The Complete Madion War Trilogy

by S. Usher Evans

  "Me," he grunted, pushing himself to stand. "I'm fine. Let's go."

  "You were shot. You can't possibly go on a mission. You need a week—maybe two. What about Rosie? What about—"

  He waved his good hand to quiet me. "I'll be gone six hours, at most."

  I peered inside the ship. There was no one else onboard.

  "This isn't a mission to Herin," I said slowly. "You guys are letting me...letting me leave, aren't you?"

  He nodded. "I wanted to be the one to take you there."

  I was touched, but at the same time, fear shot through me. This was it. I was really leaving. I was putting all of this behind me, and if I went, I could never return. Not without feeling the wrath of Grieg.

  "What'll happen to you and Galian?" I asked.

  "We'll survive. Though it may take him a few years," Kader said with a small smirk. "I can tell him you said goodbye."

  I took a step back before I could stop myself. "Y-yeah. That would be nice. Tell him...tell him I'll send word for him. Eventually."

  Kader nodded and glanced at the ship. "Well, it's now or never."

  Numbly, I followed him onto the ship and took the passenger's seat beside him. My pulse raced as the overhead engines roared to life, the blades whipping the air before lifting us into flight. I fought back tears as the base grew smaller.

  "W-wait," I said above the noise. "Can we make a stop first?"

  "We can't take this thing back to Norose—"

  "No," I said, swallowing hard. "I want to go...to go back to the island. Just one more time."

  Kader nodded. "I had a feeling you'd say that."

  I stepped out onto the beach and breathed in the salty air. The green trees greeted me as old friends, the sand crumbling beneath my feet was a sturdy reminder of the person I was a year ago. Everything in front of me was familiar, welcoming. Real.

  I was home.

  "We don't have long," Kader said behind me. "If we're headed to Herin, even less. So say your goodbyes quickly."

  But there was no one to say goodbye to.

  The call of nostalgia drew me off the beach and toward our camp. I saw an aged mark on the tree that Galian had made and I pressed my hand against the groove. I half-expected him to be waiting for me around the campfire. And when he wasn't, his absence was palpable.

  "What am I doing?" I whispered, sitting down in front of the remnants of our survival. I was running away—that wasn't who I was. Not only that, but I was running from the one person who'd always stood by me.

  But to be with him in this way, to have our love permanently attached to this disgusting treaty made me sick. And I was growing disillusioned with my own ability to see the dangers before they bit me in the ass.

  I groaned and buried my head in my hands, not knowing what to do, and missing Galian's even-tempered responses. He always knew how to draw my worries out like poison from a wound. He could talk me through the unsurmountable until it seemed silly to have ever feared it.

  And I was running away from that? What was wrong with me?

  Oh yeah, the treaty. The horrible treaty.

  The worst part—the very worst part—was I wanted to marry him. I wanted to be with him until my dying breath. It killed me that I could see the manipulation as clearly as Prima Anela had been manipulating the hearts and minds of my countrymen.

  I stared at what was left of our fire, and I missed him. Damn it all, I missed him so very much. Enough to ignore the smarter option, which was to run away to a country where no one had ever heard my name. It would, inevitably, lead to less heartache, but...what kind of life would I have? I'd be half a heart without him.

  Just thinking about the look on his face when he found out I'd left without saying goodbye drew fresh tears to my eyes, and I let them fall. After all, there was no one else on the island to see my misery, no one to take advantage of it.

  "Well, I'm glad you're crying before I surprised you this time."

  I closed my eyes and balled my fists. "You son of a bitch."

  FIFTEEN

  Galian

  I'd hidden out in the back of the VTO, but with the way Theo had shuffled onboard, I doubted she would've noticed me even if I'd been sitting in the front seat. Indecision played on her face for the entire flight, and the way she'd looked when Kader mentioned me sealed the deal. She wasn't going anywhere, but I just had to let her come to her own conclusions.

