Page 33 of To Catch a Prince

The Shadows

He feltedgy before the knock on his door came. When he heard what the frantic woman who’d come to disturb him in the middle of the night had to say, he released a long trail of curses that he had no business saying in front of alady.

“I’m going to strangle her,” he muttered as he practically ran out the door, pulling clothing and armor on his limbs as hemoved.

Talia had sensed a danger. That much was okay. Annoying and frightening, but he could deal with it. What he had a problem with was the fact thatAleria,hersister,had been the one to come to him, because the idiot had just gone off on herown.

He wished he’d kept Kross with him. The man was needed in Norda in Vincent’s absence, but, right about now, he seriously fucking needed wings. It had taken Aleria a while to findhim.

She’d initially been looking for Rhey, who dwelled beneath the castle in his den, a place so protected no mage could hope to locate it with spells. So, she gave up and came for him. According to her, Talia had left half an hour ago. She could have gone anywhere, in any direction, and by horse,too.

His guts told him to turn west. If she was indeed sensing the malevolent Enchantress, she must come from the continent. That meant heading to Norda, hishome.

His dragon was there, just beneath the surface; not watching this time. Oh no. It was seething. Panting. All but ready to reduce the world tofire.

The very last thing heneeded.

Preparing his own horse, Vincent managed to be on his way in record time. But was he even going in the rightdirection?

Yes.

A simple answer. How would the dragon know? It wasn’t like his senses were so astute that he could smell or hear a rider with close to an hour’s head start. But yet, the beast justknewwhere she was. Impossible. So why wasn’t he even fucking surprised, or doubtingit?

Because she was their fucking mate, that’s why. Because there was a link between them, a bond as concrete as Demelza’s and Xandrie’s, although there was no mark on their palms, and as solid as Xandrie’s and Rhey’s, although Vincent had yet to take her for his own, in every sense of the term. He would.Soon.

As he rode his horse at high speed, he wondered why the dragon wasn’t more panicked right now. Vincent certainly was at his wits’ end, alternatively begging the gods that she’d be fine, and promising himself that he’d collar her and keep her on a leash, close to him at alltimes.

It was just as well that he’d never professed to beingsane.

The dragon was calmer. Ready to attack at a moment’s notice, but steady, strong.Why?

For the first time, the beast did him a favor. His vision blurred and was replaced by a completely different landscape; a little town a few miles away. There was a horse, drinkingwater.

“Thanks for letting himdrink.”

Talia’s voice. Somehow, he was in Talia’s mind, for one instant. It passed quickly, and left him confused, but a little reassured now. She was fine, for the moment atleast.

But how could his dragon see through her eyes? It made nosense.

Shadow,the creature growled.Shadow-linked.

He got it, somehow. His dragon washisdarkness, his shadow, and if, indeed, Talia was his, thenhershadow belonged to the monster. The dragon could see her shadow, perhaps communicate with it,too.

He didn’t question how it was supposed to work. Instead, he did something dangerous. A slippery slope he might come to regret later. He decided to trust his dragon on this - just a little. Trust it to guide them toTalia.

He knew what had happened the last time he’d believed the beast would keep a woman safe and he certainly didn’t want a rerun of that. But he was a three- century-old powerful man now. He could keep it incheck.

Hopefully.

He stopped in Vern, the small town where he’d seen Talia in his weirdvision.

“My lord!” said a woman outside the lively pub he’d visited once or twice. She inclined her head and pressed her fist to her chest inrespect.

“Greetings. Have you seen a woman pass through on horseback? Dark hair, in ahurry.”

He didn’t doubt it, but her nod reassured him, nonetheless. “Not even twenty minutes ago. Polite little thing. Wanted to give me money for letting her poor horse take some water,” she shook her head as though it was the most ridiculous thing she’d everheard.

“She headed west, did shenot?”

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