by M. Dalto
The room seemed to quiet at the Queen Empress’ interjection.
Treyan spun to face Alex. “That was a different time and a different situation. You know as well as I—”
“As the new Emperor, Jared has just as much right to go as any of us, especially if it’s meant to set things right so that there will be an Empire to rule over when you return.”
The conversation seemed to die after that, but not without Treyan scowling towards Reylor as he made his exit. Even Alex did her best to avoid the awkward glances from the Lord Steward afterwards, and the memories it resurfaced.
With Reylor—gods, there was so much she needed to say to him, if he would only listen. Even she wasn’t certain if she would ever be able to get the words out. He had been avoiding her, and rightfully so.
There was much to do, and not much time for talking.
They had all disbursed once the coronation ceremony ended. There was no party this time, no lords and ladies of the Empire to entertain. They all immediately split up and went to work preparing for what was to come the next morning.
The library had become their central meeting place, where supplies and conversations were stored and had while they prepared for the journey. Alex was stacking sleeping rolls together when she realized she was no longer alone. It was the former Queen Empress Saratanya who now stood on the other side of her desk, her blue eyes watching her.
“It must be strange, being back,” Alex started.
“It must be strange, us being here,” Tanya countered, steadily watching her.
Alex glanced at her only once as she ensured another bedroll was properly tied before stacking it on top of the last. “We haven’t had the chance to talk since you’ve returned.”
“I don’t know if there was much to talk about.”
That made Alex stop what she was doing. “Have I done something to offend you, Tanya?”
The older Empress merely looked her over, like an overprotective mother who was only looking out for the well-being of her son.
Or sons.
Alex avoided her gaze and returned to her work.
“Is it true—Reylor asked you to marry him?”
Alex stumbled slightly, and the roll she just stacked fell from the table to the floor. Alex hadn’t told anyone—hadn’t said a word about it since they had all returned. How did she...
“Don’t look so stricken, no one told me.”
“How did you—”
Saratanya merely tapped her temple. “I have a way for knowing such things, it seems.”
Alex had the decency to blush. “Any and all plans have currently been put on hold.”
“Why?” she asked neutrally, and Alex suddenly felt as though she was being tested.
“There are far more important things at stake than my romantic life.”
“Would these plans have stopped if we never came back?”
She stared at the woman before answering, choosing her words wisely. “What happened between Reylor and me was a natural transgression of events.” Alex had to keep herself from cringing at that phrase.
“How natural is it, though, when you fall for the same man who kidnapped you? Tortured you?”
“About as natural as remaining married to a ghost,” she hissed, and her retort surprised even herself as the acidity rolled off her tongue.
Tanya sensed it too, for she cocked her head to the side as if analyzing her.
Alex began gathering the bedrolls in her arms hurriedly, not only because she was growing weary of the conversation, but because Sarayna and Jared would soon need them to pack the horses. “Is there something you’d like to say, Saratanya? By all means, please don’t hold back on my account.”
“It has to come to a point, Alexstrayna, when you need to ask yourself which of them you could never live without.” Saratanya brought her attention down to a stack of maps, one marked with lines directing the easiest way into the Borderlands. “Once, I thought I knew—I thought I could have both, couldn't live without either, but when Axell disappeared...” A finger ran over the icon depicting the castle in the north.
“You couldn’t have known...”
“And neither could you,” Tanya replied, bringing her eyes back up to meet Alex’s, “but when we return, you need to, Alex. For the sake of the Empire, you need to make up your damn mind.”
“I think that is the last of them,” Jared gleefully announced as the final horse was saddled.
Sarayna stood outside of the stall, watching Jared work. “Would you ever have thought a month ago that this is what you’d be doing?”
The new Emperor shook his head. “I’d barely seen a horse, let alone ridden one,” he mused as he ran a hand along the beast’s strong neck.
“Now, here you are. Preparing to ride into the unknown like your life depends on it.” She didn’t realize how sad she sounded until Jared raise his head to look at her and approached her.
“Everything will be okay, Sara,” he assured her as he met her on the other side of the stall, his hands covering hers. Smiling, he added, “Isn’t this what we were born for?”
She allowed a small smile to grace her lips, but her gaze lowered to where his hands met hers. “Born to rule, perhaps. Destroying the lives of the rest of the family in the process? Not so much.”
“Ah,” Jared conceded, removing his hands and leaning fully against the stall. “The guilt is catching up to you finally.”
Sarayna shook her head in response. “I just thought that once she realized he was still alive, that he came back for her, that she’d see the error of her ways and that she would make things right instead of—”
“Instead of following her heart?” Jared offered.
It took Sara a moment, but she nodded.
“We can’t control how the heart feels, Sara,” he said as his gaze drifted to the distant horizon visible through the open doors of the stables. “You may think one thing, but your heart tells you something completely different, and you become a slave to it because you have no other choice.”
