“Who?”
“Vulpine—the shape-changer. He desires Katarina.”
“And Christian stands in his way.”
She nodded. “The Goddess sees him as a weakness in the castle. We must use him. But how? What do I do to push him to aid us?” Gnaw nudged her hand and Mirabella smiled. “Yes, little one. I see the Goddess’s plan.” She faced Mason. “We will send Gnaw to Brianna.”
He frowned. “What can she do?”
“I will put the magic inside her. It will be brought forth when Vulpine touches Gnaw.”
“Won’t Katarina feel your magic?” He didn’t like the sound of her plan, but what other choice did they have?
A smile lit her face. “Maybe. But she will not suspect a pup. She will be looking for its cause beyond the castle walls.”
“Your magic inside Gnaw, once it’s unleashed, will weaken all inside so we can get to Brianna and Christian?”
Mirabella shook her head. “Impossible. What it will do is push Vulpine’s jealousy over the edge. He is the key.”
“So we must sit on our hands and wait and hope?” he snapped out the words.
She touched his arm. “I see it chafes you. But you will see action. More than you care to. Even when Christian and Brianna are freed, Rhonal and Katarina will not take it lightly.”
She looked up at the setting sun. “And we’ve another day before I can brew the potion to make Sarunos a part of me.” She turned toward the trees. “Come, we must go back to my cottage. What I need for my magic is there.”
Mason looked down at the wolf pup. “It won’t hurt Gnaw, will it?”
“The magic will not—beyond that I have no control.”
He frowned and bent to pick up Gnaw. She whined and licked his cheek. “Brianna won’t like it if something happens to her.”
“The Goddess watches over her own.”
“You don’t know another way back to the cottage, do you,” he asked with a grimace, “one that doesn’t involve wading across a very cold stream?”
“Wading? No, we must cross the stream. But we will not wade. Levitation, my boy. Levitation.”
*****
Brianna and Christian stood side-by-side in the window and watched the darkness spread and settle across the rose garden.
She glanced up at him. “She’ll send for you soon, won’t she?”
He sighed. “I fear so.”
“I wish….”
“I know, but it cannot be helped.” He touched her arm. “She can use my body, but she can never have my heart.”
Brianna blinked back tears, and he placed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side. “Don’t weep for me.”
The door slammed against the wall and they both jumped apart.
“Touching little scene, isn’t it?” Katarina coldly snapped. “What would Mirabella think of this?” She moved to stand in front of Brianna and then lifted her hand and slapped her across the face. “Whore.”
With a cry, Brianna stumbled back.
Katarina whirled to face Christian. “Why will you lift everybody’s skirt but mine?”
Christian stepped between Brianna and Katarina. “Leave her alone. We did nothing.”
Two men came through the door. Katarina pointed at Brianna. “Strip her and take her below.” She looked at Brianna contemptuously. “I had thought to treat you as a guest, and this is how you thank me.”
The taller of the two men stepped forward. Brianna watched his avid gaze move across her body. “What then, mistress?”
Katarina smiled. “Use her as you wish.”
“Rhonal will not want her dead,” Vulpine said, stepping into the room.
“They will not kill her.” She glared at the man. “Will you?”
“She’ll live.” He took a step toward Brianna.
Christian whirled, grabbed an ornate vase and slammed it against the widow sill. Its top half shattered and he thrust its jagged edge toward the man. “You will not do this, Katarina.”
“Do not tell me what I can do,” Katarina ground out between clenched teeth. “Take him.”
The man lunged forward and Christian lashed out. The attacker bellowed and stumbled back, blood spurting from a wide gash in his upper arm.
“You dare damage what is mine?” She pointed a finger at Christian, and he screamed and dropped to his knees.
“No,” Brianna cried out
He looked up at her with dazed eyes.
“How touching,” Katarina said.
Large, calloused hands grabbed Brianna by the shoulders. Fingers dug deep into her flesh.
“Get up,” Katarina yelled, shoving Christian with the toe of her slipper. He tried, made it up to his knees, then collapsed again onto his stomach.
She whirled to rage at Brianna. “Now see what you have done. He will be of no use to me this night.”
She glared back at Christian. “You desired her. Then look at what you will never have.” She pointed at Brianna. “Strip her now.”
Brianna twisted away from the man holding her and stumbled back.
Katarina laughed. “You cannot run.”
“You want me naked?” Brianna said. “Then I’ll do it myself.”
She reached for the hem of her blouse and drew it up and over her head. She bunched it into a ball and threw it at Katarina’s feet. The air was cool upon her bare breasts, and her nipples tightened. The men’s gazes moved over her and, feeling sick inside, she pushed the long skirt down. It pooled at her feet, and with a sharp kick, she sent it flying across the room. She refused to cringe, and instead thrust her shoulders back and looked straight into Katarina’s eyes.
The nearest man reached out. “I will have her first.”
The second elbowed him aside and the two turned to glare at each other, snarls upon their lips.
“Pathetic fools,” Katarina snarled. “Draw lots for her.”
“I think not,” Vulpine said, moving by them. “She will be mine.”
He stopped in front of Brianna and ran his fingers along her arm. “She interests me.”
