by Ali Winters
“Lucian…” Oriana tried to pull away, but he held her in place.
“I think this is what we are looking for.”
“What do you mean?” She wiggled and tried to pull away, embarrassment still coloring her face at his proximity. “Please, let go.”
His eyes moved from the crystal to her widened gray eyes as though he didn’t realize he’d been holding onto her. Lucian dropped his hands and sat back.
“Oriana, this has to be the Lumeria. This has to be the key.”
Her mouth dropped open at the implications of his words. She lifted the pendant on the silver chain and stared. Light caught within the millions of tiny facets and lit a fire inside the small stone.
Lucian
Lucian watched her face and the look of pure concentration giving her face an innocent look, making her seem younger than she was. Sitting across from him, Oriana crossed her legs and focused. The crystal cupped in her palms, she glared at the rock, willing it to obey. He couldn’t be sure what she was attempting to do, but it didn’t seem to be working. Every once in a while, her tongue darted out between her soft lips.
Leaning back against the rock, he rested one forearm on his knee, while one hand absentmindedly scooped up fistfuls of sand and let it fall between his fingers.
After their discovery, they had rushed back down to where the Oracle had sat on the rock the day before, only to find that she’d vanished without a trace.
“She’s gone, Lucian, how will I know if this is the key?”
He studied her face. “She’s gone. I think that means we found it—we found the Lumeria,” Lucian offered.
Her brows crashed together. “What would Eris want with my pendant? It’s just a crystal.”
“It’s more than that. When have you known anything to hold the fire of the sun like that?”
“Never,” she said, her breath quickening.
A thousand questions hung in the air between them.
“I need to unlock the power.” Oriana sped up her steps, walking ahead of him as she held the crystal, gripping it tightly in her small fist.
“We should be careful, we don’t know the kind of power it holds,” he warned.
She spun to face him. “I have to know how to unlock it before we need it. I won’t let them kill more people trying to get it from me. I have to stop them.”
“We will stop them.” He admired the determination that shone through her eyes, making the golden flecks burn brighter. “We need to leave soon, but we have time for you to practice.”
They walked along the beach until they found a small cove, sheltered by the rocks of the cliff, and settled down.
He watched on, as she sat with her back to the ocean, focusing intently on the pendant. Minutes ticked by, and nothing happened. Her parents were irresponsible, leaving her no knowledge or clue to figure out what was seemingly such a powerful weapon. The fear of it getting into the wrong hands was no excuse, someone, should have known. The information could have been hidden on any other planet, all they had to do was tell her where to go to find it if she ever needed it.
Had the King and Queen been so afraid of what it could do in the wrong hands that they didn’t trust their only child? Was risking their lives and everyone else worth keeping the one thing that could save them a secret worth taking to the grave? Or had Oriana just forgotten something they’d told her? Did they miss a clue that should have been obvious to her?
“Are you upset?” her quiet voice broke through his trance.
The tension of his frustrated thoughts had formed into a scowl. Lucian shook his head and relaxed the muscles in his face. “No, I was just thinking.”
Oriana blinked and waited for him to continue.
“You don’t remember anything they could have said that would tell you about the Lumeria? No bedtime story, or clue?”
She looked down, “No, I’m sorry. There’s nothing.” Silence filled the space between them for a few moments before she spoke again. “Maybe this isn’t the Lumeria. That would explain why it’s not working.”
“Not necessarily. Keys usually only work for the lock they were designed for.”
“Now we have to find a lock?” Oriana groaned, dropping to her back in the sand and letting an arm flop over her face.
“Do you think Prince Caelan knows something?”
Lucian’s face fell, as he muttered under his breath. “I doubt it.”
Sitting up on her elbows, she cocked her head. “If my parents left information anywhere, that would be the safest place. None of Jupiter’s Citali would ever give up any information. They would have to know I’d seek Caelan out… Wouldn’t they?” Oriana asked, uncertainty filling her eyes.
“If that’s what you think, then there’s only one way to find out. You can ask him when you get there.”
He crossed his arms and rubbed his chest, just above his heart absentmindedly with his hand. Lucian tilted his chin to the sky. The sun neared its zenith.
“We shouldn’t delay any longer. Unless you think you can unlock the power in that crystal in the next few minutes?”
Greeted with silence, he turned his gaze to her face and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Oriana’s head tilted to the side, a smirk formed on her lips as if she’d solved a puzzle. A smile he would give the universe just to see every day.
No, I can’t think things like that. Lucian cleared his throat and stood. “Oriana, if the pendant is what we believe, you should hide it until we know we’re safe. There’s no telling what something this powerful in the wrong hands could do.”
She nodded and pulled the silver chain from her neck, and stuffed it down in the calf of her left boot. He examined her work. A small lump stuck out, but he doubted anyone would be studying the smoothness of her boots. It wasn’t perfect, but it would work.
