pivoted and hurried down the hall. A blink, and we stood at the start of the hallway again, the stone floor and walls stretching and oozing around us.

“What—” We pulled our blades, the rasp a hiss in the too-quiet hallway.

“Go,” he barked, leaving no room for argument.

We both bolted. My boots ghosted across the stone floor, and only the drum of blood in my ears broke the gasping silence. Again, we made it halfway before something slammed us back to where we’d started. My heart lurched, and dread curdled in my gut.

A frigid gust whipped through the hall, spiking the hair on my arms, carrying the cloying tang of soot. Shadows rippled across the wall beside me, morphing as they stretched. When they solidified, images wavered there before solidifying into me dressed in my masked ball gown and Lorant in his finest tunic and pants.

Gaping, I could not drag my eyes away.

His features were the same, yet wrong—too harsh, too cruel. His cold eyes pierced through the other me as he plunged a blade into my chest. Phantom pain rippled through me, stealing the air from my lungs.

Lorant snarled, and I glanced beyond him to the wall on his side of the corridor where another Reyla and Lorant circled each other, dressed in leathers, with their arms splayed wide. This version of me wielded my blades with savage precision, slashing them out at him. His foot caught on something on the floor and the other me laughed, a hollow, feral sound as she buried the weapons in his chest.

“No!” I staggered back. The images looped endlessly, and each strike of the phantom Lorant on the wall cut me while I stood stunned in the hallway. How could I fight something like this? Pain spiked across my right shoulder where a deep gash appeared, mirroring the cut dealt by the false Lorant in the wall. I bit back a scream, gritting my teeth so hard my jaw ached.

Lorant snarled as wounds also gouged across the exposed flesh of his body. On the wall, he was fighting me off, but she was much stronger than me. Faster. Vicious.

“It's feeding on our old emotions,” he cried out. “Heightening them, using them as weapons against us.”

It was cutting us apart with old wounds, cracks it suspected ran deeper than they truly did.

“Then let's show this fiend they're wrong,” I snarled.

Boots pounded in the distance, followed by the shouts of my guards, but I doubted they'd reach us in time .

“I believe in you. Lorant,” I said, slashing a blade near the shifting images. “I trust you.” Should I slay the fake Lorant? But that might injure or kill the real one behind me.

“Together in this and in everything, Wildfire,” he bellowed.

We pressed our backs against each other, our defenses fusing as one. Power surged around us as we both pulled it in.

When we lashed out, we’d do it together.

Light blazed at the opposite end of the hall, and the voices of my guards boomed through the air, the flashes and arcs of their magic searing into the warped corridor.

With a bitter shriek, the illusions on the walls cracked and splintered, shattering like shards of glass that dissolved into nothing.

The hallway brightened.

The walls solidified back into lifeless stone.

Lorant and I stood at the start of the quiet hallway again.

As my guards rushed toward us, we re-sheathed our blades.

“Did you say you trust me, sweetums ?” Lorant asked, his lips quirking up on one corner.

I swallowed hard, forcing my lips into a smirk even as my muscles shook. “Always.”