Kiran thought that over for another couple of minutes. While he was silent, I studied the dark room we sat in. With my Magic, I could see far past the circumference of light from the one lit lamp. I moved my eyes around the lavish suit and tried not to think about the girl sitting next to me.
When had she ever shown such intellect? When had she ever been so surprisingly bright and involved?
When we started dating, there was a shallowness to her… a vacancy. We fell in love, but there had always been a surface level quality to it. After had broken up, I swore to myself I’d been in love with her body but not her personality.
I was still in love with her body. Seraphina Van Curen was breathtaking. She had the kind of beauty and grace that legends were made from. Helen of Troy. Juliet. Bathsheba.
I had been a panting teenager when I’d drooled after her. And she’d let me; she’d led me along with the tip of her finger.
I had hated myself for a long time after we broke up for letting her have so much control over me. Directly after she’d ended things with me, aka, shattered my soul, I’d decided that she had only been with me because of my bloodline.
Immortals were supposed to bond for life, even before marriage. Our Magics tended to wrap up in each other and refuse to let go.
Ours might struggle today to stay separated, but we’d managed the initial separation without much issue. I had braced myself for death or worse, a lifetime of wishing for death. But I’d faced no such horrors.
Instead, I’d come to this conclusion; Seraphina had never held true feelings for me. She’d allowed a relationship with me for my bloodline, for the crown I should have had and for the title that died when the St. Andrews took the royal seat. She’d dated me because I had once been a prince and still held that reputation.
My family had given up our titles. And I’d given up the right to be heir to a throne I never wanted. When that became clear to her, she left.
I wasn’t the prince she wanted. I was just another man foolish enough to fall for her pretty looks.
“You sent a Titan unit to check out St. Stephens?” Kiran’s voice brought me back to the present conversation.
“I did,” I confirmed. “And asked them to guard it until I sent further instructions.”
Kiran frowned. “I gave Talbott and Lilly leave to take a honeymoon.” He gave me an unreadable look and then said, “For as long as they’d like. They’ve been through enough. This time for them has been a long time coming and Lilly… Lilly just isn’t ready to fight yet.”
“Ah.” I didn’t know what else to say. I understood that Talbott’s primary responsibility was Lilly and always would be. But, going into this without Talbott was a huge risk on our part. As the lead Titan and commander of Kiran’s personal guard, he held incredible responsibility.
My cousin the King pushed forward in his seat and I could feel the weight of his request before he ever asked it. “I would like you to take over during the interim.”
I cocked my head back and processed his words. “I’m not a Titan,” I reminded him.
“But you are in line for the throne. And it’s your place-”
“Am I in line for the throne? If somehow Eden and Avalon, the unkillable Immortals, managed to die, and you and my sister. Oh, and your children. Then I suppose it falls to me, but I’m hardly the likely survivor in this scenario.”
“Sebastian, I cannot ask Avalon, obviously. You’re the only one that I trust well enough to take over this position.”
“Jericho.”
Kiran snorted.
“Titus,” I suggested. “I trust him. He’s who I would choose.”
“We’ve made progress over the last three years, Cousin. But I can’t charge a Shifter with the entirety of the Guard. Especially when I can’t be sure my Guard hasn’t been compromised.”
“They will not listen to me any more than they would a Shifter.”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “I am not asking, Bastian. I am decreeing.”
Seraphina let out a surprised laugh next to me and I shot her a glare. When I turned back to Kiran, I had to struggle to swallow the bitter taste that coated my tongue. “As you wish, Your Highness.”
He sat back with a satisfied smirk. “Good. Your first order of business is to investigate all of the other Magical wells and decide which ones are the most at risk.”
“Yes, Sir.”
He stood up, ignoring my blatant disgust with my new position. “And your second order of business is to get out of my hotel room so I can go back to sleep. We’ll talk more over breakfast.”
Kiran disappeared into his bedroom and Seraphina dissolved in laughter. She threw her body back against the sofa and held her belly while she laughed.
“What is so hilarious?”
She twirled a finger at me. “You and your new position. The man who chooses every death-defying mission and opportunity to throw himself in harm’s way but has run from responsibility since birth. That’s what I’m laughing at. Head of the Titan Guard. Lord, help us!”
I crossed my arms and tried not to pout. “You know, I had already come up with the decision to investigate all of those hotspots, right? Kiran’s going to get all of the credit, but I had the idea at least twenty minutes ago.”
She started laughing again, so I decided it was time to leave. She could laugh at me all she wanted, but I didn’t need her approval.
Besides, I hadn’t run from responsibility before. I’d just never been entrusted with it.
There was a huge difference in that.
Chapter Six
Seraphina
Five days later, I found myself at home. And peacefully alone. I couldn’t have been further from the Kingdom drama or my narcissistic ex if I’d tried.
I owned a condo in Seattle. It was kind of a random place to set up a life as I had no family near or even friends in the area. But I supposed that was what appealed to me most.
