by Kelly Hunter
Sera opened her eyes and searched the other woman’s face for some sign that she knew.
And found nothing.
‘Close your eyes.’ Claudia moved her thumbs in soothing circles over Sera’s skin. ‘Someone stands beside you at that crossroads. Someone you’ll never leave behind because you carry them in your heart like a talisman. Someone whose path was chosen for them the minute they were born. They couldn’t follow you even if they wanted to. All they can do is be there at the crossroads where your lives intersect and watch you make your choice and let you go. They’ll fight for your right to do that, you see. Of all the gifts they can give you, it’s the most expensive.’
Sera trembled. ‘I know who you’re talking about.’
‘Do you? Because it could be anyone. It could be me.’
Sera snapped her eyes open and saw nothing but love and gentle understanding.
‘It could be me saying I’m right here and ready to be whatever you need me to be,’ Claudia repeated quietly. ‘Close your eyes and breathe.’
Sera closed her eyes and breathed.
‘Whenever I do this exercise I see Tomas beside me. Whoever heard of a princess and a falconer? He won’t even lay a hand on me, can hardly bear to look at me, but I swear to you I’m laying down a new path for us, brick by brick, just in case he ever wants to walk my way. It’s not so easy to live a royal life, you see, and those already there will never force the issue. You don’t need to mention my regard for Tomas to him, by the way, unless it comes up in conversation. At which point, go for it and use embellishments.’
Sera opened one eye and arched her brow.
‘Shut it. No winking,’ her sister of the heart replied with a tiny grin. ‘I’m trying so hard not to make this about me. Close your eyes and open your heart.’
Sera obeyed.
‘I know there’s someone there beside you at your crossroads. I know you can’t move forward without resolving your feelings for them. Doing that is your next step and it might be the most important step you ever take.’ Claudia moved forward; Sera could feel it even if she couldn’t see it. The other woman’s cheek brushed hers, comfort, solidarity and warmth, as she whispered, ‘You know who you see.’
* * *
They walked back down the mountain in the crisp morning air, Claudia looking skyward more than once and smiling softly when a falcon appeared and circled above. ‘They questioned Tomas for days after I disappeared,’ Claudia told Sera. ‘He was eight years old and the last person to see me and they grilled him over and over again, with no mercy given for the fact that he too was a child.’
‘And now he uses falcons to track your every movement?’
‘Not my every movement.’ Claudia sprang from one step to the next, her feet sure as they made their way down the rocky path. ‘He’s been training himself to wait longer and longer each time I come up here before flying one of his hunting hawks to find out where I am. We’re up to almost an hour.’
‘And do you help him with the birds?’
‘You know I do.’ Claudia had skills of her own in that area. ‘Watching that man work is a pleasure I have no words for.’
‘And how will you manage to steer him towards romance if you’re the Princess in the castle and he’s but a mere falconer?’
‘By putting my own spin on this Princess gig and getting out of the castle a lot,’ Claudia offered drily. ‘It helps that Cas is so utterly overcome by my return that he lets me do whatever I want.’
‘He didn’t reprimand you for staying away?’
Claudia might have been kidnapped as a child—for her own good, as it turned out—but she’d had chances to return over the years and had never done so. Not until her father had died and her brother had taken the throne.
‘It wasn’t safe for me here. You know that.’
‘But it is now.’
Claudia nodded and looked to the sky and let the early morning light caress her face. ‘It is now.’
* * *
Coffee was served on their return, set up on a little table on a balcony overlooking a walled garden. There was also fresh fruit and bread, and an array of northern delicacies to tempt them.
‘Is this all for us?’ asked Sera because, frankly, half a dozen more people could have joined them and it still would have been too much food for one sitting.
‘They’re making up for all the years I was gone. It’s what people do around here.’
‘Every day?’
‘Every damn day.’ Claudia reached for a royal blue folder sitting on the table. ‘Mind if I look through my morning mail? The palace keeps me informed as to the news of the day.’
‘And you trust this information?’
Claudia laughed. ‘Oh, Sera. The look on your face. If something of interest comes up I look into it. Did you not rely on the Arunian palace for information?’
‘Not really. I have my own sources.’
‘I find these ones useful and I don’t have to go looking for them. They even present them in order of palace importance. Very informative in itself, would you not say? Take this one, for example: it’s item one and it’s a note from the desk of Moriana of Liesendaach, formerly of Arun, telling Cas that there’s been an assassination attempt on her brother but rumour of his death is a gross exaggeration. Is that not good to know?’
‘What?’
Claudia passed the sheet of paper over without further comment, and picked up the next item. ‘And here’s what the tabloids have to say. Hmm. Your good King was in a bad part of the city last night. Two people in custody, Augustus and a minor in intensive care.’
‘A minor?’ Sera wasn’t tracking too well any more. Hadn’t been since the words Augustus and death had been mentioned in the same breath.
