I look up, wide-eyed, as two guards cease Daxon. Two more do the same to Grayson. “No, Keenan, Daxon is innocent, okay? I made him help us. He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“We both know that’s a lie, Amara. Take him away.”
“No. No, no, no, Daxon.” I grab his arm as the guards pull him past me and he grasps my shaking hand in his.
“Look at me.” he demands and my eyes move up to his, so dark and brown I get lost in them. You’re gonna be okay.” he says as the guards drag him away.
My eyes fly to Grayson next. “Grayson! You can’t do this, Keenan. You do this and there will be no alliance with Zakaria.”
“Come on, Amara. I wasn’t born yesterday. You and I both know there was never any alliance with Zakaria. Take him, now.” Keenan orders the guards.
Grayson doesn’t go quietly. He protests the whole way. A tear slips down my cheek as Keenan steps up to me, lifting my chin so that my eyes are forced to find his. “You did this, Amara. Remember that.” Keenan takes a step back and two of the remaining guards cease me from behind.
Back in my room I release my anger at today’s failure worthy of any Serpentarian. I tear my room apart. I throw everything off the dresser, I kick a chair across the room, I smash the vanity. Fire bleeds from the remains, but fades quickly, as if the fire was a figment of my imagination. I want to scream. I want to rage for our failure tonight. I want somebody to bleed for this. Talvinder is dead, dead by my hand, and it wants more. My magic wants more. It’s gotten the taste of death and it likes it. I like it.
I kick another chair across the room, screaming into my hands.
“Amara…” Tristan’s voice startles me out of my rage, but it sounds different this time. It’s not distorted, like I’m hearing it from the other side of a door. It’s clear as a bell.
I spin around to see Tristan standing on the other side of my room. “Tristan?” I breathe.
“You can see me?”
“Yes, I can see you.”
“Finally.” He sighs. I rush to him, to embrace him, but my body goes right through him. I spin around and the pieces of him seem to form back together, like an apparition. “Sorry, Amara. I’m dead. We can’t touch. It doesn’t work that way.”
“But you’re here. I can see you.”
“You can’t imagine how hard it is to find a foothold in limbo.” He chuckles, but I don’t laugh with him. He notices. “Amara, what’s wrong?”
“Tristan, I…fucked up. I got two people I care about hurt today. They’re in the dungeons. Who knows what Bastian will do to them once he knows the truth.”
“It’s time you get out of here, Amara.”
“It’s over now, Tristan. Don’t you see? Grayson was our line to the Zakarian queen. Now that he’s in the dungeons she’ll never know we did what she asked. No help is coming. We’re on our own.”
“You’re not on your own, Amara.”
“Yes, I am! It’s over. I’m marrying Keenan. Haven will marry Bastian and I am never going to get us out of here. I failed.”
“Amara—”
“Just stop, okay? We lost. It’s done.”
“And what about Missy and Finn?”
The reminder stings. I didn’t just fail Daxon and Grayson and Haven. I failed them too. They’ll never get out of here, because we failed. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s over.”
I expect to be dragged from my chambers within the hour so Bastian can give me his punishment in person, but no one comes for me until the next day. A new guard is posted at my door. The one I had in Zakaria, Kade. He says nothing more than what he needs to. He makes me miss Daxon.
The walk to the throne room is agonizingly long so when we finally arrive I am almost relieved. Until I am ushered inside to find Bastian standing with Keenan off to the side. Haven is on her knees before Bastian, being held in place by her guard. Kade shoves me down next to her, holding me there by my arm.
“Oh, this can’t be good.” I say. Haven glances at me fearfully.
“That’ll be all gentlemen, thank you.” Bastian says, dismissing the guards so that it is just the four of us present. Brave, little king killer. “It seems you ladies had quite the night.”
I shrug. “Could have been better.”
