I’m as affected by his words as he had been of mine, but I am not ready to have it out with him. Not here. Not now. Not in front of Theon. Maybe not even while Keenan is here. “Kol,” I say very patiently. “We can do this right now. You can force my hand and we can have this conversation, but if we do it while I’m annoyed and angry you are not going to like what comes out of my mouth. So it’s your choice to make.”
Kol watches me for a time, wondering if he really wants to test me. He decides against it, slides his gaze from me to Theon, and then he walks away.
“Smart boy.” I say once he’s gone. “You’re hovering.” I slowly turn around to find Theon staring, looking amused, hands tucked behind his back.
“Do you want a minute?”
“I want a drink.” I throw my arms out, laughing humorlessly.
“Now that I can help with. Follow me.”
Theon leads me to the throne room, but he doesn’t stop there. He guides me back to what appears to be a row of hallways, leading into a deeper, secretive passage of the palace I never knew about. Finally we arrive in the study where Theon walks over to the bar to pour me a drink.
“This is where I keep the most expensive alcohol in the house.” I almost laugh at his use of the word house. So casual. “This is my hiding spot, away from the crazy court life. And pretty soon it will be yours.” He raises a glass for me to take. “Have you ever had bourbon?”
“Hah, Theon, I grew up in a pour village in Limacore. The only thing me and my band of misfits got our hands on was rum and whiskey, if we were feeling particularly brave.” I joke and he laughs. I take the glass and breathe it in. At first I smell something like caramel until the smell settles into a smoky oak with just a hint of cherry. I take a sip. Theon smiles when I don’t flinch or cough at the bite. I laugh into my drink, finishing it off. “I always went with the whiskey.”
Theon throws his head back laughing. “Oh I always knew I liked you, Amara Boudelaire. You have such spirit and impulse, and just enough curiosity inside you that makes you fun. You are a Beleros through and through. You’re going to make a terrific queen one day very soon.”
I settle down into the chair across from him, handing him my glass so he can refill it. When he hands it back to me I finally ask the question I was waiting to ask once I had his full attention. “Why is everyone so convinced that I’ll win? What if Aaric wins? Or Aaren, even. I mean, he’s been a Zodiac all his life. Aaric and I are just learning. What makes everyone so sure I’ll win these Monarch Trials?”
His eyes flick over me as he contemplates his answer. Then he grabs the decanter to refill his glass. “You’ve always been a Zodiac. You just didn’t know it. You’re a nether user, Amara. You’ll always be the most powerful one in the room. You just have to accept that.”
“But is that all it is? It can’t just come down to power. The Trials have to have more to it than that.”
“They do, but I have no doubt you’ll win, Amara. You’re brave and you’re selfless and you’ll do the right thing. You’ll win.”
“Why me?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Why me? Why place your bet on me and not one of my brothers?”
“Something tells me this is not an offhand question. You’ve been asking yourself this for quite some time.”
“Well, when a thousand year old former prince of Llìria asks a seventeen year old girl, who is basically a newborn to all of this, to be his queen a girl has to wonder why.”
Another answer, carefully thought out before he gives it. “Because of everything I just said. And probably everything you’ve been told a hundred times over already. You weren’t born into a royal family Amara so you treat us as you would Felix or Niykee or Bay, non-royals. You handle yourself with grace, but you also know when force is required. But what I like about you the most love is your passion, your drive. You see something broken and you want to fix it.” I know he means Keenan, Kol even. “That is what this throne needs right now.”
I like what he says, and I start to understand what Kara meant when she told me that he made it very difficult for her to hate him. He makes that difficult now. He’s not like Bastian, as I told him in the throne room that day. He has just been fighting for all of this for so long he lost his way.
