“I understand,” he said. Then Zawne smiled for the first time. In the glow of the fire, he was rugged and tanned, sultry, like a romantic lumberjack. And so defined! His muscles were hard and rippled as he moved. I wanted to touch them … just a little.
“If that’s the case,” he said, “then I better make you love me tonight. I’m talking about here and now, Kaelyn, for the sake of Geniverd. Just give me the night to make you see that we can be lovers.”
I gave him a warm smile and said, “I’d like that,” meaning it sincerely. It was kind of what I had planned, anyway—one date to see if love was possible, then shirk my usual timidity and dive headfirst into a relationship for once in my life. He was rugged, handsome, and apparently caring. If Lordin could love Zawne, why couldn’t I?
“Do we have a deal?” he asked through his grin.
I nodded. “Yes, Zawne, we have a deal.”
“Great!” He rubbed his hands together. “This is going to be a perfect union. Mama and Papa will be so proud.”
Zawne stood up, brushed his hands on his pants, and stepped closer to me. He was so tall. I had to tilt my head to look in his eyes. “You’ll see,” he said. “I will be a great husband. I can protect you, love you, care for you. I can be an ear, a friend, a partner. It will be fantastic. Lordin always used to say …” He trailed off. He must have seen the subtle crinkle in my brow at the mention of her name. Of course, he would always think fondly of Lordin, but this was our first date. I preferred not to talk about Zawne’s true love. I didn’t want to picture Lordin rolling in her grave as her fiancé tried to seduce me.
“It’s all right,” I said, moving away from Zawne and plunking myself down on the sofa, crossing my legs. “You mourn her still, I’m sure. But it’s something we can get past. My wise brother told me yesterday how it’s all part of life. I never expect you to forget Lordin, but while you’re with me, could we at least not talk about her?”
“Of course.” He bowed to me. “My apologies, Kaelyn. Please forgive me.”
His seriousness made me giggle. When he bowed, his abs were more defined, water droplets weaving through his coarse body hairs. “You are forgiven,” I said. But he was more than forgiven. I already liked Zawne a lot. His muscles, his charm, his determined soul. In that moment, I wanted them all to be mine.
We weren’t even hungry. At least, neither of us admitted to being hungry. I poured two glasses of wine, and we curled closely together on the loveseat in front of the fireplace, listening to the wood crackling, to the rain pelting the rooftop.
“This is a nice place,” he said. “It’s nice company.”
We clinked glasses and drank. “It’s a bit lonely here by myself,” I admitted. “Sometimes I have bad nights.”
Zawne swished wine around in his mouth, swallowed, and said in a husky voice, “Sud Cottage is like a graveyard. So silent and creepy. I feel like a dead man walking through it. Maybe when we get married, we can move in together. We’ll have a much bigger place, of course.”
“Who said we’re getting married?” I asked, gasping and pretending to be offended. “I haven’t agreed yet.”
Zawne got closer to me, looked straight in my face. “Yes, you have. I can see it in your eyes. I can feel it in your body language. You’ve already agreed to be my wife.”
“Maybe,” I said, and immediately averted my eyes. Zawne was intimidating with his lips two inches from mine. Not in a bad way. Mostly because his breath was sweet. His manly scent was invigorating. If we stared into each other’s eyes for too long, I feared that I would …
No! I told myself. Not yet. You’re a respectable woman. You are the daughter of Gaard-Ma. Control yourself!
I took a gulp of wine and began to hum nervously. Zawne chuckled. I half heard him say, “I always suspected you were timid.”
But I interjected, blurting out in a panic, “Tell me about Lodden!”
He eased back in the sofa and scrunched his face. “There’s not much to tell that you don’t already know. Lodden’s horrendous. Earthquakes, the most recent volcano, tiny tremors daily. The people who live there are almost completely disconnected from the rest of the world. They refuse to pack up and go someplace else. Instead, their lives revolve around building and rebuilding. They live in squalor, in the mud, in small houses built of volcanic rock. What you may not know is that Lodden is the last place in Geniverd where the people still worship false gods. It’s why they stay. They once claimed to be in everlasting servitude to Gomorogha, the fire god who lives in the volcano.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s news to me. Someone told me once about how the world used to be very different, about how …” I trailed off, wondering if Roki was on a date too, huddled in the rain with some cute girl he had found in another noble’s mansion.
