The Swarm Trilogy (34 page)

“Of course I trust you.” I gave him a quick peck on the cheek. It felt weird to do it in front of Chase, but I wanted Bryden, and Chase, to know exactly where my heart laid. I couldn’t imagine Chase had told Bryden how he felt about me. If he had, I doubted Bryden would have been working with him so easily. “Now, what’s the plan? Do we take a portal out of here back to the tree house community?”

“We can’t,” Chase said. “Any portal created here will lead them directly to our hiding spot. We have to get out of the castle somehow. Then I can do it where they won’t detect it. It’s too dangerous here.”

A dark cloud passed over Chase’s expression. “If you would have stayed in the cottage like I told you, then none of this would have happened. Are you always so impetuous and unwilling to think of how your actions affect everyone else?”

I stood, silent, and stunned. He had no right to dress me down. I’d done everything he’d asked up until that moment. My life had been ripped away from me, more than once. I’d chosen to trust him and this was how he dared to treat me? Even now I thought he was working against me.

I lurched forward. “Why you, son-of-a —”

Bryden grabbed my arm. My instincts urged me to punch Chase in the gut.

Then Bryden laughed. “Apparently you don’t know Lianne that well yet. She doesn’t exactly follow orders from anyone.”

I relaxed and Chase smiled. “You’re right, Bryden. And, Lianne, I’m sorry I didn’t make things easier for you. Besides, I never should have left you unguarded. That’s my fault.”

“I don’t need a guardian,” I said, trying to stop the anger from rising again. Just because I was a girl they thought I couldn’t take care of myself. Well, I could. Kellan had been unconscious when they arrived. I’d already begun my escape. “I don’t need your help.”

“Really?” Chase asked. “Just where were you headed then? Do you know your way out of here?”

My fists tightened at my side. “Shut. Up.”

“What she means to say is that she would have figured it out,” Bryden said. It wasn’t just Chase I wanted to punch at that moment.

“I can take care of myself. I don’t require the assistance of two pompous men.”

Chase and Bryden looked at each other, then looked back at me.

“But will you accept our help if it’s offered?” Chase asked. “Now that we’re here, we just can’t leave the way we came. We have to get out of here too. Stop being so damn stubborn and say ‘thank you, I’d like to try my luck with the two of you.’”

I mumbled an answer under my breath.

“What was that?” Chase asked. Bryden stayed silent. He knew not to bait me. Obviously Chase hadn’t figured that out yet.

“Why are we just standing here?” I asked. “Let’s go. I want out of this place.”

“You’re too proud,” Chase said.

“You’re too stupid to know when to shut up.” I clenched my jaw.

Bryden grabbed my hand before I could use it to seriously harm Chase. “Lianne’s right. We’ve spent enough time talking. Can you show us the way out, Chase?”

I glared at him, waiting for his answer. I had to know if it was true, that he’d spent time here before, I just couldn’t bring myself to ask him directly. I wanted more than anything, for him to say no, that we had to explore and figure it out as we went.

“I can,” Chase said, “this way.”

Any tiny nugget of trust I had in him imploded. Mayvis hadn’t lied. Chase knew the way out, which proved he had lived here before.

Chapter Fifteen

We followed Chase into the hallway, my hand firmly encased in Bryden’s. I was dying to know what Johna had done for him. Neither of them had been willing to tell me much more than they already had. I couldn’t ask now, though. We had to get out of the castle before anyone found us. My heartbeat was the loudest noise in the hall.

“Did you bring along those cloaks that make us invisible?” I whispered to Chase, sure he’d conveniently forgotten them when he got Bryden. Why bring them if he was just aiming to set us up? Unfortunately I didn’t have another plan. The only thing I could do was follow along. Without him, Bryden and I were stranded. Maybe we could use him to our advantage somehow. I just wish I knew what that was ahead of time.

“I didn’t. There wasn’t time to grab them. I had to get Bryden and get out of there,” he said. Of course there wasn’t time. That would be too convenient. He couldn’t take two minutes to get the one thing that could help us escape quickly. Of course not.

“Where do we go from here?” Bryden looked at Chase, no suspicion in his eyes or demeanor as far as I could tell. Bryden wasn’t the kind to trust someone so easily. I just wish I knew why he’d chosen to trust Chase. I hoped it wasn’t because he thought Chase was on my side. I knew he wasn’t. That had been confirmed. I just didn’t know how to tell Bryden in front of Chase. This was one secret I had to hold close to my chest for now.

“We’re going to exit this level of the castle. Most everyone here is asleep right now. It’s still early and many of them have been up late, um…” he paused, “…doing whatever it is they do in the breeding ward. Once we get out of here, we’ll head down to the kitchen. That’s the safest way out.”

“The kitchen?” I asked. “Even if the others are still asleep, the kitchen will be filled with servants getting everything ready for the day. Don’t forget, I grew up in a castle. I know exactly how these things work. Don’t try to fool me.”

Chase stopped abruptly. Bryden bumped into him and I bumped into Bryden. Chase’s eyes searched mine. “Fool you? Why would I try to fool you? I’m trying to get your butt out of here. What are you talking about?”

“Nothing,” I mumbled under my breath. I would have kicked myself if I could. I had to be more careful what I said around him. He didn’t need to know I was suspicious yet.

“We’ll go through the kitchen because the slaves are more likely to turn a blind eye to us than the guards at the front of the castle would be. It’s possible someone in there might even help us.”

I wanted to snort, but kept my opinions to myself. Chase thought he had it all figured out. Deep down I feared he was leading us into a trap, but I didn’t know how to find a way out of it. I could only hope that every step closer to the outside of the castle would mean freedom for Bryden and me.

“Okay, sorry,” I said. Chase turned his back on us again, leading the way. Bryden looked at me, his eyes wide. He squeezed my hand. I squeezed back, but maybe not as hard as I should have to reassure him.

Are you okay?
He mouthed to me.

I shrugged my shoulders, then pointed toward Chase.
Do you trust him?
I mouthed back.

Bryden nodded his head. His eyebrows crinkled as he stared harder at me.
Trust me. Trust Chase.

He squeezed my hand again. I wanted to ask a million questions. I wanted to know why he trusted Chase so easily, so quickly, when it took him years to trust in our friendship. Had Chase done something to convince Bryden? What were they withholding from me?

I pulled my hand from Bryden’s. He shook his head, but didn’t try to grab it back. At that moment, Chase turned around.

“Are you two coming?” he whispered. I hadn’t realized it, but Bryden and I had stopped following him. “We need to get out of here as quickly as we can.”

“Yes,” Bryden whispered back. “C’mon, Lianne.”

I stood still for only a moment. A million voices swirled in my head, but I couldn’t rationalize or make sense of any of them. The only thing I could do was put one foot in front of the other, follow these two men who both claimed to love me, yet seemed to implicitly trust each other.

I nodded, but didn’t put my hand back in Bryden’s. Until I knew what was going on between the two of them, I didn’t feel like I could trust either one as much as I wanted to. Chase nodded, with his index finger over his lips. I pressed my lips together. Not in an effort to stop myself from talking, but only to prove to both of them that I was listening and following their directions.

At least for now.

Chase disappeared into the stone staircase. Bryden followed right behind him, still no evidence of the limp. I took a deep breath and followed them in.

To my surprise, we didn’t run into one person on the way. Chase pulled aside another tapestry and we slipped out into the steaming kitchen. The smell of oatmeal comforted my senses, reminding me of lazy mornings spent with Mags and her boys. Mingling with it was the essence of orange and lemon. My mouth watered at the same time my stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten yet. Now I was dying to.

No one in the kitchen seemed to care we were there, until a woman spied Chase. Her eyes widened. She wiped her hands on the towel strung around her waist, then smiled.

“Well, look who’s back. Thought you said you’d never set foot in this place again.”

She held out her arms. Chase ran to her, picked her up, and swung her around. She pecked him on the cheek. My stomach turned flips. I wasn’t jealous, just hungry. Ravenous. I wrapped my arms around my stomach.