Oriana
They stepped onto the path, looking carefully around. The sound of their soft footsteps crunched along the ground, comforting her. Jupiter’s door was right around the rounded bend in the path. Freedom was so close she could taste it. Sweet, yet bitter, like the peel of an orange solar fruit, a delicacy she enjoyed growing up, Celeste had often served her the meat of the fruit for desert. Once when Oriana had wandered into the forest at the edge of the palace walls, she’d stumbled across the bush of orange star-shaped fruits, their tangy aroma brightened the air. It was a delicacy Oriana had heard of but had never experienced. Plucking a fruit, she took a large bite. Even mixed with the sweetness of the solar fruit, the bitter rind, made her spit out the chunk in her mouth. It was that bitter and sweet flavor that jumped to the forefront of her mind now.
In spite of the horrific events that had happened, the countless deaths and destruction, she’d found something her life had lacked. A friend, someone who had no reason to be loyal to her, someone she could count on. Fear at the thought of losing that squeezed her heart knowing it would be improper for them to remain in contact once this was over. However, she couldn’t imagine her life without his presence. She didn’t want to.
For a brief moment on the beach, she could have sworn he’d felt the same way, but his clipped words and the scowl on his face had dispelled that thought.
His footsteps stilled. The loss of the steady rhythm brought her back to the present. Oriana turned to Lucian, her mouth parted as she turned to see why he stopped, but the words died on her lips, all thoughts leaving her mind. Standing, frozen on the path, his head hung. Her breath caught in her throat as he looked up sharply.
In three quick strides, Lucian moved toward her. Standing inches away, the warmth of his body enveloped her. His intense gaze bored into her, as though he could see down into the depths of her soul, exposing her innermost secrets to his mind. Fear of him wanting to leave again suffocated her. But all she wanted was for that moment to stretch out to the furthest reaches of time and never end. She wanted him, but he could never be hers.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“I don’t know how else to loo
k at you,” he breathed. His voice was husky and low, sending shivers down her spine. His hands came up to cup her face, his thumbs grazing against her cheeks.
“Lucian…” It wasn’t a question, but her voice spoke his name with more meaning than she had the words to voice.
His face lowered, nearing hers, his eyes locked on her lips. Oriana’s breath quickened.
Abruptly, he stepped back and dropped his hands. “I’m sorry. I just…” He ran a hand through his hair and looked at her sideways from the corner of his eye. “You make it hard to keep my distance from you. I know I have no right to say this since you’re his—”
His…
The word infuriated her.
Her future wasn’t in her control, but she wasn’t an object.
“I don’t belong to anyone but myself, Lucian,” she said hotly. His sudden distance felt—wrong somehow, but that wasn’t going to excuse him from thinking of her as property.
He tilted his head to the side and let out an exasperated puff of air.
“You know what I mean, Oriana. You’re promised to him. I won’t be responsible for doing anything to jeopardize that. You’re the sun in his world—you will never be my sun…”
Her forehead creased, as pain washed across her features. It wasn’t until she heard those words out loud that she realized how much it stung to know that she could never—and would never be—the sun in his world.
The walls of denial she’d built under the guise of propriety crumbled around her and pain stabbed at her heart as she realized that he’d somehow become the sun in the center of her universe.
The sound of snapping branches silenced her as she opened her mouth to speak.
Erisian Citali dressed in Soleisan uniforms came into view behind Lucian. Oriana glanced over her shoulder. Surrounded.
Meeting Lucian’s gaze, she blinked, then watched as his body crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
“Lucian!” She stepped forward but a tall, thin man moved in front of her, blocking her path.
His features, chin, nose, cheekbones were sharp on his too thin face, ending in harsh angles. Narrow black eyes and dusty hair lacked the natural shine of those from the inner ring. She swallowed hard, meeting the familiar cold hard stare.
“You…” Her jaw went slack. The man with sharp, pointed features from her coronation stood before her.
“I see you do recognize me after all, Princess. I had my doubts that you would. At first, I was surprised to learn you were still alive, but I think it will work out to our advantage that I was mistaken.” Menace dripped from his words as he bent over in a mocking bow. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sir Sendrik of Eris.” He straightened and leered at her, making the blood in her veins freeze. “And you, Princess, have something I want.”
Oriana took an involuntary step back.
“Alton, Micah, grab her,” Sendrik snapped his fingers.
Two rough hands gripped each arm. The sudden pain making her gasp. Glancing at each of her captors in turn, one pale, with the dusty light gray hair she’d come to loathe, and black eyes stared at her, emotionless and hard. The other had the same dull, lackluster sheen to his dark, blueish gray hair, it looked almost black in the strange light of the Gateway world. His identical lifeless black eyes met hers, briefly, before facing ahead.
“Be careful, if you damage her, you will have King Mobius and Prince Erik to answer to,” Sendrik smirked as the two peons dragged her passed.
What did they want with her? What would happen to Lucian?
“Lucian!” she cried out trying to twist her head to search for him. The man on her left took a large step turning her body roughly. Her body jerked forward. “Let me go,” she demanded.
She swung her feet forward, and planted them into the soil, pushing back and twisting her body. Her sudden movements took the men by surprise, making them stumble in different directions. The man who’d jerked her tripped and let go. Spinning, she rammed her fist into the dark haired man that clung to her. He let go with a satisfying “Oomph!”
