Chapter 15: Wedding’s Eve

 

 

 

Chapter 15: Wedding’s Eve

 

A single day remained before the royal wedding between Princess Patricia and Prince Dario. The wedding dress was complete, and Patricia was fidgeting as she tried it on for one final test run—equal parts giddy and terrified, by my estimation. She had grown quite close to Dario over the past month, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was starting to see him in a more romantic light—not the volcanic passion of two Bondmates, perhaps, but a tiny candle’s flame, burning soft and slow.

“Ooh, I’m getting nervous...” she murmured, clutching a hand to her chest.

“It’ll go just fine, don’t you worry,” I reassured her. There wasn’t much left for me to do now except to style her hair on the morning of the ceremony.

In times like these, I could only imagine the massive weight riding on her shoulders, knowing that this wedding bond would make her the new future queen of Vaxwald. Technically I was free to return home to Myulan just as soon as she felt secure on her own, but looking at her now...the way she smiled even in the face of anxiety...a part of me wished I could stay at her side forever.

For now, we just have to focus on making it through tomorrow, I told myself.

Unfortunately for me, however, the next incident wasn’t willing to wait that long.

❀❀❀

“YOU’VE got a big day ahead of you. Be sure to get plenty of sleep tonight, all right?” I told Patricia that night as I braided her hair for bed.

“I’m afraid I can’t make any promises. I’m simply too nervous to sleep!” she exclaimed.

“Shall I bring you something warm to drink?” Rebecca suggested. “Perhaps a glass of warm milk, or some sleep-inducing herbal tea?”

“Herbal tea would be lovely, please.”

“Right away, Your Highness.”

With that, Rebecca turned to leave. Meanwhile, I had just finished Patricia’s bedtime braids and had started to pack up my hairstyling supplies. As for Mona, she was sifting through the incense in order to select tonight’s fragrance. And Sari—

“Sari? What’s the matter?” Rebecca called as she headed for the door.

Sari was standing a short distance away from the rest of us, staring down at her hands with a hard look on her face. She was holding something concealed between her palms, but I couldn’t make out what it was.

“Sari!” Rebecca called once more.

But Sari ignored her, turned, and walked straight over to where Patricia and I were sitting.

She pulled her left hand away and raised her right.

Her fingers were curled around a pair of gold scissors.

Haircutting shears.

Was she going to exact her revenge on me over Kirion?

No.

Her eyes were focused on Patricia.

“Sari, no!”

I tried to stop her, but she dodged past me, her blades closing around one of the braids descending down Patricia’s chest at approximately neck height.

The Princess screamed and jumped back, squeezing her eyes shut in terror. Too thick to be cut with a single snip, the braid now dangled half-intact from her shoulder.

But Sari was intent on finishing the job.

“STOP!” I screamed on impulse. I could imagine no fate more cruel than to lose her beautiful long hair...and on the night before her wedding, no less.

Fury flared inside me. Gritting my teeth, I put my hand directly in front of her half-severed braid to shield it from further damage.

As a result, Patricia’s hair was kept safe. Unfortunately, my palm was not so lucky. For my efforts, I received a deep gash all the way to my pinky, blood streaming down my arm in red rivulets.

“Sari, how could you?!” Rebecca roared, seizing Sari from behind and pinning her arms up. Sari flailed, eyes bloodshot, waving her bloodied scissors in the air—but just then, our backup arrived in the form of Ray and the other bodyguard who had been stationed just outside the room. They took one look at Sari and apprehended her immediately, confiscating her weapon.

“Mayna!” Ray gasped, staring at my injured left hand. He whipped out a pair of handcuffs, slapped them on Sari, left her with the other guard, then rushed straight over to me. “Mayna, you’re hurt! No, don’t lower it. Keep it raised if you can!”

“Forget about me—worry about the Princess first! Sari cut her hair!”

Still holding my hand in his, Ray turned and looked over at Patricia. “Are you hurt, Your Highness?”

“Mayna...you’re bleeding...!” Patricia whispered at nearly the same time, staring down at my hand in shock, just as Ray had. “How awful... We need to get you patched up at once!” Her voice shook with emotion as the color drained from her face. Someone she trusted had just physically attacked her, and yet she seemed more worried for my well-being.

