Page 51 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

That was when it hit me.Ground yourself,I heard whispered in my head. My feet needed to touch the ground, yes. More than that, however, I needed to center my thoughts. A distracted Millie had no chance of calling up the power needed. Why whenever an answer hit did it make you feel like the dim kid in class for not connecting those dots sooner? Whatever being bestowed this power on me could’ve at least sent along a handbook for me to study.It would’ve come in handy, universe.

Digging my feet firmly into the dirt again and centering my thoughts, I ground myself and watched the warecat fly sideways, slamming into a tree. The force of my sonic wave ripped its hold from Stipator’s neck and his body landed in a heap.

My prince kept on fighting for his life, forourlives. I rushed over to check if his soldier had a pulse. Although weak, he at least had one. While I focused on helping the guy, because really, something inside me wouldn’t allow me to do otherwise, I heard a voice I recognized and it stopped me cold.

“Millie,” Mármaro called out to me. “Don’t help him. He’ll only try to kill you.”

I craned my neck, then stood. Steele sliced the blade of his sword through the last remaining warecat, separating its head from body, then he whirled around to point the tip in Mármaro’s direction.

The two men faced off, circling one another. Both with swords drawn.

“I won’t let you take her again,” Mármaro spat right before swinging his weapon which looked to be made of diamond. Because why wouldn’t a warrior of the rock clan have a sword fashioned from diamond? Diamond could be sharpened razor-sharp to slice through skin, and as the hardest rock known to man, it stayed virtually indestructible.

“She’s mine,” Steele shouted in return. “I won’t lose her again.”

As they faced off, their swords clashed. Each man parried or thrust. Spinning, dodging and striking. The Vráchos man held an unfair advantage as fatigue shone on Steele’s face and in his slumped shoulders from his life-and-death battle with the pack of warecats.

“He took you before, Millicent. Don’t you remember?” Mármaro turned the conversation to me, as if he weren’t fighting his own life-and-death battle. “He held you captive.”

“No!” I shouted. “He loves me.”

“Loves you?Ha!” They clashed swords again. Spinning around, Mármaro pushed Steele off, able to move back several steps. “I bet he’s lured you in with sweet kisses and sweeter words liketrue mate, hasn’t he?”

“Yes. We’re true mates.” I believed that. I felt him.

Steele thrust again, narrowly missing the jugular vein running up Mármaro’s neck, protruding thanks to his frantically-beating heart. “Wake up, Millicent. He and his sister have been using you. Befriending the lonely girl who needed companionship, manipulating you into joining the Forfex. He aims to control you and you’re just going to let him do it.”

“No… that’s not true.” I grabbed my head and squeezed, stumbling backward until I hit a tree. The bark dug into my back.

“Think about it, Millie. I’m telling you the truth. I was your friend. I was your first friend here.” The battle increased in intensity. “He sent the soldiers after you. Shefdew’s daughter, the woman you lived with for years, the Forfex struck her down mercilessly to possess you.”

“My father did, Millie.” Steele swung again, clashing swords with Mármaro. “Not me. I’d found where they’d hidden you but kept my distance until we could figure out a plan to get you back safely. You know I’d never hurt you.”

“He had you locked away in a prison cell,” Mármaro countered. “We took you in. We fed and clothed you.”

Mármarohadbeen my first friend in this land. His motherhadtaken me in, fed me and clothed me. That part was true. When he’d broken into Metallum, he had, in fact, found me in a prison cell. And yes, Steele had let Stipator backhand me. But he’d also moved me from that cell, taken me for walks on the grounds. Been my constant companion, putting his life on the line, escaping alligators and the chimera.

Had it all been an act? Maybe he hadn’t been in any danger at all, seeing as his people controlled the chimera. Maybe heading back to the castle to rescue Korrigan was playing right into the Forfex hands.

My nose burned and I found it hard to check the unshed tears, but I wasn’t about to give anyone here that part of me. One of these guys was lying and I was damn well going to figure out who. I loved Steele, wasin lovewith Steele. What would I do if he didn’t love me back?

I opened my mouth to yell at them both, but what? I didn’t really have a clue. I supposed that the time of me being led around by the clans had ended, or something of the sort, but a hole opened up at the base of the tree and I slid down through it, landing hard onto an oval, braided rope rug that looked to be made of mismatched fabric remnants in every color.

“Ello againt, pretty gal.” Ellard. I remembered Ellard. His orange hair was still flaming, and he was still wearing boots cut to his ankle and a leather apron, exactly as he had been the last time I’d seen him.

With his demeanor so cheerful, I couldn’t help but smile at him, even though my heart might have been breaking and my head was nothing short of an ever-loving disaster area. Those men fighting above our heads now left me confused to the point of crying, or screaming, or possibly both. More than likely both.

“Thank you for helping me.”

“Ta, tink noting of it. Whent the roots tell me of the two printces fiting over yout mist, olt Ellard hat to help.”

“Two princes?” I asked, completely dumbfounded.

Ellard nodded his head once. “Ro and the Fortfex printce.”

“Mármaro is a prince?”

“Of the Vrátchos clant.”

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