‘Here.’ Claudia passed that one to Sera too before picking up her coffee in one hand and sifting quickly through the others. ‘That’s all the information I have. Do you have anyone you can get more information from?’
‘Not at this hour.’ It was still too early for regular workday hours, and for all that Augustus’s executive secretary often stayed late, he rarely began his day before nine. ‘Unless the entire communications team has been called in to deal with this. Then there might be someone there willing to give me more information.’
‘Would you like to use one of our phones?’ Sera asked.
‘They’ll think the call is coming from the Byzenmaach King.’
Claudia raised a dark brow. ‘And? Not as if there aren’t advantages to that approach.’
The woman had a point.
She found a phone and made the call to Augustus’s office number and waited impatiently for someone to pick up.
The call appeared to get diverted and Augustus’s secretary answered on the sixth ring, his voice curtly polite and the strain in it evident.
‘It’s Sera,’ she said.
Silence.
‘I’m staying at the Winter fortress in Byzenmaach and heard the news this morning.’
More silence.
Don’t hang up... ‘How is he?’ She cleared her throat. ‘Please.’
Claudia was watching her from the doorway. Ari stood sentry on the other side of the room, silently watching them both.
‘He’s in intensive care,’ the older man said finally and Sera let her head droop so her hair curtained her face.
‘And his condition?’
‘He needs someone to fight for him.’
‘I can fight,’ she said, blinking back tears. ‘I know how to fight.’
‘Yes, I know. We all know that. But, if I may be so bold, don’t come back if you’re not planning to stay. He let you go once because that’s what you said you wanted and it nearly destroyed him. Don’t make him go through that again.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Would you like to put that in wri
ting?’
‘If you tell me where he is, I’ll put it on a billboard.’
‘He’s at the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in the capital. They have a helipad, and I assume you have access to a helicopter and a pilot. Tell them to go through me and I’ll clear your way for landing.’
It was more welcome than she’d ever hoped for. ‘You’re probably going to get into trouble for this.’
‘I probably am,’ he countered drily.
‘That’s a debt you’ll be able to collect on, should you ever need something from me in the future.’
‘Do you still have your guards with you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I’m calling that debt in right now. Bring them. The King’s head of security quit this morning in a fit of temper. There’s an opening.’
‘I’ll bring them.’ She couldn’t resist the next question. ‘What happened?’
‘Which version would you like, milady?’
‘Your version.’ She trusted the older man’s take on palace events.
‘In that case, the answer’s very simple. Most people have a healthy sense of self-preservation. My King has lost his.’
It took three tries to put the phone back in its cradle and the third time Claudia’s hand was guiding her. ‘I need a helicopter,’ she said.
‘Then you shall have one.’
‘And a pilot.’
‘I shall fly you myself.’
Which was how Sera managed to get from Byzenmaach’s Winter fortress to the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in just over an hour, her guards flanking her as she strode from the helipad towards the building. She had her travelling cloak on but didn’t bother with the hood. Memorable entries were her speciality, and she had every intention of brazening this one out.
Augustus’s secretary stood waiting for her and opened the door as she approached.
‘How is he?’ A question that carried with it everything her world had narrowed down to. Because there was only one person she wanted to walk beside in this world and if he wasn’t alive...
If she never got that chance...
All the colours of the world would be gone.
‘Please. How is he?’
‘Follow me,’ he said. He avoided her gaze and supplied no other answer. Maybe he had no answer for her. ‘Is his sister here? His father?’ Had Augustus’s next of kin been gathered?
‘They’re about.’ The older man swept them through a long hallway with security guards at either end. Guards who nodded and straightened to attention as they passed by. She thought Ari’s barely leashed displeasure at their carelessness in letting an assassin get close enough to their King to do damage might have something to do with it. That or her own scathing, stormy gaze.
‘Ari and Tun will relieve the guard detail on the door to the critical care unit,’ she said, and smiled tightly when the old courtier blinked at her sheer hide. ‘You were the one who wanted them here. No one said anything about you commanding them.’
‘Perhaps you will allow His Majesty’s guards to brief your men on what actually happened last night before you sweep them aside,’ the older man advised. ‘The King occasionally goes into the city by himself and in disguise. He did this last night.’
‘And you let him?’
‘Freedom’s irresistible to those who’ve never had it.’ They’d reached the end of yet another long corridor with guards stationed at either end. ‘You can go in.’
‘Is anyone in there with him?’ It wasn’t that she was putting off walking through those doors. She simply wanted to be prepared for whoever she might find.
‘His sister’s just stepped out.’
There was never going to be a better time.
There was one bed in the room she entered and it was empty, machines switched off and the bottom sheet rumpled, the top sheet pushed aside. Augustus stood to one side of the window on the opposite side of the room, his face pale and wan, his chest bare, his shoulder bandaged and his left arm strapped tightly to his chest.
His eyes widened at the sight of her.
