“You were for me, Isaiah.” Tawnia’s hands moved to frame his face, but he pushed her back a step and she stood up straight. “From the beginning, you were to be mine. But Aslynn....” The queen’s expression hardened, her eyes taking on a cruel glitter, “the dead Aslynn, stole you from me. I had to get you back, don’t you see!”
“Guards!” the king called, worried what this desperate woman could do.
Moving too fast for anyone to counter, her hand shot out and grabbed Aslynn’s hair close to the scalp, tangling into a solid grip. Aslynn drew a jeweled knife from some hiding place, but Tawnia wrenched it from her grip with surprising strength and turned it on Aslynn.
“Stay back, all of you, or she dies now!” Tawnia’s voice, so twisted with rage it did not seem to be her own, made the guards hesitate.
“Momma, no!” Katrona shouted.
“You should have died with your mother,” Tawnia told Aslynn shrilly. “I’ll take you away from everything you love, the way you and your twin have taken all I love from me!”
“Momma?” Edward asked into the small silence that fell, plainly confused and horrified by the scene unfolding before him. Isaiah spared a brief moment of compassion for his young son.
“I will return, my darling,” Tawnia said, her voice a parody of a loving mother’s for her son. To the rest, she scowled. “This isn’t over. Master!” she called, her voice rising into the snarl of someone possessed of a demon. “Give me time, that I may return for what is mine! Give it to me, and my soul and her body are yours!”
“The doors!” Isaiah shouted. “Don’t let her get away!”
Tawnia laughed, the sound sending shivers up Isaiah’s spine.
Raising the knife high above her head, she let out a primal howl as all the candles in the room went out at once, and Aslynn screamed.
⇜⊂⊃⊂⊃⊂⊃⇝
“No!” Adam shouted, but he was rooted to the spot in the darkness. “Aslynn!”
A candle came to light in Meedo’s hand, but for a moment no one could see the queen or Aslynn. Then Adam dove for the floor, where only Aslynn’s feet showed, hooked on the edge of a gaping hole. He reached them just as they slipped, grasping them tightly, though Aslynn’s falling weight was enough to pull him part way in, too. He would have slipped further, but a welcome weight on his legs stopped him.
Looking down into the whirling gray darkness, Adam could only see Aslynn’s bare legs—her dress, now inverted, fell the wrong way, covering the rest of her.
“Aslynn! Hang on!”
“She won’t let go!” Aslynn’s words were muffled, a shout swallowed in an endless chasm.
A great wind began to blow down the hole, and Adam felt himself slip a little more, then stop abruptly, though Aslynn’s feet slipped in his grip. It didn’t help that she was writhing in his grip, trying to get away from Tawnia. Adam groaned in desperation, but before he could do anything, his load lightened.
“Pull her up!” Katrona shouted over the roaring wind. “Quickly!”
Adam felt hands on his legs, pulling him back, and saw hands stretching down to catch Aslynn’s reaching arms.
Katrona knelt at the edge of the hole, holding on, her little face screwed up in concentration, and Adam realized she was holding the hole open.
King Isaiah gave a mighty tug, hauling Aslynn into his arms, and Katrona lifted her hands, letting the hole slam shut to a sudden absence of sound.
Then Katrona fainted, crumbling into a small heap of dress and tiny body.
⇜⊂⊃⊂⊃⊂⊃⇝
For a moment, no one moved or spoke, and Sebastian gazed around at the faces of the people around him. All appeared shocked, dazed, or both.
Then the king let go of Aslynn long enough to finger her dress, where it had still hung through the hole when it closed. It was neatly cut, and there was no sign of the other piece. Sebastian thought—and he was sure the same thought occurred to everyone in the room—of what could have happened to Aslynn and Adam had Katrona not kept the hole open long enough to get them out.
Sebastian climbed to his feet, patting Adam on the back as he passed, and went to Katrona, gathering her into his arms. Her chest heaved with deep breathing, but otherwise, it seemed she was just asleep.
“Is she all right?” Aslynn asked, her voice shaky with adrenaline.
“I think so,” he said, looking up as Meedo knelt beside him.
“It must have taken an enormous amount of energy,” the stranger commented as he laid a hand on Katrona’s forehead. “She should be fine, though.”
“Good,” Sebastian said.
