Treason: Book Two of the Grimoire Saga (a Young Adult Fantasy series) (44 page)

She opened the door and glanced around. Three other doors lined the hallway, all open. One led to a bathroom, and another revealed a second bedroom. The last door sat slightly ajar, revealing piles of towels stacked on shelves. A railing separated the hallway from a flight of wooden stairs covered in blue carpet. Spaces between the railings revealed glimpses of an ornate glass door at the bottom.

Kara began down the steps and toward the front door. She skipped the final step and landed with a
thud
on the hardwood. A voice came from the kitchen as she twisted the handle and pushed open the door, but she didn’t stop. The voice probably belonged to one of the owners, and she didn’t feel like dealing with small talk or questions.

Kara walked for about an hour, just following her feet. It hadn’t taken long to realize she’d been dumped in one of the tiniest towns she’d ever seen. Judging by the vast expanses of grassland surrounding the village, Braeden had left her somewhere between a field of sheep and a field of cows.

Any other time, Kara would have been excited to discover Dailly. Its white brick buildings and ancient stone bridges would have charmed her. She would have wanted to go in every shop and talk to the locals who smiled when she passed them on the sidewalk.

But Kara just wanted to go home. She wanted to stumble across a lichgate like she had all those months ago while in the Rockies, but she figured that sort of luck was a one-time deal.

She had rounded back to the house after a while with every intention of going back inside, but a walking trail caught her eye. It wandered into a forest across the street from the bed and breakfast, and Kara figured she might as well continue her walk. If she couldn’t do anything useful, she might as well go for a hike.

The forest canopy cast a shadow on the path, but more than enough sunlight flittered through gaps in the leaves. She ambled for about twenty minutes, not really paying attention to anything but the dirt beneath her shoes.

The trail dissolved into grass. Kara looked up and sucked in a breath.

Before her lay the ruins of a small castle, spread across a clearing on the top of a hill. Trees surrounded it on all sides, and streaks of white clouds hung low in the sky.

The ruined castle had probably been something more like a manor, really. Only its stone frame remained: a half-decayed rectangle about three stories high. A rounded keep in the back corner was the only fully surviving structure. Blocks of gray stone littered the ground.

Kara walked in. Her eyes wandered over the castle ruins, but kept returning to the keep. Curiosity made the skin on the back of her neck prickle. Shadow hid the keep’s depth from view. Slits in the rock let in the occasional rays of sunlight, but very little light managed to find its way inside at all. She walked closer, hoping for a better look. Something glimmered inside.

“What are you doing without a hard hat?” someone asked.

Kara jumped and turned. A young woman about her age stood at the edge of the forest, a leashed black lab waiting next to her. The dog’s ears perked, and it took a step closer.

“Why would I need a hard hat?” Kara asked.

“In case the stones fall, of course. Now come out of there before I watch you get a brick in the head! I don’t want that on my conscience,” the girl said.

Kara nodded and obeyed. She didn’t want a stranger to see her try to perform magic anyway.

“I’m—uh, I’m Anne,” Kara lied.

“Bonnie. You’re not from around here, are you?”

Kara shook her head. “My accent gave it away, huh?”

“Actually, it was the look of awe on your face. Castles are a dime a dozen around here, so the locals don’t look at them like that.”

Kara laughed.

Bonnie smiled. “What brings you to Dailly?”

“Oh”—Kara hesitated—“it was a surprise vacation.”

“You don’t sound too thrilled.”

“It’s the way my—uh—
boyfriend
planned the trip.” Kara fumed inwardly at waking up alone in a strange place. She closed her eyes to suppress the anger again.

Bonnie laughed, though. “Not the best trip planner, huh? Is he sleeping on the couch?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, no one should fight while on vacation, and we’re pretty friendly here. There’s a local pub I can show you. We can all drink until you forget why you’re mad at him.”

Words failed Kara as she tried to remember what lie Braeden had told the innkeepers when he’d left. This was ridiculous—she couldn’t even carry on a conversation without lying. She had to lie about why she was here. She had to lie about where Braeden had gone and about what she’d been doing for the last few months. She couldn’t tell the truth about her family or her past in case someone knew about how her father had died—which had probably raised more than a few eyebrows.

Kara didn’t belong in the human world anymore. And since the Bloods had used her as bait, it was pretty clear she didn’t have a place in Ourea, either.

Bonnie set a hand on Kara’s shoulder. Kara flinched, and her eyes snapped back into focus.

“Is everything all right?” the girl asked.

Kara bit her lip. She had nothing and no one left. The closest thing she had to a friend now was a stranger she’d met on a random hiking trail.

She caved.

“He left me here alone and went to Glasgow on business. I don’t even know anyone here,” she said.

Bonnie’s jaw dropped. “Forget the pub. You need a good meal and someone to listen. Follow me.”

Kara hadn’t thought she would want to talk at all—especially since she’d have to tell mostly lies—but she couldn’t turn it off once she started.

Bonnie took her back to the bed and breakfast. Lori, one of the owners, sat them down at a wooden table in the kitchen and whipped up some toast, eggs, and tea. Lori’s short brown hair framed her oval face, and she bustled through the kitchen with practiced ease.

