‘Okay.’ I turned to Robbie and took his hands. ‘Thanks for keeping Lauren under your roof. I’ll be back, with Marko, and we’ll work out what to do next.’
‘Don’t worry.’ He let go of one hand to brush my cheek gently with his thumb. ‘She’ll be fine. I like to think I’m still of some use, even without full sight.’
I threw my hands up around Robbie’s neck and squeezed him tight. ‘Of course. Thanks. You’re a true friend.’
He smiled. ‘Look after her, Jonny.’
‘I will. Take care, Rob.’
‘Yeah, see you around,’ said Robbie, grinning, as he started towards the nearest greenhouse.
‘He shouldn’t have to look after my sister,’ I said a few minutes later, more to myself but loud enough for Jonathan to hear. He remained silent.
But as we neared the cottage, he finally spoke.
‘You going to want to go in and speak to her?’ he said.
‘Do you mind? I’ll only be a second. And maybe I can convince her to get rid of the guy before Robbie gets back.’
‘Good luck. I’ll wait by the door.’
Without knocking, I entered Robbie’s cottage. Lauren and her guy were still in the bedroom, giggling, but I marched down the hall without hesitation. My heart thudded madly as I approached the door, from which muted voices drifted.
I knocked.
‘What?’ said Lauren. Anger burned through my veins. So this is how she’d speak to Robbie?
‘It’s me, Miranda.’
I heard a muffled swear word, followed by a squeak of the bed and then some serious stomping around the room.
The door opened a crack, through which Lauren’s blue eye peered.
‘What do you want?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘I need to speak with you, alone, right now.’
She widened her eye at me. ‘In case you haven’t heard, I have company.’
‘So ask him to leave.’
The door opened a fraction wider so that I could see Lauren’s smirk. ‘Listen to yourself, ordering me about. I’m the older sister, remember.’ She looked me up and down. ‘I think being with Marko has made you worse. It’s like you’ve now got an even bigger stick up your arse.’
‘Why are you being so horrible?’
Deep laughter boomed from behind the door, cutting me off. I involuntarily shivered at the sound.
‘Lauren…’ I hissed, my heart pounding in my chest. ‘He sounds exactly like Damir.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t be stupid. I’ve met Damir. He’s got proper blond hair. My guy has dark hair. He just wears a wig to sneak out here to see me.’
‘No, he hasn’t. Damir has black hair, like Marko’s. Get out of there now, Lauren.’
The door slammed in my face. But seconds later, it swung open.
‘Miranda.’ Damir’s cool green eyes looked me over. He was exactly as I remembered; same unshaven face, same cruel glint in his eyes—a harder, cruder version of Marko. ‘You’re looking good.’ He pulled the door so that it was nearly closed.
I stepped back. ‘Jonatha—’
Damir’s hand clamped over my mouth and he slammed me against the wall, hard. Pain shot down my back and I moaned beneath Damir’s sweaty hand.
‘Miranda?’
It was Robbie, calling from the kitchen.
‘Shut your mouth or your blind friend is dead,’ said Damir, his eyes alive with excitement, as though the idea of killing Robbie thrilled him. ‘Tell him you’re speaking with your sister.’
He removed his hand but quickly made a slashing motion at his throat before pointing down the hall. I nodded, but glared at him with all the hatred that was bubbling inside of me.
‘I’m just having a quick word with Lauren. I’ll be a minute.’
‘We’ll be outside,’ Robbie called, and then said something in a hushed voice to Jonathan before the two went outside, leaving me alone with a psychotic mermaid-loving lunatic and my dumb, delusional and smart-arsed older sister.
‘Randy, I said I don’t want to talk,’ said Lauren, from behind the door.
Damir released me.
‘Hop back into bed, love. I’ll see her out,’ he told her. He shut the door on her and shoved me against the wall again, his forearm pressing against my neck.
‘Your sister doesn’t want to talk.’
‘How did you get free? And what are you doing with Lauren?’ I managed to splutter through all the choking.
‘I’ve always been free,’ he said, his voice calm and cocky. He glanced at the bedroom door and then winked at me. ‘It should be pretty obvious what your sister and I have been doing and what I want from her.’