“You all right?” Zawne asked.
“Yeah, sorry. Tell me more.”
“That’s pretty much it,” he said. “My friends died. I battled leopards and furious temperatures. I allowed my pain to encapsulate me, to numb me and guide me forward. It was how I survived the harshness of it all. In the end, my pain led me to you.”
His last words caught my breath in my throat. I choked on my wine. Could Zawne seriously be this romantic to me? I still wasn’t convinced. His words were so pretty, so flattering. I had to be sure he wasn’t playing me for a fool, trying to put the moves on me and then call the engagement off tomorrow morning. I was all too aware of the ladies’ man Zawne had once been. I needed to be certain he was committed to me before I opened my heart, that the loss of Lordin hadn’t made Zawne revert into a primal beast.
“You talk the talk,” I said once I had finished choking on my wine, “but can you walk the walk?”
Zawne smirked. “Why don’t we find out?” And he slithered close to me.
“No,” I said, knocking the cocky smirk off his face. “That’s not what I mean. What I’m trying to say is that you have been sweet and seductive with me all night, but will you follow through? I need to know your intentions are pure before this goes any further. I need you to give your word to the king and queen that we are to be wed. Only then will I open my heart to you.”
I felt childish saying this, but it needed to be said. I could never give myself up so easily.
I had expected Zawne to crumble at my ultimatum, give up and go home or find another girl to be with, who was easier than me. I was shocked when he put his glass of wine down on the table and said, “I’ll do you one better.”
I didn’t have time to react. Zawne had touched his wrist to activate his visin. He swiped this way and that, then directed the holographic screen at himself and made sure I wasn’t in the shot. “Get ready to look happy,” he said to me. Then he hit the livestream button.
“Hello, citizens of Geniverd. It’s Prince Zawne here, streaming live to the entire world, all six continents on all four billion active visins. Some of you may know that I am now an Aska warrior. What you may not know is that I’m engaged to be married.”
Zawne paused for dramatic effect while I freaked out next to him, mouth dry, eyes wide, heart palpitating. I couldn’t believe it!
“That’s right,” he said to the projection. “I’m getting married to Kaelyn of Gaard. We will be wed just in time for the coronation.”
Then he maneuvered his visin’s screen, showing four billion people the dumb expression on my face. He put his arm around me and pulled me close. “Here she is, my bride-to-be. Everyone, meet my new wife.”
I guessed I had my answer.
Chapter 6
Everything happened faster than I could have anticipated. Before Zawne’s livestream had ended, my visin was bleeping in my ear. Then Raad was screaming at me, “You got engaged in less than four hours? Did he even bed you yet?” His face was huge on the screen, as if he could open his mouth and swallow me.
“Whoa,” I said. “Back off from the camera. You look like an angry giant.”
“Sorry.” Raad moved back. He was grinning triu
mphantly. “I’m so proud of you, sister. Finally, with three weeks before the coronation, Gaard has a fighting chance at the crown!”
“Calm down,” I said. “I don’t think I’m going to be queen.”
“I’m just glad you listened to my advice,” Raad said. “Queen or not, you agreed to marry Zawne for the sake of the Ava-Gaard and Geniverd as a whole. That really says something about you, Kaelyn. You’re growing up.” Then he paused. “Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you only agreed because he’s smoking hot.”
Raad doubled over laughing, and that was when Tissa shoved herself into the frame of his visin. “Kaelyn, congratulations! Now we just have to find a man for Nnati! All three of us are going to reach such fabulous heights, Kaelyn. It will be like nothing we have ever imagined.”
“Maybe,” I told her. “Oh, and speaking of Nnati, he’s calling me. Sorry, guys, got to go.”
