Gleam (The Plated Prisoner Series Book 3)

by Raven Kennedy

  “I’m serious, Slade. I don’t want you two waging war. Not over me. No one deserves to die.”

  “That fucker does,” Osrik cuts in. “I can’t wait for Midas’s smug head to get chopped off from his neck.”

  “I’d like his limbs to get cut off one by one and for him to bleed out slowly,” Judd puts in cheerfully.

  “Or Rip could just rot him from the inside out,” Lu offers with a contemplative tap against the piercing of twisted wood above her upper lip, its ruby end glittering like a slitted pupil.

  The Wrath nod in satisfactory contemplation while I gape, seriously questioning their sanity. “You three have issues.”

  They don’t disagree.

  With a chuckle, Slade shakes his head before looking back at me. “It’s late. If you’re going back to the castle tonight, you should leave soon.”

  I can hear the other option hanging in the air—if I go back. “As much as I want to, I can’t stay. I can’t risk Digby’s life. Whatever I do is a direct consequence to him, if he really is in Ranhold.”

  Please be in Ranhold.

  Slade nods, though I don’t miss the disappointment that flashes through his eyes before he looks at Lu. “Can you take her back?”

  “You got it, Commander,” she says, hopping to her feet. “Ready, Gildy?”

  I don’t want to leave. Going back to the castle feels a bit like walking into a trap, the clamps of iron teeth ready to shackle my feet in place with its piercing hold. But I don’t say that, because I know as well as Slade that I really do have to return. I have to keep up the facade until Lu can find Digby.

  Slade gets up, his hand taking mine as he follows beside me out of the tent.

  “I’ll walk you to the camp boundary. Then I’ll let Lu take you so that she doesn’t strain her magic. I want to make sure you have no problems getting back inside,” he tells me while we begin to make our way through the snow. A fog has settled around us, socked in with milky condensation, giving the camp an eerie glow that hugs the campfires.

  With Slade on one side and Lu on the other, I feel protected, reinforced just by their presence. “Thank you,” I tell them, watching my boots sink into every slogged step.

  Slade tosses me a look. “For what?”

  “Everything.” That one simple word encompasses a vastness I can’t quite express. I can tell they’re waiting for me to elaborate, so I say, “You’re all just so willing to help me. Even though I’m nothing to you.”

  Slade stops in his steps like he just ran into a wall, his aura suddenly gone pitch-black, like a moonless night. His scales shimmer as his head turns toward me, eyes narrowed. Lu whistles low and steps a few feet ahead.

  He raises his finger and says, “I’m going to let that slide once.” His tone is the steady rumble of a brewing storm that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand upright. Not in fear—I’m not afraid of him—but in response to the utter impact that lands with each word. It’s a force as great as the quaking of the ground, threatening to topple me if I don’t dig in my heels. “But hear me now, Auren. You are not nothing.” Fierce eyes take me in, holding me hostage. “Understand?”

  I nod slowly, the weight of his declaration settling in my bones, not as a burden but a bolster. “Understand.”

  He searches my face like he wants to make sure I’m telling the truth, and then he nods sharply. “Good.”

  I breathe out, embarrassed to admit that I’m a little turned on right now. But damn, that was intensely sexy.

  When we start walking again and catch up to Lu, she smirks at me. “You got in trouble,” she singsongs.

  “Shut it,” I grumble. “I didn’t mean it like that, anyway.”

  “Good, because this is how it is, Gildy. You’re one of us now. We always have each other’s backs. It’s us against the world.”

  I’ve never had real friends before, people I could trust and depend on. “It’s going to take some getting used to,” I admit.

  Slade grunts next to me, and I smile at the stubborn look on his face. “Now who’s the impatient one?” I say, nudging him with my elbow.

  An entirely different sort of look hoods his eyes. “If you intend to go back to Ranhold, then it would be prudent not to tease me.”

  “Prudent, hmm?” Lu puts in. “Awfully fancy talk for our bloodthirsty commander.”

  He rolls his eyes.

  “How did you all start working together?”

