He hopped off of the table and turned to her. “I have to go.” Disappointment passed through her blue eyes, and Drake couldn’t help but smile. “Miss me already?”
“Hardly. I was surprised, that’s all.” She hopped off the table and began gathering the salve and bloody bandages. “I thought you were here to see Rommel and Joett. Don’t you want to wait until they get back?”
No, he didn’t. He was only there to check things out, not to hold a meet and greet. This wasn’t a one-man job. The operatives would all meet with Rommel together next month.
“I’ll catch them another time.” He pointed over his shoulder. “I have to get on the road.”
Mya turned back to the cupboard full of medicine. “Well, don’t let me keep you.”
There was the disappointment again, but instead of being in her eyes, this time it was in her voice.
He walked to her side and bent down, so his face was close to hers. Her body stiffened at his nearness, and her hands pressed against the counter in front of her like she needed it for support. “It was nice to meet you, Mya.” He glanced down over her face, noticing the faint pattern of freckles on her cheek. “Don’t shoot the next stranger you come in contact with.”
She lifted her chin slightly, keeping her focus straight ahead. “I thought we agreed that the shooting was your fault.”
Drake laughed. “Okay, Mya.”
She turned her chin toward him, eyeing him. The action put her lips inches from his. “Okay, Drake,” she whispered between them.
He pushed off the counter and turned to go, surprised by his self-control and his disappointment. If this mission wasn’t so important, he might have been tempted to stay with Mya all afternoon.
Myka
Twenty minutes later, the door to the cottage swung open. Rommel’s crooked smile landed on Myka, and his eyes lit up as he walked into the room.
“Sweet Myka,” he said. “Sorry we’re late.” He dropped a basket onto the kitchen table and pulled her into a hug, patting her shoulders.
“I was worried you forgot,” Myka said. Joett breezed through the door behind him. Her short red hair stood out against her gray working-class dress.
“How could we forget?” Joett said, wrapping her arms around both of them. She gave one big squeeze, then let go. “We had to run some medicine over to Benji and Gail’s house. Benji’s been having the worst headaches.”
Myka had heard about Benji and Gail before. They lived a mile up the road and were Rommel and Joett’s only neighbors.
“That’s fine. I’m just glad that I got to see you.”
Rommel pulled back resting his hands on her shoulders. His bald head and short white beard gave his age away. “I think you’ve gotten prettier since last month.”
Myka smiled. “Was I ugly last month?”
“No. That’s not what I meant.” He looked at Joett for some help.
Joett shook her head as she began unloading the basket in front of her. “She knew what you meant. Don’t take everything so seriously.”
Rommel pushed his glasses farther up onto the bridge of his nose and looked back at Myka. “How long have you been here waiting?”
She shrugged. “Almost an hour.”
Joett’s eyes went wide. “Oh, honey, I am so sorry!”
“It was fine. I actually met your friend.” She looked at Rommel.
He placed his hands on his hips. “My friend? Who would that be?”
“He said his name was Drake. At first I thought he was a thief because he was snooping around the place…” she wasn’t going to mention shooting him in the arm. There were too many details that would need to be explained. “…but then he said he was your friend.”
Rommel and Joett exchanged a worried glance, before he pushed a smile onto his lips. “Ah, yes. My friend Drake. Sad I missed him.”
Myka furrowed her brows. Something seemed off, but she couldn’t place what it was.
Rommel walked to his wife. His wrinkly hand patted Joett’s arm before he pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. Myka loved their sweet gestures of love—the simple ways they showed their feelings silently.
Her own parents’ relationship hadn’t been like that. An arranged marriage with no hope for love, was how her mother had explained it to her when she was a little girl. There had been separate bedrooms, separate dining times, and even now, separate houses. Myka had no idea where her mother was. She had left ten years ago and had never come back.
Myka’s chest caved in with pain. She didn’t want to think about her mother’s abandonment or the sting of hurt it had caused. Instead, she forced a smile. “I brought you some stuff.” She went to the counter where she had put her bag. After Drake left, Myka had done her best to clean up the scene of the crime. The last thing she needed was for Rommel and Joett to see a trail of blood and her holding a gun. It wasn’t a good look. “I brought you some food.”
Joett sighed. “I don’t know what we would do without you.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Myka said, opening empty cupboards and filling them with canned foods, spices, and vegetables. “I’ll always take care of you guys. You know that.”
“That’s more than your father would do,” Rommel mumbled under his breath.
Myka turned over her shoulder in time to see Joett’s disapproving eyes land on her husband. Rommel and Joett didn’t usually talk about King Adler.
“That reminds me,” Joett said, opening the cupboard full of medicines. “I mixed some new herbs together for your father. I think a drop of this in some lemon tea would break apart some of the chest congestion you mentioned last time.”
“That man doesn’t deserve your remedies,” Rommel scoffed.