After a long year of being the center of attention as Kiran’s betrothed, and then the following years in just as much spotlight as Sebastian’s girlfriend, I needed space.
Eden, Mimi, and Lilly knew about my home, but I wasn’t close enough friends with any others for them to care. I didn’t even think my parents knew about this place.
I’d bought it shortly after Sebastian and I had broken up.
At twenty-two, I’d been waiting to start a life with my longtime boyfriend. After high school, I lived in hotels and crashed at my parent’s various homes around the globe. I had been waiting for Sebastian to propose, to take our relationship seriously and marry me. I had been waiting for Sebastian to tell me when my life could start.
But he hadn’t.
So when all of my hopes and dreams with Sebastian dissolved into nothing, I decided I didn’t need to wait for someone else to start the life I wanted. I could start it anytime I wanted.
I could start it now.
And so I did.
My seaside condo wasn’t anything extravagant, just a two-bedroom apartment with a view of the volatile North Pacific. I’d decorated to my taste and enjoyed the silence and solitude.
I knew I had the reputation of a socialite, but honestly I preferred being alone.
I’d spent too much of my life around people that expected the worst behavior from me and didn’t think for themselves. My current friends were awesome, but they were all busy with their lives and families.
I had a few human friends I went out with sometimes, but I always felt like I couldn’t get too close or they would discover my secret.
Or at least have the EPA come sweep me away for alien-related testing.
I sat down on my comfortable pale suede couch with my steaming cup of coffee and stared out of my floor-to-ceiling windows at the stormy day. The sea tossed and turned through the glass. The waves rose high, cresting with foaming white bubbles before crashing back to the rocky surface and swirling in pockets of unrest.
I couldn’t help but feel oddly connected to the mo
od of the ocean. I had been restless since I got back, anxious and uncomfortably uneasy.
I thought back to my weekend abroad and shuddered with the foreboding feeling that it wasn’t over for me.
With the wedding, Sebastian’s kidnapping and Vienna, I had enough of Terletov and his games.
Ever since I went back to Romania for Eden and Kiran’s coming home party over a year ago, I’d been trapped with the rest of the Monarchs in an endless cycle of worthless missions. But it had been easy to stay with them when our home base had been the Citadel.
Now, with Romania firmly in Terletov’s greedy hands, we were spread out across the globe, struggling for a place to settle down until we could regroup and fight back.
Kiran and Eden had moved to Kiran’s family palace in England. Avalon and Mimi had set up in Paris near Mimi’s parents. Who knew where Lilly and Talbott had run off? And Jericho had been staying with his new girlfriend wherever she went to school.
At the same time our Kingdom was under attack, my friends had been marrying off and settling down. I wondered if it was the war that spurred their domestic inclinations. Did they finally see how short life could be even for Immortals? Did they finally understand the importance of finding someone to love and share this life with?
I had seen that too. And then when I asked Sebastian to do something about it, he chose the mission.
I sighed. I really hated all the pity-parties lately. I had mostly gotten over him, especially in the last few months when I hadn’t been forced to see him. But fresh from several days with him in a row, I couldn’t seem to think about anything else.
As soon as he’d stumbled off to bed in Geneva, I took off. I’d used the hotel phone to call my parent’s valet. He sent the charter to fly me home. As soon as I landed, I’d gotten to work replacing all of the things I’d lost during the explosion, like my phone and credit cards.
I glanced down at my new phone, the military-grade smart contraption that was now chirping at me with an annoying beep.
I swiped my finger across the screen and answered warily, “Hello?”
“Sera,” Eden breathed heavily. She seemed perpetually out of breath these days. But the babies were due in a month, so I didn’t really blame her. They were like sitting on her lungs or something. And apparently her bladder if I listened to her complain about them. “I didn’t think you were going to answer.”
I didn’t confirm that I had been thinking about ignoring her call. “Why not?”
“Because I know you’re hiding from us. You only go home when you’re trying to avoid us.”
“That’s not true! I go home because… well, because it’s home.”
“Yeah right. Seattle is such a hotbed of Kingdom activity. You’re completely surrounded by friends and family and-”
“Does this phone call have a point?”
She grumbled something very crass about my questionable virtue, but I chose to ignore her. “We saw Ileana.”
Her words held a profundity I didn’t understand. The Gypsy Queen rarely brought good news and so I couldn’t help the flutters of anxiety at Eden’s declaration. “Where?”
“Uh, we’re in Romania.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I, er, wanted to visit her before we headed back to London.”
“She’s too close to the Citadel. Where are you now?”
“Timisoara. We’re flying back to England. We’re fine. I haven’t detected a single Immortal since we arrived. Well, you know, other than the Gypsy.”
I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that she was there at all. “I can’t believe Kiran let you go there. Is he crazy?”
“Mostly, Ileana called us and told us we needed to get our asses over here.”
“So what was so important?”
“She, um, well… It was mostly about you.”
“Me?”
