by M. Dalto
Lexan glanced over at Sarayna, meeting her eye.
“Did you report it to the authorities?” Jared asked, his tone sympathetic.
Janet nodded, her gaze on her tea. “They said she was an adult. That there wasn’t much we could do. They suggested she probably found someone new and ran away with him, that she’d probably turn back up when she needed something, or when he left her.”
Lexan snorted, and Sarayna cast him another glare, even though the irony made her almost smile. Almost.
“It wasn’t like Alexandra. She didn’t date much, and a new love interest would never be able convince her to just leave everything behind without even a note…but they checked her apartment and though it was empty, there was no sign of foul play, no matter how much we insisted something was wrong. They just told us to wait, and she’d be back.”
“But you said she was dead,” Sarayna reminded her. “This sounds like she just…disappeared.”
“It’s been too long…” Janet said solemnly.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Jared said, and Sara cast him a glance. He shrugged as if to say it was better to agree with her than counter the story she believed.
“Tell me again how you knew her?” Janet said, clearing her throat after a sip of tea.
“We were friends of hers,” Jared blurted. “We knew her in Boston, and when we, too, hadn’t heard from her in a while, and there was no one answering at her apartment, we grew concerned.”
“Ahh,” she said softly. “I’m sorry—other than Crystal, we really don’t know many of Alexandra’s friends.”
“It’s alright,” Jared assured her kindly. “Again, we apologize for the intrusion, but it had just been so long—we wanted to exhaust all viable options.”
It was then Sarayna realized that Jared was an incredibly convincing liar.
A startled gasp from the other side of the room captured the attention of those in conversation and they all turned toward her brother.
Lexan stood in front of a table covered with framed photographs, with one in his hand.
“Who is this?” he asked, voice hoarse, staring at the picture.
“I’m sorry?” Janet asked curiously from where she sat.
Lexan turned and marched toward them, the framed picture thrust out to show Janet, his eyes wild and accusatory as he silently begged her for an answer.
She looked at the picture, but only for a moment before her features turned pained and she closed her eyes. “Oh…that was Alex’s father. Her biological father. He died not long after she was born, and I later remarried. My husband is the only father Alexandra ever knew…”
All color drained from Lexan’s face—Sarayna had never seen her brother so shaken. Even Jared had his brows furrowed in concern as he watched the interaction between Janet and Lexan.
“What’s wrong, Lexan?” Sara asked, slowly rising from her space on the sofa.
He didn’t respond. Instead, he held out the picture in his hands.
Sara took it from him and looked it over carefully.
It was a family portrait.
She easily picked out Janet, holding a very young Alex and…
“Fuck,” she heard Jared whisper next to her.
In the picture, standing behind them, was Xavon.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Sarayna exclaimed as she paced the length of Lexan’s apartment. The young Empireborn and the Emperor had returned to Boston, and Reylor was somewhat disappointed at the shortened time alone when the three of them barged through the door in a heated debate.
Given the circumstances of their return, he was glad they came back when they did rather than delay sharing the new information. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when they embarked on this adventure, but what they returned with was more than enough to render the Lord Steward speechless. He wouldn’t have believed them if Lexan hadn’t stolen the framed picture.
The framed picture that now rested on the table before him.
He couldn’t take his eyes off of it.
“It would mean he had to know Alex was going to be the next Empress,” Reylor muttered, “so he tracked down her mother.”
“But who would have that power?” Jared inquired.
“The Annals have that power,” Reylor offered. “Perhaps also the person who wrote them.”
“You’re guessing that Xavon wrote the original Annals and therefore predetermined the Empresses for generations to come?” Sarayna sounded skeptical, and Reylor didn’t blame her.
“No, that’s not right,” Lexan cut in. “He would have already been banished to the Borderlands when the Annals were written, and we know that he wrote its counterpart while he was there alone.”
Reylor’s gaze cut to the book in question, sitting on the table next to the picture. The book that told the story of Xavon once he was sent to the Borderlands. Reylor should have felt bad for him, considering his own past, but he did not. Could not. Not if what he assumed was true and Xavon had sent this entire debacle into motion before he and Treyan were even born.
Something clicked in his mind at the thought, and he looked up at the others. “Saratanya.”
“What about her?” Sara asked, her expression just as confused as the looks the young men were giving him.
Reylor’s attention returned to the picture. “What do we know of her parents?”
Sara looked between Jared and Lexan before answering. “We don’t know. She never mentioned them when I was with her. It was Treyan who tracked her down in New York when he first found her. Maybe he knew something.”
Reylor bit at the inside of his cheek. “If we can track down that information, we may be able to discover more of her past, if only to see if there are any connections between her and Alexstrayna.”
“But wouldn’t her parents be long dead by now?” Lexan challenged, and Reylor met his son’s gaze.
“I’m not expecting you to speak to them. I’m hoping you can figure out who they were.”
