Crown of Danger (The Hidden Mage Book 2)

by Melanie Cellier

  I stepped out into a shockingly cold night, gasping at the contrast with the overheated ballroom. I forced myself to breathe deeply, letting the frost sink into my core. After a moment I needed to move, though, or risk freezing in place. I strode along beside the stone balustrade that separated the paving where I stood from the gardens beyond. Moonlight shone down, illuminating the twisting paths and elaborate hedges of the garden. I thought I heard laughter, suggesting I wasn’t the only one out here, but I could see no one.

  I was about to return to the ballroom, too cold now for comfort, when a voice spoke out of the shadows behind me.

  “Verene.”

  My heart stopped and then sped up. I no longer felt in the least cold.

  I turned slowly. “Darius. Are you sure it’s safe for us to be seen together?”

  The words slipped out before I caught them. I hadn’t even realized I was still hurt by his rejection on the castle steps at our arrival.

  But as soon as I got a proper look at his face, any lingering hurt disappeared. He still looked fierce, but now he blazed, hotter than I had ever seen him before. The fire in his eyes seemed to be burning him alive, and it leaped across the cold air between us to set me ablaze as well.

  “No, it’s not safe at all. It is foolhardy beyond measure.” The words came out quickly, his voice rough and full of emotion.

  I swallowed, glancing around. “Darius, I—”

  He stepped forward and took my hand, jerking me toward him. I went willingly, stopping only a handbreadth apart and looking up at his face. He gazed down at me for only a moment before growling and stepping away.

  He didn’t relinquish my hand, however, pulling me after him so fast I almost tripped down the shallow stone steps that gave access into the garden. He wove around a bed of roses and slipped behind a tall hedge.

  As soon as we were out of sight, some of his taut energy relaxed, although he still stood straight, his grip on my hand firm.

  “Sometimes I think I will explode from the pressure of holding it all in,” he murmured. “And yet…”

  “And yet you can’t let it go, either,” I said softly.

  Feeling bold in the moonlight, I stepped forward and ran a gentle hand down the side of his face. He shuddered at my touch and briefly closed his eyes.

  “You’ve worked so hard for this, Darius. And for so long. I can only imagine your disappointment. But you can’t give up now. I know there’s still hope.”

  “My father—” He stopped, biting off whatever curses he had been about to utter. Turning slightly away from me, he drew a deep breath, speaking in a calmer voice. “My father outwitted me. It was a bold move, not only excluding most of the Mage Council from the ball but actually sending them away.”

  “He sent them away?”

  “Oh, not in so many words, of course.” He sounded bitter. “He said he thought they deserved a year off from dancing attendance on him and should be free to enjoy a year with their families at their own estates.”

  I sighed. “A royal command couched in the gentlest of terms.”

  “I had thought my father beyond such subtlety. I wanted him to underestimate me, but I’m the one who underestimated him.”

  “This could still work in your favor, though. Some among them must be resentful at being sent away in such a fashion. It might make them more open to your cause.”

  “And yet I am trapped at the Academy.” He ground out the words. “I have no hope of meeting with the full Mage Council there.”

  I bit my lip. “In summer you will return to Kallmon, and—”

  “And my father will no doubt have a new stratagem prepared. He has been fending off this moment for years and has become a master at it.”

  I reached out with my free hand, holding his hand in both of mine.

  “You think he knew of your plan, then? How could he? You told me you trust almost no one. You must know that I haven’t told anyone but my aunt, and she would never betray you to Cassius.” I took a deep breath, bracing myself for my next words. “But I’m assuming you told your brother. Jareth must have told your father—”

  “Right there.” Darius’s harsh words cut me off, his finger pointing at a small pond with a fountain in the middle. “There is where my father held my head beneath the water, again and again. I was only eight, but he said if I wished one day to be king, I must first learn to be strong. I couldn’t catch my breath, or fight him, and I was still eight long years away from controlling my power. I still see his face from that day in my dreams sometimes. He had a strange light in his eyes, and I have sometimes wondered just how far he would have gone if undisturbed.” He gave a harsh laugh. “The cost of always being so controlled is that sometimes you lose your grip—just momentary flashes, but they can be deadly.”

  “But he was disturbed?” My voice shook.

  Darius looked back down at me. “Yes, he was. By Jareth. He was even younger than me, only six at the time, but he threw himself at our father. He beat at him with his tiny fists and shouted for him to let me go. When Father did, he said that if anyone’s head needed to be held under the water it should be his, since he wasn’t the heir to anything.”

  Darius shook his head. “You should have seen him, Verene. So tiny but so determined and brave. He was the younger brother, but he didn’t hesitate to leap in and protect me. He knew our father, and he had no way of knowing how he would respond.” He drew an audible breath. “But his intervention broke my father’s mood. He merely laughed and said he knew any son of his would be brave. And then he walked away and left us both there.”

  “He’s a monster,” I said, determination filling my voice. “And that’s why you can’t let yourself break, Darius. You have to defeat him. For the sake of your entire kingdom.”

  “I know.” He closed his eyes and leaned down to rest his forehead against mine. “I’ve always known. Just like I’ve always known I can’t have the things I really want.”

