Finally, Rafe spoke up. The faux friendliness had dropped from his voice. “You want us to wait weeks, though we now know for sure our royals are alive within those walls? And to risk all of our lives on devices that work on . . . invisible waves?”
Rafe looked around the room, incredulous. But though every head in the pub swiveled to look from him to Cedric, not one of them backed Rafe up. Cedric felt a surge of hope.
Rafe’s eyes flared in anger. “You speak well, Prince. But while you have been dallying in other worlds, we have been fighting for our lives. You have no idea—”
“You are right,” Cedric said. “I have been in another world. And I was not dallying; I did fight wraths there. You told everyone in this room as much last night. But I also learned there are better ways to fight. I made mistakes, and learned from them, and I will use that knowledge to defeat the wraths and Malquin here. You bring up the royals, but that is not just my king in those walls—it is my father. My mother, my sister. Know that I will not stop until I see them free, until I see our entire world free.”
Cedric’s voice carried a steadiness he did not entirely feel. Rafe stared at him, and the silence in the room grew thick. Cedric knew that this was the moment that would decide everything.
But it wasn’t Rafe who spoke. It was the man next to him who suddenly stepped forward, then kneeled to the ground.
“I will follow you, my prince.”
The man standing next to him, who had a beard down to his chest and was carrying a cup of ale though it was just past dawn, kneeled as well. “I will follow you, my prince.”
One after the other, men and women kneeled.
Cedric didn’t know what to do, how to move. Men had kneeled for his father, but never for him. He looked up and saw Kat beaming at him from across the room.
They’d done it.
As the villagers started to gather around him, and as the drinks started to flow, Cedric began to truly feel, for the first time, like the plan might be successful. He was doing it right, taking precautions and not just reacting on a whim like he had in the past. He was going to act not like a young prince, but like a future king.
Cedric exhaled slowly as he made his way over to the wooden post fence that ran alongside the small yard behind the pub. He’d finally managed to slip away from the crowd of villagers who’d been clamoring to give him mead, claiming to need some air. The claim wasn’t entirely untrue.
On the other side of the fence was a tiny spring, surrounded by white wildflowers. Cedric didn’t even hear Kat until she leaned up against the post next to him.
“That was not so bad now, was it?” she asked, her voice light.
Cedric gave a brief, surprised laugh in response.
“Could have gone worse, I suppose.”
Kat bumped a shoulder into his. “Come now, modesty has never really been one of your strengths.”
Cedric’s face broke out into a grin. “You’re right. I was fantastic. And what’s more, I had complete confidence it would work the entire time.”
“Obviously.”
Cedric grinned again, and Kat broke out into a laugh. She’d had few opportunities to truly laugh during the past few months, and to hear the sound of it now was like seeing the sun at the end of a long, cloudy day.
“Honestly Kat,” Cedric said, “I could not have done any of it without you.”
“Of course not,” she said, still smiling.
“I mean it,” Cedric continued. “Not just today, but the past few months . . . if you had not been there, I don’t know what I would have done . . .”
Kat’s smile twitched, and her dark eyes locked on to Cedric’s.
“You would have done whatever you had to do. As the future king of Caelum.”
And there was such confidence, such sureness in her eyes, that Cedric could barely stand to look in them. He glanced to the ground.
But Kat just grabbed his chin and tilted his head up, so he was forced to look at her. “I am not sure when exactly it was you lost your faith in yourself, but what you said in that pub just now was true. Everything that happened in LA, all that we went through, even the mistakes . . . it did make you a better leader. And even if you do not believe in yourself at the moment, know that I believe in you. Not just because you are the prince. But because you’re you.”
Cedric’s heart thudded in his chest at her words. Her fingers against the skin of his face were rough from fighting, her grip gentle but firm.
“I could not be me without you,” he said.
Without planning it, without thinking at all, Cedric moved closer to Kat. Her face, the face he’d known so well and for so long, was just inches from his. For a moment, she looked surprised as he moved closer, but then her mouth parted in a smile.
“You admit it, then,” she said. Then she was moving closer to him, too. She was so beautiful, this close. It was hard to do anything but stare. “Finally.”
Cedric closed his eyes, and pressed his mouth to hers.
Her lips were smooth and soft as they pressed back. He tried to focus on the sensation of it, tried not to think about how he was kissing Kat—actually kissing Kat—but it was impossible to turn off his thoughts.
After all, this was the Kat he’d known since they were children, fighting each other with wooden swords. She’d been taller than him then, her hair a mess of braids.
This was also the Kat he trusted more than anyone to fight by his side, with her sure responses and quick movements. Her mouth was quick now, moving surely . . .
Cedric fought to stay in the moment. He moved his hands up to Kat’s shoulders—was that where they went? What was he supposed to do with his hands? It hadn’t been this way when he’d kissed Liv. This kiss was different. Not bad-different, just . . .
Don’t think about Liv.
Cedric kissed Kat harder, and she gave a soft noise of surprise. Her mouth spread into a smile, and she pulled away a fraction, looking up at him. Suddenly Cedric found it difficult to look into her eyes. He’d seen those same eyes a thousand times, but now there was something new there. For the first time in a long time, he couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
Cedric looked up, then, and saw a figure standing not ten feet from them, across the yard by the open pub door.
