I swirled away from the remaining fae in the dining hall and rushed toward the outdoor balcony. I needed air, fresh air to clear my head.
Outside, I gasped in the night wind, but it didn’t stop memories from swirling through my mind. All of the things the prince had said, things alluding to how he felt before he cut his sentences short . . . How many times had he done that?
He’d done it just tonight when he’d spoken of Lady Endalaver. “In that case, Lady Endalaver is about to realize what happens when someone messes with my—”
The word he’d been about to say was mate, but he’d stopped himself, because he knew I’d still been ignorant of the bond, and he was waiting for me to feel it.
Or the time when he’d been in the healing infirmary. “When the time comes that you know, your question will be answered.” He’d been speaking of the mate bond then too—the bond that I’d been still ignorant of.
It was said that mate bonds were strongest when both parties came to accept it within their own time. No pressure. No outward forces. No wonder he hadn’t outright told me then, and it had sounded like riddles.
But now . . . I’d come to realize it existed.
“Mother, help me,” I whispered. I squeezed the balcony harder, my grip so strong my knuckles turned as white as snow.
I need to get out of here.
I abruptly pushed away from the railing and rushed through the dining hall. I fled from the room as swiftly as the northern winds, not even stopping to find Sandus.
How? How, how, how has this happened?
The gods could be cruel when they wanted to be. Mate bonds were created by them. Their way of interacting with our fates.
“Insufferable tyrants. The lot of them,” I whispered angrily as my footsteps flew down the hall toward the Exorbiant Chamber.
The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that I was right. It felt as though I’d been punched in the gut. My sister would never be able to accept the prince even if he was my mate.
I rounded the final turn to the prince’s wing, and the lights dimmed. My hurried movements continued until the lights flickered. Off then on. Off then . . . out.
I ground to a halt as my rapid-fire thoughts of the prince abruptly stopped.
Silence surrounded me as darkness prevailed. What just happened?
My breaths came in loud pants as I turned in a circle. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. Dear gods, I’d been so consumed with my epiphany that I was fleeing through the castle alone.
“Sandus?” I called hopefully. I reached out, feeling for the stone wall just as a sound came from behind me.
I whirled around but couldn’t see anything. Then the sound came again.
“Hello?” My heart began to pound as I swirled slowly in place. Darkness everywhere.
A chilling sense of foreboding slid through my veins. I couldn’t see anyone. Shadows dipped everything into darkness, and only the faint moonlight through a high window provided any light, yet I felt something.
“Hello?” I called louder.
The sound came again.
Dear gods, someone or something was here. My nose twitched as a faint, pungent scent tickled my senses just as the absolute conviction that I was about to be attacked slammed into me.
Instinctive magic erupted inside my gut, and a ring of fire burst to life around me, creating a protective barrier and providing light.
A scream of pain cut through the darkness, but when I whirled toward it, a flash of something appeared in the air, and then . . . nothing. Although—
I sniffed. The lingering scent of something rotten permeated the air.
Boot steps reached my ears, then Sandus careened around the corner. “Lady Seary!”
“Sandus!”
“You’re not to venture through the castle without me!” My guard was seething when he reached me, his eyes wild as I released my fire, allowing my guard to come to my side.
“I know. I’m sorry! I was—” But I couldn’t continue. I couldn’t very well tell him that my thoughts had turned into a spiraling tornado, and all reasonable action had left me when I suspected the prince was my mate.
“I didn’t mean to.” I settled with. “I wasn’t thinking.”
My eyes darted back to where I’d seen that flash, back to where I’d been certain someone had been about to attack me. “There was someone here. They killed the lights and then started approaching me, but I flung fire out, and . . .” I couldn’t continue. I was breathing too fast, and my heart felt as if it would explode. Too much was happening. Too much.
Sandus snarled. “The prince will have my head when he learns of this. Come. We must get within the prince’s wing, behind his wards. Then I’ll notify him.”
Sure enough, the prince was livid when he discovered that I’d left the dinner on my own and had nearly been attacked.
Only minutes after Sandus had sealed me within the Exorbiant Chamber, the prince and his three other guards burst into my room, carrying the vengeance of the gods with them.
The prince made me recall every moment of the harrowing encounter in detail, and with every second that passed, the aura around him grew higher and higher.
“You are not to roam the halls without Sandus,” he snarled as veins bulged in his neck.
“I know.” I wrapped my arms around myself, rocking back and forth on my bed as Cailis sat beside me. “I didn’t mean to. I just—”
But I couldn’t bring myself to say it. How did I say I think we’re bonded to each other? I think you’re my mate, and the thought of that terrifies me, so I stupidly ran through the castle at night even though I know I shouldn’t since it isn’t safe.
I sealed my lips as Prince Norivun’s gaze glittered with barely leashed violence. He rounded on his guards. “Alert the castle commander. I want the grounds searched for any intruders. I want whoever followed her tonight found.”
They all dipped their heads and strode from the Exorbiant Chamber before the prince addressed Sandus in a savage, gravelly tone. “Guard her with your life.”
Sandus’s jaw tightened, a deadly light entering his eyes. “I will.”
CHAPTER 16
The entire castle was searched. Every hall, alcove, cellar, room, chamber . . . all of it. The prince didn’t leave one stone left unturned.
But nothing was found. No intruders. No ghostly phantoms. No hired mercenaries sent to terrorize the court. Whatever had doused the lights and prowled toward me had disappeared, as though whisked from this very realm.
It was enough of a reminder, though, that fae were going missing and that it was stupid of me to have run alone at night. It also wasn’t lost on me, or the prince, that such an attack had occurred after it’d been revealed that I was trying to save the crops.
The only comfort I took was knowing that the prince hadn’t lied about killing the missing fae. Whoever, or whatever, had been with me in the hall definitely hadn’t been the crown prince.