“A man who does monstrous things does not a monster make.” I say to him. He gazes back at me, puzzled. “It’s just something Kara’s mother, Lucia used to say. Whenever Kara and I would get angry at Keenan or Aaric or any one of the boys that’s what she’d say. We were kids. We didn’t understand it then, but I—I understand it now, more than I’d like I suppose.” I stand up and walk around the bar, surveying the different decanters until I find something familiar. I fill my glass. “Ah, wow. I’d forgotten what it was like to talk to a man not trying to sleep with me.”
Theon chuckles and grabs another decanter, refilling his glass as well. “Why are you tormenting my boy by the way?”
“Your boy.” I laugh. “Because he deserves it.”
“At the risk of you accusing me of comparing, by my count, Kol has done a lot less than Keenan and yet you played nurse with him earlier. Is it simply because you love Keenan and not Kol or is it just easier for you to punish him rather than admit that you don’t hate him as much as you should?”
I raise my eyes to him and smirk. “Look at you, with the intuitive assumptions.” I tease. “Keenan and I, it was never going to happen. If it was it would have happened long before that night by the lake. Kol, he uh…he makes me nervous.”
“Why is that?” He lifts his glass to drink, blue eyes staring up at me over the top.
“Because you’re right. I should hate him, but I can’t bring myself to do it.”
“And the Limacoran prince? What of him?”
“He’s not like his father you know. He put aside everything he was raised to believe to help my brother save me, a Serpentarian. Tristan was a lot easier, I’ll tell you that. He never wanted anything more than my time. But we never want them, the ones that are good for us. Except you I guess. Kara is the best person that I know. Luckily a choice is not going to be a problem for me.” I knock back the rest of my drink. “Because at the end of these Trials I’ll marry the one who makes the most sense and that will be that. And now that I am pleasantly buzzed, let’s go talk to the new Vakrovian king.”
Kol’s there when we enter the council chambers. His blue eyes find me immediately. So many blue eyes on me, but his are the ones that make me damn near flinch, wanting to disappear so they can’t dissect me any longer.
The council chambers consists of three things. A long table with at least eight chairs on both sides, one at each end. A bar in the back for when things get really stressful. Finally, paintings of old kings on the walls, to remind us of who came before us.
Keenan is seated with a couple of his guards surrounding him. One of them I recognize. Kade, the guard I had during my visit to Zakaria.
Keenan looks so powerful in his military uniform. I have trouble looking past him where Roman is seated across from him. Aaric is planted firmly between Kol and Roman, probably so the two brothers can rein him in if he tries to attack the king again.
Theon has a seat at the head of the table and I sit to his left, across from Kol. “Well look at us. Nice big, happy family.” Theon quips, but no one laughs.
“Only one missing is Kat. Then we could have a party, of international proportions.” I reply. Theon chuckles, a sound deep in his throat.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” Theon prompts.
“I have been advised that an alliance with Llìria would be a wise one.” Keenan begins. His eyes glance over Aaric who looks inclined to attack at any moment if Keenan is not careful. His eyes finally settle on me and Theon.
“Vakrov has money, and soldiers. What could you possibly want from us?” I ask him.
“Well, Vakrov is moving towards reinstating the old laws more and more every day. While most of the council doesn’t suppor
t a Serpentarian throne, they do want what it would stand for. House Serpentarius existed during times of the old laws, therefore it’s a symbol of exactly that. If Llìria rises to power again we want to be on the right side of it.”
Theon opens his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it. “And how would that work exactly? Vakrov wants for nothing, but…support?” Out of the corner of my eye I see Theon smile proudly. “They wanted that support from Zakaria and failed to get it.”
“Vakrov is willing to…accommodate Llìria with soldiers, supplies, money to support your cause. In return we ask that you assist in any way you can, returning our countries and, in turn, our Houses back to their rightful places.”
“And refrain from taking you to war, correct?” Kol supplies. “Given you kidnapped, not just any daughter of House Serpentarius, but its one and only princess.”
Keenan looks uncomfortable by the question, shifting in his seat. “That goes without saying.”
