Page 86 of The Prince's Fealty

“Yes, of course,” Tor answered.

And it was true. If Tor couldn’t go rescue his brother himself, there was no one he trusted more. He hated the idea of being separated from Pel, but he acknowledged this really was the smartest idea if they were going to rescue everyone.

Pel held up his quiver of arrows. “Know something we could do together?”

Tor grinned at him and reached out and pushed magic into the arrows, one by one, mantling each of them.

“They’re stronger than the ones from the archery competition,” Tor told him.

Pel’s eyes were bright and fierce, and Tor couldn’t help but lean in and kiss him again. He refused to think of it as a “just in case” kiss, but he could taste the desperation.

No, absolutely not. This was a kiss for luck, and nothing more.

They separated, and Tor realized that the couples with them were doing the same thing, taking a moment to offer a fond farewell if they were separating.

“Whichever of us wins first will come find the other, right?” Tor said.

“Absolutely,” Pel agreed. His lip curled up. “Bet I can save someone faster than you can.”

Tor let out a crack of laughter that he hurriedly muffled with his hand. It was impossible to love this man more than he already did, and yet he found himself falling harder for him every day.

“We have to get up all those stairs first,” Tor pointed out.

Pel winked at him. “Then you’d better hurry.”

Tor grinned, heart weirdly light as well as heavy in his chest.

More seriously, he said, “Give us ten minutes to get into place.”

Pel nodded. If this all went wrong, they wanted both groups to have the element of surprise and no chance for anyone to escape and warn the other group.

Quietly and decisively now that the time had come, they split up. Pamuna and Terila were sneaking back to the secret entrance, ready to go for help if none of them returned. Pel, Rin, Nawila, and two of Stronex’s guards were going to the torture chamber where Varex was being kept, and the rest of them headed up to the family wing of the castle.

They still had the advantage of it being night, but as Beluna had pointed out, the regular schedule of the castle had been thrown off by what was happening. To makethemselves look a little less suspicious, they broke into groups of one or two, Tor and Beluna walking together, Cavun and one of Stronex’s guards, and finally Stronex bringing up the rear.

Tor strode along at Beluna’s side, glad that she knew where she was going and trusting that the others were following. He had the hood of his cloak up to reduce the chance of being recognized, which wasn’t exactly subtle, but this seemed to be a castle where people didn’t ask a lot of questions, and the late hour also helped.

After what felt like an eternity of being on tenterhooks lest someone denounce them as interlopers, Beluna slipped into a room on the right-hand side of the corridor, and they all followed her.

It proved to be a sitting room, decorated in a lovely style, and for a moment, the surreality hit Tor hard. They were about to burst into a family room and try to kill a king because he was trying to murder Tor’s family.

If they’d got this right, and Nostex was in there right now, was he attacking in the middle of the night to reduce the chances of people finding out what he was doing? Or was his assault on Var’s magic simply unrelenting, and he was attacking whenever or however he could?

Tor couldn’t quite believe these were questions he had to ask himself. Had Pel and the others already started fighting? Was anyone dead or injured? Were they victorious? It burned in the back of his mind, but he needed to concentrate on whattheyhad to do.

Pel was fierce and awesome and could take care of himself.

“Four guards at the entrance,” Beluna said. “We can—”

“I’ll take care of them,” Stronex said firmly. “It won’t be quiet, but I assume that we’re bursting into the room?”

Tor nodded. “We need to subdue them as quickly as possible. The biggest danger is what’s in that room. I’ll go first.”

“That’s a terrible plan,” Beluna objected immediately.

Tor shook his head. “No, listen. I’m going to draw his attention. Even if he sees you, he’ll be focused on me. It will be your job to neutralize anyone else in the room. Understood?”

Beluna didn’t look happy, but after a long moment, she nodded, as did the others.