Page 27 of The Prince and His Stolen Throne

A low, strained voice ripped me out of my fragile sleep. “Dammit.”

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up in bed. Something moved in the shadows, an odd, jerky hop that made the scene significantly less sinister. I reached over to the nightstand and fumbled with a lamp.

Before I turned it on, a low, menacing voice ordered, “Stop, Treasure.”

“First of all, fuck you. Second, I’m not following orders from someone who snuck into my room in the dead of night.” I finally lit the bedside lamp and held it up to view the room, not that it helped much.

A black cloak obscured the intruder—classic evil mage attire. Or, in this case, classic evil apprentice.

“Oh, it’s you again.”

“Why is this room so messy?” he asked, kicking aside one of my boots. “I could have fallen and broken my neck.”

“Now you know how I felt when youdropped a tree on me.”

He swept forward, cloak billowing ominously behind him. “Thatwas a controlled situation.Thisis simply your inability to clean up after yourself.”

“Did you need something or are you only here to insult me for fun?”

Hands on his hips, the apprentice stood at the foot of my bed, looming over me. “Have you successfully convinced the champions to embark on a quest?”

I rubbed my temples and sighed. “I’m too tired for your looming to intimidate me. You might as well sit down so I don’t strain my neck looking up at you.”

He remained standing for a minute before finally giving in and sitting next to me. The mattress dipped from his added weight.

Seeing him cooperate so easily, I decided to push my luck. “And take the hood off.”

The sharpness of his glare pierced me through the shadows. “You don’t need to see my face.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why does it matter? I’ve already seen it.”

He scoffed. “That was a disguise. Anonymity is important in our line of work. I don’t expose my face unlessnecessary.”

Well now Ireallyneeded to see it. Was he hideous? Plain? As old as the farmer he’d pretended to be? Or did he resemble the old man, too silly to take seriously? “Hood off or I don’t say a word.”

A hand reached out of the darkness and grasped my jaw firmly enough to feel the idents of each finger. “Speak willingly before Imakeyou.”

Goosebumps dotted my arms and every part of me tensed in anticipation, eager to see exactly how he would follow through on his threat. I leaned slightly into his touch, lips primed to form more taunting words to push him over the edge—

What the fuck?Gritting my teeth and suppressing whatever the fuckthatwas, I grabbed his wrist and squeezed until his fingers loosened. “Touch me again, andone of uswill scream loud enough to wake the whole castle.”

He released me and I dropped his hand. After a long moment of silence, he finally lowered the hood. The lamplight danced over his face, illuminating some features while obscuring others. A straight nose, the shadow of eyelashes, and yellowish hair brushing his shoulders. “Satisfied?”

Fuck no. I wanted to grab his head and hold it up to the light to examine every line of his face. Maybe if I could convince myself he was plain or unattractive, his threats would stop pushing the wrong buttons. But he’d offered this little bit of himself so reluctantly that I decided not to push him further. “Everyone agreed to the quest, but we haven’t decided on the target yet.”

His lips pursed in a thin line. “You’re supposed to lead them to the master.”

A lump formed in my throat, but I pretended annoyance as I explained, “I’m working on it, but this job requires subtlety. Unlike you, I can’t swan around in a fancy cloak and intimidate people into doing what I want. They have totrustme, which means I can’t autocratically declare ‘we’re going to fight the Lord of Grimnight.’ It has to seem like a group decision.”

He mulled that over. “What other quests are they considering?”

“Does it matter?”

“It might.”

Sighing, I tried to remember who had suggested what. “Delilah wants to fight the Star-Devouring Horror terrorizing South Fenn. Maximus suggested a non-magical tyrant oppressing a small kingdom. Angelica suggested a necromancer who is amassing their own skeleton army. Fitzthinks only a classic evil mage will fit the parameters for the defense spell, so he’s suggested a few lower-level ones.”

“Then why haven’t you convinced him to face our master?”