Joett shook her head. “I don’t do it for him,” she said, placing the vial in Myka’s palm, pressing her rough hands against hers. “I do it for Myka.”
“I have something for you too,” Myka said, opening the front pouch of her backpack. She bounced on her toes as she held the wrapped package up. “I brought you some items from Cristole, aloe vera leaves and rare spices.”
Joett’s hands went to her cheeks. “Oh, my word! You shouldn’t have.” She snatched the package from Myka and began ripping it open. “But I will keep them.”
Rommel laughed. “Oh, she’ll be up all night mixing things now.”
Myka smiled. “I’m glad you like it.”
Joett set the package down, and grabbed Myka’s hand, leading her to the table. “Now, sit for a minute and tell us all the gossip from Tolsten House.”
Myka didn’t need a lot of convincing. This was her favorite part of her visits. “Okay, but only for a little bit, then I need to get back.”
5
Drake
The Kingdom of Albion
September 2260
Drake stared at the map of the kingdom of Tolsten, circling the dead space in the northeast up by the Tolsten Lakes. He combed a hand through his brown hair, swiping it from his view.
“If it isn’t the great commander of the Albion army,” Trev said. He leaned against the doorframe of Drake’s office with a goofy smile spread across his face.
“If it isn’t the newlywed king fresh off his honeymoon,” Drake replied.
Trev pushed himself off the doorframe, sauntering into the room. “You know, I don’t think a two-week honeymoon is long enough.”
“When you have a kingdom to run, it’s probably too long.” Drake let go of the map, letting it fall to the pile of papers below. “Everything is ready for the mission. I depart for Tolsten tomorrow. You almost missed saying goodbye to me.”
Trev sunk down into the leather chair across from Drake and stretched his legs out in front of him, lifting them onto the desk. “Aren’t you going to ask me about my honeymoon?”
Drake’s expression went blank. “No.”
“Why not?” Trev’s lips turned down like he was offended.
“If you’ll recall, I already know more details about your love
life than I care to.”
“Oh, come on! You can tell me about Lizanne.”
Drake sighed, trying to put on a good face. He didn’t want his lovestruck friend to try and fix something that was already over. “There’s nothing to tell you about Lizanne.”
“She visited Albion for a week. I’m sure there’s something to tell.”
“We had a great time together and then she went home.” He fluffed the top of his hair.
Trev laughed. “That’s it?”
“Yeah.” Drake shrugged. “What’s wrong with that?”
“If a girl travels over a week to come visit you, she’s looking for more than a great time together.”
“The beginning of the week started out fine. But by the end, I could tell she was excited to go back home.” He shrugged. “I think we fizzled out.”
Trev eyed him. “Fizzled out?”
“That’s right.”
“I thought you liked Lizanne.”
“I do. She’s a nice girl.”
She was nice. Lizanne was proper and refined, and Drake had been excited to see her. But then when he'd actually spent time with her, he was completely bored. Nothing unexpected happened. Nothing about her made his heart race.
Trev laughed. “I hope you find more than a nice girl or else you’re going to have a boring life.”
Even Trev could see it.
The girl from Tolsten flashed across his mind, and he looked down at the pink scarf tied around his left wrist. For some reason, Drake kept wearing Mya’s hair tie. The lines on his forehead deepened. “Who says I have a boring life?”
“No one,” Trev said. “I just figured now that I’m married, you’d be next.”
“I’m not going to settle down.” Drake shrugged. “My job as commander comes first.”
“You can be in love and also be a commander. I’m proof of that.” Trev smiled, pointing to his chest. “I’m a king and a husband.”
Drake raised his eyebrows. “But you made a huge mess out of everything getting to this point. Honestly,” he said with a smile, “it’s a miracle any of your subjects still like you.”
Trev shook his head.
“Commanders don’t have the same luxury as kings,” Drake explained. “Look at my parents. My father was never home and eventually my mother left him. I don’t need that kind of pressure in my life.”
Trev smiled. “You have commitment issues, don’t you?”
“You think you’re funny, but you’re actually annoying.”
His smile widened. “Drake Vestry can’t commit.”
Mya had said the same thing a month ago. He smiled thinking about her; it was something that he did a lot. He leaned forward in his chair, swiping his hand above the piles of papers on his desk. “I’m committed to you and this kingdom.”
“You can’t marry me. I’m already married,” Trev said with a serious face.
Drake shook his head. “I don’t want to get married.”
“That’s not a very fun life.”
He sighed. “Can we move on? We have more important things we need to talk about. All the operatives are meeting in Denton in one week.”
“Does Lizanne know you can’t commit?”
Drake rubbed his forehead. “If you’re not going to take this mission seriously, then go back on your honeymoon.”
“I wish I could,” Trev smirked, prompting Drake to throw a pen at him.
“Fine.” Trev dodged the pen. His smile faded, and he leaned forward in his chair. “I wish you weren’t going as the operative.”
