Page 100 of The Kingdom of Eternal Ice
Shayan looks at her calmly, taking the little bag out of his pocket. “We are here to deliver a package.”
The witch tears her eyes away from Rona and me, and looks at Shayan now. She seems to take in everything about him, her gaze shortly lingering on his bionic arm, then she reaches out her hand, brushing a finger over his cheek. “You…” she whispers. “You are interesting too.”
Poor Shayan. For the sake of keeping up our pretense, I don’t say anything though and let him handle it. Shayan doesn’t even bat an eye, just keeps his serious expression, until the witch draws back with a smirk.
“Good.” She gestures to us to follow her. “Come with me.”
This is it, the point of no return. I’m starting to feel slightly anxious… not because I’m afraid of the witch, but rather because we weren’t prepared for this. I doubt Beta Quinn or King Gillean would have approved of our action here. It puts both Shayan and me in grave danger.
But there is no turning back now. We both have to step into the witch’s lair.
I take Rona’s hand into mine, smiling at her before following Shayan inside.
“What’s your name?” Shayan asks boldly.
“Why do you want to know?” the witch asks.
“I don’t like talking to people whose name I don’t know, let alone work for them,” he says.
His boldness takes my breath away, but he is believable, so I leave him to it. The witch turns around, snickering a bit. “Work for me? Who says you are going to work for me?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Shayan asks.
“Shouldn’t a gentleman introduce himself first?” she asks.
“Shay,” Shayan says shortly.
Her lips curl into a smirk. “Penelope,” she answers. She doesn’t say anymore and instead leads us inside. From the outside, the place looks tiny. Once inside, however, I'm beginning to realize that there must be a powerful spell on the place. It’s like a castle, not as beautiful and comfortable as the castle of the royal family. This is made of cold bricks and thick stones, very narrow and dark, but it stretches into a vast building, and seems to have a huge basement as well.
“Shay,” she says, almost purring. “I will show you your room. Your friend here-” she looks at me. “What was your name?”
“Roy,” I say, going with Shayan’s strategy. He chose a name similar enough to his own, a short form even. It sounds believable, and we’ll both be able to remember it. I’m becoming increasingly more impressed by his abilities. He is a human, so everyone in the kingdom kind of underestimated him. We were stupid! Shayan was Princess Azadeh’s main protector for a long time. He knows what he is doing.
“Fine.” She turns to Rona. “Good job, Rona. I normally don’t like it when one of you bring strangers along, but they could be useful, I guess.”
“Thank you,” Rona stutters.
Shayan frowns slightly but doesn’t say anything.
“You can stay with your mate. Show him your room,” Penelope commands before she smirks towards Shayan. “I will show you yours, personally.”
Shayan bows, but doesn’t say anything. The grim attitude seems to speak to the witch. “See you later,” he grunts towards me, before following Penelope.
Meanwhile, Rona takes my hand and leads me to her room. She sighs slightly. “I’m sorry, this is all so weird,” she says.
“Are you working for Penelope too?” I ask her. “I thought you were just doing errands.”
“I… I don’t have much choice,” she admits quietly before looking at me shyly. “Do you mind sharing a room with me? If yes, I’m sure I can ask Madame…”
“No, I don’t mind,” I hurry to assure her, my heart skipping a beat when she smiles in relief.
“I know this all sounds off,” she admits. “Me being here, and all, it’s so shady.”
“You are just trying to survive,” I tell her. “Like we all do.”
She looks a bit flustered but then reaches out her hand to show me the tattoo she is wearing. It’s the same we saw on the other cultists. “I… I thought you should know,” she whispers. “I don’t know who you are. You said you are mercenaries, but you seem so kind, and I’m your mate. I don’t want to lead you on.”
“Did you join them of your free will?” I ask, my stomach churning slightly. I’m beyond happy that I found my mate, but this… this is just terrible.
