“If you let me go, you might have a chance of escaping on your own.”
I could feel his head shaking behind me. “Do you take me for a fool?” he breathed into my ear. “I saw how many guards that cursed prince brought with him. I just don’t understand where they came from!”
I stayed silent, equally mystified.
“I will not walk away with nothing now, after all this work, all this planning.”
“You would be walking away with your life.”
“Silence!”
He shook me slightly, and I felt a small biting pain and then a drop of blood running down my neck. I shut my mouth. I had pushed hard enough. Now that I had planted the seed, I needed to provide a spur.
Cole knows we can’t stay here forever, I projected to Lily. If you all come back over here and have a conversation that suggests there might be a free path for him to get us both out of here, I think he might take it. Only you’ll have to be extremely careful to keep everyone out of sight when we emerge. He’s going to be jumpy, and I’d rather not die just because he was startled.
Lily moaned. I do NOT like this situation.
Just get all the guards out and hide yourselves somewhere. I’ll have a better chance of getting away if we’re on the move than if we stay stuck in this cupboard.
Reluctantly she agreed, and I soon heard the group return.
“Look, we’re wasting time,” said Jon, sounding frustrated. “He could be anywhere by now. I’m dividing the guards into search parties and sending one to each floor. We’ll flush them out.”
“Don’t send all of them!” said Lily. “We can’t leave the throne room undefended.”
“Why not?” Jon sounded impatient and dismissive. “What’s he going to do, sneak back in and steal the throne? They’re clearly long gone from here, it’s about the one place in the palace we know they’re not.”
Dominic growled, a dark, threatening sound.
“See,” said Jon. “Dominic agrees with me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, he could be saying anything!”
I could feel Cole’s tenseness behind me and knew he was listening to every word. I wanted to applaud their little charade.
“Dominic, leave off all that growling for half a minute and nod your head if you agree with me,” said Jon. There was a brief pause, and then, “See! I told you.”
“Men! Ugh! Fine, send out your search parties. I just want to find my sister.”
Their voices faded away again, and then we heard barked orders and the sound of many moving feet. A number of boots tramped through the antechamber, and both Cole and I held our breaths until the door closed and silence fell.
It stretched on and on, and I began to wonder if he would need another prompt. But finally, he stirred, prodding me forward. “We’re leaving,” he whispered. “Just don’t forget. One sound, and I slit your throat.”
I groped in the darkness for the door handle and managed to open it silently. We walked out slowly, Cole holding my back pressed hard against his chest, his knife unwavering. As expected, the antechamber was empty, both doors shut. He paused, which I hadn’t expected, and spun me around.
“Don’t try to run,” he warned. “You won’t get far.”
The gold cord was still tangled around one of my wrists, everything having happened too fast for me to bother removing it. He pulled it loose and commanded me to hold both hands in front of me. Placing his knife in his teeth, he quickly bound my wrists, before spinning me away from him again.
He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I felt the tip of the knife press into my back, between two ribs. “Don’t worry, Princess,” he whispered. “I know what I’m doing with this thing. Your death will be no less inevitable, it will just be considerably slower.”
I swallowed, but relayed the news to Lily in my mind. Hopefully this would make my rescue easier.
We’re in here, out of sight, she told me. We’re ready.
Except when Cole pushed me roughly forward, he didn’t turn toward the door into the apparently empty throne room. Instead he propelled me to the door out into the corridor, and checked it quickly before thrusting me through into the passageway.
Lily! We’re not going into the throne room. He’s gone the other way.
My breathing hitched as I started to panic. This hadn’t been the plan. What would happen if we stumbled on some of the guards? I kept imagining I felt the pressure of the knife increasing.
Cole pushed me down the corridor and into another. I didn’t recognize the route and had no idea where we were heading. We saw one group of guards, far in the distance, and Cole pulled me back, pressing me against the wall until they disappeared in the opposite direction. He became a little more confident after that, pushing me forward at a faster pace.
I had been keeping Lily informed of our progress, but she seemed almost as panicked as me, scrambling now to get into place for another plan. Finally, we reached a small door that looked like it might lead outside. Cole directed me to open it, and I did so awkwardly, due to my bound hands.
I pushed the door, and it flung open faster than I had expected. A flash of brown and red filled my vision and then something jerked me forward and flung me to the ground.
I fell, only just managing to twist my bound hands into a position to take the brunt of my landing. A familiar roar sounded as I rolled onto my back in time to see Dominic lift Cole completely off his feet. He shook him, roaring again.
But Cole still held the knife, and rays from the dying sun reflected off the blade as he lifted it over his head.
“Dominic!” I screamed, struggling to push myself up.
His eyes flashed up and saw the danger, and he flung Cole away from him with all his strength. He landed against a wall, hard, and fell to the ground. He lay there, still, his body bent at an unnatural angle.
I slumped back against the ground and closed my eyes. I expected to feel hands helping me to my feet, but instead I heard a loud thump. My eyes flew open, and I saw Dominic crumpled in the dirt a short distance away from me.
Chapter 31
“Dominic!” I screamed again, twisting over and crawling slowly toward him. I added a mental scream immediately afterwards. Lily! Where are you?
What? What’s happened? We’re still trying to follow you, but I think I must have gotten one of the turns wrong. Dominic took off a while ago.
He’s here. I think Cole’s dead. But something’s wrong with Dominic.
I thought he was starting to look weak. She sounded grim. Where are you?
I looked around. I don’t know. In the palace grounds somewhere. Just outside a door in the…east wing, maybe?
All right. We’re coming.
I had reached Dominic and now knelt beside him. I had been sure he had acted before Cole’s knife struck, and I could see no sign of an injury. His collapse must be the result of his curse. Leaning over him, tears streamed down my cheeks as I searched for a heartbeat, or breathing, or something. He stirred.
“Oh!” I gasped. “Dominic!”
He gave me the smallest of smiles. Are you hurt? he asked, his voice weak.