by M. Lynn
Alex stood and began to read from the paper as his guards rushed in. It was a list of names.
“Robina Garion.” A commotion rose across the room as someone screamed. Two guards wrapped their hands around the upper arms of a red-haired woman with thick spectacles. She kicked and yelled obscenities at them as they hauled her through the public entrance.
The crowd of nobles left behind murmured and began yelling at the king. Their voices ran together as Alex called out the next one. “Paulo Deorga and Olivia Deorga.” This couple stared at each other as they were taken from the room. Their demeanor spoke of nobility but the actions they were arrested for did not.
Alex was tragically efficient. Not every person accused was present, but the room began to thin as he continued reading names.
The king barely acknowledged the men he was condemning. When the last one had been hauled away, he raised his eyes to the remaining crowd. “The men and women taken from this throne room today stand accused of treason.”
That was it. No explanation or words of comfort. Only a cold statement.
Amalie was crying beside her and Etta put an arm around the girl’s shoulders as the kingdom came down around them. This was only the beginning.
Alex cleared his throat. “There has been speculation as to what occurred in the castle during the last twenty-four hours.” He set his jaw and swept his eyes across the room.
Etta stepped forward so he could see her. Amalie was still attached to her arm, but in that moment, Etta felt very much alone. When Alex’s gaze finally met hers, he pressed his lips into a line and huffed out a breath.
Etta’s heart beat wildly as if it would jump out of her chest. She needed an indication, a hint of what he was about to do.
“Magic is evil,” he said.
Etta couldn’t breathe.
Alex continued. “That’s what I’ve been told my entire life. Magic has created every one of our problems. It’s why we needed the wards and why we began to fall apart when they were gone.” He paused. “I think it’s time that as a kingdom we acknowledge that our problems are of our own making. Magic folk are no better or worse than non-magic folk. There is evil in magic, but there is also good.”
He stood from his throne and walked down the steps. His mother joined him as a show of support.
“Yesterday eve, I released the magic folk from our dungeons.” A rumble erupted from the crowd and he held up a hand. “They did not escape. I was not kidnapped.”
His eyes locked onto Etta’s. She felt the curse wrapped around her heart. It squeezed and pulled, but it was more than that. She breathed deeply, her lungs aching for more. She felt as if every word he spoke was only to her, for her. This was how he began to put them back together.
Alex finally broke his frosty king demeanor and the corner of his mouth lifted. “The truth is I spent the night—and really the past year—learning even as we fight against it, magic can be our greatest ally. Those that possess it and want to use it for good must be protected. Over the next few days, we will be issuing royal decrees changing some of our oldest laws. I hope it is a start to making things right.”
His nobles began calling out questions, some in anger, others in curiosity. Alex didn’t answer a single one as he left the room behind.
Etta bent over, trying to catch her breath as the words she’d waited for him to say hung in the room.
Amalie was still crying from watching nobles she’d known her entire life get taken away and her father lose everything, but Etta couldn’t focus on anything besides the man who’d just told his entire kingdom everything they believed was wrong.
Alex had done it. He’d taken their mission from the shadows and brought it into the light. She closed her eyes as tears welled underneath the lids.
Nobles began filing out, talking loudly amongst themselves. Etta didn’t hear any of it. She clutched at her chest and wiped the tears away.
She didn’t care if it was the curse. The past couldn’t hold her back. She was no longer the girl who’d deceived the King of Gaule and Alex was no longer the magic-hating king who’d imprisoned her.
It was everything her people needed. Everything they never foresaw.
And all she knew was she had to go to him.
She needed Alex to make it feel real.
She needed him to be on her side.
Alex slammed his door behind him, preventing his mother and Simon from following him. He lifted his crown off his head and set it on the table, relieved to have the weight of it gone. He didn’t want to have to be that kind of king. The one who imprisoned his own nobles and frightened his people, but that was what was needed. He didn’t have to like it.
He pressed his fingers against his closed eyes and sighed. Gaule couldn’t overcome a rebellion. Not now.
He thought of the meeting he’d had before going into the throne room. People were disappearing from along the border. Gaulean people. Gone. The messenger arrived in the early morning carrying a report from Anders. The captain kept it curt. He didn’t like Alex, but he was a loyal man. His report could be trusted.
Where could La Dame be taking his people? They were sure she was the culprit. That meant the missing people were in one of two places: Bela or Dracon. Bela was still a mystery, but Dracon was worse. It was impregnable with imposing walls encircling the mountain kingdom. It wasn’t a vast realm, but it never had to be, not with the magic in their blood.
Alex’s hands shook as he gripped the edge of the table and bowed his head. He needed to regain his sanity. He needed to be able to think.
His heart raced as he thought of what he’d just done. Gaule hated magic. The laws wouldn’t change overnight and the people may never accept his words. Had he just put a greater target on himself? Now, instead of magic folk, it was his own people sitting in his dungeons.