  “I scouted them,” Slade replies. “They all became soldiers under my command, and they proved to be smart and skilled. But the loyalty...that came with time. Osrik was originally from First Kingdom. We actually battled one another—he belonged to a team of mercenaries.”

  My brows lift. “Really?”

  He and Lu share a smirk. “Yep. The big bastard nearly knocked me off my horse, so he impressed me. After the scuffle was over, Judd and I persuaded Os to join us and train as my soldier instead. He took the deal,” Slade explains.

  “Course he did. He had my sword to his balls,” Lu chirps, sounding happy about it.

  I wince a little. “That recruitment method seems a little violent.”

  Lu snorts. “It’s better than when the commander tossed Judd’s ass in jail.”

  My eyes go wide. “You did?”

  Slade nods. “He was a wanderer with sticky fingers, kept stealing from noble houses. But once we finally caught him, the prick made a game of it. He’d break out of his cell nearly every day and then wait like the cocky bastard he is, outside of the bars, amused as can be. I had to offer him a deal just so he’d stop making a mockery of our jailhouse.”

  I laugh, shaking my head as I imagine it all. “That sounds like something Judd would do. What about you?” I ask Lu. “How’d you come to join Fourth’s army?”

  All the easygoing openness shutters in her eyes with a single blink, and her expression goes stoic. “A story for another day.”

  My curiosity burns, but I have enough in my past that I don’t like to think about, let alone talk about, so I know better than to press. Instead, I say, “The way you guys are with each other...so much trust there.”

  “We’ve been together for a long time,” Lu replies, casting Slade a smile. It’s not flirtatious in any way, but familial and affectionate.

  A sudden shout cuts through the air. “Ho there!”

  My head whips around at the call, and I squint through the fog to see a large campfire where a group of soldiers are gathered. Right there in the center of it all, stirring something over an iron pot and grinning from ear to ear, is a familiar face.

  “Hey, Keg.” I wave as I walk over with a smile.

  Without taking his eyes off me, Keg slops a spoonful of stew into the bowl of the soldier in front of him. A bunch of it splashes out, and the soldier grumbles before walking off. Good ol’ Keg.

  “Gildy, I thought that was you,” Keg says, shoving back his long, twisted black hair, making the dangling bits of woven-in wood jangle together like chimes. “What are you doing out here slumming it? Shouldn’t you be up in that fancy ass castle?”

  Not knowing how to answer, I look over my shoulder to Slade, and Keg follows my gaze. “Ho there, Commander. Didn’t see you there. Sad to tell you, Gildy Locks outshines you.”

  Slade shakes his head, the corner of his lips twitching. “I don’t disagree.”

  “Oy, can you serve me?” a soldier in line asks, eyeing the spoon in Keg’s hand like he’s hungry enough to try to snatch it from his grasp.

  The army’s cook pins the man with a look, wiping his free hand over his uniform, the leather as dark as his smooth black skin. “I can. I can also kick my foot right up your arse.”

  “I missed you, Keg,” I say with a laugh. “I’ll catch up later, okay? I better get back to my fancy ass castle now.”

  He serves the stew for the poor waiting soldier before he points the dripping spoon right at me. “Alright, fine. But next time I see you, I’m f
eeding you. Double helpings.”

  “I’m not going to fight you on it. If anyone can make army slop taste good, it’s you.”

  Keg’s brown eyes shine with satisfaction. “That’s right, girl. Don’t you forget it. The other cooks in this army try to sabotage me constantly. But someone won’t do a thing about it,” he says, looking perfectly serious as he glares at Lu.

  She rolls her eyes and comes up to grab my arm. “Yeah, yeah. Cry your tears in the pot, Keg,” she tells him as we begin to walk away.

  “I will!” he shouts. “How do you think I get it so salty?”

  The soldiers in his line groan.

  Laughing, we head toward the edge of camp, but right before we get there, a hawk dive-bombs us, and I don’t even notice it until it’s careening through the fog, coming right toward us.

  I yelp in surprise, but Slade lifts his arm and the bird lands on it, talons perfectly placed between his spikes.

