The Fate of Crowns: The Complete Trilogy: A YA Epic Fantasy Boxset

by Rebecca L. Garcia

  My smile faltered. “You’re right. Rumors may be mere rumors when it comes to relations, but rumors of treason, now that’s something a little more dangerous. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  A lump moved in his throat as he sat back. He cleared his throat and averted his gaze to the bookshelf behind me. “If those rumors did exist, they would be unfounded.”

  “Yet there still could be a trial, especially if witnesses willing to testify.” I gripped my desk and leaned forward. “Let’s speak clearly. You have no interest in paying the soldiers, which we both know you’ve all held back on, and you hoped the people would revolt against your anointed monarch and remove me from the throne.” Rage forced adrenaline through my veins. “If that’s not treason, I don’t know what is. I’ve heard the punishment is to be drawn and quartered. What a terrible way to die. Adius told me when he oversees the executions, many men vomit at the sight. It’s enough to turn anyone’s stomach.”

  He paled. “I’ve seen enough to know.”

  “Then I imagine you’ll be open to what I have to say.”

  He didn’t respond, so I continued.

  “I’m glad to see I finally have your attention. Now, I could go ahead and go to the court with this information. We have evidence too,” I lied. “Everyone leaves traces behind of their misgivings.” I paused for effect. “Luckily for you, I’m more merciful than my father.”

  He sneered. “I’d say you are exactly like him.”

  “Considering you held him in such high esteem, I’ll take it as a compliment.” I stood, screeching my chair back. My stare latched onto his, anger spilling into my gaze. “Change the vote to send forces to Berovia. I don’t care what he has against you. More men will not be going to attack Kiros. He’s been preparing the small army to leave in one week. There’s still time to end this.” I spoke through clenched teeth. “You will also pay the soldiers and persuade the other lords to do the same. If you don’t, then I will ensure you don’t live to see the end of this week.”

  He shook his head and stood. “I’ll change my vote, but you should know this.” He dug his nails into the polished wood. “While you may believe yourself merciful, Vahaga is not. He is suspicious of you, and if he is right, and you hold the secrets he suspects, then know I will delight in watching them destroy you.”

  “I could have you arrested.” I shook my head.

  “Then who will continue to supply your grain. Your cattle?”

  “Change the vote.” I stared him down. I was done. I had yet another man to deal with before the end of the day. “And get out.” I pointed at the door and sat back in my chair.

  ***

  I let ink drops fall on the parchment. I had to reach out to Cedric, to make things right. Blaise strutted into my office. His bloodshot eyes found mine. The reminder of his pain almost stopped me from doing what I was about to say. Almost.

  Blaise walked behind me, and his arms hugged around my waist. His whisper tingled in my ear. “Ah, Cedric.” His gaze trickled over my writing. “You don’t need to apologize on my behalf. I’m not sorry.”

  I scowled. “I’m not going to abandon him, and he deserves an apology.” I pushed Blaise away. “Besides, I’m very, very upset with you.”

  He whistled out a breath. “I’ll be by the fire.” He diverted from the desk I sat behind and ambled to the fireplace to stop at the drinks globe. He poured himself a scotch, then drank it neat before turning toward me. “Always so angry.” He sat, kicking his legs up onto the table, and pressed his head back. “I thought you’d be happy. I’m saving the reputation you’ve been so afraid of besmirching.”

  Oh, lord. I shook my head, focusing back on the words in front of me. I finished the letter, signed it, and sealed it with the royal crest in red wax.

  “I’m not happy.” I gritted my teeth when I finished and stood. My chair scraped back. I marched to where he sat and pushed his legs off the table. “I’m not happy at all! You proposed to me in a council meeting!” Fury guided my tone. “Is that all I am to you? A game piece to get Magaelor?” A truth swelled in my chest. “Is that why you said you loved me?” My breaths quickened.

