Storybound

by Emily Mckay

  “I have to accept it. It’s what’s right. If we ignore the good of the Kingdoms and do whatever we want, we’ll be no better than Smyth.”

  Kane just looks at me for a moment, his expression intense. Then his mouth twists in a smile, and he says, “Yeah, well, nobody wants that, do they?”

  It takes me a moment longer than him to see the humor in the situation. Finally, I chuckle. “No. They don’t.”

  After all, he wouldn’t be Kane if he didn’t joke his way through every shitty situation.

  “That’s not why I came here, though,” he says.

  “It’s not?”

  “No. I need a favor.”

  “Anything,” I say without hesitation.

  “I want you to take Lucy with you.”

  “What?”

  “She’s in constant danger here. And you’re right. As long as Smyth knows her binding name, he will use her against me. Or someone else will. I’m vulnerable as long as she’s here.”

  I swallow hard and force myself to nod. “I understand.”

  He gives my arm a squeeze. “It’s not forever. I’m going to stop Smyth. Even if I have to become King to do it. Once I’m King I can change things. Besides, I—” He ducks his head. “I’m hoping you’ll check in on me occasionally. When things are more stable, you can bring her back.”

  “Yes. Of course.” My heart thuds in my chest. This isn’t goodbye forever, even if it’s goodbye to my deepest wishes.

  “I know I’m asking a lot.”

  “I’ll do it,” I say automatically. I don’t let myself think about the logistics of this. About how I will explain this to my mom, or how I will make a life for Lucy in my world. I’ll worry about that when we get there.

  Kane looks at me again. “I trust you to keep her safe.”

  Again my breath catches. Because I know what this means to him. I know what a big deal it is, this thing he’s asking of me. “I will. Absolutely.”

  He turns and walks toward the door, but I stop him before he reaches it.

  “I have another question.”

  He turns back, arching one eyebrow.

  “When Ro and I were fighting, how did you know to come? Did the princess tell you something was wrong?”

  “No. You did. I heard you call out to me in my mind.”

  I think back, to the moment on Crescent Island, when I was trying to save Kendal. When I felt her in my mind.

  Finally, I nod my understanding. “When Kendal was falling off that cliff, when I was trying to save her… Did she make me her dowt-mate?”

  “I think so.”

  “And now—” The words stick in my chest, because the possibility for excruciating embarrassment is profound. “And now, we’re dowt-mates, too? You can hear everything I think?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t think the connection is that strong. Not without Kendal here keeping the link open.”

  “Is that why I can’t read your thoughts?”

  “I think I heard your thoughts only because you needed me.” He gives me another one of his hard, impenetrable looks. “If you ever need me again…” He lets his words trail off, shaking his head. “I mean, I know you won’t.”

  He’s almost out the door when I reach him, stopping him with a hand on his arm.

  “Kane, it’s not that. It’s that—”

  “It’s that you think I belong with the princess.”

  “I know you belong with her.”

  “Why?” he asks bluntly. “What makes you so damn sure she’s the one?”

  “You mean besides the fact that she’s gorgeous? And perfect? And—”

  “You’re gorgeous. You’re perfect.”

  “No, I’m not! I’m not what you need.”

  “And you’re so sure you know what I need?”

  “Yes, I am.” Though I wish I wasn’t. “The Kingdoms of Mithres need you. They need you to be King, because if you don’t take the throne, Smyth will steal it. Before your mother took you into hiding, the king named you heir. That means you can claim the throne all on your own, without the princess by your side. But you still need someone to help you. Someone who is powerful and respected. Someone who will watch your back. The princess can do all that in a way I never could.”

  I can see my logic working its way into his mind. I’m convincing him, even though I wish I wasn’t.

  Then he steps forward and cups my face in his hands. “You want to know why I won’t fall in love with the princess? It’s because I’m already in love with you. I won’t ever love her. I will never feel about her the way I feel about you. Which is ironic, I guess, since you’ll never feel about me the way you feel about him.”

  “Him?”

  “Kane the Traveler.” His gaze meets mine. “I’ve been in your mind, Edie. I know how you feel about him. And I know what you’ve said to Kendal about him. The noble hero. The only hope for the Kingdoms of Mithres. And I know I’m not him.” His voice is bitter.

  I grab both of his arms, wanting to shake him to make him understand. “You don’t know anything.”

  “I know I’m a disappointment. You can’t love me the way you love him.” He pauses, his gaze moving over my face like he wants me to contradict him. “But if I could rewrite the story of my life to be the kind of guy who deserves you, I would.”

  I let go of his arms and reach up to cup his jaw. “No, Kane. You’re not less than he is. You are him. In all the ways that matter to me, you are him. And in the ways you’re not, you’re better than he is. Kane the Traveler didn’t want to be King because he was afraid he wasn’t worthy. You don’t want to be King because you are protecting someone you love. I would never fault you for that. I would never wish that part of you away. I would never wish Lucy away.”

  He kisses me. And I can feel him pouring all of his heart into it. I can taste the hope. The longing.

  Which makes it that much sadder for me. Because I know how this story ends.

  When he lifts his mouth from mine, he says just one word. “Stay.”