  I blink in surprise and watch him stroke the hawk’s head and let it nip his fingers before he reaches down to the metal vial attached to its leg. When he does, my gaze zeroes in on it. “Wait, is that...” The question trails off as I recognize the golden bell insignia. “That’s a Highbell vial.” My eyes go wide. “This is a Highbell messenger hawk?”

  He pops off the top to get the missive inside, his black eyes scanning over it while the large bird lifts a wing, burying its beak beneath like it’s scratching an itch.

  “He didn’t tell you?” Lu asks, sidling up to me. “The commander has trained his hawks to intercept others. They’re smart and skilled enough to snap the vials right off the other birds’ legs. Then they bring the vials to the commander, he straps them on one of his hawks, making it look like it belongs to whatever kingdom he wants. In this case, Highbell. But instead of delivering messages, his spy birds know to bring every letter to the commander first.”

  “Wow, that’s...pretty diabolical,” I say, though I can’t help but be impressed. “Wait, is that how you knew I’d sent a message to Midas?”

  “Yep.” He finishes reading, passing it over to Lu, a grim look settling on his face.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask. Lu scans the letter before she hands it to me, and I frown at the words.

  “The cold weather has gone from Highbell. Clear skies ahead.”

  “Clear skies?” I ask in confusion. “Highbell never has clear skies. And the cold weather certainly never leaves. What does it mean?”

  Slade takes it back from me, not at all seeming worried that he broke the wax seal. “I’m not sure yet. It’s in code. I’ll talk to the others about it.” Settling his dark gaze on me, I can tell that his mind is working. “I’ve got to get this hawk back to the cart so I can reseal the letter and send her on her way. You’ll be okay with Lu?”

  “Yep.”

  “Good. I’ll be returning to the castle as the king tomorrow afternoon. Meet me in the library at dusk? I’ll update you if Lu finds anything.”

  “I’ll be there,” I promise.

  Reaching up, he gently strokes a knuckle down my cheek. “Good. I’ll see you soon.”

  I have to suppress the urge to lean in and kiss him. He probably showed too much affection as it is, even though the fog shrouds us beneath the dark night sky.

  “Lu, be careful.”

  “Always, Commander.”

  With one last look at me, he turns and strides away, and I follow Lu, trying to fight the urge to turn around. Every step closer to Ranhold’s walls feels wrong, my ribbons coiling as tightly as my dread.

  Just like before, Lu manages to use her magic to distract the soldiers, perfecting our timing so that we slip inside the walls during another guard shift.

  “Think you can get back up to your rooms through the balcony?” she whispers, her quick steps leading me past the side of the castle. The gray stones are covered in frost, its higher stories impossible to see as the heavy fog thickens with the drop in temperature.

  “Yeah, no problem,” I say quietly, the air clotted with swollen silence. “Thanks for sneaking me in and out. It was nice to spend time with...Rip.”

  She smirks. “I’m sure. Better company than the golden prick, huh?”

  “Much better,” I agree, my lips curling up.

  Yet that smile drips right off my face when we round the corner to the back of the castle and find four people standing there in the murky air. We skid to a stop, and I can tell by the way Lu’s body goes stiff that she hadn’t even realized we had company.

  For a second, my heart drops at the shadowed figures, and I fully expect Midas to step out from the fog.

  Instead, it’s someone else who steps forward—the last person I expected to see wandering the grounds at night.

  Queen Kaila.

  Chapter 38

  AUREN

  There’s a suffocation of noise and a pause in the air when Queen Kaila stops before us. Lu bends her waist into a stiff bow, and I drop into a hurried curtsy, my pulse racing. “Queen Kaila, forgive us. We didn’t know you were outside. I hope we didn’t interrupt anything.”

  “Oh, you didn’t,” she replies, her umber gaze skipping across us like stones.

  Anxiety churns in my gut as we stand there awkwardly. Every breath I take clings to my lungs, the frigid humidity coating my mouth and pressing dingy exhales across my skin like I’m clogged in a cloud.

  The thick fog suddenly feels like an enemy, rather than a boon that kept Lu and me better hidden on the trek back to my room. It’s the air closing in on us, an opaque mist shoved down from the sky as if the gods want to trap us.

