Two Worlds of Oblivion
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Two Worlds of Oblivion
Angelina J. Steffort
MK
Two Worlds
of Oblivion
Two Worlds Book 2
First published 2019
Copyright © by Angelina J. Steffort 2019
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Ebook: ASIN B07YLLXHXD
Print: ISBN 978-3-9504418-1-9
MK
www.ajsteffort.com
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Acknowledgments
First of all to my wonderful readers, who keep asking for more, whose enthusiasm for my writing is the fuel when I am struggling to keep my eyes open late at night. Thank you for all your loving support. You are the best!
To the girl with the wonderful name.
To Dawn and Carolyn for patiently cleaning up my written mess.
To Steffi and Norma-Jean for real-time-reading my words. You are a tireless source of incredible feedback, and I can’t say enough how much I value your feedback and opinion.
To the beautiful city of Vienna for being an oasis in my life.
To Joanna for being a wonderful critique partner. Thank you for your trust and support!
To Barbara, who has walked the path before me and keeps lending a hand so I won't fall over the same obstacles as she did, who has become a true friend and an inspiration. You rock! To many more Jours Fixe to follow! There is always a cup of coffee waiting for you!
To my family. Thank you for putting up with me when I go through my creative tantrums! I couldn’t have done it without you! I love you!
Contents
Quote
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Corey
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Corey
Maray
Jemin
Corey
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Corey
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Corey
Maray
Jemin
Maray
Jemin
Maray
About the Author
Also by Angelina J. Steffort
“There is no decision that we can make that doesn't come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.”
Simon Sinek
Maray
“Is it even worth unpacking?” Maray eyed the concrete columns longingly. With everything they had gone through in the past weeks, the apartment in Vienna—the Vienna of the world she’d grown up in—looked suddenly like a friendly sanctuary. She hadn’t touched the moving boxes that were still sitting in the spare room. Ever since her adventure in Allinan, a parallel world full of magic and danger where she was royalty and not the unnoticeable Maray Johnson she’d been for sixteen years, Maray doubted that her temporary peace would remain. Every trip to the grocery store was accompanied by her father’s nervous glares over his shoulder. Even when she took the trash down, her parents were reluctant to let her go alone.
Her mother was sitting across the table, hands on a cup of coffee and grey hair braided down over her shoulder, Gerwin next to her, holding her hand, eyes sparkling like an infatuated teenager.
Maray smiled to herself—family reunited after five years.
“We should keep this place,” Laura suggested, gaze grazing the high ceiling and the bare wires that were attached to lightbulbs where Maray and her father had failed to install lamps yet. “I may have to return to take Rhia’s place, but you—”
“I don’t feel comfortable leaving you alone over there, and besides, we wouldn’t be safe here anymore,” Gerwin objected and threw Maray an anxious look. “We need to leave Vienna… whether we keep paying rent here or not.” He squeezed Laura’s hand. “Besides, I couldn’t live with myself if Rhia returned to Allinan and I wasn’t there to protect you.”
Maray shrank into her chair at the thought. No one should be alone when they faced Rhia. After she had escaped in the dungeons, they didn’t know whether or not the evil grandmother had survived—or dissolved into a heap of disintegrating flesh. That image was never going to leave Maray’s mind.
“Are you all right?” Laura reached out for her hand and squeezed it.
Maray didn’t flinch. By now she’d become accustomed to her mother’s presence. She was able to look at her without thinking of the tubes that had been stuck into Laura when they had found her in the dungeons. She had gained a bit of weight; just enough to make her look less like a corpse and more like the mother she remembered—except for the grey hair.
Maray nodded. “I agree.” She glanced at her father. “We should all go together. I just got you back.”
“We don’t know who we can trust in the palace,” her father agreed, supportively. “Not Unterly, that’s for sure.”
Maray remembered hearing about Unterly, but she had never seen the queen’s councilor in person. All she knew was that he was one of the three advisors who had seen Queen Rhia’s face in the past twenty or so years.
“I don’t know about Scott, either,” Maray replied, adding the commander of the guard to the list. “Even though he helped you get out of the palace, we don’t know if he’ll change his mind the way Langley did.” She thought of the former ambassador whose position her father had taken over. He had helped her but then turned on her when he learned about the strength of her magic. She still shuddered at the thought of Langley, who occasionally turned into one of those giant wolf-bears that were native to Allinan.
Laura gave her a sharp look. Maray remembered those from her childhood from when she had disappointed her mother. She glanced out the window instead. The sky was full of grey clouds, the default for that season in this city, Maray had learned. Looking at them, she could as well have been in Allinan, there was no difference.
