Page 118 of The Prince and His Stolen Throne

“Some villain, probably one a lot more capable than the Lord of Grimnight, would take advantage of the failed spell to attack the kingdoms. Someone who wouldn’t want any old royalty sticking around.” I took a deep breath and looked Delilah in the eye for the next part, “Someone who would kill my family.”

“You said I wasn’t your family,” she whispered.

“I said that to sell the act. You’ve been my family since the first day you pounced on me and shoved me into the dirt.”

She wiped tears from her eyes. “You’re a jerk.”

“I know.”

Angelica scoffed. “Don’t forgive him just because he pulled the ‘found family’ card!”

“I’m not!” Delilah insisted. “But it seems like he had good intentions.”

“Good intentions? Tell that to everyone who’s going to suffer under an evil mage’s rule! What happens when people resist? The mage will kill them or ruin them some other way. I won’t allow someone to conquer my kingdom, temporarily or not!”

I stared at Angelica for a long moment before asking, “Do you really want to fight him?”

She grabbed the cell bars and leaned in close to hiss, “I would rather die fighting him than remain a helpless prisoner in his cell.”

Angelica had talked about choices. The whole time, I’d been trying to choose their next steps for them. They’d be safer as hostages, somewhereI could keep an eye on them to ensure the old man treated them properly. But I’d be forcing them to watch their kingdoms fall, with only a vague dream of taking them back in the future.

I pulled something out of my pocket, fiddling with the little metal tools. I had no idea how to use them, so I passed them through the bars to their owner.

Maximus’ brow furrowed in confusion as he took them. “My lockpicks?”

“I stole them when you were distracted so that the guards couldn’t confiscate them.”

“What are you doing now—” Angelica’s words cut off as a small pink pouch hit her in the face. It fell to the ground at her feet. She snatched it up, so angry that she didn’t even look at it before hurling it back toward me.

It smacked against my chest hard enough to make me grunt, but I caught it before it hit the floor again. “You’re supposed to take it, stupid,” I said, chucking it back at her.

This time, Delilah snatched it out of the air. She examined it for a moment, confirming that it was Angelica’s bottomless pouch, then passed it to her.

“Everything’s still in there,” I explained. “Your clothes, Fitz’s books, the potions.”

“Oh!” Fitz waved his arm through the bars. “I put a spare pair of glasses in there!”

Moving stiffly, as if she expected to find it lined with teeth, Angelica searched through the pouch. She pulled out a small glasses case and passed them to Delilah, who passed them to me, and I passed them to Fitz.

He practically ripped the case open in his eagerness to see again. Once the glasses were perched on his nose, his eyes relaxed and he sighed in relief. Then he immediately squinted at me in suspicion. “Why are you helping us now? You went to some lengths to ensure we’d be captured.”

The lock clicked and the first cell door opened. Maximus stepped out and crouched in front of the girls’ cell to work on the second lock.

“Because you deserve a chance to fight back,” I said. “Go home, warn your parents, prepare everyone for when the Kingdom Defense Spell falls.”

Maximus popped the lock on the cell in record time, then dove out of the way as Delilah thrust the cell door open. She pounced on me, her full weight dragging me to the floor in a half-hug, half-attack.

A fluff of hair got in my mouth, and I spit it out in annoyance. I tried to carefully roll her off me, but her weight pinned me down. She looked at me with huge, sad brown eyes, then whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for? I’m the one who—” I yelped in surprise as two pairs of hands grabbed each of my ankles and yanked me backwards. The wet floor soaked through my clothes and made them stick to my skin. As I was dragged, Delilah leapt off me and grabbed the cell door.

Maximus and Angelica dumped me at the far wall of the cell and raced toward the small opening. I barely had time to push myself up on my elbows before the door clanged shut. “What are you doing?”

“What we planned from the beginning.” Probably for the first time in her life, Angelica raised a middle finger at me. “You’re just taking the place of the guard.”

“You don’t need to lock me up,” I said, struggling to maintain calm as my heart raced. “I was already helping you.”

“We don’t need your pathetic version of help,” she snarled.