  He straightened, looking down at me with such a blazing expression that I struggled to breathe.

  “It’s just so hard sometimes,” he whispered. “I’m more like my father than I would like to admit. I lose control sometimes too.”

  “No.” I shook my head firmly. “You’re nothing like your father. He’s the one who forced you to have so much control, but once you have the throne, your life will be different, Darius. I truly believe that.”

  He looked away with a haunted expression. “I wish I could believe that too.”

  I reached forward and gripped his jacket with both hands. “Then let me believe it for the both of us.”

  “You’re more patient with me than I deserve, Verene. I don’t know why.”

  I laughed shakily. “Because my aunt might not be King Cassius, but she still wears a crown. I know something of the pressures and dangers that come from standing too close to such a position.”

  Something in his expression changed as he looked down at me.

  “Is there something you’re not telling me, Verene?”

  I swallowed, unable to meet his eyes. He must have read the truth in my face, but I didn’t speak.

  “No,” he said quickly, “forget I said that. I can’t demand honesty from you when I keep everything to myself.”

  “I wish…” I gulped, my throat dry. “I wish we didn’t have to have any barriers between us.”

  “Maybe one day,” he said, his voice gentle. “In that perfect future you’re believing for us both.”

  “I hope so,” I whispered.

  When I was with Darius, every moment had an intensity that the rest of my life lacked. Every part of me felt alive and burning with energy, and everything seemed possible. Nothing had prepared me for meeting him.

  And yet I knew, without the smallest doubt, that Darius and I could never be anything more than this burning potential unless we could be open with one another. But I knew the reasons I still clung to my secrets, and I could only assume he had good reasons for his own.

&nbs
p; I swallowed and stepped back, although my legs felt as if they would give way beneath me without the support of his warmth and strength. He swayed toward me, his eyes suddenly locked on my lips, and everything in me wanted to respond. But instead I made myself say the words I knew would break the moment.

  “People change, Darius.”

  He straightened, his brow creasing. “Not Jareth, if that’s who you mean. On that day, by the fountain, after our father left, we vowed that we would always protect each other. And we always have. And we swore that together we would pull my father down from his throne. We were six and eight, Verene. And we have never wavered from that purpose. Jareth would never betray me, just as I would never betray him.”

  I licked my lips. “Well someone has betrayed you. And it wasn’t me.”

  He shook his head. “It’s possible my father guessed. Or just acted out of an abundance of caution.”

  “I thought you said he’d abandoned caution.”

  Darius sighed. “I thought he had.” His face hardened. “But whatever it was, it wasn’t Jareth.”

  I said nothing, unsure why I found it so hard to believe him in this one matter, when I trusted him so implicitly in everything else. He must have read my doubt in my eyes because he turned away.

  “We’ve been gone too long,” he said, his face in shadows. “It’s time we returned.”

  Chapter 18

  We returned to the Academy the day after Midwinter, the whole group seeming flat and tired. Darius and I didn’t speak or interact, and Jareth avoided me too.

  Even Layna seemed quiet. I had turned from my conversation with Darius outside the ballroom only to find her standing in the garden, just out of earshot, watching us. I turned away from whatever was in her eyes, not wanting to see it. And I didn’t ask her what she meant to report to my aunt. I couldn’t seem to muster enough energy to care.

  Bryony could tell something had happened, but she also recognized I needed space. She made an extra effort to engage both Alvin and Tyron in conversation on the long carriage ride back, leaving me to sit in moody silence. When I thanked her, she waved my words aside. She had managed to make a shopping expedition on the day before Midwinter and seemed reasonably content with the whole trip.

  “It doesn’t compare to Corrin,” she told me, when we finally arrived back at the Academy, “but I think Kallmon has potential.”

  I agreed with her assessment, although I knew it would never realize its potential while Cassius sat on the throne. Which led back to the same problem that had existed before we ever stepped into the carriage in the first place. The Academy stood between Darius and the crown he had to claim, and his future crown stood between him and me. The web had grown so tangled, I could no longer see a way through.

  Duke Francis decreed we should have an extra rest day to recover from the journey, and then classes resumed as normal. Although there had been no attack on me during the trip, I continued to only observe the arena battles, and Mitchell made no protest at the arrangement.

  In discipline class, we moved on to the healers, and I almost made a serious error, connecting with one of Raelynn’s compositions for the first time when she was healing what seemed a straightforward cut. The cut itself was simple, but the layers of medical knowledge that flooded my mind when I took command of the working nearly made me lose the contents of my stomach. I barely retained control and was left shaking at the thought of what could have happened if I had lost it.

  I was much more wary after that, connecting only with the trainees, and carefully choosing the compositions. After the healers, we moved on to the Royal Guard class which included both Dellion and Jareth. I didn’t know if Darius had said something to Jareth about our conversation, or if Jareth had merely absorbed my attitude at the ball, but he didn’t make any further attempts to be friendly.

  I tried to look at him with fresh eyes after Darius’s story about their childhood, but no matter what my mind said, some deeper, instinctive part of me insisted there was something off about the younger prince. Something in him couldn’t be trusted.

