Beyond the Four Kingdoms Box Set 1

by Melanie Cellier

  King Nicolas turned on her, anger transforming his features. How dare you question me? He raised his hand and hit her, hard, across the face. She fell backwards, losing her footing and tumbling down the long flight of marble stairs.

  A young girl whose presence Dominic had not even noticed, ran forward and grabbed blindly at her father’s jacket, attempting to shake him, despite his solid bulk and her slender frame. How could you? she screamed.

  Her father, for it was Princess Adelaide, raised his hand as if to strike her, too. But, quick as a flash, Dominic interposed himself between them, catching his father’s wrist. For a moment, the two men stood facing one another, both of their chests heaving. And then all three of them looked down to the bottom of the stairs. The queen lay completely still, and Dominic’s certainty of her death washed over me.

  I gave a gasping sob, overwhelmed with the horror of his memories. But they did not stop.

  I felt the young Dominic’s determination to push his father down after his mother. But before he could do so, a flash of light blinded him. When his sight slowly returned, a figure he had never seen before stood at the top of the stairs. All three royals stared at the woman I recognized as a godmother. And yet, despite similar features, including the gray hair, the woman looked nothing like the godmothers I had seen. Instead of a humorous affection, almost grandmotherly in nature, this being radiated wrath and power.

  Dominic and Adelaide drew back, the princess clinging to her brother, but their father stood his ground. A thunderous rage built in his face as he listened to her words.

  The godmother rebuked him for his actions and for the evil he had brought to his kingdom. Young Dominic’s confusion made me wonder what royals were taught about the godmothers in these lands. Didn’t he know that the rulers were responsible for the prosperity of their kingdoms? Why else would the godmothers go to such lengths to ensure true love ruled?

  King Nicolas had just demonstrated that no love remained in his heart. Dominic should not have been surprised to find a godmother intervening before he brought about the complete destruction of his kingdom.

  She explained the protection that had been placed on the people of Palinar, and the conditions for it to be lifted.

  How dare you seek to work against me? the king raged at her in the memory. And then he actually lunged forward to strike the godmother as he had just done to his wife.

  The godmother, sadness on her face, stepped back to avoid him. And it seemed, in his anger, the king had forgotten who he dealt with. The winged woman’s steps took her from the top of the steps into the air, and the king’s momentum caused him to lunge head first down the stairs. Within seconds, his broken body lay motionless next to the queen’s.

  Dominic and Adelaide retreated another step, their eyes now on the hovering godmother. She looked at them both and sighed. There was always hope, she said, although I did not entertain much. And now the burden of freeing your people will fall on you, young prince. I hope you will prove a more worthy student of love than your father. And she was gone.

  But the younger Dominic knew only the pride his position had taught him and the anger toward his father which had been whipped now into a rage so burning hot that there was room for nothing else.

  I did not know what love meant, though my mother had tried to model it to me, Dominic whispered in my mind. My exile at the castle calmed me somewhat, but it was only in watching you, that I began to remember the lessons of my mother, so different from those of my father.

  My heart ached for him. I could not imagine growing up without my father’s love. It had been an anchor for Lily and me during the years that our mother had been distant from us.

  A succession of short memories flashed through my mind. An angry Dominic, eaten up by guilt and shame and grief, roamed the castle, rejecting his sister’s attempts to speak with him. It wasn’t until a week after their parents’ death that he realized he hadn’t even seen her in days. He searched the castle for her, but could find no sign of the thirteen-year-old. Fear gripped him, and he called on the godmother he had so recently seen for the first time.

  To his surprise, and mine, she actually came. This time she looked more like the godmothers I had met, her no-nonsense air obscuring an underlying vein of sympathy. Princess Adelaide is gone from here. She is no longer your concern.

  He pressed her for more information, and she placed her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes. You have a whole kingdom of people who are your responsibility, young prince. What thought have you given to them? I had hoped that you might take my words to heart, and yet so far you have shown too much selfishness even to consider your own sister.

  What consideration—or love—can I show to my people when they have all of them disappeared to a place where I can neither see nor hear them? he asked, angered by her rebuke.

  She sighed. You are not your father, and you have not yet committed his crimes, though you bear the responsibility for correcting them. I can give you some assistance, but it will come at a price.

  A price? I could feel the injured pride in his memory, that this unknown woman should dictate such terms to a prince of Palinar. Why should I pay a price?

  For a moment, the wrath she had shown toward King Nicolas reflected from her eyes. Inside you are in danger of becoming more beast than man, young prince. As your father was before you. Perhaps if you see this reality always before your eyes, you will be spurred to consider your responsibilities toward those in your care.

  As for my offered assistance, you will now find yourself able to see your subjects. But the only ones you will be able to hear are your own personal servants.

  But my servants all reside at my castle.

  And that is where you also will be confined. So often you have retreated there—now you must remain there until you are ready to step out and take up the mantle of kingship. If you step outside the grounds while your curse remains, you will be struck with a deadly illness.

