by W.J. May
The shape-shifter was wisely keeping her distance, but the princess was in a rage. Without a second thought, she threw down her pack and marched blindly into the woods. She didn’t care where she was going. She didn’t if she ever found her way back. The only thing she cared about was getting as much space between her and Dylan Aires as possible.
Of course, that didn’t stop her from screaming at the top of her lungs.
“You had no reason!” she shouted. “No reason in the world to keep it to yourself! Other than everything has to be so freakin’ mysterious with you. Other than you like to play sick little games—”
“You’re mad at me?!” One second, he was back in the clearing. The next, he was grabbing her by the arm, yanking her to a sudden stop. “I don’t believe it. You’re mad at me!”
“Why didn’t you tell me—”
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” The space between them grew abruptly quiet. Filled only with the sound of their shallow breathing, their chests heaving up and down. “I’m the one who has a right to be angry here, Katerina, not you!”
She flinched when he said her full name. There was a time when she might have wanted to hear him say it. But now, it sounded harsh and unforgiving to her ears. “I told you I’d run away from my family,” she mumbled.
“Yes, but you didn’t tell me it was the royal family,” he spat. “That makes a little bit of a difference, don’t you think?”
All at once, her rage disappeared. It had been brought about by panic and a misguided sense of betrayal, but it was hypocrisy at its worse. He was right. She should have told him from the start.
Her eyes lowered to the forest floor, but Dylan wasn’t the type to let her off the hook so easily. He stood tall and firm in front of her, refusing to budge an inch.
“You didn’t think I had a right to know what I was getting in to?” His voice had dropped to that soft, dangerous clip he’d used the night they met at the tavern. The one that sent chills down her spine. “That the people coming after you weren’t some disgruntled relatives, but royal soldiers? Soldiers, and knights, and who the heck knows what else?!”
She hung her head as she felt the anger, knew his eyes flashed with rage.
“Maybe it was just that I’m a commoner.” His face hardened in disgust. “What’s the life of one ranger? We’re all expendable to you people—”
“That’s not true!” A pair of tears flew down her face as she finally lifted her head to face him. “You have to know that’s not true!”
He grew unexpectedly gentle. His sky-blue eyes softened, and every hint of anger vanished from his handsome face as he stared at the wetness on her cheeks. “Then why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly, bending down to hold her gaze. “You had so many chances…”
Yes, she had. And she’d almost taken them, every single time. By this point, Katerina couldn’t even remember how many times she’d almost spilled her secret. When they were trekking through the woods each afternoon. When they were packing up the tent each morning. When they were sitting beside the evening fire, telling stories and staring up at the stars. She’d almost told him every single time. But something hadn’t let her. Something held her back.
“I didn’t want you to leave me.”
The interrogation came to an abrupt stop as the quiet words were whispered between them. She hadn’t realized them herself until she’d said them out loud, and they were certainly the last thing he’d expected to hear. He pulled back a few inches, searching her face for the truth.
“You thought that would happen?” he finally asked. “You actually thought I’d leave you?”
She bit down on her lip, refusing to let herself cry. “You did it once. Why wouldn’t you do it again? When the stakes were so much higher? When there was a chance you could be killed? And to do it for—”
She broke off suddenly, refusing to let herself say anymore. Things were finally honest between them, but she’d come dangerously close to the edge of a terrible truth. A truth that had been haunting her every day since she’d left the castle.
Another tear slipped down her cheek, but a warm hand wiped it away. Tilting her face until she was staring into a pair of staggering eyes. “To do it for…what?”
For a fleeting moment, all she could do was stare. The second she said the words, it would be over. The strange understanding that had sprung up between them would be gone, and she’d be very lucky if he didn’t decide to leave with it. Then the moment passed, and she pulled in a breath. “To do it for a princess.”
Never before had she hated the position she held until that very moment. Never before had she been ashamed of her birth, repulsed by her own legacy. But it was true. She had seen firsthand the way the ‘other half’ lived. In poverty. In fear. In the knowledge that they were perceived as less by those who were supposed to protect and lead them. And she knew firsthand, after spending her entire life in the castle, that they were absolutely right.
Her family were the oppressors. These people were the oppressed. That’s all there was to it.
“Before I left the castle, I didn’t know…” She trailed off, lifting her eyes to the horizon as the faces of those she’d met on her travels flashed before her eyes. Finally, when the silence could go on no longer, she simply said, “If I was in your place, I wouldn’t want to help someone like me.”
For the second time, they lapsed into silence. It seemed an odd place to be so…at odds. The birds were chirping in the trees above them. The afternoon breeze was rustling through their hair. If it wasn’t for what they were discussing, it would have made a lovely portrait.
Then Dylan’s quiet voice brought the picture back to life. “And what gives me the right to judge?”
Katerina looked up in shock. Convinced she hadn’t heard him correctly. Convinced he’d meant to say goodbye instead. “I’m… excuse me, sorry?”
“Did you turn your father against his own realm? Did you enforce his laws? Write his policies?” His eyes gentled as they stared down into hers. “Did you fight in his rebellions?”
