Tainted Crown

by Jenn Vakey

  “I got this,” Zaydan said, smirking. He looked down to the dog sitting next to me. “Speak.”

  Kip let out a low bark, wagging his tail like he was pleased with himself. I didn’t understand the plan for a moment. Then I watched as all three Sentry stilled and turned toward us.

  “What the hell was that?” the one on the boulder asked.

  The two men near the tree straightened and started to move slowly toward us, each reaching for their weapons.

  “An animal of some kind,” one said quietly. He sounded like the one I had heard earlier, but I couldn’t be sure. “But not one I’ve ever encountered before. All I’ve ever heard those scaly things do is growl.”

  “Could still be one of them,” the man slowly moving away from him said. Unfortunately, he sounded enough like his friend that I couldn’t be sure which one was ideal. We would just have to take a chance and hope we got the right one.

  I pointed to the first one to let the guys know which to keep conscious. Things moved quickly after that.

  Auggie shot the blonde man on the boulder before he had even had a chance to fully get down. The other two hardly had time to react before our entire party moved into view. The second man didn’t do more than widen his eyes in surprise before Prestyn had put a tranq dart in his chest.

  Unfortunately, our decision not to drop the final man gave him time to pull his gun out and aim it directly at Auggie’s chest. Unlike our weapons, his would kill.

  “Back off,” he ordered. “I’ll kill him before those arrows of yours have a chance to take me down.”

  He was right. They worked nearly instantly. Nearly being the operative word. His finger was already on the trigger. All he would need to do was squeeze it and Auggie would go down. Even attempting to use my ability to throw the gun from his hand was too much of a risk.

  “Eyes on me,” I said, trying to pull his attention. He shifted his gaze toward me, but his gun stayed trained on Auggie. There was a spark of recognition then when he realized who I was. The way his lip curled told me I had chosen wrong. This man had no love for me. “All we want is the girl. Your friends will be fine. If you kill mine, though, we’ll return the favor.”

  His jaw tensed. I could tell he was thinking over his options here. It wasn’t a secret that we rarely killed Sentry when we encountered them. He had to also know that we did when it came to life or death situations.

  Just when I thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, it did.

  Movement behind him caught my attention. I thought for a moment that one of our guys might have managed to get behind him without him knowing. Then I saw who it was. Not that I recognized the man moving almost silently behind him. All I knew was we hadn’t found the entire group of Sentry before.

  And I was fairly certain now that we probably wouldn’t all be walking out of here alive.

  The Sentry with his gun on Auggie didn’t appear to notice the new arrival. Since the other hadn’t drawn his weapon, the only chance we had here was if he took me for my word and lowered his aim before he learned he wasn’t standing alone against us.

  The new Sentry, a dark haired man who was older than the rest, took a moment to take in the situation around him. His eyes met each of our faces before he looked to his comrade. Then our time was up. He started walking toward him, though still out of his line of sight.

  What happened next left me unable to do anything other than stare. In one quick move, he reached out and grabbed the Sentry’s gun, forcing it down. Before the man could react, he pulled out his own gun and clocked him on the back of the head. Rendering him unconscious.

  What the hell?

  “It would appear the rumors are true,” he said, tossing the fallen Sentry’s gun into the brush behind them. I thought for a moment that he was talking to me. Pointing out that one of the princes of Eden was really alive and living with the Tainted in Alkwin. But it wasn’t me he looked at when he straightened again.

  It was Dallin.

  “Where’s my daughter, Nikan?” Dallin asked.

  I turned to find his posture still tense, the baston in his hand gripped so tightly that his knuckles were white. They might know each other, but it didn’t look to be a friendly relationship.

  Nikan, as Dallin had called him, put his gun away and folded his arms. He looked amused. Pleased, even.

  “Imagine my surprise when I realized your girl was the one we were supposed to be on the watch for,” he said. “I guess it makes sense why you left the city to join the Tainted then.” He shrugged, not really giving much away about how he felt about that. “I left the girl half a mile back. I doubt she’s in the shape to go far, if she even tried. I was surprised she was even alive after we got the call from another group that there was a body in the river.”

  “What did you do to her?” Dallin hissed, voicing my own thoughts.

  Memories of the last time Leeya had been alone in the woods with a Sentry slammed into me, images I didn’t want to see filling my thoughts. The Sentry she had killed, who had come very close to doing despicable things to her. Too close.

  Nikan simply chuckled and turned his attention to Auggie, who had raised his crossbow on him during the conversation.

  “Get to it, then,” he said. “Unless you want me to do something to force your hand.”

  Auggie fired, planting the tranq dart in him.

