Forbidden Fairytales- The Complete Series

by Caroline Peckham

  We reached a fork in the road and Aladdin stopped abruptly. “They’re to our right, aren’t they?”

  “How did you know?” I asked as I opened my palm, revealing the golden arrow which was pointing resolutely to our right.

  “Because everything right of this point is Forty Territory. No one goes beyond here unless they’re part of our crew or have a death wish.”

  “I don’t think Cassian and Rapunzel have a death wish,” I pointed out. “They both seemed hell bent on doing whatever it took to survive up until now. It would seem like quite a flip in attitude to just turn suicidal like that, wouldn't you say?”

  Aladdin stared at me in confusion for several long seconds before snorting a laugh. “I don’t think they decided to come here of their own free will, Kyra,” he said with a smirk which brought a blush to my cheeks as I realised my misunderstanding. “I mean that they’ve been brought here.” His smile fell away as a deep frown took its place and concern swum in his eyes. “Egos knows Cassian’s face. So either he’s killed him already or they’re running very low on time.”

  “He’s not dead,” I said quickly, knowing in my heart that it was true. The bond I’d built with Cassian was like a tangible thing to me. I could feel the string connecting my heart to his and it most certainly hadn’t been severed yet. My connection to Rapunzel was equally intact, though I didn’t feel it quite so keenly as the one which bound me to the former guard.

  Aladdin sagged with relief, his grip on my hand tightening as I confirmed that his friend was still alive.

  “Well in that case, we have a very short amount of time to formulate a plan before Cassian sticks his foot in his mouth and admits everything. Egos can’t know that we tried to fake our deaths. He needs to believe we always intended to come back here...”

  “Perhaps bringing back the treasure would help?” I suggested. Summoning chests filled with gold and gems was as simple as breathing the words to me.

  Aladdin flashed me one of his winning smiles as he considered that idea.

  “That’s brilliant, Kyra! I could kiss you right now!”

  “Okay,” I agreed eagerly and Aladdin’s eyes flashed with desire for a moment.

  His gaze dropped to my mouth and he groaned as he swiped a hand over his face. “Later. I guarantee that. But right now every second counts if we want to save the others.”

  “You really do care about them,” I said triumphantly, prodding him in the side.

  “Pfft. I just like having someone to save,” he replied dismissively. “The more times I save Cassian’s ass, the deeper enthralled with me he becomes. I find amusement in corrupting him.”

  “And you love him too,” I pushed.

  Aladdin balked from that idea, releasing a disgusted noise but not offering me a real response.

  “Come on,” he said, heading down the right hand path with a swagger in his step and a mask of cocky bravado stamped right across his face. “Let’s go impress the shit out of The Forty. We’ve got some treasure to produce.”

  My palms heated with magic and a shiver of anticipation raced down my spine as I fell into step beside him. We may have been headed into danger but we were also moving towards the place that Aladdin had called home for a long time.

  I couldn’t help but be a little intrigued to see the world he’d sprung from. Now that I could remember my family’s noble routes, I knew that my mother would have cursed Aladdin for a scallywag if he’d come calling on me in our Manor House. But my sister would have seen what I saw in him, I was almost certain of that. He was a lost soul, searching for a place to call his own. And I was beginning to wonder if I might be able to help him find it.

  My shoulders coiled with tension as a fist collided with my jaw for the eighth time in a row. I spat a wad of blood at Egos's feet while he had his man lay into me. The Forty surrounded me while some greasy shit held Rapunzel at the edge of the ring.

  The den leader surveyed me through his singular eye, his upper lip curled back in a sneer. His meaty pal raised his fist again and I ground my teeth, ready to take another blow.

  Rapunzel cried out for him to stop and my heart weighed like an anchor in my chest.

  She's here because of you.

  You've handed the Princess of Osaria to The Forty Thieves. Every single punch is entirely deserved.

  I'd die before they ever found out who she was. The thought alone was enough to break me apart. But I wouldn't allow that to show on my face. I let my training take over. I was a statue. I could be toppled and destroyed, but no man on earth could pull secrets from my lips.

