by M. Dalto
Jamison lived in a small cabin on the far side of the village. Having once housed his family, now only he remained, ever the loyal Captain. His children, now grown themselves, were sent away when the Empire began to crumble. Alex remembered how she felt at the loss of Lexan, and after sending Sarayna away—she couldn’t imagine having done it on purpose.
Walking up the well-worn path to the cabin’s front door, the place seemed calm and serene, like a safe haven tucked away from the rest of the horrors of the world around them. The cabin’s windows glowed, warm and welcoming, and Alex believed they might truly have an enjoyable night together.
She glanced back at her daughter, and the slight smile that had formed on her lips quickly died as soon as she met Sarayna’s scowl. Alex’s countenance soon matched her daughter’s.
“You will be on your best behavior tonight.”
Sara rolled her eyes. “As if I’m ever not! At least I’m not the one—” She was thankfully cut off by the opening of the cabin door as Jamison appeared, welcoming them into his home.
“I thought I heard voices.” He smiled as he watched them. “Come in.”
Alex smiled, matching his own. “Sorry if we’re late—”
“No, you’re perfectly on time!” There was something in his tone that seemed...calm. Not the Captain of the Guard Alex was so used to. It was a rarity to see Jamison so candid, but she nodded and stepped past him, Sara and Jared in her wake.
The table in the middle of the cabin was set for four, and the hearth was ablaze with a simmering pot of what smelled like a hearty stew cooking above it. Fresh baked rolls sat on the table, and wine was already poured into the glasses at each place setting.
Alex was impressed.
“Dinner should be just about ready, so please, take a seat and enjoy the wine.”
“Can I help with anything, Jamison?” Alex asked while Sara and Jared took their seats, but the Captain shook his head.
“Agreeing to come to dinner was more than enough.” He grinned, and Alex swore the room was growing warmer from more than just the hearth.
The stew was indeed delicious, but Alex didn’t have the heart to ask if he made it himself or enlisted the help from the palace’s kitchen staff. Either way, the thought was there, and the Empress allowed herself to enjoy a meal with her friend and family.
Conversation was quiet and pleasant—small talk that didn’t involve the Borderlands was a relief. When the meal was over, the four sat at the table with wine in their hands and continued chatting, as if catching up for lost time.
“I’d love to help out with the library in any way I can,” Jared was offering as they began discussing the repairs that were still needed on the palace.
Alex and Jamison turned a questioning glance towards the young Emperor, but Sara answered for him. “Jared worked at one of the largest libraries in the Otherrealm. It’s where we first met.” She smiled slightly in Jared’s direction.
“You had no problems finding each other then?” Alex had to ask. Without a dream to go by, the chances of Sarayna actually crossing paths with her predestined partner...
But Sara shook her head. “He found me, truth be told.”
Jared coughed on his wine, and Alex could now see the flush on his cheeks deepening. “I don’t know if I’d go that far. You were the one who tracked me down at my bar...”
“I was also the one who came back to the library, but that’s neither there nor there.”
Alex could only watch the interaction between them. She remembered this, but there was something so new to her daughter’s story, a part of her envied it. Sipping from her own glass she turned to the two of them. “I hope you sent our regards to Saratanya. All is well with her then?”
Sara’s hands instinctively went to her throat, but there was nothing there. Alex perked a brow just as Sara’s eyes met hers. A silent question, but as all others Alex dared ask, this too was ignored.
“Tanya is doing great,” Sarayna said more to Jamison than her mother. “She misses the Empire but knows her return would cause more harm than good.”
“It’s true then—the Queen Empress is still alive and well?” the Captain asked with a hint of shock in his voice
Alex looked to Jamison as his eyes widened. “Of course, she is. You knew where Sara was going.”
“I understand, but to actually hear that she has been in the Otherrealm all this time—does she have no desire to come back?”
“She wants to,” Sara added, “but she can’t. There are no Keys for her to come back with.”
“Couldn’t she make one though?” Jared asked his intended. “Just as they’re made here, why couldn’t she construct one on her own?”
“First, she’d need to know how. Second, getting the components to make one within the Otherrealm is nearly impossible. It’s hard enough to make one here.”
“Reylor could do it.”
All eyes turned towards Alex, and the awkwardness at mentioning his name hung over the dinner table, tainting the friendly conversation.
Alex was tired of it and continued despite the tension.
“You know it’s true,” she said to her daughter. “He taught you a lot of what he knew before you left.”
Sara glared. “I’m not asking him for help.”
“She’s his mother, too, so perhaps, Princess, it would be most diplomatic of you to approach him with this information and put your personal preferences aside.”
“What has the Lord Steward done this time?” Jamison asked Sarayna as he sipped from his wine glass. Alex’s stomach dropped. She stared at her daughter with a pleading look, but Sara merely met her glance with a smirk.
“What hasn’t Reylor done?” Sarayna sneered, and Alex’s heart pounded in her chest.
Not here. Not now.
“If he’s done something...” Jamison warned.