Drake straightened. “Well, I am.”
Trev kicked his head back. “You’re the commander of my army. Surely there is another guard you can send in your place.”
Drake wanted to go. This was the biggest mission since Desolation, and there was no way he was going to miss it.
“I’m going,” Drake said with finality.
“Sometimes I wonder who’s in charge here. Me or you?”
Drake smiled. “Definitely me.”
“So you leave for Tolsten tomorrow?” Trev’s eyes held a glint. “I’m not going to miss you at all.”
“I know. You have Renna, and I don’t want to be here to see that. You guys gross me out.”
Trev laughed. “Only desperately lonely people say things like that.”
Drake shook his head. He wasn’t lonely. He had everything he needed. He had the job he had always wanted and the important mission he craved. What more was there?
6
Myka
The Kingdom of Tolsten
“In the final years before Desolation, the antitrust laws in the United States were challenged,” Ms. Happ said as she leaned her elbows against the table during Myka’s morning lesson. Her teacher’s usually stern face seemed to light up when she talked about antitrust laws. Apparently, they were the way to her humdrum heart. Ms. Happ had narrow features that matched perfectly with her long nose and sharp chin. Myka swore the woman could cut a slice of cheese with that chin.
Why couldn’t Myka have had some intelligent and super-handsome twenty-something man be in charge of her extended education? Someone like the man she’d shot last month. Yes, would Drake have been too much to ask for? She even would’ve settled for the super-handsome part with no intelligence.
“Fascinating.” Myka nodded halfheartedly as she took a drink of her water. It was a little game she liked to play. During each lesson, Myka would choose a word, and whenever Ms. Happ said the magic word, Myka would do some sort of action. Today the word was Desolation, and the action was taking a drink of water. It was a great way to get in a daily dose of water. Yesterday the word had been recession, and the action had been to raise her arms over her head and stretch every time Ms. Happ said it. That one hadn’t gone over well. Luckily, Ms. Happ only said recession a few times. Games like that were crucial during her lessons with Ms. Happ, or else Myka might be tempted to poke her eye out with a pencil.
Ms. Happ beamed some more. “It is fascinating. The Amazon monopoly and the invention of Amazon storefronts like Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, and Amazon Fill Up completely disintegrated the fair competition of an open-market economy. By the year 2033, Amazon owned sixty-six percent of the market.”
“Really?” Myka said, giving the woman a tight smile. She was glad she hadn’t chosen the word Amazon today, or that would have been rough.
Ms. Happ continued her lesson on pre-Desolation commerce while Myka nodded, adding a few oohs and aahs in between her gulps of water. Really, Myka’s mind was on the fall market in Tolsten Square. Rommel and Joett would be there selling their goods, and since the market fell on the sixteenth of the month, Myka had arranged to meet them at their booth. The weather was beautiful, and she’d already worked out her escape with Officer Arco.
She thought about her father lying in bed while his secretary, Nolan, sat next to him discussing the affairs of the kingdom—or whatever they talked about. Maybe Myka shouldn’t go through with her plans today. In a way, it seemed kind of selfish to leave her father. His illness had gotten worse. When she had left him that morning after breakfast, he had been weak and tired. If she canceled her plans and stayed at Tolsten House, her father would probably sleep all afternoon. She wouldn’t even be with him. This was the constant battle raging in her mind. She could never find the balance between living her own life and putting it on hold to take care of him.
She decided to go ahead with market day. What could it hurt?
“And that is why antitrust laws were so important before Desolation,” Ms. Happ said with finality.
Myka stood, gulping down the last of her water. She slapped her cup on the table in front of her. “Amen!”
Ms. Happ eyed her, confused by Myka’s sudden enthusiasm. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how our current economy is essential and how it differs from the pre-Desolation world.”
Darn. She was out of water.
“That sounds riveting,” she said. Now, Myka had to wait while Ms. Happ s
lowly packed up her bag, one item at a time. She’d counted once. Forty-three seconds. That’s how long it took Ms. Happ to shove a few things in her bag. She was probably doing it on purpose to bug Myka, because no one needed to take that much time sticking a pencil and a book into a bag. Myka wished she could leave, but she’d tried that once, and Ms. Happ had quickly stepped in front of her like some kind of educator ninja. Her brows had turned in, and her expression had been harsh.
“It’s extremely impolite to leave before your guest,” she had said.
There was nothing like being scolded by your teacher when you’re an eighteen-year-old princess, but Ms. Happ could be surprisingly scary, so Myka opted for compliance.
“I haven’t seen the king in a while. How is his recovery going from his surgery?” Ms. Happ asked.
Myka’s eyes followed her slow-moving hand as it picked up one notebook and gently brought it to her bag.
Two seconds.
That’s all the time Myka would need to pack her up.
One.
The Stolen Princess: A YA Dystopian Romance (Desolation Book 3) Page 5