AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jiron glanced back at me with amusement, a careless swipe of his hand brushing the sweat from his brow. “From someone as tiny as you? If these rocks turn to pebbles, we’ll be sure to get your assistance in moving them, Your Highness.”
I scowled at him, only deepening the expression when the others laughed good-naturedly at me. The four of them – Jiron, Elías, Luis and Parvan – worked effortlessly to clear the rubble from the collapsed corridor, somehow not getting in each other’s way despite the small space and the not insignificant size of each man.
“If you still have the breath to tease me,” I said loftily in my best imitation of Ren’s accent, “you’re clearly not working hard enough.”
I clapped my hands to hurry them up.
“Dios save us from two of them,” Luis muttered, but he softened his words by winking at me as he one-handedly tossed aside a piece of stone the size of my head.
“Rest, Mathias,” Elías said. “You’ve done your part. Let us do ours.”
My part hadn’t beenquiteas useful as I’d hoped, although knowing we only had to look inside the palace, underground, and somewhere near the kitchens had considerably reduced the search radius. It had been El’s keen eye that spotted the faint bootprint in the detritus of the damaged eastern wing, allowing us to deduce that the king had climbed through a nearby gap in the collapsed masonry. I didn’t blame anyone for not exploring it before: when we’d been working on the assumption that Ren had been abducted, it would have been hard to imagine anyone bundling an unconscious or resisting hostage through the tiny space without dislodging all the precariously balanced stone around it.
My own efforts to slip through had been thwarted by a strong arm wrapping around my waist and hauling me back. Luis hadn’t been at all deterred by my threats or attempts to escape, and the other guards had been all too willing to join in with his lectures on personal safety…and the insulting manhandling when they failed to convince me to stay put.
Even Jiron’s little gardener had joined in. While the four huge men worked to move massive blocks of stone from our path so we could allpass through in case some heinous threat awaited me on the other side, Wyatt waited patiently with myimpatientself a few feet back, his intense green eyes never leaving mine.
I sighed. “This,” I said, waving the wrist he had his slim fingers clamped around, so that I dragged his arm with me in turn, “is unnecessary.”
“Probably. But I’m under orders, Your Highness,” Wyatt said brightly, not letting go of me.
“You know my orders outrank your…uh, daddy’s, right?”
The man beamed and tossed an affectionate glance in Jiron’s direction.
“Sí,”he said happily.
“Then why-”
“Facing His Majesty’s displeasure for letting you be hurt –again– is not something any of us are willing to do,”Jiron said, glaring at me disapprovingly as if it wasmyfault I’d deliberately tripped Councillor Vidrio over and smashed my face open. “I will take any punishment you wish to impose on Wyatt for his assistance with keeping you safe, king consort.”
But, of course, he knew I’d do no such thing. Just like he knew that by ordering Wyatt to hold onto me, I wouldn’t risk hurting him by trying to pull free. I glowered at them all.
“I could have you arrested for this,” I muttered to my companion out of the side of my mouth.
“Yes, please. Just make sure the arresting guard is at least six foot four…with eyes of amber and legs the size of tree trunks,” Wyatt responded dreamily. I could practically see the drool gathering at the corner of his mouth as he followed Jiron’s movements.
“Ready,” Luis announced as him and Parvan pushed aside the final piece of huge masonry. “Mathias, you may now proceed.”
Wyatt immediately freed my wrist and skipped ahead so he could sneak a kiss from his man. Urgh, they were insufferably adorable.
I stomped past them all, making my displeasure at the delay known in case they’d somehow missed my complaints over the last five minutes. El just chuckled, retrieving his bow from where it had been leaning against the wall. Why they thought I needed four heavily armed guards and one enthusiastic gardener toescort me through my own palace was anyone’s guess, but at least I’d been able to talk everyone else out of coming. I rather suspected that the refusal of these five men to leave me alone wasn’t just about my safety, but also in getting to assure themselves of Ren’s.
And because Wyatt was permanently attached to Jiron at the hip, apparently.
We explored the abandoned wing with efficient haste. Even knowing that Ren was in no danger from the kidnappers we’d imagined up didn’t stop us from needing to find our king as soon as possible, and when Jiron let out a low whistle to indicate he’d found something, we all rushed to his side.
“That’s it,” I breathed, recognising the dusty pattern on the floor tiles of the room beyond the door. A set of stairs descended into darkness, swallowing everything in fuzzy, ominous gloom.
El nocked an arrow, holding it between the fingers of one hand as he made a series of gestures with the other that meant nothing to me. Yet the others nodded, slipping down into the dark with their own weapons drawn.
I followed Elías down the stairs with Wyatt at my heels, only daring to breathe when we reached the bottom and a circle of light came into view. The silhouetted figure seated in the middle of it had his back to us, yet I would recognise the shape of my husband’s body anywhere.
Jiron, Luis and Parvan materialised in front of us from opposite directions, having evidently split up to check the outskirts of the room.
“Clear,” Parvan murmured.
“There are no other exits or hiding places,” added Jiron. The tension had left his body now that Ren had been found, hisshoulders relaxing from the stiff position they’d been in for the last few hours.