‘Hello,’ she said awkwardly, caught completely off guard. Not that the sight of him standing there didn’t fill her heart to overflowing, but this really wasn’t the kind of intensive care she’d imagined. ‘I... Ah, you can stand.’
He raised a quizzical eyebrow.
‘And...uh...walk. That’s good. Brilliant recovery.’ She’d been had, but right now she didn’t give a damn. ‘So good.’
‘What are you doing here?’ If she was drinking him in with her eyes, he was doing much the same to her.
‘I was—’
In the area and just thought she’d drop by? Hardly.
‘That is to say—’
He was waiting for her to say.
‘I was visiting Claudia, my friend who is not my sister, and she has this mountain...’
He looked sceptical. ‘Of course it’s not her mountain, but it’s a mountain nonetheless, and I was up there thinking about you, and me, and whether there could ever be a “you and me” that wasn’t all about honour and duty and sacrifice. A you and me that does involve those things, sure,’ she said, and contradicted herself completely and stumbled on regardless. ‘Because you’re you and there’s no getting away from your duty as King, but above all that, or maybe underneath it, I was wondering if there might be a “you and me” who could be together and we could make a point of building some freedom into our lives, keeping the courtesan’s quarters open as a place where you can be you and I can be me, and there could be holidays in the mountains and I could show you things you’ve never seen. And maybe at some point, if you haven’t already proposed to Katerina DeLitt, that is, we could talk about you marrying me.’ She tailed off, wishing he’d say something. ‘Because of love.’
‘Was that supposed to make sense?’
Yes, yes, it was, and if it hadn’t she’d try again. ‘I’m in love with you.’
‘Why?’ The tiniest tilt of his lips gave her the courage she needed to keep going.
‘Because you let me in, even though you knew this was going to get messy. Because you let me try and be all those dozen different things I was taught to be, no matter the cost to yourself. Because you put my needs before yours and fought for my right to be free in a way you can never be. And I am free now and I’m still being selfish, because when I heard you’d been hurt there was only one place I wanted to be. So here I am.’
And there he stood.
‘Of course, you might not have much use any more for the love of a former courtesan and that’s okay too.’
‘No reciprocation required?’ he asked softly.
‘No. That’s not love. Love is standing here and feeling so much relief and joy that you are okay. And then turning around and walking out that door if you ask me to.’
She wanted to stay. She so badly wanted to touch him. But she didn’t have the right to.
‘Come here,’ he said and she walked closer and fought every twitchy bit of muscle memory not to sink to the floor at his feet. He’d never wanted that from her.
‘If there’s such a thing as love at first sight, I felt it the first time I ever saw you.’ He touched his fingers to the tie at her neck and tugged it loose and then used both hands to push her travelling cloak from her shoulders until it pooled in a puddle at her feet. ‘First time you ever curtseyed for me, I was torn between wanting to keep you there for ever and never wanting you to lower yourself in front of me again because I wanted an equal. I needed an equal. And you stayed and triumphed, no matter what I threw at you, and I realised I’d finally found one.’ He traced the line of her cheek with the backs of his fingers. ‘Always knew I’d have to let you go.’
‘You did.’
‘And yet here you are.’ He threaded his fingers through her hair. ‘And I think you should know that I have no in
tention of ever letting you go again.’ He kissed her gently at first and then somehow it became all-consuming.
They were both breathing raggedly when finally he broke the kiss. He rested his forehead against hers and huffed a laugh before taking a determined step back. ‘I had a plan for if you ever came back. It involved rather more clothes and no bullet wounds on my part, and there was possibly a fantasy moment of you wearing ancient slave jewellery mixed up in there somehow, but I did have a plan and it went something like this. I love you. I want you by my side from this day forward and not as my courtesan or employee.’
He got down on bended knee and tugged his ring from his finger and held it out to her. It was a dark blue cabochon sapphire with the royal insignia of Arun overlaid in diamonds. ‘This one’s heavy, I know, but it’s yours if you’ll take it. There’ll be other rings, I promise. Sera, will you marry me?’
‘Yes.’ A lifetime of royal duty in exchange for the opportunity to walk beside the man she loved and who loved her in return. ‘Yes, I will.’
He put the ring on her finger and she looked at it and then at him. ‘I know what you mean now about having someone kneel at your feet. It’s very disconcerting having all sorts of thoughts running through your mind about what they might do while they’re there.’
‘Tell me about it,’ he said with a glint in his eye that promised exploration. ‘And don’t spare the details.’
‘Another time, perhaps. Once you’ve fully recovered from your...did you say bullet wounds?’
‘I may have been an idiot in your absence. You’re likely to hear about it at some point. I believe there’s a Bring Sera Back petition circulating through the palace as we speak. Or perhaps everybody’s signed it by now. There was a jar circulating too. People were putting gold jewellery into it, trying to raise your bodyweight in gold as an incentive to woo you back.’
Sera blinked. ‘They what?’
‘Good thing there’s not much of you.’