Under the Lies

by A. K. Koonce

  Nothing.

  I shove out of Kais’s hands, and despite my urgency, my legs just haven’t gotten the memo. I stumble, and Alixx is right there, holding my arms but letting me stand on my own two feet.

  But we’re alone.

  Nothing but perfect green grass, smooth rocks, and that fucking sea that brought me here in the first place.

  Until I look up. And he’s there, looking down on me. Shadow men on either side of him, and soft blonde hair wafting from just behind his dark, looming figure.

  He’s still alive.

  Gwen is still with him.

  And Wanderlust is still fucked.

  Eleven

  Lighton

  She’s been asleep for exactly twenty-seven hours. I’ve checked her over physically. She’s got some scrapes but nothing fatal.

  Not externally anyway.

  Internally, she seems drained. I want to wake her up and just give my mind some peace to know she’s okay, but I can’t stand the thought of disturbing her…more than I already am.

  I lift the back of my hand to her head for the second time this morning, and I’m met with a stinging slap from the man leaning against the wall near her side.

  “Stop playing doctor. She’s a woman, not a horse. We’re not going to take her out back and shoot her simply because she’s had a bad day.” Alixx’s usually sarcastic banter has a bit of a bite in it.

  Is he worried? Is this his screwed up way of showing concern? The cruel assassin might actually have a fucking heart after all.

  My eyes narrow on him, but I can’t find it in me to mock his misery. Not when I’m feeling the exact same thing.

  A heavy sigh parts my lips, and I look back to find Kais in the chair with his head tipped back, eyes closed. He may be sleeping. Or he may be doing that creepy ass thing where he rests while analyzing everything we’ve done, everything we’re doing, and everything we will do.

  “He’s going to come for her,” an ominous voice crawls from out of the shadows.

  My body stiffens at the sight of a pale face and paler hair, and if I hadn’t grown so used to the Profit, I’d have piss running down my leg right now. The boy blinks the vacant look in his glinting eyes away, focusing on the flickering flames of the fire in the hearth.

  “Of course he’s going to come for her,” Alixx says with a shrug of his shoulders like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

  But it’s something I hadn’t thought of at all.

  Liddell’s lost not one but two prisoners now.

  He could get them both back at once, and I’m sure he knows that. How hidden is our little hiding hole after all?

  Cat is curled up against Madison. Her long lashes are closed, but I can tell she’s awake and listening. Her bright pink ears twitch every now and then. Brody sits in front of the fire, not intruding, just gazing at the log blazing away. But I know he’s aware of how much danger he’s in by staying here with us.

  By us staying here with them.

  It’s just adding to the sinking feeling that this is all very real.

  And all very bad.

  “We should go to Wanderlust,” Brody says, his gaze never once leaving the small flames in front of him.

  “I’m not leaving Madison,” Cat murmurs as if she’s talking in her sleep, but we all know she’s very much awake and very much playing a Cat and mouse game with her… Is he her boyfriend?

  Brody smiles slowly. “I know, Kitten. I meant all of us. We should all go to Wanderlust.”

  “I’m not hiding in Wanderlust. I won’t hide,” Madison says suddenly.

  “I know,” Brody says with a long sigh. “But there are people there who once loved you.”

  “Pffffttttt—” That sound keeps going out of my mouth for a bit too long, and I try to reign it back in when sleepy green eyes look up at me. “Constantine did not love her.”

  “No, he did not.” She smiles up at me and my apparent jealousy. Her smirk almost distracts me from the ridiculous idea of King Constantine loving anyone other than himself.

  And his sister.

  “Then you have people who once went out of their way for you. And that’s—that’s almost love.” Brody lifts his hand in a confused way but lowers it right back down.

  Cat arches a sculpted eyebrow in her sleep but says nothing to the man who can’t admit his feelings any more than I can deny mine.

  Jesus, and I thought I was a fuck up.

  “He’s right.” Kais’s steady voice pulls at my attention, and he’s staring intently at the woman lying quietly on the ground, no longer feigning sleep. “Rest for now, but in the morning, we’re headed back to Wanderlust. Constantine was a good man once, with real ambitions. We should give him a chance to prove that.”

  “How?” Madison asks on a whisper so gentle I barely hear her.

  But Kais smiles the moment she asks.

  “By inviting him and the Kingdom of Wanderlust to join us in a rebellion.”

  Twelve

  Madison

  It feels like I’m giving up. The moment I stepped over the now destroyed barrier, going back the way I came, it just felt like I was putting everything I worked for on hold.

  I know it’s not. I know I’m being childish and that bringing in allies is for the best, but damn, is it hard to trudge back to Wanderlust without kicking and screaming the whole way.

  “You’re pouting,” Alixx comments as we come out into the clearing of the woods.

  “I’m not pouting.” I square my shoulders, and it takes real petty effort to twitch my lips out of their low lying state.

  “I know a lot about your mouth, Sweetheart, and I know a frown when I see one.”

  Oh, for blow job analogy’s fucking sake.

  I cut my glare across his handsome, smug, ridiculous face.