Sarayna watched him as he talked, and she couldn’t help but think back to when they first met. She thought he was a pompous ass, but nowhere near the bastard she knew Reylor to be. If she had never had that dream, would she have ever believed him Emperor material? Would she have ever approached him while she was staying with her grandmother in New York City? Or would she have avoided his bar and the library like the plague and never have found what she was looking for? She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to know.
“I’m glad my heart led me to you,” she finally said quietly, leaning in to place her head on his shoulder.
“And here I thought it was just a dream,” he mused, but lay his head against hers all the same.
“As much as I hate to interrupt this lovely moment, there are supplies and packs that still need to be gathered and brought down from the library before your mother does it all herself.”
Sarayna and Jared jolted, both straightening at the sound of the Lord Steward’s voice behind them.
“You have two perfectly good arms, too,” the princess sneered as she retreated from the stable.
“I do,” Reylor agreed, “and I’ve also been gathering first aid supplies and enough food to feed this small army of ours during our lovely travels. What have you been doing, Sarayna, other than trying to ruin the lives of those around you?”
Sara stopped, her fists clenching at her side, but before she could whirl around and confront her uncle, Jared wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“He’s just trying to incite you,” he whispered into her ear.
“It’s working.”
“Don’t let it. Not yet. Not now.”
She gave her Emperor a glance but decided it best to keep her comments to herself. He was right—Reylor was playing with her, just as she had been playing with him.
She hated being on this side of the game.
With Jared holding her close, they walked from the stables to see wha
t help they could offer elsewhere, and Sarayna did everything in her power to keep from stabbing the staring Lord Steward between the eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Six
After spending the day preparing and packing, Alex was exhausted.
Other than her brief encounter with Saratanya, she didn’t have time to stop and speak with anyone else, and a part of her was relieved. Still, as the suns’ light began to fade and the candles and sconces were lit throughout the castle, she felt like there was still so much that needed to be said and done before they left.
Yet when she finally had the time to venture out and seek that company she so desired, her feet blindly led her through the palace to the new infirmary.
She needed to talk to Crystal.
If there was anything else she could tell them, any news or information that could possibly give them the upper hand once they crossed the tree line, Alex knew she would be the one to have it.
“Alex.”
The Captain of the Guard’s voice snapped her from her determined focus, and she blinked as she looked up. Jamison stood before the door of the infirmary, hand on his sword as if to fend off an attack.
Or her.
“Jamison?” she asked, her eyes darting between the male in front of her and the closed door behind him. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m on guard duty,” he informed her plainly, though his hand didn’t leave his sword.
“Guarding what, Jamison?” she asked, slightly annoyed at the delay. “I would have thought it beneath your position.”
His eyes narrowed but he held his ground.
Alex assessed him for a moment before realizing exactly what, or whom rather, he was guarding.
“Let me in, Jamison.”
“He said he is not to be disturbed by anyone.”
“Jamison,” she insisted. “Let me in.”
The Captain didn’t budge, but Alex saw the look he gave her. Like she had personally pained him. Maybe she had, by not telling him about Reylor, or leading him to believe that he had a chance with her, but now was not the time to dwell on such matters. Not when her best friend—no, not friend. Just Crystal. Crystal was inside that room and Alex needed to see her.
Jamison was standing in her way.
“You too, then?” she asked, exasperated. Taking a step back, her hands flew up in the air. “Has this whole palace taken a stance against me, then? As if I’m no better than the Councillor?”
“Only because you have allowed them to.”
Alex whipped back to face the door as Treyan emerged, shutting it behind him.
“What did you do to her?” Alex accused, approaching him.
A flash of hurt crossed his eyes, and Alex knew she her words had been chosen poorly. “Why are you so quick to think ill of me now?”
She opened her mouth to protest, but no words escaped. Treyan merely shook his head.
“It is good that you are here anyway.”
“It is?” Confusion colored her words.
Nodding, he stepped away from the door. “She won’t talk to me. She won’t talk to Jamison. In fact, the only one she’ll agree to talk to is you.”
Alex blinked. “Why me?”
Treyan shrugged. “I can only assume it’s because of who you were to her...whatever connection you two may still possess. It’s why you were coming down here anyway, wasn’t it?”
“I was hoping she had news...”
“About what?”
“Lexan,” she replied without thinking.
Ever since Crystal arrived, Alex had not been able to get the image of how she appeared out of her head. Yes, she knew Crystal was pregnant, but that Lexan could do such things...
Alex tried not to think about what she had kept him from doing to Sarayna, and it conflicted with the night Reylor brought her to him. Should they have kept him locked up in that cell, to keep something like this from happening? To keep something like what almost happened to Sarayna from happening again?
Without talking to Crystal, Alex would never have those answers.
“Alright,” she agreed, and took a step towards the door.
Treyan’s hand was on her arm in the blink of an eye, and the moment his warm, calloused hands touched her cool skin, a shock akin to electricity ran through her arm, down to her heart, and between her legs. Her breath hitched as she met his eyes.