“Langley used to be my trusted advisor,” Laura said with an edge to her voice.
“Before he almost killed Jemin and Heck,” Maray reminded her, “when he was after me.” Maray’s stomach gave a tiny flutter at the thought of Jemin, the dutiful and incredibly handsome soldier, who had annoyed her to death for the first couple of days of her initiation to Allinan and then stolen her heart in the blink of an eye with his devotion and beautiful, but well-concealed, soul. His bright-blue eyes might have had something to do with it, too.
“For your magic,” Laura assumed, oblivious to Maray’s momentary mental absence.
Maray blinked out of her daydream of Jemin and returned to their original conversation. “That’s what Corey said.” Maray remembered the dark-silken skinned warlock girl’s face when she had told her exactly what had happened with her magic, that she had burned Jemin’s cheeks. She had left out how her hands had ended up on Jemin’s cheeks, though. Knowing that Corey had once been in love with Jemin… potentially still was… made her cautious to share too much detail about that night…
“Corey is a smart girl,” Laura commented, not seeming to notice the bemused look on Maray’s face as she dove back into that moment w
ith Jemin when her magic had unintentionally surfaced. She had been aching for it to repeat—not the burn but the kiss… The handsome boy who had saved her from Langley in his terrifying beast form, had also the most tender lips she could have imagined. She had been aching for that moment to repeat, but he hadn’t kissed her again since they had returned from the dungeons where he had saved both Maray and her mother from Rhia. Maray pictured his chiseled face. Her heart made a strange arrhythmic beat that would have made her worry under different circumstances, but in this case, it was utterly clear. Jemin.
“Maray?” Her mother reached over the table and touched her forearm to get her attention.
What had they been talking about? She shook her head at herself and jumped back into the conversation. “Corey’s magic is stronger than anything I have seen so far.” She had seen for herself when Corey had healed Jemin with nothing but a mere touch. Something magic in Allinan wasn’t supposed to do. “She promised she’d help me get my own magic under control,” Maray reminded her mother. “I need to be in Allinan to train. Magic is useless in this world.”
They had talked about that, too. They had talked about pretty much everything after their return from Allinan, and the only thing they knew for sure was that Laura had to return to court to claim the throne before Rhia could come back and build her own new team of supporters among the Allinan nobles; so she would have a standing in case Rhia did return and challenge her.
“We’ll need all the help we can,” Gerwin added. “Who’s loyal to the crown? And by crown I mean, not Rhia in person, but who would support you when you claim the throne?”
“The Brendals,” Laura said without thinking, and Maray saw Heck Brendal’s grinning face before her just as if he was right there, laughing about something that was actually a serious matter. Jemin’s best friend, patrol partner, and rogue son of the noble Brendal family had been there for Maray from her very start in Allinan. She owed him her life as much as she owed Jemin. “Sara and Emir Brendal have been loyal all their lives. They don’t care who of the Cornay family sits on the throne, only that the monarchy continues.” Laura’s voice wasn’t cold, but she didn’t sound like the mother who had read bedtime stories to her. This was the voice of a monarch talking strategies with an advisor—the way Laura was sitting up, her straight back, her lifted chin, her elegant hand as she gestured before her chest—the grey hair didn’t take away from her elegance. If anything, it made her look more serious.
Maray wondered how Heck would feel about her mother going to his parents for help. Would he still play the rogue noble son who didn’t care for his heritage, or would he come around and help them for Maray’s sake?
She didn’t know anything about the Allinan court except that it was her court… the court of her family. She should have grown up there and learned about Allinan traditions, but she didn’t since her mother chose to marry a non-Allinan commoner. The Allinan people didn’t even know she existed. Would they embrace her with open arms as an heir to the throne after Rhia’s disappearance and the return of Princess Laura?
“Parsin Scott,” Laura continued the list. “He is definitely not an easy person to be around—” Something about the way her eyes rolled let Maray guess there was difficult history between them, “—but he is loyal. He has proven so by helping you, Gerwin, and by coming to warn us about Langley.”
“I still can’t believe Langley turned on us.” Gerwin shook his head. “He kept his promise to keep Maray a secret, and he helped her, gave her a place to stay when she returned to Allinan with Jemin and Heck…” His voice trailed off.
Jemin’s name pushed Maray back into her thoughts. He was back on duty with Heck, guarding the borders between this world and Allinan. She hadn’t heard from him since she had returned with her parents. It gave her a mild tension in her stomach that wouldn’t leave unless she was asleep; and then she often dreamed of him. Mostly they were dreams of him ramming his sword into one of the giant wolf-bears. They had hunted her before she’d first portaled into Allinan. It was true: even in the Vienna of this world they weren’t safe from them. It was probably safer to face the confusion at court.