  His hand shook as he lowered it. There was a possibility that we could have pressed him for more information, but the anger and tension we were all feeling was too strong. It might not be the same, but we all loved Leeya. If he said anything to confirm that he had done something to her, I don’t know if any of us would have been able to keep from killing him.

  But if we found out he did, I would know who to track down in Eden. I would make him pay.

  “Let’s move,” I said, not waiting before I started walking. “No calling out unless we have to. We don’t know how many more Sentry are out here.”

  They nodded and we branched off again, covering the river and the woods. We had just reached the general area Nikan had said he left her when Kip started to perk up. He sniffed at the ground, seemingly uncertain which way he wanted to go. He started to walk into the woods, then turned and moved toward the river. I feared for a moment that she might have gone back into the water. Especially when I saw what appeared to be fresh drag marks in the mud. But Kip just turned again, moving to a tree. I could see when I reached it that the ground under it was wet. She might have gone in the river again, but it looked like she had come back out. By the size of the boot prints here, she hadn’t been alone.

  Then we were moving again. My heart pounded with anticipation. She was here somewhere. I could almost feel it. And once I found her, I was going to make sure nothing like this ever happened again. I don’t care if I had to stay by her side until this situation with her memory finally sorted itself out. I couldn’t go through this again.

  Kip took us about fifteen feet into the woods before he started circling around. I looked around for any sign of her, waited for her to let me know where she was hiding. The only sounds I could hear were coming from the guys searching themselves.

  “Where’s your momma?” I asked, looking to the dog.

  He circled around a few more times before moving to a large tree. He sniffed it for a moment, then climbed up onto his hind legs. Like he was trying to go up the tree. I followed his gaze up the tree that had to be four feet thick. While the base looked like the others, it wasn’t nearly as tall. I’d seen trees like this before. Ones that had either been damaged long ago or struck by lightning. It didn’t have many branches up high enough for anyone to be positioned on. When I circled around it, though, I saw something.

  But I couldn’t be sure.

  “Good boy,” I said, then reached up and gripped the lowest branch, using it to help me pull myself up.

  The higher I moved, the more my hope built that I was right. The top of the trunk didn’t just appear like it had snapped off
. It almost didn’t look solid.

  “Leeya?” I called, unable to help myself.

  I was met with what sounded almost like a gasp. It was all I needed to rush the rest of the way up until I had pulled myself onto the last solid branch and could see now that there was a giant hole in the trunk. Inside of it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

  “Oh, my smart, beautiful girl,” I said, shifting until I could reach in.

  Leeya was curled up with her knees against her chest and her arms wrapped around them. She was shaking, her teeth chattering. I couldn’t see any visible injuries, but she was soaking wet. Freezing.

  “He told me to hide,” she said, her voice cracking. “The Sentry. I thought it might have been a trick, but he was telling the truth.”

  I nodded, relieved. It didn’t sound like he had done anything to her. She didn’t have that shocked look that I had seen before. After the Sentry she had killed in the woods. That was something.

  “Nikan?” I asked. “The big guy with dark hair? He told us where we could find you.”

  That didn’t look to be a surprise.

  “He said he kept slowing them down when they were following me,” she went on. “He would make them stop so he could climb the trees to see where I was. When he knew they were getting close, he yelled down so I would hear. He said he knew Dallin. That I had met him when we were still living in Eden. But I don’t think he knew that at first. He was just trying to stop them from capturing a Tainted.”

  And for that I would be forever grateful.

  I wanted to lecture her, to scold her for even putting herself in this situation in the first place. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be without a guard. This wasn’t the same as simply slipping away to go sit in the clearing. Somewhere she should at least be safe. She was far outside of the wards. Had she not lucked upon a friendly Sentry, there was no telling what could have happened to her. I didn’t even want to think about what Dex would have done, but I knew it wouldn’t have been pleasant. He would want to make an example out of her. He would try to use her to get to me.

  And it would have worked.

  But I couldn’t put all of the blame on her. I knew why she had slipped away, and that fell on me.

  “You saw me this morning,” I said, not really asking.

  The look she gave me, somewhere between guilt and hurt, was enough to confirm that. I sighed, shifting so I could sit. I needed to get her back to Alkwin where she would be safe and I could warm her up, but this needed to be handled first. I couldn’t let her go on thinking whatever it was that caused her to come out here in the first place.

  “I don’t know how much you heard, but I can assure you it didn’t mean what you think it did,” I said calmly.

  A look of ire filled her expression, making me almost cringe.

  “You don’t have to coddle me,” she stated. “I might be a little messed up right now, but that doesn't mean I’m not capable of understanding and accepting things. You also don’t need to feel obligated to keep promises or plans when you don’t really want to just because my mind is a mess.”