  Egos held up his hand before the next set of knuckles took a liking to my face.

  “Cassian Lazar,” he rolled my name over his tongue. “Perhaps a man like you isn't broken by your own pain...” His eyes slid over my head and I knew without looking that his gaze had fallen on her.

  Panic rose inside me, wrapping around my lungs and squeezing the air from them.

  “She has nothing to with Aladdin!” I reared against the manacles binding my wrists, desperate to get up. “Unchain me and fight me like a man!”

  Egos ignored me, beckoning for Rapunzel to be brought over.

  “If you hurt her I'll never tell you anything!” I bellowed, my voice reverberating around the room. A mixture of laughter and jeers called back to me. I caught sight of a couple of Aladdin's closer companions, Pip and Balthazar, muttering together, not joining in with the heckles. But I'd not been shown enough kindness from either of them to expect any help.

  Someone thrust Rapunzel into Egos's arms and his hand snaked around her throat, clutching tightly. Rapunzel grimaced as he pulled her back against his chest. Her eyes flickered with fear and rage.

  “Release me,” she commanded, but Egos took no notice of her.

  My body shook with pure fury, coursing through my blood like poison. I set Egos in my gaze, swearing on all of Osaria that I would destroy him if he hurt her.

  “Spill one single drop of her blood and I will drain every drop of yours in return,” I spoke in a deadly growl, my lip peeling back on a snarl.

  Egos casually took a dagger from his hip and my heart gave out. I lurched forward, frantically fighting against my binds. My wrists were rubbed raw, the skin bleeding and chaffed. Strong hands held me back and I grunted angrily, trying to shake them off.

  Egos twirled the blade in his hand, lifting it to rest against her throat.

  “No!” I begged. I was normally beyond begging, but not for this. Not for her. I'd give my life to stop him taking hers.

  “One last chance,” Egos said calmly, his single eye narrowing to a slit. “Where is my treasure?”

  He pressed the knife to Rapunzel's neck more firmly and she leaned back as far as she could to try and escape it.

  “I told you! I don't have it!” I roared, my throat raw, my heart hammering, my vision blurred. Rage and panic swallowed me whole. I had no control. I couldn't fight. I couldn't help her.

  She was going to die and I'd have to watch. And no part of me would survive it.

  “You mean this treasure?” a voice rang in my ears that almost made my jaw hit the floor.

  I jerked around to find him, spotting Aladdin muscling his way through the crowd with a wooden chest in his arms and a smug grin on his face. Kyra was a step behind him and her eyes met mine, widening with a mixture of fear and relief.

  Aladdin made his way to my side then dumped the chest at Egos's feet. A jingle sounded as it hit the ground and as Aladdin kicked it over, gemstones and gold coins spilled everywhere. They shone like stars, catching the light and seeming to be the brightest thing in the room for a moment. My heart soared as a ray of hope cut a path through my chest. Kyra must have conjured them before they walked in here. Which meant they had a plan.

  Excited chatter broke out around me and I stared up at Aladdin, wanting to damn-well kiss him for turning up at this moment.

  “Took us longer than we planned, but we got it to you eventually. Thanks for f
inding Cassian and his girl for me, I lost track of them a few hours ago. I combed the slums for a while but I figured I had the treasure anyway, so...” Aladdin took an orange from his pocket, dropping the peelings on the ground as he ripped into it.

  Egos eyed him closely then shoved Rapunzel away from him. She rushed toward me and in less than a second her arms were around me and my face was buried in her hair.

  “I'm sorry,” I whispered, my failure ripping me apart.

  “Don't,” she begged, hugging me tighter and I shut my eyes to hold onto the closeness of her. Though I didn't deserve it for a second.

  I should have gotten her out of the North Quarter. We should have run.

  “So I'm tired mate,” Aladdin said to Egos. “I'm gonna go to bed if you don't mind?”

  “Wait,” Egos snarled and quiet fell in the room.

  “You expect me to believe you were really heading here all this time to bring the treasure to me?”