Bastian laughs as he paces the floor in front of me and Haven. He laughs as he scratches the slight scruff on his face. “Funny. That’s—that’s funny. I’m glad you find humor in this, Amara because I can’t.” He stops when he’s standing a few feet in front of us both, pulling both hands together. His patience wears thin. I can see it in his pale blue eyes. “Let me get this straight. Grayson Belvedere was never with us. In fact, he enlisted you in some plan to find this Talvinder and get information from him about the prophecy written about Kara Volterra’s lovechild.” I think he’s talking to me, until one bone-chilling moment later he addresses Haven. “And you, my dear sweet Haven, concocted this whole plan to sneak off with Amara’s guard—who is some sort of traitor, not quite clear on where he factors into it—and go find this Talvinder. You, the traitor guard, and the lying ambassador. Only to be taken hostage until Kara Volterra was brought to him so that he might end her life, ending any proverbial babies she might be still carrying. That’s when Daxon decided to get Keenan and Amara involved, so that they could rescue you, which they did. You did all of this, convinced I was never going to find out.”
Silence falls over us for a time as I look at Keenan, unable to believe the web of lies he’s spun here. “Yes, all of that happened, but—”
“I am not talking to you.” Bastian raises his voice, letting it bounce off the walls of the throne room around us. “I am talking to Haven.” He looks down at her, awaiting her answer.
“Yes, I did all of that.” she lies.
My eyes flick back to Keenan. He barely has the courage to look at me. Even when he’s his most angry with me, he’s still trying to save me. Everyone is always trying to save me. Well I won’t have it. Not here. Not now. Not at the expense of my friend.
“No,” I speak up and Bastian shoots me a warning look. “No, no, no. It was me. It wasn’t her. It was me. It was all my idea. Daxon is my guard, Grayson is my cousin. It was all me.”
Bastian approaches me slowly, hovering down over me. “Are you accusing the prince of Vakrov of lying, Amara Boudelaire?”
He’s surprised when I look him dead in the eye and say, “Yes.” He takes a step back, looking down at me, surprised at my audacity. “Haven hasn’t stepped a foot out of line the entire time she’s been here. Do you honestly think it was her who came up with this? I did it. Keenan lied to protect me, but I am done letting other people get hurt because of me. So if you wanna punish anyone, punish me.”
Silence stretches over us as Bastian contemplates how to handle this. Finally he breaks the silence by clapping his hands together once, making both me and Haven flinch. “In less than six weeks there will be a wedding, held here, in our home.” Bastian moves toward me, pulling on my arm until my chest collides with his. “But it won’t be Haven Novak’s.” The threat lands as intended. I let out a strangled gasp while Keenan flies off the handle.
“Whoa, what?” Keenan demands, rushing over to me and Bastian. “What are you talking about? Amara is marrying me, remember?” He says it so possessively that I should feel offended, but I’ve never wanted to marry Keenan more than I do right now. I’d rather spend a thousand nights in Keenan Volterra’s bed than one minute in the arms of Bastian Beaugrand.
“Yeah.” I add, voice shaky. “You announced it to all of Vakrov. You can’t take that back now.”
“Oh, but I can, and I will. Keenan will marry Haven and you, Amara Boudelaire, will marry me.”
“But I’m not an air user.” I protest with the only thing I can. It is the only card I have left to play.
“No, you’re not, but that doesn’t matter much. Long as our children are born either Gemini, Libran, or Aquarian we’ll be fine.”
“You promised Amara to me.
It is the only reason I agreed to be your champion in the first place.” Keenan says to Bastian. Another piece of the puzzle that is Keenan Volterra, one I did not know until today.
“Your punishment for damn near getting Haven killed. Perhaps you’ll take better care of her now that she’s yours.”
“Keenan,” I say nervously.
“Bastian, think about this for a moment, alright? This isn’t what Theron Novak agreed to. You can’t make a decision like this and not tell him. It could put your whole alliance with Limacore in jeopardy.”
