by Jessa Lucas
“No, it is not.” Sy reached for a steaming drink on the table before taking a sip, setting it down, and proceeding. “The events of the ball horrified the queen regent, perhaps for political reasons though I suspect they were equally personal. Her sister Aiayla was like you, was what you are. A siren. The queen despised her for it. Vain as Valtronya was, it was not unlike her to be easily threatened when men laid eyes or hands on you.”
“What exactly is so wrong with being what I am?” I asked. “It’s not like it was my choice.”
Sy lifted his eyes to me, their deep mahogany searing with disciplined conviction as he said quietly, “What you are, Saylor, can tempt kingdoms.”
Our eyes stayed like that for a moment, latched to one another for what felt like eternity, until I cleared my throat awkwardly. “Good thing for that immunity then, eh?”
“The queen did her best to convince your father that you should be sent away,” Sy said. “For two years, your powers grew and you remained at the palace in Lithron, the king evidently unconvinced. After he went mad and disappeared, Queen Valtronya sent you off on a ship with us. We were, and are, to guard you with our lives. Valtronya warned that you must be protected from yourself and the world from you… for it was impossible to conceive of the havoc you might wreak on our lands if you were to escape unguarded.”
“Aren’t you showing your hand a bit by telling me this?” I narrowed my eyes, suspicious of his transparency.
Sy stared at the steam rolling out of his drink for a moment, then looked over it at me. “Strange things happened on that ship… strange and terrible things which bind us all. The most terrible was the moment you fell into the deep sleep. The queen sent us off with many prized possessions. For her unblooded daughter she gifted a new harp. So distraught were you to leave home and abandon the search for your father that you refused to play it until the very last night of our voyage. The harp had been enchanted.
“We couldn’t wake you. At first, I thought the betrayer was with us on the ship, among the very watchmen sent to safeguard you. When we docked, we brought you here and meant to send for a sorcerer, a healer— anyone who might be able to sense the spell cast on you, but by some sorcery the doors bolted behind us. We did not fully understand until we found the glass casket in the upper chamber of this tower. It was prepared for you as if the queen had known all along what would happen to you when you touched that harp, and that we would be condemned to guard your sleeping form indefinitely.
“It became clear that Valtronya had orchestrated the whole thing. Feasts appeared daily for us, but we remained sealed inside year after year as time in the world outside hurtled forward without us. Our only communication has been limited to the Crown through a means of magic left us by the queen. Through this, we learned that if you did not wake in the next five decades, the spell would take your life. The inheritance of the Five Realms would effectively pass to the queen regent and her heirs, and the watchmen released from their captivity in this tower,” Sy finished.
“What is today, in that timeline?” I asked quietly.
“We were a matter of days away,” he said, “from you never waking again.”
I nodded, mostly to myself. “Close call. Well,” my nostrils flared as I tried not to be amused at the absurdity of it all. I picked at a piece of bread I’d grabbed from the table. “This is an interesting new take on the Grimm Brothers.”
“You say you do not remember, and yet you recall the Grimms.”
“Yes, the ones who made up all the rather grim fairytales,” I said. “Don’t tell me they exist here, too?”
“The Grimms do not write stories. They weave dreams. You speak of remembering another life; they likely wove the dream in you. Fitting, that they might insert themselves into their own work with such a superfluous signature.”
“In my world, we call that meta.”
Sy raised his eyebrows simply to show how little he cared.
“What happened to, um… the king?” I wasn’t ready to use the word father in any praiseworthy context. It was, and probably always would be, an uncomfortable word for me to form.
Sy relaxed into his chair, his gaze finding the fire. “The Iron-Fisted King. He was a good man, the best sovereign we’ve had in memorable history. Until he went mad.”
“Why is he the Iron-Fisted King? How did he go mad?” I silently chastised myself for seeming overly invested.
“He was from my lands, Alrontez,” Sy explained. “Bastards— fae bastards in particular— are not looked upon kindly in this world. He was imprisoned in the iron mines as a child, the very mines which this tower is built upon. The Five Realms, before united, were at war for three centuries prior to your father’s rule. The words of a prophet incited a coup in the ruling monarchy. Fortunately the prophet did not seek power for himself; instead, he wished to bestow it to the one most worthy of it, to the most just man alive in all the lands. That was your father, fae bastard at the depths of the mines, companion to the most hated and reviled in the land.”
The irony. The sick, macabre irony that here my father had been just.
I brushed some crumbs off my face as I tilted my head in consideration. “Do fae have an aversion to iron? They did in all the stories I was told.”
“Yes,” Sy nodded gravely. “Tyron— your father— was very weak when they pulled him from below. Perhaps he developed a resistance to it, as he survived so long in the mines.”
Being part fae, surely the iron would have an effect on me as well. Perhaps reduced, and only after long exposure. But, you know, fifty years or so might do the trick...
“How did he go mad?” I asked.
“Allegedly it was a single bite out of an iron-poisoned apple. It didn’t kill him, but it was potent enough to render him useless as the sovereign of the Five Realms. In his madness, the throne was abandoned to his queen.”
“Well it’s obvious the Evil Queen did it,” I shrugged.
