Two Worlds of Dominion

by Angelina J. Steffort

  Maray blinked at him but still didn’t have words. Then, as if Jemin hadn’t even spoken, she turned her head to Heck and said, “We need to tell the council the wedding is off, and they won’t like it.”

  Jemin’s heart clenched, and he got a taste of what his future might be like. He would be there, trying to get back into Maray’s favor for the rest of his days if that’s what it took. But for now, all he felt was that he had failed her miserably. Whatever she had needed a couple of minutes ago, a friend, a loyal supporter, a soldier, he had ruined that option for himself. All he could be from now on was Jemin, the shifter, who had devoted his all to her.

  Maray

  Maray’s heart weighed heavy as she tore her gaze away from the sharp angles of Jemin’s face. Something was there in his eyes that hadn’t been visible before. She just couldn’t name it. Maybe something that had to do with what he had just tried to explain to her, and her mind, for some reason, couldn’t comprehend.

  His. He had claimed her as his. As his what? Mate? She wasn’t a shifter like Seri. How did that work on humans? Did it work at all? And what had it done to her free will? Was she still in possession of such?

  She looked for something, an anchor to ground her, and found Heck’s measuring look meet hers.

  “We need to tell the council the wedding is off, and they won’t like it.” The words spoke themselves rather than her saying them. But Heck’s reaction was instant—as was Jemin’s.

  Heck bobbed his head. “Whatever you need. Even if we never marry, you’ll have my full support... Even if my family disowns me.” He winked at the end, appearing back in full possession of his humorous nature.

  Jemin, on the other hand, straightened in his chair, looking like a marble statue from the corner of her eye. Also, he looked ready and dangerous as his eyes darkened when Maray turned her head to check his expression for a fraction of a second. Was he upset with her?

  “They won’t disown you,” Jemin reassured Heck, but even though he sounded normal, something was off about him. There was a tension in him Maray had never seen before.

  “Even if they did, I could always move to the safe house with the rest of you.”

  “I do know someone who certainly wouldn’t mind,” Jemin responded, and there was a flash of amusement crossing his features that appeared somewhat forced. Maray, however, couldn’t tell the source of his discomfort. She highly suspected, though, that it had something to do with the electrifying at first then agonizing sensation of him pressing his nose against her chest and everything that had followed—whatever that was.

  She pulled herself together and faced Jemin, bracing herself for the confusion forming inside her mind whenever she looked into those eyes too long. “I think it’s nice Heck found someone he cares for…”

  “I care for you, too, Maray,” Heck interrupted, claiming her attention before Jemin could lock her into his gaze.

  “I know, Heck, but not the same way you care about Seri.”

  Heck answered her words with a smile that said more than any word he could have possibly told.

  “You should be happy for him, Jemin.” Maray returned her attention to the boy with the bright blue eyes and found him studying Heck, his features even and relaxed for a change.

  “I am, believe me. I truly am.” He glanced at Maray, his eyes darkening again. “However, this doesn’t solve our issue with the council and the rest of Allinan for that matter.”

  “Or Gan Krai,” Heck added. “I will tell Seri the secret as soon as it’s public. But for now, that’s exactly what I think it should remain—a secret. You shouldn’t rock the boat more than you already have, Maray.” He cautioned her.

  But Maray had other ideas. “On the contrary, Heck. I have rocked the boat so much that rocking it a little more now will be easier than starting the waves all over again once the waters have calmed.”

  The two boys were staring at her expectantly, Heck with curious fascination, while Jemin’s forehead had crumpled into a familiar line of worry.

  “If I become Queen, I will do it on my own terms.” She rested her hands on her hips, hoping to make an impression of determination. “The coronation will happen, and it will happen before the people of Allinan. I need their support more than I need the council. They are the ones working in the fields, cooking the dumplings, washing the laundry. They are the ones our economy—our prosperity depends on. Not some nobles’ pride—or my own.”

  Heck’s eyebrows had raised up to his hairline, but he nodded.

  Jemin, however, lowered his head as if he was bowing. “Whatever you decide, Maray. It is your reign, your people.” His voice was rough with hesitation, making Maray’s stomach twirl uncomfortably. For some reason, she was more eager for his approval than for anything else in that moment.

  Was that part of his claim? That she would not be able to make a decision without her worrying if he was happy with it? Or was it merely that his eyes were hidden under his thick lashes once more, inaccessible for her to stare into?

  When he looked up at her as if sensing her gaze on him, his expression softened, putting Maray instantly at ease. “Whatever you need, I will be at your side,” he said, his voice sealing them in their own little universe for a second or two before Heck cleared his throat.

  “Great, you have both our support,” he interjected with a grin, eying Jemin from the side. “What do we do?”

  Maray was overwhelmed. Had she a moment ago panicked over her life falling apart, she was feeling stronger now than she had since before her mother’s death. She was taking control of her own fate, and—Yutu claim or not—Jemin would be at her side this time.

  “We need to stop the attacks on my people,” Maray prioritized. “Everything else can wait.”

