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Slipping past the guards whose eyes never left us was harder than I’d thought it would be, but I still managed to do so – thanks to a combination of my Night Fae magic and binding magic. The silvery tendrils mixed with the Fates-gifted magic to form a sort of shield around me, rendering me invisible and allowing me to creep through Aress Keep unnoticed.
The wet nurse held the wailing babe close to her chest, cooing to her as they wandered their way back to the royal rooms. On silent feet, I followed, counting the number of Fae nearby and calculating the odds of executing my plan. So far, they were good.
I barely managed to slip inside the door behind the female, trespassing on the little princess’s nursery. The crazed grin that broke out across my face would have scared the female had she been able to see me. She sat back into a rocking chair, pulling down her tunic to expose her breast to the babe’s mouth, and began a soothing pace while the child suckled. Soon, the little eyes began to drop, and she fell asleep in the nurse’s arms. With great care, the nurse rose and carried the babe to a small crib,nestling her among the blankets before dimming the room’s lights with a wave of her hand.
Bracing a shoulder against the wall, I leaned, arms crossed, until she settled on a small cot nearby and her breathing evened out. Despite the urge to move, to execute my plan nipping at my skin, I waited a few minutes longer to ensure she’d stay asleep and no one else would arrive. I couldn’t fuck it up by being sloppy, not when I was this close.
Five ticked by, then ten, and finally, I unfurled myself from the wall and crossed the room, leering over the crib. The infant slept so peacefully there, I almost felt bad about what I was about to do. But then I remembered the way her parents had scorned me, and how the monarchs of the Crystal Realm hadn’t bothered to acknowledge my presence at all.
With a repressed growl, I lifted the little princess and tucked her against my body. She disappeared into my net of invisibility, and I exited the room as quickly as possible, maintaining my magic as I raced through the keep in the direction of our room.
The child remained asleep as I dodged Fae who could not see me, and what seemed like hours later, I finally found the dingy hall where we’d been relegated to a single room. Standing outside our door were Viktor and Endre, thankfully guardless, and when I was nearly upon them, I dropped my magic.
“What the fuck!” Viktor swore when I appeared from nowhere.
“Shh,” I hissed, barging through the door to our room and jerking my head for them to follow me.
“Is that–” Endre started before I cut him off.
“Grab your bags. We’re leaving.” Still holding the princess in one hand, I threw my leather bags over my shoulder and made for the door.
“Hold the fuck up,” Endre snarled, stepping into my path. “You are not seriously kidnapping the princess.”
“They will ally with us again,” I challenged, straightening to my full height and baring my teeth at Endre.
“I think I’m with Endre on this one,” Viktor snapped, his sage eyes hardening on me. “That is so many levels of fucked up, Kazimir.”
I cocked my head at both of them, the black beast living in my chest screaming to be let out, to punish these detractors. “Then I’ll have to execute you both for disobeying a direct order from your king.”
“Kazimir, let’s be serious,” Viktor started, half-stepping in front of the door to block my exit.
A snarl tore from my throat. “I am fucking serious. Get your bags, and get moving before anyone comes looking.” My words must have summoned trouble, because shouts broke out down the hall.
Viktor looked between me, Endre, and the half-open door, a war playing out across his face. “Fuck!” He raced to the wall, hefted his and Endre’s bags over his shoulders, and then kicked the door wider. “Let’s go.”
I bolted out first, racing in the direction of where we had left our horses earlier that day. Viktor was behind me a moment later until he noticed Endre wasn’t following. “Endre!” he shouted, his voice breaking with a silent plea. Our friend stepped into the hall, his peridot eyes bouncing between us and the noise increasing as it approached. A lone tear slipped down his cheek, but he clenched his fists and raced after us.
I threw out my magic again, rendering us invisible and silencing our heavy breaths and footfalls. Not a word was spoken until we discovered our horses hitched to a post beside the side entrance we’d be shoved through earlier, all still saddled and without food or water. I gritted my teeth at the maltreatment of my steadfast mount, but I was already kidnapping the princessof the Day Realm, so there wasn’t much worse I could do to seek revenge against the Day Fae.
Throwing my bags across Fek’s back in a hurry, I mounted him and steered him toward the closed gate, Endre and Viktor hot on my heels. “Viktor, blow open the gate!”
A burst of white magic flew forward, splintering the wood and creating enough space for us to slip through. “Stay close,” I ordered, focusing on throwing my magic wider to encompass us and our mounts.
We raced through the empty streets of Zheka, most of the Day Fae gathered in Aress Keep or other large halls around the city celebrating. Even if someone had seen us, there wasn’t much they could do to stop us as we fled the city.
My heart pounded as hard as Fek’s hooves as we flew across the packed dirt streets, and every length we put between us and the keep lifted the worry that my plan would fail from my shoulders.
A hooded figure stepped into the road, facing us and halting our escape a breath before we passed the final row of buildings and crossed the bridge that led into the wider Day Realm.
The magic concealing us bled away, and Desmond, the Mage assigned to the Crystal Realm, stood before us, grinning wickedly. “Desmond, perfect timing. Let’s go,” I ordered, jerking my head like I wanted him to join me on Fek.
Endre and Viktor pulled up their mounts beside me, Endre’s rearing back and neighing as he nearly slid into the Mage.
“Our deal still stands?” he asked, lifting a brow in question, unfazed by Endre’s horse’s antics.
“You get us back to Vaenor, and we have a deal,” I replied coolly, adjusting my grip on the babe.
Without blinking, Desmond approached Fek, reaching his hand out. Gripping it, I hauled him into the saddle behind me. Stretching in both directions, he grabbed hold of Endre andViktor, yanking them ever so slightly closer. Then, words swept from him in a language I did not understand, though I knew it was a spell that would move us away from the danger in the Day Realm. That was, after all, why I’d been secretly paying Desmond all these months. As a messenger between the realms of the Északi Empire, he was privy to all sorts of valuable information. Though his price for this stunt was far higher than the gold I’d already offered him.
