Page 19 of The Uncrowned King (The Bastard Duology #2)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Stonemore

It was wrong. All of it. Alasdair felt it in his bones. His mate was doing her best to ease the situation, he wasn’t helping matters, and being back at Stonemore only made things worse.

Alasdair had insisted that Lotti teleport them into the palace over Villette’s arguments. Lotti had brought them to the very tunnels beneath the city where they had battled Stonemore’s army. The moments hidden in the catacombs had given him and Lotti a chance to spend time together without outside interference. He thought about the room they had located and the passion they’d shared within.

“Something isn’t right.”

Villette’s voice broke into his musings, wiping away the good memories and opening him to the ones where he and Lotti had had to fight to get free. His gaze slid to Villette. Whatever she was up to was likely some ploy to catch them off guard. He glanced at Lotti to see her frown of concern. His mate was smart. She knew better than to be taken in by Villette. Yet he hated seeing her interacting with the other Star Person as if the past had been wiped clean.

There was no washing that stain away.

Alasdair stiffened when Villette turned her blue eyes on him. She walked toward him. When she drew close, she walked around him. His gaze went to Lotti and he saw disapproval tighten her visage for a heartbeat before she took his hand and they turned to follow Villette.

She led them to a door. Inside was an empty room. A second door led to another passage. Villette walked across the corridor to a door cattycorner to them. Inside that room was yet another door. This time, they came out to squarial stairs. They were narrow and steep.

“Where are you taking us?” Alasdair called when Villette headed up the steps with purpose, Lotti right behind her.

Villette didn’t look at him when she said, “I feel her.”

“Miena’s here?” Lotti asked.

Villette was silent for a moment. “Everything feels like it used to when she created the city.”

“We’re too late then.” It was only a matter of time before they faced off against Miena. Alasdair was always prepared, but he wasn’t keen on it being just him and Lotti. He couldn’t count on Villette. She would likely run the first chance she got—or betray them, despite the binding spell.

Villette started to answer when something tossed her backward. She flew into Lotti, sending them both down the stairs. Alasdair stopped their fall. Even though he knew Lotti would heal, he didn’t like her grunt of pain as her head slammed into the stone steps. She had taken the brunt of their tumble. Alasdair shoved Villette aside and helped Lotti to her feet.

“Wait,” his mate said as she squatted beside an unmoving Villette.

“I doona suppose she’s dead.”

Lotti jerked her head to him and shot him a withering look. “Do you want to win against Miena?”

“You know I do.”

“Then stop this.”

“It’s Villette,” he argued.

Lotti briefly closed her eyes and released a sigh. “I know. It isn’t something I will forget. But there are bigger issues than my feelings toward her.”

“You’re right. I’m trying, love. I really am.”

She squeezed his hand and smiled. “That’s all I can ask. But, nay, she isn’t dead.”

Alasdair looked up to where she had been. “I doona see anything.”

“Me either. But there has to be something there. We should at least sense it.”

“Unless it’s a trap.”

Lotti nibbled her lip as she stared at the spot where Villette had been. “We should go back the way we came.”

“I suggest we leave. Now. Go anywhere but here,” Alasdair stated. He saw grains of sand jumping on the stair next to Lotti.

His mate turned her head to him, her lips parting, but before she could answer, she went limp, her body sagging to the side.

Alasdair’s heart jumped into his throat as he gathered Lotti into his arms. Her chest was still rising and falling, but she was pale. He turned to retrace his steps when he spotted Villette.

“Fuck,” he growled and shifted Lotti over one shoulder as he flipped Villette over the other.

He then turned and hurried down the stairs. Every tunnel looked the same. He didn’t know where he was going, but all that mattered was getting Lotti away from the staircase and figuring out what had happened.

Alasdair busted into a room and dropped to his knees. He let Villette slide down his arm then carefully laid Lotti on the floor before shutting the door. Once that was done, he turned back to them. What could have affected them and not him? The only conclusion was Miena.