  “Not entirely true,” Heck corrected. “Stopping the attacks probably means confronting Gan Krai sooner rather than later. Which means involving the council.”

  “You need to tell them.” Jemin seemed back in his actionable mind. “You need to tell the council as soon as possible that there won’t be a wedding. That there will be a coronation instead.”

  Maray felt her jaw drop.

  “We’ll tell them individually. Better to separate them than to have them gang up against you,” Heck added.

  “Against us,” Maray corrected. Jemin was right. They both were. It didn’t matter what her pride said or her heart. This was the time to put her people first, and they needed a strategy to endure the support of the people as much as the alliance of the council.

  “Divide and conquer,” Maray chanted and found both boys eyeing her sideways. “We’ll need my dad to help with the council.” It was obvious that a diplomat would be the best choice to handle tactics for the council even if he was just a spy in disguise. “He knows how to handle them.”

  “And Scott and Neelis should be out there with their people, patrolling the city,” Heck suggested. “The more attacks we can prevent, the better.”

  “It’s likely the Shalleyn will focus on anything within your reach, Maray,” Jemin correctly pointed out. “He will want you to know that you can easily change the situation by playing by his rules. And that is unlikely if the attacks happen at the other end of the world.”

  Gan Krai had warned her that she would watch how her people suffer, and it had already started.

  “And I need to get that coronation done before he finds a way to openly involve himself into court life. We can’t risk the council pushing for an alliance with him. It would be Allinan’s downfall.” And the other world’s, too. But she left out that thought.

  “Let’s use the coronation to lure out Gan Krai.” Jemin didn’t look serious when Maray checked his expression. He looked more like he was battling the meaning of his own idea. “Forget I said that.”

  But Maray had already caught on to it. “Wait. If we manage to set a trap for him… we might be able to actually defeat him before he can do any more harm. All we need is the council’s support to move everything up and th
en all the military force we can get to contain and defeat Gan Krai.”

  Maray wasn’t sure her thought made sense, but Heck had caught on to it before she could follow Jemin’s lead and question herself.

  “We will need all warlocks accessible to court, which brings us back to Corey…”

  “We need Corey.” Maray agreed.

  “And you,” Jemin added. “You are strong. Stronger than Corey. Maybe even stronger than Gan Krai.”

  Maray lowered her gaze uneasily under his praise. She hadn’t tested her powers to their full extent, and a part of her hoped she never would.

  “Don’t worry,” Heck reassured. “We’ll be with you along the way.”

  “I can’t use magic around my people. I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Maray hesitated. The fire dome. Jemin as he crashed to the ground under the burning wood in the underground corridors… It was all there in her mind. But she no longer allowed it to paralyze her. “We need to isolate him. Lure him out and isolate him.” That was it. That’s what they needed to do. “He and I.”

  “Too dangerous,” Jemin objected.

  Heck nodded in agreement.

  “So what do you suggest?” Maray let herself drop onto the edge of her bed, staring into the empty fireplace where Gan Krai’s projection had threatened her from. There was no way she was going to let him take her people, her country, her worlds. It was her duty as Queen—and had she wished she had never found out about her heritage a while ago, now she was determined to wear that crown. It was her fate to save them.

  Both Heck and Jemin eyed her with concern.

  A breath escaped Maray she didn’t realize she had been holding captive. This was bad. And this time, there was no way she could get things done by herself. This was no longer about giving up something she wanted the way she had chosen to give in to Allinan protocol and choose a suitor or the way she kept wearing a smile and a corset when needed. This was about everyone in Allinan. In both realms. And the worst thing, most people were completely unaware of what was headed their way. Even if the attacks were already spreading terror in the capital, no one in the other world even knew Gan Krai existed, magic existed, demons existed. And the select few who were supposed to report back between dimensions had gone missing, captured by the enemy and abused as hosts for demons. This was no longer personal. What Gan Krai did was an assault on her and her realm.

  Maray found herself back on her feet and crossed the room in a few quick strides, ignoring Heck and Jemin as they obviously wondered what she was up to. She pulled open the dresser and withdrew the one thing—the first thing—that had connected her to Allinan and the Cornay line: her dagger. It resonated in her palm as her fingers closed around the hilt. She had used it before to defend herself, and she was ready to use it again.

  With a jolt, she turned around, meeting Heck’s and Jemin’s gazes.

  “We are going to war, boys.”

  “You’re sure you are ready for this?” Jemin was walking so close to Maray she was surprised she hadn’t tripped over his feet.

  “Is anyone ever ready?”

  On her other side, Heck chuckled, back to his old self now that there was the prospect of freedom for him.

  The door was quickly coming closer while the rest of Maray seemed to have slowed down. A decision, so easily made, so inexplicably difficult to execute.

  “I’m sure Dad will help keep the waves as small as possible,” Maray hoped aloud. Her father had taken it surprisingly well when they had informed him that Heck wouldn’t join the royal family at all. There had even been some conspiring exchanges of glances between Gerwin and Jemin that Maray wasn’t fully sure what to make of. But for now, it didn’t matter. Gerwin would already be in the council meeting, preparing the nobles for the bomb Maray and Heck were about to drop.

