Both men ignored him. “Elena said something about having a magical contingency plan,” Alan said. “Has that gone into effect?”
“Apparently, there’s a way for Nigel to get around it just by being himself.” Cam decided it was safest not to go into detail. “Elena seems to think it’s a real possibility.”
“Don’t talk about me as if I’m not standing here!”
Not looking at Nigel, Alan weighed what his son had told him. “What if one of us stayed in the circle with him?”
“Unless he knocked us off balance for a second, or we accidentally jerked him back too hard. Then we’d just be another potential factor that could cause the knife to slip, or the spell to be misaimed.” Cam shook his head. “Without knocking them unconscious, it’s hard to keep someone absolutely still. And if we knock him unconscious, he apparently can’t do his part of the spell.”
“You’re not going to knock me unconscious! That wasn’t part of the agreement!” Nigel insisted. Then there were a few beats as his brain finished working. “Wait, there’s a knife?” His voice went higher. “I’m certain no one mentioned a knife when this was described to me.”
Both men ignored him as Alan kept thinking. “Could Robbie focus on freezing Nigel while everyone else is working on the binding? If he had to, you could hold onto Nigel while he froze you both. Then you’d be there in case there’s a gap between the spell castings.”
Even in the middle of what was potentially the worst day of his life, Cam couldn’t help but be impressed. “Does Robbie know you pay that much attention when he talks about magic?”
The look on his father’s face made it clear that he wasn’t about to be distracted. “Answer the question.”
“Someone needs to answer my question,” Nigel cut in, though no one else was paying any attention. “And I did not say I would be frozen! How am I supposed to properly save the princess if I’m stuck there like some idiotic statue?”
Cam shook his head. “You know as well as I do that the more moving parts a plan has, the more opportunity there is for one of those parts to go wrong and make the entire plan backfire,” Cam tried, taking refuge in the fact that he was still being completely honest. “Elena says that sorcery, especially on a spell like this, is all about absolute precision, and witchcraft is all about instinct and the ebb and flow of nature. There’s no predicting how the two types of spells will interact with each other, and right now we don’t have time to test it.”
Alan’s jaw went tight, as if the words confirmed something he’d already known. “You’re determined to take Nigel’s place.”
Nigel started laughing. “That’s absurd.”
Cam watched his father’s face for any sign of reaction. “Tactically, it’s the best move we have.”
“But that’s not the reason you’re doing it,” Alan said flatly.
It wasn’t an accusation, which would have angered Cam but not entirely surprised him. It felt more like a demand, and Cam knew his father wouldn’t back his play unless he knew the exact reasoning for it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Elena and his mom still in intense discussion, and he realized the only answer his father would accept.
Cam took a deep breath, hoping he wouldn’t have to keep doing this. “If this was happening to Mom, where would you want to be?”
At first, there was no reaction. Then Alan’s body sagged slightly, as if accepting the weight of the last news he’d wanted to hear. Before he could answer, Nigel took advantage of the distraction.
His father reached out, making a grab for them, but the prince scrambled out of the way. The cuffs missing Alan’s fingers by less than an inch.
Cam made his own grab for the prince, catching him by the upper arm. It was only then that he realized that his father had relaxed his grip for a split second, too affected by his son’s news to pay his usual strict attention. His father made a frustrated sound, then grabbed for Nigel again. He connected this time, making sure to get a firm grip before scowling at both the prince and his son.
“Really?” Not sure if he should be angry or hurt, Cam narrowed his eyes at his father as Nigel struggled. “You’re not even slightly pleased by the possibility you might get grandchildren out of this?”
Nigel huffed. “As if she’d want you to father her children.”
Alan shot them both another glare. “We’re not having this discussion here.”
Nigel yanked himself sideways so hard that the fabric of his sleeve tore, but it was enough to get him free. The two men lunged again, but Nigel scrambled out of the way to stop well beyond arm’s reach. “Someone needs to start listening to me now!” the prince announced, loudly enough that it caught the attention of Elena and Cam’s mother as well. Abandoning their discussion, they hurried over.
“Oh, we’re listening,” Alan said, voice cold. He shifted his weight, looking ready to charge if needed, but Cam knew he technically shouldn’t even be out of the splints yet.
“Nigel, stay right where you are,” Elena ordered. “We need to talk about this.”
Nigel took a wary step backwards. “Don’t—” That was as far as he got before his hand jerked with the sealing spell’s shock, and he pouted as he cradled his hand against his body. “Fine. We should talk.”
Elena put her hands on her hips. “You agreed to do this, Nigel. You gave me your word.” she said, any attempts at gentler persuasion abandoned.
Nigel, following long habit, missed the menace entirely. “You told me you needed me to be heroic, not that you were going to be using a knife anywhere near my person.” He sounded breathy and more than a little panicked. “Weaponry of any kind was most certainly not mentioned when we initially spoke!”
“It’s a simple prick with the tip of a knife blade,” Elena said, her voice cool. “Far less than anything you’d face on a real heroic quest. I assumed that a prince of your experience would be familiar enough with swords that a knife would barely make you blink.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Cam could see his mother circling around to take Nigel from his blind side. Cam started slowly inching sideways, ready to cover him from the opposite side.