A leather-bound book called to him from the bookcase and he stalked toward it. It’d been a long time since he’d allowed his mind to be sucked into his drawings. His fingers ran down the worn spine before flipping over the cover. He sucked in a breath and let it trickle back through his lips as his past stared right back at him. The first few pages had been torn out in a previous fit of rage long ago. Now a more recent picture of Edmund stared back at him.
He traced the lines of his face. “I could use your counsel right about now, my friend.” He’d do anything to have Edmund and Tyson back with him. Where were they? He didn’t know if they were safe and there was no way to contact them. To tell them how much he wanted them by his side.
He took the sketchbook and moved to the couch. The next image was of Etta as a young girl. His eyes roamed the beauty he’d drawn her with and he knew. Even then, he’d loved her.
His father would be disappointed in him. He’d call him weak to be controlled by a woman, to allow her to change him. But Alex had finally taken the first steps toward becoming the kind of king he wanted to be. It wasn’t by some coronation. That happened ages ago. But taking his throne the way he had tonight had been because of that woman and those she fought for. They made him see he couldn’t hold himself back for fear of his people. There was power on the throne, but it had to be taken. He understood that now.
He flipped to an image he’d drawn while sitting atop the outer wall, reminding himself what he fought for. Gaule. Its soul was written in the grassy hills that had once been stained with blood. In the villages that only knew peace because others didn’t. In the face of a princess who thought cruelty was righteous.
The question remained. Could Gaule be saved from itself?
He stood and slid the sketchbook back onto the bookcase. It hadn’t provided the answers as it had when he was younger. There were many holes in his knowledge of Bela and Dracon. He could thank his father for that.
He had to see Etta. She’d know what to do.
When did he start trusting her so fully? The question stopped him in his tracks. The girl who’d lied to him was now the one he needed by his side.
With a s
hake of his head, he yanked the door open before colliding with someone.
“Alex,” Etta yelped as she fell backward.
He grabbed her around the waist to steady her and suddenly didn’t remember the questions he’d had. Not when she was so warm in his hands.
“I’m sorry I startled you,” she said quietly, tilting her face up to look at him.
“It was my fault.” Where were his words?
Her cheeks reddened, and a smile curved her lips. “It really was.” She glanced down to where his hands were still clutching her waist. “I don’t think I’m in danger of toppling over any longer.”
“No?” He grinned.
She bit her lip as she shook her head.
“Would you like to come in?”
Her eyes flicked to the guard who stood silently by the door, a reminder that the king was never alone.
For a moment, he thought she would decline. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and studied him. “Okay.”
A wave of relief washed over him as he led her in and shut the door.
“Would you like some wine?” He walked toward the table.
She followed close behind him. “Not really, no.”
He went on. “I was coming to see you because we have some troubling reports I thought you may be able to shed some light on.”
“Alex,” she said.
He poured himself a glass of wine and turned to her. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like some?”
She shook her head. He brought the glass to his lips, but her hand on his arm stopped him. He lowered the goblet and met her intense gaze.
“What you did today…” She inhaled deeply. “You became the man I never thought you’d be.”
He set his wine down. “Etta—”
“No, I need to get this out. I don’t usually say the right things. Everyone tells me I have a destiny. I’m supposed to be their queen, but I don’t know how to help them. I don’t have the power they need me to have. For years, I’ve been training to serve, not to lead. I’m the cursed, but I didn’t know what that meant.” She tilted her head to the side as her eyes shone. “Today I saw you lead. You were amazing. And I thought maybe I could be that for my people too. But I’m still cursed. I’m still tied to you, my enemy.”
He stepped forward and hooked his fingers underneath her chin to tilt her face up. “You know it’s treason for you to call yourself queen of anyone who still lives in Gaule.”
She nodded.
“Yet, all I want to do is tell you how much I believe in you. Is that the curse?”
She hiccuped back a laugh. “I don’t think so. I think that’s you.”
“How much of this is real, Etta?” He leaned his forehead against hers and inhaled.
“Does it matter anymore?” she whispered as she gripped the front of his shirt to hold him there.
He moved his lips to her ear. “No, I don’t suppose it does.”
She groaned when he sucked her earlobe into his mouth and he pulled her against him. His lips traced the soft skin of her cheek until finally claiming her lips in a searing kiss. They melted together and Etta ran her hands up his chest before taking hold of his collar and pushed the jacket from his shoulders. Alex threw it away as his fingers skimmed the heated skin where her shirt met her pants.
Every emotion of Etta’s imprisonment came bubbling to the surface as she pushed his shirt up and over his head.
“Etta,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. I did not order what was done to you, but it was still my fault. It happened under my watch. Geoff was my man.” He pulled her into a crushing hug and she buried her face against his bare chest.
“I know. I can’t forget it, Alex.”
He released her and stepped back. It would always stand between them whether he’d done it to her or not.
She wiped a hand across her face and he cursed himself for causing her tears.
