Page 69 of The Dark Prince
I jumped violently as Maddeus and Arne came up on us, leaning over me.
“Get behind me!”
Maddeus took his sword and shoved it through the door handle at the exact moment Tyr’s beast lunged at it. The door bowed out toward us, but held. Behind it, we could hear the beast madly scratching and teething at the wood.
“Take the princess. Get Bessy,” Maddeus ordered me. “Tell her to take you up until I retrieve you! We must get him out of the castle before the soldiers find out!” Arne ordered.
My hands clenched into fists at my side. “What? Take us up where? I won’t let you hurt him! He—”
“I’m going to get his men. Toke, and maybe Leif, if he’s found his wits. We need to hide him away until he can shift back. We’ve done this before, Isadora. Trust us.”
Arne nodded at Maddeus’s words, his face serious. I heard their words, but nothing was making sense in my brain. It was hurtling over scenario after scenario, all of them ending with Tyr dead on a pike or a sword.
“ISADORA.”
I blinked, finally snapping out of it. “Right, Aella. Bessy. Up,” I muttered back. As I backed away, Arne was already behind me, Toke on his heels. In his hands, he held an iron muzzle and a short chain.
I sobbed, backing up further.
“My lady! Come away!”
Bessy’s arms enveloped me, and I crumbled against her. As I cried, she pulled me away. Behind me, I heard more snarls and growls before a high-pitched yelp. Aella was staring at all of us, a dead look in her eyes.
“TYR!” I tried to get back to him, but Bessy was all muscle and determination. “We must get the princess and get to safety. That is the best way you can help him now; by staying safe.”
She settled her own servant’s cloak of heavy, rough wool around my shoulders to cover my ripped and tattered under gown. I let her tug me away and Aella away, toward the uninhabited wing of the castle.
Thirty One
TYR
There were strange men in the castle. Men that shouldn’t be here. The female was frightened and hurt.
I growled at the men surrounding her.
The female was smart and ran away. Good female. I would deal with these men for her.
Thirty Two
ISADORA
Bessy dragged us toward the infamous west wing. It was dark and full of dust. We sent clumps of it skittering behind us in our hurry down deserted hallways. I couldn’t imagine housing the princess somewhere so filthy. Was this where Aella was staying?
“Is this—”
“This is where she’s been staying.” Bessy said primly, no shred of apology in her eyes. Aella glared, but didn’t speak. We kept walking down the long, dusty corridor. Traces of the same must I’d smelled in the witch’s cottage found me here and there. I tried to push away all thoughts of her.
Bitch.
A few guards stood in front of a large door. I assumed it was where Aella was staying. Bessy marched up to them, her voice no-nonsense.
“Start the siege protocol. I’m going to take the ladies up. They’re trying to get him out without the soldiers noticing. If you could manage a distraction, they’d be thankful.”
The men nodded and took off down the way we’d just come. Bessy watched them go with a distressed look, then gestured for us to keep following her.
I snuck a glance at Aella, noting that her face was as tear-streaked and puffy as mine. Good. I wouldn’t soon forgive her for trying to slit my throat. Or Tyr’s.If she had just offended me, it wouldn’t be an issue. But because of her, I would be plagued for years with nightmares of Tyr’s terrified, hopeless face as he stared down the knife point of someone he loved, convinced not only that he would die, but that he deserved to.
Bessy took me on her right side, and Aella on her left, sandwiching herself between the two of us before either one of us could start anything. “Let’s go.”
