Page 1 of Enchanted Heir
CHAPTER1
It was the crown on the nightstand. Half on an old book, half on the wood. I’d seen it in that exact spot once before, but this time it hit me entirely different. A crooked crown which belonged to a prince. A prince who very well might become king someday. But he wasn’tmyprince. Or wasn’t supposed to be. Yet now he was.
My vision blurred as my feet stopped and I looked at that stupid, stupid crown.What had I just done?
A few hours ago, I was in Keir’s Assemblage and managing to survive the dinner with the royal family. Everything had gone fine. Up until the king set me up.
I had recklessly tried to flee. I’d ran. And almost gotten away. Almost, but not quite.
Now I found myself swapped into the other Assemblage, with the other brother. Prince Darkness himself.
“Jorah?” he asked, as he spun back toward me.
We were finally alone. None of his guards. None of mine. No Owen. No Keir. No eavesdropping guards of the king. It was just the two of us. I looked down at my lavender and gray dress, feeling the dirt and exhaustion of the day come crashing in.
“Jorah?” he asked again, this time more gently.
I wiped at my eyes. “What?”
His stance was as sharp as ever. How he’d managed to get me out of a bind back there was beyond me.
“Are you all right?”
“No, I’m not all right, Krew,” I snapped. “I just tried to run away tonight. I almost did. Which we both know would have eventually ended in my arrest.”
He dipped his head toward me. “You wouldn’t have gotten far. I would have made sure I found you first.”
I took a shaky breath, feeling the panic returning. “This is not okay. None of this is okay. I am in your Assemblage now?” I gasped a breath. “Renna and Molly are my best friends.”
“They’ll be fine,” he offered nonchalantly.
He obviously knew nothing about women, then. I looked up at the ceiling. Trying to keep it together.
Krew strode toward me in three steps and rested a hand on my shoulder. “Breathe please, Jorah.”
Why were he and Owen always telling me that?
I couldn’t help but obey, though. Like my very lungs knew he was right and listened while the rest of me was annoyed with him.
“Yes. You are in my Assemblage now. And yes, it’s not ideal. For either of us. But I would have helped you sooner had I only known how bad things had gotten with Keir. That you felt trapped.” He stopped to rub a finger across his brow. “From this point forward, you and I are a team. You are done doing things solo, okay? I promise to do my best to get you your freedom as fast as possible. But since we had to make it seem like we... couldn’t keep our hands off one another...”
My mind went back to kissing him by the hedge. Had it been that intense because he was decent at it, or had it been that intense because we’d both had to sell it in order to get me out of the king’s hands? Life and death and all that?
“So we are going to have to be inseparable here for a while,” Krew said on a sigh. “I know you want your freedom. I will help you get it. And I would have helped you before. You needed only ask.”
I squinted at him. “Is this what I have to look forward to in being in your Assemblage? Constant scoldings?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.” He leaned in even closer. So close, his gray-blue eyes seemed too invasive. He was about to say something more when from around the corner the door flew open.
There was Keir. With Owen and Easton on his heels. All of them looked out of breath, their magic creeping along their veins.
“What did you do?” Keir boomed at Krew.
They must have already heard from one of the other guards what had happened down there.
Krew flicked a finger into the air, and a sound barrier formed at the door as a blast of wind slammed the door shut. “It was either she was going to be apprehended, or she was switching to my Assemblage. That was the only way I could get us out of it.” He said the words coolly and calmly. Like he just wanted to get to bed and be done with the day.
“Convenient for you,” Keir snapped. “But I don’t accept that. So no. She stays with me.”
