Page 48 of Unseen Lord

Kayla touches the mirror. "Everyone, hold on." We do, and then we are pulled through the mirror and land in a dusty study surrounded by books.

"Welcome to High Castle," Kayla says, dusting her hands off on her pants.

"Let's see what's going on here," I say, opening the door in the study.

Two guards step forward, holding swords to my neck.

Okay then. Not the welcome I was hoping for, but here we are. "Who's control is the castle under?" I ask.

Elias is behind me about to go all killer vamp on their asses, but we need to make sure we aren't killing the good gals. (See what I did there?)

"Who's asking?" one of the guards asks.

"Wait? Is that… Iris the Watcher?" one asks.

"It is!" He peers behind me. "And Prince Elias. And Kayla Windhelm and Tavian Gray?"

They lower their swords and take off their helmets. "It's us. Roco and Marco!"

I grin. "Still guarding mirrors, I see."

"Oh no," Marco says. At least, I think he's Marco. "We were forgiven and now we're guiding the castle."

"The mirror in the castle," I point out.

They both frown.

"But yes, the castle. That's a big job. Well done!" I pat them each on the shoulder.

That cheers them up.

"Who's in charge here?" I ask, crossing my fingers and praying to all the gods it's not Aya.

"Well, Prince Asher gives the most orders, but Prince Zeb says he's no more in charge than any of them. Prince Ace doesn't say much, but did blow up a room, and Prince Dean has been locked in the library studying," Roco says.

"This is excellent news," Elias says. "Take us to my uncle."

They look at each other. "Which one?"

"Asher," he says.

They look a little worried, but they do as ordered.

We meander through corridors and halls that all kinda look the same if I'm being totally honest. Until we finally reach the throne room. Asher is sitting on the throne arguing with Zeb, who's kind of perched on the throne next to him but not really? Like he wants to sit down, but isn't quite sure?

The guards surrounding them come to attention when they see us, but Asher rises, waving them away. "It's good to see you all. Now can someone tell me what the bloody hell you did to our queen?."

"That's a bit of a story," I say. "How about some dry clothes, food, wine and a fire and we'll tell you all about it?"

He looks at the sagging mess we are and nods, calling for a servant. "Prepare quarters for all of them, baths, meals, clothes and then find all the princes and tell them to meet in the war room."

The servant nods and gestures for us to follow her.

I won't bore you with all these details. It's pretty basic. Elias and I get a room together, that's the most exciting part. And I'm pretty stoked at the idea of sleeping with him tonight, if I'm being totally honest, and not just because I'm utterly exhausted.

We bathe, change, eat, all the things, and once we are feeling mostly ourselves, we join the princes and tell the whole story again of what happened and all about the secret Storm Spirit—as an aside, boy was Asher super not happy to find out secrets were kept that he wasn't in on.

When we were done, they all looked thoughtful. "So you can repair the sword?" Asher asks.