  He sat forward, grabbing my hands in his. His tortured gaze found mine. An emotion I wasn’t used to seeing shrouded his expression, fear. “I can’t lie,” he said. “I do love you. It’s killing me to say it.” He laughed. “I’m in pain all the time because the more I fall for you, the worse it hurts. The curse doesn’t want me to, but it turns out I have a strong will when it comes to you.”

  “I’ve already had two weddings,” I joked. “I only half attended one.”

  “This time it will be real. You and me. I’ve tried to pretend I didn’t care. I pushed away the love. I believed I could force myself to not feel what I was feeling,” he said. “It was gradual, but then, when I fell, it happened all at once and it ruined me. I couldn’t think straight, and physically, my heart hurt. It angered me for a long time, and when I saw you with Cedric, it felt like I’d been hit with an arrow in the back. When you died, it hurt like a dagger through the heart.

  “I want to rule by your side for the rest of your mortal life, until immortality becomes something I no longer desire.”

  A lump formed in my throat. I let out a shaky exhale, before sitting myself back down. The fire crackled and hissed between charred logs. The sound did little to relax me. “I can’t marry you.”

  His expression crumpled. I wanted to reach out and hold him, to take away his pain, but he nodded slowly. Understanding filling his gaze. “You’re afraid to let me in.”

  “I need to earn my people’s respect and fix what’s broken first.”

  He brushed his thumb along my cheek, then down along my lips. “Wife or not, I’m not going anywhere.”

  A smile tugged at my lips. “I hoped you’d say that.”

  He placed his hand over his heart. “It still hurts,” he teased, then his expression turned serious. “I hope in time, when we’ve both reached where we want to be, you’ll reconsider.”

  “Blaise.” I inhaled deeply, my eyes glistening when I looked at him. “If I’m going to marry anyone, it’s going to be you.”

  “It’s close enough to ‘I love you too,’ I guess.” He half smiled and stood, glass in hand, and walked behind me. He leaned down, tickling my neck with each breath. Running his fingers down my chest, he smirked against my neck. “We have a little bit of time before we need to go down to the library.”

  A knock sounded at the door, jolting me to my feet. Blaise almost dropped his glass.

  “Hello!” I called, my voice sounding unlike my own.

  Adius walked inside. His fear-filled eyes met mine. “Your Majesty, excuse the interruption, but it’s Morgana.”

  ***

  Decrepit skin and sullen eyes morphed my friend, my mentor, into a thing I didn’t recognize. I wouldn’t have known it was her at all if it wasn’t for her long brown waves, and fingers covered in silver rings.

  “Morgana,” I whispered. My fingers gripped the stony ledge next to me. I steadied myself, and my gaze flicked to her staff, which remained perched against the wall.

  Blaise stood in the doorway, scratching the back of his head, and Adius stood a little in front of me. Two other guards stood outside, keeping watch.

  “Are you still in there?” I asked when she didn’t answer.

  She whipped her head around, and I stumbled back. Catching myself before I fell, I couldn’t hide the gasp that left my lips.

  She spoke, her voice drying at the ends. “He will come.” Ancient runes lay in her wrinkled palms. Her face was still scarred from the torture inflicted upon her after I’d fled. I could see them under the decay the necromancer had brought upon her.

  “Morgana,” I said tentatively, reaching my fingers into the air between us.

  “Don’t.” Her orb-like eyes flashed with warning. She walked to her altar. I wondered how she still managed to move. She appeared as if she’d crumble into a pile of dust and bones at a mom
ent’s notice. I craned my neck to look at what she was doing, as did Adius.

  She chose her cards, holding them with the glinting silver on the back. Four cards: a love gained, another lost, death, and one traitor.

  “Are they for me?”

  She didn’t look at me. “You need to leave. It’s no longer safe for you here. I’ve kept him away for as long as I could, Winter, but he’s not far under the surface. He’s turning me inside out, until I submit to do his bidding.”

  Bile bit my throat. “No.”

  She dropped her cards and balled her fist. She quickly released it, but I noticed the gesture, as did Blaise, who was eyeing me.

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked her, hoping my wise friend was still with us.

  “Take my staff.”