“I’ve already made my decision, Keenan. You let me worry about Theron Novak. Guards, take the girls back to their chambers. Neither of them are to leave again until the wedding. They will sleep, eat, and breathe their rooms until they learn that they answer to me and only me.”
“Keenan, please don’t let him do this. Please.” I beg him as the guards cease Haven and I from behind. We’re dragged out of the throne room before Keenan can respond. When we’re out in the hall I grab onto Haven’s arm. “You have to tell me what you and Daxon found out from Talvinder.”
Haven looks panicked, but she quickly tries to remember everything that she’d learned so she can tell me before we’re separated for good. “He—he said that there’s a reason people call you the last nether user. It isn’t because you’re the only one left. It’s because you’re literally the last one to be born in the last eighteen years. No nether user has been born since you were, until this baby of Kara’s.”
“What does that have to do with the prophecy?”
“Talvinder said that the reason the baby will be so powerful is because he’s the first nether user born in almost two decades. That combined with the arcane magic is what will make him so powerful.”
“What else did he tell you?”
“The Hunters want him.”
“The baby? Why?”
“I don’t know, but Talvinder was convinced they want the baby alive for something.”
“They hate Zodiacs, especially nether users.”
“I don’t know. He didn’t seem to know either. That’s all we know. That and what he said to you. Haydan Kasanoff. Could he be related to my brother somehow?”
“We have to assume.”
The guards start to tug us apart when we get to a hall leading in opposite directions to our chambers. “Amara,” Haven says hastily. “I…”
“Don’t. Don’t say goodbye. I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“See you soon.” She doesn’t believe it, but she says it, for me.
Kade escorts me into my chambers. Before he leaves he looks at me with, to my great surprise, regret. “I’m sorry, Your Highness.” he says, and shuts the door, locking it from the outside. I hope to see Tristan when I get back, but he’s nowhere in sight. And now I’m relying on ghosts for comfort.
The weight of trying to free us now weighs on me heavily and I sink to the floor against the wall. There I let the tears come. If we weren’t all separated—Missy, Finn, Daxon, Grayson—I might have lit Bastian up with my death. Killed the king killer and set us all free. But I won’t leave without my friends, without the people who have put their own lives on the line to help me, the ones who have kept me sane.
I cry myself to sleep in that spot on the floor. I finally wake to someone whispering my name. “Tristan?” I ask the room, thinking it’s him.
“You waking up and saying every guy’s name, but mine really can bruise a man’s ego ya know.” It’s Keenan’s voice I hear, from behind me.
I turn to the wall, pressing my hand on it. “Keenan, is that you?”
“He won’t let me in to see you, but he can’t stop me from quasi-stalking you outside your chambers. Walls are thin.” He’s silent for a minute and then he says, “I’m sorry, Amara.”
“You’re sorry you tried to make Haven go down for what I did?”
“I was just trying to protect you. I was always trying to protect you.” He sounds miserable. His words sound like a mantra, one he’s told himself for so long he knows nothing else.
“What does that mean, Keenan?”
“Just please trust me when I say that everything I did was to keep you safe.”
It seems that’s the best answer he’s going to give me and so I don’t push it. There’s no point. “Keenan, is he really gonna make me marry him?” I ask hopelessly.
“Not if you’re not here to do it.”
“What?”
“You gotta get out, Amara.”
“But how? He won’t even let me out of this room. There’s no way out, Keenan.”
“You’re a nether user, Amara. The most powerful one in the world. Figure it out.” he hisses.
“I won’t leave without Haven, Keenan. Or Missy and the boys. I can’t.”
“You have everything you need here in this palace.” Tristan says suddenly, appearing in front of me. “In those dungeons and right here in this room.”
“What are you talking about?” I whisper to him.
“What?” Keenan says, hearing me talk, but not to him. He doesn’t know I’ve got a ghost on my shoulder.
“There are hundreds of Borderlines down in that dungeon, Amara.” Tristan tells me.
“Hundreds?” I whisper.
“Hundreds. And you’ve got your blood.”
