by S. M. Boyce
In training, Braeden had thought of Kara more than he cared to admit. At first, the anger of what he was had been enough to make him stand after taking a hit from Adele. When the anger faded, he relied on the hope that he could somehow overcome his blood loyalty to Carden without the help of the Grimoire. When that hope faded, he’d had nothing but memories.
He focused first on memories of his mother, hoping the anger would reignite at seeing the pain Carden caused her. That didn’t last long. No memory did—until he recalled his hands around Kara’s neck and how the life in her eyes had flickered as she gasped his name.
The rage smoldered in his chest again, but he quelled it.
The memory had given him enough fire to continue. Carden had controlled him, forced him to nearly kill Kara, and his guilt at obeying his father never faded, even when everything else had. He built upon the anger with more memories. At first, he had focused on how clear Kara’s gray eyes were. How her hair always turned a little red in the sun. How, when she laughed, her face lit up and glowed with the sound.
She was the only person who knew what he was and didn’t care.
He stood. The garden would work as a meeting spot. He stuck his head through the door that led to the ladder, glancing around to make sure no one walked along the corridor below. After a few silent minutes of listening for footsteps that never came, Braeden climbed down and shut the door on his way.
He landed on the stone floor with a thud and turned back the way he’d come. He would go to his room and try to sleep, but he knew he wouldn’t have much luck. All he could think of was Kara nestling against him as they camped in the forest, or the warmth of her body curled against his in the Vagabond’s study.
It terrified Braeden that one person could bring him such peace—he couldn’t imagine what would happen if anyone took that from him.
Chapter 3
The Garden
Kara sat against her bed’s headboard, feet propped on a pillow as Twin lay on her stomach.
Twin shrugged. “I’m just saying, you should consider the fact that Braeden is head over heels for you.”
Kara’s stomach tensed at the thought, but she managed to keep her face expressionless. Leaning her head back and pretending to relax seemed to help.
She shook her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. We just ran into each other on the way here. Either that, or he found me because he was keeping an eye on me for Gavin’s sake.”
Kara hated lying to Twin—just hated it. But there was no way around it, not so long as Twin had the blood loyalty to Gavin. The girl could be controlled at any time or forced to tell Gavin Kara’s secrets. At least Braeden wasn’t around his Blood all the time. He wasn’t constantly susceptible.
Twin smiled. “You want him. I know you.”
“You’re my friend, but I don’t think you know me that well yet.”
“I do.”
Kara peeked through an eyelid and grinned. “Oh?”
“Yes. Every time I say his name, you tense your stomach. Why do you think I’m lying like this?”
“You little sneak!” Kara grabbed a pillow and whacked Twin in the head.
Twin giggled. “You had it coming. You can tell me!”
“Look, just let it go. Okay?”
“Why?”
“Because I asked nicely. Isn’t that enough?”
Twin huffed and lay back down, hugging the pillow to her chest. “You’re no fun.”
“I’m insanely fun. You’re just never around to witness it.”
“Well, if you won’t gossip, what do you want to do?” Twin asked.
“I don’t know. What is there to do here?”
“Explore, really. It’s all in ruin.”
“Let’s go, then!” Kara stood, ushering Twin to her feet. She would do anything to get the girl to stop talking about Braeden.
They meandered for hours, crossing hallways and passing guards. There wasn’t much they could still access, considering that most of the upper hallways were caved in or blocked off with doors no amount of magic could unlock.
Twin’s eyes finally drooped too much for her to feign interest any longer, so Kara walked her back to her room. Kara, however, continued through the hallways, passing guards and nodding hello as she ambled. There was so much to see that Kara didn’t imagine she would ever go back to sleep. Even if she explored only this one small section of Ethos, she doubted she would find all the rooms during their short stay.
She slipped through the upper hallways, which were lit by sconces along the walls. After a while, the guards disappeared. Kara guessed it had something to do with the lack of guest rooms in these upper halls. She passed open doors, the rooms within filled with shelves and food, but there wasn’t a soul around to protect it.
She shrugged. They were in Ethos, miles from anything. Scouts had lived here for a month before anyone arrived, apparently. No war would break out; as much as no one seemed to like each other, everyone she passed seemed to agree that Ethos was safe.
So Kara continued along the empty halls, staying up most of the night. Her exploring led her closer to Braeden’s garden without her even realizing where she was going.
Braeden’s ear twitched. He was half-awake. The red glow of the sunrise bled through his eyelids. The door handle scraped as somebody turned it from the outside.
Someone was trying to get into his room.
He pushed himself upright, smoke consuming his hand before he was even fully awake. He aimed the spell for the door, ready to fire the same smoky curse he’d used against Deirdre when he first met the isen. In his half-asleep stupor, he would take no prisoners.
“Bloods, Braeden! It’s me!” a woman said.
The smoke dissolved from his palm. He rubbed his eyes with his non-smoking hand and finally opened them fully.
Twin froze midstride in the doorway, a suit draped over her arm.
“What is wrong with you?!” she asked.
“I—I’m sorry. I’ve been on edge lately.”