Sy inclined his head just the slightest. “At the time we set out to sea, that was a growing narrative among the people, yes. But we know very little of the things which have passed while we’ve been in this tower. The splintering cracks of rebellion had begun just as we took our leave, brought on by your father’s disappearance and your mysterious leave of absence. I imagine, if the Five Realms remain united at all, it is only by the thinnest of threads.”
“No one tried to find me?” I scoffed. “Bring me back, what with the queen probably-most-likely killing the reigning monarch and all?”
“Oh, people came looking,” Sy sighed. “Princes and beggars alike sought you, from our lands and others. Some even found you. But those doors have not opened for half a century, and those who got creative... did not get away. We were not assigned as your watchmen for naught.”
“And none of you tried to save me?” I said, a brow raising as I stared him down. Oh, meet his level of smoldering intensity I could, temptress ways or not.
Sy was taken aback by the question, and this time his pause didn’t seem dramatically inclined. “There was a time…” he cleared his throat before continuing. “Yes, there was a time in the beginning when we spent every second of every day trying to break the curse on you. When all five of us realized we were made fools by the queen, fools by love of country and love...” he shook the remainder of the thought from his head. “We could not break it, and after a time we stopped trying. We did not believe we would ever see you conscious again.”
“And after all that waiting, I woke up a completely different person,” I said quietly.
“Perhaps.”
“Tell me how. How am I awake after all this time?” I hated what I seemed to be admitting to; I was stuck just as much as them, only not just in some tower, but in an unfamiliar world with traitorous memories. Now, not only did I not know my own name, I didn’t know anything about myself at all.
“I have no reason to offer you,” Sy said. There was a sort of yield in his words, as if he was used to always knowing what
to do, what to say. As if he knew how to rush every challenge head on and defeat it with strength and mere will… and this time, this challenge of me, he couldn’t.
I rolled a grape between my fingers, my insides squirming. “Do you still work for this queen?”
“She is our queen. We owe her our allegiance.”
My eyebrows rose further. It wasn’t exactly an answer, but it said enough. “Such a sense of duty,” I commented.
The flames of the fire flickered in his eyes. “Moving forward, we have many decisions to make.”
“Decisions about what exactly to do with me?” I asked.
He nodded solemnly and I studied him, my heart hammering in my chest. “Are you going to tell her I’m awake? You’re not going to kill me, right?”
I was vulnerable without my powers. As a street rat who had always relied on her wit and magical abilities (and apparently a princess who’d been immobile for five decades), I didn’t have enough muscles to fend off a single brawny man, let alone five.
“Let me be clear, Saylor. You are the blood heir to the Five Realms, daughter to our world’s greatest king. You are our charge. We will bow to the reigning Crown, but only insofar as it does not compromise our ultimate allegiance to you. As I said, strange things happened on the ship that carried you here— carried us all.”
“There is more to this story,” I leaned in, setting my elbow on my knee and cradling my chin in the palm of my hand. “Some part you played that you’re not telling me about.”
The side of his mouth twitched. “They say a siren’s power derives from her uncanny observations.”
“That’s what makes us dangerous,” I smiled slyly and wiggled my eyebrows to coax a reaction out of him. “I’m right, aren’t I? Let me guess,” I sighed theatrically, “you and the queen had a great love affair and she put you in charge. But you have a good heart, a courageous heart as a matter of fact, and even though you want to please your queen, you can feel deep down that she is actually very bad for you.”
Sy was as still as a statue, except for the small bounce of his fingertips against the armrest.
“You should get out of that abusive relationship, Sy. I know it’s not my place to say it, but I’m pretty sure trapping you in a tower for half a century qualifies as abuse.”
I was aware of the ins-and-outs of every breath as I exhaled into the heavy silence. I watched him carefully, but he only looked on, that enigmatic gaze brushing over me. The feeling of those eyes on me… it was an intangible familiarity that fled as quickly as it arrived.
“Were we friends, in the palace?” I asked suddenly. We must’ve crossed paths in the two years it seemed we’d both been there.
He tilted his head, the shaggy waves of his hair falling to the side. “Of a sort.”
Those stupid, indecipherable eyes. This stupidly stoic man. I wanted to bat him with a hand, knock some humor into him, but I wasn’t sure how he would take to that sort of physical... affection? Affection wasn’t a word I liked to use— or one that I had much use for. My contact with men had very limited and very specific history.
“Okay,” I huffed, crossing my arms again. “So let me get this all straight. I never burned down a house?” The image of my childhood home going up in flames erupted in my mind, a radiant violence against the night sky.
“No.”
“I didn’t murder… anyone?” I said slowly.
“Likely not?” Sy said, brows raised in amusement. “Though, the history books might beg to differ.”
I slouched back in the chair. “Well, that’s disappointing. But also a relief.”
“You should not take my word for it. According to the queen, you might have killed a soldier with a mere stare and flash of skin.”
A joke. Was that a joke?
“At least I’m consistent,” I smiled, batting my eyelashes a few times for effect. Then, all the times that I’d actually tried to seduce him in the last twelve-some-odd hours came stampeding back. My face warmed. “I’m sorry for the ravishing comment. I really didn’t think that this… that this was all real.”