Just then her eyes fluttered open, focusing on Sebastian. “Hello, brother,” she said softly. “Don’t tell me I fainted.”
“All right,” Sebastian said. “I won’t.” He hugged her close before helping her sit up.
“Is Aslynn all right?” she asked, turning to look around the room.
“I’m fine,” Aslynn said. “Thanks to you.”
“Oh, Aslynn, your hair!”
Aslynn reached up and touched the ragged edge of her hair, a second, smaller knife still clutched in her fist. “Tawnia wouldn’t let it go,” she said. “I had to cut it. You don’t think it looks good?”
Katrona just laughed, and Aslynn chuckled too before moving to stand. Adam leapt up to help her, pointedly avoiding the area of floor where the hole had been.
The king rose to his feet. “Mr. Meedo, do you know what, exactly, just happened?”
“To use the simplest explanation, in times of sheer desperation, even someone moderately adept with Ley can harness the energy into powerful manifestations. Tawnia used her skill to manifest a demon in order to escape, while Katrona used hers to save her sister.” Meedo must have noticed all the blank stares directed at him. He shrugged. “The short of it, I believe, is that your former queen just made a pact with her devil. I expect this isn’t over, indeed.”
“She said ‘Give me time’,” Isaiah said.
“The future,” Katrona answered. “That’s what she meant.”
“And she’ll be stronger than ever,” Meedo added.
“Then we shall endeavor to be ready for her,” the king said with the finality of a royal decree.
Epilogue
“Princess Katrona!” Sebastian jogged across the courtyard to catch up with his half-sister, Artemis bounding happily at his side. At a loss for what he was supposed to do since the séance the day before, he had been lounging in the doorway of the stable and spotted her trying to make a quiet departure. “Must you go?”
Katrona waved for her escort—a single guard and a porter—to wait for her at the gate. “It’s for the best, Sebastian. The Sisters of Charity will provide me with a good home.”
“But you are a princess. It doesn’t seem fitting to lock you up in a convent.”
“I won’t be locked up. I’m going of my own free will. I may be a princess, but I am also my mother’s daughter.” As if reminding him, she touched the bandages on his wrists where the shackles had torn his skin. “It only takes one wrong step, as she showed us all. I don’t expect to be able to resist the dark without the help of the light.”
“I’ve only just begun to know you. I will miss you, sister,” Sebastian said, surprised at how easy it was to speak so familiarly with this girl, who up until yesterday had been far above his station and therefore unreachable.
Katrona’s warm smile welcomed his sincerity. “Then visit often, brother. I should like it if you do.”
Sebastian smiled back. “I will.”
“Weren’t you going to say goodbye?” Edward asked, and they turned to see him standing in the courtyard, looking lost and alone as he had since the séance.
“I find I don’t like goodbyes,” Katrona said gently. “Besides, it’s not like I’m leaving the village. You can visit every day if you like.”
“But I can’t stay with you.” Edward sulked and Sebastian noted the look Katrona gave their brother was just like the one Aslynn alw
ays gave him when she was about to tell him to act his age. But Katrona had more tact than her older sister.
“The Sisters do not allow men to stay after dark, and besides, you’d hate it after a while. You’ll be fine here. Trust me.”
Edward kicked at a loose stone, sending it skittering across the courtyard flagstones. “Sure,” he said, and shuffled away, his head sunk low, chin on chest.
“Edward!” Katrona called, but her brother didn’t turn.
“He’ll be all right,” Sebastian said. “Once he gets accustomed to things.”
Katrona nodded. “I know.” She wrinkled her brow in compassion. “He has been told all his life that he would be king. It will be hard for him to get used to the idea that he’s not the heir any more, only the spare. And Mother won’t be around to spoil him any longer.”
“He’ll be all right,” Sebastian repeated. Getting used to such a drastic change could only build character for a young man.
“So will you.” Katrona stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, and he realized the same could be said of his situation.
“I have some things to get used to, too.” He still felt bewildered by the turn of events and his storybook change of fortune.
“You’ll make a great king, brother.”
“I hope so.” Her faith in him should be inspiring. He desperately hoped he deserved that faith.
“Sebastian?” Aslynn’s call came from the stable yard, and he turned.
“Over here!” he called. When he turned back, Katrona and her escort were hurrying out the gate, heading for the village and the Sisters of Charity. He didn’t try to catch up with her, turning instead to watch Aslynn and Adam approach, holding hands.
