Secrets of the Starcrossed

by Clara O'Connor

  “Praetorian.” Marcus inclined his head, his pronunciation less than crisp, to imply he had drunk more than was good for him. His hand gripped mine. “We’re off to the next venue. Are you coming?”

  “You only have clearance for the club.” Kasen frowned, indicating we should go back inside as our friends jostled by him.

  “Don’t be such a bore,” Marcus mocked, moving on and dragging me with him. Where was he going? If we only had clearance for the club, we really should return there.

  “Sir, I really must insist.” Two more guards arrived, blocking our way. They were immediately surrounded by scantily clad women in loose togas who started to fawn all over them. Attempts to shake them off were thwarted by the growing attention we were attracting from partygoers and the paps who had stationed themselves outside the club once word had got out of our location.

  “You’re more than welcome to join us,” Marcus invited the praetorian as he stumbled, wrapping his arm around my neck and leading me onwards towards a boat. Kasen watched us depart, hesitating, clearly torn between forcibly preventing us from leaving and not wanting to create a scene in front of the paps.

  He hesitated long enough that Marcus had already started to usher me up the gangway onto the boat. I began to protest. This wasn’t right. We shouldn’t be leaving the club. Marcus wanted to board the boat because he was trying to leave the city. And Devyn was here.

  “Wait,” I called towards the sentinels, waving my arm to attract their attention. They were starting to follow the party, but they were too far away. “Praetor—” I started to call, Devyn Agrestis was here and Marcus was trying to leave the city, and now he was… preventing me from shouting by kissing me. I was caught between kissing him back and trying to push him off so I could run to the guards. I needed help, I needed to stop him.

  The crowd started to cheer us as they pushed past us onto the boat, lapping up the display that Marcus was putting on. Then an arm went around my waist and I went still, the fog lifting.

  Devyn’s barely subdued jealousy poured through me and in reaction I bit down on Marcus’s lip. He pulled back and his eyes gleamed as he met Devyn’s glare over my shoulder. The crowd roared at the sight of the half-naked fake Marcus pulling me away from the real Marcus in what they thought was a pretend jealous tantrum. If only they knew. Devyn could burst into flames at any moment, he was so angry.

  I turned, laughing for the crowd and dramatically pretending to beg the forgiveness of my fake lover for kissing my actual handfasted match. The crowd lapped up my antics while my eyes pleaded with Devyn to get control of himself.

  He pulled me up into the prow of the boat while the sentinels boarded after everyone was on and we headed east along the Tamesis.

  “Long time since we last made this journey,” Devyn whispered to me. I thought back to that first trip along the river with Marina, my fear that we would be caught, when he had told me something real about himself, and later that night when we had kissed back in Linus’s flat.

  He ran his fingers up and down my arm, the movement hidden by the large cloak he now wore. The entertainers had all been supplied with them for the duration of the trip down the river. It was a cold night in October and the captain had insisted that the paid help be appropriately cared for. In fact, he had not been at all impressed by the sight of the hired entertainment and our displays of wealth and overindulgence.

  I was all too aware, as my lover boy wrapped me in his cloak, with me sitting in his lap, that he was still only clad in a tiny piece of cloth. Every sense trained on the warmth emanating from the exposed sculpted body behind me. His fingers ran along my arms and then slipped to trace my waist, then upwards and in until they were at the underside of my breasts. My entire being was focused on the movements of those hands.

  “Enough.” Marcus was suddenly looming in front of us. The charm he wore might dampen the leakage but it didn’t block it entirely, so this was unfair.

  Devyn slanted a smirk up at him. It was clearly payback for the earlier kiss. I threw an elbow into Devyn’s ribs.

  “Seriously, our lives are all in danger and you two decide it’s a good time to play games with… argh,” I let out a cry of annoyance. “Idiots.”

  I felt like a rag doll being pulled in different directions by schoolboys more interested in the competition than the prize. My life was being turned upside down. I was dragged this way and that, first by the compulsion of the handfast to do whatever made Marcus happy, then by what I felt for Devyn whenever he drew near. It was the only thing strong enough to break through the handfast, not to mention my lifelong conditioning to live by the Code.

  “Cass,” Devyn’s concerned whisper came to me as he felt the emotional turbulence that buffeted me. Not even my feelings were my own anymore. Could I even trust myself?

  “Cass.” Devyn’s voice was insistent. “Are you all right?”

  I half turned to him and gave a little nod. I certainly hoped so.

  Marcus was watching us, his eyes dark, our exchange excluding him.

  “We’ll need to move fast once we get to the warehouse.” He looked back at the sentinels at the rear of the boat. He reached out and caught the locks whipping across my face from the cold estuary wind. For the sake of anyone watching, I hoped, and not just to annoy Devyn. Which it did. “I’m not sure how long we’ll have; Kasen has been in contact with Alvar. It’s only a matter of time before they call a halt to our little party now that we’ve gone off plan. I just hope they wait until we get there.”