“He said it.” Roman pipes up. He flushes. It’s the only sign I see that tells me he’s as angry as Aaric is with the new Vakrovian king.
“I’m not marrying you, Keenan.” I say almost comically.
Keenan smirks over at me. “I wouldn’t ask you to.” His grin broadens. “Unless you wanted to. No, we can secure the alliance the good old-fashioned way. If you agree we’ll sign a treaty. No need to join our Houses, so to speak.”
“Why should we trust you after everything you’ve done?” Aaric speaks finally. He leans forward and slams his hands down on the table. “Why the hell would we want anything to do with you or your backwater country?”
Theon nudges me in the arm gently. “See what I mean?” he whispers to me under his breath. I look back at my brother and realize he’s right. With my brother’s temper I don’t know how well he would do under the kind of pressure a crown would cause.
Surprisingly Keenan doesn’t rise to Aaric’s bate. He keeps his temper in check. “Leave us.” Keenan sneers at his guards.
“But Your Majesty—” One of his guard’s starts to protest, but Keenan isn’t having it.
“I said leave us!”
They glance at each other, but follow their king’s orders, leaving us alone with their king.
Keenan leans over the table, angry. “Everything I have done from the moment I stepped foot out of that village was for her.” He jabs a finger in my direction. “That girl we’ve all come together for now, because we love her.”
“Did you love her when you were forcing yourself on her?” Aaric snaps back. A wave of ice-cold air wafts over the room, making me shiver in my chair.
“That is a mistake I will be paying for for the rest of my life. Because if I hadn’t done that…” His gaze slides to me and I raise my own to meet his. Normally I’d flinch away, hide from that penetrating electric gaze, but I’m not afraid of it anymore. I’m not afraid of him. I know who he is now and it seems the monster Bastian created is gone for good. “If I hadn’t done that things might have turned out different for us.”
“Keenan,” I know I shouldn’t do this in front of all these people, but the look of despair in his eyes is more than I can take. “Look at me, not him.” I snap when his gaze starts to shift in Aaric’s direction. “I forgive you. That’s the only thing that should matter.”
Keenan only manages a nod, but I know he’s fighting back tears. I hadn’t actually said those words to him yet, even though I’ve meant them for a long time. He swallows hard and then drags his eyes from mine. “When I left to join the King’s Guard it wasn’t long before I learned of the prophecy.” Keenan begins.
“Thee prophecy? Kara’s prophecy?” Aaric questions.
“Let him finish,” I snap irritably. “Go on, Keenan.”
“Prophecies are written decades, sometimes centuries in advance, so yes, I knew about the prophecy long before Kara was pregnant. But I didn’t learn of it because of my sister. I learned of it because of Amara.”
“Me?” I ask in surprise. Beside me, Theon shifts uncomfortably. My eyes move to him, but I don’t say anything. I want to hear the rest before I ask him what he so clearly knows, but hasn’t shared with the class.
“Yes, Amara. Bastian found me not long after I started asking around about the prophecy. That’s when I learned of who I was, that my mother was the king of Vakrov’s sister. Bastian told me what he knew about the prophecy, a baby born into both nether and arcane magic, expected to destroy the world and remake it. What no one has told you, Amara, is that you are going to have a part to play in the remaking of the world. Bastian promised to help me figure out what that meant for you. He also promised to protect you if I helped him get his hands on you. Amara, all I knew is that you were in danger. I didn’t think he’d do the things he did to Haven, or you. Everything I did was because I thought I was protecting you. I realize now there were better ways to do it, that you should have had a say in how I did it.”
Tears spring to my eyes. I want to comfort him, to tell him I understand now, that I’m not angry, but I can’t do it. Not in front of everyone. That is a private moment between only us two.
“Amara,” Theon clears his throat and reaches for my hand on the table between us. “We’ve been so focused on our revolution we’ve neglected to talk about the prophecy, but I think perhaps we need to. We need to all share what we know.”
“For that we’re gonna need drinks.” Kol says.