“But your hair...!” I choked in anguish.

“What about it?”

Only then did she finally turn her gaze to the nearby mirror. She inhaled sharply and froze for a moment, unmoving.

As Ray tended to my wound, he glanced at the Princess, then turned to Mona. “Go and call for the knights. Anyone will do—we’re shorthanded. Then call for Prince Dario. And while you’re at it, go to the infirmary and summon the doctor, too.”

“R-Right!” And with that, Mona scrambled from the room, clearly flustered.

“Why...?” I muttered bitterly, my eyes on Sari, who stood cuffed beside the other guardsman. Far more painful than the sting of my palm was the deep ache in my chest when I looked at Patricia’s dangling braid. I could understand wanting to hurt me, but the Princess? What did she ever do wrong?

Thinking back, Sari was the only one of the three servants who had yet to warm up to Patricia, but even then, she had never shown any strong contempt toward her until now. Or had I simply failed to notice it?

“Isn’t it obvious? She’s not worthy of our Prince,” Sari retorted, curling her lip in a haughty smirk. “Making her queen would put Vaxwald on the path to destruction. She’s just a gold-digger.”

“That’s patently false,” I shot back. “How could you possibly buy into those rumors? You had a whole month to get to know Her Highness for yourself—or were you not paying attention?”

“The rumors are real. Kirion told me so.”

“Kirion?” I furrowed my brow. I could sense Ray frowning along with me as he cradled my hand like it was a precious jewel.

“Yes, Kirion. He says the rumors are true.”

“And you believe him?”

“Of course I do. He’s my Bondmate. I would never question anything he says.”

“And that’s the only reason why you cut her hair?”

“Kirion told me we needed to put a stop to the wedding to protect our country. So he asked me to help him.”

So it was Kirion who gave the order to damage Patricia’s hair. My hands automatically balled into fists.

“Don’t squeeze your palm like that. Relax your hand,” Ray scolded me.

But before I could respond—

“What will I do...?” Patricia whimpered in a tiny, feeble voice, still staring blankly at her reflection. She lifted a shaking hand and brushed her fingers against the severed strands. “The wedding is tomorrow...and my hair... It’s horrid...!”

It killed me inside to see her so utterly crushed. But now was not the time for me to lose myself to emotion. Suppressing my anger toward Kirion and Sari, I spoke in a tone of forced composure.

“It’s going to be all right, Your Highness. I know how to style it in order to conceal the uneven parts. Luckily you didn’t lose all of it—once it’s done up, no one will ever be the wiser. Trust me, I can cover it up. It’ll be all right. This won’t affect the wedding, not one bit.”

I knew I must’ve sounded like a broken record, but I was genuinely confident in my ability to cover for the missing hair. Nevertheless, tears still welled in Patricia’s eyes. No surprise there, of course; I could hide the uneven cut all I wanted, but it wouldn’t undo the fact that her hair was cut in the first place.

Together we had put so much love and care into those long locks. They were an important part of her self-image. And now, with all that hard work down the drain, her confidence was in tatters.

“How could you do this to her, Sari?” Rebecca asked sorrowfully. “Even if you didn’t physically injure her, it still counts as assault. Did you really think you could get away with it?”

“I can and I will,” Sari declared proudly. “Kirion said he’ll come and rescue me.”

And the very next moment, sure enough, Kirion strolled into the room.

“Kirion...” I whispered.

He wore a gleeful smile, his eyes shining with mirth.

“I did it, Kirion!” Sari shouted...but Kirion wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Ray, who stood with his hand on the hilt of the sword at his belt.

“You despicable reprobate,” Ray growled as he stepped forward, positioning himself between Kirion and me. Looking at him made the room feel a good ten degrees colder all of a sudden. His rage was barely suppressed.

But Kirion had no response for Ray. Instead, he raised a hand in Patricia’s direction, muttered a few words—an incantation?—and in the next instant, a fiery vortex shot out from his palm in the Princess’s direction.

“Patricia...!” I shouted. She let out a high-pitched scream.

But before I could move to shield her, Ray had already taken action—he scooped her out of her chair and dashed out of the blast radius at the last possible second.

