I stared at him incredulously.
He looks like he’s nearly dead now, my dragon murmured. What is he holding out for? Why does he wish to go slowly?
I glanced at the cells lining the squat room, the ceiling pushing down over us. I worried the cold, grimy stone with my toe and curled my nose at the thick, putrid smell that hung heavy in the air.
“This is living?” I asked, taking two steps and pulling the door to the nearest cell wide. I pointed inside while looking at him. “Being forced to rot in this cage? Being taken out and beaten so they can consume our pain and fear?” I glanced in, intending to point out the light covering of straw, nothing more than an illusion of bedding. Or the bucket in the corner for waste that usually overflowed before it was emptied.
But something caught my eye. Something I hadn’t seen when being dragged in and out of the dungeon.
Dotted here and there, creeping through the stone, somewhat wilting and laden with dead leaves, sprouted five everlass plants. They’d found a way to keep us company, even in hell.
Everlass, the very plant that had provided the people in the villages healing from the sickness the demons had unleashed on us.
Everlass, the plant that had brought Nyfain and me together.
Emotion welled up through me. Tears blurred my vision.
I choked out a laugh and walked into the cell immediately, avoiding the straw piled up on one side, and bent to the first plant, immediately pruning.
“What is she doing?” a man asked.
“What do you have in there?” a woman replied, obviously speaking to the owner of the cell.
“Nothing. Same as you. Probably less,” the man said.
Tamara appeared outside the cell door, quickly followed by Vemar. Micah filled in behind them.
“She’s pruning the everlass,” Tamara said softly. “Like the queen used to do. And the lady’s maids. She knows how to work the plants.”
“Lotta good that’ll do us in here,” someone murmured.
“Where there is everlass, there is hope.” I stood when I was finished and walked to the next cell, finding four plants huddled in the shadows near the back. “Because where there is everlass, there is life.” Heart in my throat, I went from cell to cell. Finally, in one, I felt my chest tighten and my hope flower. “And sometimes”—I bent toward the crowded plant—“There is death.”
TEN
HADRIEL
“Oops.” I put up my hand even though my mare was walking steadily behind the master’s bad-tempered stallion. “Sir, you took the wrong trail.”
I stopped at the fork in the beaten-down path within the Royal Wood as the prince went right instead of heading left toward the castle.
“Sir…” I stared longingly in the direction we were supposed to go, then up through the straggly, twisted tree cover to glimpse the darkening sky. Now that I had access to my wolf again, I could see in the dark for the most part, but that was beside the point. I didn’t want to be stuck in this hellhole of a wood after dark. I definitely didn’t want to battle the horrible creatures that populated it.
In all honesty, I also wanted to be released from the master’s company. He wasn’t good for my bowels. The guy was much too intense.
“It’s rolling toward night, sir,” I called, getting farther and farther behind. “Shouldn’t we be getting— Damn it.”
I leaned forward to get my mare walking after him. It was possible I wouldn’t get in trouble for just leaving him and going back to the castle, but it was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.
“I’m sure you remember, sir,” I said as I caught up, “that last week was the lull in demon creature activity. Tonight will have demon creature activity. You need to get something to eat and a little rest before you face the threat.”
Glenarm Village was just up the way, the first village the master had visited to begin pulling shifters out of suppression. Through a lot of diligence, he’d knocked it out in two weeks and promptly moved on. He’d spent this last week attending to the second-most-powerful village. At this rate, if the prince didn’t drop dead from exhaustion, we’d have the whole kingdom sorted in well under the time I’d mentally allotted for Finley to break out of her cage.
I sure fucking hoped Finley broke out of her cage. Her plan had sounded so promising when we were discussing it at the castle. She’d sounded so sure she’d come back. The problem was that we’d been sitting in the middle of a sex demon orgy, full of weird demon cocks and pussies with teeth and all sorts of other crap. It was possible our view of reality had been skewed. I was starting to get a little nervous about it now, to be honest.
A lot nervous, actually. So nervous, in fact, that I’d started grilling the master every morning about the demon creatures he’d killed the previous night—where he’d found them and if they’d been running around willy-nilly, heading in a straight line, or hanging around like gobshites. With the information he gave me, I was plotting a map and trying to trace them back to their point of origin. The gate that let the creatures into the kingdom was said to move around, but how many entry points could there be? Besides, this bullshit had gone on for so long that they were probably on some sort of schedule. All I had to do was brave my watery bowels, pepper the master for information, and eventually I’d have their access points. I knew I would. I was good at this silly shit.
Granted, I had no clue what I’d do with the information, but that could come later. Desperate measures always came later.
He didn’t speak as he continued on, the village just up ahead and the sun lifting her skirts and stepping behind the horizon.
“Are you lost? Grunt once for yes, two for no…” I tilted my head and stuck out my ear, listening. Nothing.
Damn. He was in such a sullen snit that he didn’t even want to berate me for being an idiot.
We broke the boundary line, and he didn’t even flinch. The magic was deteriorating, and he was stronger now that the suppression had been lifted. Boundaries were mere suggestions to him at this point.
When we reached the village stables, the master swung his thick thigh over his stallion’s back and hopped to the ground. I took a moment to admire the way his threadbare jeans molded perfectly to his high and tight ass. Goddess goose me, the man was a fucking vision. I couldn’t even be jealous of his physique, he was that fine to look at.
I slid to the ground and followed the master as he handed off his stallion to a stable boy. I did the same.
“Sir, if you don’t beg my minding— No.” I scrunched up my face and tried again. The guy scrambled my wits. “If you don’t mind me begging—asking! Fuck! If you don’t mind me asking, what are we doing?”
His golden eyes flicked my way for the briefest of moments before he started walking toward the village green. A host of people had assembled there, standing in a cluster with another few groups looking on. When they noticed the master, they fanned out, and a man and two women stepped forward to greet him.
“Sire,” said the middle-aged woman with gray streaks at her temple.
Everyone on the village green bowed, some more elegantly and practiced than others. The castle wasn’t the only place where a bunch of mediocre assholes had been shuttled into top positions.