Two Worlds of Dominion
Angelina J. Steffort
MK
Two Worlds
of Dominion
Two Worlds Book 4
First published 2020
Copyright © by Angelina J. Steffort 2019
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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Print: ISBN —
MK
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Acknowledgments
First of all to my wonderful readers, who keep asking for more, whose enthusiasm for my writing is the fuel when I am struggling to keep my eyes open late at night. Thank you for all your loving support. You are the best!
To the girl with the wonderful name.
To Dawn and Carolyn for patiently cleaning up my written mess.
To Steffi and Norma-Jean for real-time-reading my words. You are a tireless source of incredible feedback, and I can’t say enough how much I value your words and opinions.
To the beautiful city of Vienna for being an oasis in my life.
To the wonderful staff at the coffee shop where I completed most of this manuscript. Thank you for caffeine, smiles, and not kicking me out when I sit and stare at the ceiling for hours.
To the talented and hard working people of Vienna Singverein, and their musical director Johannes Prinz, for being a living and breathing example of how the iron will to make something a unique experience for others and oneself positively impacts skill, ability, motivation, and eventually the entire mindset and work ethic. I hope to be allowed to participate in many more projects with all of you until the day my vocal cords fail me.
To Joanna for being a wonderful critique partner. Thank you for your trust and support!
To Barbara, who has walked the path before me and keeps lending a hand so I won't fall over the same obstacles as she did, who has become a true friend and an inspiration. You rock! To many more Jours Fixe to follow! There is always a cup of coffee waiting for you!
To my family. Thank you for putting up with me when I go through my creative tantrums. I couldn’t have done it without you! I love you!
Contents
Quote
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Corey
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Corey
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Corey
Maray
Heck
Maray
About the Author
Also by Angelina J. Steffort
“It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.”
Arthur Schoppenhauer
Maray
“Over my dead body.” Maray exhaled then repeated, “My mother and grandmother have been in their graves for less than a month, and you already want to crown a new queen? Have you no shame?”
Maray couldn’t believe it. She had barely had a moment to grieve, let alone to sort out her own feelings about how to deal with the whole pending engagement to Heck… and Jemin, who had basically disappeared into the woods with Seri to give extra protection to the borders around the palace. Maray didn’t know if she was more anxious about what might happen to them out there than about what could happen if he was out there alone with Seri for too long.
The circle of nobles stared back at her, council members and others, all of them equally concerned about what was happening to the throne of Allinan—some of them even seemed ready to step up and fill it themselves if she didn’t.
“It is only to secure your reign, Your Royal Highness,” Neelis pointed out. “If we wait too long—especially with the wedding—” his eyes wandered sideways almost unnoticeably, bringing Maray’s attention to Oliver Gerenhoff’s handsome face—and his sly smile, “—others may seize the opportunity.”
“No one will dare,” Maray hissed into the room. “No one with even a shred of honor.” While she was still working on her diplomatic capabilities, the real diplomat in the family, Maray’s father, Gerwin, had left for the other world shortly after Laura’s and Rhia’s funeral. And Maray knew that it was an important mission, probably his most important mission ever. But it left Maray short of the only parent and guidance she had.
Oliver met her eyes, no less obnoxious than he had been the day of the ball for the suitors. The only difference between then and now was that then, Maray had had a mother to step in. Now, she needed to deal with him all by herself. Neelis and Scott, however helpful they were when it came to strategies and the defense of Allinan, were no match for Oliver Gerenhoff’s secret stares and his attempts to rally the nobles against her.
“A mourning period of a few weeks should be sufficient,” he said in an annoyingly polite tone, the type of polite that made you gag.
Maray could still hear the music from the funeral and see the flowers in her mind while Oliver was all ready to launch himself into her throne.
Sara Brendal stepped forward, shooting Oliver a dark look. “There is no reason to rush things. The natural line of succession should proceed, and Maray will be crowned Queen of Allinan when she is ready—that is, the moment the date for the wedding is set.” She glanced around for support, probably worrying more about her son’s place beside Maray than about Maray’s reign itself, and got an ‘Aye’ from most of the nobles in the room, including Scott, Neelis, and Leander Unterly, who was there to take his seat on the council in his grandfather’s place, while Oliver Gerenhoff snorted under his breath.
Maray inclined her head at Sara, suppressing any surge of defiance about choosing a wedding date, and was about to leave the room, done for the day, when Neelis cleared his throat. “If I may, Your Royal Highness,” he started, “there is another matter that we need to discuss.”