The pressure of his arm decreased a little, and I coughed and spluttered.
‘You can go now. No screaming for help or the blind one gets it. Maybe I’ll do something to his ears,’ he said, grinning, ‘to match his dud eyes.’
‘I’m going, I’m going. Don’t you dare touch him! Or I’ll come here and…kill you myself.’
He removed his arm and I fell forward, hands on my knees, coughing.
A gentle hand stroked my hair away from my face and when I saw that it was Damir, I jerked away and swore at him. He laughed and returned to the room with Lauren.
The front door of the cottage squeaked open and I quickly stood up. My neck was killing me, but I had to put a smile on my face and act normal.
‘Miranda?’ It was Jonathan calling me this time, not Robbie.
‘I’m coming.’
‘Where’s Robbie?’ I asked when I joined Jonathan outside. ‘I thought I heard him call out.’
He nodded to the greenhouses. ‘He got called to the greenhouses again; said he’d be a while so I told him I’d escort you back to the castle safely.’
‘Right.’ I let out a sigh of relief and rubbed my neck. With Robbie out of the cottage, and therefore out of danger, I had enough time to get to the castle and tell Marko where Damir was.
My skin crawled at the idea of my sister sharing a bed with that man—even if she didn’t actually know he was Damir.
‘Okay,’ I said reluctantly. ‘We’d better go.’
By the time we got to the castle, my heart was ready to bust out of my ribcage. Jonathan was just as desperate as I was to reach Marko—especially since I’d used the journey from Robbie’s place to fill him in on the whole Damir incident—so much so that, when we reached the foot of the castle steps, he picked me up and carried me half the way down the main castle corridor, before I demanded he put me down.
We were beginning to draw attention to ourselves, and a small group of guards and castle visitors eyeballed us with raised brows. I didn’t want to alert any of Damir’s men of our erratic behaviour. We had to be as discreet as possible with our information.
‘Has Marko returned?’ Jonathan asked one of the guards at the door. The man nodded.
‘He’s in the dining room with Sylvia. But he does not wish to be disturbed.’
Jonathan ignored the warning and stormed down several corridors, with me running to keep up.
We entered, me puffing and panting, and not knowing if my neck bore any bruises from my altercation with Damir. In a way, I hoped I had bruised, because it would provide more solid proof of what had gone down at Robbie’s.
Sylvia and Marko sat at opposite ends of the table, discussing something very heated that I couldn’t quite make out. They didn’t notice me at first. However, when Sylvia finally spotted me, she banged a fist against the table.
‘This is what I mean. She has no manners. She is still a child, and not fit to be a queen.’
Marko’s face flushed with anger or humiliation—I wasn’t sure.
‘Miranda, where have you been all day?’ he asked, before pushing his chair back and rising to greet me. ‘I’ve been worried,’ he said, in a softer voice, before lightly touching the back of my hand.
‘I never said I wanted to be a queen,’ I said, my eyes on Sylvia’s smirking face, before shifti
ng them to Marko. ‘I need to speak with you, in private. It’s important.’
Sylvia dropped a piece of cutlery, and a maid bent to scoop it up before replacing it with a clean fork from her crisp-white apron pocket.
Marko sighed and pressed his fingers against the centre of his brow, as though he had a killer headache. ‘Whatever you need to tell me, Miranda, you can say here in front of Sylvia.’
Sylvia abruptly pushed her chair back and stood.
‘Perhaps I should leave you two alone.’
Marko raised a palm. ‘No. Stay. We have to learn to respect each other’s opinions if we have any hope of living under the one roof.’
Sylvia swallowed loudly and nodded, offering Marko a weak smile, though her eyes were full of malice for me.
I took a deep breath and exhaled shakily.
‘Damir is out. Go check the dungeons.’ I showed Marko my neck and he stared at it and gasped before gently touching my skin with his fingertips.
‘How did this happen? Where is he? I’ll kill him!’
‘He’s at Robbie’s cottage, with Lauren, hiding out. But Robbie doesn’t know, and he’s in danger. And Lauren, she thinks he’s a guard—she doesn’t know that it’s Damir.’
‘How is this possible, Sylvia?’ Marko said, his eyes shooting daggers at his sister. ‘I could have locked you away, but I didn’t. I forgave you.’