“Quite alright. Did you have enough to eat?”
I looked down at the tray of food one last time. I’d picked at it on and off during our talk, but I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry anymore. I was pretty sure my brain space had needed to expand to make room for all the crazy, and was currently occupying a large portion of the place where my hunger usually was. “I’m good,” I said.
Sy nodded and stood. “Tomorrow we leave the tower and begin the long journey ahead of returning you to your people.”
“And then what, I battle the queen to our deaths?” I asked skeptically.
“There is much for us to consider before we return you to the palace. Rest assured we will take every measure of caution before we alert the Crown of your waking, Princess.”
I had to hold back the retort forming on my tongue. Princess.
But it wasn’t a snarky nickname. It was the truth.
Sy offered a hand for me to take, but my hands instead found the wrap of my robe and made sure it was tight around my form as I stood.
“Thank you, Syrus of Alrontez,” I said, bowing my head in mock seriousness, and turned away with a smile as his eyes tried to register exactly how much fun of him I’d been making.
Chapter 3
Introducing Prince Charming
Jude was waiting for me outside the door. God, what a life, to be constantly waited upon by handsome men. I must’ve had it good, crazy bitch of a step-mother aside.
“Did you get enough to eat?” he asked.
And they wanted to take care of me! Though I supposed being in a curse-induced coma for nearly a century would mean I was likely visibly malnourished. Looking in a mirror hadn’t been much of a priority for most of my memorable existence.
“Plenty, thanks,” I replied.
I began to make my way back to my room, but Jude clung to my side, hand on the hilt of a long knife. After walking down a few halls like this together, I peered over at him. “Are you going to follow me into my room, too?”
I honestly hadn’t meant it in the way that I usually would’ve said it, but his eyes grew wide and his face flushed before he finally laughed it off. “No, of course not. I didn’t know if you knew your way, and... frankly, we are all still so shocked you woke up. It is difficult to have you out of eyesight for fear you are only a mirage. How did you do it?”
“Do what, wake up?”
He nodded, eager for my answer.
“I... opened my eyes,” I suggested.
Jude laughed. I couldn’t help but smile in response. It was the best sound I could remember hearing in a long time. I recognized it in some way— not that a magical life of luxury was coming back to me. It seemed almost like… almost like it was ringing forth from my memories of Earth.
“In all actuality, I have no idea,” I said. “One minute I was on a bus, and the next...” I made a poof sound and illustrated an explosion with my hands, “I was trapped in a glass coffin with five men staring down at me. Men who I apparently can’t seduce. What strange sort of land is this, anyway?”
Jude slid his eyes to me, a smile twisting onto his lips. “Who said you cannot seduce just because you don’t have your powers?”
Oh, bad Jude.
I nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I guess I’ve relied far too long on my special abilities to get men to like me. Maybe I should leave it up to my stunning good looks.”
“Or your radiant personality.”
I wagged my finger at him as if he was onto something, “Yes, that’s it. That.”
He laughed again, and my body went stiff at the sound. Where did I know it from?
Jude suddenly grabbed my outstretched hand. “I want to take you somewhere. Follow me?”
I nodded and stumbled after him as he pulled me forward by the hand. We spiraled up the rotating staircase until we reached one of the highest balconies of the tower. The wind swept acro
ss us, twining through his hair and sweeping mine back from my face. For the first time, I realized I hadn’t brushed my hair— I hadn’t even showered— in probably fifty years. I hugged my arms in tight, suddenly self-conscious of the smell of B.O. I was certain the wind was herding into Jude’s nostrils.
“Here,” Jude said, shrugging his cloak away from his shoulders and hanging it around mine. I realized my body language indicated that I was cold instead of that I worried about how much I reeked.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, must be the reveal of Prince Charming.
His hands lingered on my shoulders and I couldn’t help it— habit, need, or genuine attraction, I stepped in an inch closer to him, my body singing at the closeness of a warm male body. I figured the guy could forgive a gal who hadn’t been laid in forty-nine-plus years.
“Look,” Jude led me forward to the edge and I had to hold back my gasp.
The land that stretched before us was blanketed in night, rolling hills of darkness below and twinkling stars like jewels sewed into the backdrop of sky. Our tower stood along the coast and far, far away I could see the land bending out like the other end of a horseshoe. There, glittering in the moonlight, was a fluttering pinprick of light.
“This is all yours, Saylora,” Jude said softly. “Every inch of these Five Realms will be under your rule. Lithron to the north, Dramon Dagma to the east, Rivelta to the south, the Galgon Isles in the west, and Alrontez where we now stand. Great men will fight for you, and women will fall to their knees before you. Babes will grow up with your name on their lips— not because you are rich or beautiful or powerful, but because against all odds you came back for those who were yours.”
“How is it possible that I don’t remember any of this?” I shook my head, incredulous.
“None of it?” Jude asked. The question was so sorrowful, as if the fact of my memory loss hadn’t truly sunk in for him until this moment.
“Not a thing. That, there,” I pointed at the spark in the distance that looked like a fallen star had caught in the dark soil of land. “What is it?”
