by M. Dalto
“Treyan, what are you planning to do?”
He looked at her for a moment before speaking.
“We’re getting that damn book back.”
Shaking himself off her arm, the Crown Prince stormed from the room.
The silence after Treyan left was deafening, and no one moved, as if they were uncertain where they should go or what they should do.
“You heard him,” Jamison finally said authoritatively, breaking the silence as he turned to the healer. “I’ll have two guards posted outside of this door at all times. The moment she wakes, you send one of them for the Crown Prince. Is that understood?”
The healer nodded once again, her eyes wide.
“As for the rest of you,” Jamison added, glancing to the rest of the royal family. “You best get a move on if you’re going to be leaving soon.”
The Captain took his leave at that, but even Alex was dumbstruck as to what had happened. She was grateful for Saratanya, who took it upon herself to usher Sara and Jared from the room, despite the protests from the young princess.
Only Alex and Reylor remained, standing over the sleeping Crystal, and a part of Alex wished she had escaped with the rest of them.
Keeping her eyes on her old friend, Alex could sense Reylor as he drew near, and she closed her eyes as his sheer presence overpowered her. She wanted to scream at him. She wanted to find out why he didn’t tell her about Treyan, why he didn’t tell her the moment he knew the truth.
Another time, a voice in the back of her mind told her. Another time when you want to hear the answer.
“Do you think she’s telling the truth?” she asked quietly a moment later.
“I don’t know,” Reylor admitted. “She knew about the spy, and her wounds seem quite convincing.”
“Could this be a trap?” Alex inquired, turning to him.
“Oh, most definitely,” he confirmed, still looking at the woman in the bed. “I’m just not sure whose trap it is, or for whom it’s for.”
“Would Lexan have—”
“No,” Reylor cut her off. “I may have raised him, but even then...”
Alex didn’t want to know why he trailed off. “Will you reach out to him?”
“I can try...but it would be a huge risk for all of us.”
She nodded and decided to leave him to it. She wouldn’t push it, for Lexan’s sake. For all of their sakes.
“Alex,” he whispered just loud enough for her to hear as she neared the door, and she glanced over her shoulder to look at him. He was looking at her with a gaze akin to that of a child, as if he was helpless and needed answers. Alex knew exactly what answers he was looking for.
She merely shook her head in response. “I don’t know, Reylor. I don’t know anything anymore. I just...we need to get beyond this,” she said, motioning to Crystal. “Whatever this is—we need to get to the bottom of it and move on from there.”
“You won’t leave with her, will you?”
Alex swallowed. Treyan seemed to believe that she would go if given the chance, but she was here—her family was here, in the Empire. “No, I will not leave. If Crystal wants to, I will do everything in my power to get her home. She doesn’t belong here—she never did. I can’t help but feel that it is my fault she got into this mess in the first place.”
“Don’t,” he ordered, moving from the bed to close the distance between them. Like her touch upon Treyan’s arm earlier, this was the closest they had been since the Crown Prince’s return, and she felt her cheeks flush. “We will figure this out,” he assured her, brushing a few strands of loose hair behind her ear.
“Then what?” Alex asked softly.
“Then we will deal with this. Like we always have. Like we always do.”
“Reylor,” she started, but he stopped her with a delicate kiss to her lips.
“Please,” he said gently. “We’ll get the Annals back, and we will work this out from there. I promise.”
Alex nodded, feeling tears form at the corners of her eyes.
“Now, I think you have a coronation to assist in planning, while I need to make sure my brother doesn’t kill our son.”
Alex scoffed, and Reylor smiled for her. He rarely smiled, but when he did...
“I’m sorry,” she murmured as she watched him.
“As am I,” he replied solemnly, his red gaze lingering on her before he gracefully strode from the infirmary room.
She watched him but didn’t know what else she could say. There was so much left between them, so much she couldn’t just put aside, but with Treyan back—alive—she had no idea what she could say, what right she had to anything anymore.
She watched him leave, watched the muscles of his back work under his shirt, his strong legs as they moved, his ass...
The clearing of a throat behind her made Alex startle and she looked over her shoulder to notice the healer, who seemed to have been standing there the entire time. Alex didn’t even bother to be embarrassed, or ashamed, as the healer peered at her.
She peered right back. “Make sure you tell us the moment she awakens,” she reminded the woman.
With the power of the title of Queen Empress balanced upon her shoulders, she carried herself from the room.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“I don’t want to get married!”
Sarayna had been pacing through the library once she left the infirmary with Jared in tow.
“I don’t understand why you’re so opposed,” he said, leaning against a desk as he watched her.
“You’re not?” she inquired as she spun towards him.
Jared merely shrugged.
“Well, you should be! We’re young, we have a long life to live, and we shouldn’t feel the need to rush into anything because it’s what everyone around us says we should do!”
“Well, maybe I don’t want to get coronated, but apparently I don’t have a say in that either.”
“You’re the Emperor, Jared—you’re supposed to get coronated. Just because you are Emperor doesn’t mean that we need to get married, definitely not on the same day. Especially when we don’t even have the damn book that houses the damn Prophecy that’s supposed to tell us what the hell we’re to do after that!”