  I pulled back slightly, her words almost feeling like they delivered a physical blow. I thought back over everything that had been said between Maizie and me hours before, but nothing explained what she was saying now. She was making it almost sound like I didn’t really want her.

  That made me a little angry. Hadn’t I made it very clear how I felt about her? That I was just giving her the space that she needed? If I had my way, I would still be in that room with her every night. I would touch her whenever I wanted to, show her just how much I loved her. Make her remember.

  “How much did you actually hear?” I asked. My tone was harder, but I still tried not to let my annoyance show.

  Leeya blew out a breath, not meeting my eye. It looked like she was going to just avoid it. That wasn’t going to work for me. We weren’t leaving this tree until I had my answers. Until I made her understand. She must have realized that, because she answered in a low voice. “She was touching you. You told her you missed her.” She turned, looking me in the eye. “And you meant it.”

  She groaned, shifting.

  “Look, I get it. You two were together for a long time. You thought she was dead, so you moved on. Now she’s back. You don’t have to stay with me because you feel like you have to or you’re stuck. It’s fine.”

  How had I made such a mess of this? I had been trying to protect her. To protect them both. It almost cost me Leeya entirely.

  I never would have questioned her ability to understand the situation before. She was right. I was coddling her. I needed to have faith that my girl was still in there. That she could hear it all without it making her want to flee.

  "I do miss her," I admitted. Leeya shifted again, her entire body tensing. I went on quickly before she decided to just stop listening. Before that hurt I could see had a chance to grow any more. "I was thirteen when I first met Maizie. Her mother was the palace Healer, so she was around a lot. She was my best friend for years, Leeya." I reached out and grabbed her chin, gently lifting her face so I could see into her eyes. "That's what I've missed. Not being with her in the way we had been after we came here. We might have been in a relationship for a while, but I was never in love with her."

  She blinked, her eyes starting to glisten. I wanted to pull her into my arms. Not that I really could in this current position. I also wasn't sure she would allow it.

  "I should have explained it all to you better than I did. But you need to know the only person I've been skirting around the truth with is her. I don't know everything she went through there. I didn't know how to tell her that I moved on and fell in love while she was being tormented."

  She sat there and stared at me for several moments, processing everything I had said. I waited, although it was difficult.

  "You're in love with me?" she finally asked.

  I smiled. "I would have thought that was pretty obvious. I might have been with Maizie for a year, but I never really considered marrying her. The terror I feel when you're hurt or go missing like this is nothing I've ever felt with anyone before."

  Leeya gave me a guilty little smile. "Sorry about that."

  I couldn't be mad. Not when I saw that fear and sadness leaving her. She had listened to the truth, and although I still didn't know what our future really looked like, at least she wasn't pulling away from how I felt.

  "You're freezing," I said, pulling my sweater off. "Get out of your wet shirts, and I'll get you back to Alkwin so we can get you warmed up."

  She took it, then looked at me hesitantly. I hid the smile at her modesty and turned my head. Now probably wasn't the time to tell her that I had seen every inch of her beautiful body before.

  "Okay," she said a minute later.

  I looked over and bit back a groan. I liked seeing her in my clothes.

  “You know, you’re making a habit of walking back into Alkwin in one of my shirts after going missing.”

  She looked from the sweater back to me, questioning. That was going to have to be a story for another time.

  "Let's get you down,” I told her. “We won't have long before the Sentry come to, and we need to be as far away from here as we can.”

  Leeya nodded and let me help her out of her hiding spot. I whistled for the others, then carefully helped her out of the tree. Dallin was already at the base of it, ready to grab her as I lowered her down. He looked her over quickly, then pulled her into his arms as I followed.

  "You had me so worried," he said.

  "Sorry," she muttered, accepting the embrace.

  Relief filled every face when the others reached us. With every new person who arrived, Leeya's guilty expression only deepened. I still hadn't asked how she even ended up out here, but it could wait. That was probably a conversation best had in private.

  “That’s some hiding spot,” Nevin said, looking up at the tree. “How’d you even get up there?”

  “T
he Sentry,” Leeya said timidly. “I heard them and a voice in my head demanded that I hide. So I did. He found me in the first spot. I guess he could see me from where he had gone up a tree. Then he put me up there and told me to wait. That he would bring them back in this direction after they were convinced they had lost me, so I would know when they went back to Eden. Then to keep going the way I had been until I was inside the wards again.”

  I was glad now we hadn’t ended up killing the guy. He really had been trying to help her. More than just pretending that he hadn’t found her.

  “Did that voice say something like ‘I’m serious, Leeya. Hide if there’s any sign of trouble’?” Auggie asked. He was smirking, like he was teasing her.

  Oddly, her brow dropped in confusion for a moment before she nodded. “Actually, yeah. That was pretty close.”