Brianna closed her eyes, but didn’t jerk away. He would be better than the two other brutes.
“You want her?” Brianna snapped her eyes open at Katarina’s sharp question.
Vulpine smiled. “Look at her.” He walked slowly around Brianna. “Her body will provide me hours of amusement.”
Inside, she quailed at his choice of words, but she refused to let them see her fear.
“I’d think you’d have better taste.”
Brianna felt a hand thrust into the middle of her back. It pushed and she stumbled forward and then fell onto her knees.
“Then take her out of my sight.”
She heard the two other men grumble.
“You will have her,” Katarina snapped. “Send for them when you are finished with the whore. She will be kept busy this night spreading her legs.”
“She will be well used,” Vulpine said. “Perhaps they may have her tomorrow. It depends on when I grow tired of her.”
Hands closed around her arms, and helped her to her feet. She stood facing Vulpine. Her eyes searched his, and he gazed back coldly.
“Come,” he said, and then turned his back and walked away. She heard Katarina laugh as she trailed after him. As she passed the first man, he reached out and pinched her right nipple. With a gasp, she raked her fingernails down his cheek. He screamed and lifted his hand to strike her.
In an instant, Vulpine was between them. “If she is to be bruised, it will be my pleasure to do so.”
The man brought his hand to his bleeding cheek instead. “Yes, Vulpine.” His words were meek, but the deadly gaze he fastened on her promised reprisal.
“Follow me,” Vulpine said.
His room looked much the same as the one Katarina had given her: a bed, a wardrobe, a small round table, and a screen shielding the chamber pot. He walked to the wardrobe, opened it, and turned to her with a red gown hanging over his arm. He tossed i
t to her. Brianna caught it. “Katarina keeps gowns in every sleeping chamber.”
She slipped it over her head. “Why?” she asked. The dress brushed the floor and her breasts strained against the too-small top. The low-cut bodice bared her flesh almost to the nipples.
“Why does she keep gowns in each?” He smiled as he finished the words.
“No. Why did you take me away from them?”
He stared at her silence for a long moment. “I don’t know. It was an impulse.” He crossed the room and stared out the window. “You look quite fetching in that gown. How do you know I will not rape you?”
“Would you?” Pain shot through her cheek and she lifted her hand to traced a tender, puffy area.
“I want Katarina, no other.”
Brianna ran her fingers through her disheveled hair. “She didn’t seem to care when you took me.”
He turned to face her. “It looked to be so.”
She noticed a pitcher on the small table. “May I have something to drink?”
He waved a hand toward it. “Help yourself, but then it would probably be best if you did a little screaming, they will be listening for it.”
Brianna nodded as she walked to the table. A mug stood behind the pitcher. She poured water to its brim and then drank until it was almost empty. “Thank you,” she said and then screamed piercingly. She waited a moment and then did it again, adding a loud. “No, please, no.”
“Very nice.” He moved to a curtained alcove and jerked it open. Three men stood there, each holding a lute. “Play.” A lilting tune began. “She knows I like music when I make love.” He motioned her close and grinned when she hesitated. Squaring her shoulders, she came to stand in front of him. “Now straining ears will not hear our words. Please scream again.”
She obliged him.
“I wish to thank you.”
Her surprise made her cut off the cry in mid chord. “What?”
Vulpine smoothed his tunic. “I had grown impatient and angry with jealousy but, thanks to you, I have seen that Christian will never love Katarina as she desires. She may force him to lie with her, but she will never have his heart.”
“He loves Mirabella.”
“I had thought of risking much and helping the two of you escape.”
Her heart thudded as he said it, but he dashed her hopes with his next words. “But I see now I need not. Patience will bring Katarina to me. She will tire of wooing Christian.”
Brianna closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and stared into his. “What about me?”
“I can offer you a reprieve for this night, but….” He looked toward the closed door.
“Then she will give me to those men.”
Vulpine nodded. “Not just them, but many others.”
She pressed her hands to her stomach.
“Katarina did not lie when she said she would not kill you. Rhonal wishes to do so himself.” He laughed. “Mirabella thinks the other gods will stay his hand, but it will not be so. Rhonal desires the last of Sarunos' blood to be no more. For the sake of peace, they have agreed to give him what he craves, your death.”
His words sent a shiver along her spine. How would a god kill someone? Would her sudden death be enough, or would Rhonal wish it prolonged and painful?
Vulpine went on. “Christian she will keep as a pet. She will enjoy flaunting him before Mirabella.”
Brianna swallowed. “What about the child?”
He shrugged. “Once Alamonar is hers, I do not know what will become of the child of prophecy, although I cannot see Katarina as a mother. Can you?” He smiled.
She shook her head.
He waved toward the bed. “Rest awhile. I will return shortly.” He walked to the door. “And do not try to leave this room. All are warded against leaving who are unknown to the castle.”
She watched in silence as he closed the door behind him. A reprieve, but for how long? She walked to the window and looked out. Again, it was the rose garden. Wasn’t there any other view in this place?