I ended the call and answered Nnati. Beside me, Zawne was being congratulated by noble after noble. His visin was ringing nonstop.
“You did it!” Nnati screamed. He sat in the darkness of his apartment, wearing pajamas. “How does it feel? What happened? Was he sweet? Was he gentle? Did you like it?”
Beside me, Zawne’s laughter was insatiable. “Is that your friend?” Zawne asked. “He’s funny! We’ll have to invite him for dinner.” Then he got up and began to pace the room. His features darkened, and I thought whatever call he had picked up on his visin was business related.
“We just talked,” I told Nnati. “It was nice. I think I can do this. I really think I can. I feel like I’m evolving, Nnati. I feel like I’ve transformed from the bored, unruly girl sulking around NordHaven as a teenager into a woman who has a chance to make change in the world. I feel like I’m truly becoming a woman for our people.”
“I’m happy for you, Kaelyn. This is great. Uh … but your picture is all over the news. It’s not a good one either. You look surprised and a little scared. They are playing Zawne’s live feed on a loop. Questions are already being raised, comparisons between you and a certain dead fiancée. Brace yourself.”
“I will,” I said. I had already thought this might happen. The people still loved Lordin, and to some, I would seem like a shoddy replacement.
“Anyway.” Nnati eased back into the shadows of his room and yawned. “I should go to bed. I’m sure you’re not done answering calls. I’m happy for you. I hope you made the right decision.”
I glanced at Zawne, pacing before the fireplace and yammering into his visin.
I said to Nnati, “I hope so too.”
I let Zawne sleep in my bed. It felt right, and it was worth every second. I felt complete when I nestled into his arms and drifted to sleep. I felt content.
And this was where things took a strange turn. I was sinking into slumber, head full of fluff, body heavy, when everything changed. My limbs started to tingle, but I couldn’t open my eyes to look. I couldn’t move a single muscle. I felt electrified, fuzzy with little vibrations like a thousand electric raindrops.
Then I was floating out of my body. I could see again—see myself, Zawne snoring gently beside me. I passed right through my ceiling and caught a glimpse of the capital, with all its bright lights and the flyrarcs zipping between skyscrapers. Still I ascended, pulled upward by some supreme force into the clouds, into the atmosphere. I could see the whole continent of Gaard like a pancake on the water. But I rose higher still. I rocketed into space at a thousand miles a second, through plumes of pink and purple space dust, galaxies of a billion twinkling stars. I zoomed through the cosmos faster and faster until it all became a blur and …
I was in a void. My soul had been sucked right through the endlessness of space and into a place of nothingness. The floor was white and solid, but it looked like mist. All around me was endless and blank, yet above flowed a sky of peach clouds. It was tranquil and oddly euphoric. I wasn’t even panicked. In the back of my head, I thought, This is a dream … yet it’s not.
“Queen Kaelyn, so nice of you to come.”
“Who said that?” I whirled around. There was no one there.
“I did,” the voice said. It seemed to boom from all around me. “You can call me Riedel.”
Then another voice, a woman’s, soft and sublime. “And you can call me Hanchell.”
I gawked in every direction, but no one was there. “Where are you?” I said. “I can’t see anyone.”
“Settle down,” Riedel said with great authority in his voice. “Be still and concentrate. You won’t be able to see us with your human eyes. You’ll have to use your other senses.”
“Okay …”
I closed my eyes and strained every muscle in my body, but nothing happened. Then I focused on listening. I listened, and when I did, I could hear the leagues of silence like subtle vibrations. It occurred to me my senses were enhanced in this spectral void. I took a deep breath and felt the air beyond my fingers. Every particle spoke to me, showed its existence. When I opened my eyes again, the air before me was shimmering. There were two shapes of light and motion. They were constructs of sound and spectral energy. Riedel was on the left—I could smell his manly, cedarwood scent—and Hanchell was on the right. I could also smell Hanchell’s rosy odor, sweet and relaxing. Both were distinct to me now that I had focused my mind.
“Good,” Riedel said.