  That one word pierces my heart to the core. Suddenly, I have a new understanding of what it means to be a Sleeker. Because this is yet another thing that is beyond my reach.

  “I can’t. This isn’t my world. I have to go back to my world. To my mother. And you have to become High King. It’s your destiny.”

  “It could be your destiny, too. I’m a better man when I’m with you. I would be a better King with you by my side.”

  “I may be Sleeker born, but I’m still a Dark Worlder. The people of the Kingdoms of Mithres would never accept a halfling on the throne.”

  “I am halfling.”

  “Maybe, but you’re also the rightful heir of the previous High Queen. You grew up here. You pass for Tuatha.” I gesture to his height. “You’re even as tall as a Tuatha. I could never pass. I’m too stubby, remember?” I add with a gentle tease.

  Instead of laughing at my joke, he runs the back of his fingers down my cheek. “You’re perfect.”

  I want to make another joke, but the words get stuck in my throat.

  I have to step away, and I shove my hands deep in my jean pockets to keep from reaching for him again. “Besides, eventually, you’ll forget about me. You’ll fall in love with the princess. I know it.”

  “I will never feel about the princess the way I feel about you. But if you want me to, I will try to fake it.”

  “I don’t want you to fake it. I—” God, it about kills me to say it out loud. “I want you to actually love her. I want you to be happy. I want you to let her make you happy.”

  Slowly, his gaze searching my face, he nods. “Okay. I will.”

  I try to be satisfied with his answer, even though grief is crushing my soul.

  This is the right thing to do. It’s the right ending for this story. It’s a happy
ending.

  It’s just not a happy ending for me.

  Excerpt from

  Book Five of The Traveler Chronicles:

  The Traveler Undone

  I’m no good at goodbyes.

  When it’s time to leave, I just disappear. It’s better that way.

  Besides, if you know my binding name, you’ll always be able to summon me.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  Somehow, I make it through the next couple of hours on adrenaline alone.

  Sure, I eat a few bites of something that Morgan puts in front of me while we are waiting for Kane to explain what’s going to happen to Lucy.

  Surprisingly, Tuatha food is bland and uninteresting. I expected a lavish feast, but instead, I get food that looks pretty but has little flavor. I don’t know if their taste buds are different than ours, or if this is another area in which they are just not as creative as we Dark Worlders are.

  Morgan doesn’t say much to me as I eat. And I have too many things to say to him to say any of them.

  Morgan sits sprawled in his chair, his legs spread wide. Though his posture isn’t that different than the last time we sat at this table, previously his sprawl seemed the result of his arrogant confidence. Now, he seems almost unable to support himself, as if his grief is too big for his body and it’s seeping out of him.

  We have been alone for almost an hour when he says, “I don’t blame you.”

  I don’t need to ask what he’s talking about. Instead, I force myself to meet his gaze. I owe him that much, at least. “I blame me.”

  “You shouldn’t. You didn’t know what would happen. You didn’t know who she would become.” He leans back in his chair, looking out into the distance.

  After a long moment, he says, “I know you are eager to get home, but if you have time, may I tell you a story?”

  I’m not sure what to say, so I simply nod.

  “I think it is a story you’ll want to hear.” Apparently, it’s not an easy story to tell, because he pushes himself from the chair with an obvious effort of will and crosses to stand before the wall of windows that looks out on the lake.

  “It is a story about the time I spent on the island you have been calling Crescent Island. Those years, those long thirteen years, passed mostly in a blur. Not a quick blur—actually, it was a slow, agonizing blur—but a blur, nonetheless. Every day, the same. Every moment, the same. With no hope that things would ever change. Until you and Kane showed up and rescued me.”

  As he speaks, I cannot help but remember the younger Morgan that I met on that island. He was so unlike the Morgan I have known in this timeline. So fragile and pained. So heartbreakingly serious.

  “After you rescued me, I returned to the moment just after Smyth had taken me. To the life I had known before. I had spent thirteen years on Crescent Island. My brain and my body had not developed. I was still a seven-year-old boy. And yet I had lived all those years, lived as no sentient creature should have to live. I need not tell you, I was never the same.”

  He pauses, glancing over his shoulder at me, before looking out the window.

  “I was safe. I was with my family and my sister again. I should have been at peace, and I became very good at pretending that I was. But I knew better than most that no timeline is fixed. No destiny is so firm that it cannot be changed. I knew that in sixteen years, I would be rescued. Or rather, I hoped I would. I waited eleven years never knowing what my fate would be.

  “Then when I was fifteen, I met Kane. He seemed impossibly young compared to the man I remembered. But I recognized him instantly. From that moment on, I had the hope that one day Kane would rescue me. But I knew it couldn’t happen until you showed up. I was haunted by the possibility that the timeline in which I had been rescued would not happen.”

  He turns back to face me, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his expression drawn.

  “So you see, I knew who you were the moment I met you in that limo. I knew you had finally come to save the boy I was. I manipulated Kane into trusting you. I brought you to the island. The events of these past few days are the result of years of me willing them to happen.”