A shudder started at her toes and worked its way up her body. She wrapped her arms around her and held on as she trembled. Christian’s words came back to her and she jerkily shook her head denying them. No, Mason wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. He would be coming for her. It would be different this time, this time he would be able to save her from death. Tears blurred her view and she didn’t bother to wipe them away. “Please, Mason, please.”
Vulpine picked a rose, held it to his nose, and drew in the ripe sweetness. His words to Brianna had been calm, his proclaimed path the right one, but he had lied. The thought of Christian caressing Katarina, their bodies joined, his seed entering and giving her a child, made him burn with hatred and jealousy. He shredded the rose, dropped the petals at his feet and ground his heels into them. He stared at his trembling hands, then closed his eyes and drew in deep breaths. No. He was right. Katarina would tire of her new plaything. He had only to wait.
A rose bush to the side of him rustled. His eyes snapped open and he turned to stare. A pup came from beneath it. “Well, look at you.” He picked it up. “Whose child do you belong to?”
The pup looked into his eyes, and for a moment his head filled with a warm buzzing. Vulpine swayed and the pup jumped from his arms and fled down a path. He frowned as he rubbed at his forehead.
Impatience surged. Brianna and Christian had to go. Why should he have to wait? He’d waited long enough already. With their freedom, the child of prophecy would be born to Mirabella. True, it would bring Katarina down, but then he would be there for her to turn to. His earlier plan was a coward’s way. To achieve his end, there was but one course—he would help them escape.
*****
Beyond the castles wards of magic, Mason and Mirabella waited. She sat quietly upon a fallen log, while Mason paced, the grass beneath his shoes flat and growing muddy.
“Mason, be still. You will wear yourself thin before action is needed.” Mirabella kept her words soft, but stern.
He glanced at the dark sky. The first stars studded its blackness. His reply was just as low and cautious, but thick with frustration. “How much longer?”
She shrugged. “Until Gnaw returns.”
A branch caught his sleeve and he jerked away. “How do we know the magic will work?”
“You saw the pup make it beyond the wards. She has but to find Vulpine.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
Mirabella shook her head. “Trust the Goddess.”
He frowned. “The Goddess has separated us before, many times.”
She touched his arm. “I have seen it. You and your love will be together…”
“But for how long?” He pulled away. “We’ve always been happy for awhile.”
“A short time of happiness is better than a lifetime of bitterness.”
He grimaced. “Mirabella, please. Don’t feed me such fodder. I want a lifetime with Brianna. I will not accept any other way.”
“The Goddess…” she began again.
Mason cut her off. “The Goddess is sometimes wrong.”
“Mason, we must wait. Vulpine will bring them to us, and then our struggle truly begins.”
*****
Brianna jumped as the door slammed open. Vulpine walked into the room. Without a glance at her, he said. “I have decided you must leave.”
“What?”
“It suits me to have you and Christian gone.”
Her heart beat fast in hope, but fear urged caution. Why his change of mind?
He looked at her sharply. “You want to leave, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“Then be ready. I go for Christian.”
She watched him turn and walk from the room. Just like that? He expected no one to stop him? She hugged her arms around her body and paced. Minutes passed. She moved closer to the door. How near could she get without disturbing the wards? She stopped while still a good distance away and strained to listen. A man walked by
, looked into the room and met her gaze. His face was full of resigned despair and it chilled her. Was that what Katarina’s reign as queen would bring to all?
She heard raised voices. Her stomach churned, and then Vulpine came back through the door gripping the arm of a dazed Christian.
“Hurry,” Vulpine snapped. “They have not tried to stop me, but will be soon going to Katarina to ask about my escorting her fair guest around the rose garden.”
She noticed a swelling, red splotch upon Christian’s jaw line.
“He doubted my offer,” Vulpine said, and then smiled. “I had to help him make up his mind.” He turned and jerked Christian back toward the door. “Walk at my other side. And try to look adoring. We have just spent some wonderful time upon my bed.”
Christian looked at her and she felt her face heat. Let him think what he wanted. There wasn’t time for explanations.
“If we are stopped, say nothing,” Vulpine said. “I am treating you to a walk in the garden and a visit with your other lover. That is all any need to know.”
Her other lover? My, my, she’d been a busy girl.
She followed him out the door and took her place at his side, proud her legs didn’t shake too much. They passed the man who’d looked into her room earlier. She hoped the look she gave Vulpine was adoring and didn’t look like she had a bad case of indigestion.
They made it into the moonlight-drenched garden before a shout came from behind them. They turned. The man she’d scratched earlier ran toward them.
“What’s going on here?” he demanded.
From somewhere in Vulpine’s clothing, a knife appeared. It flew straight and true, and the man crumbled with it embedded in his throat.
“I never cared for him,” Vulpine said. “Follow close.”
Dry-mouthed, Brianna nodded as Vulpine jerked her around and guided them toward a smaller, narrow path. The moon’s glow made seeing their way easy. She glanced at Christian. His eyes had cleared and he seemed at last to accept Vulpine’s help to freedom.
They came to a small gate in the wall. Vulpine touched it, waited a moment, and then pushed it open. “Go.” He looked hard at Christian. “If we meet again, I will kill you. Katarina is mine.”
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