“Enough, both of you!” Alex snapped.
Sara gave her mother a pleased smile, and Jamison raised a brow. It was only Jared who seemed sympathetic, as though he understood Alex’s motives more than anyone else in the room, and the requirements for secrecy. She made another mental note to speak with him privately, and soon.
Taking a deep breath, she tried her best to change the topic of conversation and turned to Sara. “How are wedding preparations coming?”
The flush on her daughter’s cheeks was answer enough. “They’re not.”
“The coronation?”
She was silent.
Alex then turned to Jared, and his eyes widened slightly. “You do understand what is expected of you as King Emperor of the Empire, I hope?”
Swallowing, he cast a glance towards Sara before responding. “To rule the Empire, to protect it, to uphold the Prophecy, and to carry on the line.”
“None of which,” Alex paused, looking at both her daughter and the Emperor before continuing, “starts without a proper coronation and wedding.”
“Speaking of a wedding...” the Capitan cut in.
Alex turned to Jamison, a questioning look on her face. Was this why he invited them to dinner? Had he found someone to finally fill the hole left after Mallia's death?
“When are you to remarry, Alexstrayna?”
All color fell from Alex’s face as she blinked at the Captain.
“I—I’m not...” Alex stammered.
“That is unacceptable, to both the Council and the Empire.”
Alex’s jaw dropped. “With Sarayna’s return, my relationship status should be of no one’s concern.”
“Alas it is,” Jamison pushed. “The Empire watches, Alex. They know Treyan is dead, and who should be next in line for your hand. And nobody wants that.”
Alex’s throat went dry. “We shouldn’t be having this conversation here.” Her eyes darted towards Sara and Jared, where they both sat still, watching, waiting.
“On the contrary, Empress, this is the exact reason I asked you all to dinner tonight.”
Alex couldn’t believe what she was h
earing. Did Sarayna and Jared know? Did Reylor? No, surely not. He would never have let them have dinner together if he suspected anything like this from Jamison...would he?
“Jamison...”
“Alex, you were the wife of my best friend. We are both two pieces that have been torn in half before our time, and we need to be put back together to feel whole again. I know this is what Treyan would have wanted.”
“Jamison,” she gasped again, but he didn’t move—he sat with his eyes intent on hers, his face serene and solid. He knew exactly what he was doing.
“I know I’m not a prince, or an Emperor, but for the good of the Empire, Alex, let me help you.”
She was at a loss for words. A complete and utter, total loss.
“Think about it. Please.” The last word was almost a plea, as if he thought she wouldn’t, as if he knew...
“I...I need to think about it.”
An outward refusal would make him ask why. She still believed him to be a friend, even if he believed they should be more.
Alex allowed her eyes to travel to Sarayna, where she sat next to Jared, and while the Emperor’s face mirrored Alex’s for shock and awkwardness, Sara’s hardened to complete and utter arrogance as a knowing smirk grew across her face.
Chapter Nineteen
Dinner at Jamison’s ended quickly after that. Alex excused herself, allowing Sara and Jared to stay behind for as long as they wanted. They would be safer nowhere else, so she wasn’t concerned about their wellbeing.
If nothing else, Alex was more concerned about the conversation that would ensue once she left, but decided it was more important to clear her own head than grow paranoid about what Sarayna may or may not tell the Captain of the guard in her absence.
She took the long way back to the palace, weaving her way around the royal graveyard before finding herself within the gardens yet again. Even in the moonlight, with the torches from the palace shining upon her, the roses were as bright and vibrant as the day they were planted. She brushed one hand brush against them gently, afraid to disturb them, but needing the feel of their soft petals underneath her fingertips.
Something—anything—to keep her grounded while she felt the world slip out from underneath her.
Jamison had proposed.
There was no way she could accept.
She didn’t want to.
She didn’t want him.
She furrowed her brow at the blossom in her hands, as if the rose itself was to blame for her conflicts.
Telling Jamison ‘no’ would open her world up to a string of questions with answers she wasn’t sure she wanted the world to know.
At least not yet.
What was she waiting for?
Permission?
Acceptance?
As far as she was concerned, there would be no acceptance for her decision, and she had to wonder if it truly mattered.
She pulled at the rose until she released it from the bush, the thorns digging into her skin. The pain was a welcome reminder that she was still alive and living a life all her own.
A life worth living.
And there it was.
She wanted to live her life and damn the consequences.
No one—not her daughter, nor the Captain of her guard—was going to make that decision for her.
In fact, there was only one other person in the palace who could have a hand in choosing the path of her future, and unless she was reading the signals he’d been giving her completely wrong, she believed he felt the same way.
The feeling of the blood trickling from her palm was her only indication that she had gripped the rose stem too tightly in her hand.
In frustration, she tore off the blossom from the stem.
“I do hope the rose deserved it.”
Her heart leapt at the sound of Reylor’s voice from behind her, and a smile crept to her lips as she turned to face him.