  He smirks at me before leaning in close. “Never let them see you frown. You’re not the Queen of Wanderlust, but you’re the breaker of barriers. You’re a savior, and what you’re doing here today is just that. Saving.” His soft lips brush against my jaw as I just blink in utter stunned silence.

  I’m a breaker of barriers.

  Wow.

  New addition to the resume.

  Not that it had many spectacular achievements on it before.

  “Why’s she smiling?” Preston whispers harshly to Lighton as if I’m not right in front of them.

  Lighton leans into the small boy. “My guess would be dirty talk,” he whispers, again as if I’m not right in front of them.

  My eyes roll so hard it hurts.

  “This is my team of Rebel Hearts? Really?” My jaw can’t seem to close as I gape at him.

  “Well, choosers can’t be beggars, Cupcake.” Lighton lifts his arms from his sides as if to say you get what you get.

  “No, choosers can be beggars.”

  He pauses then, his dark eyes looking off as if he’s trying to do the math of that statement.

  “Guys, we have important things happening today.” Kais glances Lighton’s way like a disapproving parent, and their relationship is so odd but…fitting. Lighton looks up to Kais, and I don’t know if Kais really understands that. If anyone else were Lighton’s friend instead of the leader of the Rebel Hearts, I think Lighton’s life might be a mess. He needs support in a way. Not support in a normal way, but in the way that reminds us that we’re not alone.

  I slide my palm into my sweet March Hare’s hand, and there’s a bit of surprised affection in his pretty amber eyes.

  “If you want to sneak off in the woods for a minute, I can be fast as a rabbit,” he whispers in my ear, the hint of a smile kissing his lips.

  “That doesn’t sound like a good time at all, Light.” The smile pulling at my features happens so easily I don’t notice it, but when it’s there, I realize he’s setting me at ease without even trying.

  How does he do that?

  With his uncanny hearing—and a cruel smirk—Alixx adds, “Well, the four of us can take all night if that’s what
you really want, but I’m sure Kais would announce the time we’re wasting every hour on the hour, like an old, dusty grandfather clock.”

  The visual of Kais chiming time while still fucking is completely distracting, and quiet laughter slips out of me, but they just keep going.

  “Would he chirp like a dodo when he came?” Lighton asks, and then the two of them are full out shaking with laughter.

  Preston, Cat, and Brody keep hiking along, like simple exhaustion is pushing them mindlessly through our trip between kingdoms. Kais, on the other hand, stops dead in his tracks, broad shoulders stiff, the crisp light of the moon accenting his sharp jaw line when he looks back at us.

  Right from the start, he always looked like danger and destruction. Tonight is no different. The shadows licking against his features just emphasize how very, very deadly he really is.

  The two men at my side, they’re not afraid of him though. In a way, they balance him, I think.

  But the sensual tingling sliding through my body with every dominating step he takes tells me we should be afraid.

  If we were smart enough.

  Strong hands clasp around my hips, and his brooding attention penetrates my gaze with so much focus that too many dirty thoughts are drilling through my mind at once.

  “I’d never count down the hours with you, Madison. Especially in a place that doesn’t actually possess time. No matter how bad or how incredibly good it is, time with you doesn’t exist. It truly is endless when I’m with you.”

  My lips part, and I think that’s the most sentimental thing anyone’s ever said to me.

  His pale hair’s soft when my shaking fingers slide through his short locks at the base of his neck, and for several seconds, I’m just clinging to him and hoping I never really have to leave this perfect moment with these perfect men.

  “Yeah, except time is important, and we’re running late because of all those doe eyes you guys are giving each other. Let’s go.” Up ahead, Preston motions impatiently to something just to his left.

  I look past Kais’s broad shoulders, and my features drop when I see what the boy is gesturing to.

  The treacherous stairway that hikes our ass right up the side of the castle’s cliff that I had so sweetly blocked out of my memory apparently.

  Motherfucker.

  “You want me to accompany you to Wonderland?” King Constantine’s bright eyes hold on me despite the entourage of friends I have behind me.

  I think I forgot how perfectly put together he is while I’ve been gone. His golden hair is so effortlessly combed back from his strong features he looks like Prince Charming just waiting for a Sleeping Beauty.

  “Sorry I’m late, I overslept.” Konstance says with a dazzling smile that falls right off her face the moment she sees me. “Oh. It’s you.”

  Me indeed.

  Lucky you.

  Lucky me.

  Lucky us.

  “Madison and Kais want us to accompany them into Wonderland.”

  “Just you actually.” I cut in before Konstance can start packing her bags and planning a Wonderland spring break out of the situation.

  Konstance’s gaze filters over me, Kais, Lighton, Alixx—I know when she spots him because her lips pull back as if she might gag—Preston, Brody, and finally Cat.

  “I think we’re much too busy in our Kingdom, don’t you, brother?” That vile smile she always clings to perches on her lips as she turns to the King.

  “They lowered the barrier for us, sister. I think this—this might be the time. Alice is here. She’s in Wonderland. We should be in Wonderland.”

  Thank fuck. He gets it!

  I knew he was good. He’s a good man.

  Who’s being eaten alive by a terrible woman.

