Page 78 of A Kiss of Flame

So when he realised his brother had not yet appeared and neither had Wren, he knew instantly that something was wrong. Again. He bent his mind to her, to the sense of her, and found only shadows.

That could not be good. He ought to go and find her, he thought, and turned back towards the building. Laurence was hurrying towards him, an expression of concern creasing his young features.

‘Prince Finnian? Please, you’re needed. The guards told me to tell you your knights are asking for you.’

His knights. If Anselm and Olivier heard called themselves called that, he would never hear the end of it. But they were in enemy territory as well and he had brought them here. He had sworn he would protect them.

‘I’m not… I mean… they’re not…’ It wasn’t something he could explain to Laurence, not when he stared at him with such unguarded awe. Stories had been spreading about what had happened in Castel Sassone. He didn’t want to think what Laurence would do if he saw Wren.

‘Help Gaius get everything ready to leave,’ he told the boy. ‘We will join you as soon as possible.’

‘But I can help you.’ He was so earnest. Finn wondered if he had been the same at that age. He’d idolised Roland. He still did, if he was feeling like being honest with himself.

What would Roland say about all of this?

He fixed Laurence with a stern glare.

‘Help me by helping the others and following orders. We need to make sure everyone is ready to move.’

Laurence swallowed down his obvious disappointment. ‘Yes, your highness.’

He headed off, so outwardly obedient that Finn worried about him. Was he as compliant with Hestia or was this just with him? No way to know, not without spending more time with them, and that wasn’t on the cards. He turned back into the main building.

The ground floor was deserted. Anselm and Olivier had been given a room upstairs, with Ilanthian guards placed outside it.

Finn hadn’t argued against it. How could he? Gaius wasn’t about to take a chance of two Knights of the Aurum wandering around the embassy. He was having a hard enough time with Hestia’s insistence that Finn have free rein here. And Finn was a member of the royal family.

The two guards manning the door watched him approach with a keen wariness which made his skin itch. Finn was armed. He wouldn’t go anywhere without his sword and a knife at his belt, especially not in these halls. All his life had been a study in risks, the threat of danger ever present.

Among his own people that danger was greater than ever.

The guards didn’t step aside from the door and Finn slowed, unease growing with every step.

‘I wondered how long you’d take,’ a voice drawled from behind him. Leander. Of course it was Leander. ‘I thought even Hestia’s idiot son would find you more quickly than that.’

Finn turned, suddenly feeling world-weary. He’d been expecting this since he first laid eyes on his brother. It was almost a relief. Leander wanted him dead. Leander had always wanted him dead. Nothing had changed there.

The crown prince wasn’t only armed with a belt knife this time. He had twin swords strapped across his back, curved and lethally sharp.

Behind him Finn heard the guards unsheathe their own weapons. Three against one then, all highly trained swordsmen. Leander would have picked only the best for this. He’d been waiting to find Finn alone, lured him here with a mention of the knights who were more like brothers to him than his own blood. He’d even sent Laurence – innocent, willing, Laurence – to deliver the summons.

‘And how will you explain this to Hestia and Gaius?’

Leander smirked. ‘You and your knights attacked us. It was terrible. Such underhanded treachery. But what else would one expect from Asteroth? They’ll understand. Well Gaius will. He’s pragmatic.’

Finn lifted his hands away from his weapons. ‘You don’t have to do this, Leander.’

But Leander advanced, his long legs carrying him close, his white-blond hair aglow in the morning’s light streaming through the stained glass and a look of murder on his face.

‘Oh, I really think I do. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. A shame we had to kill you all. But there it is. A tragedy.’

Anselm and Olivier were locked in the room! Were they already dead?

Finn snatched his weapons free and whirled around, plunging towards the door. He took the first guard out with a kick to the groin and a knife to the throat, but the second was waiting for him. The clash of weapons rang out and from behind the door he heard shouts. They were in there, still alive, still safe, but not for long. Leander wanted to finish Finn off first. They would be next.

Leander and the remaining guard only needed to get lucky once.

The door banged hard as someone shouldered it, trying to batter it down. Olivier, it had to be. He had the brute strength. Finn couldn’t help, couldn’t hesitate, or Leander would be on him. Always the better swordsman. No matter how hard Finn trained.