“I suppose I should have called for ‘Your Highness’,” Aslynn said by way of greeting.
“I doubt I would have answered,” Sebastian replied tartly.
Adam grinned. “We’ll see to it you get accustomed to being addressed as a prince.”
“I look forward to it,” he said wryly. “Hey, nice haircut.”
Aslynn reached up and ran a hand over her very short hair. The patch she had to cut was large. There had been no way to disguise it, so she opted to have all of it cut and start over. “Hmm, I can’t wait ‘til this grows out, just to shut you two up. Maybe I should get a wig?”
“Sure, and you could keep it on,” Sebastian said, and they all laughed. “Oh, how did it go?”
“How did what go?” Aslynn asked innocently.
“Your little talk with the king?” he said patiently, refusing to rise to her bait.
To his surprise, a crimson blush crept up her cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was soft, almost shy. “Well,” she said. “It went well.”
Adam leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, wonder lighting his eyes as though amazed to find he now had the right to do so. Then he turned to Sebastian, who smiled to see the awed contentment on his friend’s face.
“Two years,” Adam said. “King Isaiah said we must be engaged for two years, and then we can marry.”
“Will you last that long?” Sebastian asked with a laugh.
“I’m no good at waiting,” Adam admitted. “But for Aslynn, I’d wait twice that long.”
“Not forever?” Aslynn pouted.
“No, not forever.” Adam pulled her close and secured her in his arms. “I’d carry you off to Greyloch long before forever got here.”
She laughed, and kissed him tenderly on the lips.
“Maybe I’d carry you off sooner than wait four years,” he said, just to get another kiss, and she obliged him.
Sebastian coughed, embarrassed, and Aslynn giggled as she broke away. “I was forgetting. Father asked that we send you in. I guess it’s your turn.”
“Does he seem...I don’t know, happy? He hasn’t spoken to me since the séance. I’m not even sure he’ll accept me.”
“Don’t say that,” Aslynn said. “Of course he accepts you.”
“He told you?”
“Well, no. But he has to...it’s so obvious.”
“He doesn’t have to. He’s the king. I’m just a stable boy.”
Adam said, “Someone once told me ‘Just be yourself. You’ll be charming.’ Or something like that. Anyway, you won’t know until you know, and it’s time to go find out.”
Sebastian sighed resolutely. “I guess so.”
Aslynn gave him a tight hug before letting go and giving him a push toward the door. “Go in. You’ll see.”
Artemis followed him up to the Keep’s entrance and whined. Sebastian took a moment to scratch behind her ears before telling her to sit and stay.
On his way to the audience chamber, it seemed the eyes of everyone in the castle followed his progress. People stopped what they were doing to turn and watch him walk past. It was all he could do not to turn and run. He had to believe it was his birthright to walk these corridors.
His foster brother, Jared—no, his cousin!—fell in step beside him, silently guiding him to a different chamber than the one where the séance had been held. Sebastian had heard that that room was to be sealed off.
Jared stopped outside a room Sebastian had never entered before. Sebastian noted a sort of pride in the solemn way his cousin nodded to him before taking up the attentive stance of a guard at the door.
The herald gestured him forward, then opened the door and announced, “His Highness, Crown Prince Sebastian.”
Something inside of him relaxed upon hearing those words, and Sebastian stepped into the room with new confidence. The king waited on his throne, the Minister of Justice standing beside him.
Eyes shining suspiciously bright, King Isaiah rose and opened his arms. “My son,” he said, and that was all.
Tears burning in his own eyes, Sebastian walked up to accept the hug. As his father’s arms closed around him, he thought he heard his mother sigh.
“Welcome home,” she said.
###
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More Young Adult titles by Kristi L. Cramer
In the Bonnie Isles Trilogy:
A True Prince (#1)
To Make a King (#2)
Preorder Now for July 10, 2016 release
Should Monarchs Stumble (#3)
Coming Fall of 2016:
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In The Knights of Juneau series:
Adult Romantic Suspense
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Standalone novels featuring the Knight family, residents of Juneau, Alaska.
Knight Before Dawn (#1)
In The Boys of Syracuse, Kansas, series:
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Last Shot at Justice (#1)
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One Last Song (#3)
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Adult Dark Humor
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A True Prince Page 11