Sylvia braced the flat of her hands against the polished stone table. ‘Damir is of no threat.’
A long silence filled the room, broken only by the maid sneezing. Sylvia fixed her cat eyes on the woman and shouted, ‘Get out!’
‘No threat?’ bellowed Marko suddenly. His eyes bulged wide and incredulous, his face reddened with rage. ‘Have you gone stupid, sister?’ He stormed out of the dining room and shouted, ‘Guards!’
‘There’s no point calling the guards,’ Sylvia said calmly. ‘Most know that he is out. In fact the majority of your staff helped him move between the castle and the city,’ she paused for effect, ‘as did I. Your men have all turned, Marko.’
Marko’s sharp intake of breath and the broken look on his face shattered my heart. He drew his daggers and faced the open doorway, where an avalanche of footsteps approached.
‘Not all have turned,’ said Jonathan, both daggers drawn. I could have thrown my arms around his neck and kissed him.
CHAPTER TWENTY
AFTER A BRIEF altercation between Marko, Jonathan, the few faithful guards that remained and Damir’s men, who had been masquerading as Marko’s guards, Sylvia agreed to a visit at Robbie’s cottage.
She still refused to believe that Damir had killed Svetla or had endangered Anne’s life. She was adamant he had been conducting fertility experiments on Anne, not planning on sewing her up into a mermaid. And to prove so, she decided to lead a human train of guards and civilians to the very door of Robbie’s cottage, so that the people of Marin could see for themselves that Damir was harmless and, in her own words, ‘About to do great things for Marin’.
While we walked, I wondered just what these ‘great things’ were, exactly.
The trail of people behind us stretched on, endlessly, and grew thicker by the second as more civilians joined.
‘Robbie doesn’t know that Damir’s in his house,’ I said in a voice low enough only for Marko and Jonathan to hear.
Marko didn’t speak, but gave a quick nod to acknowledge my words. He was in full king-mode and very aware of the massive crowd behind us. This was his moment to reveal the truth about his brother, once and for all, and I could tell he was anxious about the crowd’s reaction. He had his head held high and his body rigid; but when he glanced at me briefly, I saw the pain in his eyes. I saw, too, the almost unnoticeable tremble in his hands when he seized the hilts of his daggers and whipped them out, a short while later, as we approached Robbie’s cottage.
My stomach knotted into a twist. Robbie’s cottage looked too quaint and peaceful to be harbouring a man as sick as Damir.
Were Lauren and Robbie safe? Had Damir fled? I went to step towards the front door, but Marko and Jonathan both moved to block my path.
Marko knocked on the door, then stepped back and shouted, ‘Damir!’ in a roar so loud that I jumped.
The crowd behind us oooohed annoyingly.
Seconds later, the door opened and out stepped Damir, followed by Lauren—holding hands.
‘Arrest him!’ Marko shouted, glaring at the guards behind him. ‘For the murder of Svetla Miro and the attempted murder of Anne Faulkner.’
The crowd remained silent, as though holding their breaths.
Several guards stepped forward, their daggers unsheathed, but they paused, mid-step, seeing Sylvia’s icy glare.
Marko snorted and shook his head. ‘Then I’ll arrest him myself.’
He charged forward and Jonathan followed suit, but Damir drew Lauren into his arms and started to kiss her on the mouth.
Marko and Jonathan skidded to a halt.
‘Out of the way, Lauren, I don’t want you to get hurt. Go stand with Miranda,’ said Marko, his eyes trained murderously on Damir, who was still kissing Lauren but had his eyes open and fixed on his brother.
They finally drew apart and I stared at Lauren, who looked dazed and drunk from the kiss, pleading to her with my eyes, and hands, to come join me. But she shook her head, resting it against Damir’s bulky shoulder.
The crowds behind us started to murmur and, when I saw Sylvia walking over to stand beside Damir, I saw why.
‘Quiet. Damir has an announcement to make.’
Damir stared into Lauren’s eyes, and she beamed like a flower beneath the sun’s rays.
