Page 22 of Royally Hacked Belle & Flame
DAEMON
Fox and Jett kneel beside the whimpering children, quickly undoing the knots binding their wrists.
Meanwhile, I yank at the cellar door handle as hard as I can, desperate to run after Mrs. Hilde and tear her head from her body. I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, and I don’t plan to wait to find out. To my fury, however, the door doesn’t budge. I raise a hand and try to unlock it with magic, but nothing happens. Frustrated, I slam my shoulder against the wood. “Fuck!”
“Move!” Kastian barks. “Let me try.”
I step out of the way and Kas takes my place. He also tries yanking, shoving, and using magic against the door, but nothing works. Finally, he goes so far as to try and light the whole wall on fire, but the flames just bounce off the wood.
We’re fucking trapped.
Rage courses through me and I feel myself shaking with the effort of holding it back. How the hell did this happen?
“Ashwater, get down here,” Jett calls.
I close my eyes and try to calm down. I need to focus on the kids—that’s what really matters here.
I take a few deep breaths and walk back down the stairs into the main room of the cellar. Either Fox or Jett must have replaced the door to the little hidden dungeon, and I’m grateful, as the smell is considerably less potent.
Archer and Gwen are sitting on the floor in the center of the room. They’re no longer bound or gagged, but still shaking with fear. Both of them are blonde-haired and bedraggled-looking, but their expressions are different. Archer is eyeing us all suspiciously, while his sister is sobbing and has attached herself to Fox. He’s looking somewhat helpless as she clings to his arm.
I suck in a breath, trying to pull myself together for their sake. “Are you two hurt?”
The little girl keeps crying, but the boy answers sharply. “No. Who are you?”
I open my mouth, but Jett beats me to it. “He’s the king.”
The boy—Archer—eyes me with clear distrust. “Really?”
I have never really been comfortable referring to myself as King anything, even after two years of ruling Vernallis. Now, though, it seems like a good time to show some authority, if only to reassure them that we’ll get out of here. I nod. “We’ve been looking for you.”
“Why would a king look for us?” Archer demands.
“Your grandfather sent us to bring you home.”
He sneers. “How are you going to do that if you’re trapped in here too?”
I can’t hold back a small growl of frustration. “We’re temporarily trapped. We’ll get out of here, don’t worry.”
He doesn’t look convinced and I don’t know what to say. I wish Alix were here, I’mreallynot good at talking to kids.
“How did you end up here?” I ask finally.
“The witch captured us!” the girl cries. “She was going to eat us for Yule!”
I grimace. I wish I could tell her that was just a story, but looking around…fuck, maybe it isn’t.
“We were out playing in the woods.” Archer says. His eyes narrow like he’s testing if I’m going to scold him for going into the woods, but I’m not really one to judge.
Archer sits up straighter, then seems to decide that isn’t good enough and gets to his feet. He’s skinny, but tall like I was at that age. I can tell he is furious with himself for getting into this situation in the first place—probably thinks he should have kept his sister safe too. I’ve been there.
“Tell me what happened.”
He thinks about it for half a second then launches into the story. “We were playing in the woods,” he repeats. “There’s a game where you see who can go deepest into the woods without getting scared,”
“You were playing alone?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “There were other kids there too.”
