by M. Dalto
Crazier things had happened.
Like finding Jared.
It almost seemed too good to be true—too much like fate when they crossed paths that first day, and again that same night. Again and again and again...
She supposed that’s what the Prophecy did.
Sara had met him before she even dreamt of him...that Lexan knew she had found him...
She shook her head slightly—she had no idea where these doubts were coming from. She had dreamt of him. He was her Emperor. He wouldn’t have been able to come through the Key and be coronated if he was anything else.
The threats that Lexan made, they were nothing more than just that. Idle threats to make her doubt what she knew to be true.
No, this was right.
It had to be...
So then, why did all of it feel so wrong when she thought of marrying him? Wasn’t that what she was supposed to do as the Crown Princess? Bring her Emperor back and continue the royal line to maintain the Prophecy of Fire and Light for generations to come?
The very Prophecy written in the Annals that they were all about to risk their lives to retrieve.
Perhaps it was that alone that made all of this still feel so wrong. The Annals weren’t where they belonged, therefore Sarayna, a child of its Prophecy, felt like she wasn't where she belonged.
Once the Annals were back in the Empire, all would be well.
She hoped.
They stopped at the base of a mountain range that ran along a river that cut through the center of the Empire. From the summit fell a beautiful waterfall that would have been glorious if they didn’t need to cut straight through it to reach the cave where they would stay for the night. The horses weren’t too fond of the falling water either, so Sarayna didn’t feel so bad about her bitterness. Yet the horses had to come with them, as there was no decent place to tie them up outside of the cave, and they couldn’t afford to lose a single one or their packs.
Luckily, it hadn’t rained for some time, so the trek up the side of the hill was gradual but stable and dry until they had to walk through the torrential falling water.
“The ranger’s cave,” Saratanya mused as she stepped in behind Jared and Sarayna. Treyan and Reylor were already working on securing their horses and unloading their packs.
“You’ve been here before?” Sara asked curiously.
Her grandmother nodded. “Axell and I would come here often. Our hunting excursions would take us too far to travel all the way back to the palace in the same day, and sometimes we just wanted the time away.” A small, nostalgic smile crossed her lips.
“You can hunt?” Jared asked in awe.
“Pretty damn good with a bow, from what I’ve been told,” Treyan chimed in from where he stood with the horses. Sara didn’t know he had been listening.
“How did you know that?” Tanya asked, walking her own horse over to secure it for the night.
“Razen may not have told us you were alive,” Sara’s father said with a bitterness in his voice, “but he told us enough about you whenever we asked.”
“Sometimes more than we asked,” Reylor added with a glance to his mother. “Now, I understand why...”
Tanya paid neither of her sons any mind as she unsaddled her horse. “You both should have been old enough to remember that on your own.”
Treyan looked at her if he was trying. “I don’t.
Reylor, also looking to his mother, furrowed his brows. “Neither do I.”
Something passed between them that even Sarayna was uncertain she wanted to be in the middle of, and she was pleased this family drama did not involve her. Instead, she nodded to Jared, and together they walked their horses to the opposite wall, also studded with nails suitable for tying the animals for the night.
“What do you mean you don’t remember?” Saratanya asked her sons in a harsh whisper, and as much as Sara wanted to leave them to their private conversation, a part of her couldn’t help but strain her ears to listen. A glance to her side met Jared’s grey stare, and it appeared he was doing the same.
“I mean it seems as though neither of us have much recollection of you during our upbringing,” Treyan replied, and Sara could hear distaste in his tone. “Perhaps it’s because you and Father were too busy out hunting during your overnight escapades.”
“Surely you remember your father, and the lessons he used to teach you,” Saratanya pressed.
It was Reylor who chimed in this time. “The first thing I truly remember about Father was his disappearance and your subsequent illness.”
It was like a play, watching their exchange. A sad, dramatic play. She caught a glance from Jared and understood...it was time to diffuse the situation.
“Where will we sleep?” Sarayna asked as she stepped around her horse, dropping her saddle bags on the ground at her feet.
The three of them stopped and turned to look at them, as if forgetting the Crown Princess and King Emperor were in their presence. With an almost annoyed flick of his wrist, Treyan sent a floating blue orb towards the back of the cavern, illuminating an area already inhabited by low sleeping pallets. One of the three looked as if it had been slept in more recently than the others.
“We’re sure no one lives here?” Jared asked as he stepped towards the sleeping area.
“Does it look like anyone has been here?” Treyan snapped, taking his own saddle bags down and moving to the cold fire ring. “I’ll take first watch. Get some sleep.”
Sara was about to argue, but Jared placed a hand on her arm and shook his head. The tone her father used—it was the voice of the Crown Prince, she knew...and she knew he was bothered by whatever they may have just discovered about their childhood, but he was still her father. She should be able to approach him and talk to him...shouldn’t she?
But she was tired, and so she followed Jared towards the back of the cave. Noticing there were only three pallets, she knew they would need to share.
