Page 44 of The Nightmare Bride
My chest tightened. Amryssa was waiting for me upstairs, but I couldn’t leave Kyven unattended. I refused to turn my back on him, only to find out later that some unlucky housemaid had disappeared.
I upped my pace, wondering if I should call his name. But I didn’t want to draw attention—Olivian might be lurking, and he wouldn’t forgive an oversight like this, not on the heels of the shattered bust debacle.
I rounded a bend in the hall and pulled up short. Miss Quist blinked at me, her wispy blonde curls only halfway contained by her cook’s cap.
“Harlowe, sweetheart. I almost ran right into you. How clumsy of me.”
I waved off her words. “No, no, it’s my fault. I was just looking for Kyven. You haven’t seen him, have you?”
“Oh, yes.” Her eyes brightened. “His Highness went that way, just now. He offered to bring some mushrooms up from the cellar for me. Isn’t that delightful? He might be a prince, but that doesn’t stop him from pitching in, does it?”
My mouth tightened. If pissing me off every five minutes counted as ‘pitching in,’ then sure. He was endlessly fucking helpful. “Right. Yes. Excuse me.”
I hurried away, then pushed through the first external door I came to, since the root cellar could only be accessed from outside. Heat and brightness hit me like a slap, but I barely noticed. Across the yard, the cellar doors lay open. Between them, a dark tunnel sloped into the earth.
I hurried over and plunged inside. The temperature plummeted as I went, the air thickening with the scent of barley and dried apples. My eyes struggled to adjust, the rapid shift from bright to dark rendering the tunnel little more than a shadowy smear.
“Kyven,” I called into the darkness. “Are you down here?”
No answer.
Loose earth squished beneath my shoes. Soon, the passageway widened, delivering me into the cellar proper. Shadows moved within shadows, and I stopped. For the second time in as many minutes, I’d almost collided with someone.
Before me, a figure crouched, rooting through a crate that probably held the dregs of last year’s scraggly potatoes, or maybe the stunted mushrooms Miss Quist had requested. I couldn’t tell, what with the sunbursts still lingering on my retinas.
“Just so you know,” I said, “I don’t appreciate having to chase?—”
The figure straightened and whirled. A fist caught me by the windpipe, then forced me backward until my shoulder blades hit the wall. Dirt rained down, grit clogging my eyes.
I flailed, trying to fend off my attacker, but the hiss of a blade leaving its sheath made me freeze.
Because that wasn’t just any blade. It wasmyblade. My dagger. The belt at my waist suddenly felt much too light.
My pulse sped as panic pumped along every nerve. Without my weapon, I was defenseless. “Give that back.”
But the grip at my throat only tightened. Cold steel pricked my jaw.
Gods among us. If I could’ve drawn a proper breath, I might have actually laughed. Kyven had shown his true colors.Finally.
“I knew it,” I wheezed. I sounded borderline hysterical, but I was about to be murdered in a root cellar by my own husband, so I couldn’t judge myself too harshly. “I always knew you?—”
“Shut up.” The knife-tip dented my skin.
My mouth snapped shut, my mind spiraling into nothingness. Because that voice didn’t belong to Kyven. It was...awoman’s. I blinked, trying to clear the debris from my eyes.
Slowly, features emerged from the darkness. A long, elegant nose. Full lips. Dark hair, braided into a coronet around a heart-shaped face.
I stared. I’d never seen this woman in my life. She didn’t even look to be from Oceansgate—instead of a shabby, thrice-mended dress, she wore a man’s tunic over deerskin leggings.
I stared. “Who the hell’re are you?”
When she didn’t answer, suspicion hatched in my mind. “Wait. Are you one of those outlaws, from the woods? What’re you doing here? Are youstealingfrom us?”
“Stealing?” Her nose wrinkled. “Since when is taking from the rich considered stealing?”
“I don’t know,” I hissed. “Probably since laws were invented?”
Her gaze narrowed.
