The Mark of Chaos

by K. N. Lee

  My voice caught in my throat as he stood before me. “You’re the knight from that day.”

  The one who I’d blamed for starting all of this.

  “Don’t worry, Moira,” he continued. “I’m going to get you out. We’re going to make it right.”

  Chapter 12

  “You’re him,” I said, breathlessly as our eyes met. “You’re the man I hurt.” My eyes must have been the size of dinner rounds because as soon as he saw my reaction, he tensed.

  “Calm down, Moira,” he said in what amounted to a rushed whisper. “You didn’t hurt me. You would never hurt me. You’re a good woman. You always were, but that doesn’t mean any of us are safe here. What happened before, what brought you here, it was the most dangerous situation any of us had ever been in.” He shook his head. “The sacrifice you made, the things you did to ensure we would have this moment, it took my breath away.” He blinked hard, his eyes pinned on me. “That shouldn’t be a surprise, though. You always took my breath away.”

  A rush of something like warmth ran through me, stealing my mind from the present moment for just an instant. Still, I shook my head, pulling my attention back to the matter at hand.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. My chest tightened. “You really expect me to believe that my entire life has been a lie? I have memories, you know? And not all of them are good, but most of them are. If you’re telling the truth, if I really did build a life for myself and give myself all of these memories, then why wouldn’t I have made myself a nice one? Why wouldn’t I have sat myself down in some paradise with lots of money and no need for worrying?”

  “Because that’s not who you are,” he said. “Because you knew this day was coming, and you knew you needed to be ready for it. You knew you needed a hard life so that you would be hard. What is it that your brother always used to say? When life gets hard, you have to get harder?”

  My heart might as well have stopped dead in my chest when I heard him say those words.

  “How do you know that?” I asked, my entire being shaking. Sorrow and surprise rushed over me at hearing him repeat what Eden used to say to me.

  “Because I knew him, Moira,” he answered. He stepped closer, so close that he was almost touching the bars. “My name is Prince Raelyn Dubrov of the Pacific Isles. In a different life, I was betrothed to you.” He blinked hard again as he looked me up and down.

  Now, I was speechless.

  How was I supposed to believe that I was indeed betrothed to such a handsome specimen of a man.

  “But, after Eden died, everything changed. It opened a power vacuum, and your uncle was quick enough to step into it. He thought that, since you weren’t a male heir that you weren’t prepared to lead. Therefore, he inserted himself into power. He imagined the people would like it. What he didn’t take into consideration was the fact that you were focused on the real threat. You could feel the darkness coming, Moira. You knew that, if we didn’t act, it would swallow us up. While everyone else was busy crossing swords and fighting for pretend power, you were reading books and doing your best to make sure that what is about to happen wouldn’t be the end of us all.”

  Darkness? I was still mystified by the concept that Raelyn was meant to be my husband.

  “You’re not making any sense, Raelyn,” I said, surprised at how comfortable the name felt on my tongue. “If I was so concerned about this upcoming fight, then why would I ever pull myself out of it? Why would I handicap myself like this?”

  “Simple. Because he was going to kill you,” Raelyn said. “Because, when you told him the darkness was coming, your uncle laughed it off. He used it as leverage to paint you as unfit to lead. It was a stepping stone to cement himself where he was. But he could never really be comfortable, and his son certainly couldn’t, while you were still breathing. So, you cast a spell. With the help of your advisor Jasper, you crafted a spell that would make the whole of the kingdom think your uncle Taros had succeeded in killing you. But the spell had to be effective. In addition to his cellular scanners, Taros employs some of the best mystics in the whole of the kingdom. If you were anywhere in the realm, he’d have found you. You knew that. So, you tore your memories out, Jasper’s too. You left only Ian and I with knowledge of the truth, and that was because you had made sure no one would be able to get into our minds.”

  When he paused, I tried to wrap my mind around the whole concept. Now, fear of whatever darkness he spoke of crept on me. As if I needed one more thing to worry about.

  “You gave up your whole life, you gave up your birthright to ensure we would be able to fight back the darkness. And you told me that the next time I saw you, it would be time to fight. I knew when you came into the kingdom grounds that things were in motion again. So, I told the king, your Uncle Taros, that you murdered two guards.”

  “You did what?” I asked, my jaw dropping. “They’ll kill me for that.”

  “They’ll never touch you,” Raelyn answered, a confident half-smile coming to his beautiful face. “Besides, I need you inside the walls for what comes next.”

  “And what is that?” I asked, stiffening.

  “We get your memory back,” Raelyn answered. “Then you’ll remember all of it. You’ll remember Eden, you’ll remember me, and you’ll know how to stop the darkness.”

  “You truly believe I’m capable of all of this?” I asked, nearly breathless. I’d went through my life thinking of myself as a burden, and unworthy. Now, this prince from a different world I have only ever dreamed about seeing looked at me like I was a savior.

  “I know you are. Now, I’m going to remind you of your power. You have to be strong now,” he continued. “Just for a little bit longer, and know that, whatever comes next, I’m on your side. I’ve always been on your side. And don’t worry. He won’t recognize you. None of them will. That’s a component of the spell.”

