Page 76 of The Prince and His Stolen Groom
I started to slide out of the ropes, determined to reach the shadow and smash the bottle before it escaped. The black silhouette merged with the other shadows in a corner, but I could still see the blue glass bottle floating in the air.
“Master, he’s escaping!” the imp shrieked, and jumped on me. It wasn’t heavy, but its claws dug into my skin, making it difficult to dislodge without gouging myself.
“You loosened the ropes too much!” Cereal snapped, trying to grab me.
I shoved the chair between us, tripping him. The bottle moved in a blink, now appearing at the front door. The doorknob rattledfrantically, then the bottle disappeared and reappeared in another corner of the room.
“Your Evil Eminence, I can’t leave the tower.”
Cereal and I both lunged for the door. He reached it first and instead of fighting him for it, I ran up the stairs. No one ran after me, probably thinking I wouldn’t be stupid enough to climb out that window anyway. But the window wasn’t my goal.
The mage cursed and shouted when he realized that I wasn’t locked in the tower with him, he was locked in here withme.
Which would be a lot more impressive if my stash of magical items was full of weapons instead of sex toys. I pulled out the first chest and searched through it, swearing at the useless assortment. The candlesmightwork on that shadow thing and the imp, but they wouldn’t hurt the mage. The whips and paddles would only bruise him for an hour or two.
I shoved the box away and reopened the secret panel. A second box—a simple wooden crate, less stylized than the chest—had been gathering dust in the shadows for the last few months, ever since I stopped seeing Griffin.
Inside were untested magical prototypes, a bit more dangerous and volatile than the ones in the official chest. I grabbed blindly, pulling out handfuls, and then turned to find the mage huffing and puffing as he leaned against the bedroom door frame.
“I must say,” he panted, “that whoever enchanted this tower is more formidable than I expected. And more devious—to lock the outside is understandable, but to lock theinside.”
He blinked at me for a few seconds and then looked around at the other objects scattered through the room. “The tower, the ropes …you’rethe mage, aren’t you?”
Since he wasn’t attacking me right now, it felt a little ridiculous to make the first move. Like I was about to punch a teacher who was in the middle of praising my work. “Yes.”
His eyes lit up with interest. “Forget the wedding,” he announced grandly. “How would you like to be my apprentice?”
How evil do you have to be for an evil mage to want to hire you? I stared at him dumbfounded for a moment before asking, “Are you serious?” By which of course I meant ‘what the fuck is wrong with you, this is not the time for a job offer.’
But he took it literally. “Quite. You’ve already got the wardrobe for it,” he said, gesturing to the black-on-black-on-black clothes I’dchanged into for the rehearsal dinner. Which looked awfully close to what he was wearing under the cloak.
“I’m reallynotinterested in being one of your minions.”
“Not aminion,” he corrected. “An apprentice—completely different. And it’s even a paid position! Despite some misconceptions you might have about our role in society, we do treat each other well.”
“You just kidnapped me! Why would I want to work for you?”
He crossed his arms and gave me a frank look. “It’s all part of the trade. Tell me honestly, with a tower like this, have you never kidnapped anyone before?”
Since I’d done just that less than a week ago, it wasn’t like I couldarguewith him. “I’m not interested in working with you or becoming any sort of evil mage!”
“So, youweren’tabout to engage me in battle using the weapons you’ve personally enchanted?”
I blinked and looked down to my full arms. I’d been so stunned by his offer, I’d forgotten what I’d come up here for. I was oddly flattered that he’d called the hodgepodge assortment ‘weapons,’ but I couldn’t let that stop me from using them against him. Tossing half of my stock on the bed to free up my hands, I grabbed a thin chain with weights on each end and whipped it toward his legs like a bola.
He hopped backwards out of the way and out of the room, teetering on the landing, not close enough to the stairs to fall. The makeshift bola only managed to wrap around one leg, which made it mostly useless.
Holding the captured leg up to inspect it, he asked, “Are those clamps on the end? What are they meant to—augh!” The clamp resting on his shoe turned red hot, burning a hole through the leather.
Note to self—absolutely do not let those near any one’s nipples.
While he was distracted, I sorted through the other things I’d grabbed: harness, the beginnings of a swing, cane, gags, and muzzles. The harness was too complicated to work quickly, even if the enchantment behaved, and the swing was mostly a jumble of rope and leather. I grabbed the cane and a muzzle for the imp and turned back to the mage.
The shadows had swelled again, blocking off all light in the stairway and slowly creeping into the room. The mage’s eyes glowed almost as hot as the clamp, which he had untangled and tossed to the side where it merrily burned a hole in my rug. “You dare challenge me?” he asked, his deep voice echoing in the round bedchamber.
He stepped toward me, cloak billowing in a non-existent wind. He raised his right hand and pitch-black shadows coalesced around it, expanding into a gleaming black sword. One slash through the air sent me sprawling backwards onto the bed. It had sliced through my clothes diagonally, the fabric scraps falling aside to expose a thin cut across my chest, blood welling to the surface.
What the fuck will happen if that blade actually touches me?Suddenly, malfunctioning magical sex toys did not seem like a good defense.