“What are you getting at?” Sarayna challenged suspiciously. “Other than the northeastern region of the United States apparently being a hotspot for the Empire’s choice of royalty.”
Reylor reached over and picked up the photograph. “I’m hoping my suspicions are incorrect, but I fear our assumption that Xavon was the one to have written the Annals and therefore predicted the line of the Empresses is giving him too much credit.”
“Who else could it be?” Jared asked.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong—I’m certain it was him, but I also know no one is powerful enough to predict the future.” Reylor tapped the picture, looking up to meet their gazes. “That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have worked himself into it, one way or the other.”
Both young men stared at him, dumbfounded, but it was Sarayna who seemed to connect the dots.
Her mother’s daughter. Clever woman.
“It’s got nothing to do with telling the future,” she started slowly, as if she was still processing what they had just discovered. “Or magic. I mean, other than his ability to travel between the realms so easily.”
Reylor nodded in concurrence.
“How long could this have been going on for?” Sara asked the Lord Steward.
“However long since he’s been banished from the Empire, I assume. Some sort of sick retribution, I suppose.”
“How would the Crown Prince receive his dream, knowing to retrieve his Empress?”
“That part I have yet to figure out,” Reylor conceded as he sat back in his chair. “Nor how the Empire would know the child born was the next Empress. Unless Xavon’s lingering magic somehow linked him to the Empire, even after banishment. Or there was someone in the Otherrealm powerful enough to deliver the information back to the Empire.”
“And if there’s someone still here who knows what’s happened, maybe they can help us figure out a way to stop it,” Sarayna offered.
“Wait, wait,” Lexan spoke up, having remaine
d silent while Reylor and Sarayna considered the impossible. “Are you suggesting that Xavon traveled to the Otherrealm, manipulated his way into these unsuspecting women’s lives—and beds—for centuries, and created, in essence, the line of Empresses as we know them today?”
“As outrageous as it sounds, yes,” Reylor admitted. “Therefore, I need to know who Saratanya’s father was, and who else knew her. There are too many coincidences aligning which would make the impossible, possible.”
Lexan held his father’s gaze before quickly turning to Jared where he remained quiet on the couch. “What about you then?” he asked, his tone almost accusatory.
“What about me?” Jared snapped back.
“You said you remembered your father—is that him?” He pointed a finger toward the picture, and Jared followed his direction.
“No,” he conceded. “It’s not. I’ve been trying to figure it out ever since we got in the car to drive back here.”
Reylor sighed. “That you’re male as opposed to female like the rest of the line has been may have been more my influence than we initially believed.”
“Even your lineage is in question,” Sarayna countered, and Reylor’s gaze darkened.
There were still some things he was not comfortable thinking about.
“It would explain yours too, Princess,” Lexan mused as he leaned against the wall by the fireplace.
“As the Crown Princess?”
“He means as the Golden Child,” Reylor murmured. “If history proves itself a valid source of information, there may be a stronger connection between you and your mother than just blood.”
“That would mean I’d have to have that Mark to match hers, which I don’t—”
Jared cleared his throat. “Actually, you do…”
“What?” she snapped.
“It’s on the back of your left thigh,” he mumbled, and Sarayna’s blush matched his. “You’d likely never notice it yourself…”
“Be that as it may,” she said through clenched teeth, “I have an Emperor. I dreamed about him, and I found him. He’s been coronated—”
“Yes…there is that.”
Reylor looked up to his son, who had been watching the exchange between Jared and Sarayna a little too closely. Something was off ever since they returned from the Borderlands, after they had left him and Jared alone in that cabin. There was definitely an odd distance forming amongst the three of them. Reylor told himself he would not pry into their affairs, but if it involved the fate of the Empire, there was more at stake than their privacy.
“We should plan on returning to New York,” he said, standing from his chair. “We won’t be able to find what we need here.”
“No,” Lexan said, almost too quickly, and Reylor gave him a quizzical look. “I mean—we’ve only just returned. Are you sure going to New York right now is helpful?”
“Yes, I do,” Reylor confirmed, and he turned to Jared. “Will you be able to secure the vehicle for a little longer?”
The Emperor nodded slightly. “I didn’t have to return it until tomorrow, anyway— what’s a few more days?”
“Good. We’ll leave in the morning then. You and I—” he said, looking to his son, “are going to go to your mother’s apartment to seal it off, once and for all.”
“And what will we do?” Sarayna questioned, glancing at Jared momentarily.
“You two can do whatever it is Otherrealmers need to do to prepare for a trip. Or fuck in the bedroom—I don’t care.”
“Or don’t,” Lexan suggested.
Sarayna glared, but Reylor already faced Lexan, an amused smirk on his face that was met by a glower.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The fact Lexan was so reluctant to leave Sarayna and Jared alone to their own devices, whatever they may have been, was more than enough to confirm Reylor’s suspicions about his son and the King Emperor. Those suspicions solidified as he watched his usual confident presence shift to a more withdrawn stature as they walked silently to Alexstrayna’s apartment.
