“Reading again, my lady?” Soldian asked cheerfully as she approached. “Come, let me massage you for a bit. You look very stiff.”
“Oh, no, I’m quite all right—” Dareena began, sitting up, but Soldian was already behind her. She groaned as her lady dug her fingers into her shoulders, somehow managing to locate the exact spots of tension. “All right,” she relented, leaning forward a bit so she could reach her back more easily. “Just for a minute, though. I have a lot of reading to do.”
“Oh, this won’t take very long,” Soldian said. She leaned over and gripped Dareena’s forearm. Dareena gasped as she felt a cold metal bracelet slide over her skin, and it pinched as Soldian tightened it around her. The lady-in-waiting removed her hand, and Dareena only caught a flash of the runes inscribed on the silver before it disappeared.
“What have you done?” she tried to ask. Only, her mouth wouldn’t move. Panic surged through her as she realized she was paralyzed—her chest rose and fell in its normal breathing pattern, but she could not so much as twitch her pinky finger or make a single sound.
Soldian moved around the couch so she could look Dareena in the eye. “You have no idea how torturous it was for me to have to stand by you, day by day, and let you boss me around,” she said, a cruel smirk curving her lips. The innocence and cheerful demeanor she usually wore had vanished completely, leaving a cold-eyed, calculating woman in her place who was likely much older than Dareena had thought. “The tables have been turned nicely now, don’t you think? With that bracelet, you will not be able to move or speak, or even relieve yourself, without my say-so.”
Anger surged through Dareena, but to her horror, she found that even her face didn’t heat up like it normally did when she was angry. Desperately, she struggled against the spell, using all her might to force herself to move.
“There is no point in resisting,” Soldian said dispassionately. “You will only wear yourself out, which no one wants. As you may have already guessed by now, I am a warlock agent. Normally, I specialize in assassinations, but this assignment is a bit different.” She gave Dareena a crafty smile. “Killing you now would not bring the kingdom to its knees. I need you alive for that, to set your precious mates against each other. Once they are tearing at each other’s throats, I will kill you, and then watch from the shadows as your mates finally prove once and for all that dragons have always been the weakest race.”
Dareena’s eyes burned with grief, but there were no tears to run down her face. She could not even cry to express her emotions. A storm of grief and fury raged inside her, and yet, she knew from the outside she likely looked calm, even serene.
“Your thoughts will remain your own,” Soldian went on, “but your body belongs to me. Let’s do a little demonstration to make sure the spell works, shall we? Stand up.”
Dareena immediately rose from the chair.
“Hop on one foot.”
Dareena hopped.
“Cluck like a chicken.”
Dammit, Dareena thought as she began to cluck. Humiliation burned inside her, and Soldian laughed, her eyes bright with mirth.
“Oh, this is going to be splendid!” she crowed after she’d commanded Dareena to shut up and resume her seat on the couch. “I wish I could sense what you are feeling and thinking—that would make this so much better. I have an errand to run, so I’ll leave you here for a bit. Try not to get into too much trouble,” she said with a wink.
Dareena fumed silently as Soldian shut the door behind her. As if she could possibly get into any trouble when she couldn’t so much as blink!
At least she didn’t leave you hopping on one foot and clucking like a chicken, she thought morosely. Oh, what a sight that would have been! Lyria and Rantissa would have had a fit if they had walked in. Her heart surged into her throat as she remembered Lyria would be back soon—would the dragon born figure out what was wrong?
Dareena tried drawing on power from the air to destroy the invisible bracelet on her wrist, but the runes repelled her efforts easily. Frustrated, she tried to think of some way, any way, to break the spell. But her magic was not designed for this sort of thing, and there were no warlocks. She imagined taking the bracelet off would do the trick, but as it was invisible, it was highly unlikely her mates or the other ladies would think to do it.
If they even realized she was under a spell.
How many other amulets and charms had they overlooked? Dareena had no idea that the warlocks could make them invisible, and it was obvious no one else in the Keep knew it either. How many other agents had they overlooked? Perhaps it was a new spell—otherwise she saw no reason why the agents they’d uncovered would not be using it either. Fear for herself and her baby hit her hard, but Dareena could do nothing, not even hug herself for comfort.
Killing me might have been more merciful, she thought morosely as she stared into the empty fireplace. Her only hope was that the agent might make a mistake and give herself away. Otherwise, Dareena would be forced to stand by and watch as the warlocks finally did what they had not been able to accomplish before, and tear the royal family apart once and for all.
26
The sun had nearly set beneath the horizon by the time Drystan finished his latest round of meetings. His head hurt from all the facts and figures spinning around, and he wanted to do nothing more than curl up with his mate in bed. He wished Lucyan would hurry up and return—he was tired of being the only brother who had to deal with these day-to-day affairs, especially since all three of them were to be king.
When he opened the door to his suite, he found Dareena sitting on the couch in her usual spot, a book in her hands. Two of her ladies were with her, and they rose from their seats and bowed deeply.
“Hello, darling,” Drystan said, sitting down on the couch next to her. He placed a hand on her thigh. “How was your day?”
“Good,” Dareena said, not even looking up at him. Drystan frowned—she often got lost in a book, but she never failed to set it aside when he was there.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “Have I done something to upset you?”
“No.” Dareena set the book on the table and looked up at him. “Why?”
“It’s just…you don’t even seem happy to see me.” He glanced at the ladies, who were still standing, watching them avidly. Normally Dareena would have sent them away the moment he crossed the threshold of their suite. “You are dismissed for the evening,” he said.
The women bowed again, then left the room. Drystan turned back to Dareena, then frowned as he noticed her gaze had gone blank. “Darling?” he asked, pulling her into his lap. Her entire body had gone stiff. “What is wrong?”