  The gray-blue of Queen Kaila’s gown shimmers beneath her thick cloak, the hood drawn up over her straight black hair. There are three guards escorting her, the one to her right holding a torch in his hand. Their armor is worn down silver with the sigil of Third Kingdom molded to their chests, a proud insignia denoting their coasts with the rising fin of a predatory shark stalking beneath a line of ocean water.

  Kaila pushes back her hood, and though no crown sits on her head today, she looks no less queenly than before. “What luck, that the two of us should run into each other like this.”

  I only smile politely in response, but despite my calm exterior, my heartbeat is sprinting. The only luck this is, is the bad kind. Uneasiness has quickly drenched my spirits, my mind racing with what the implications might be of her seeing me. I don’t know Kaila’s character, barely know the main facts about her.

  I tried to put all things Third Kingdom out of my mind a long time ago, but I wish I hadn’t. I wish I’d studied up on this woman, because right now, every instinct is telling me that Kaila is dangerous. I overlooked her at the dinner, her entertaining brother taking up more of my attention, plus Midas’s demanding presence and a certain brooding king.

  Kaila is here on Midas’s invitation, but I have no idea why he specifically invited her. But maybe the more important question is, why did she agree to come?

  “Interesting that you should be out at this hour,” Kaila muses. “I would think that King Midas prefers you safe inside the castle.”

  Quickly scrambling, I say, “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to take a walk outside. Ranhold’s night air is dense tonight.”

  “Indeed. I too wanted to take a walk. I find it mentally stimulating. You can hear so many interesting things at night.”

  My shoulders go stiff, and I feel Lu’s attention sharpen on the queen. Kaila must feel it too, because her gaze flicks over for a second before she once again settles her attention on me. “Walk with me?”

  I blink in surprise, my hands fisting into my skirts. The last thing I want to do is walk with her, but there’s absolutely no way I can deny her, because we both know it wasn’t really a request to begin with.

  “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  When we both step aside for Kaila to lead the way, she cuts Lu a saccharine look. “You’re dismissed.”

  Lu opens her mouth lik
e she’s going to argue, but I subtly shake my head. I don’t want her to get herself in trouble or hurt. Queen Kaila is making my nerves strum with a steady chord of alarm, and I don’t want Lu anywhere near her. She may be a warrior and the perfect spy, but I’ve dealt with my fair share of royals over the years.

  With a loaded look at me, Lu nods tersely before she turns on her heel and strides away. Her steps are silent, dark silhouette disappearing into the fog like a forgotten ghost fading into the ether.

  Now alone with Kaila and her guards, the queen begins to walk, and I dutifully match her steps, my palms sweating nervously beneath my gloves.

  “Strange,” Queen Kaila hums.

  Goddess, I don’t want to rise to her loaded bait, but I can’t not. Verbal trapping is a royal’s favorite pastime. Instead of learning to wage war on a battlefield, they’ve learned to do it in court.

  “What’s strange, Your Majesty?” I ask, trying to keep my tone light, despite the way my throat tightens.

  “That you should be accompanied by a soldier from Fourth Kingdom, instead of your king’s guards.”

  My ears ring with the dangerous pitch of her words, temples pulsing with the underlying threat I can sense in their inflection.

  Yep, I should’ve paid more attention to her.

  Along my spine, my ribbons stiffen, the satiny lengths bracing against my skin like an animal backed into a corner, hackles raised and poised for the strike.

  “My other guards are waiting for me,” I lie. “Actually, I should probably get back to them before they come searching...”

  Kaila gives me a look that lets me know she sees right through my pathetic attempt at leaving. “Come now, Auren. I can keep a secret. I keep lots of them, in fact.”

  Well, that makes me feel not at all better.

  I worry my lip as we continue to walk past the castle, the heavy blue skirts of her dress swishing against the ground, collecting little bits of snowfall like white pebbles sewn to the hem.

  Her guards hang a few feet behind us, but their presence is an oppressive wall at my back, like at any moment, they could come down on me and pin me in place.