I look down at my hands, remembering my blood and what it can do. “It enhances abilities. All I have to do is get the Borderlines on our side and give them my blood. They’ll be powerful enough to break us all out of here.”
“Amara, what’s going on?” Keenan demands.
“Keenan, I need you to get Bastian to let me see him.” I say.
“What? Why?”
“Do you trust me?”
I’m met with silence for a time. And then finally he says, “Yes.”
“Okay. Then I need you to do what I’m asking you to do. Get him to just meet with me. Tell him I just wanna talk. I have a plan.”
“Okay.”
“Keenan?” I say hastily before he can leave me.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t stop you from getting on that transit two years ago.” I tell him and I mean every word of it. Even if it changed everything for us. Even if it meant he never met Bastian and I ended up here in Vakrov alone without him. If I could go back I would have stopped him. No matter the consequences.
“I’m sorry I got on it.” He pauses. “I love you, Amara.”
I can say it now, because this is the end of us. I can say it now because it isn’t going to hurt anyone if I do. “I love you, Keenan.”
He’s silent for a time, probably surprised that I’d say it back. Surprised that I could forgive him for everything he did enough to say those words and mean them. Then, finally, he slams his hand against the wall in anger. “I’ll make it up to you, Amara. Somehow I will.” He leaves me then, to go and fulfill my request.
While he’s gone I bathe and change into a little white mini-dress. It’s got thin whit straps and the middle section is made of lace, revealing some skin underneath. It has a sense of innocence that I think Bastian will enjoy.
He has not fooled me. He simply used our little rendezvous in the city to his advantage, to steal me from Keenan while making Keenan think it’s his own fault. I think he slowly started to realize, during our time spent together, that he had feelings for me. It’s why he was so cold toward me when he thought I was dying and it’s why he nearly lost his mind when he walked in on me and Keenan kissing in the infirmary. He was always going to steal me from Keenan. We just paved his way for him to do it without having to take any of the blame.
It isn’t until I go for my jewelry box to find a necklace that I realize everything I had destroyed in this room before is neatly placed back where it all belongs. I start to open the jewelry box until I remember the one piece of jewelry that’s still on me. I look at Keenan’s ring and twirl it once on my finger before tugging it off. I set it down on the vanity. “I’m sorry.” I whisper.
Kade enters, only enough to speak to me. Not an inch further. “His Majesty would like to see you in the parlor room, Your Highness.”
I just smile. “I’ll be right there. Thank you.”
When Kade closes the door I turn back to my room, eyes sweeping over it one last time. “I will not miss you. Thank you, Tristan. You’ve saved me again.” I say to him, wherever he is.
I walk through the halls to the parlor room where I find Bastian pouring himself a drink. “Well,” he says when he hears me enter. “This didn’t take long. Are you here to grovel for your boyfriend’s hand back or are you…” He pauses when he finally turns and feasts his eyes on me. “Uh—”
“Can I have one of those?” I cut him off, walking over and pouring myself a glass. I take a sip. “Mm, better.”
“Amara, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Having a drink. Oh, I’m sorry. Did you not want me to have one? Because I know that I answer to you and only you, right?” I’m bating him, smiling over my glass at him as I take another sip. I even let a tiny giggle slip.
“You’re playing with me.” he says, slightly amused. “The beautiful dress, the flirting. What’s your hope here?”
“Look, I don’t really see how we did anything wrong, other than that bit where we almost got Haven killed.” I tell him as I refill my glass. “We’re all on the same team, aren’t we? With this prophecy? We all wanna stop it, all wanna make sure our world stays exactly as it is. Well, give or take a war or two.”
“What you did wrong is you went behind my back, Keenan’s back, and you both could have been killed because of it. Not only did you conspire against me, but you managed to rope Grayson into your little schemes.”
So he doesn’t know that the Zakarian queen put me up to it. Not yet anyway. He thinks Grayson did all of this of his own volition. That’s something at least.
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