  So I'd let her wander, keeping my distance as she explored our home and watching as she rested against a tree, contemplating her next move. Still, I hadn't been able to help myself when she'd started crying.

  "You are a complete asshole, you know that?" she said, although the smile on her face told me she wasn't unhappy to see me.

  "What'd I do this time?" I asked, walking into the campsite.

  "Let me wallow in my misery. Were you on the damned VTO?"

  I shrugged, and she shook her head, wiping tears from her eyes. Then, she stood and in three steps, crossed the camp and fell into my arms. I held her in silence for a moment, amazed at the relief I felt to have her in my arms, in our home.

  "I'm sorry I..." she began. "I'm sorry."

  I pulled back, needing to look her in the eyes. "Theo, you have to know I had nothing to do with—"

  "I know," she said, taking her place against my shoulder again. "I'm just so...tired of being played. I'm tired of losing."

  "So you decided to run away without me?" I asked. "You know I'd go to the ends of the earth with you."

  She didn't respond for a long time. "I don't know what I want. Other than this. Right now. This I want. You and me here on this island. Where there's nobody trying to ruin anything or manipulate us or anything like that."

  "Just wolves that want to eat us."

  She snorted.

  "Let's go for a walk," I said, releasing her from my arms. "I want to see the old place."

  She slid her fingers around mine, and we strolled through the lush forest. She stopped at a mark on the tree—one I'd made to show the way back to our camp. "You know, it's been a year since we crashed here."

  I smiled. "I know. What a year, huh?"

  We continued walking, while listening to the birds in the trees. Even after all these months, these paths were familiar to me. She'd been right that this place felt like home—more home than the castle in Norose, or even my apartment with Martin. Or maybe it felt that way because Theo was here with me.

  "So Kader..."

  "I think he wanted one more hurrah before Rosie locked him up," I said with a laugh. I wasn't eager to return to Norose and hear what Kader's wife thought about me breaking him out of the hospital and flying to an uninhabited island.

  "So he's out?" she asked, and sounded nervous by the idea. "No more working for Korina?"

  "Not sure. He's out for a month, at least." I cocked my head in her direction. "Thinking about returning now?"

  "I don't know," she said heavily. "If I return to Kylae, I'm part of their plan. If I don't return, I leave my people to the mercy of the Kylaens."

  "Being part of their plan isn't necessarily the worst option," I said slowly.

  She stopped in her tracks, giving me her signature "are-you-kidding-me" look.

  I couldn't help myself and kissed her nose. "I'm saying it makes you and I valuable. They can't have a wedding without the bride and groom. In some ways, they've actually put themselves at risk by making us—their enemies—the centerpiece of their plan."

  She still looked unconvinced, but didn't interrupt.

  "If this goes like I think it's going to, they're going to be parading us in front of cameras nonstop. But what they can't control is what we say in front of those cameras."

  "Yeah, they can. When I was in Rave, I was barely allowed to speak—"

  "You spoke plenty when you went off script during your speech," I reminded her.

  She shook her head. "That's different."

  "How so?"

  "I still said basically what Bayard wanted.
If you and I were to stand in front of the international media and talk about how we think Rave should be an independent nation, they'd cut the feed—or worse."

  "Ah-hah, but my father's grip on the media has grown weaker," I said.

  She considered me for a moment then shook her head again. "Amichai, it doesn't matter. If we go left, they'll already be there. We can't win—we've been trying."

  "There's one thing we haven't tried," I said, my pulse spiking when she said amichai. "Fighting them together."

  "And what can you and I accomplish together that we couldn't apart?"

  "Hear me out," I said, taking her hands. "Theo, when I landed on this island a year ago, I was...useless. I was selfish and ignorant. More than that, I couldn't even take care of myself in Norose, let alone on an island. But you taught me how to skin a rabbit and make a fire and make drinkable water from the sea. And because of you, I got home. Because of you, I became a better person."