  A terrible, grinding pain ripped through the memory, as Dominic’s body transformed into the Beast. He opened his mouth to protest, but only a growl emerged.

  You must transform your insides back into a man again, she had cautioned him. Because only when you have so completely transformed yourself that a woman will value you enough to marry you, despite your beastly state, will you be free.

  The memory died away, and I could once again only feel Dominic’s current emotions. The strength of his mind seemed to be weakening, and I desperately tried to cling to our connection.

  I heard you, back at the castle, he told me, and I frowned in confusion at the change of topic. I had come to find you, to give you the rose and wish you farewell. But I heard what you said to the servants. How you could never love a man who stood by and became a part of his father’s evil. I know you could never love me.

  My eyes widened. Oh, but…How to explain to him that I had been ready to forgive Cole until he proved himself just as evil as his father. I had only said that because I could not tell them the whole truth.

  When I discovered Cole had escaped, I knew instantly that something was wrong, and that I must pursue you. Must protect you from him. It did not even enter my consideration that such a course of action would mean my death. I only hoped I could retain my strength long enough to save you. His voice filled with wonder. And then, as I traveled, I began to hear flashes of my people around me. By the time I reached the garrison of guards inside the gates, I could hear them clearly. A good thing since I needed them to follow me straight into action.

  As I grew closer to you, as you helped me change, the protection had begun to weaken. But only when I was truly ready to sacrifice myself did it entirely lift. He shook his head weakly. I did not realize that self-sacrifice would be so easy. When I thought of you in Cole’s hands, it was no decision at all.

  You’re right, I projected, staring into his eyes. It is too easy.

  His brow wrinkled, his eyes narrowing in surprise.

  Dying is far too
easy. If you wish to prove your ability to love, you must go on living and show that you can sacrifice every day, in the small things as well as the big.

  I would live if I could, he projected. Even though I would never see you again. Merely to be in the same world with you would be enough.

  The tears flowed unheeded down my face, as I knelt over him. It is evening, Dominic, and you have not yet asked me your nightly question.

  He reached up a hand to stroke the side of my face. I do not deserve you.

  I don’t care what you deserve. I gripped his jacket with both hands and leaned closer. Ask me.

  The fading light in his eyes rekindled for the briefest moment. Will you…His chest stilled, and I stopped breathing until his own labored breaths began again. Will you marry me in the morning, my love?

  “Yes! Yes!” I spoke the words aloud as well as in my mind, in case it made a difference. “I will engage myself to you in truth this time, Dominic, and I will marry you in the morning, or any day you like. Just don’t die!”

  Amazement transformed his face, as he covered one of my hands with his own much larger one. But, why, Sophie? Why would you marry a beast like me?

  I stared at him. There were so many ways I could answer that. So many reasons I had been wrong, and he wasn’t a monster. But every moment he grew weaker. I decided to give the simplest answer possible.

  Because I love you, Dominic.

  An exhalation, half cry, half groan broke from him, and his whole body began to shake. I fell back from him. Light roiled across his hands and his features, making it impossible to see through to his face underneath. His loud roar sounded all around me, only to be suddenly cut off.

  The light faded, and his shaking stilled. Dominic looked up at me out of the face from the portrait, aged slightly, but easily recognizable. He pulled himself into a sitting position, gathered me into his lap, and lowered his face to mine, our lips so close that I couldn’t be sure whether they actually touched or not. He paused there, and heat rushed through me as I remembered our previous almost-kiss.

  His hand reached out to stroke my hair as we hung in that moment, consumed by memories and shaken by love. I had known then that I wanted his kiss, but not why. I knew now that I wanted not only his kiss but his forever, too. We both moved at the same time, pressing our lips together as we clung to each other in joy.

  Chapter 32

  I could hear Lily laughing and applauding in the background, and when we finally broke apart, I looked up at her sheepishly.

  “Don’t give me that look, Sophie. You enjoyed every second of that.”

  I looked back at Dominic, and he could clearly read the truth of her words in my face, because he leaned in to do it again.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Lily with another laugh. “Just hold on there.”

  Dominic glowered up at her, but she was unmoved. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Lily. And that’s my twin you’re holding so possessively.”

  He gave a reluctant laugh, the sound almost as rough as it had been when he was the Beast. He lifted me gently from his lap, and stood, pulling me up with him. “I am Dominic. And I can assure you that I have no wish to start my new betrothal at odds with my bride’s twin.”

  “Oh, excellent. You can speak now.” Lily gave me a significant look. “Wasn’t there something rather important—and time sensitive—that needed to happen once you could speak?”

  I gasped. “The coronation vow! Quick, Dominic.” I ran back through the still open doorway, tugging him along behind me. Lily and Jon trailed after us.

  “What’s all this?” Jon kept pace with us despite his confusion. “Is there really such a rush?” Obviously, the coronation hadn’t been one of the things Lily had been able to explain to him while they were under guard.

  I shrugged and didn’t slow down. “I don’t know if anyone has been keeping track of the number of hours it’s been since Dominic’s father died. And I for one don’t want to discover we’ve arrived too late because we dawdled on our way there.”