Twin watched him out of the corner of her eye, but her lips twisted into a cool smile. She laid his suit on the edge of the bed and set a piece of paper beside it.
“Could your mood be because of a certain Vagabond?” she asked.
He furrowed an eyebrow. “There’s only one Vagabond.”
Twin laughed. “That joke just doesn’t get old.”
He groaned, apparently missing the joke. “Thank you for bringing me my suit, Twin. Now, may I have some time to myself?”
She sat next to him. “You’re welcome, you grump. But before I go, I have to tell you how you’ll walk into the Gala. You’re in the Hillsidian procession, obviously, so you’ll walk in with Gavin. Make sure to be in his study in an hour. Kara is walking in alone. Braeden, just wait until you see her! I did her hair myself. She’s stunning.”
Braeden wasn’t sure how he should respond, but he couldn’t imagine Kara ever looking anything less than stunning.
“There are rumors about the two of you, you know,” Twin continued.
“You Hillsidians have nothing better to do than gossip, do you?”
“Don’t be a hypocrite! I’m sure you gossip just as much.”
He clenched his fists in frustration, hiding them beneath the covers. He’d slipped. He needed to calm down.
“Twin, you need to remember that gossip is just that—gossip. There’s no fact in it. She’s not interested.”
Twin shrugged mischievously. “From the way she talks about you, I’d have to disagree.”
“What?”
“I’ll leave, just like you wanted.”
She laughed, shrugging again as she slipped back into the hall. When the door clicked shut behind her, Braeden hurled a pillow at it.
He reached down to the edge of the bed and grabbed the paper she’d left on his clothes. It was a program, written in elegant script. Ink coated the page, most of it just curves and swirls from the uppercase letters. All in all, it was a great waste of ink for how littl
e was written.
Braeden scanned the page and groaned. Speeches started just after noon, followed by toasts, the signing ceremony, performances by each kingdom, gift exchanges, more speeches—it just went on forever. Only after that could everyone eat dinner and dance. He hoped there would at least be rolls or fruits on the table to keep appetites at bay. It wasn’t wise to get between a Stelian and a meal.
But the dancing—his stomach twisted. Maybe he could lure Kara away from the Gala for a dance in the garden. He could tell her he wanted a chance, a real one, and that he no longer cared about the consequences. He couldn’t let her slip away.
He pushed himself to his feet and walked toward the bathroom. He needed a distraction from his thoughts, sure, but he needed a bath more.
Braeden had managed to calm the rising nerves in his gut after he’d bathed and dressed, but he still needed something to distract him. He’d already written out directions to the garden on a small sheet of paper, which he intended to slip into Kara’s hand at the Gala. That hadn’t taken nearly so long as he expected. He’d wanted to tell Twin to pass along the message, but doing so might mean Gavin would learn about the rendezvous. Braeden couldn’t let that happen.
He left his room and headed for the garden. Maybe he’d try his hand at gardening again—he didn’t know. But he needed to figure out what he would say when he pulled Kara aside later. So far all he had was, “Meet me in this garden I found.”
He retraced his steps, nodding as Hillsidians passed him and acknowledging the forced smiles from the other nations with a broad grin of his own as he came across them. For all the claims of security, Braeden had expected more guards—he passed only a handful on his way. He figured the rest must be in the forest outside, or waiting out of sight in case something went awry.
About ten minutes after he saw his last guard, he found the ladder to the garden again. He glanced around just to be safe and began up the ladder when no one appeared in the hallway. Once at the top, he pushed the door open.
Someone in the garden cursed—a woman from the sound of it.
Braeden peeked through the door to see a blonde standing by the wall, one hand over her mouth as she sucked back laughter. Her red dress spilled onto the overgrown grasses.
“You scared the crap out of me! Why didn’t you use the stairs?” Kara asked.
Braeden pulled himself into the garden, but he couldn’t answer. He could only stare. Kara’s hair rested in pinned curls on her head, though a loose curl or two splashed onto her shoulder as she moved. Her skin glowed, and her gray eyes had an almost blue tint. Her neck and shoulders peeked from the blood-red gown, which pushed the boundaries of his self-restraint.
“You look beautiful,” he finally said.
“Well, thanks. You look quite dashing yourself.”
He didn’t have an answer, so they stood in silence. Braeden couldn’t quite put together words. Kara’s cheeks burned red. She looked out over the trees.
“You’re staring, Braeden.”
“Sorry.”
He cleared his throat and stared out at the trees with her. He cheated, though, and looked back at her out of the corner of his eye. He couldn’t help himself. Twin had been right—stunning was the perfect word.
“So, I repeat—why didn’t you use the stairs?” she asked, nodding back to an open door at the opposite end of the small garden.
“Oh. I didn’t know about a stairwell.”
“It’s a bit easier than—is that a ladder?”
“I had to be secretive, but maybe I overdid it,” he said with a laugh.
“Secretive? Why?”
He sighed. “Gavin issued a blood order for me to not be alone with you. I can’t let anyone see us together.”
“Wow. How did that happen?”