Reylor waited until they were behind its closed door before he breached the topic.
“How long have you known?” he asked as he looked through Alexstrayna’s books, sorting through what may be helpful on their trip versus what could be left behind.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lexan responded as he rummaged through drawers in nearby side tables.
“I’m not a fool, Lexan,” his father said, glancing at him.
“And I’m not a mind reader,” he responded, refusing to look toward him.
That final-sounding refusal stopped Reylor, who dropped the pile of books he had to the floor, and he stared at Lexan.
“What?” Lexan asked incredulously, slamming a drawer shut.
“I was going to give you the opportunity to explain yourself, but fine—I’ll spell it out for you. How long have you known that Jared is your Emperor?”
The blank stare was answer enough, and more than the confirmation he needed.
Reylor’s smirk was well-placed as Lexan turned to the next drawer.
“How did you figure it out?” Lexan asked softly.
“Other than you’ve been avoiding him like the plague ever since Sarayna and I returned to the apartment that night with it smelling like sex? Since before we left the Empire. When you already knew Sarayna was the Golden Child.”
“Sarayna being the Golden Child means nothing—”
“It does when a failsafe cannot have an Emperor.”
Lexan finally turned to face him, but there was no smugness in his features, nothing to lead Reylor to believe he was happy that he was destroying his sister for his own personal desires.
“What does it mean?” he asked, letting out a breath, almost begging his father for an answer.
“I don’t know. Obviously, it’s never happened before or else the line would have died out long, long ago.”
“Someone’s playing with us?”
“Or someone’s finally trying to make things right.”
Lexan scoffed at that. “A lot of good that did.”
“What do you mean?” Reylor inquired, returning to the books rather than staring at Lexan while waiting for an answer.
“Sarayna never truly dreamed of Jared.”
Reylor spun around in surprise. “How do you figure that?”
Lexan’s sigh could have been heard throughout the entire apartment. “Because I planted the dream in her mind.”
“What?” Reylor exclaimed. “How could you do such a thing?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” his son hissed defensively.
“Do you know how serious dream magic is?” Reylor pressed. “The troubles it has caused in the past—what it can still destroy?”
“You mean what troubles you caused?” He smirked. “Oh, we all know about that debacle.”
“Yes, and I was on the receiving end of such a debacle, not the one creating the lie.”
“I didn’t mean to!” Lexan pleaded. “I was trying to help her—to save her. I didn’t want her staying there, on a fool’s errand, knowing that the dream she was waiting for would never arrive.”
“So instead you planted one to make her think she had and return home all the same.”
“No—when I infiltrated her dreams, she had already met him, and I lost it.”
Reylor pursed his lips at his son’s defeated admission. He had enough trouble with using dream magic himself. He infiltrated Alexstrayna’s dreams when she first came to the Empire and used it to render the palace immobile while he kidnapped her on her coronation night. What Lexan did…it was too similar to what had been done to him. Reylor had been made to think he dreamed of the Empress before his brother, which began their entire family tragedy.
“And Jared knows?” Reylor asked after letting loose a breath.
A nod. “You said so yourself—the apartment smelled of sex when you returned.”
Reylor furrowed h
is brows. “And Sarayna?”
Lexan shook his head. “Jared…I don’t know what he wants to do. We haven’t talked since…then…”
“She deserves to know, and for more reason than her intended sleeping with her brother.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Lexan snapped. “I’ve been trying my best to push it away, to build up this wall, but every time I’m near him…”
“Your world crumbles at his feet.”
Lexan nodded.
Reylor knew the feeling all too well. “Does she suspect?”
“I don’t think so. Jared seems colder toward her, but I don’t know if that’s my fault, or if something else has happened between them. Either way, I don’t know if we ever will again, with the way things are going.”
“For your sake, let’s hope the time they’re spending alone right now is more than enough to find the answers you need. When we go to New York, I expect you to tell her the truth. You and Jared both.”
“Why wait until then?”
Reylor smirked. “I’ll be damned if I’m stuck in one of those damn vehicles with the three of you bickering and arguing over who gets to sleep with who next.”
They finished up at Alexstrayna’s apartment, stuffing the packs they brought with whatever they deemed useful, leaving enough to make it appear like someone still lived there.
Lexan found his mother’s cell phone, still plugged into the wall in her bedroom. He didn’t understand why Sarayna didn’t take it with her before and decided to grab it and the charger, tossing them into his bag. Since Lexan had plenty of options from his apartment, he suggested Reylor pack some clothes – both for Sarayna and himself – since they had brought nothing with them and probably wouldn’t have the chance to get anything else once in New York. They needn’t worry about Jared, who could gather items from his own place.
What his father specifically wanted to do before they left, however, was dissuade anyone from looking at Alexstrayna’s apartment too closely. Knowing that it was an easy access point for Keys between the realms, he didn’t want to take any chances should someone unknowingly enter the apartment if those from the Borderlands possibly infiltrated the Otherrealm.