  “Very well, then,” said Dominic and, without warning, swept me into his arms and took off at a jog.

  I giggled and swatted at him. “Put me down!”

  “I thought you said we were in a rush?”

  I rolled my eyes, but secretly I liked the way he carried me, as easily as if I were made of cushions. He might have become human again, but some things hadn’t changed. His shoulders were still broad, although correctly proportioned now, and his arms were still strong.

  After a whispered conversation between Lily and Jon that I didn’t attempt to catch, Jon broke away from us. However, he had joined us in the throne room within minutes of our own arrival, with someone else in tow. Lily had already explained that they had stashed the terrified official in a dusty sitting room, and that Jon had gone to fetch him.

  “If he was official enough for a wedding ceremony,” she said, “we’re hoping he’s official enough for a coronation oath, too.”

  The man seemed extremely nervous to be confronted with Prince Dominic, but he made no protest to our request. I expected that performing the ceremony in such a fashion would feel rushed and irreverent, just the four of us gathered around the official. But Dominic stood tall, and his strong voice spoke the words of the ancient vow with such meaning, that the moment achieved a solemnity I had not expected.

  And when he finished, cheers broke out all around us. I had been so transfixed, I hadn’t even noticed the hall behind us filling with the guards and other inhabitants of the city who had made their way up to the palace to find out who had broken the curse.

  For a long time after that, Dominic was busy talking with important citizens and the occasional noble who had remained in the capital. The guards, members of the single company he had ordered to remain in the capital when the others had been dispersed, were ordered to round up any of Cole’s men who still remained free and return to their barracks.

  Several of the people who had arrived identified themselves as palace servants who had been living in the city while the palace stood unoccupied. I received the strong impression that no one in the city had stepped foot in the palace since the curse. That they had, in fact, feared the place. Since they had initially fled at the return of King Nicolas from his massacre, none of them could have known the curse’s true nature.

  But if they had been afraid before, they now seemed happy to have returned. They quickly put themselves to work cleaning out the kitchen and several of the bedchambers.

  “You’ll have to hold a proper coronation ceremony, with the actual crown, at some point,” I said to Dominic. “But I suppose you’ll have to wait for the nobles to gather first. How in the kingdoms have you been ruling them all this time if you couldn’t hear anything they said?”

  His eyes looked sad as he answered me. “My father’s was a harsh rule. He had trained his subjects to immediate and unquestioning obedience. With the mirror at his disposal, the nobles dared not break his commands even on the privacy of their own estates. The godmother allowed me a week to make my way to my castle, and I used the time to issue my orders. I knew the kingdom needed to go into sustainment mode.”

  He frowned. “Since I couldn’t hear them, I had no choice but to find each noble and issue my orders without conversation or discussion. I must have looked terrifying to them, too. I can only suppose they thought I meant to rule as my father had done. They did not know of the protection they had been given, or that I would be confined to my castle. I have watched them through the mirror, understanding as much as I could from observation alone, and sent further orders as seemed necessary.”

  “Did you bring the mirror with you?” I wondered if it could be helpful now as we tried to bring the kingdom back together.

  “No,” he said. “I’m afraid I didn’t squeeze it into a saddlebag when I leaped on Spitfire’s back and charged off to rescue you.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “Men. They never think of the practical thin
gs.”

  Dominic stiffened, offended, until we both burst into peals of laughter, and he relaxed.

  “I think having the two of you together is going to take some getting used to.”

  “Well, get used to it,” said Lily, slipping her arm around my waist. “Because I intend to be around for a while.”

  Jon slapped Dominic on the back. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it. Mostly. Just don’t be surprised if she starts breaking off mid-sentence or staring into space for protracted periods in the middle of a conversation because she’s been distracted by a voice in her head.

  Lily shook her head at him, but fixed her eyes on Dominic and me. “Speaking of the practical things.” She put her hands on her hips. “I hope you weren’t serious about that getting married in the morning thing. Because I cannot possibly put together a royal wedding overnight. And just think of our family. Mother and Alyssa would be heartbroken if they missed your wedding. I’ve already sent them word to come—so they could save you and attend my wedding—but it will take them weeks to arrive.”

  “Ha!” I grinned at my twin. “You don’t fool me, Lil. There’s the real reason—you don’t want me getting married before you.”

  “Well, I am the older twin,” she said with dignity, although her eyes laughed back at me.

  “And I’ve already been waiting patiently for several months,” said Jon, slipping his arms around her waist from behind and pressing his face briefly into her hair.

  I glanced back at Dominic. “The curse doesn’t require we be married in the morning, does it?”

  He pulled me close and leaned down to whisper in my ear. The sound of his familiar voice speaking aloud, the growl still lurking behind his words, thrilled me. “Would you believe me if I said it does? I don’t like this talk of months.”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “You’ve waited for years, you can wait a little longer.” I looked over at Lily. “I don’t think Dominic could possibly leave Palinar right now. Do you think the people of Marin would stand for their heir being married here?”