  “Do I need to worry about your parents?” Maray eyed Heck from the side. It had been his task to inform them prior to the official announcement, and Heck’s easy grin wasn’t enough to comfort her they wouldn’t be attempting to take her apart the second she entered the room.

  “Nope.” Heck shook his head eagerly. “Surprisingly, Mother found a way to play it to their advantage.”

  On Maray’s other side, Jemin raised an eyebrow. “That’s surprising news.”

  “You know her…” Heck shrugged. “She is used to a son who’d choose to live in a ditch any time over the company of his silk-robed family.” He laughed darkly, but something told Maray there was more truth to it than he let on with his casual tone. “If it weren’t for you, my friends, I’d be long gone.”

  “And live out the rest of your rebel days in the woods?” Jemin winked at Heck.

  In between, Maray found it difficult to focus on the matters at hand. Maybe Jemin was right. If Seri and Heck were in love, and if she was going to claim him the way Jemin had claimed Maray, maybe there was a completely different life for Heck somewhere out there, a life which didn’t force him to constantly put his own needs last. She had learned a lot about Heck during these past months, especially since her mother’s death and the engagement, how noble Heck truly was behind that comical mask of the devil-may-care soldier. He was loyal, through and through, and he didn’t even need to voice it. His strength was his galaxy-sized heart full of love for his friends. If he ever lost them, the Heck as they knew him might cease to exist, and she wasn’t ready to see that happening.

  “I’d support a cross-breed alliance,” Maray joked and nervously glanced at Jemin whose eyes were intensely measuring her.

  “It would certainly be a statement,” Heck agreed, his tone making clear he wasn’t speaking about himself and Seri.

  The guards ahead saluted and pulled open the double doors to the meeting room for the approaching party so they didn’t even need to slow down before a view on a curious and confused-looking council was exposed.

  “Let’s get it over with.” Maray braced herself with a deep breath and marched inside. There was only one thing she wanted, and damn the council if they didn’t want the same thing, all individual issues and vanities aside.

  She stepped into the room, not hesitant like the last time but prepared. She had a goal her mind was set on. She had a plan. And she had help. A glance to the right and to the left, returned by reassuring looks from both Jemin and Heck, allowed her to swallow that last dumpling of concern in her throat and meet her father’s eyes.

  He nodded, and with two quick strides, Maray was next to him.

  “Where are Neelis and Scott?” Maray whispered.

  Gerwin gave her a significant look. “They are taking care of the attacks.”

  “More attacks?” Maray asked, and her heart sank as her father nodded again.

  “They are on it now.”

  “But they know, don’t they?” Maray for a second wavered. She needed Scott as the commander of the military, and she needed the pack’s loyalty. She was depending on it.

  “I personally made sure I informed them before they headed out.”

  Maray breathed for a second and reminded herself that this was an extreme situation, not only for her but for everyone. In decades, no demon had attacked Allinan—Gan Krai had made certain of that as he’d been biding his time in the shadows of the woods—and no princess had defied the council the way she was about to. They all needed a common goal to be aligned. And that was exactly what Maray was going to give them.

  “My fellow Allinans,” she opened, addressing them as what they were, not as her council, not as her friends or her allies, but part of the same people. “Last time I stood before you, I had to inform you of the truth of what my grandmother had planned for our world. Not just for our world but for the other world, too.”

  This time, no murmurs arose as she spoke. No one found it surprising or outrageous what Rhia had tried to achieve and to what lengths she’d gone trying to do so. It was old news, and matters like the attacks on the people in the capital were more pressing than a dead queen’s misdoings. But the faces of the council members we
re reserved. They hadn’t forgotten what Maray had asked last time—to change the traditions, to crown her without having wed yet. And the request she had for them was even worse this time.

  “We are still under attack from the warlock Gan Krai, who has made it clear that what he wants is the Allinan throne.”

  There were a couple of sounds of agreement, but the majority of the room remained silent.

  “But the throne of Allinan is not for the taking.” Maray balled her fists, and beside her, she felt Jemin’s posture adjust as she took a step forward, closer to the tables. He was there as a guard today. It was his official role, but Maray knew that he would have been there whether or not he had a role. He had made very clear he was never going to leave her side, and he hadn’t since he had claimed her even if it had been only hours, and nightfall had just set in.

  “Allinan needs her Queen, and I am ready to be Queen. I am ready to be Queen now,” she clarified.

  There were cheers somewhere at the back of the room that sounded a lot like Pia’s young voice. Maray stifled a smile. Her face had to reflect her determination.

  “I can understand if, after my initial hesitation, some of you might not agree to see me on the throne, but there is one reason you should go forward with moving up the coronation,” she laid it out for her audience, studying their faces as she spoke. “Gan Krai wants me, and if I am to be crowned without a husband at my side, he will make a move. In me, he sees Rhia; he sees Rhia’s promise of Allinan and the other world. He sees power, and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he came for.”