Nigel looked flustered at Elena’s declaration. “Well, of course, but—” He floundered briefly, looking for an acceptable way to end the sentence. “But I should have been informed beforehand. That would have been the dignified thing to do.”
“Now you have been.” Elena stepped forward just enough that Cam could see her out of the corner of his eye. “Since that’s been settled, you need to come with us to the upstairs workroom so we can get started.”
Nigel took another step back. His hand twitched like it had been shock again, but it clearly hurt him far less than it had last time. “I’m no longer sure that I do.”
Elena’s face shifted like she’d just mentally kicked herself. “I am instructing you to come upstairs with us, and reminding you that you vowed to follow all my instructions.” There was an iron formality in her voice. “If you do this, you’ll finally be able to go home.”
“Not like this! I’m supposed to go back a hero!” Nigel kept moving backwards, and despite Elena’s corrected language the sealing spell didn’t activate at all. Cam shifted around, ready to cut him off, but Nigel saw him and stumbled sideways.
Unfortunately, he caught sight of Marie standing far closer to him than he’d expected. He changed direction quickly enough that he nearly tripped, running in the opposite direction.
He could hear Elena murmur a quick spell, and Nigel froze mid-stride, Elena’s spell catching him with one leg lifted. Momentum and lack of balance caused him to tip forward gently, crashing face-first onto the floor. Cam wished the idiot had hit the ground harder.
Muttering insults that seemed as much at himself as at Nigel, Alan bent down and hauled the prince’s dead weight back into a relatively upright position, leaning Nigel against his body
.
“We have thirty seconds before the spell wears off,” Elena announced, then jabbed a finger in Cam’s direction. “Don’t say a word. If I hadn’t phrased the first command so poorly, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“It’s not your fault. Nigel could have pulled something like this at any time, which meant we would have been doing that little comedy routine in the middle of the spell.” He was torn between sympathy and frustration, landing in an uneasy spot in the middle. “Which you would have been right in the middle of.”
“I’d rather deal with that than the fear that I’m going to leave you unconscious for a century!” she snapped back, reaching for Nigel to yank his frozen form out of Alan’s hands. When he didn’t let go, Elena shifted her glare to him. “Don’t you dare tell me you’d rather put Cam at risk than this idiot.”
Alan’s gaze flickered over to Cam before returning to Elena. “I understand why he’s doing it,” he said quietly, then his voice firmed. “And he is right about Nigel being dangerous. Since the contingency plan didn’t work, it’s too much of a risk to try the spell with him in it.”
Expression mutinous, Elena didn’t respond. Instead, she pulled harder on Nigel, putting all of her weight into it. She was still doing it when the spell ended, the no-longer-frozen prince going lax suddenly enough to catch Elena and Alan by surprise. When he dropped, they went with him.
Cam and Marie ran forward as the three struggled, but Nigel showed a moment of rare intelligence and landed a solid kick straight at Alan’s still-sore leg. A second kick made him let go, and Nigel escaped the pile and ran for the exit before either Cam or Marie could grab him.
As they ran to follow, Cam caught Elena’s eye. “This one’s your fault.”
She ignored him.
Chapter 23
Welling Up
Elena knew they should call the castle guards, but that would only serve to make the entire mess more embarrassing than it already was.
Also, there was a fairly significant chance she was going to burst into tears sometime in the next half hour, and the fewer people who were there to see that the better. She was horrified at how she’d spoken to Marie, but she suspected she’d end up saying far worse before all this was over. Her potion-sharpened thinking kept trying to agree with Cam—including Nigel in the spell would be far too risky—but the desperation crawling up her throat didn’t care.
If they didn’t find Nigel, though, she’d have no choice. She, Cam, Alan, and Marie headed for the exit, which was where any sane escapee would go, but there was no sign of him. None of the castle staff had seen someone desperately fleeing, and the newly cowed guards were still standing guard at the front gate.
Marie’s eyes were furious as they headed back into the castle. “If he’s hiding somewhere—”
“I doubt it.” Alan shook his head, his lack of expression a sign that he was even more furious than his wife. “They lock most of the doors when they’re not in use, and Nigel doesn’t have the luck to stumble across the handful of rooms that are open.”
“You mean like the luck he’d need to escape three armed soldiers and a sorceress?”
Alan grimaced. “Fine. I’ll start on this floor. Each of you take one of the above floors and we’ll work our way up.”
Marie took the next floor, and Cam and Elena hurried up to the third floor. “You take this one, and I’ll head upstairs,” Elena said quickly, hurrying up the stairs before he could argue. She couldn’t risk him trying to convince her again, not until she had Nigel back and Cam’s parents close enough to help with a counterargument. Alone, she was far too susceptible to him.
She heard him hurry up the stairs after her, catching her wrist before she could make the first turn. “Elena—” When she tugged her arm out of his grip, he caught it again. “Elena, wait.”
Elena stopped moving, but didn’t turn around. Her heart was pounding for reasons that had nothing to do with physical activity, a metallic taste rising up in her throat. “I can’t. We need to find Nigel.”