“Fuck.” He ran a hand through his hair and called for Rhi. When the Fae didn’t show after a few moments, Alasdair opened the mental link. “Con!”

As the seconds passed without a response, Alasdair’s fears were confirmed. Miena was preventing him from communicating with the others. Nothing good would come of that.

Alasdair knelt beside Lotti and gently tapped her face. “Come on, love. Open those beautiful eyes and look at me. Lotti?”

She didn’t respond.

Alasdair glanced at Villette. He could get out with both of them, but he didn’t know what might be waiting for them. Miena wasn’t after him. If she had been, he’d already be dead. Her focus was on her sisters. For now. That gave Alasdair a little time to come up with a plan. And none of them involved leaving Lotti behind. Villette deserved whatever she got.

But did Kora? Because if he left Villette, and Miena hurt her, it would be Kora who felt the most pain. There was only one option.

“Fuck.”

Alasdair wouldn’t wait. He didn’t know how long it would take him to find the main tunnel out the back entrance of the mountain—or how many soldiers would be waiting when he did.

He sat Lotti up to put her over his shoulder once more. She groaned. Alasdair searched her face. “Sweetheart? Can you hear me?”

Another groan.

“That’s it,” he said with a smile. “Come back to me.”

Her eyes fluttered open, only to close again.

“Lotti, I need you to fight, baby.”

“I am,” she whispered.

He laid her back on the floor and watched her carefully. “Come on, love. Open your eyes.”

Finally, she managed to lift her lids and keep them open. She smiled. “Hi.”

“Are you hurt?”

Her face creased in pain. “Only when I breathe.”

“I got us out of the stairwell, but we need to leave Stonemore.”

“Where is Villette?”

Alasdair glanced at her, but she still wasn’t moving. That was when he saw the grains of sand and dirt near the door begin to vibrate just as they had on the stairs. “She’s still unconscious. Can you get us out?”

“I can try.”

He grabbed Villette’s ankle and dragged her closer. “We need to get out of here. Now, Lotti.”

The murky room gave way to sunshine and dense trees. Lotti sat up and shook her head. “I figured Ferdon Woods would put us in the center of everything.”

“You did good,” he said and gave her a quick kiss.

Lotti grabbed her head with both hands and moaned. Alasdair rubbed her back. He wished he could take away her pain. He slid his gaze to Villette, who had yet to wake. Alasdair shifted Lotti against a tree and moved Villette closer. Lotti drifted in and out as he paced the area, looking for foes of any kind.

“Con?” he called.

“Aye.” The King of Kings replied immediately. “Is everything all right?”

“Miena has taken over Stonemore.”

“That doesna surprise me. Did you find her?”

Alasdair quickly told him about their discussion with Miena.

“About what we expected,” Con said.

“How are things there?”

Con sighed. “Kora is with Derek. I’ll let you know how things progress.”

Alasdair severed the link. He was doing one of his rounds when he returned and saw Villette sitting up and picking twigs out of her hair.

“Thank you for not leaving me there,” she said.

Alasdair shrugged. “I didna want Kora to experience any pain Miena might have delivered to you. What happened?”

“It was Miena,” Lotti answered.

Villette nodded. “It is a trap she’s used on me before. It’s highly specialized magic meant for only our kind. It incapacitates. She perfected it when we were still young and used it whenever she wasn’t getting her way. Some of our older siblings learned to detect it, but I never could.”

“I sensed nothing either.” Lotti punctuated the statement with a shrug.

Villette smoothed her skirts. “She must have had it roaming the palace and mountain.”

“That must have been what you sensed when we arrived,” Alasdair said.

She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe. Had we remained, Miena would’ve found us.”

There was no need for her to finish. All three of them knew what Miena would have done if she had come upon either Lotti or Villette.

“Now what?” Lotti asked.

Alasdair looked around the forest. “This is as good of a place as any. We wait here until we’re needed.”

The sound of a roar drew their attention.

“She’s using Gordon,” Villette said and climbed to her feet.

Lotti frowned. “Using him how?”

“To attack humans and draw us out.”

Fury filled Alasdair.