She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe. She merely shook her head.
He bowed his head with the softest sigh before looking back up with a sad smile. “You cannot judge a person based on where they’re from. You cannot hold a person responsible for the sins of their family. If there’s anyone who knows that, it’s me.”
She didn’t completely understand what he was saying. She certainly didn’t understand how it connected to him.
But at least one thing had been made perfectly clear.
She was forgiven.
According to Dylan, there was nothing to forgive.
The wind danced her hair around in a fiery cloud as she gave him a tentative smile. “So you’ve known from the very beginning, huh? Am I that obvious? Or did the fairies tell you?”
He laughed softly, combing back his dark hair. “They didn’t have to tell me. I’ve always known. From the minute I laid eyes on you.”
Katerina nodded, then froze. Her heart quickened as she asked the final question. “Is it why you left?”
He was quiet for a moment, then his eyes danced with a twinkling smile. “It’s why I came back.”
* * *
It said a lot about the weight of Katerina’s confession that the two most cautious people in the world had left their self-proclaimed stalker unsupervised. Little flutters of nerves started beating away in the princess’ stomach as she realized that she’d also left her pack. But the moment they returned to the clearing, all their fears were put to rest.
While she had clearly been eavesdropping, Tanya had also been busy. The tent was pitched between two tall trees bordering the clearing, exactly where Dylan would have pitched it himself. A blazing fire was already waiting to greet them, and a caldron full of what smelled like the world’s most delicious stew hung bubbling over the flames.
She looked up immediately when they came into view, her silky hair swinging lightly atop her shoulders. “Oh, h
ello there! While you two were screaming at each other, I decided to make myself useful by pilfering through Her Highness’s pack. Found some food inside. Hope you don’t mind.”
For a second, Katerina was worried very much that Dylan would mind. He didn’t exactly take kindly to strangers, and was even less inclined to share his things. But his eyes flickered over the little camp before warming with a gracious smile.
“Not at all. What’s ours is yours.”
It was the stew. He smelled the stew.
Tanya pushed immediately to her feet, looking from one to the other as she perched on the tips of her toes. “Do you really mean that? I can stay?”
Dylan looked her up and down before turning to Katerina. “What do you think, Kat? Could we use one more misfit?”
At this point, Katerina fervently believed they could use all the help they could get. And if that help happened to come in the form of an ass-grabbing, back-talking, princess-stalking, shape-shifting misfit…well, so much the better. “Absolutely.” She settled down onto the log without a second thought, patting the spot beside her with a grin. “Welcome to our crew.”
It was perhaps the last thing that any of them had expected to happen when they woke up that morning, but despite their violent introduction, by the time they sat down around the fire, passing out bowls of stew, it was clear to see the trio had all the makings to become fast friends.
The initial introductions and standard pleasantries soon gave way to hilarious stories and the sort of bawdy jokes that would never have been allowed at the castle. The initial social boundaries soon broke down with a familiarity and natural sort of ease that spoke to years of acquaintance, not a simple shared meal over the flames of a campfire.
Tanya Oberon was a bright, vivacious girl with a searing wit and a caustic sense of humor that left even the impassive Dylan shaking with silent laughter. Blessed with both beauty and brains, the whole world should have opened its doors, but alas, such a thing was never meant to be. For no matter how high she was able to rise on her own merits, she was tethered down by a social prejudice she was unable to shake. The stigma of a shape-shifter was a shadow that followed her wherever she went. Closing those doors. Vanishing those opportunities. Turning that bright, vivacious girl into an outsider. A perpetual nomad, doomed to travel from place to place. Never settling. Never assimilating. Never able to find a place where she could truly belong.
It hadn’t dampened her, exactly. It had roughly the same effect that it had on Dylan.
Instilling caution instead of trust. Experience instead of optimism. Creating walls where perhaps none had existed before. Her past, specifically, was a subject she seemed determined to avoid. Where she had come from and how she had joined up with the shifter caravan remained a mystery. What was made clear, was how eager she was to leave.
“—which is when I realized not only that we weren’t going for ice cream after all, but also that The Sultry Scullion was, in fact, a brothel.” She bit her lower lip, staring down contemplatively into her stew. “In hindsight, the name probably should have cued me in…”
Katerina’s sides hurt from both laughing and trying to hold the laughter in. She had never in her life met such a paradox. The girl was her own worst enemy, and her own best friend. Either way, she was a force to be reckoned with.
“Don’t feel bad.” Dylan pulled out a silver flask and took a swig of whiskey. The flask was then passed around the fire. “I once spent three days at a Bedouin solstice party before realizing I had unwittingly married the chief’s daughter on the first night.”
The girls raised their eyebrows at the same time, and he hastily clarified.
“…I had it annulled.”
Tanya burst out laughing, helping herself to more whiskey, but Katerina felt the strong need to contribute something. Over the course of the night it had become clear that, while the unlikely trio was approximately the same age, they had vastly different levels of experience. Both Tanya and Dylan had been on their own since childhood. Travelling the world. Drifting from adventure to adventure. Getting into the kinds of mischief that one could hardly believe.