  She shrugged. "I wouldn't have been able to if you hadn't saved my life—"

  "Exactly," I said with a grin. "Theo, we've made a lot of progress apart, but imagine what we can do now that we're together. For fuck's sake, we survived two months on an island with nothing but our wits. And more importantly," I brushed a strand of hair out of her face, "we fell in love despite all the odds. You hated my guts, remember?"

  "Still do from time to time."

  "Theo, come on."

  She sighed loudly, taking her hands out of mine. "Sure, we fell in love. And that's great. But it's one thing to fall for the person you're surviving with every day, and quite another to convince two whole nations that their leaders are taking them down the wrong path—and quite another to get your father and Bayard to scrap the treaty in favor of true independence."

  "And I thought we'd starve to death in a week," I said. "Together, we survived two months. Nothing's impossible."

  "Princeling, you could win a prize for naïveté," she said with a bit of a laugh.

  "You've told me that before," I said. "But you know I'm right. We can do this, Theo. You and me. Fully out there together. We'll show the world that it's possible for a Kylaen and a Raven to get along."

  She almost looked convinced, but then her shoulders dropped. "But this wedding..."

  "What we need to do is take the emotion out of it," I said as my pulse began to race. "We need to see this wedding for what it is. Pure political bullshit. And if we decide not to show up because they've not done what we asked, then that's that."

  She nodded, a little sadly, and began walking, but I tugged on her hand to keep her here.

  "But that doesn't mean we can't just go ahead and get married now."

  Then, heart pounding, I fell to one knee.

  "Theo, you are the person I want to see when I wake up, the person I want to see when I go to sleep. You make me a better man, you make me want to be a better man. You inspire me, you excite me, you mesmerize me every day. I want to be by your side fighting every battle with you until the day I die."

  I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the simple gold band I'd "borrowed" from the royal treasury.

  "Theo, will you marry me?"

  Theo

  My pulse thudded in my ears and I stared at this man, on his knee, pouring his heart out to me and asking me to be his wife.

  I was skeptical. I'd been burned too many times by Bayard's machinations and Grieg's plans. I'd played right into his hands more times than I could count—and nearly lost my life in the process. Galian was crazy to think that simply being together would make a difference.

  And yet...the simple act of him kneeling before me, asking me to marry him, knowing that we could keep our love protected from the politics and the treachery, somehow filled me with so much hope for the future.

  "Theo?"

  He sounded nervous, which made sense considering I'd been standing silently in front of him without reaction. Still kneeling before me, he was a picture of nervous innocence. And I knew in that moment I'd be a fool to ever let him out of my sight again.

  "Of course I will, amichai."

  He stood and wrapped me in his arms in one movement, lifting me off the ground. He held me for a moment, and his relief that I'd accepted flooded through me. Or perhaps, it was my relief. In all that had gone wrong, this would go right. I would marry my amichai in—

  "Wait a minute," I said, as he set me down. "You want to get married right now?"

  "Yeah, and it's a good thing you said yes," he said, pressing his forehead to mine. "Because it would've been a really awkward trip back to Kylae if you'd said otherwise."

  I laughed harder than I had in months, filled with so much joy and excitement I might've burst. He grinned and released me, but took my hand and led me back past our camp to the beach, where Kader stood barefoot on the beach, wearing a dress uniform. He held a book in his hand, his face uncharacteristically warm and inviting.

  We stopped in front of him, and Galian took both my hands with an eager grin on his face. "Let's do this, Kader."

  Kader cleared his throat and opened the book to one of the dog-eared pages.

  "This passage was read at my own wedding, and I'll repeat it as a blessing that you two will find the same happiness we did. At least until my wife finds out I left the hospital, and she murders me."

  "Your sacrifice will not be in vain," Galian said solemnly, and I stifled a giggle.

  Kader rolled his eyes but began to read. "They say love is hard, but love is quite easy. Love is infatuation, love is caring for one another. Love is stepping outside yourself for someone else. But what makes love appear difficult is life."