“I can’t forget it,” she repeated, stepping toward him. “But, Alex, everything inside of me is reaching out to you. My head may be conflicted, but my heart…” She took his hand and pressed it over her heart. “…it only beats for you.”
He reached out his free hand and dried the tears on her face with his thumb. “I love you, Etta. I think I’ve been in love with you since watching you win your first battle.”
She smiled. “You were just jealous of my sword skill.”
A laugh burst out of him. “You were the most incredible thing I’d ever seen. I don’t know what’s in store, and I can’t promise we’ll never be on opposite sides of a war. That’s what we were meant for. But right now, I’m so in love with you it hurts and if I don’t kiss you again, it could very well kill me.”
“If you don’t kiss me again, I could very well kill you.”
He kissed her softly, smiling against her lips. His fierce Etta. He spun her around and dragged her shirt over her head as she walked backward toward the bed, never releasing her.
Even as he loved her, he knew. Their bliss wouldn’t last for long.
Contentment. A feeling she’d never truly known. Was this as close as it got? Etta rested her head against Alex’s firm chest as she traced the ridges and valleys with the tips of her fingers.
Alex tangled his hand in her wild hair.
“So soft,” he whispered.
She hummed in response, wishing they could stay there forever. Each time she’d been with him before, she hadn’t gotten the chance to wonder at the meaning behind it all. Alex was the king of Gaule and she… didn’t know what she was. No longer protector. Not yet queen. Lover was too trivial a word.
“You’re thinking too hard.” Alex cupped her cheek as she shifted to look up at him.
“How do you know I’m thinking anything?”
He touched the space between her eyebrows lightly. “You have a line here.” His fingers moved to dance across her lips. “And a frown here.”
She sighed. “I don’t know where this all leaves us.”
“Why does it have to leave us anywhere? It could stay with us.” He bent to kiss her lips. She lifted her head to deepen the kiss.
When he pulled back, she sucked in a breath as if she’d never breathe again.
“There was something I needed to talk to you about tonight.” He wrapped his arms around her back. “It’s crown’s business.”
Sitting up, she gathered the sheet around her. “What is it?”
“Can you tell me what you know of Bela?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why?” Whatever they’d shared, he was still the king of Gaule and she couldn’t yet trust his intentions for Bela.
He rubbed his chin, considering her. “People are disappearing from the villages along the border.”
“I thought those villages suffered recent attacks. Could that be the cause?”
“Our sources tell us the disappearances began before the attacks. We have no way of knowing if they were magic folk or not, but we have our suspicions.”
She brushed her hands through her hair absently. “Couldn’t they be abandoning Gaule of their own free will now that the wards are gone?”
“We thought of that, but these people left everything behind. Families. Belongings. It’s all still there.”
“Are you sure they’re not in the dungeons of one of your nobles?”
He blanched at that, but kept his measured tone. “I considered that as well. It is unlikely, but still a possibility.”
“What’s more likely?”
He thought for a moment. “We know La Dame is in Bela. What we don’t know is why.”
“You think La Dame is abducting the magic folk of Gaule?” she asked. “That’s… probable. Why would she need them?”
He shivered. “She likes to play games. My father always said that of her. She has a bit of fun with her enemies before destroying them.”
“Oh, I know that all too well,” she whispered.
He pulled her back down to him and brushed her hair back from her face. “I know talking about Bela i
s hard for you.”
Etta relaxed into him. “It’s not that. I really don’t know much, having never been there. I only know what my father told me. It used to be a thriving kingdom stuck between the mountains and the sea with great white cliffs and ports where ships from across the great sea would bring all sorts of trade.” She smiled at the memory of her father’s stories of Bela. “Everyone who lived there had some sort of power, but most were quite weak… except for the Basiles.” She trailed off and buried her face in his neck.
“You don’t have to talk about your ancestors,” he said, running his palm along the bumps of her spine.
“My father told me Bela is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The ruins of the ancient palace sit on a set of cliffs overlooking the sparkling sea.” She was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know anything that will help you.”
“I’m sending some soldiers across the border,” he said.
Etta sat up to look at him, but Alex didn’t meet her eyes as she scooted from the bed.
“Maybe we should be the ones to go.” She stared down at her hands.
“You know we can’t risk that.”
He was right, but it didn’t make her feel any better. She was the one who should be protecting her people. If La Dame was taking them, she needed to find a way to stop her.
Alex started walking toward the table when his foot caught on the rug and he stumbled, unable to catch himself. As he crashed to the ground, a laugh burst from Etta’s lips.
“Are you okay?” Her words were muffled by the hand she clapped over her mouth.
A wry smile appeared on Alex’s handsome face and he smoothed his hair back before climbing to his feet, giving Etta the perfect view of his firm derriere.
“Stop staring at me,” he said as he made his way to the table. “Or I won’t give you any wine.”
“Too bad I left my sword in my room.” She grinned. “I’d fight you for it.”
He looked back over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t stand a chance, would I?”
She laughed in answer.
“That’s what I thought.”