Liv.
She was looking right at him. At them.
Cedric’s heart thudded as he saw the shock on Liv’s face, but before he could react, she quickly turned and disappeared back into the pub. Without thinking, he took a step away from Kat, toward the spot where Liv had been standing.
Kat instantly took a step back as well. Cold rushed into the space between them. Too late, Cedric backtracked to move a bit toward her. She leaned away.
“I-I’m sorry,” Cedric started, faltering.
“You’re sorry?”
“No, I mean, it is only . . . For a moment I thought that I should maybe . . .” He gestured lamely toward the doorway.
“You mean to go after her?” Kat asked, her voice flat. “Is that really what you want to do?”
And there it was again—that unknowable look in her eyes, the one that made a stranger of his oldest friend. Cedric knew he’d done something wrong, that he shouldn’t have pulled back so quickly, but he didn’t quite know how to fix it. He knew Kat would eventually understand, just as she always did. But Liv?
“We will need her on our side in the coming weeks, is all,” Cedric said. “I do not want for there to be any . . . confusion.”
“I do not think her confusion is the issue.”
“Kat . . .” He reached out to her, but she took another step away. Her head bent down for a moment, and when she lifted it again, the strange look in her eyes was gone. They were once again shuttered and fierce, no longer vulnerable in any way.
“No, you are right. We need Liv as an ally,” she said. She brushed hair out of her face with one casual sweep of the hand. “Go, now. Before she runs into the woods and gets herself eaten.”
“Ar
e . . . you sure?” Cedric asked.
Kat just raised an eyebrow.
“All right,” Cedric said, with a quick nod. He moved to follow Liv. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Kat’s face fall. But when he looked back, she was still giving him a cool stare.
As he went, however, he couldn’t help but feel he’d done this all wrong.
It was a familiar feeling these days.
Liv hated the air in this place. It was too thin, which made it hard to catch your breath just when you needed it the most. She walked quickly along the dirt-and-stone road, trying to gulp in air as she went.
No way was she going to cry.
It would be so, so dumb to cry.
Cedric had told her from the beginning that he was engaged to another girl. She knew from the start (even if she hadn’t believed it at first) that he was a prince with a whole country counting on him. The two of them together—it was impossible. And she knew that. But still . . . walking out of the pub and seeing Cedric and Kat together had felt like innocently turning a corner and smashing headfirst into a steel wall.
It hurt.
Liv shook her head gently, trying to clear the image from her mind. She hadn’t come to Caelum to try to win over Cedric. She had to focus on finding her brother and bringing him home. Before this world could do any irreversible damage to either of them.
Liv walked without knowing where she was going. Away from the pub, away from Cedric and Kat in that sunlit backyard, her hand on his face, him leaning toward her . . .
Stop.
A few villagers passed by Liv as she walked on, giving her openly curious glances. She kept her head down, avoiding them all. Now that they knew who she was and where she’d come from, they seemed to have so many questions for her. And she didn’t want to explain what sound waves were one more time, just like she didn’t want to pretend to be excited about Cedric’s plan that would leave her brother stranded for weeks.
Just as Liv was rounding on the small inn where she’d spent the night, she heard footsteps behind her. She knew exactly who it was.
She spun around quickly and faced him, savoring the small expression of surprise on his face as he stopped short. For a moment they just stared at each other, a few feet away. They’d stopped underneath a large tree that shaded some of the road, and light dappled down through the leaves to fall over Cedric’s face.
Cedric cleared his throat. “I am sorry—”
“Sorry? That’s all you have to say for yourself?”
Cedric’s jaw twitched. He looked pained.
“I did not want to hurt you. I . . . I only want you to understand, that Kat and I—”
Liv put a hand up to stop him, barely able to look at his face. “This isn’t about you and Kat. And it’s not about you and me.”
Cedric’s brows pushed together, confused. And was there a little hurt in his expression, too? Liv felt a spike of irritation. Why should he get to be the one who was hurt?
“Not that there is a ‘you and me’ anymore, obviously. I mean, that’s pretty clear, right?”
Cedric blinked. The leaves above him shifted in the breeze, casting shadows over his face. After a beat, he nodded. “Yes. I suppose it is. So . . . why are you upset?”
Liv threw up her hands in exasperation. “Why am I upset? Why do you think I was looking for you out there in the first place?”
Cedric’s eyes moved over her face, as if searching for the answer. “I . . . I don’t know.”
“We’ve been here for a few days now, and we’re not any closer to rescuing Peter than we were when we came through the portal. In fact, we’ve moved farther away from him. And then you and Kat come up with this whole walkie-talkie, wait-several-weeks-to-do-anything plan, all on your own, and . . . I mean, did you even think to include me in your planning session at all?”
Cedric’s mouth fell open a little, and he looked at Liv the way he did when she said some modern-day word he didn’t understand. “I . . . no,” he said, simply. “We needed to come up with a viable strategy quickly.”