His grip tightened briefly, thumb stroking along the soft skin on the inside of her wrist. It took real effort to repress the shiver. “Elena, don’t do this. Please.”
“First you get mad at me because you didn’t feel I was doing enough, and now you’re upset that I won’t stop.” The words were a last, desperate defense, designed to wound. “You need to decide what you want out of me, Cameron.”
Cam pulled on her wrist firmly enough to turn her around. His face was stony, just like his father’s, but his eyes were raw. “You. Alive and safe and next to me. That’s all I’ve ever wanted out of this.”
She knew the helpless pain in his voice, a twin to the jagged ache in her own chest. “And you’re willing to risk everything for it.” Her voice was ragged. “But what about me?”
He looked incredulous. “I don’t want you to risk anything.”
“You’re asking me to risk you.” Elena could feel the desperation inside her collapse into pure, unadulterated grief. “I would rather risk my own life a thousand times over than lose you. And if the mirror spell works and I can’t break the curse, you’ll fall asleep without me.” Her voice cracked, eyes filling with all the tears she’d been holding back. She’d always considered sleeping for a hundred years to be the worst possible future, but having to stand aside while Cam slept for a hundred years would be far worse. “Don’t make me be the one who’s left behind.”
Cam’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak just as Elena heard someone thundering down the stairs behind her. He let go of her wrist, and they both turned around just in time to see a maid come hurrying around the last corner. “Princess, there’s—” The girl stopped as she took in the tear tracks on Elena’s cheeks, looking back and forth between her and Cam in an awkward panic. “I’m sorry, but I, I thought I should—”
“It’s fine,” Elena said firmly, her tone quelling any potential questions as she swiped away the wetness in as business-like a manner as possible. “What did you need to tell me?”
The permission seemed to bring the maid immense relief. “I saw that strange man who the constables dragged out of the palace before.” She pointed upstairs. “I didn’t know he wasn’t a delivery man the first time, but when I saw him up by your chambers again—”
Before the girl could finish the sentence, Elena had already pushed past her and up the stairs. Cam was right behind her as they both hurried to her chambers, where Bishop and one of the pages were pushing firmly on the closed door. When the elf saw Elena, he stepped back. “Nigel’s barred himself inside,” he murmured, low enough that it couldn’t be heard through the door’s thick wood. “According to the maid, she was about to ask him if he’d gotten lost when she recognized him. She gasped, he panicked, and barricaded himself in your chambers.”
Cam made an exasperated sound. “Of course he did.” At Bishop’s confused expression, he sighed. “You know what the castle is like. When he couldn’t find the way out, he ended up following the only other route that looked familiar to him.”
The one he’d used when he’d attempted to kidnap her. Not only did it make a ridiculous amount of sense, it also filled her with the very reasonable desire to strangle Nigel. Given everything else she’d felt in the last half hour, it was a wonderful relief.
Sliding past Bishop, she pounded firmly on the door. “Nigel, come out here and speak to us properly!” she shouted, keeping her tone chiding. “Hiding in a lady’s chambers is no way for a prince to behave!”
There was only silence on the other side. After a second, Cam leaned in close. “Do you have a spell that would take the door down?” he asked quietly. “We can take it down physically if we need to, but that’s solid oak. It would take more than just me and Bishop to pull it off.”
“Not yet,” she whispered back, then pounded on the door again. “Nigel! I insist that you behave like a gentleman
and leave immediately! You’re disgracing your title with this behavior!”
There was a noise from inside that sounded like something large getting knocked over, then Nigel cursing loudly. A minute later, he spoke from just the other side of the door. “You disgraced your title by not telling me you wanted to freeze me and take my blood!” he shouted back, voice high and scratchy. “A gentleman should be warned of these things!”
Behind her, Cam made a rude noise, but she shook her head and he went silent again. Then she leaned closer to the door, keeping her voice crisp and efficient. “We only brought up the freezing spell because it sounded like you were going to go back on your bargain. I apologize for not telling you about the blood, but it’s a small enough amount that I assumed it would be irrelevant to someone of your obvious nobility.”
Bishop leaned forward. “Subtlety, Elena,” he murmured. “Laying it on too thick can destroy the entire lie.”
“Only when you’re lying to someone intelligent,” Elena whispered back. Still, she kept the thought in mind when she raised her voice again. “We’ll just need a few drops, your highness. I’ll make a small cut on the palm of your hand, and after we’re done I’ll heal it so fast you won’t even know it was ever there.”
There was no response from the other side of the door, but Elena resisted the urge to keep cajoling. Finally, Nigel spoke. “Surely you can use something other than blood,” he tried. There was something in his voice that made him sound like he was close to hyperventilating. “Spit, or hair, or even—”
“Nigel,” Cam said sharply, cutting off the list of suggestions. Elena couldn’t be angry at him for it, even though Nigel’s awareness of his presence would make negotiations more difficult.
Nigel, ever predictable, immediately proved her correct. “You have no place—”
“It has to be blood,” Elena said, pulling the prince’s attention back to her. “Nothing else is strong enough to carry the spell.”
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