  As he finished speaking the doors opened, pouring light into the room. Two guards came in, but instantly hit their knees.

  “Your highness,” one of them said. “Please forgive us. We meant nothing by the intrusion. We weren’t expecting you here.”

  Raelyn looked at me again for a long moment. The more he looked at me, the more I felt the strong sensation that we had in fact shared memories and a past together.

  “Think nothing of it,” he said before turning to them. “I only wanted to see the girl’s face once more time before you took her away.”

  “Took me away?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

  “That’s right,” Raelyn said without turning back to me. “It’s time for you to face your emperor.”

  Chapter 13

  The guards were not as gentle with my body as Raelyn had been with my spirit.

  Jerking me up off of my feet, they caused spasms of pain to run through me as they lifted me off the ground. The tips of my toes drug the floor as they pulled me out of the cell and into a long and spiraling staircase. I thought about fighting back, but reconsidered.

  What good would it do anyway?

  I couldn’t fight. The only offensive weapons I had in my arsenal were my magical hands, and they sat dormant in cages at the moment. So, I figured it was best to just let these guys carry out their work unimpeded.

  We trudged up the winding staircase, circling and circling upward. Raelyn walked several footsteps ahead of us, and in the lit area, I saw he was wearing the same golden armor that was sleek against his chiseled frame, and a circlet that resembled something from a fairytale.

  Each step signified that soon I’d be standing before judgement—before a fate I couldn’t fathom at the moment.

  As the goons pulled me out of the staircase and into a long hallway, lifting me just so I could hit my head on the doorway, I decided I didn’t feel very regal.

  “That’s enough of that,” Raelyn growled, turning to face the guards as I yelped in pain when my head hit the wall. “If your emperor wanted her roughed up, he’d have told you. You know how the e
mperor feels about people who don’t follow his orders exactly.”

  I flickered a glance down at his hands and realized they’d been balled into fists. When I lifted my gaze, his eyes met mine and lingered there for a moment before speaking to the guards again. “Unless, of course, you’d like to see yourselves on the other end of this scenario.”

  “No, your highness,” both of the men said at once, shrinking a little and letting me down.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as the heels of my feet touched the ground. Though I knew better than to think I could run. I wouldn’t know my way out even if I could get away from the guards.

  Nonetheless, it felt nice to have control over my steps again.

  “And you,” Raelyn said, his tone firming up as he looked at me again. “Don’t get too cocky. As much as the emperor might not like the idea of them punishing you, it’s only because he holds that pleasure for himself.”

  A rush of cold fear ran through me. Though I had just had this conversation with Raelyn, though I was pretty sure he was only putting on for the guards, I wondered what might happen if he was telling the truth. I had little doubt the emperor would take pleasure in hurting me, probably even killing me.

  The stories of Emperor Taros and his merciless ways stretched far and wide. Even if the rest of what Raelyn said was untrue, I knew that much to be a fact. He was a sadist. He would delight in my undoing.

  And what if part of what Raelyn said was true? What if I really was his neice? What if I had cast a spell to hide myself from him, and what if that spell wasn’t as solid as Raelyn thought? I wasn’t supposed to remember anything, after all. Still, I had a dream about Jasper, who apparently existed, and I knew the phrase my brother always told me.

  My stomach churned with dread, and my breaths grew shallow as a million questions raced through my head.

  What of this emperor took one look at me, knew who I was, and decided that a lifetime of torture in some dark and secluded dungeon was just what I needed to ensure I’d never be a threat to him again?

  Fear rose in me like the dark master it was. My hands started to shake. My entire body started to shake. That was when I realized exactly who I was. I was a girl who was afraid of life. If the life I knew to be mine was true, then I had been a coward for most of it. I lived so afraid of failure that I never tried. I allowed my brother to carry the heavy weights, and when he collapsed under them, I sold my hair instead of becoming the woman I should have always been.

  If what Raelyn and Ian said was true, then I could only imagine I cast this spell, not as a noble sacrifice, but to run. I ran away from my problems, from my fears, and from my life.

  That was the only explanation. It was also my only way out. Regardless of what I thought before, I was going to have to run.

  I thought about my hands, about the uselessness of them, and then I thought something different. These cages were meant to strip me of my only offensive weapon, but what if they had just given me one?

  Here goes nothing.

  Stopping short, I lifted my hands hard, hitting both guards in the face with either cage and spinning as they stepped back in shock. With their hands off me, I ran down the hallway, darting into one door and then another, losing myself in the maze of this palace in hopes of losing them, too.

  “No!” I heard Raelyn’s voice behind me, stinging me like daggers. “This isn’t the way, Moira!”

  But, it was too late. I made my choice, and I was going to have to stick with it.

  Running as quickly as I could muster, I immediately felt the familiar sensation that always tickled at my chest whenever I made a mistake. This was a stupid move. It was a kid’s move, and I couldn’t afford to be a kid right now. Still, I couldn’t afford to be a corpse either, and that was almost certainly what awaited me if I kept the path Raelyn led me down. Seeing the emperor, regardless of whether or not he was my secret uncle, wasn’t something that would end well for me.