And she didn’t mind that one bit.
Chapter Forty
The sound of cracking wood had Sarayna sitting up quick in her pallet next to Jared, her hand reflexively going to her mother’s knife, always by her bedside. No one else around her seemed to have stirred, but she heard the snap again. Her father had specifically said he wasn’t going to light a fire, yet the shadows on the cave walls and the warmth emanating throughout proved there was, in fact, a fire.
Of course, it wasn’t her father she saw sitting on the other side of the fire, which meant it must have been well past his watch. Instead, with his features both alight and shadowed, sat the Lord Steward of the Empire.
Sarayna knew she should have let him be. She should have laid back down next to Jared and fallen back asleep.
Sarayna was never one to let things be.
Silently she crawled from the pallet, slipping her dagger into the waist of her pants as she padded her way towards Reylor.
If he heard her, he didn’t make it known. It wasn’t until she sat on the log adjacent to his that he finally addressed her.
“You should be sleeping,” he murmured as he stared into the flames.
“And you shouldn’t be keeping watch with your back towards the cave’s entrance,” she countered.
He smirked. “I’m not the one keeping watch.”
“Then why are you awake?” Sarayna asked, her brows furrowed.
“As I would have loved to share a pallet with my brother, I would much rather not,” he started, but let out a sigh. “I was unable to sleep.”
“Too much on your mind?” she prodded, her attention turning to the dancing flames as she spoke.
“Quite,” he admitted softly.
Sarayna contemplated what she should say next, biting the inside of her lip as she debated how harsh or subtle she should be.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” Reylor said before she could get the words out.
“Not for lack of trying,” she murmured, uncertain where this conversation was going to
lead, but more than willing to hang around for the ride.
“I love your mother,” he confessed quietly, and she could feel his red gaze flick up to look at her.
“As does my father,” she reminded him, her eyes meeting his.
“Then is seems we are at an impasse,” he relented with a sigh. “The only one who is going to be able to resolve it is Alexstrayna.”
“No,” Sarayna reminded him. “You could put an end to it just as easily. Probably more so if you care about her so damn much.”
Instead of arguing, he scoffed, a cynical chuckle escaping his lips as he returned his gaze to the fire. “You’re right—that would be too easy.”
“You can’t keep living like this,” she hissed. “None of you can.”
“What are you suggesting, Princess?” he asked. “You were the one who orchestrated this mess. Perhaps you have an idea as to how to clean it up.”
Sarayna didn’t have an answer to that. She had expected Reylor would have backed down, or that her mother would have turned Reylor away once Treyan returned, but neither of those scenarios had played out, and that nagged on her conscience. Was her mother really thinking about leaving Treyan for his brother? Even after everything? It made no sense...none...
“She mentioned returning home,” Reylor finally said, his tone hushed. “To the Otherrealm.”
Sarayna’s head shot up at that. “She told you this?”
Reylor nodded slowly. “Before we left.”
“What did you say to her?”
“I simply asked her to wait until we returned before she made any rash decisions.”
Sara couldn’t help but glance over her shoulder to where her father was now sleeping. “Does he know?”
“No, I don’t think so, or if he does he hasn’t said anything. Though by his demeanor, he very well could and just not care...”
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed as she turned to the Lord Steward.
Shrugging, his gaze remained on the fire. “It will be one more thing we will need to resolve once we return to the palace.”
We.
So, Reylor was intending on coming back.
A part of her felt disappointed, and another felt guilty for feeling disappointed.
By the way her mother spoke before their departure, she sounded as though she expected Reylor to stay behind in the Borderlands, or worse, sacrifice himself so that no one else had to.
It seemed the Lord Steward had every intention of returning with them. Seeing this through.
A part of Sarayna respected that.
“Go back to sleep, Princess,” he said, as if he could sense her thoughts and didn’t want her pity. “Dawn will be here before you realize and your father will be ready to go as soon as possible.”
She wanted to argue, to protest—she never wanted to obey any order Reylor gave her, but he was right. Sara merely stood and brushed off her pants as she began to return to the pallet.
“You’re right, though,” he said, just before she was out of earshot.
“About what?” she asked softly, pausing where she stood.
“About everything.” He let loose a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “Not for lack of trying.”
The rest of their travel north was extremely uneventful, much to Sarayna’s chagrin. She and Reylor didn’t speak about their conversation from the night before and her father was so preoccupied with their end-goal that getting anything out of him would be akin to pulling teeth. Saratanya seemed lost in her own world since the exchange with her sons in the rangers’ cave, so there was no conversation to be had there. Which left Jared...
And she knew what he wanted to talk about.
They still hadn’t consummated their relationship since his coronation, and Sara’s aversion to it was twofold.
First, she knew what it would mean, sleeping together in the Empire. They hadn’t since their arrival. She made a point of that, after hearing the stories and knowing how the Prophecy worked. She had been extremely careful in that matter.