Chase set her down carefully. Small in the waist, delicate features, and flowing long blond hair, she didn’t look like the usual scullery maid, at least not like one I’d ever seen before.

“I had a package to pick up.” Chase gestured over his shoulder. His thumb pointed directly at me. The woman’s eyes followed it to me. She looked me up and down, as if every inch of me was being appraised. Bryden noticed it too and grabbed my hand. I didn’t argue.

“Ah, yes, Lianne. You finally found her, huh?” Then she stood up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, all while her eyes remained firmly on me. Chase nodded as she continued to tell him things obviously not meant for my ears.

She rested back on her feet. “Well, I guess I should welcome you.” She walked toward me with her hand extended. “I’m Elessia. It’s nice to meet you.”

I shook her hand with my free hand. “Lianne.”

“I know exactly who you are. Everyone here does.” The other kitchen maids studiously ignored us. “Chase never shut up about you when he was here.”

Chase smiled, but then he looked at Bryden and the smile fell from his face. Bryden stood still, his face like stone. I wanted him to react, or at least I wanted to understand what was going on between them.

And everything had been confirmed. Chase had lived here. No one had lied about that, it appeared. Yet he didn’t seem like he wanted to hide it from me. I was thoroughly confused. It must have shown on my face because Elessia laughed.

“She’s wondering why we’re so cavalier about the fact that you used to live here. She thinks perhaps you’re one of us, doesn’t she?”

The expression on Chase’s face switched from amusement to wonderment to disbelief all in just a few seconds. “You thought I was in collusion with the Malborn?” he asked me pointedly.

“This morning, Mayvis said you’d lived here and that they knew all about me.” I defended myself. What else could I do?

“That’s because they held me prisoner for four years. They’ve seen most of my early drawings, Lianne. That’s how they know about you. But they don’t know everything, I can promise you that. Once I realized that they were interested in you, I started drawing false pictures to throw them off the track.” He hung his head, looking every inch like a mournful puppy. “But it was too late. They were already convinced you were what they needed to strengthen their depleted army. My mother and father had defeated them and raided one of their largest breeding camps. They essentially were starting over, but they wanted you.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, Lianne. It’s completely my fault that they are after you. Everything they know, they learned from my visions.”

Bryden squeezed my hand tighter. My heart thrummed. “So you found me and brought me back here? You’re turning me in?”

Elessia threw her head back and laughed. “Are you really so dense? He’s trying to fix the huge catastrophe his visions caused.”

A warm redness crept up my neck onto my face, spreading like wildfire. It was too easy for me to distrust him, to assume he was out to destroy me like everyone else I’d encountered. No one had ever done anything to help me without some gain to themselves. Even Bryden – he’d admitted to pushing me away on purpose, manipulating me into thinking he hated me when really he was ashamed of himself and his disability. It wasn’t until I was close to achieving my magic that he’d decided I could be trusted.

Chase was the only one who’d told me the truth.

My heart ached. It ripped in half. I looked at the two men before me, one I loved so much and had given my heart and body to, the other, asked for nothing, took nothing, and expected nothing in return. I was the biggest idiot ever born.

I wanted to run away to a place I could be alone and sort through things. Everything happened so fast, too fast, and I was beginning to question myself, my judgments, and my choices. I’d been with Kellan after pining away for him for years. My heart and my allegiance turned too quickly toward Bryden. When another man stood in front of me, offering me the world, I pushed him away so hard to the point that I couldn’t believe a word out of his mouth, only to discover he’d been truthful.

I hated my emotions. I hated my world for thrusting me into situations I couldn’t cope with so quickly. I hated my people for manipulating me since birth and never giving me the chance to discover myself. My entire life was a lie. If they’d just raised me to understand my gift, instead of using me as a means to an end, maybe I’d be a more trusting person. Maybe I’d be able to trust myself more. Maybe the flames inside me wouldn’t hurt so much when they threatened to rip my entire being to shreds.