  “I do not think this is the sort of brash decision a King should go running head first into just because a few traitorous citizens command him to.” Her chin tips up, her long blonde hair cascading like liquid gold along her back. “You are the King, Constantine. Our people need you.”

  Constantine’s lashes flutter, and I see him considering every asinine thing his sister just said to him as he stares down at his reflection in the glossy shining tiles. The room itself is so lavish, so large that it echoes the very silence that hangs between us. He’s here, living in his perfect little castle, up high above his starving Kingdom.

  Is he so high above them that he can’t taste their desperation?

  Slowly he meets my gaze, the man who once promised to marry a total stranger out of pure hope that it would save his kingdom.

  “When should we leave?” he asks on a steady tone of finality.

  I can’t help the enormous smile of achievement that parts my lips.

  “At dusk.”

  He nods. A smile touches his lips, but it never fully seals there. And Konstance, she’s frowning so hard the lines in her brow might never leave.

  “I want to talk to you,” Constantine says, and I think it might be the first time since we’ve met that he wants to talk to me specifically.

  And it’s fucking terrifying.

  “Should we take things up to the council room?” Kais asks, but the King shakes his head.

  “No. I just need a word with Madison, actually.”

  That’s not good.

  A feeling like being called to the principal’s office curls up inside my stomach. It twists round and round as I follow the King of Wanderlust to a quiet little corner. His stiff shoulders make his fine velvet jacket appear impeccably perfect. I try to focus on that and distract my thoughts, but it doesn’t really work.

  He lowers himself down in a high-backed chair with a single crimson heart at the center, and my stomach is an anxious mess as I casually take the seat next to him.

  “You left abruptly. I didn’t even get a chance to kiss the bride.” At his slow spoken words, he does smile. It’s a soft smile that twinkles his gray eyes.

  “About that…” Is there a manual for how to break off a forgotten engagement? A sort of Breakups for Dummies type thing that I could download on my Kindle…

  “You don’t have to say anything, Madison.”

  Thank the Wanderlust magic for that. Because I got nothing.

  I shift in my seat that’s growing smaller by the second.

  “I never really got to know you,” he whispers more to himself than to me.

  I nod because I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do or say, and maybe I should just keep quiet and he’ll do all the talking for the both of us.

  “I never really thought I’d love anyone. I didn’t want to. I kept people at a distance, aside from my sister, because I was so set on marrying a stranger to save my Kingdom. And then when that stranger showed up…I still didn’t know how to have a relationship.” His eyes shine in the golden lighting, and he really is every bit the Prince you’d read about in fairytales. Except he’s a little broken too.

  “I guess I just wanted to say I’m sorry for dragging you along through all of this when, if we just would have worked together, it seems we could have helped our people much sooner and much easier to begin with.”

  Our people.

  Voices and laughter start to fill the room as our people literally begin to shuffle into the enormous room.

  My eyebrows tense, but I notice Konstance waving people in like she’s herding cows, and I just know this is some sort of theatrical event she’s plotting.

  But as I look from the odd people who I was once so afraid of—the bug people, the winged people, and the strange magical society that make up this Kingdom—I feel connected to them. They’re just trying to survive here. They just want to live life with all that it has to offer.

  And I understand that so completely.

  “We’re going to fix all of this, Constantine.”

  “I know we will,” he says.

  For once, my ex-fiancé and I are on the same page.

  Thirteen

  Lighton

  There’s nothing quite like drink
ing yourself drunk as if it’s your last night on earth. Or so these magical people seem to be telling me. A woman with glittering scales lining her face stumbles right into my chest, her voice ringing with laughter, her webbed palms lingering on my pecs for so long I have to peel them away.

  The sloppiness of some of these people, I tell you. Who acts like this?

  Oh wait...

  I glance away from the mess of a party the King’s sister is directing.

  Constantine declares a battle. Konstance declares a party.

  Great.

  “I just think, hear me out,” Konstance tells the small crowd of Wanderlust partygoers, “I just think…I think war is bad. Really bad. The worst. And Constantine is far too good to be involved in so much bad. Ya know?” She tilts her head at a woman with a beak and tropical feathers adorning her back, and the woman just stares blankly at her.

  Who the hell keeps giving Konstance Rosen?

  Alixx lifts his hand at her side, and he sloshes some kind of liquor into her glass without her even asking.

  “So right you are,” he croons, and he smirks a devilish smile when our eyes meet.

  “Stop,” I hiss like suddenly I’m the responsible one.

  I shake my head, and it takes him a moment to drift away from enabling the woman’s constant ramblings.

  The large room is too glittering and golden, and it just sets my mood even further on edge. The smell of liquor clinging to the air is easy enough for me to ignore. Especially since I haven’t taken my eyes off of Madison since she sat down with the King in the quiet corner away from everyone else, the two of them speaking so low their voices are just a hum of romantic words that I can’t make out.

  “You know they’re plotting, not fucking, right?” Rotter sneers as he throws the amber liquid back all in one gulp.

  “Yes. I’m not a complete idiot.” My arms fold across my chest, and he simply gives me a disbelieving look that reminds me of how much I used to hate him.