  He paused and gave us a knowing look.

  "Life is not fair, nor is it easy or predictable. Life is full of circumstances outside of our control and people with their own intentions. This life tempts us with easy solutions to hard problems that simply cause more problems. But when two people truly care for one another, their love can endure even the most difficult challenges. If they work together to overcome them."

  Tears had begun to gather in the corners of my eyes, and I turned to my amichai. He chewed the inside of his cheek, his eyes revealing the emotion underneath them. I squeezed his hand and caught his gaze. As he smiled at me, I could've flown around the world.

  "Galian Neoptolemos Helmuth, do you promise to love and cherish Theophilia Kallistrate? To stand by her side against all enemies, to give her hope when she is without, to care for her in her times of need, as long as you both shall live?"

  A chill ran down my spine as he spoke. "I do."

  "And do you, Theophilia Kallistrate, promise to love and cherish Galian. To give him the strength to do the right thing, to guide and teach him, and to pull his head out of his ass when he needs it—"

  Galian's teary face soured. "Do it right, Kader."

  "I just made it more truthful."

  "Kader, this is my wedding."

  I laughed—the vow sounded appropriate to me. "I do."

  "Then by the power vested in me by the Kylaen, and Raven, military," he winked at me and my heart fluttered even more, "I pronounce you husband and wife."

  Galian didn't wait for Kader to give the word; he was kissing me, laughing, crying, and I couldn't help but join in.

  "How long until we have to get back?" Galian asked Kader but with a sly look at me.

  Kader made a face. "Three hours."

  We dashed off the beach before he'd even finished his sentence.

  Galian

  I didn't need to look at the marks on the trees to find my way back to our cave, but it took us longer than usual because I couldn't keep my hands off my new wife.

  My wife.

  "Amichai," she moaned as I pressed her against a tree and kissed trails down her neck. "We don't have that much time."

  "We're almost there," I said. "I love you."

  "I love you, but I'm pretty sure Kader will leave us if we aren't back in time."

  "I wouldn't say no to that."


  "Rabbit," she said, sticking her finger against my chest. "Nothing but rabbit to eat."

  I covered her mouth with mine to keep her from saying such horrible things, then dragged her away from the tree. The opening of our cave was covered by new brush, but once cleared, looked exactly the same as we'd left it. Laughing, we descended down into the darkness where we found our mattress and other signs of our time on the island.

  "That thing is disgusting," Theo said, poking the bed that we'd slept on for two months. It was grimy, covered in leaves and dirt.

  I yanked off my shirt. "You didn't mind last year."

  "Last year we both looked like that," she said, but peeled off her shirt with a smile. We stripped naked and placed our clothes as best we could on top of the mattress, but I became impatient and pushed her down on top of it, earning a loud squeal of surprise from her.

  She giggled and tangled her hands through my hair. "I remember the last time we were in this cave. I think I was in this very same position."

  "Did you ever think we'd be back?" I asked, searching her body with the tips of my fingers.

  "We should make it a regular thing," she replied, finding my hard erection and stroking it gently. "Though next time, we should remember to bring a new bed. I have a feeling we'll be using it a lot."

  I groaned, all rational thought leaving me as she explored my sensitive area. What I did know was I wanted her to feel what I felt, so I slid my fingers between the wet folds.

  "Amichai," she whispered breathlessly, and after a moment, forgot me in favor of gripping the sides of the mattress. She cried out, and I was grateful there was no one on the island to hear it. That sound of pleasure was for my ears only. A nagging voice in the back of my head reminded me that this was the last time we'd ever get true privacy again, and it only made me want to hear her scream more.

  Flushed and panting, she caught my gaze and grinned. "I wonder if I'll ever tire of that."

  "Maybe. We are an old married couple now," I said, sticking one of my fingers into my mouth and tasting her. "I won't."