A handful of knights stormed into the room. Evidently they had quickly put two and two together; they wasted no time in drawing their blades and closing in on Kirion.

But Kirion wasn’t ruffled. Grinning, he leapt straight at me.

“Mayna!” Ray screamed.

“Kirion, what are you doing?!” Sari howled.

Kirion pulled me close, reciting another incantation.

And then the world around us vanished from sight.

❀❀❀

“WHAT happened...?”

In a blink, the two of us were now standing in a different room altogether, with Kirion’s arms still wrapped around me. Patricia and the others were nowhere to be seen.

This room was pitch-dark, but I could make out the silhouettes of tall shelves all around us, reminiscent of a library. These shelves held more than books, however; I spotted documents, boxes, rusty swords and dusty shields, as well as a few tools whose purpose I couldn’t begin to guess.

Then I realized Kirion and I were concealed between two shelves. Snapping back to my senses, I pushed against him. “Let go of me!”

With a grin, he stepped back slightly.

“Where are we? What have you done?” I demanded.

“I cast a teleportation spell and moved us to the castle’s reference room, where no one ever visits.” He slid a hand in his pocket. “Truth be told, I would’ve liked to go a lot farther, but this was the best I could do with an extra traveler and no magic circle to aid me. Still, they say the closer you are to something, the harder it is to see it. So who knows, maybe they won’t find us. I bet they’re all out searching the town by now...your Bondmate included.”

“...Are you referring to Ray?”

“Aha. You knew, didn’t you? Deep down, you knew he was your real Bondmate.”

“I don’t ‘know’ anything. I’m not a Dragonkin, so I can’t say for sure.”

With an air of nonchalance, I turned and started for the door, but Kirion pulled me back and pushed me against the shelf. He leaned in close.

“What’s the rush? There are knights crawling all over the castle right now. Let’s sit tight for a bit until my mana can recharge. Then we’ll teleport in small bursts.”

“I’m not just going to stand here and let you kidnap me!”

Frankly, I was relieved to hear that we were still in Vaxwald Castle. I didn’t know where the reference room was located, but surely if I ran down the hall, I’d find someone eventually.

Unfortunately, Kirion had no intention of letting me escape.

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?” he taunted, placing both of his hands against the shelf on either side of my face to box me in.

And then, I realized—his once-dark eyes were now a brilliant shade of crimson.

“You were just using Sari as your attack dog, weren’t you?” I hissed, hoping to conceal my fear.

“I’d hate to think of what would happen if the public found out a Vaxwald servant attacked the Princess of Myulan. What a scandal! Why, the whole wedding might get called off!” Kirion commented casually. He took my bandaged left hand and peered down at the bloodstain. “You poor thing... It’s plain to see you’re the real victim here, and yet bodily harm done to a commoner is considered a mere pittance compared to attempted assault on a member of the royal family. Protecting her stupid hair was only ever going to be a waste of your time.”

“Not when the alternative was to stand by and watch her lose something she cares about,” I growled back through clenched teeth. The memory of Patricia’s stunned expression made my heart ache. Perhaps some people would shrug their shoulders and say, “So what? It’s hair! It’ll grow back!” but not me. To me, that was akin to saying “So what if you got hurt? It’ll heal!”

“Perfect.” As I grimaced bitterly, Kirion gazed at me with a rapturous smile on his face. “This is precisely the reaction I wanted. This is why I ordered Sari to strike not the skin, but the hair. Because I knew it would hurt you most.”

“What are you after? Is it Patricia, or is it me?”

“Both. At first my target was the Princess—more specifically, the wedding. I wanted to get it called off.”

“You bought into those false rumors about her, didn’t you?” I asked, my tone accusatory.

He laughed. “You really think I’m that stupid? I wouldn’t let mere idle gossip sway my opinion of someone.” He turned his bewitching scarlet eyes on me. “And it hurts my feelings that you’d conflate me with the average simpleton. I mean, who do you think spread those rumors in the first place?”

“You didn’t...!”

“Oh, I did. I even leaked information to the press. But as it turns out, word of mouth spreads much, much faster! Piece of cake, really.”

“Why would you do that...?”

