Page 121 of The Blade in the Ashes
“Sir, those belong to my husband!” she protested.
I didn’t have time for this.
“The woman!” I barked, feeling fiery spikes of magic shooting up the veins in my arms. “Have you seen the woman?”
She shook her head. “There are many blonde women here in town. What is her name?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
She was useless.
Without another word, I turned and marched away, taking the worn path towards the center of the village and not caring as the rocks beneath my feet dug into the skin of my heels.
The village wasn’t particularly large. It was one of those places within the country that could entirely fend for itself. Farmers shared their crops, and the children were all educated together. They exchanged waves and smiles with each other as women beat out rugs and men tended to gardens.
And they all stared wide-eyed at me as I made my way to the center square.
I could only imagine what I looked like to them. This far from the Capitol, these people wouldn’t recognize me as their king. They only saw a dragon seconds away from shifting. I could feel the scales lining my spine, refusing to fully retreat into my skin. Black veins covered my entire body. The magic was a tangible force inside me, burning me from the inside out with its intensity.
Thea was the only person who would be able to soothe this raging storm of my magic. I needed her presence at my side to calm it. Needed her smile and laughter. Needed her attitude and defiance.
I needed her.
With a heavy breath, I stopped in front of the blacksmith, his hammer hanging mid-swing as he took me in.
“I’m looking for a woman from the castle,” I told him, my voice laced with the animalistic snarl of my beast. “Blonde-haired and blue-eyed.”
His jaw fell slack, eyes trailing over me.
An uncontrollable snarl ripped out of me.
If I had to individually question every single clueless fool that lived here, I would never find her in time. I exhaled a heavy breath as I looked around myself, taking in the brick-faced homes and beaten-down grass. It looked exactly how Camilla had described it. Thishadto be the right village.
Were they lying to me?
Maybe not. Maybe Thea had been brought here under the cover of night?
The woods. They would have had to travel through the woods to get here from the castle. I could follow the tracks.
I was already moving when the blacksmith finally spoke.
“She was traveling with the Fire Elemental?”
My movements halted. Fire Elemental? My brows furrowed as I considered whether I knew a Fire Elemental.
I turned back to him, taking in his greying black hair and bulky frame. There was no visible Descendant's Mark on his skin, nor any malice in his features. Neither of those facts indicated if I could trust him, though.
“What do you know?” I demanded, a plume of smoke escaping from my nostrils.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, setting down his hammer with a kind of slow carefulness that made the dragon inside of me roaredimpatiently. When he lifted his head to meet my gaze, there was an apology written in his eyes.
“I think George and his men already got their hands on ‘em,” he told me with a shrug. “I imagine they’re already on their way back to the castle to claim the reward. You’re a bit late.”
He lifted an arm, gesturing to the post on our left. My heart pounded unhappily as I took in the unevenly tacked parchment against the wood. And though I had no logical proof, I knew in my bones that it was Caldrius’ hand that had drawn her likeness.
It was a near-perfect rendition of her—one that could only have been done by a man who had spent an eternity thinking of that face. Her face. And the same face as the woman who had worn it before her.
He’d offered a small fortune for her return. Enough money to make desperate people do desperate things. They’d drag her back in pieces if it meant they could claim those coins.