But Katerina? The high princess of all the land? She had scarcely been outside the walls of the castle. Until a few weeks ago she’d had yet to leave the kingdom, and although the courtiers and dignitaries who visited the court were from all over the world they lived in their own bubbles of luxurious isolation. Never would they find themselves in a goblin brothel. Never would they dare travel to the badlands, let alone be savvy enough to come back and tell the tale.
As if sensing her exclusion, Tanya provided a gracious opening.
“What about you, princess? I’m sure you have some stories to tell.”
The others turned to her expectedly and Katerina froze on the spot. The whiskey was already making her a little light-headed, and it certainly didn’t help to be trapped in the piercing gaze of two sets of eyes. She opened her mouth once or twice, but came up blank. A sort of panic set over her, and in the end she blurted out the first thing that came into her mind.
“I snuck down to the kitchens one time when I was supposed to be at dance class.” Two blank faces stared back at her across the fire, and she hurried to defend her work. “It was in the servants’ hall. A place Kailas and I were most definitely not supposed to go.”
It had felt quite rebellious at the time. But when she said it out loud…
A profound silence followed this remark. One made all the worse by the looks of restrained amusement on Dylan’s and Tanya’s faces. They looked quickly down at the fire, hiding their smile but, fortunately, they didn’t make her wait too long.
The impromptu confession brought up a rather serious subject. One the trio had been strategically dancing around the entire time.
“I won’t ask why exactly you’re on the run,” Tanya began slowly. “I saw the beacon, just like everyone else. I’m assuming it has something to do with the death of your father.”
It was a gracious out, but a clear opening at the same time. An open invitation for the princess to tell them whatever she so desired. And while Katerina would rather walk through fire than relive what had happened that terrible night, she felt as though she had to tell. Dylan was right: The two of them were risking their lives to protect her. They deserved to know why.
“My father didn’t just die…he was murdered,” she said softly. “Stabbed through the heart while he slept. One of the knights came to tell me about it. He helped get me out of the castle.”
The unspoken question hung between them. Like a dark cloud hovering in the air. Neither of the others could bring themselves to ask, and Katerina wouldn’t make them.
After a moment of silence, she answered it herself.
“It was my brother.”
There was a soft gasp as Tanya clapped her hands over her mouth. Even Dylan couldn’t fully hide his surprise. His blue eyes widened in the dark before dropping down to the flames. Shining with sympathy. Lost in thought. Flickering with the dancing flames.
“He wants me dead. I’m the eldest. I’m next in line. Without me…”
It was quiet for a long time. The pleasant buzz created by the whiskey had suddenly sobered, and the cheerful evening had abruptly chilled in the breeze. Katerina looked from one to the other, both of whom were avoiding her gaze. She felt strangely relieved to have gotten the secret off her chest, but she wondered if they would have rather been kept in the dark. If they regretted bringing up the question and learning the terrible truth. It was a heavy burden. One that came with a price.
Finally, when the silence could go on no longer, Tanya lifted her head. “So where does that leave us?” she asked quietly.
Katerina’s heart literally warmed in her chest. Her eyes welled up as she stared across the fire at the strange girl. A girl who was willing to help her no matter what stakes were leveled against them. A girl who was willing to risk her very life for someone she hardly knew.
“Are you…are you serious?”
She hardly dared to ask the question, at the risk of changing the answer. “You’re willing to stay?”
Tanya met her gaze for a split second before shrugging it off with a signature grin. “It’s better than spending my time at the height of a trash can, staring at people’s knees.”
Katerina let out a gasp of breathless laughter before turning to Dylan. He, too, met her eyes and a knowing look passed between them. The same question she’d asked Tanya died on the tip of her tongue. There was no need to ask it again. She already knew the answer.
She asked another instead. Effectively placing her life in his steady hands.
“So where does this leave us?”
It was one thing to be on the run from her brother and his minions. Hiding in the woods from contingents of royal guards and military servicemen. Both of whom were predictable. Both of whom would find it completely impossible to blend in. It was another thing entirely if they were dancing around the edge of a civil war. A covert, one-sided war. The kind that used mercenaries and assassins. The kind that pitted prince against princess. Brother against sister. Locked in a deadly race to the throne.
Dylan thought about it a long time, frowning slightly as he stared into the flames. “I think it says a lot that your brother hasn’t put a bounty on your head,” he finally answered. “If people knew the truth, he’s afraid they’d rally around you to help you take back the throne. He’s obviously hoping he can have you killed before that’s an option.”
A few weeks ago, those words would have shocked Katerina to the core. As it stood, she absorbed them silently and focused on the next step of the plan. “So, then, why don’t I just tell people who I am?”
Dylan and Tanya exchanged a quick look before answering.
“Because your brother is underestimating the realm’s goodwill towards the entire royal family,” he said almost apologetically. “You tell people in these parts you descend from the Damaris bloodline, and they’ll likely find your body in a ditch the next morning.”
“No offense,” Tanya added hastily.