“Because Kazarth hired me to stop the wedding at any cost.”

Considering Kazarth’s relatively small size and proximity to Vaxwald and Myulan, I could see how it might interpret a political marriage between the two as a threat. I recalled a comment Ray had made during the incident with the newspaper seller: Prince Dario thinks there’s a chance it’s all a Kazarth psyop. Evidently His Highness was right on the money.

I looked at Kirion. “What relationship do you have with the nation of Kazarth? Does this mean you’re not a Dragonkin after all?”

“I have no particular attachment to Kazarth. I’m not one of them; I just thought the gig sounded fun, so I agreed to it. And no, I’m not a Dragonkin. Don’t associate me with those monsters, if you please.”

“Wait, but... then how did you manage to transform into a dragon?”

“With magic, of course. Good thing you didn’t ask me to fly, though, or else you would’ve blown my cover.” He clutched my injured hand like he was taking it hostage. “I’m a Shadowkin, actually. You can tell by my red eyes.”

For Flowerfolk, countless generations of mating with humans had bred the fairy genes right out of us until we looked mostly human, with the exception of our flower magic and sensitivity to extreme temperatures. We had lost the ability to fly and our wings. But the Shadowkin tribe had no past history of mating with humans that I knew of, and so their demonic heritage was likely still very much intact. They were humanoid in appearance, but possessed long lifespans and a far greater capacity for mana than any Flowerfolk or Dragonkin. Because of this, they could wield exceptionally powerful magic spells.

They were few in number, but they had a great love of conflict, and their mere presence inspired fear and chaos wherever they went. Not exactly the sort of people I was eager to spend my time with, if I had a say.

“That said,” Kirion continued, “it’d be a piece of cake for any Shadowkin to simply change their eye color with magic, like so.” For a moment his irises darkened, but before I could process it, they were scarlet once more. “Some Shadowkin like to start riots or commit heinous crimes for attention. Some prefer to stand on the front lines of battle. Some like to kill. But me? I’m a little different. I like to take advantage of weak or sad people and make them my puppets so I can control them from behind the scenes. Guide them down the wrong path. Especially when I’m trying to pull off something this big.”

“...And that’s why you deceived Sari?”

“I needed someone in close proximity to the Princess, and she was the most volatile one. Torpan was a viable second choice. An old spinster pushing fifty with no living family members—she may seem tough, but she’s empty inside. Ideal for my purposes, really. But Sari was in a better position.”

Torpan had really seemed to trust Kirion, but she’d merely fallen under his spell. Still, at the end of the day, she was lucky to have escaped Kirion’s focus. If she’d fallen for him completely, she might’ve inadvertently thrown her whole life away, just as Sari had.

“The easiest people to manipulate are those dissatisfied with the status quo. The idealists. But with a little effort, we Shadowkin can take control of just about anyone. We excel at deception. Remember that.”

Kirion donned a boyish grin. He was both innocent and twisted, honest and mysterious at the same time. On top of that, he had powerful charisma that could easily mislead people, as well as a distinct lack of sympathy for those who succumbed.

A chill ran down my spine. Perhaps I’d only escaped a similar fate because I was actively wary of him. If I didn’t have a passion in life... if I didn’t have a job or an income... if I didn’t have my family... if I didn’t have someone like Ray looking out for me... who knows what might have happened then.

“We understand the weakness in people’s hearts. But you? You were nigh impossible,” he mused, brushing his fingers against my hair. “You’re the sort of person who could never steal or cheat, even if you knew no one else was around. Honest to a fault, in other words. Day in and day out, you put in a great deal of effort for which you are generally rewarded, but even if you aren’t, you don’t hold it against anyone. You left me nothing to work with.”

“Are you seriously complaining that I’m a good person?”

“But on the other hand, nothing feels more satisfying than getting a goody-goody like you to turn to the shadows. By comparison, manipulating Sari is hardly an achievement. I wanted you to give your heart to me... grow jealous over the smallest trifles... lose interest in your work... and eventually fall from grace.”

“Sounds like you should get a new hobby. Why approach me, anyway? Did you get bored working on your plan to destroy the engagement from behind the scenes?” I asked with a frown. Did he see us all as toys to be played with?