While Lori worked, Bonnie asked questions. Kara told them an altered version of how Braeden had pulled her away from everything she had with no notice, only to leave her alone. She wanted to tell them more, but—considering her magical abilities and why Braeden had whisked her away in the first place—she refrained. Still, it helped to have someone listen.

The two Scottish women sat across the table from her and just let her talk. On more than one occasion, Bonnie frowned as if she noticed something off about Kara’s story. Thankfully, though, she didn’t push the matter. She kept quiet and simply listened.

When Kara finished, no one spoke. The teapot whistled, but Lori didn’t get up.

“We need to get you pished,” Bonnie said after a while.

“Huh?”

Lori sipped her tea. “She means drunk, dear.”

“Oh.”

Kara thought about it. She hadn’t been drunk since the semester before her mother died. Drinking would never solve her problems, but maybe one night of partying would help her relax. The only problem was she didn’t have any sort of identification to offer if they carded her.

“Do I need to bring my passport as ID?” she hedged.

Bonnie shrugged. “If you want. I’d like to take you to a club I frequent, and they never check. I’m not letting you say no, by the way. It sounds like you need this.”

Kara resisted the impulse to sigh with relief. Finally, some luck. She didn’t have a clue how she could explain getting to a foreign country without a passport.

Braeden awoke to a distant order from Carden. The command told him to eat the breakfast that would be delivered in a few minutes. In an hour, he was to head to the king’s study.

He grinned and sat up. Even though he had an instinctive urge to obey, he could resist the command. He would have to test it further. He still didn’t know exactly what had happened, or how much he could resist. Had anyone before him ever disobeyed a Blood’s mandate?

He stood and looked in the mirror. He had to practice his expression from before—what was it? Indifference.

He relaxed his face and stared at the mirror. No, his eyes were too sharp. That wasn’t right. He had to look as if he had no internal thought. His eyes had to stay calm no matter what. Bored, even.

Bored! That worked. He could do bored.

Someone knocked on the door. Braeden waved his hand, and the entry swung open at his command.

Deirdre stood in the hall, leaning on the doorframe. She balanced a tray on her hips.

Braeden reeled inwardly in surprise, but practiced maintaining his bored expression. He had to be better prepared for surprises like that; they would give him away if he wasn’t careful.

She smirked. “Miss me?”

“If you’ve touched that food, I want nothing to do with it.”

“Now that just isn’t nice.”

She walked in and set the tray on the coffee table before lifting the lid and helping herself to a grape.

His stomach growled. The tray’s selection impressed him. He could choose from a half dozen plates. Apples, grapes, and pears sat next to a tray of ham and what he figured from the sweet aroma was honeyed turkey. A few loaves of sliced wheat breads and a white cheese block of some sort completed the feast.

“They didn’t make a spread that big for one person,” he said.

“The chefs figured you’d be hungry after the beating your daddy served you yesterday. I know better, though.”

“What does that mean?”

She picked up a knife from the tray and cut a few slices of cheese. “It means I saw you go into the forest last night, even though you were expressly forbidden to leave.”

Braeden laughed. “The forest is part of the Stele. Did you have a point?”

“I know you left.”

“Stop wasting my time. That’s impossible,” he lied.

Deirdre set down her half-eaten cheese and stood. She inched closer, taking slow steps until she stood only a foot or so away. “In my two hundred and sixteen years of living, I’ve learned that nothing is impossible, dear little prince. But, all right. I’ll bite. If
you
happened
to resist your blood loyalty and leave the kingdom, I would be very much impressed.”

“If
I did
happen
to defy the command, it would mean I could also kill you now despite Carden’s order not to harm you.”

She grinned. “You’re so cute. You can’t hurt me. However, I know you wouldn’t try. You don’t want Carden knowing about you. Not yet.”

Braeden’s jaw tensed. “And you plan to share your little theory with him?”

“No,” she said with a shrug. She sat back down and continued eating her cheese.

“No?”

“I don’t see a point. You would likely still pass any test he gave you. He might put you back into torture, or he might just kill you. I don’t see a personal benefit in any scenario. Thus, your secret is safe with me. For now, anyway.”

“I don’t have a secret,” he said. She couldn’t trick him into admitting anything.

“Of course not.”

“I thought you were Carden’s servant. You do what he tells you.”

She laughed. “Is that what he said? Hardly. Your father and I simply have an agreement. We—how do I put this—we help each other.”

“I don’t believe that for a minute.”

“It’s probably wise to not trust me. However, it just means I can tell you the truth and you won’t believe me.”

Braeden gritted his teeth.
Bloods,
he hated this woman.

Deirdre stood and headed for the door. “I have an errand to run. Do enjoy your little war, though. Ah! And I’ll tell Kara hello for you when I see her.”

The isen shut the door behind her. Braeden wanted to run over and rip the door off its hinges, but he forced himself to stay still. He didn’t believe she knew where to find Kara. She couldn’t. Nothing alive could follow a vyrn.

Kara was safe. She was in a tiny village in Scotland, out of harm’s way. She would never find the closest lichgate to her. She wouldn’t find her way back until he went for her. He had to believe that. Deirdre wouldn’t find her so long as he didn’t show her where to go.

Carden’s orders to eat pulled again on his gut, even after he’d ignored them once already. They were easier to defy the second time.

He walked toward his bathroom for a bath, but passed on the food. Orders or not, he refused to eat anything that isen touched.