“If your father has anything to say about it, the book will be back well before you need to say, ‘I do.’”
Sara startled as her mother entered the library. “What are you talking about?”
“Your father plans on retrieving the Annals,” the Queen Empress informed her as she stood in the doorway.
“I’m going with him,” the princess insisted.
“No, Sara—” Jared interjected.
“Why?” Alex inquired levelly.
The question caught the princess by surprise. “What do you mean, why?”
“I mean why do you want to leave the safety of the palace, where you can be guarded and protected and kept safe—you and Jared and the future generation of the Empire—to instead go running, head-first, into ultimate danger? Where you know the Borderlands is waiting for you, and your death would be nothing less than a relief to their efforts...”
“Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?” Sara countered. “Aren’t we supposed to live and die for the good of the Empire?”
“Yes, when there’s no other choice, but you, Sarayna...you have that choice.”
“Dad—”
“Your father is still the Crown Prince. As Crown Prince, it is still his place to protect the sanctity of the Empire, the Annals and its Prophecy.” Sarayna swore she heard her mother’s voice waver, as if any talk of Treyan should be off limits, but she wasn’t having it.
“What about you, Queen Empress? What choice do you have?” Sara countered, facing her mother. “You’ve had plenty of choices to make, that’s for sure, and look at what you’ve done to ruin those!”
“Sara, enough!” Jared interrupted, walking in between the two women. “This solves nothing.”
“What do you suppose we d
o then, Emperor?” she asked mockingly.
He glared at her. “I suggest you calm the fuck down and think before you speak again. To anyone.”
Sarayna was flabbergasted. She couldn’t get a word out even if she wanted to. How dare he talk to her like that! How dare—
Jared turned from her, ignoring her, and faced Alex instead. “There’s to be a coronation? Still as planned?”
“Yes,” Alex said, her gaze still on Sara, who refused to look at her. In fact, she refused to look at anything, turning her back on them and pretending a nearby bookcase had more importance than whatever Jared and her mother were going to talk about. Yet Sara listened to them...she couldn’t not listen.
“In an ideal situation, the lords and ladies of the Empire would flock to the palace to welcome in the next Empress...or in your case, Emperor. As far as I know, you’ll be the first, but that won’t matter—I don’t believe anyone will be arriving to celebrate your succession.”
“Because of the war?” Jared asked carefully.
“Yes, especially because of that. Mainly because we aren’t going to tell them. Not only are you the first Emperor to bless the lands of the Empire, but once news travels about Treyan’s return, they would arrive, and carelessly. We can’t afford the distractions it would create. Or maybe they would stay away. Regardless, the less attention we have on anyone coming to the palace, the better.”
“What will be expected of me during this...ceremony?”
“You just have to arrive,” she said gently with laughter in her voice. It made Sarayna cringe. “Reylor will see over the ceremony, and Sarayna will be there as well, but the main focus will be on you. Though I don’t know what they would do for Mistresses where an Emperor is involved.”
“I truly am the first?” Jared asked.
Alex let out an audible sigh. “You are. Don’t ask me how, or why—”
“Are you kidding?” Sarayna accused as she turned from where she stood at the bookcases. “You’re going to go on like you don’t know how he came to become the Emperor, or why I’m the Crown Princess? Or why my twin brother is working with the enemy!”
“Sarayna, this is not the time—”
“It’s never the time! You always have some excuse—” she screamed, feeling her fury rise.
“That is enough,” a stern voice echoed throughout the library. Treyan stood in the doorway. Sara didn’t know how long he had been standing there, but she didn’t care.
Alex stood there, frozen as if she had seen a ghost—Sara had to wonder if that’s still how it felt for her. She knew she should feel guilty—it wasn’t her mother’s fault her father was still alive—but she should have known better than to get involved with Reylor. For that, Sara would never forgive her mother.
By the look on her father’s face, it appeared he wasn’t ready to forgive her either.
“Sarayna’s coming with me,” the Crown Prince informed her mother. “I assume she’s not needed when it comes to the coronation preparations.”
Alex shook her head. “No, I believe Jared and I can handle it from here,” she said neutrally, and Sara had to wonder if she was grateful for the interruption.
Nodding, Treyan turned to his daughter. “I need your help—let’s go.”
It wasn’t a request—that was the voice of the Crown Prince giving her an order. She looked between him and Jared and Alex and realized she wouldn’t—couldn’t—deny her father anything. “Okay,” she merely replied, and followed her father out of the library without a backwards glance.
They walked away from the library, down a flight of stairs, and towards the back of the palace. Sara assumed they were headed towards the guards’ quarters to regroup with Jamison, and she found herself looking forward to it. Of anyone she had to associate with, the Captain was the only one she knew, for certain, who was on her side.
“Let it go, Sarayna,” her father finally said after they had walked a moment longer in silence.
“What?” she asked incredulously.
“Let it go,” he repeated, turning to face her.