“Bingo. I volunteered myself as a hairstylist’s apprentice purely to get closer to the Princess, but then I found the perfect Flowerfolk target. All the more entertaining since Ray kept getting blatantly jealous every time I made a move.”

The way Kirion spoke, he made it sound like Ray and I were a package deal, something I found mildly annoying. But then again, it was thanks to Ray and his stupid “Never mind, you aren’t my Bondmate” ordeal that I had kept a level head when Kirion told me I was his... Loath as I was to admit it, I was actually starting to feel grateful that the mix-up had happened.

“So you’re telling me your work history with the merchant was fabricated?”

“Obviously. Granted, I gave them the name of a real merchant in Vaxwald, but now that Dario’s actually investigating it, I’m sure the truth will come out any day now. I had a hell of a time forging a recommendation letter and putting together a collection of haircutting scissors.”

“For what it’s worth, you were actually pretty good at cutting hair. I watched you work on some of those servants.”

“What can I say? I’m good with my hands.” He grinned.

I furrowed my brow. “Then...that means you were the one who controlled Sir Ian’s mind and made him attack Her Highness.”

“Yep, that was me. But it ended in failure, so I was forced to use Sari next.”

“What about the time the hair ornaments went missing? Was that you, too?”

Suddenly it felt like every tiny incident at the castle was his doing, and I was eager for him to prove me wrong...but he didn’t. Instead, he smiled mischievously. “Of course it was.”

“Why would you do that?” I asked angrily.

“Because I wanted Patricia to think that someone in the castle didn’t like her. And I wanted to make you upset, naturally. Regrettably, it wasn’t quite enough to rile you up.”

“You were messing with me right from the start, weren’t you?”

“Duh. Though, to be clear, it was partially to make Sari jealous. Jealousy makes people impulsive, you see, and I wanted to make her more susceptible to my manipulation. But rest assured, I wanted to corrupt your heart right from the very first moment I laid eyes on you.”

Gee, thanks? I’m...flattered?

“Ray was a big part of it, too. I really like him—I think he’d do great things if he ever went rogue. And if his feelings for you grew dark and twisted... Frankly, even I couldn’t handle that. A Dragonkin’s love for their Bondmate really is something special, you know? It’s just marvelous.”

Then, out of nowhere, Kirion seized me by the throat—not to the point that I couldn’t breathe, but very nearly. I wheezed.

“I figured if I whisked you away from here, Ray would go nuts looking for you...but perhaps killing you would be more fun than some stupid game of hide and seek. I can only imagine his reaction upon finding your corpse.”

His lips were curled in an amused smile that didn’t reach his eyes. The contrast frightened me. He was a demon, through and through.

“Or maybe I’ll hurt your hand so badly, you can’t style hair anymore. I bet that would really crush your spirit...and seeing you in pain would hurt Ray, too. Oh, or maybe I should steal your innocence?” His eyes lit up like he sincerely thought this was a great idea. “Well, what do you think? Which would you prefer? The last one, I’m guessing?”

Still smiling, he seized the front of my dress, ripping the buttons and other decorations from the fabric and exposing my brassiere.

“Stop!”

I pulled his hair and punched his chest—anything to get away from him. My injured hand stung, but I couldn’t afford to worry about it right now.

“Ugh, this is so annoying...”

He scowled at my act of resistance, then started to recite something—some sort of incantation. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but whatever it was, I knew I needed to stop him. My good hand was busy fending off his left hand, so I reached behind me with my injured hand, hoping to grab some sort of viable weapon off the shelf.

As fate would have it, my fingers came into contact with a decently thick hardbound book. There was no time to hesitate; I grabbed it and swung it at his head with all my might.

“Gah!” Kirion groaned and clapped both hands over the spot where I struck him.

Thank goodness for hardcover books, I thought.

On a whim, I peered down at my impromptu weapon—and realized it was a hardcover edition of Tales of Tribal Romance, of all things. Glancing back at the shelf I’d grabbed it from, I noticed there were several other editions of the same book, each with updated cover art as the years wore on. The oldest copy was practically falling apart.