“Alton, grab her,” the man she hit ordered.
She ran, chancing a look back at the two men scrambling after her.
Sendrik caught her by the waist and spun her around to a stop. One arm holding her waist tightly to his body, the other wrapped around her neck, preventing her from wiggling away. She struggled to get enough air, her nails clawing uselessly at his hands.
Sendrik shoved her away and back into the clutches of Alton and Micah. His hand roughly tangled itself into her hair and pulled, jerking her head back as she landed in the grasp of the two men.
“Try that again Princess, and Prince Erik will just have to deal with a few marks on your Pretty. Little. Face,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
Turning to the men again, Sendrik barked out, “Take her to the dungeons and don’t let her escape again.”
“Lucian!” She twisted to look for him as a black bag came down around her head darkening the world. “Lucian!” The thick course material muffled her cries.
The sound of grunts and malicious chuckling reached her ears as the two men dragged her away. They would kill Lucian, and it was all her fault, she should never have let him follow her, she never should have asked him to stay.
Metal cuffs locked around her wrists, tying her hands together and their heavy weight kept her hands down in front of her. Then there was nothing but the sound of her captor’s steps and the toes of her boots being dragged against the gravel.
She felt sick, as though she had been kicked in the stomach. Her heart squeezed tight and her lungs ached from her breaths coming in short shallow bursts as they refused to work properly.
Oriana
“You will never get away with this,” Oriana hissed.
The guards grunted and continued to pull her along the hallway, their fingers digging into her arms.
Sendrik had threatened her for hours, trying to break her into revealing the crystal’s location. The man had gone red when he realized yelling and threats wouldn’t get him anywhere and a small sense of pride filled her, knowing that no matter how many times he’d held a knife to her, that was as far as he’d go and it wasn’t enough. He’d already revealed he wouldn’t do more than bruise her.
This was bad, soon she’d be locked up in the dungeon of her own castle, for the rest of her short life and Caelan would never know what happened to her.
Also, if Eris found the crystal hidden in her boot, then Jupiter and the few surviving royals, wouldn’t stand a chance.
Desperation to get away grabbed onto her, tightening around her throat, caging her in like a wild animal.
I have to warn Caelan.
Her eyes darted around, desperately searching for anything that could help.
A shining seven pointed star with an infinity over the top—the insignia of Eris—was pinned to the collars of both men. The seven pointed star were long, slender, and sharp.
“Let me go, you krikes!” Oriana struggled against her captors as they pulled her down the hall toward the door that led to the dark underground of her home.
The dark haired man turned his eyes on her, a sneer distorting his face. “What kind of language is that for a princess?”
“Ah, don’t bother with her, this only proves how uncivilized the Inner Ring planets really are. Can’t even teach their royalty to act proper,” the other retorted, squeezing down harder on her arm.
Lifting her cuffed hands, she reached for the insignia pin on her captor’s lapel. Her fingers grabbed at the grey-haired man’s face and clothe as she pulled and pinched until she wrapped her hand around the sharp metal. The pin pulled off the uniform with a silent rip.
The two men gave a startled cry from her sudden burst of energy. As the dark haired man—Micah?— pulled her off the other, she weakened her movements, letting them believe she didn’t have the strength to resist.
Oriana palmed the black pin it her clenched fist, the points digging into her palm.
<
br /> As they tackled her to the ground, she stopped fighting, and allowed them to lift her by her arms. The grip of their hands bit into her sensitive and bruised skin.
Oriana hung limply in their grasp as they pulled her through the hall, down the spiral staircase and into the dungeon.
Down in the dim passages the men slowed, passing the other prisoners at a measured march.
They were parading her in front of them, she realized in horror and their message was simple: abandon all hope.
She let her head hang.
I let them down, they were counting on me and I let them all down.
Black and gold hair fell around her face, creating a curtain that shielded her from their angry stares. She didn’t want to look into their eyes, couldn’t bear to see how she’d let them down. The heat of the anger she knew they felt singed her heart, burning her with shame.
Reaching the end of the cells they opened a door. She didn’t bother to raise her head. It didn’t matter. She had failed. The door creaked on its hinges as it swung open revealing another passageway, but lights from the sconces did little to illuminate the dark space. Their pace picked up as they walked, now away from the others and her heart sunk the deeper they ventured. Her knees hit the ground with the full force of her weight as one of the men abruptly let go. She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth as a door flew open in front of her and revealed the impenetrable darkness of her prison.
“Chain her up on the other side of him,” the dark haired man said as he yanked a light from a sconce and placed it on the wall just inside the doorway.
Him?
Her gaze shot up and looked around.
“You will be able to handle her by yourself?” he asked, his face turning up into a sneer.
Lucian’s limp body hung from metal chains clamped around his wrist, tied to a cloudy gray pillar in the center of the room. His feet barely brushed against the ground, giving him the smallest of support against the cuffs that cut into his wrists as his chest moving up and down in a steady rhythm.