Page 131 of Arrows and Gems
Leaning over, she pressed her lips to his. On purpose this time.
Cap startled back before relaxing into her lips for one telling moment. Then grabbing her shoulders, he pushed her away. “Margit! The General—”
“You owed me that one,” she grinned. His face wasn’t as red as she’d hoped, but she’d take it. “And he’s on the other sideof the room. We have time to react.”
“He has the wind gryphon!”
Helena spun back to the General. The hand she could see was empty, but the other was tucked into his pocket. He wore a sad smile.
“So much for having a captain with a wind ability,” she said lightly. “I should have known better than to believe a word you said.”
“If you ask Raphael, I’m sure he’ll confirm it for you.” General Valentin strolled toward them.
“There is one,” the prince said stiffly. “But he’s not strong enough to hunt us down. Nor was he in my quarters when you blew my arrow off target.”
The General shrugged. “He supplied me with an enchanted object. But don’t blame me because your aim worsens when you panic.”
If he had the wind gryphon, they couldn’t fight him. So what could she do?
Go for brazen, of course. It was what she did best.
“Cap, miss his mark because he panicked?” Helena laughed. “Oh, that’s a good one, Valentin. Tell us another.”
“Princess,” Cap muttered under his breath.
But the General just shook his head with that sorrowful expression he liked to use. “I should have known you would believe a handsome youth over a grizzled old general. I had hoped to either marry you or send you home.” He sighed. “I’ll have to dispose of you instead. I can’t have your foreign influence swaying the judge at Raphael’s trial.”
“Dispose of?” she replied with an amused lift to one eyebrow. “Will you lock me in a storage cupboard and throw away the key?”
Cap’s hand gripped her arm, pulling her back a step. But she kept her eyes on their advancing foe.
“Perhaps it’s better this way,” the General continued sadly. “There are those who doubted my version of the king’s passing, but even they would never accuse me of harming my own beloved.”
“Beloved?” Helena scoffed. “No one—”
“I’ve already sent a letter to King Steffan accounting our deep love and upcoming nuptials,” he mourned. “He will be devastated when he learns that his dearly loved daughter died at Prince Raphael’s hands. If only I had managed to wrest the wind gryphon away from him sooner!”
Helena’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“Ralnor will be firmly behind me once Lord Luther confirms my devotion to you.” His eyes turned to Cap. “Though perhaps the morally bankrupt prince should die in the struggle as well so there is no second heartbroken lover to confuse things. As Nathalie proved by merely pushing Daphne into the river, itisbest not to leave loose ends.”
“Nathalie? So youwereinvolved,” Cap growled.
“The wind gryphon is a marvelous tool,” General Valentin said simply. “I had hoped to gain the water kelpie as well. Removing your sister was an added benefit.”
Helena felt a tremor in her hands as Cap pulled her back another step. If General Valentin was telling them this, he truly meant to kill them.
And it didn’t matter how well she could shoot if he could disrupt her aim.
Helena tugged her arm, trying to free it from Cap’s grasp. If she could get one good shot off while the General was pontificating, the wind gryphon might not matter.
But Cap only tightened his grip and dragged her back again. “How did you find us?” he asked. Since the General was feeling chatty? “It’s been weeks since we felt the magic wind. And you knew I was near Laurier, didn’t you?”
General Valentin pulled his hand from his pocket and casually studied a sparkling blue object. “I’m embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure out how you knew to flee, let alone to gain the finesse required to keep the wind from touching people that I couldn’t see.”
Of course. The breeze that had fluttered the trees but missed her on the way to their last camp.
The General looked at them again. “As fascinating as it is to detail my genius, I have other matters to attend to. A group of escaped prisoners, for example, that my guards are collecting as we speak. So it’s time to wrap things up.”