“I get that. But you’re not the only one with something at stake here. My brother’s counting on me, and I have no idea if he’s hurt, or what Malquin is doing to him . . . every day that he spends here could be putting him in more danger. Then you come up with this plan that’ll take weeks to put together. Weeks. Can you promise me Peter will stay safe that long?”
Cedric squared his shoulders. “I promise I will do everything I can to save your brother. But this is about so much more than him. I have a whole realm to protect. Do you not care about that?”
“Of course I care.”
“Then why can’t you support a plan that is best for my people? To wait is the safest course of action, to defeat the wraths entirely before entering the castle.”
“And what if they decide to hurt the prisoners while you’re busy storming the walls with your army? What if before you even get in the city, Malquin takes it out on Peter? Or your parents? Or sister? Did you think about that?”
“It was a possibility we discussed.”
“You and Kat.”
“Yes,” Cedric said, his voice strained.
Liv shook her head. “You’re not the only two people with family in there. I should have had a say.”
Cedric finally threw his hands up, exasperated. “Fine. I am sorry we didn’t come to you, an untrained, uncooperative Earth girl whose only battle experience involves watching silly imaginary pictures move across a screen, to ask you for strategy help.”
Liv took a step back, the words hitting her like a physical blow. Her arms dropped to her sides. “That’s what you think of me?”
Cedric gave a short sigh, and looked slightly abashed. But also slightly frustrated. He ran a hand through his hair.
“Okay,” Liv said, trying to keep her voice calm, to hide how much Cedric’s words had stung. “That’s good to know, really. Whatever. But even if you don’t take me seriously, what about Rafe?”
Cedric’s eyes narrowed. “Rafe?”
“Yeah, you know, the guy who’s actually been running this place for months? The guy whose brother you nearly put in a coma back in LA?”
This time, Cedric was the one who looked like he’d been punched. Liv knew she’d gone too far, but it was too late to stop now. Plus, Cedric’s words about her still rang in her head.
“Rafe’s idea makes a lot of sense,” Liv continued. “He told me all about it last night.”
“Did he.” Cedric’s voice was flat. His entire expression had gone still, his eyes dark and steely under the shadows of the tree.
“Yep. Apparently, some people don’t just think of me as a stupid, untrained Earth girl.”
When Cedric spoke, his voice was still as cold as ice. “Rafe has been working against me since the moment we arrived.”
Liv rolled her eyes. “Questioning your absolute authority over all things isn’t the same as working against you. He saved your life, remember? And he wants to free his family, too. Without putting them in more danger.”
“He may want to free his family, but he doesn’t want to do it alongside me. He wants the glory all to himself.”
“You’ve cracked.” Liv shook her head. “You so badly want to be the one who’s right all the time, the guy with the plan that finally works for once”—a flinch from Cedric, but Liv ignored it—“that you’re ignoring good advice from someone who’s on your side.”
“Rafe is on his own side, and no one else’s.”
Liv put up her hands, palms out. She shook her head. “I don’t even know what to say. You’ve changed since coming here. Or, I don’t know. Maybe this is who you’ve always been, in Caelum.” She paused. “And I’m not sure I like this you a whole lot.”
She turned and walked away before he could respond, the knot in her stomach pulling tighter and tighter with each step she took.
Liv’s fists stayed clenched as she wandered around the village roads for the next half hour, replaying th
e argument again and again in her head. Sometimes she would think about the words she’d said and start to feel a twinge of regret, but then she remembered everything Cedric had said and the anger would flare up just as fierce as before.
She walked quickly, as if she had someplace to be. And she did—though she didn’t realize it until the crumbling stone wall came into view.
“Going somewhere?”
Rafe sat on the exact same spot he had the night before, though now he was wearing a hood and half a scowl. His mood seemed to match her own.
“I wish,” she replied.
Rafe smiled. “Really? And where is it you wish to go?”
Liv let out a long sigh and looked around her. There was a dirt road leading off in two directions, surrounded by grass and trees and the occasional wooden house on each side. Everything was foreign. Where could she go?
“In an ideal world, I’d go save my brother before Cedric’s war puts him in any more danger, then get the hell out of this place.”
Rafe cocked his head, measuring her up. “But this is not an ideal world?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, hearing the defeat in her voice. “I don’t know anything about this place, really.”
“But I do,” Rafe said, his own voice lowering. “Remember what I said last night? About how I would help you?”
Liv swallowed. “Yes, but . . .”
“Of course, I would not want you to do anything that might cause a rift between you and Cedric.”
Liv scoffed. “It’s a bit late for that.”
“Then what is holding you back?” Rafe asked, his eyes now boring into hers. “Did you not just say you want to save your brother?”
“I . . . yes. But how can we do that without ruining Cedric’s whole plan?”
Rafe straightened, suddenly all business. “We would have to be careful. Move quickly to get to the palace and find a way inside before the fighters arrive. We would have to be cunning and—”
“Sneaky?”
“Yes. Very sneaky,” Rafe said, smiling.
A trickle of static ran down Liv’s spine. “I can’t believe I’m actually talking about doing this.” She shook her head, but she didn’t move away.
The Broken World Page 7