  Amalia took us to work with the law enforcement class when our two weeks with the Royal Guard trainees were completed. The class was heavily weighted toward first years, most likely a result of Darius choosing it the year before.

  The instructor was nothing like how I had imagined a Kallorwegian law enforcement officer, and in our second week, I finally asked the question that had weighed on me since Kallmon.

  “How can law enforcement support the people—the regular people—and uphold the laws when you don’t have accessible buildings even in a big city like Kallmon?”

  “The commonborns are the seekers’ problem,” a brash first year said, jumping in before the instructor could answer.

  “No, indeed. The princess is right,” the instructor corrected him in a gentle voice. “Important as the work of the seekers is, there is far more to enforcing the law than ensuring unsealed commonborns are kept away from the written word. There is many a criminal who has never dreamed of reading or writing. And law enforcement serves all citizens of Kallorway—mage or commonborn—regardless of rank. Indeed, we are the greatest of the disciplines because we are the only one to sit even above the king. All are subject to the law.”

  Although all disciplines talked of being the greatest, I refrained from rolling my eyes because he had a point.

  “And yet the king makes the laws,” I pressed, wanting to see his response.

  “With the agreement of the Mage Council,” said Darius. “No monarch acts alone. And a monarch can be guilty of treason against his kingdom just like any normal citizen.”

  The instructor nodded. “You are precisely right, Prince Darius. It is a pleasure to see both you and Princess Verene taking such a keen interest in our discipline. It is the bedrock of our society, and no ruler can take it too seriously.”

  “Then you think there should be law enforcement stations throughout the city and in the other major towns?” I asked, pushing the question boldly.

  The instructor hesitated, glancing at Darius. “If the placement of our officers and commonborn guards were left in my hands, I believe I would arrange it so, yes. But one of the advantages of being an Academy instructor, is that I am no longer a member of law enforcement, and I am certainly not subject to the many tensions and pressures of the head of the discipline. Even the simplest of decisions are driven by a myriad of forces.”

  Darius’s face didn’t change, but something flickered in his eyes. When I recognized it as agreement with his instructor, I realized I was gradually learning to read him better.

  But that night I knocked on the door to his suite anyway.

  “Do you agree?” I demanded, without greeting. “About law enforcement and their responsibility to the commonborn citizens?”

  A small smile curved his lips upward.

  “Good evening to you, as well.”

  I just stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

  “I agree,” he said. “And I am more privy than the good instructor to exactly what sort of pressures are brought to bear on the Head of Law Enforcement not to expand the efforts of his guards. He is relatively young, and I know he would like to see reform in his discipline. He even sent some of his senior mages to Ardann, to study under your Duke Soren. But he was blocked from implementing any of their suggestions.” He made a disgusted face. “My father would never agree to model anything in Kallorway after Ardann.”

  “And what of the law against sealed commonborns working compositions?” I asked. “How do you feel about that?”

  “Pure folly and pride. What else is there to think?”

  I grinned, my face relaxing. “Oh, good. I thought I had better check.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “What exactly is going on, Verene?”

  “Maybe nothing.” I shrugged. “Maybe something. It’s just an idea I’ve been considering since the beginning of the year. But I had to be sure on your position before trying to progress any f
urther.” I hesitated. “If it actually comes to anything, I’ll let you know.”

  I retreated before he could question me further. I didn’t want to suggest something I might not be able to deliver.

  I had already sought out Zora to thank her—ever so indirectly—for her information about the invitation. And while I might have imagined it, I thought disappointment had lurked in her eyes—as if she had hoped for greater fruit from the trip.

  I was almost certain now that the commonborns of the kingdom would support Darius as king—I just had to work out how they could tip the tide in his favor.

  Spring arrived, along with our move to the Armed Forces class. I enjoyed watching Amalia put Royce in his place—she seemed to have even less patience for him than she had for me. But I was starting to lose patience with myself. I couldn’t think of a way to help Darius, and along with spring arrived talk of exams. I kept reminding myself we had weeks left still, but I could feel the end of the year closing in.

  I had told Darius I would help him, and my aunt that he would have the throne by the time we finished second year, and I couldn’t bear the thought of failing either of them. I even considered revealing my ability—except I could think of no way it could help. I had learned so much over the course of the year and honed my skills, but it remained a reactive ability. I needed someone else to work a composition before I could do anything at all.

  I was so consumed with these thoughts one morning as I hurried toward my breakfast that I nearly collided with a servant girl. She gasped and dropped a curtsy.

  “I’m sorry, Your Highness, ever so sorry.”

  “No, indeed, I should have been watching where I was going.” I tried to move on, but she gasped again.

  “Begging your pardon, Your Highness, but I was actually coming in search of you. Zora asked me to let you know that she’s wishful to see you.”

  “Right now, you mean?” I asked in some alarm. Had some disaster occurred? I could think of no such event that would inspire Zora to send for me, however.

  “Oh no, Your Highness.” The girl bobbed yet another curtsy. “At least, I don’t think so. She didn’t say anything about there being a hurry. She just asked me to deliver the message. I often deliver messages for her.”