“You.”
“E, you’re killing me.”
“She said that you need to pay attention tonight. And that the powers are coming, so you should be prepared.”
“Oh, geez.”
“I know.”
“Anymore words of advice?”
“She said,” Eden paused to laugh at some joke I didn’t get. “She said that when your powers expand, so will your Magic.”
“Okay…”
“And you should love how your Magic feels.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Hey! Not in front of the babies!”
It was my turn to laugh. “I don’t think my potty mouth will affect them in vitro. Now, when I babysit... that will be a different story.”
“I stopped listening after ‘when I babysit.’”
My heart squeezed. I missed my friend.
“Get back to London, Your Royal Highness,” I ordered. “And then call me the very second you go into labor so I can be there to see those little princesses.”
“Will you still love them if they’re little princes?”
“As long as they don’t look like the Kendrick side, I can love anything.”
“Not according to Ileana,” she taunted.
“That old Witch doesn’t know anything.”
“First comes the vision, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in a baby carriage.”
“Oh, my god.”
“Her words! Not mine!”
“I’m hanging up on you now.”
“Sera!”
But it was too late. I swiped off the phone and threw it to the other end of the couch. I couldn’t even. Visions were bad enough, draining and disorienting. I got nervous just thinking about what this one could be about.
Mostly though, I hoped it never happened. I didn’t want to start down this rabbit hole. And I wasn’t too stupid to realize that Ileana hadn’t prophesied anything about Sebastian. My Magic could expand to the moon and my feelings for him along with it. But that would never mean he had to return them. He would never commit to anything he didn’t want to.
Except maybe an interim position in the Titan Guard.
But I hadn’t been worth his time when he actually loved me. I wouldn’t be worth his time now.
I spent the rest of the day in a funk. A Sebastian-slash-impending-vision-induced funk. And I hated it.
There were times I loved my willful isolation on the West Coast. And there were times I wanted the distraction of people and my friends that could make me laugh out of any weird mood.
I probably should have gone to bed early, but I was afraid of that stupid vision. So, instead, I binge-watched Supernatural on Netflix until I passed out on the couch. Also, I ordered Chinese for dinner and I could have sworn there was something off in the Kung Pao Chicken.
Those two reasons together followed me into my subconscious and made things a little confusing.
I woke in a dream. I knew it was a dream because the sky had darkened into a deep purple, the kind of purple that didn’t exist in real life. The air gusted past me with a chilling bite and seemed to nip at my skin as if it were alive. The ground stretched out around me in a barren wasteland of cracked, red earth.
There was no life in sight. Not even a tree or a bush.
Green Magic swirled at my feet and around my ankles. My stomach felt sick with loss and my mind whirled with the possibilities.
What happened here?
Who did this?
“Seraphina?”
I whirled around and came face-to-face with the very last person I expected to see. “Sebastian? What are you doing here?”
He looked around. “What is this place?”
“My vision.”
“What am I doing in your vision?”
I raised my eyebrows at him. How was I supposed to know? “Are you real?”
He looked down at his body and then turned in a circle. “I think so. I feel real.”
“Hmm, but that’s what the vision-version of you would say.”
“What vision?”
“This vision.”
“You’v
e never had a vision like this before. Are you sure this is a vision?”
“Oh, my gosh. If you say vision again, I’m going to castrate you. Then we’ll figure out if you’re real or not.”
He gave me a condescending look. “Someone’s cranky tonight.”
I pressed my lips together and prayed for patience. I knew I didn’t call him here. I hadn’t Dream-Walked with Sebastian for years, not since the beginning stages of our relationship when it was exciting to be together and we couldn’t get enough of each other.
“Okay, so really, where are we?”
I looked around again and felt the slithering feeling of being watched glide over my body. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
He started walking away from me and I hurried to catch up with him. He glanced over his shoulder at me and gave me a tight smile.
I let out a resigned sigh and followed him. This was my vision, but he seemed to be the only one with any initiative.
We stumbled over uneven terrain where rocks and dead branches seemed to jump out of the earth just in time to trip us. The Magic on the ground turned into a fog that made visibility practically zero.
He reached out his hand and grabbed mine to help lead me forward.
“Maybe we should go back,” I suggested.
“Is that where your vision wants you to go?”
“No,” I sighed. “We’re going in the right direction.” Of course, I had no concrete confirmation that was true, but my gut told me to press on. And that was the thing with visions, they were mostly about all the feels that came with them and less to do with what actually happened inside of them.
Nothing more was said as we traveled onward. He never let go of my hand and I never asked him to. Visions could be scary but were rarely harmful to my corporeal body. In a Dream Walk, however, my life was totally up for grabs and I really wanted to avoid dying via dream.
Eventually, we came to a crumbling stone wall. Or rather, Sebastian walked straight into it. The fog had become so thick that we couldn’t see anything in front of us and had been forced to stare at the ground to avoid tripping.
The Redeemable Prince Page 7