Braeden shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it. You need to stay away from him as much as you can. He’s up to something.”
“Yeah, I figured that one out.”
“What did he do?”
“Don’t worry about it, Braeden. Let’s just try to enjoy ourselves tonight.”
“Kara, if he hurt you—”
“He didn’t.”
Braeden sighed and leaned against the wall again. She could be so frustrating.
“So have you seen the program yet? I just skimmed over it,” Kara finally admitted, apparently trying to break the silence.
“You didn’t miss much. It’ll be hours of listening to people talk before we can eat.”
“And dance.” Kara wrung her hands.
“You’ve fought shadow demons and survived two run-ins with Carden, but you’re scared to dance?”
“I didn’t do those other things in front of people. No one noticed when I messed up.”
“Well, I’m not really looking forward to it, either. We can stumble through the steps together, though, if you save me a dance.”
It was a lie—he’d been taught to dance at fourteen, as was tradition for all members of the royal family—but he didn’t want Kara to be alone in this.
She laughed. “That sounds good to me if you don’t mind me stepping on you.”
“Not in the least.”
He inched as close to her as he could without being painfully obvious about it. The sun worked its way across the sky as they both simply watched. Braeden was happy to just stand there. In the peace, he spoke without thinking.
“You know, you sort of ruined my surprise,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“I was going to invite you up here during the Gala. I even have a little slip of paper ready with directions to the garden on it and everything. It was going to be quite romantic.”
He laughed, but Kara watched him with a strange blur of emotions he couldn’t read. Her smile lit up her eyes, but her eyebrows twisted as if she was sad or maybe disappointed. Panic spread through his chest.
“Braeden—”
“Hear me out.”
She leaned against the wall, slouching her shoulders as she leaned closer. “The Vagabond told me I can’t get that close to anyone. I’m sorry. He’s wrong about some things, but I think he’s right about this. I couldn’t live with myself if I got you killed, too. Not after all you’ve done for me.”
“But you want this. There’s something more than friendship here.”
“Shouldn’t that have been a question?”
“No, Kara. I see it, but I don’t understand why you think my life isn’t already dangerous.”
“Of course I understand that. It’s not that at all. It’s—”
“Kara? Braeden? Are either of you up there?” Twin’s voice echoed up the stairwell.
Braeden turned in time to catch a shadow moving against the stairway’s wall. He tensed—no one could see him with Kara.
“I’ll keep her out of the garden. Hide,” Kara whispered. She nodded to a ledge over the door.
Braeden wrapped his hand around the small of her back and pulled her toward him before she had time to tense or resist. He kissed her forehead.
“Think about it,” he said.
He pulled himself onto the overhang as Twin’s foot rounded the corner. He crouched on the ledge, out of sight.
Kara grinned into the stairwell. “How are you doing, Twin?”
“There you are! The Gala is going to start soon, and you need to be at the procession line. Are you ready?”
“Sure am,” Kara said with a nod.
Twin’s voice continued from the stairwell. “Have you seen Braeden, by chance? We can’t find him anywhere.”
“That’s weird. No, I haven’t.”
Braeden studied Kara’s expression—her face remained perfectly smooth, without even a twitch in her lip to give away the lie. She would have convinced him, even, under different circumstances.
When did she learn to lie?
Kara smiled again at Twin and disappeared into the stairwell without another glance upward.
Braeden sat on the overhang and sighed. It sh
ouldn’t have bothered him so much that she could lie. Of course she knew how. She’d hid the truth about what he was, and no one was the wiser. She’d kept her real reason for pushing him away a secret, too—for a while, at least. How she could let herself be lonely because she’d lost her parents, he couldn’t fully understand.
He groaned. How hypocritical. Of course he could understand—he just didn’t want to.
He picked up a few pebbles from the mountain beside him and passed them through his fingers since he didn’t have any grass to rip apart. Well, at least none he could reach without moving. He needed to get to Gavin’s temporary study to prepare for the procession, but it was more important that he wait a while longer to give the girls a head start. He couldn’t risk someone knowing he’d been alone with Kara.
After ten minutes, he jumped off and trotted down the stairs, his eye peeled for Hillsidians. The upper levels remained empty, though, and he passed down to the lower levels without a moment’s hesitation.
He retraced his steps to Gavin’s study to the best of his ability, but had to stop a passing guard for help in choosing the right corridor. Another fifteen minutes passed before he made it to his adoptive brother’s office.
Braeden opened the door to find Gavin sitting at the desk.
“You’re late,” the Blood said.
“I am. Where’s Richard?”
“I told him to wait in his room,” Gavin said with a nod to the hallway.
“Why?”
“So that I could talk to you alone for a moment.”
Braeden’s fist tightened instinctively. Gavin knew. There was no other reason for his wanting to speak alone. He must have figured him out somehow. Maybe he’d ordered a spy to track Kara or had simply seen the two of them in the garden. Or—
“At a minimum, are you going to apologize? It’s inconsiderate,” Gavin said.
Braeden paused. Inconsiderate was not the word he would have chosen for twelve years of lying and deception.