Scott had promised he’d keep his best men and women on the job, which brought her thoughts back to Jemin and his bright-blue eyes.
“That’s enough to start with.” Gerwin interrupted her internal preoccupation with Jemin. “Now all we need to do is arrange for a way to convince the rest of the nobles.”
“You could say Rhia is sick again,” Maray suggested. “You’ve helped out before… five years ago.”
When her mother had disappeared five years ago, letting her believe that she had chosen her career over her, the truth was that Laura had been on the run to protect them both. Back then, Rhia had been around to rule Allinan. Now, she was God-knew-where, and Allinan needed a ruler. Especially when they intended to keep Rhia’s absence a secret until they were ready to reveal Maray’s existence to the entire court. Maray swallowed a forming lump in her throat.
Both Gerwin and Laura nodded in agreement.
“We need to be smart about this. No rash communication about Rhia’s absence. No one will notice she’s gone as no one ever sees her—”
“Except for Unterly,” Maray noted and got out of her chair to get a cup of tea.
“People will also notice that Master Feris is gone,” Laura pointed out, “which could become a greater problem than Rhia’s absence.”
The court warlock and his crimes… Not only had he experimented on Langley and turned him into a Yutu shifter before he had left him in the dungeons to die, but he was also helping Rhia in her endeavors of becoming an immortal and almighty—the first of which she had already achieved by the use of Laura’s blood. Maray’s blood was next on her list, and she had no intention of letting Rhia anywhere near it.
“They trust Feris. He is a symbol of the court’s strength.” Gerwin’s voice came from the dining area, sounding a lot like he saw a real problem with that.
“You’re speaking about the warlocks’ loyalty?” Laura whispered as if she didn’t want Maray to hear her.
“What about their loyalty?” Maray asked around the column before she pulled out a tea mug.
Her mother’s forehead creased. “Every warlock I know has been trained by Feris or someone under Feris’ command. There is no guarantee they won’t follow him if he asks them to.”
“Not Corey,” Maray objected, well-aware that Corey was only one out of who knew how many…
“But that’s not the only obstacle we might encounter,” Laura continued. “Langley kept you a secret, and Unterly potentially only told Rhia and Feris about you. You look like the portrait of Rhia, and people might have problems accepting that you are my daughter and not the Queen in her youthful appearance.”
“It could challenge your authority in court,” Gerwin cautioned his wife.
Authority? Maray focused on her tea. It made it easier to think about what was lying ahead of her. It wouldn’t be long before she would be back in Allinan; this time, not in disguise, but as part of a royal family a month ago she hadn’t even known existed. Her family.
Maray’s heart pounded in her chest as she sprinted up the hill to her street. She was surprised she could keep up with her father’s speed. He was the one who was excessively trained in sword fighting and dexterity—at least in comparison to Maray, who had only started. They were using the time while Laura was packing to upgrade the basic skills she’d need to survive in Allinan.
After every corner, Gerwin did his obligatory glance over his shoulder, a habit that Maray had adopted. With Rhia and Feris on the run, one could never be certain—
“I don’t think we are being followed,” Maray panted in between gulps of air after a peek into the side street they were passing. She tasted copper in her mouth from the strain. The streets were empty this early on a Sunday morning, and the obligatory fog was laying heavy under the greying sky and fading streetlights and shrouding the Gloriette on the hill
behind the palace in the distance.
“Even if magic doesn’t work in this world, it doesn’t mean that Rhia hasn’t found another way to conceal her true self.” Gerwin’s voice was steady as if he hadn’t just run for forty minutes, but Maray could tell from the look on his face that he despised his mother-in-law, Rhia, the Queen of Allinan and Maray’s grandmother, for everything she had done.
“One more sprint?” Gerwin asked. There was a park at the other end of the street they lived on, which gave enough cover to do some self-defense training there and not attract the attention of the entire neighborhood. He sped up, and Maray willed herself to follow him, running shoes growing heavier with every step she took until her feet eventually dragged like she had rocks tied around her ankles.
Maray bit back her increasing nausea. She needed to train, she needed to get stronger, faster, readier. Slowing down wasn’t an option. Whether it was in this world or in Allinan, her heritage had put a target on her back, and the arrows were coming from within her own bloodline as well as from the outside. At least in this world, she could leave the house without being recognized as a member of the royal family, which was an advantage now that she thought about it. In Allinan, hardly anyone even knew she existed, but her face—doppelgänger-similar to her grandmother’s young version—was hung in every household…