He sat on a marble bench, his arms braced on his thighs as he observed her. He was very casually dressed in a white cotton shirt and loose pants, with his hair pulled back, his red eyes shining in the moonlight.
“It had it coming,” she answered as she allowed the petals to fall from her hand, leaving trails of blood in their wake. She kept her fist clenched as she walked towards him and sat on his lap. He seemed slightly surprised as his hands went to her hips, not because she would sit on his lap, but that she would do it so publicly.
Alex didn’t care anymore.
“Let me see,” he asked softly, and coaxed Alex into giving him her injured hand. He slowly pried her fingers open to show the puncture wounds created from the rose’s thorns, small beads of blood forming along her palm.
Alex’s breath hitched as Reylor, without warning, lowered his mouth to her palm and kissed each wound, his tongue gently licking over each spot where the blood welled. His mouth was gentle and his lips warm and Alex felt like she stopped breathing. It wasn’t until he was finished and glanced up at her, that devilish smile upon his lips, that she remembered where they were and what they were doing.
“How was dinner?” the Lord Steward casually asked as he straightened, his hands returning to her hips.
Alex let out an exasperated sigh.
“That good?” Reylor asked.
“No, not really,” she told him shaking her head. “Sarayna was a joy, as always. Jared was pleasant, but Jamison...”
Reylor could tell Alex was holding back, and his grip on her tightened. “What did Jamison do?” he asked as if he was about to run down there and find out himself.
She shook her head again. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell him—she just didn’t want to deal with the ramifications.
“Alexstrayna,” he insisted, and his voice had a tone more like that of the Lord Steward than of her lover.
She looked to him, meeting his gaze, and took another breath. “He proposed.”
Reylor stilled. “Proposed...what?”
Alex didn’t say anything more. She didn’t need to.
“What did you say?” She could tell he was trying to remain calm, though by the feeling of his hands upon her hips, his temper may have been getting the better of him. No pain, just increased pressure.
“I didn’t say anything.”
Now it was Reylor who was silent.
She brought her uninjured hand up to his cheek, to make sure she had his undivided attention. “If I told him no outright, he would know—”
“What’s so wrong with that?” Reylor practically growled.
“Nothing,” she assured him, “but one less conflict to resolve, the better.”
He glared at her slightly. “We are to live in secret for the rest of our existence because you don’t want to have to resolve conflicts?”
“I didn’t say that either.”
She allowed her insinuation to linger between them.
“Alex,” Reylor sighed. “I don’t know what you want.”
But she did.
Adjusting herself upon him, she brought her legs around him so she was straddling his lap, and his arms wrapped around her back as she rested her hands on his shoulders, just far enough from him to keep his gaze.
“I want people to stop telling me what I should or should not do.” She brought a hand gently to his cheek. “I want people to believe me when I make a decision, and not immediately think it’s coerced or forced.”
“That still doesn’t tell me what you want,” he countered.
She shushed him with two fingers upon his lips.
“I was brought here without much of a choice and eventually thought that it was all I wanted, but now that I have the freedom to choose, what I want is what everyone else doesn’t think I should have.”
Reylor sighed around her fingers. “Your riddles are as bad as the Prophecy’s...”
“That’s my point. As far as I am concerned, my Prophecy is fulfilled. I don’t have to follow its path anymore.”
“Your daughter does, and her children after
her.”
“Yes, and I will do my best to guide them, but for me in the meantime?” She shrugged. “I want to live the life that I wasn’t able to live before.”
“What does that entail?” His brow perked with the question.
She took another breath. “I don’t want to live a life in secret, but I need a reason to come out of the shadows.”
A moment of silence fell between them.
“You’d marry again?”
A suggestive smile formed upon her lips. “If the right person asked.”
“And Jamison isn’t the right person?”
Alex merely shook her head.
“Alex...” Reylor began, but his words were cut off as his lips met hers.
She held onto him tight as she returned his kiss, and the hands that were around her moved up and down her back as their kiss intensified. He soon found the hem of her shirt and brought his hands against the bare skin of her hips, her ribs, her shoulder blades. She couldn’t help but move against him, feeling the hardened length of him between her legs. A moan escaped his lips, and he pulled away from the kiss, leaning his forehead against hers as they both tried to catch their breath.
“The gardens would not be ideal, Empress,” he scolded her hoarsely.
“Then let’s go inside,” she countered, returning her lips to his.
He kissed her deeply for a moment longer before pulling away again. “There’s something I need to show you first.”
She gave him a questioning look. “Is that why you came out here?”
He nodded. “I saw you down here from the library.”
“What took you so long to tell me?”
He smiled slightly. “You’re very distracting.”
She gave him a playful glare but kissed him again before reluctantly untangling herself from his body.
“Fair enough, lead the way.”
The way was through an older, unused passage that led from the palace’s stables into the lower levels that housed the dungeons and old infirmary.
Alex paused at the entrance.
“Why are we here?”
The last time she was down here, Reylor was held captive.
Bria kidnapped Lexan and murdered down here.