  Rapunzel moved to kneel at my side and I stared at Aladdin's boss with contempt as he came back into view.

  “What else would you believe?” Aladdin asked with a shrug. “There's been awful storms out in the Lyrian. Had to hole up for a while on the way back.” He placed a segment of orange in his mouth, chewing it slowly before swallowing.

  Egos pursed his lips and I sensed he didn't believe a word that came out of Aladdin's mouth. He lifted a hand, pointing directly at me. “Get him out of here, he's spilling blood all over my floor.”

  Two men unchained my legs and hauled me to my feet. Aladdin stiffened as I was pulled back into the crowd. Rapunzel hurried after me and no one stopped her as she followed. The fact that these ruffians couldn't recognise her was a sweet blessing. And I was sure I could trust Aladdin not to tell. He'd more than proved himself to me by now.

  I was shoved into a bathroom with grey walls and a cracked mirror. Patches of mildew clung to the ceiling, but it was cleaner than I'd expected.

  A bucket of water and a cloth was promptly dumped into the room and Rapunzel was shoved toward it.

  “Clean him up!” one of the men barked at her before the door snapped shut.

  My muscles tensed at the way he'd handled her and I had to swallow the anger biting at my throat. I wanted to shake him until he apologised, but that was a pointless dream right then.

  She looked me over with her eyes shimmering and my rage was replaced with a swell of guilt. I struggled to come up with anything to say. Streams of apologies couldn't save her from this reality. It was too late for that. So I remained quiet, tonguing a swollen welt in my cheek.

  Rapunzel moved to the bucket and soaked the cloth in the water. It looked about as clean as I could hope for, but it didn't matter either way. There was no chance of me letting the Princess wipe my wounds.

  As she stepped toward me I stepped back, my chains clinking against my wrists. “No,” I said firmly.

  “Yes,” she insisted, her eyes fierce. “That's an order.”

  I blew out a breath as she moved nearer, her gaze raking over my injuries.

  “I can’t let you,” I said heavily, my brow furrowing.

  “You must,” she demanded and the fire in her eyes made my resolve start to melt. “Sit there.”

  I shook my head in a last attempt to refuse her.

  “Cassian,” she breathed and it was my undoing.

  I did as I was told, dropping onto the edge of a large tub, falling totally still.

  Moving closer, she lifted the cloth, gently pressing it to my cheek. The wound stung, but I didn't flinch. I'd endured a thousand times the pain of this small cut and I was made of steel after all. Though that was starting to seem more and more like a joke. Did a man made of steel feel this much fury in his heart? Did he fall to ruin at the touch of a woman who could never be his? No. So why were my insides melting like rock into lava as Rapunzel washed the blood from my face?

  “There are no words to express-” I started but she pressed her hand to my mouth to halt me.

  I tasted the sweetness of her skin and my heart froze in time, committing that moment to memory.

  “Don't,” she whispered, her hand sliding down to rest against my shoulder, feather light. “You're one man, Cassian. What could you have done against so many?”

  “I'm made to protect you,” I bit out.

  Her brow creased and she suddenly took hold of my chin, angling my eyes up to meet hers. “You're made for no one.”

  “That isn't true and you know it.” I reached up to remove her hand from my flesh, my heart beating a treacherous tune from the contact.

  She continued to wash the blood from my face and I noticed her hands were totally still. Not a tremor. That brute had pressed a dagger to her throat just minutes ago. Her life had been on the line and yet she was still holding herself together with much more composure than I could manage.

  My throat bobbed as I studied her face. Did she see how much of a Queen she was? How strong, how brave? And I had indisputably failed her.

  “Since I met you and Aladdin, I've felt more like myself than I ever have in my life,” she said out of the blue, her eyes fixed on a cut above my left eyebrow, her expression contemplative.

  I remained silent, sensing she had more to say on the matter.

  “Honestly, it wasn't until a thief from the North Quarter could see more in me than beauty and then offered me a throne I'd dreamed about my entire life without question, that I really started to see myself as a Queen. To know someone had faith in me like that...”

