The Runaway Queen

by Sophie Rodger

  There was only one way to find out. She had to see him. And hopefully, he was clothed this time! Slamming the wig on, she rushed to the bathroom and sped through her morning routine. Minus the hair prep and makeup, it didn’t take as long as she expected.

  We are all the face of this institution, Christiana. Remember that.

  Her mother’s wise words rattled through her brain as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She bit her lip at the sight, frowning at her reflection. Well, it was a good thing this particular face of the family was in disguise.

  The stairs creaked at her movements, and she stopped at the bottom. That whirring sounded suspiciously like . . . a coffee machine. Heat flooded her cheeks at the memory of what her last experience with it was like, and she patted her tongue against the roof of her mouth. Sore? Nope. Thank goodness! She walked towards the kitchen, a smile spreading across her face. A world without coffee was like . . . She froze in the doorway. She could not think of what it would be like. The thought was too depressing.

  “I take it by your smile that you have not been scared off coffee by the events of last night?” Phew, he was dressed. How did he manage to make normal jeans and a T-shirt so appealing?

  “Scared? It would take more than that to scare me off coffee. I tried decaf once. Our relationship was tempestuous and short lived.” She laughed, moving farther into the kitchen and reaching for the steaming cup.

  “A girl after my own heart.” His eyes met hers over the rim of the cup, and her heartbeat stuttered in her chest.

  Who would that girl be? What was his type, if he had one? She would bet all the priceless art in the Kephelai palaces that it would not be a princess.

  Especially a princess in disguise.

  • • •

  Damn it! What had made him say that? Damon pressed the hot cup to his lips, ignoring the darts of pain and the burning sensation. It was an idiotic thing to do, especially after the news he’d received that morning. He had intended to tell her after grabbing his clothes. The last thing he had expected was to find her in the middle of a nightmare. Lack of caffeine may not scare her, but something or someone did. Actually two names scared her, called Cally and Geo whoever they were. He would find that out, but first he would break the bad news.

  “Any news on the—”

  “I’ve heard ab—”

  She lowered the cup from her mouth and pushed it onto the counter top as a small smile lit her face. “I am sorry. Please go on.” Her hands moved nimbly in front of her like an orchestral conductor, and she tilted her head back, pinning him with her eyes. Despite her protestations and quoting history about the invaders of Kephelai like a modern-day female Herodotus, he had never seen eyes like that on anyone before. They really were a remarkable color.

  How did she do it? He had spent most of the night trying to work it out. She managed to create a crazy mix of emotions in him, and it was not a combination he needed in his life right now.

  “No. Ladies first.”

  “Whoever told you that taught you well.” She chuckled lightly, and the sound sang through him.

  “Yes, my mother was always one for manners.” He tightened his grip around the cup. He did not want to go there. Not now. “What were you going to say?”

  “The foal. Is there any news on Athena and Persephone? I bet you miss them.” She reached for her cup again and held it in front of her, blowing the steam from the top.

  “Yes. They are fine. Rafe is the best. I have no worries leaving my stables in his hands.”

  She nodded gently. “Now you.”

  Damon inhaled quickly. There was no best way to break this. It was like a Band-Aid. The only way to avoid further pain was to rip it off quickly. The only way to deliver bad news was quickly. “Marius called. The road is still blocked, and we won’t be leaving this morning as I hoped. The best they can think is this evening or even tomorrow morning.”

  Her mouth stilled over the rim of the cup, and she looked up sharply. “Do you mean we are trapped here?”

  “Trapped means we cannot get out. If you remember, there is always the donkey.”

  He eyes narrowed, and she took a sip of her coffee before sliding the cup back onto the counter. “That holds only a fraction more appeal than a horse and, on these roads, is twice as dangerous. Do you relish taking part in activities that mean you get hurt in some way?”

  “Sometimes those are the best activities. It means you are putting yourself out there and chancing a change.”

  “Do not tell me. That has been your philosophy since you were a boy, I bet.”