Second, if they consummated the joining of the Crown Princess and the King Emperor, there would be no going back. She would have to marry him and spend the remainder of her life creating the next line of royal blood. After seeing what transpired between her parents and Reylor, and learning about her grandmother and Razen, she decided that no, that was not something she wanted. Not yet, and she wasn’t sure if she ever would.
It didn’t mean that she didn’t love Jared.
She just loved herself a little more.
Jared was getting anxious. He had said as much the previous night when the two of them were curled up in each other’s arms upon their shared pallet in the cave. Their bodies hugged each other, their arms and legs entwined, for comfort and for warmth.
“Do you think we’ll be able to find a way to sneak off for some time to ourselves?” he had murmured into her ear, his breath warm against the lobe.
Sara stilled in his arms and tried to keep her heart from beating too loudly. “What are you talking about?” she had said, feigning innocence.
He reached one hand around to gently grab her ass, and she had to bite her lip to stifle the moan that wanted to escape, especially as she began to feel the hardness growing between them.
“Jared,” she whispered.
“I miss you,” he said softly.
“I’m right here.”
“You know what I mean.”
She did but didn’t say anything further. Instead, she lay her head on his shoulder and willed herself to sleep, but the conversation dwindled. She could sense it behind those grey eyes of his that watched her as they rode through the dense forest of the Empire.
She let out an audible sigh of relief as the cottage finally came into view.
It looked exactly how she remembered it, albeit overgrown, though she tried not to think about the deceased Mistress to whom it once belonged.
Treyan, Reylor, and Saratanya had already dismounted by the time Sara and Jared rode up to join them.
“You two will stay here with Tanya while we check inside,” Treyan instructed, handing over his horse’s reins to her as she walked up with her own horse following her.
She took the leather straps in her hand and watched as the two brothers walked around the house to enter through the front door.
“Do they really think someone’s here?” Jared mused as he tied up not only his horse, but Reylor's as well.
“Never assume anything in the Empire,” Tanya answered solemnly, and Sara realized it was one of the first times she heard her speak all day.
Before the princess could ask her grandmother to elaborate, they heard a commotion from inside the house, and all three of them turned to face the cabin as if trying to determine if their assistance would be required within.
Another shout had them running into the cabin.
The main room was dark, yet there was enough sunlight shining through the dust-coated windows for Sarayna to see exactly what had caused such a ruckus.
Treyan and Reylor stood on the other side of the room, their swords drawn at the scene before them.
Sitting at the chair at the table in the center of the room was a man—or at least it had been. His throat had been slit and his head leaned back over the chair at an unnatural angle, displaying the carnage that was once his throat.
His clothes, the table, and the floor beneath him were covered in his life’s blood...
Standing next to him, with his hands covered in that blood, was Lexan.
Chapter Forty-One
“Let me explain,” Lexan stammered, but Treyan was already approaching him, the tip of his sword aimed for his neck.
“Give me one reason not to slit your throat right here, right now,” the Crown Prince snarled as he approached the young man that was the Empire’s sworn enemy.
And Sarayna’s twin.
“Fedhas,” she said loudly to her father, catching the attention of all three males before her instead, all of them turnin
g to face her in unison.
It was Lexan who had her attention...and she, his.
Had he not been male, Sarayna would have felt as if she was looking into a mirror. Lexan’s blue eyes, so similar to hers, held her gaze as he realized she was there.
Lexan’s gaze darted between her and the King Emperor behind her, and Sarayna stood protectively between them, remembering her twin’s threat from her dream so many nights ago. She was about to speak, about to challenge him—saw Lexan open his mouth as if to do the same, but it was Reylor whose voice sounded, demanding their attention.
“We should hear him out,” he was saying, his attention on Treyan than anyone else.
“Why should we believe a damn word he says?” Treyan challenged.
“Right now, your Empire is far more vulnerable than you ever thought possible,” Lexan responded levelly, his eyes on the Crown Prince.
Sarayna watched him survey the room before he spoke again. “Our mother isn’t here.”
“We felt it best she stay at the palace, for her own protection,” Reylor informed him calmly.
“Are you out of your gods’ damned mind?” Lexan shouted at his father incredulously, and even Treyan staggered a bit from the outburst. “Why the hell do you think I’m here?”
Lexan whirled to face Sara, but his eyes were trained on Jared. “Why are you here?”
“We are here because we need to retrieve that which has been stolen,” Sarayna said to her brother, trying to regain his attention. “Perhaps you should explain why you are here and why you are covered in a dead man’s blood.”
As if forgetting about the body at the table, Lexan glanced towards the mangled corpse and let out a sigh, closing his eyes as he braced a hand on the back of a chair. “His name was Symon. He was my spy at the palace.”
Treyan began to approach him again, his sword raised, but Reylor placed a sturdy hand on his brother’s arm. “Hear him out.”
Treyan’s head whipped around to meet Reylor’s gaze. “You knew about this?”
“Please,” Reylor said by way of answer, motioning to Lexan.