  The best case scenario had him believing me to be a murderer, which would-without much in the way of doubt- lead me to be murdered myself.

  I wasn’t going to venture into that particular monster’s den.

  I took another quick turn, darting into a large room as I heard the footsteps of the guards rushing in my general direction. Now that I made the choice, I needed to make sure I actually survived. Raelyn said no one here would recognize me. He said it was due to a spell I crafted, but it also might be true because I was a complete and total nobody.

  Deciding to use that to my advantage, I started picking up the errant clothes strewn all over the floor of the bedroom I found myself in. I wasn’t the castle type, but certainly they had to have people who picked up after them, and I would be willing to bet that whoever was in the far room—where I heard water running—couldn’t have picked his or her servants out of a lineup.

  My heart skipped a beat as I heard the water turn off. I could have ran, but the guards were too close. No. I was going to have to stay put. So, I grabbed as much of the errant clothing as I could and placed it at chin level, hoping to cover enough of my face to be able to hide from whoever was about to come out.

  As the door opened though, stream pouring from what I now knew to be a bathroom, something else stole my attention. The man stepping from the shower, glistening with water and humming a tune that bounced familiarly off my ears, looked achingly familiar.

  I realized, as I dropped the clothes in shock and awe, that I was looking at none other than my brother.

  Eden?

  Chapter 14

  My heart wretched in my chest.

  My mind spun free of an sort of ties to reality. My spirit both rose and sank at the same time, without any real clue as to what direction it was meant to gravitate. I knew nothing about my life, not really. I had been told I was one thing, and then told something else entirely. I had been given the keys to a brand new existence, all the while being assured that it was even worse than the one I left behind.

  The only thing I knew for sure, the only truth that transcended things and traveled with me from the old life to the new was the fact that Eden was dead.

  It stood as clear to me as the suns overhead. It was true. It had to be—this hurt in my heart—this open wound in my chest that always accompanied me couldn’t be fabricated. There was no way. I knew this loss. I felt it so deeply that no spell could ever take it away.

  If Raelyn was telling the truth about who I really was and why I did what I did, then the truth must have also been that my brother’s death had to be incorporated into the spell because pulling it out of my mind would have proven too impossible a task. He had to be with me there, because he wasn’t with me anywhere else.

  Yet, here he was.

  “Eden?” I asked, my body shaking as I took in the sight of him. “Eden, is that you?”

  The man, his biceps as hard as the look he was giving me, scowled as he responded. “You dare speak to me? You dare look me in the eyes? Lower your gaze and humble yourself before I have you publicly flogged.”

  My mouth went dry and my entire mind went blank. Whatever was going on here, I knew one thing for sure. It was almost certainly better for me to do what Eden said. The only problem was, I couldn’t get my body to cooperate. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from my brother. After all, I never thought I would see him again. I thought he was lost to me forever.

  Only, this wasn’t him, not really. I knew my brother. I knew his heart and his spirit. He wasn’t this way. He didn’t speak or move this way. Something was wrong, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

  “Is that what you want?” Eden asked, walking toward me with a glowering look in his eyes. “Do you wish to be beaten, peasant?!”

  “Forgive him,” a voice sounded from behind me. Though I still couldn’t tear my eyes off the man, I recognized the words to have come from Raelyn. “She’s a simpleton, Reagan. She was brought in for scavenging for food on forbidden grounds.”

  The man who Raelyn called Reagan, not Eden
, narrowed his eyes at me. “A simpleton who managed to evade our guards and free his captivity.” He took another step closer. “A simpleton with the mark on her face. I’m not convinced.”

  “Ink,” Raelyn said, circling me and standing between me and the man who looked just like my brother. “Allow me to get this troubled young woman out of here and back into captivity before your father realizes what’s happened.”

  I lowered my head, letting my hair fall onto my face and obscuring my birthmark.

  Grabbing my arm, he forcefully tugged me out of the room. “Have you lost what’s left of your mind? He could have had you killed for that?” Raelyn whispered to me as soon as we were out of earshot, making our way back to the main hallway.

  “That was Eden,” I said. In a daze, it was still all I could think about.

  “No it’s-” Raelyn face went blank as he stopped short. “I’m sorry. I should have warned you. It didn’t occur to me that you’d forget how much they looked alike.”

  Once he turned me toward him, the hazy fog of my mind began to clear and I stiffened at being pulled so close to him.

  His face softened as he spoke. “Your brother is dead, Moira. I’m so sorry about that, but it’s the truth. The person you saw back there isn’t Eden. It’s Reagan. He’s your cousin. He’s next in line to become emperor, and if he’d have recognized you back there, he’d have slit your throat without even considering why he was doing it.” His jaw tightened. “He’s a horrible person.”

  Shaking my head, I exhaled. “If I really shaped the world like you said I did, then why would I have kept you here, kept you around that monster?”

  “Simple. To keep an eye on him,” Raelyn said. “To keep an eye on all of them. Just as Ian watched over you to ensure your safety and growth, I’ve watched over this place and its people, helping in whatever way I can to stop them from destroying the empire as a whole.”