Page 77 of The King's Omega
We stood frozen behind the wall as voices in the cell filtered through. “They’re gone! All three? Milian will kill us.”
“Look at these chains!”
“Alert the troops, three escaped prisoners!”
We held still for the count of two hundred until the voices were gone. Then, without speaking, Tarn took one of my hands, and Lorn the other, and we crept toward the ladder.
I didn’t know where they were taking me, and I didn’t ask. But before long, the odors that filtered from the walls were obvious. “The laundry?” I breathed. Tarn held a finger to his lips. The exit here wasn’t in the actual laundry, but in Sorcha’s small bedroom off the back, hidden by a wardrobe. Tarn and Lorn slipped through, and Tarn pulled me out a few moments later. Axe had to stay in the tunnel, since he was too large to fit through this tiny exit.
I pressed a kiss to his hand and whispered, “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” then squeezed through the wall.
Sorcha’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates when she saw me, and in seconds, she enveloped me in the biggest hug I’d ever had. When she let go, I looked around her room, which had been ransacked. “What happened?”
“They’re tearing the castle apart looking for you. We’re all confined to our rooms after they’ve searched,” she whispered. “They say someone from here kidnapped their queen. They called her Theodora, but they described you, Vali. Tell me that evil king hasn’t mated you.”
“Um, about that… he sort of did.” Everyone in the room froze, and Axe growled behind the wall.
“I didn’t, you know, mate him. Like physically. But he married me—there was a ceremony, and a crown and everything. So, I’m the Queen of Verdan.”
I gave them a few seconds to let that sink in, then went on. “We have to get to Rigol, Sorcha. I think I can heal him, like I did Tarn.”
At that, Sorcha stopped to examine all three men, shaking her head. “I heard they near killed you three. How’d our little girl here heal you?”
Tarn and Lorn both licked their lips and grinned. I blushed so hard it felt like my face was on fire.
“I see. My grandma’s stories weren’t all fairytales, were they?” Her smile spread slowly across her face. “I’m so happy for you three.”
“And Axe,” I muttered. She clapped a hand over her mouth to hold in the laugh. “I think Selene knows about the tunnels. Can you help us find a different way to get to him?”
Instead of agreeing immediately, Sorcha tapped her chin. “Darling girl, I’m not sure any amount of disguise could hide you now.”
I didn’t understand.
“Let me put it this way, you smell like a herd of stallions went on an all-night rampage through a peach orchard and knocked over at least a dozen beehives on their way. And then had sex in the resulting mess. A lot of sex.”
Lorn mumbled something that sounded like “an apt description.”
“I smell?” I sniffed my arm. “I don’t smell!” Behind me, Tarn coughed, and I whirled around. “Do I smell?”
He reached out and coiled one of my curls around a finger. “Not like horses, love, but your scent has gotten much stronger. Don’t be sad, it’s one of your gifts.”
Great Goddess, being an Omega was weirder than I’d imagined. Why couldn’t one of my gifts be getting taller, or bigger breasts? Or wings, or something.Goddess, if you’re listening, you really missed out on some better gift options.
“The gift of stinking. Just my luck.” I began pacing. “So, if I can’t get to him, can we get him to me? Could we—I don’t know—bribe someone to bring him somewhere? Like, one of the servants?”
Sorcha said she knew just who might be tempted and not betray us.
“What would we bribe him with?” Lorn wondered aloud.
Tarn’s sly smile appeared again. “Maybe borrow a few of your crystals, Peaches? The ones Vilkurn gave you?”
I swallowed hard; I’d been trying not to think about Milian’s crown jewels and my rocks, and how they were the same sorts of stones. “They’re not worth someone’s life, Tarn. They’re just rocks, right?”
While I spoke, Tarn slipped into my old laundry nook and reappeared with the small chest he’d made to hold Vilkurn’s gifts.
Tarn opened the box to show us. “They’re jewels, love. Sapphires, emeralds, rubies—I think this one is a topaz? No, my mistake, yellow diamond.”
My vision went hazy for a moment. I’d actually lost one or two when Mischief had been playing with them. Well, it wasn’t my fault, precisely. I would scold Vil later for not telling me they were valuable. “Right. Ought to be worth a bribe. Sorcha, can you find a couple of strong men to wrap Rigol up in a rug or something?”