She stared him down, and saw the pain in his eyes, and could hardly believe what she was hearing. “How can you say that, after everything she’s done?”
“Now is not the time,” he informed her, his brows furrowing slightly. “We need to retrieve the Annals, and ideally bring down the Borderlands while we’re doing it. It will not happen if we’re bickering amongst ourselves over the past.”
“Do you really need my help, or are you just trying to keep the peace?”
“Both.”
Sara huffed and rolled her eyes.
“Did you truly not know about the spy?” her father asked as they descended another flight of stairs.
“You heard about it the first time I did,” she confirmed, following behind him.
“Your mother said nothing of it to you?”
Sara shook her head. “We haven’t exactly been on the best of speaking terms since my return.”
Treyan glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You didn’t tell her I was alive.”
Sara swallowed. “It wouldn’t have changed anything.” She sighed as they rounded the corner to the hallway that did, indeed, lead to the guards’ quarters. “I caught them in bed together the night I arrived back, for gods’ sake.”
The Crown Prince’s jaw clenched, and Sara did, finally, feel guilty for bringing it up.
“She may have thought you were dead,” she said levelly. “He knew there was a chance you were alive.”
He paused at the door to the quarters, his hand on the handle, but didn’t open it. Instead, he stared at the wood as if some omniscient answer to the problems they all were facing was written across it.
“I know,” he said softly. “Which is why you are coming with us to the Borderlands.”
Sara’s jaw dropped. She had wanted to go but was expecting a battle of wills to convince anyone to let her go along. “What? Are you sure—”
“I need you there to keep me from killing him.”
Sara blinked, uncertain she heard her father correctly.
Before she could confirm her father did, in fact, plan on using her as a buffer between him and his brother, he had opened the door to where Jamison and his guards awaited their arrival, leaving the door open for her to follow.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Reylor hadn’t moved since the Council meeting commenced. He could barely look any of them in the face, even with Alex, Sarayna and Jared absent. With the coronation three days away and Crystal still unconscious for the last two, his thoughts had drifted elsewhere, mainly to the brother he had been going to extreme lengths to avoid.
News of Treyan’s return spread quickly, and no sooner had the whole of the palace learned of their Crown Prince’s return than they began to piece together what had happened, and what may have been happening right before their eyes.
Reylor hadn’t attempted to see Alex since his brother’s return, and it killed him inside. He wasn’t certain she had returned to Treyan’s bed, but just the thought of it made his insides roil. It seemed, though, that no one was sharing a bed with anyone, except perhaps Sarayna and Jared, but that was a pairing he did not want to think about.
He couldn’t help but think back to Alex as he stared blindly at the various papers and manuscripts in front of him. He was supposed to be keeping record of every word that was said during their meetings, but he was barely able to pay attention. There was too much going on, too much that needed to be done, and so much they weren’t ready for.
Then there was Alex.
The time he had spent with her had been some of the happiest moments of his life, and for the first time he actually felt as though the gods were listening to his prayers—that the Prophecy forgave him for his sins, that he was no longer forsaken. Yet again, when he finally allowed himself a moment to be happy, the hopes and dreams and careless thoughts shattered and fell like shards of broken glass at his feet.
He had
been so close.
She had said yes.
They were going to...
He hadn’t realized he ripped the parchment until the tear resounded through the empty council room and he crumpled the halves of paper in each hand.
“I certainly hope that wasn’t anything important.”
Reylor’s head shot up to see his mother standing at the end of the table.
It had been the first time he had been alone with her since the untimely return, and though at the time he had a million things to say to her, now that they were face to face, all words escaped him.
With her blonde hair tied behind her head and her bright, blue eyes staring at him, she looked exactly how he remembered her, which was surprising to say the least, especially after how much time had passed since she died.
No, not dead.
She was very much alive.
She was standing in front of him.
All thanks to the magic Razen had used on her, just as Reylor had used on Treyan.
Was he no better than their enemy now?
Was he still the enemy?
“You look well, Mother,” he said by way of greeting as he put aside the destroyed document.
“As do you, Reylor,” she responded, her voice soft.
He knew she was watching him—he could feel her stare drilling into his skull.
“Have you enjoyed your return to the Empire thus far?” he asked casually, still avoiding her stare as he began to busy himself with stacking papers haphazardly.
“About as much as one can after returning to a world where their last memories involved their missing husband and lonely sons.”
He looked up at her at that. “Did Treyan tell you?”
She nodded. “You found Axell’s remains in the Borderlands...”
“I’m sorry we weren’t able to bring them back, to give him a proper burial.” He did regret that, but with Treyan dead and Alex unconscious, taking advantage of the time she had given them to get out of that castle had been hard enough.
He still remembered the weight of his brother’s bloody body in his arms as he escaped, helping Sarayna carry Alex from the battle scene as best as he could. It took them longer than it should have just to get to the cabin beyond the tree line, and even longer to return to the palace itself. It was not an easy trek, but they did it, though there was no time to return to the dungeons to reclaim the bones of the Empire’s former Crown Prince. “We can gather them when we return, if you wish...”