“Were you trying to kill me?!” Kirion snarled, glaring at me reproachfully. “I can’t believe this! You’re no Flowerfolk! Flowerfolk are all a bunch of wimpy pacifists!”

“That’s what you get for underestimating us. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we’re not as ‘wimpy’ as everyone likes to think. We can put up a fight if we have to.”

Kirion looked at my injured left hand, still clutching the book. “You used your precious hands to hurt someone? Some hairstylist you turned out to be. You realize you’re just going to reopen your wound, right?”

“Don’t worry. As long as I still have a few functioning fingers, I should be able to style hair no problem. And right now, my hand matters less to me than beating the crap out of a scumbag who insults people right to their faces.”

“You bitch...”

This was quite the departure from the affable, devil-may-care persona I had come to associate with Kirion. Never before had I heard him use such foul language, and it felt like I’d discovered the real him. This turned out to be quite the freeing revelation.

“Mayna! Where are you?!”

I could hear Ray’s panicked voice in the hall outside the door, accompanied by a flurry of footsteps. Before I could call out to him, however, Kirion clapped a hand over my mouth.

“This is ridiculous. How did he find us so fast? Can Dragonkin sense where their Bondmate is at all times?” he muttered under his breath.

“Mmph! Mmmmph!” In spite of my muffled mouth, I tried my best to call for help.

“Are you in here?!”

The next instant, the door flew off its hinges and slammed to the floor.

“That door was locked, you know. Can’t you Dragonkin take a hint? Tsk...” Kirion clucked his tongue in frustration.

“Mayna!”

Kirion turned back to the sudden intruder, wearing his usual confident grin. “Hello there, Ray. You’re a bit early to the festivities.” He positioned me in front of him like a hostage.

It was hard to make out Ray’s expression in the dim lighting, but from what I could tell, he was downright enraged—far more so than he’d been back in Patricia’s room. The tension in the air was so electric, I half expected sparks to fly any second now.

But if Kirion had picked up on the same vibes I had, he certainly didn’t let it show. “I just thought of an even better idea. You’ve made me very angry, Mayna. So how about I kill Ray instead?”

Evidently I must’ve gotten him pretty good with the book attack...but personally, I would’ve preferred he took his anger out on me. Nevertheless, Kirion pushed me forward as though he were setting me free.

“Mayna!” Ray rushed over and pulled me into his arms. When he caught sight of my torn dress, he narrowed his eyes and adjusted my clothing. “Just sit tight while I end his life.”

His voice was gentle, but the look in his eyes was dead serious. He was furious.

“Are you going to fight me with a sword?” Kirion asked, his tone laced with amusement. “Personally, I’ll be using magic. Oh, and I don’t mind if we take this elsewhere, seeing as it would be kind of hard to swing a blade in here.”

“That won’t be necessary. Mayna, go stand over there.” Ray directed me over to the corner of the room. Once he made sure I was safe, he turned back to Kirion. “This won’t take long.”

“You sound awfully confident, considering you can’t cast a spell to save your—wait, what the?!”

All of a sudden, Ray’s body began to expand right before our eyes. I couldn’t see Kirion’s face from this vantage point, but I could only imagine how shocked he must have been.

“We’re indoors, you know!”

In his dragon form, Ray could barely navigate between the bookshelves. He spread his wings up to make sure they wouldn’t snag on anything, then lunged forward on legs the size of tree trunks.

The distance between them wasn’t that big to start with, and so Kirion had no time to run or dodge, much less recite an incantation.

“Guh!”

In a blink, Kirion’s torso disappeared inside Ray’s maw, leaving his head and limbs exposed. Then I heard the low crunching of bone. Ooof.

At this point, Ray attempted to back out from between the bookcases...but naturally, since he was so large, he couldn’t help but bump into everything...and before long, he had knocked a series of items and an entire shelf to the floor.

Fortunately I was completely out of harm’s way, but still, I couldn’t help but shriek in surprise. The impact had kicked up a cloud of dust, and I covered my mouth to keep myself from inhaling any of it.

Once the bookcase was out of the way, Ray dashed over to the newly unblocked window—the only one in the room, and a rather large one at that. Then, with Kirion still clutched in his teeth, Ray jumped and smashed himself through the window, curtains and all.