  “You’re right. I used to skip school to visit the racetrack near Acantha.”

  “You, skip school? I can’t imagine it.” A gentle smile played around Tia’s lips, and he felt an answering one tug at his own.

  “I know. I am the epitome of obedience and am well behaved at all times.” The last thing he wanted was to be well behaved with her. But unlike his father, he was not a seducer. “I guess that was how I acquired all my cuts, bruises, and concussions.”

  “And what did your mother think about this?”

  “I told her it was my grandfather’s cattle.”

  She laughed softly. He could get used to that sound. He was accustomed to the other noises women made, especially in the bedroom, but he hadn’t shared this morning intimacy with anyone in—he pursed his lips—ever.

  “Why would you do that? Unless you want to be the jockey and the breeder rolled into one.”

  “I’ve no such desires.”

  “Then why?”

  A warning whispered in his head. He didn’t owe Tia any explanation. Even if she wasn’t his father’s spy, her gaze seemed to see through him.

  “We needed the money, and I was a lot smaller when I was younger. A bit runty.” Damon laughed at her look of incredulity. “You better believe it. Puberty was kind to me, and I had a growth spurt. But before that, I was prime jockey material. And I was a strong rider. Well, strongish.”

  “But even being a strong rider is no guarantee of . . . ” She stopped quickly and shook her head. “Essentially what you are telling me is that you had a childhood spent running wild and free and dangerous by the sounds of things.”

  She had been about to say something else. He was sure of it. Now was the time. “Danger is in the eye of the beholder. What seems dangerous to one person can be second nature to another, like riding a bike or surfing or even . . . riding a horse.”

  “Horses are prey animals. They are highly strung. It is in their nature. It is in their nature to react first. It makes sense.” Her voice was flat, emotionless. It sounded to his ears as if she were repeating a speech she had given a million times before.

  “Is that why you do not ride . . . anymore?” He paused, letting the words hit their mark. “Tia, who are Cally and Geo?”

  Her gaze flew to his, and her body froze. Her lips opened, then closed, before a small squeak emerged. She blinked slowly before standing up straighter like a sentry on duty. “How . . . ?” Her tongue flicked across her bottom lip, and she cleared her throat. “Where did you hear those names?”

  “You screamed them out when you were having your nightmare.”

  She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply and loudly through her nostrils, and his stomach twisted at the sight. His gut was telling him there was more to her relationship with horses than her bog-standard phrase of “I don’t ride,” and he was determined to find out what it was.

  • • •

  Tia stiffened, every nerve in her body alive at the question. She had known this time would eventually come. He had been trying to find out since they met, and she had managed to avoid it.

  Excuses flew swiftly to her lips like hummingbirds in flight, and she stood straighter, ready to face him. But the excuses lay static on her lips at the assessing look in his eyes.

  For years, she had managed to conceal her pain from the press, from her family and friends. She had learned to walk again without a visibl
e limp and to pretend that everything was okay. She had succeeded where people thought she would fail. And yet this man saw through her like newly washed glass.

  She dragged her tongue across her lips and inhaled slowly and steadily as memories she had learned to bury returned. Not that they ever really left. They’d only stopped becoming daymares and, instead, clung to her in her sleep.

  “Cally was my horse. We were in a race and . . . it was meant to be a bit of fun. Nothing serious but there was a jump ahead, and just as . . . ” She stopped as the words she had practiced saying over and over again in front of her hand mirror when she couldn’t leave her bed clogged in her throat. “Just as we went to jump, a snake came from nowhere. Cally took the jump, but lost her footing on the other side and fell on me. My pelvis was crushed. The doctors said I made a miraculous recovery, probably because I was sixteen when it happened. I taught myself to walk but . . . ” Her voice was barely audible, even to her own ears, and she cleared her throat and the tears with it. She had cried enough. Geo would not want her to be like this. “Geo, my . . . friend, never made it. The doctors think Cally had reared up and knocked into Geo’s horse before taking the jump. Geo’s horse did not take the jump but threw Geo over the fence.”