  Something must be showing on my face, some hint of my surprise or my confusion, because he adds, “Remember, Edie, in this world, will matters. Even for those of us with no Sleeker blood.”

  “Did you know how this was going to end?”

  “None of us really know how this is going to end, Cupcake. Not even you.”

  I am still struggling to wrap my brain around everything he has told me. “So then, I really am part of the story?”

  He crosses to stand in front of me, seeming impossibly tall. And for the first time this morning, his grief softens into something else. Something warm and affectionate. “My dear, you have always been part of my story.”

  …

  Just before dawn, Kane opens a loop back to his loft above The Volume Arcana. Since this is the threshold through which I entered this world, it should be the easiest one for me to open. Besides, The Volume Arcana lies upon the intersection of six powerful lay lines. Even a newbie like me should be able to pick up the power and open a threshold.

  Once we’re there, Kane and Morgan exchange a look. Before I wonder why, Morgan takes Lucy by the hand and leads her down the hall to one of the rooms I never saw, leaving me alone with Kane. In his living room. With that stupid Faraday Cage still sitting there.

  I start to babble. I can’t help it.

  “The first time I ever heard of a Faraday Cage was when my dad read me The Postman.”

  “Cupcake—”

  “By David Brin. You ever read it? No? You should. It’s a classic. It—”

  “Edie.”

  I stop talking, slowly turning to look at him. “That’s my name,” I whisper.

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “You don’t usually say it.”

  I don’t know that he’s ever said it, and the sound of my name in his voice does things to my insides that make it hard to breathe and harder still to think.

  “I get it,” he says, closing the distance between us until he’s right in front of me. So close he’s almost touching me. “You think I’m going to fall in love with her. But you’re wrong. I’m not gonna fall for her. How can I when I’m in love with you?”

  “You’re—”

  But before I can get the words out, he presses a finger to my lips. “Shut up. For once, just let me do the talking.”

  I’d be insulted if it wasn’t for the playful glint in his eyes as he says it.

  “You thought you knew my story, but you were wrong. About a lot of things. You were wrong about Morgan. About Ro. About Lucy. There are just too many things you didn’t know.”

  It’s on the tip of my tongue to protest, but I stop myself. Why am I still arguing with him about this?

  “What if you’re wrong about this, too?” he asks. “What if I’m not supposed to fall in love with her? What if I’m supposed to love you?”

  “I don’t know what the right answer is here,” I admit. Saying it aloud is harder than it feels like it should be. I don’t like not knowing things. It’s terrifying. “I know you’ll be a great King. And I know you can’t do that with me by your side.”

  “Edie—”

  “Let me finish. This isn’t me just babbling. This is important.”

  His lips—those perfect, too-full lips of his—curve into a wry smile that shows off his dimples and melts my resolve. But he doesn’t interrupt me again. He just tips his head, waiting for me to continue.

  “I can’t choose my own happiness over the safety of this entire world. I just don’t have it in me to make that choice.” I pause, looking off into the distance, running my teeth over my bottom lip as I consider my words, scared to say this out loud. In a world full of monsters and enemies, hope may be the most dange
rous thing of all. “But if there was another way…if there is another person who can rule…”

  “You mean, if the lost Oidrhe is real.”

  I meet his gaze and try not to lose myself in it. “Yeah.”

  My answer sounds breathless, my voice made delicate by holding so much hope.

  Kane grins. “If she’s real, you’ll find her.”

  “You’ve never believed she’s real,” I counter. “You told the Curator she was a fairy tale.”

  He shrugs. “True. But you made the binding promise. If she’s out there, you will find her.”

  “Maybe,” I say, hesitantly, still not quite willing to give myself over to hope. “If she lived, she’d be Lucy’s age. Way too young to rule. And who knows how long it will take to find her?”

  His hand slips up to cup my cheek, tipping my chin up so I meet his gaze. “I’m patient.”

  I study his face, taking in every detail, all the features that are exactly what I expected. All the ones that aren’t. All the tiny things that make him, him, and not that other Kane. I don’t know when I’ll see him again—and I don’t want to forget anything. I only know that I will see him again. “All I’m saying is…don’t give up on me yet.”

  “Ah, Cupcake. If you thought I was going to give up on you, you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

  He nuzzles his nose against mine, and when I tip my face up, he leans forward and whispers something in my ear. Something only for me. Then he kisses me. His lips are warm against mine. I feel myself rising up on my toes to get closer to him. His hands cup my cheeks and his fingers are in my hair. And I want the moment to go on and on. I want it to last forever. I want that so badly, I’m afraid of wanting it too much. I am afraid that I will somehow make the world stop turning, just so that I can keep this moment a little longer.

  It’s terrifying to want something this much, but maybe it shouldn’t be.

  I’ve spent so much of my life hiding from the real world. Maybe it’s time to stop hiding and take my place, whether it’s in this world or in mine.

  …

  The future may be terrifying, but it turns out, opening a threshold isn’t. I feel the magic pulse from beneath my feet and into the air around me. The magic is so strong right here that I don’t even need both hands to open a threshold into the Dark World. I don’t look back at the world I am leaving behind. Instead, holding Lucy’s hand, I step through, out into the early morning light in Austin, Texas.