  Adius looked to me, and I nodded. “Keep her in this tower room. Have a guard watch her.” Tears trickled down my cheeks as we walked away from her.

  “It’s for the best,” Blaise whispered as I reached the door. I pushed past him.

  Anger shocked me into action, forcing every nerve on fire as I hurried down the spiral staircase and into the winding hallway. I could hear the others calling after me, but I was far too furious to talk to them.

  “You.” I growled at myself and flexed my fingers. I could feel him moving inside me, like a spirit bottled, rattling to get out. You may have brought her to the edge, but I will kill you. I didn’t need to say the words out loud. He knew how I felt and what I thought, but the adrenaline needed to be spent. I will ruin you.

  Cold pricked my fingers, then my toes. What began as a gnawing pain in the pit of my stomach grew until I was retching and shaking all at once. I felt hands on my arms and my back. He was pushing to get out, harder than ever before, but I wasn’t going to let him.

  My skin hissed as old wounds reappeared. Stars filled my visions. I couldn’t catch my breath when more wounds appeared, from my time trapped in the cage in Berovia. The sun-blistering bars had caught my skin several times a day until I was numb to the pain. My mouth dried, and the necromancer accessed another memory, another way to torture me.

  I tried to suck in a breath, but my chest tightened as I did, not allowing air to pass. Panicked, I grappled my fingers into the skin of those who tried to keep me down. I felt as if I were drowning, falling through layers of ocean until I couldn’t see light anymore.

  I was going to die. I was sure of it. He brought me to the edge of torture and kept me dangling until I couldn’t breathe, scream, or cry anymore. I crumpled to the ground, and he relented. A cool breeze danced over my bare arms and neck. Sweat beaded my forehead, and my eyes burned.

  Blaise’s face came into my blurred vision. “Love.” Worry aged his youthful face. His lips were set into a hard line as he tried to get me to speak. “I said get me the fucking physician.”

  I didn’t know who he was shouting at, but I didn’t care. His fingers found mine, and I winced when he touched them. The wounds, they were real.

  NINETEEN

  His eyes were the first to meet mine when I woke sometime under the cover of night. An oil lamp flickered, sliding shadows onto his features. I noticed he was holding his breath. Looking around, I saw we were alone. “How long have I been out?”

  He sighed relief. “You’re still you.”

  I furrowed my brows. “Of course I’m still me. Who else would I be?” Everything that had happened flooded back. “The necromancer.”

  “Morgana is holding up, barely.”

  “We need to get her some of the potion.”

  “She was never taking it, love.” His gaze flitted around my wounds, fury lacing his expression. “We’re going to find a way to kill that thing.”

  I closed my eyes. My head throbbed, but the pain was nothing compared to earlier. “We need to go and check through those books. I’m sure there will be something written about him there. Some of those books are centuries old.”

  He nodded. “We will, once you’re feeling better.”

  A lump formed in my throat. “I was supposed to meet my mother this evening.”

  He tapped his fingers against his leg. “That would explain why one of my spies saw her. She’d gone into the forest an hour ago, after waiting by the gates for some time.”

  “She’ll be executed if she’s found in there. She’s going to the sacred part, the area that is off limits.”

  Curiosity guided his tone. “Why would you care?”

  “I don’t want her dead. I just want her… away from me.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’ll have my men get her out.”

  “If she left an hour ago, then she would already have reached it.” I thought about the babbling river, the place between the realms of the living and dead. I wondered if she could even reach André. Surely he couldn’t be her guide too. “It’s too late. I just hope she isn’t caught.”

  “She used a cloaking spell,” he said. “She disappeared once she’d gone under the cover of the trees.”

  “The magic barrier surrounding the area will de-veil that spell, but at least it will have hidden her most of the way. Vahaga is out in the woods east of there with the others, so there’s less chance of her being caught, but there’s always someone patrolling that part of the forest.”

  “They’re doing rituals on your crown and such, correct?”