  “I am so, so sorry Tia. I didn’t know . . . If I had, I . . . ”

  Tia waved her hand over the counter top between them, unwilling to let him finish his statement. She didn’t want to be reminded anymore. She lived with the memories like a second skin.

  “So, now you know.” She forced a trembling smile to her lips and reached down to her T-shirt, flicking off a speck of imaginary dust.

  “Yes, I do.” He exhaled heavily and ran his hand over his head. “You must have cared for this Geo very much.”

  “I still do. The funny thing is that the only thing Geo cared for more than me was the horses. Ironic, huh?” It was a mantle Bastian had happily taken up. She had Geo’s crown, and her twin had Geo’s stables. Both were shoes too big for either twin to fill.

  “What happened to Cally?”

  “My f . . . She was put down. She had broken her leg after the jump. There was nothing that could be done.” Tia wrapped her arms around her. The green of the trees on Aphrodite’s Mountain called to her. She had to move. She needed space, away from her chaotic thoughts and away from him, where she could nurse her bruised heart once more.

  It had been on the tip of her tongue to tell him more, to finally confess who she really was once and for all, but the thought of what his reaction might be stopped her cold.

  Pushing herself away from the sink, she turned towards the door, ignoring the burning sensation behind her eyes.

  “Tia, wait.”

  She didn’t want to. It hurt to look at him and see the sympathy in his eyes now that he knew the truth. She could take his anger at her on his land, the annoyance of taking her to Arios, but she couldn’t take this.

  “I don’t want your sympathy, Damon.” Her voice was clipped and cool, and she embraced the anger flowing through her. It was a relief to be angry, to be allowed to get angry instead of pretending it was okay when she knew it wasn’t and it never would be again.

  Her skin burned as his hands slid across her elbows, turning her to face him, and her blood pounded around her body, making her head light. His eyes were unreadable; there was no sympathy, no pity, nothing.

  “Good, because I wasn’t going to offer you any. If there is one thing I have learned about the past and regret, it is that they do not go hand in hand. You can change things for the better if you want. You said your friend loved horses. Would Geo want you to never ride again or encourage you to try?” His soothing tone wrecked havoc on her raw senses, and she pushed against him, only to find her hands sliding up his T-shirt instead.

  Her nerves danced at the feel of the muscle under them, and she twisted her hands away. “That is beside the point. Geo is not here to tell me either way! Geo is gone, and I am the one left.”

  “True, but do you truly believe that? I am no great believer in the afterlife, if you have been good or bad, but what is the best way to honour his memory?” He stopped and lowered his eyebrows into a frown, as if willing her to believe him. “Take it from me. The best way to honour Geo’s memory is to try again.”

  His breath was gentle against her forehead, and she inhaled softly as her body lightly swayed closer to his. “Is that how you have coped, Damon? By honouring your mother’s wishes, I mean.”

  A shadow crossed his face, like the clouds blocking out the moon, and he stared out of the window, narrowing his eyes against the morning glare of the sun. “That is different.”

  Tia shivered at the coldness in his voice. She had not expected that. Was it something she said?

  “I have tried, God knows I tried, but ours are two different circumstances,” he carried on, “and . . . ” he paused, leaning closer to the window, “I think I may just have an idea to get our minds off being stuck here and to get us doing something that doesn’t involve talking about the past.”

  His voice was lighter, and she was grateful for the change of topic, even if his reaction had planted a seed of curiosity in her that had started to germinate.

  “Oh?”

  He stepped back, and the coolness from the lack of him stung like mountain water. “Yes. Ever collected eggs?”

  He couldn’t be serious.

  “I will take that as a no. Come on. This is fun, I promise.” His hand was warm around hers as he grabbed it and led her to the garden.

  “Where are we going? Don’t tell me you keep chickens as well as horses?” Something knocked into her foot and she stumbled forward only to feel his hand tighten around hers and a flash of material caught her eye as he stepped in front of her and her face landed with a soft thump against his chest.