“Very good,” Hanchell echoed. “You can see that we are here, but you cannot see our true forms. No human can see the true forms of the Crown of Crowns. Only the Min can do that.”
“I …Who? What? Huh?” I blinked, confused and thrown off guard. The Crown of Crowns was a bird. That was what Papa had always told me. And what was a Min? Where in the world was I?
“It’s understandable,” Hanchell said in her delicate voice. “Humans are often shocked and awed by this place. It’s called Shiol, by the way.”
“It’s like another dimension?”
“Kind of,” Riedel said. “It’s more of a spirit dimension. We are spirits, as are the Min. Only the Min may travel freely between spirit realm and human realm.”
I kept blinking. I had no idea what Riedel was talking about. It was so strange watching their intangible shapes of light wriggle and sparkle before me.
“This is where we choreograph events in Geniverd and the other civilizations,” Hanchell explained. “Right now you are in a protective bubble. The other spirits can’t interact with you unless we allow it. Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not,” I said, which was strange, because I should have been terrified.
“Good,” Riedel said. “There is no time for fear. We have brought you here for a very important reason, Kaelyn. It is our practice to inform the new kings and queens of Geniverd of their positions before the coronation.”
“Wait.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to digest all this information. “You’re telling me Zawne and I will be king and queen? What about the bird Papa used to tell me about? If you are the Crown of Crowns …”
“Yes,” Hanchell said, answering my thought. “We take turns being the bird. It was Riedel last time, so I will be the bird in three weeks.”
Riedel groaned. I could tell from his shifting light pattern that he was disgruntled. “I like being the bird,” he said. “But fine, you can do it this time.”
“This is all really crazy,” I said. “No one is going to believe this!”
“We should hope not,” both spirits said at once.
Then Hanchell said, “Kaelyn, you are forbidden to tell anyone about Shiol or our existence. We refer to this as the Great Secret. If you reveal the Great Secret to anyone, you and whoever you tell will die.”
“Oh …” My heart fell, but I supposed it made sense. People couldn’t know there were spirits in an ethereal realm, pulling the strings down on Geniverd.
“It does make sense,” Riedel said. “And yes, we can read your thoughts. But none of that matters. What matters, Kaelyn, is that we have chosen you and Zawne to be the next rulers.
You two have a lot of work to do together. We need strong humans to lead Geniverd. Out of all the eligible minds and hearts we have searched, yours were the best. We were thrilled last night when your engagement was announced. We scanned your worthiness and couldn’t believe it—leagues above the rest!”
I was more stunned by this revelation than by any of the supernatural stuff. “How is that possible?” I asked.
“We do not make mistakes, human,” Hanchell said, very sweetly. “Your heart is the one we need.”
“And Zawne’s,” Riedel added.
I thought Hanchell’s light form smiled as she said, “But mostly yours. The truth is, Kaelyn, you are a strong and capable woman. We feel comfortable with the fate of Geniverd in your small human hands. We will help you, of course. You will need to see us five nights a week during your reign as queen, to be made aware of current events. This will exhaust you. Visiting Shiol takes a toll on the human body, but you will learn to cope.”
“First you must decide if you want to be queen,” Riedel said. “We shouldn’t talk too much of your duties until you’ve decided to take the throne with Zawne by your side. But you must make the decision by tomorrow night.”
“Why is it my decision to make?” I asked. “Why isn’t Zawne here too?”
“It’s a mercy,” Hanchell said. “You see, if you say no, we have to kill you in a tragic and painful way. No humans aside from the Geniverd rulers may know the Great Secret. This way, should you not feel up to the task, only you must die. You’ll be sparing Zawne’s life.”
“And if Zawne refuses the job?” I asked. “This seems utterly biased!”
“We’re sure he won’t,” Riedel said. “He is a more basic human than you are. Your heart is complicated, like Lordin’s was. We thought she would accept the job, but she didn’t. We hope you will be different.”
It hit me like a slap across the face. Lordin had been killed because she’d turned down the role as queen. But why? What would cause her to renounce the throne and be willingly butchered?
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