“Ray!”

I staggered my way over the messy floor to the window. I couldn’t risk getting close enough to peer outside, but from what I could see, this room was pretty far off the ground. Perhaps it was located atop one of Vaxwald Castle’s many tall towers.

“Ray!” I screamed again. He’d gone through the window at full speed—surely that had to hurt.

But then I heard a voice in the distance: “Up here! I heard some sort of crash. Let’s move!”

“I’m in here!” I shouted back. “Ray and Kirion... They’ve fallen from the window!”

As the knights stormed into the room, I pointed them in Ray’s direction. One by one, each of them leapt through the shattered window, then morphed into a dragon in midair and flew down to the ground.

“Is he okay...?” I murmured to myself.

But just then, almost as though he had intentionally waited for the last knight to leave the room, Ray flew back up to the window again.

“Ray!” I exclaimed.

He perched on the window frame, then morphed back to his humanoid form and hopped down into the room. “Hi, Mayna.”

“Are you okay?!”

His expression hardened. “I’m fine.” Then he unpinned his cape and slung it around my shoulders instead. “What did he do to you?” he asked, his voice teeming with barely suppressed rage.

He must’ve known something had happened after seeing the tear in my dress...and I got the distinct sense that depending on my answer, he might just fly back out to give Kirion another chomp.

“Nothing. He just ripped my clothes, that’s all. I’m fine, I promise,” I answered quickly. “Where’s Kirion?”

“Do you swear it?”

“What? Yes, I swear it! Now where’s Kirion?”

“My fellow knights have him tied up. Originally I wanted to break every bone in his body and spit out the pieces, but supposedly they need him alive for interrogation purposes, so I left half intact. At one point he tried to run, but I guess the pain made it too difficult to cast his magic.”

“I see...” I was relieved to hear he was safely captured.

“We’re going to put him in one of our special anti-magic prison cells down in the dungeon. As I understand it, we had to bring in a Treeborn expert to test them, since they’re on par with Shadowkin as magic users.”

Whereas Shadowkin were descended from demons, Treeborn were descended from spirits. And like Shadowkin, they hadn’t mated with humans much, and so their mana capacity was on the higher side. But the Treeborn tribe was a respectable one; they preferred to live in harmony with nature, and as such, they rarely saw fit to leave their forests or wage wars.

After a moment, Ray gently pulled me into his arms. “Let’s get you to the infirmary. We should have the doctor look at your wound.”

“We can worry about my wound later. I need to get back to the Princess. After losing so much of her hair, she’s got to be completely devastated... Oh, but maybe it’d be smart to tell you everything I know about Kirion first. He told me he’s working with Kazarth.”

“You can tell me all about it later on. As for Her Highness, Prince Dario is with her at the moment. Right now, your wound takes top priority.”

And so Ray carried me from the room without hearing another word. He had a stern look on his face the entire time, mind you, but perhaps that was proof of how worried he was for my well-being. And I couldn’t exactly protest, being in his arms and all.

On our way to the infirmary, I had nothing better to do, so I decided to ask him a question: “Kirion was saying that Dragonkin can sense where their Bondmate is at any given time. Is that true?”

Ray must’ve been distracted with other things, because he responded without hesitation: “If you’re nearby, it’s pretty easy to tell. But after a certain point, I can only really tell what general direction you’re in. As long as you’re close, though, I can use your scent to track you pretty reliably. Dragonkin naturally have a keen sense of smell, but it seems the scent of one’s Bondmate is especially strong for some reason. Makes it easy to locate your personal possessions, for example.”

“What are you, a dog?” I teased.

He smiled slightly. “I know, right? That said, there’s no scent trail to follow if you’re teleported away by magic.”

Wait... Did Ray use my scent to track the missing hair ornaments...?

“I really am your Bondmate after all, aren’t I?” I asked casually.

At this, Ray stopped short and looked at me in surprise. He quickly recovered, however, and glanced away as he set off once again.

“No... I was just using ‘you’ in the figurative sense,” he muttered. But he was too late—I was already convinced.

Rather than ask him a dozen more questions, however, I decided to focus on the Princess and the big wedding tomorrow. Surely it could wait until afterward.