Free The Wrong Prince by C. K. Brooke Page A

moved across her narrow face, shining against her brown bobbed hair as her eyebrows slowly joined together. “This…this is quite good, Mit.” Surprised, she looked up at him. “Where did you learn to write like this? Are you using some sort of formula, or…?”
    He shook his head. “Nay,” he whispered, grinning. “‘Tis from the heart.”
    She resumed, turning the pages one by one, until after a time, she reached the very last. With haste, she flipped it over, only to find it empty. “There’s no more,” she complained. “What happens next?”
    Dmitri laughed as he took the papers back.
    “I’m serious,” she besought him, peering at him through the bars. “Tell me how it ends.”
    “ Tsk, tsk, Pavola. A writer never tells his ending. You’ll have to read it for yourself.”
    “But none is written yet,” she argued.
    He beamed. “Well then, I’ll keep writing. So long as you,” he winked, “keep coming back to read it.”

HER KNEES WERE BADLY SKINNED. Lucie felt suddenly sober as cool, putrid water soaked her slippers and the hem of her gown. In the moonlight trickling down from the manhole overhead, she could make out blood stains on her hands and dress.
    Geo reached for her. “Are you all right?”
    She coughed. It smelled down there, the air stale and fetid. She barely had time to reply when a barrage of shadows converged around them. She opened her mouth to scream, but a large hand closed over it.
    “Release her,” Geo snarled, and Lucie heard the ring of his sword as he withdrew it from the sheath. Even in the darkness, he wasn’t afraid to use it. His swing was met with a second clang of metal. Lucie’s eyes widened as her captor tightened his grip. What were men doing under the streets with swords?
    “Your Highness,” someone whispered.
    Geo’s shadow startled. “What the—?”
    “Please, you need to keep your voice down, sir. Come. I promise you can trust us.”
    The man restraining Lucie spoke in her ear. “If I remove my hand, Miss, do you swear not to scream?”
    She nodded, and his hand fell away. She turned to give him a withering look, but was horrified to discover his face covered in tattoos. She clung to Geo’s side, the pair having no choice but to follow the throng of sewer men through a series of underground passages. More shadowy figures joined them with torches, illuminating the grimy walls and murky water they treaded.
    “Kieran?” Geo gaped as if he saw a ghost, identifying the man in the lead.
    The man merely held his index finger to his lips. Lucie tugged on the prince’s sleeve with an inquiring look, but Geo didn’t explain.
    Through tunnel after dank tunnel they wove. It felt like they’d been wading in sewage all night when they finally passed beneath a strange opening. Though still underground, the ceilings were much taller. She gawked up at the stalactites dripping overhead. Caverns, Lucie realized, as the escort marched them into what appeared to be a community of interlinked caves.
    “We can talk now,” said the man in front, dissipating the tension. “Sorry.” He smiled. “Just couldn’t risk being overheard through the gutters in the streets above. But now that we’ve reached the mountains….”
    “We’re under the mountains?” asked Lucie, and he nodded.
    “Kieran.” Geo’s eyes were fastened upon him in disbelief. “Is it really you?”
    “At your service, Your Highness.” He bowed.
    “But how—?”
    “Your Highness,” sang another voice from an alcove to their right. A good-looking man with curly black hair revealed himself in the firelight. They followed him into a room lit with additional mounted torches, and discovered yet more men seated on crude furnishings. It was the strangest habitat Lucie had ever seen.
    “Will?” Geo practically leapt at the newcomer as they embraced. “What the devil is going on?” he demanded, although he sounded overjoyed. “I thought you were dead! You fell in battle, I saw it!”
    “The