  Heat as hot as hell itself shot through her and her cheeks tingled from the feel of his chest against her skin. His heart beat sounded rapidly against her ear as her own beat an answering tune.

  “Tia I-”

  “Damon . . . ” She stopped and smiled against his chest, willing him to go on before a sigh rippled through him and she pulled back to look up at him. It was the closest she could ever remember being to him in their time together. “Sorry, what were you going to say?”

  “The mountain. Did you, I mean would you like to go and see it- first that is?” Pink stained his neck as a small bubble of hope expanded in her heart.

  Aphrodite’s Mountain. She had always wanted to see it but this couldn’t be happening- not with him. The legend said finding your true love on it- not someone who argued with 24/7 and you hadn’t been together much longer than that!

  “Why the change?”

  “The road to the Mountain starts just past the gate at the back of the house though it can be rocky in places so you have to watch out for your footing.” He added, dropping his gaze to her feet before meeting her eyes once more.

  Heat that had nothing to do with him or his closeness for once, spread up her neck as she moved backwards only to find her hand still locked into his- neither party letting go. “I am not normally so clumsy. Maybe the paving on the path needs to be replaced.” She looked pointedly at the floor and kicking the loose pebbles before dragging her gaze back up and over his torso before meeting his gaze once more.

  Her breath hitched in her throat at the blueness of his eyes and his lazy smile. She was trying to be annoyed at him. It was safer that way. This light headedness and clammy palms around him was getting ridiculous.

  “Did you know your eyes shine even brighter when you’re mad?”

  She opened her mouth to speak, only to shut it quickly again as her words disappeared and her throat became dry. She had not expected that. Her heart hammered loudly in her chest at the way his gaze lingered on hers. When had they gone from feuding travelers to- whatever this was? And why did it feel luxuriously right?

  Tia coughed the dryness from her throat, “No I can’t say they have. No one normally makes me
mad enough for that to happen.”

  “Then I am your first.” His words were delicious and dangerous and the image they drew in her mind renewed the flames of heat to her cheeks as well as across the rest of her body.

  She pressed her tongue against her suddenly dry lips only to stop as she saw his gaze follow the motion. What could she way to that? Her brain refused to think clearly to formulate any kind of response and as for her body- it refused to do as it was told and move away. “We should get . . . ” closer “going! We should get going don’t you think?”

  She turned hurriedly towards the back of the garden and stopped at the tug on her hand.

  “Tia, that is the wrong way. We need to jump over this small wall.”

  Small wall? Jump? Her stomach dipped. She could not jump anywhere, let alone over a small wall, that judging from the looks of things was not that small. “I can’t . . . I mean is there a way around it that doesn’t involve jumping?”

  Her stomach dipped at the slow upward curve of his lips. “Possibly but you’ll have to trust me.”

  Any reply she had flew off her lips as he stepped closer to her and swung her into his arms and her body swayed against his like two dancers in perfect sync as his long legs ate up the distance to the wall before he dropped her on the other side before joining her himself and rejoining their hands.

  “Now for the mountain.” His voice was determined and her heart lifted at the sight before them. Even if the tales told about the mountain weren’t true at least she could say she had seen finally seen it and if they were . . . Tia glanced a quick look at the man beside her- well she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

  • • •

  Tia pushed the book to one side. Odysseus had it easy. It was Penelope she felt sorry for. She dragged her hands down her face, smiling widely. If she ever told her family that less than twelve hours ago, she had been hunting eggs in a hen coop, they wouldn’t have believed her or they would have accused her of trying to outdo her brother in the shocking stakes.

  She imagined they would not believe her if she said she had rethought her plans and was prepared to take her modernisation programme in a different direction. After hearing things from Anna’s perspective and seeing things through Damon’s eyes it was not a new future she needed to consider but to move forward she had to look to the strengthen the past and it was there where their success as a nation lay.