“If she tells you anything,” he all but whispered, his gaze intense, “will you tell me?”
The tone of his voice, of that request—she nodded. “Of course.”
“Thank you,” he said just as softly, and their eyes met the other’s a moment longer than was necessary. It was the shifting of Jamison on his feet, moving from the corner of her eye that had her pulling away, at the same moment he released her, and she pushed the door of Crystal’s room open slowly.
The light in the infirmary was dim, both to assist the invalid in the healing process and because of the late hour.
Jamison remained outside the closed infirmary door, just a shout away should she need him. Alex wondered why anyone would think she would need to call for help the moment she saw Crystal sitting in bed.
The color had returned to her face, but the bruise was still prevalent even in the dim candlelight. Her left arm was bandaged and in a sling, resting on her swollen abdomen, and her right ankle, also bandaged, was propped above the blankets as she rested against the headboard.
In this moment, when Crystal did not yet know she was standing there, Alex was simply an observer, and what she saw made her heart ache.
For a moment, she saw her friend from Boston.
That was all gone in the blink of an eye as a floorboard creaked under her foot and Crystal glanced her way.
The Empress was uncertain what Treyan had said to her, but Crystal did not look pleased. Her brows were furrowed, and her lips were pursed, as if she and the Crown Prince had not parted on the best of terms. Alex appreciated that she was needed for this—it almost justified her wanting to stay behind while the others went on ahead to the uncertainty of the Borderlands. Perhaps she would give Crystal the comfort she needed to open up to her and let her know exactly what had happened and what she could do to help.
Seeing that it was Alex who approached softened Crystal’s expression. “I didn’t know if he would actually send you in,” Crystal told her as Alex took a seat on the chair next to the bed. “Was Treyan always that much of an arrogant prick?”
The Empress shook her head. “No, he wasn’t,” she assured her, but she wasn’t ready to get into those details. “I was on my way to see you anyway.”
“You were?” Crystal asked as she sat up. Something shone in her eyes as she turned to better face Alex.
Nodding, Alex leaned in closer, resting her arms on the bed. She kept her voice low, not wanting the whole palace knowing what they were discussing. “I need you to tell me what is happening in the Borderlands, Crystal.”
“Why?” Crystal questioned, almost stricken. “I came here to escape that place.”
“I know.” Alex sighed. “I’m sorry for what happened to you.”
Crystal looked away from her.
“We are going to make this right,” Alex promised her as she reached over to hold her hand. “Razen, Lexan—we’re going to make this right.”
Crystal pulled her hand away as she returned her eyes to Alex’s. “What are you going to do?”
“Not me,” she informed her. “I’ll be staying here with you.”
“Just you?” she asked with a slight tilt of her head.
“Jamison and I,” Alex corrected herself, “will be staying here with you, but that’s not the point, Crystal. What’s going to be waiting for the others when they pass the tree line? Anything you can tell us, about the castle, about the guards—it will help them retrieve the Annals and set everything straight.”
Crystal just looked at her, and what the Empress would have given to see through to her friend’s thoughts at that moment…
“Are you going to kill him?” she asked softly, her undamaged hand going to the swell of her stomach.
Alex followed her movement and looked back to her friend. “Crystal, Lexan hurt you. He all but forced himself upon Sarayna, he—” Alex had to stop. He was still her son, and now he was helping them, but if he truly did this to Crystal... “Their purpose is to retrieve the Annals. I don’t think Reylor will allow anything to happen to Lexan, but if they cross paths...I’ll be sure he’s not harmed, but he will need to answer for his crimes.”
Crystal nodded slowly, but still looked uncertain.
“Once they return, and the Annals are back where they belong, we will find a way to get you home, Crystal.”
“You’ll come with me.” It wasn’t said as a request.
“Crystal, I can’t just leave...”
“Why not?”
“Because...there’s Treyan...and Sarayna...and—”
“And Reylor?” Crystal finished for the Empress.
Alex whipped her head up to meet her eyes.
“They don’t need you here anymore, Alex,” Crystal argued. “I saw the ceremony—there’s a new Emperor now. You’re free to leave.”
“No,” she huffed. “I am not.”
“Why not?” she pressed.
‘Why not’ was a fair question. What was truly keeping her there? What was keeping her from making a Key and returning to the Otherrealm she used to know, other than the laborious process of making the Key itself?
Her gaze drifted down to Crystal’s stomach.
“The same reason that you will never be able to leave,” she said quietly. “Not truly. If you think Lexan would ever allow you to leave with his child and not try to follow you...”
Crystal frowned, shaking her head silently.
“Crystal...please. Let me help you. Help us, and we can help you.”
Holding her gaze longer than socially acceptable, Crystal finally nodded.
“Get me some paper. I’ll show you.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
In her hand, Alex clutched the makeshift map that Crystal had drawn of the Borderlands, the castle, as well as the locations of their armies and patrols. This was going to be their way in and out and Alex felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders.