I glanced sideways at Rylan as the guards pushed us down a corridor and then up a winding staircase. He met my gaze with a bleak look of his own. We were most likely going to die — if not today, then soon — when the general was done with us.
I was going to lose them both.
Despite his hands being tied and the spear digging into his back, Damian climbed the stairs ahead of me as if he were on his way to a royal coronation, rather than to his inevitable demise. I wanted to reach out to him, to touch his face one more time, to feel his mouth on mine again. To tell him that I feared I was falling in love with him. But there was nothing I could do except stare at him with my eyes burning as we crested the last stair. Sunlight filtered in through sporadic windows, shining in bright patches in the otherwise dim hallway. Ahead of us, I could see the dark head of General Tinso. He had silver sprinkled liberally through his hair, and his olive-toned skin was darkened from hours spent in the sun. Was he a sorcerer, too?
Eljin was behind us somewhere, making sure we didn’t attempt to escape, I supposed.
Finally, the general stopped before another door. He said something in his language, and Damian was pushed forward with a sharp shove to his back. I watched helplessly as he crossed the hallway to stand next to General Tinso. Everything in me screamed to do something, anything, but we were trapped. I could do nothing but watch.
With Damian beside him, the general said something else, and the guards stepped back, bowed, and walked away. Next, he gestured at Rylan and me, and we were brought forward the same way. Our guards were also dismissed. Eljin moved to stand on his father’s other side. Up close I could see the resemblance, the slant of their eyes, the color of their skin and hair, but the general didn’t wear a mask.
General Tinso said something else, and all the remaining guards bowed and turned to go. Before I knew it, we were alone with the general and his son. My heart picked up speed when he opened the door and entered the room.
“Follow him,” Eljin said, gesturing for us to precede him.
Damian went first, with Rylan and me right on his heels. The room was large and rectangular, with all sorts of weapons hanging on the walls. A huge torture chamber of some sort?
My stomach coiled in dread when Eljin came in after us and shut the door with a resounding thud and then slammed the bolt in place, locking us in.
“I assume that you brought them for a reason?” General Tinso nodded at Rylan and me. But instead of Eljin answering, Damian nodded.
“Yes, it would have been a risk to leave them at the mercy of my father, and they are loyal to me.”
“Then we may speak freely in front of them?”
“Yes.”
General Tinso nodded at Eljin. “What are you waiting for? Cut those ropes off already.”
I stared at them in utter shock as Eljin stepped forward and sliced the ropes off Damian’s wrists. And then my jaw literally fell open when General Tinso walked up to Damian and embraced him.
“Welcome at last to my home, Prince Damian.”
DAMIAN EMBRACED HIM back as Rylan and I watched in total bewilderment. While we stood there, gaping like fish, Eljin came over and cut the ropes off our hands as well. I rubbed my wrists as the blood rushed back into my hands.
“I’m sorry for all of this,” General Tinso said when he released Damian and stepped back.
“It was necessary,” Damian said. “I knew what I was agreeing to.”
“Did you run into any problems? Besides deciding to bring two extras along with you?” General Tinso’s dark eyes lingered on me for some reason.
“Alex and Rylan were in the room when Eljin came. He and his men had to fight to make it look real, and if I had left them there, King Hector would have had them killed for failing to protect me. I didn’t want to lose two loyal guards to such a fate.” His eyes met mine across the short distance.
“You saved me?” Rylan asked in shock.
Damian didn’t respond; he was looking at me.
“You planned this,” I said quietly. His betrayal cut deeper than I could have imagined. He’d said he needed me. He had asked me to trust him, to open up to him and bare my secrets, and all along he’d been keeping this enormous secret from me. He’d let me think for weeks that we’d been abducted, that our lives were in danger. We’d been tied up, manhandled, forced into this very room at spear point.
“Why?” I asked, my voice low with barely suppressed fury.
“Alex, just let me —”
“Why?” I screamed. I’d let myself fall for him. I’d let myself believe that he cared about me, that there might be hope for us somehow. He was a prince — he could choose to be with me if he wanted.
But he had lied to me. Manipulated me. I’d thought he was opening up to me, revealing who he really was bit by bit. But I didn’t know him at all.
He looked momentarily stunned by my outburst, but then his expression closed and his eyes grew glitteringly cold. “I did what I had to do. I’ve told you that before.” Then he turned to General Tinso. “There wasn’t time to send a message to you, since the plan was already in action, but there was more to my decision than just saving their lives.”
I clenched my jaw shut, desperately trying to regain my composure, to pull on the mask that I’d worn for years as General Tinso looked at Damian questioningly.
Calm, cool, collected, no matter what — that’s what I needed to be. I drew on that mask when my parents died; I did it when Marcel died. I could do it now. I didn’t dare glance at Rylan. He’d been right. He’d warned me and I hadn’t listened and now I’d let the prince hurt me. I was afraid that looking at him would be my undoing.
“Rylan, the taller one, is an excellent fighter and may benefit from your specialized training. But Eljin and I believe that Alexa, who just regaled us with an unusual show of temper, might be gifted.”
“Alexa?” General Tinso repeated, stroking his chin. “I did think she was a bit too pretty to be a boy. But you never know.” He paused, looking me over. “Her parents?”
“Dead, unfortunately.” Damian also looked at me, and I suddenly felt as though I were a specimen that they were studying. I hated the way he talked about me as if I weren’t standing ten feet from him. As if he’d never held me in his arms and told me that he’d broken his promise to himself to never care about someone again. “But her coloring and her skill might suggest that our suspicions are correct.”
“She is quite good, I take it?”
“The best fighter I have. If she weren’t so young, she would have been captain of my guard, because she bested everyone else. And that was a year ago.”
“Excuse me, I’m standing right here.” I clenched my hands into fists at my side. “What does my coloring have to do with my ability to fight?”
“You look as though one of your parents was from Blevon, am I right?” General Tinso asked as he walked over to the wall and picked up two swords. He tossed one to me, which I automatically reached for and snatched from the air. I instantly felt calmer with a blade in my hand again.
“My father’s parents were from Blevon. What does that have to do with anything?”
He circled me, and I turned in place, warily watching him. “Eljin, you agree with Damian?” he asked his son, rather than responding to me. “You believe she might be gifted?”
“It seems very likely. She’s had no training defending herself against sorcerers, and yet she held me off for nearly six minutes when I challenged her in the ring at the palace.”
“You fought in a ring? You revealed yourself?” General Tinso paused and gave his son a sharp look.
“No one realized I was a sorcerer, Father. Damian asked me to do it, to see if anyone showed potential to be trained.”
“No one realized it except for me,” I said through clenched teeth. Was he going to attack or not?
Eljin looked at me in surprise. “You knew?”
“You blocked me with magic — of course I knew.” I didn’t dare look aw
ay from his father again to try to read the expression on his masked face.
“You realized he used magic?” General Tinso began to circle closer to me and I tightened my grip on my sword. “Interesting.”
And then he lunged at me. I parried quickly, and spinning, swung my sword back around at him, which he blocked deftly. It felt so good to fight again. All the anger, the hurt and pain and confusion inside of me flowed through my arms and hands into my sword as I attacked as fast as I could. I was a dervish of movement, of speed and agility and fury. The sounds of our swords rang through the room, while Damian, Rylan, and Eljin watched in silence. Finally, General Tinso lifted his sword to his face as he bowed and stepped back, a signal that he was conceding defeat.
“Excellent, indeed,” he mused out loud, his dark eyes alight with what looked like excitement.
I held my sword loosely at my side, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath.
“Alexa, how would you like to train with my son and learn how to defeat a sorcerer? I presume that’s why you wanted her to come?” General Tinso looked to Damian, who nodded.
“Is it really possible?” I asked, my anger at the prince warring with my curiosity.
“It’s very difficult, but, yes, it’s possible. However, from what they say and what I’ve seen here today, I believe you have the ability necessary to be successful.”
So this was why Damian had me “brought along.” He wanted a guard who could defeat a sorcerer. But why? How did he know General Tinso — and why were we here? Especially under the guise of having been abducted? These people were responsible for his mother’s death — how could he trust them?
“I’ll do it, but only if you start answering my questions. All of them. Honestly.” I stared at Damian as I said this.
His jaw tightened. “I’ll answer as many as I can,” he said.
“That’s not good enough.”
“It has to be. It’s all I can offer. Don’t make me regret saving you, Alexa.”
I blinked, feeling like he’d struck me. Was I no more than a tool to do his bidding? I finally looked to Rylan for the first time since we’d entered this room. He met my questioning gaze gravely, but then he nodded once.
Damian watched me, his expression inscrutable, waiting.
“Alexa?” General Tinso prompted me. “I’m a very busy man. I have a very bloody, vicious war I’m trying to manage and even end, if possible. But my son and I will dedicate ourselves to your training if you agree to it, because your ability could play an integral role in overthrowing King Hector.”
“Is that what you’re hoping to do?” I forced myself to turn to Damian again, even though it hurt just to look at him. “Overthrow your father?”
He nodded curtly.
I glanced around at the four men watching me, waiting for me. How could Damian trust the Blevonese? One of their own had murdered our queen, driving King Hector to start this infernal war.
But what else did I have to lose? My family was all dead, gone forever. Antion was shriveling and dying under King Hector’s rule and the price his war was exacting on us. The only person who truly cared about me — not just my ability — was Rylan, and his nod said to go ahead. And if I was honest with myself, part of me was curious. About this side to my heritage that I knew so little of, and about what I needed to learn to be able to defeat a sorcerer. Once before I’d asked myself, if there was any way to stop this war, would I have the courage to try?
“All right,” I finally said. “I’ll do it.”
EXCELLENT.” GENERAL TINSO smiled. “I assume you are exhausted from your journey here, so we will start tomorrow. But there is no time to waste, so rest well tonight.”
He turned to Rylan and Damian. “Because we have to maintain the guise that you’re our prisoners, we’ll be keeping you in the back of the castle where there are many empty rooms and Eljin will be your personal ‘guard.’ My men won’t question you not being tied up if Eljin is nearby.”
“Why did you pretend to abduct the prince?” I asked. “Why do we have to continue to pretend? And would someone tell me why you believe I’m ‘gifted’? What does that even mean?”
General Tinso and Damian shared a meaningful look. “I’ll let you answer her questions,” the general said. “Eljin, show them to their rooms and I’ll have a servant bring you some food. I apologize if it isn’t food fit for royalty, but again, we have to keep up the guise.”
“After what we’ve been eating for the last few weeks, anything fresh will taste like a delicacy,” Damian said.
“I apologize again, but I must go. I have some top advisors from King Osgand waiting for me.” He paused, though, gazing at Damian for a long moment. “You look so much like your mother. She would be proud of you, Prince Damian. I hope you know that.”
A muscle in Damian’s jaw tightened, and he nodded once, tersely, almost as if he couldn’t speak. I stared at the general in what was probably ill-concealed shock. I couldn’t believe he dared speak of Damian’s mother — and that Damian hadn’t lashed out at him for it.
General Tinso reached out and squeezed his shoulder once, then with a nod at us, turned and walked out of the room.
We followed Eljin to a dark, dusty stairwell at the back of the castle, and then down a flight of stairs to another hallway that was equally dark and dusty. He passed a few doors, and stopped.
“You’ll be kept here, except when you’re training. The less anyone sees you, the better.” He took a key out of his pocket and opened the door with it.
Inside was a medium-sized room. A dresser with a wash basin rested in one corner next to a fireplace, a chamber pot sat in another, and three cots lined the wall.
“We’re all staying here? Together?” I asked, my voice embarrassingly high-pitched.
“It’ll be much more spacious than the tent, at least.” It was hard to tell with the mask on, but I was pretty sure Eljin was mocking me. “You’re meant to appear to be prisoners. So this is it, I’m afraid.”
He was definitely smiling beneath that infernal scrap of fabric.
“I’m glad you find it so funny,” I said crossly as I pushed him out of the way to enter my new quarters.
This time, I refused to sleep between Damian and Rylan. I took one cot and dragged it as far away from the other two as possible, then sat on it, and watched them both walk in. Eljin gave us a little, mocking salute. “Have a good night.” And he slammed the door behind him.
We sat in silence for a long time. The tension that filled the room made the air heavy enough that I could almost feel as if I were back in the jungle. Damian sat on his cot with his head in his hands, his fingers clenched in his hair. Rylan kept looking at me, then at the floor. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I didn’t care if Rylan was in the room.
“You lied to me.” I’d intended my voice to be harsh, angry. But instead I sounded betrayed, hurt. The two things I didn’t want him to realize he’d made me feel.
Damian jerked up to meet my accusing gaze, but the pain in his eyes softened my anger slightly. Very slightly. I tried to remind myself of what Rylan said about him being an exceptional actor. “Alex, you have to believe me when I tell you I didn’t want to deceive you. But we decided long before you became involved that as few people as possible could know the truth. We had to make it believable.”
“Well, you did a great job, because you had me convinced, too,” I bit out.
“That was the point.” Damian stood up and began to pace. “You had to believe it so you would act like you’d been abducted. We needed word to get back to my father and it had to be convincing. He’s already suspicious of me and my ties to Blevon.”
“What ties do you have to Blevon? And why did you think I couldn’t act? What do you think I’ve been doing for the last three years of my life?” I rose, too, hating the way he towered over me when I was seated. I was halfway tempted to stand up on the cot so I would be taller than him.
“Eljin and I decided it wasn
’t worth the risk. It gave you plausible deniability, in case something went wrong. If you’d been taken back to Antion knowing it was a setup, Iker could have tortured the truth out of you.”
“You underestimate her,” Rylan cut in.
Damian spun to face Rylan in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“You told me to trust you,” I accused, pulling his attention back to me. “How am I supposed to do that when you keep lying to me? When you keep secrets from me? And you didn’t answer my question. What ties do you have to Blevon?”
“I thought that was fairly common knowledge,” he said tersely. “Excuse me for not answering right away. My mother was from Blevon. She was King Osgand’s niece. My father thinks that I might not be entirely loyal to Antion because I was so attached to her.”
“Wasn’t she murdered by a sorcerer from Blevon?” Rylan asked.
“No. That is the rumor my father started to justify his declaration of war, and to make our people hate sorcerers and all magic.”
“Then what happened to her?” I pressed, even though I could tell he was upset.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Rylan jumped to his feet now, too. “Why won’t you just answer her questions? Can’t you see how much you’re hurting her?”
“You think I want to hurt her? Do you think it makes me happy to see the little bit of trust she had in me die today?” Damian’s eyes flashed as he turned on Rylan, his hands clenched into fists.
“Then just tell her the truth. Hasn’t she done enough to prove herself to you?”
“Rylan —” I tried to break in.
“She doesn’t need to prove anything to me.” Damian’s voice was harsh.
“Then why won’t you answer her? Do you care about her at all? Or are you just using her in every way possible, until she’s served her purpose and you can cast her aside?”
“Don’t forget who you are speaking to, guard,” Damian warned Rylan, his voice cold with barely contained fury.
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