I glance between Kol and Theon and nod, swallowing. “Many drinks.”
—CHAPTER FORTY THREE—
AMARA
AMENDMENTS
Theon grabs a few extra glasses out from under the bar and Kol pours us each a drink, handing them out to all of us.
“Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?” Theon says.
Kara sits between Aaric and Haven, tapping her foot, hands clutching her belly, looking at Keenan with a daggered glare. Clea is here now too. She and I haven’t talked much since I got here two months ago. Another conversation I’ve been avoiding. I’ve spent so much time suppressing my true feelings over the last seventh months that I don’t seem to know how to express them anymore.
“Kara,” I whisper. Her green eyes shoot to me. “Can you handle this?” She looks puzzled for a moment and then nods. “Okay.” I address the room. “Perhaps we start with what Kara discovered from your Seer, Reverie is it?”
“Starting with that could prove…alarming.” Theon tells me. “Just be aware that what Seers see is not set in stone. The future can always change.”
“Haydan Kasanoff is the first person to bring up the fact that this dangerous magic I was feeling from the baby could be the beginnings of a prophecy coming true.” Kara starts. “So Clea and I went to see Reverie, Theon’s Seer.”
“And what did she have to say?” Roman prompts.
“Well, a lot.” Clea comes in. “She said that it wasn’t necessarily both of the babies, but rather one of them. The boy.”
“That’s when she showed me the vision she had.” Kara continues. “The things that I saw were…disturbing.”
“What did you see, Kara?” I ask gently.
“The end.” she says, voice haunted. “Our world in ruin, battles, dead bodies.” She meets my eyes. “And yours.”
A surge of fear courses through me. The insinuation in her eyes scares me more than what she’s saying. “I die.”
“You die. It’s why I did what I did. It’s why I…”
“Tried to kill your own babies. Because of me.” I breathe.
“But Theon helped me see that was wrong.” Kara presses on. “That this doesn’t have to be a death sentence, for them or for you. Visions can change. The future can change.”
I swallow around the lump building in my throat and avert my eyes from Kara’s. “But the babies survived.”
“They did.” Kol comes in next. “And we came to figure out why. The magic the prophecy predicted the baby would have was something called arcane magic, the type of magic Mages used back in the day
. The magic Pisceans possess only a sliver of in order to do what they can do.”
“It’s this magic that will give him the ability to remake the world in his image.” Clea presses on.
“Katania Westergaard knew of the prophecy.” Theon looks down at me where he stands behind my chair, hands on the back of it. He can’t seem to sit. He doesn’t like talking about this, about his son being this evil monster we may one day have to fight.
“She did.” I confirm. “She thought with my magical ability exceeding every nether user we know that I might be able to help stop what’s to come. And so she sent me to Talvinder.” My eyes fall on Keenan.
“Talvinder told you what?” Roman asks.
“Talvinder gave us three helpful clues, ya know, before I killed him for trying to hurt Haven.”
“One was that the Hunters have expressed a desire to get their hands on this prophecy baby.” Haven finally speaks up, telling her slivers of information one by one. “He didn’t have an answer for why, but you can guess.”
“If the baby has the power to remake the world he has the power to wipe it out. End the Zodiac species as we know it.” Roman says gravely.
“What’s next?” Aaric asks.
“The second thing Talvinder told us was a name. Haydan Kasanoff.” Haven eyes Kol. “Your—our brother.”
“He didn’t elaborate.” I say. “Just the name. Haydan has been living a double life as a Hunter so perhaps he meant that Haydan knows something of the plans the Hunters have for the baby.”
“Plans that will never come to pass.” Theon sneers.
“You and Clea are the first ones who called me the last nether user. Where did you get that from?”
“Reverie.” Theon answers simply. “She’s the one who told me you’d be the last nether user. That proved true for a while. Until Dariella, Haydan, Malia, and her camps that are swarming with ether and nether users.”
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