Maray wanted to roll her eyes. There was always something else. If it wasn’t the intrigues of the nobles, it was the requests for audiences with the Princess of Allinan before her coronation from the people in the capital or the people who had travelled from the countryside and from all parts of Allinan to come see her. It was a nightmare. No one could have ever prepared her for this even if they had lived forever. Maray swallowed. Rhia would have lived forever had it not been for Corey’s undoing of the binding spell. She hadn’t seen much of Corey since the funeral, and however much Maray had told her that she didn’t blame Corey for what had happened, she seemed to blame herself enough to hide from Maray.
“What is it this time, Neelis?” Maray asked, recognizing how exasperation filled her tone, no matter how much she tried to suppress it.
“We got word from the Ambassador,” he said, voicing very carefully the role of Maray’s father as a political asset for Allinan.
Maray’s pulse quickened. There hadn’t been news in days, and the last time he had just touched base with the secret units in the other world, informing them of th
e recent developments—the real ones, not the lie they had been feeding the people of Allinan about the tragic death of the Queen and Crown Princess due to a grave illness. And while the public in Allinan was still celebrating Rhia for all her achievements and mourning her, by now, the nobles at court court had gotten suspicious.
“Maybe on the way out,” Neelis suggested and beckoned for Scott to join them.
Maray nodded and started walking, fighting emotional exhaustion back to a place where it could lurk until she was alone in her chambers. Around her, heads turned, each of the nobles trying to catch her eye before she crossed the threshold, their ears appearing double the usual size as they tilted their heads to be able to overhear even one tiny fragment of what Neelis had to say. Maray ignored them. She had to. Or she would never get a second of rest.
“So, what was it my father said?” Maray asked when they were out of earshot.
Neelis and Scott were hurrying down the hallway, framing her instead of her usual guards, but unlike after the other meetings, they led her toward the ambassador’s chambers, not her own.
“Dad!” Maray noticed her father standing by the window, hands locked behind his back and smiling at her.
Maray closed the distance between them and hugged him quickly, heart growing in size as the feeling of being abandoned faded to the back of her consciousness. “What a wonderful surprise.”
“I thought I’d come and deliver the news in person,” Gerwin said within a tight hug.
Neelis and Scott had already sat down at the small table when Maray released her father. He looked better, his posture no longer crooked from the pain in his chest, nor was his breathing shallow from the aftereffects of the poisoning. Together, they joined Scott and Neelis at the table where Gerwin’s initial bright face darkened at the topic he was about to address.
“I fear the news I am bringing isn’t what you’d like to hear,” he started.
When Gerwin had returned to the other world, assigned with informing their allies about what had happened to Rhia and Laura, as well as the threat of the Shalleyn and Gan Krai’s immortality, Maray knew that the news would come with shock, and that shock would make it difficult for people to believe, but her father had dismissed that fear the last time he had touched base.
“What is it, Ambassador?” Scott asked, his face more formal than Neelis’, who was busy chewing on a cookie he had picked up from the silver plate in the center of the table.
“Our dormant spies have spent the past weeks gathering intel on what is going on in the other world, and I regret to inform you that not many of them have returned.” Gerwin’s face said more than his words.
“What do you mean by ‘not many’?” Scott asked for details.
Gerwin eyed the cookie-plate for a moment then looked up and took a deep breath. “Three.”
“Three?” Neelis asked, disbelieving.
“Out of how many?” Maray wanted to know.
“Seventeen,” Scott answered for Gerwin then turned directly to him. “Only three? What happened to the rest?”
Maray could already imagine. Gan Krai. He was everywhere. He had tried to kill Jemin, and he had tried to poison her father. Now he was going after everything and everyone who could ensure her throne, including the crown’s safety-network in the other world.
“That’s the thing,” Gerwin said, and he paled as he did, “The three haven’t spoken a word since their return.”
Neelis raised an eyebrow. “Have you tried to make them?”
Of course Neelis would think of that first. His fierce shifter-nature made him a great weapon to intimidate people.
“I doubt they aren’t speaking because they don’t want to,” Gerwin said, pensive. “It’s almost as if they are still in shock from what they found.”
Scott shifted nervously. “So we don’t know what shocked them because they are too shocked to speak?”
Maray would have found his words funny under other circumstances, but this was not a joke. It was the lives of fourteen others who hadn’t returned and three who had suffered severe trauma from whatever had happened to them.
“Do we know where we lost the others?” Scott asked, back on target.
Gerwin shook his head. “All trails disappear. I have been trying to follow them, but it’s like they were swallowed by the earth.”
“Or brought to another world,” Maray reflected for the others to consider. “Maybe they portaled into Allinan.”
