Page 54 of Cold Hearted
“I got lost and—” I grunted as if in labor, moving closer and closer. As soon as the light hit me, they would see I was clearly not with child. “Now it’s coming.”
“Call for a physician,” the guard told his fellow companion. I was in the light now, and that guard who was about to run and get help had moved deeper into the storehouse.
“Wait!” I called out to him.
He spun, and that’s when I let go of my stomach and reached both hands out. With four precise beams of light, I’d temporarily blinded all four men. They screamed, clutching their eyes, and then I pulled my dagger, moving quickly to knock each one out, delivering a swift crack to the skull. I tied their hands behind their backs with spare rope that stood at the end of the wagon. This would give me time to do what needed to be done without alerting the paranoid Lord Stryker.
Slipping into the storeroom, I passed the stacks of food and then crossed an entryway into the kitchen. The lights were dimmed, but even in the darkness I could see the opulent wealth this kingdom had. The kitchen faucet and cupboard pulls looked to be made of real gold, and the stately size of the kitchen with multiple cooking stoves and stone counters told me there was a full staff in here usually.Next, I passed into a private dining hall with a table for twenty. It was large, but I knew this wouldn’t be the biggest in this type of manor. There would no doubt be a ballroom of extreme grandeur, but I didn’t have time to sightsee.
If I were lord, or king, where would I sleep? Not on the bottom floor—too easy to crawl through a window. Not on the top floor— too far for servants and hot food to reach me from the kitchens. I decided to start on the second floor and scour the castle until I found the door with guards posted out front. That was usually a telltale sign of where a royal slept.
I crossed into the hallway and spotted the regal staircase. It was as large as the one I had at home, and the handrail looked to be made of solid gold. I walked in a slow, casual manner. In case I was seen, it was best to act like you belonged someplace and fewer people asked questions. When I reached the staircase, I ran my hand along the cool gold railing and went up to the second floor. It was quiet, sleeping hours—the best time for an assassin to attack.
My heart hammered in my chest as I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do.
Get the heart and get home. This is what you trained for. This is what you were born to do.
I reached the top of the second floor and went left down a hallway, stopping when I noticed two guards flanking an ornate door up ahead.
This was it. I’d found his room.
Flattening myself against a door in the hallway a few yards away, I pulled my dagger and palmed it.
“Don’t think of it as murder. Think of it as a penance. The Ethereum lords are the reason this curse exists.”A memory of my mother’s teachings came to me then, and I nodded as if she were here with me.
Just as I was about to step out into the hallway, the door opened behind me, and a hand wrapped around my throat. Panic surged through me, like ice water rushing through my veins, as I was dragged backward by the neck.
“Little Faeriewitch,” a cold gravelly voice taunted.
I reached behind me to blast sunlight at the man who held me, but the second it left my palm it transmuted into a stream of useless black shadows.
My heart dropped into my stomach like a stone. Was this Zander’s brother who held me? Stryker?
Suddenly I was being hauled up off my feet and pinned against the wall. The man who held me by the throat swam into view, and my heart broke at the similarity Stryker had with his brother. It was like looking at a more muscular, gruffer version of Zander. He had midnight-black hair that was pulled into a messy knot at the crown of his head, and sheared close on the sides, piercing gray-blue eyes, and a vein of scars that cut through one eyebrow down to high on his cheek yet somehow didn’t take away from his handsomeness. I couldn’t help but think about his lover trying to slit his throat and leaving these marks instead. Marks he would live with for the rest of his life, an everyday reminder that not everyone should be trusted.
I knew in that moment that I couldn’t kill him. I couldn’t kill any of them. I’d never be able to carve the heart from a man who looked like the one I longed for. Faerie was doomed.
The sunstone dagger slipped from my palm and clattered to the floor as I submitted to my fate.A single tear escaped my eye, rolling down my cheek as I thought of dying this way.
My only regret was that I had only gotten to kiss Zander once.
Black dots danced at the edges of my vision, but I didn’t fight him.
Stryker frowned, scanning my face, no doubt wondering about my seeming submissiveness.
“Stop!” Zander’s voice filled the room suddenly, and then black glass shards exploded against the wall, just barely missing Stryker. The fingers around my throat loosened and I dropped to the floor, gasping and sputtering for precious oxygen.
Stryker held out a hand to his brother and darks shadows crawled out of them like snakes. As I locked eyes with Zander, a surge of emotion overwhelmed me. I hadn’t realized how much I missed him until this moment.
“She’s bewitched you, brother!” Stryker bellowed as the snake-like ropes crawled for Zander and me simultaneously.
Zander flicked his wrist and a black shard of glass sliced through one of the ropes, shredding it. It fell to the floor and disappeared into smoke.
“She’s my mate,” Zander announced, and it felt like my entire soul left my body in that moment.
Stryker laughed, a deep and mocking sound as a moving rope wound its way around my wrists and ankles, biting into my skin and burning. I bit my tongue to keep from whimpering in pain.
“She’s made you think that!” Stryker screamed. “You cannot trust a fae from Faerie. Especially one of its princesses.”