  “Yes.” I clutched the covers to my chest and winced when the fabric touched my skin. “How can I go to my coronation covered in these?” I stared at my wounds, willing the bile away as it bit at my throat. I needed to be healed as quickly as possible.

  “The Ruby Circle has been postponed. I took it upon myself to tell your guards. As is your coronation, so you need not worry.”

  “This can’t be happening.” I buried my head in my hands.

  “You cannot go like this.”

  “Bring me a pixie. Several. They will heal me.”

  “The physician is already preparing.”

  “Thank goodness. You can tell the guards I will still be going. Once the physician comes with the pixies, I’ll just need rest.”

  “But I meant mentally, love. Your mind is not so easily cured of the pain.” He brushed his thumb along my temple, the gesture slight but tender.

  “I’ll be okay. I promise. My coronation can’t be canceled.” My eyes lowered to his hands. They were trembling. “Why are you shaking?”

  “It’s the…” He didn’t finish his sentence. “Winter, a lot has happened since you’ve been unconscious.”

  I sighed wearily. “Since when doesn’t it?”

  “The important thing is you rest.”

  I sighed. “No, go on. Tell me what’s happened.”

  “We are handling it.”

  “Blaise,” I said in warning. “Tell me.”

  “With your coronation postponed−”

  I clenched my jaw. “Blaise! If you don’t explain, I will go and find someone who will.”

  He paused for a moment with conflict in his eyes but relented. “There’s been news from the docks.”

  My heart skipped a beat.

  He shook his head. “One of your ships was sunk.”

  Pricks of shock ran through my body, standing every hair erect. “What ship?”

  “The Marina.”

  My eyes clamped shut. She was our biggest vessel. There must have been at least eighty men aboard. She was used to sail to Inferis and the other smaller islands surrounding Magaelor to bring goods back and forth. I didn’t need to ask any further questions. I already knew. He said the ship was sunk, not had sunk, meaning someone had brought it down, and only one person was capable of it: a mer. “Aqugar.”

  “He got impatient.”

  “I had a year.” A howl climbed up my throat, threatening to erupt from my mouth. I flexed my fingers, pushing myself back against the pillow.

  He hesitated. A flicker crossed his stare, and a pang in my chest followed. “What is it, Blaise?”

  “You focus on healing. I will manage ever
ything-”

  “You are not king of Magaelor!”

  “I am well aware.”

  “Queens don’t have time to heal.” I felt as if I were on fire. “I have to talk to him.”

  “I can reach him on your behalf.”

  I pulled the skin downward under my eyes, raking my fingers down my face. This was all such a mess. “Why did you hesitate? Tell me now because there’s no better time. I’d rather get all the bad stuff at once than spaced out.”

  He sighed and cast his eyes downward. “I don’t want you to worry.”

  “Have you not met me?”

  I saw a hint of a smile, but it disappeared quickly. “The curse is getting stronger. I feel it in my bones. If I can feel it, then so can Aqugar. Loving you doesn’t help it. I’m going against the nature of it, and it’s torturing me. Somehow, it’s affected the curse itself which, inadvertently…” He looked at me. “Is making it worse for him too. For anyone whose been cursed by the Crown of Discieti.”

  My eyes widened. I felt the blood drain from my face. “Well…” I spluttered, despising the thought of him being tortured and Aqugar bringing down more ships. “Stop loving me.”

  He chuckled lightly, briefly touching my hand. “I don’t think I can just stop.”

  “You have to try.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “You must.”

  “I can’t.” He looked worse with each passing moment.

  “You were better back in Niferum,” I cried.

  “I hid my feelings. It didn’t go away altogether.”

  “No.” I groaned. “You were better. Being around me makes it worse.”

  He shook his head. “I know what you’re thinking, and I will not be going back to Niferum, especially not with all you have going on. It’s not going to make it any easier, love. I’m going to stay and help you.”

  I bit down on my bottom lip. “If you insist on staying, then you will need to keep away from me. I cannot have you feeling as if you’re being tortured or making this curse worse for the mer king, not until we have reunited the Objects of Kai.”