Before my eyes, Marko seemed to wilt. His broad shoulders turned inward and his chest caved, so that he seemed to lose a couple of inches from his six-foot height. He turned and scanned the crowd, then shook his head a couple of times before directing his gaze upward, to the black ocean-sky above us, his lids fluttering closed as he muttered something to himself. He knew what Damir was going to announce, and so did I.
‘Damir has something he wishes to tell the people of Marin,’ said Sylvia, with a Mona Lisa smile.
The skin on the back of my neck crawled and my palms began to sweat.
Lauren blushed when she met my gaze, something she rarely did—only when she felt guilty about something. Her blue eyes glimmered with tears as she mouthed an apology.
Whispers travelled through the crowd as Damir’s hands slid down to rub my sister’s belly, like he owned it.
‘Marko,’ I said, after doing some quick calculations in my head. ‘Whatever he says, it can’t be true.’
Marko ignored me, his muscles hard like iron, bristling beneath my touch.
‘Spit it out, then,’ he said, glaring at his older brother.
Jonathan’s fists bulged around the hilts of his daggers, so hard that his knuckles showed white through his skin.
Damir drew in a deep breath that swelled his barrel chest and made Lauren and Sylvia look like dainty dolls beside him.
Several people from deep in the crowd booed and hissed, which made me feel slightly better for Marko. But most said nothing and instead watched Damir with transfixed gazes and baited breath, like they were staring at a god.
‘People of Marin,’ Damir said, in a booming voice that carried across the city as though he were on loudspeaker. ‘I have great news. News you have been waiting years to hear.’ He looked at Marko pointedly. ‘Twenty years in fact.’
Marko remained statue-like and listened.
‘Lauren Sun is with child—my child.’ He looked to the many eyes of the crowd, like a ringmaster working a circus arena, and grinned devilishly. ‘Marin’s child!’
Marko didn’t flinch as the crowd behind us went ballistic—cheering, shouting, gasping and crying.
I reached for his hand, but he brushed me away.
‘Leave me alone, Miranda,’ he said, through clenched teeth, his eyes wide as he stared off into space.
/> ‘But I don’t want to,’ I said, my voice cracking.
‘It’s all right, Miranda, I’ve got him,’ said Jonathan. ‘Look.’ He nodded to Lauren who stood a metre away, with a silly smile on her rosy lips. ‘Your sister wants a word.’
‘Lauren,’ I said, grabbing her hand and dragging her aside so that we could speak in private. ‘You aren’t pregnant. You’ve just missed your cycle. It’s what happens here. It happened to me last year. I didn’t get my period again until I came back home.’
Lauren shook her head. ‘No, Randy, I’m pregnant. I know my own body. I mean, look how huge my boobs are. And I’ve got morning sickness, too. I lied about the wine.’
‘But you’ve only been here just over three weeks. That means…’ I paused to calculate some more.
She rubbed her flat belly and grinned. ‘He visited me on my second night, with Sylvia. And yeah, he lied and posed as a guard; but I’ve forgiven him.’ She shrugged. ‘Deep down Damir’s a nice guy who just wants to be a good dad. At least he’s not like the guys back home who would run a mile if they got a chick knocked up.’
I shook my head.
‘You’re pregnant to Jackson, Lauren; we both know that.’
Lauren’s grin vanished. ‘Don’t talk crap, or else…’ her words trailed off and she leaned in close, ‘things will get worse for Marko. I mean it, Randy. Damir can have him thrown to the sharks.’ She shrugged apologetically. ‘I think he plans to do it anyway. Sorry.’
Everything began to swim around me; the people, the cottage, Lauren’s face.
My eyes sought Marko, who stood back-to-back with Jonathan, daggers drawn and ready for the guards who were creeping steadily towards them.
‘Stop it! He’s your king!’ I shouted to the traitorous guards, and then again to the crowds, but everybody ignored me.
One of the guards shoved me aside and spat in my face before facing the crowds. ‘We follow rules here in Marin!’ he said. ‘And the rules, created by our founder Frano Tollin, state that Damir is the true king, as firstborn—’
‘By only two minutes,’ added Sylvia, with a smirk, and the stupid crowd tittered.
‘You murdered our father,’ Marko spat. He turned to face the crowd. ‘Is this the man you want as your king?’
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