  My throat tightened as I nodded, fighting the urge to tell her I'd been the one to say those things initially, not Aladdin.

  “It's given me the courage I needed to stand against Gothel. And you've done that for me too, Cassian.” She brushed her fingers over my cheek bone, her eyes brightening for a moment. “And if we get out of here, I want the chance to take my throne with you both at my side. Kyra too.”

  I gave her a terse smile. Not so long ago, I'd decided to leave Osaria after the Pageant, but now the world had flipped on its head again. And one thing was startlingly clear to me. “I'll always stand with you, wherever you go.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “And I thought Aladdin would do that too once but… maybe his words were just pretty lies for me to swallow after all. I see the way he looks at Kyra. How can he have meant those passionate words to me when his gaze is drawn by another woman?” Her brows pinched together and I could see the confusion he was putting her through. It drove me crazy that I couldn’t do anything about it. But there was one thing I could put to rest in her mind though....

  “He didn't lie,” I said, knowing I was walking a fine line here between doing my duty and acting selfishly.

  A beat of silence passed and her eyes narrowed.

  “What aren't you saying?” she asked, dropping the cloth back into the bucket with a splash.

  “Just that… the man you spoke to the night of the feast, on the balcony. He meant every word he said.”

  Her eyes widened and tension sparked between us that made my blood hum with a desperate kind of energy.

  Back down.

  Don't tell her.

  Her full lips parted and my eyes lingered on them for a moment too long.

  She took in a slow breath and I knew she knew. That I'd given it away. And perhaps some part of me had intended to.

  “Cassian,” she gasped and I looked up at her.

  It suddenly didn't feel like we were in the heart of a viper's nest. We were floating on some other plain, far beyond the reach of any other person in the world.

  “It was you?” she asked.

  I inclined my head in answer and I felt some wall come crashing down in my chest. Like I was free of one of the chains which had bound me my entire life. “Aladdin didn't know the Kingdoms' traditions for the feast so...” I shrugged one shoulder and she lifted a hand to her mouth in shock.

  “Kyra disguised you,” she stated.

  I nodded, my heart beating a surprising
ly calm tune. “I'm sorry for deceiving you but I'm not sorry for the rest. I meant what I said.” I gave her an unwavering look, willing her to believe me and I could see that she did. “But I wish to make one amendment.”

  “What's that?” she breathed.

  “I said I'd give you the throne… but you don't need anyone to give you it, Rapunzel. You can and will take it. It's yours to claim. No man or woman in Osaria ever had the right to tell you otherwise.”

  For a moment, she leaned in as if to touch me, her eyes sparkling with tears. Then she backed up, one step, two, three. She turned away and sagged against the wall. And though I'd never expected her to look at me differently, to think of me as anything but a royal guard with a duty to protect her, for half a second I'd hoped she'd seen something else in me.

  And the most soul-crushing part of it all, was the expression on her face. Because she looked like the sky was falling down.

  Egos stared at me long and hard. His one blind eye seemed to be searching me with as much intensity as the one which still worked. I held my chin up, fronting him out with all of the bravado I could manage.

  He pursed his lips at me, twisting one of his fat dreadlocks between his fingers so that the diamond he’d woven into it caught the light.

  “The weather in the Lyrian must have been quite different to what we’ve experienced here,” Egos said slowly, his gaze pinning me to the spot. “Because there hasn’t been so much as a whisper of a storm in the city. Yet they were harsh enough to strand you for all of this time. A more suspicious man may have thought you’d decided to keep my treasure for yourself.”

  “Well, I will admit that the night after we met these lovely ladies, I may have wasted a bit of time getting to know them a bit more intimately.” My mouth hooked up into one of my cockiest smiles and Egos’s eyes raked over Kyra in a way that made my blood run a little cold, but I forced myself to ignore it. “But when the sun rose, we found ourselves trapped in the cave we’d used for shelter by the storms. I can’t say why they didn’t make it to the city but maybe they weren’t that big. Didn’t seem like it was worth risking my life to find out though. Or your treasure.”