“They are not equipped with magic bracelets the way I am.” Gerwin held up his wrist, exposing the thin silver bracelet, which still reminded Maray of a futuristic piece of jewelry.
“So, unless they are shifters, there is no way they could have crossed the border,” Neelis reminded all of them.
“And why would they even?” Scott followed his train of thought. “Their assignment was to gather intelligence on any suspicious activity and report back so the palace could decide how to improve protective measures.”
“Do you think it was Gan Krai?” Maray asked, knowing that she would probably get three different opinions on her question. The thing with Gan Krai was that nobody knew what motivated him, why he had banned the Shalleyn from Allinan once and then waited for years to collect Rhia’s debt. Or why he had allowed Rhia to trade Maray’s hand for Laura’s as a payment for his assistance in closing the rift Rhia had created two decades ago with the Shalleyn’s help.
Neelis cocked his head. “Nothing would surprise me with Gan Krai,” he hissed into his cookie.
Scott nodded, and so did Gerwin, who was studying Maray’s face with a crease, deeper than usual, on his forehead.
“Laura’s and Rhia’s deaths took two elements out of Gan Krai’s equation,” Gerwin pointed out, his voice unstable, and Maray’s stomach lurched into her knees. She was far from ready to speak about her mother’s death as if it were merely an incident in a crisis situation instead of the severe loss she felt it was. “So the only target that is left for him is Allinan.” Gerwin paused and pursed his lips. “And you, Maray—he will come back for you. I know this to be true in the same way I am sure that this is only the beginning.”
On the way back to her chambers, Maray spotted Heck’s dark hair at the corner. She swallowed all the thoughts and worries that she had been carrying with her for the past month and put on the smile her future husband deserved. It didn’t come easily, though.
“My lady.” He stepped forward and offered a hand to her, which Maray, not because her heart dictated it but due to the corset of Allinan court, took, and Heck quickly turned it over to breathe a brief kiss on the back. “You look troubled,” he noted correctly.
Maray didn’t comment but let her silence speak for itself as they continued toward the blue-tapestried room.
“How was the council meeting?” Heck attempted to make conversation, but Maray didn’t have a word of reply in her for now.
The nobles were against her. It wasn’t all obvious yet, but it wouldn’t take long until she would have to claim her throne… and that would come with the expectation to set a date for the wedding. Maray wasn’t ready to give up on Jemin. She wasn’t ready to abandon her grief for her mother and, incredible as it may seem, her grandmother, who had redeemed herself in her last hours. But then there was more. The missing spies in the other world, the ones who were unable to speak, and the mysteries that lay behind it.
“Not good, I take.” Heck hadn’t let go of her hand but squeezed it gently as he opened the door for her with the other. He led her into the room then freed her fingers and unhooked his cloak before throwing it onto one of the blue, brocade armchairs between the bed and the window.
“If the council were my only problem,” Maray sighed as the guards outside closed the door behind her.
Heck raised an eyebrow, curious, but when Maray told him about the missing spies, his face rapidly changed to alarmed.
“We simply can’t get a break, can we?” he noted, and Maray ground her teeth.
“It
seems.” Maray felt as though from the moment she had set foot in Allinan, her life had been a constant run from danger and careened down a bloody path of loss.
They looked at each other for a brief moment, each of them in their own mind and memories, then Heck’s expression changed, and he grinned, apparently pushing the darkness back.
“Was Gerenhoff at the meeting?” he asked, which brought another sensation of nausea to Maray’s stomach.
She glanced at Heck at the thought of Oliver and grimaced. “What do you think?”
Heck’s eyebrows knitted together in a dark look before he returned a sly smile. “Still hitting on you, is he?”
Maray almost burst out in laughter at Heck’s directness. “That would be easier to handle.” She headed to the closet and pulled out a pair of Thaotine pants and a sweater. “He is actively pursuing my throne now.”
Heck ground his teeth. “We should get rid of him,” he suggested, half-serious.
Maray pretended to consider for a moment. It was a tempting thought. Oliver’s face in the council meetings kept reminding her that she was living her freedom on borrowed time. “We can’t. He and his family are still upset that he wasn’t chosen to be my suitor.” She pursed her lips and shoved the rebellious sensation back into the depths of her being. It would be such a relief to have Oliver Gerenhoff out of sight. But then, she needed to keep him close in order for Scott and Neelis to be able to track his every move. It was becoming clearer by the day that he was after her throne, and while she wasn’t ready to sit on it, she was farther from ready to give it up. “Neelis and Scott want to keep an eye on him,” Maray explained half-heartedly.
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