  “You have a way out?” Devyn asked quietly from his position nuzzling my neck, keeping in character as my plaything. Marcus looked down at him thin-lipped.

  “I hope so,” he said and walked back into the middle of the party.

  I sat quietly beside Devyn watching the revels as we made our way downriver. We were occasionally engaged by our friends as they stumbled out into the fresh air for a breather. I gritted my teeth as pretty much every female on the boat found an excuse to talk to me so they could play with my new accessory – mostly running their hands over his torso and arms but one had asked my permission for a kiss. I stood there and watched Devyn perform the tricks of what everyone assumed to be his unofficial trade. While party escorting was legal, I supposed that most of the entertainers who earned their living that way would do a lot more if the price was right. A question Lucia Lonis was clearly asking by putting her hands where they had no business being, at which point I accidentally spilt my red wine all over the other girl’s flamboyant costume.

  I was still attempting to mop it up, accidentally-on-purpose making it even worse, when we started to pull in to the north bank.

  Kasen approached me and Lucia flounced off.

  “Donna Shelton,” he addressed me courteously while simultaneously managing to convey his disapproval by ignoring Devyn who lounged against the boat railing a foot or so away, which was the most inconspicuous way we had found to maintain proximity. It did look a little odd for the hired entertainment to be continually hovering by my side.

  “I would prefer it if you remained on the boat until praetorian Alvar gets here,” he intoned formally.

  Alvar was on the way then. We needed to be out of here. Kasen was an impeccable guard but Alvar was better. Devyn’s disguise wasn’t that clever if you looked too closely at his face.

  “But sir, I must go where my lord directs me,” I trilled flirtatiously at Kasen as I pointed to Marcus who beckoned me from the dock. I linked my arm with Devyn’s.

  I danced off the boat, throwing Devyn’s borrowed cloak back to the captain.

  “I may need that,” he grumbled as we made our way down the gangway.

  “Now, now,” I patted his face affectedly, “everyone else was returning them. We’ll get you another.”

  “Or not.” Ginevra laughed, appearing behind us and putting her hands on Devyn’s chest. Again. I really was going to have to kill her.

  Marcus came over and grabbed my hand. “This way.”
<
br />   He waved us all on, directing us through the docks to a large warehouse by the outer wall. The locals watched us go by, stopping what they were doing at the sight of the elites frolicking by – and what a sight we made in our fancy party outfits, with the scantily clad entertainers and the sentinels trailing in our wake.

  Music emanated from the brightly lit warehouse that Marcus led us into, the entire party oohing and aahing at the elaborate interior. It was the most enchanting, frivolous thing I had ever seen in my life. It must have cost Marcus a small fortune to set this up. The entire building was festooned in weird and wonderful decorations, lights, and hangings, with exotic and elaborate themes in each room. And most of all, it was dark and concealing. Everywhere we turned, people were disappearing into the fantastical maze Marcus had created. It was an illusion which would allow us to disappear.

  “This way.”

  He pulled us through a winter wonderland, cold white light and snowflakes falling from the ceiling. How had he managed to prepare this in such a short space of time? It seemed Courtenay wealth and influence were able to work their own particular kind of magic.

  Marcus peered through the window out on to the street below where additional vehicles were pulling up outside the warehouse. Sentinels. No, praetorian guards were teeming out, including Alvar, who looked up at the building. We pulled sharply back from the window.

  “Come on.”

  Ginevra had caught up with us and had her hand on Devyn’s arm while he looked determinedly down at the floor, resentment blistering through him.

  “Don’t touch him.” I slapped Ginevra’s hand back and she turned a shocked face to me.

  “Oops,” I called entirely insincerely as we moved away, picking up our pace and diving down some backstairs. This room was a chaotic buccaneers’ bar, with wenches and billowing sails, some more entertainers who were better dressed than the ones we’d hired at the bar, costumed as pirates and engaging in a swordfight as we ran around the room to the delight of our guests.

  “Here.” Marcus pulled us behind the bar, and the barman grinned, lifting a trapdoor and holding it open so we could climb through. But he frowned in confusion as Devyn preceded us in.

  There was a small exchange as Marcus handed him a credit. “Not a word.” He winked at the man. The barman shrugged his shoulders as he started to close the door.

  “Wouldn’t know what to say, sir.” He shot me a roguish leer.

  “He’ll hold them off for a while, but we’ve got to move fast,” Marcus explained as he perched on the bed in the room under the bar, pulling off his shoes.

  “He won’t tell them we’re in here?” I asked.

  “Not for as long as he thinks we’re doing what I told him we’d be doing.” He grinned, throwing a bag at me. “Change.”

  What did he think we were doing in here? I looked at Marcus on the bed… Of course. What else would a handfasted couple be doing in a secret bedroom at a prenuptial party? No wonder he’d looked askance at Devyn joining us.

  I emptied the bag onto the bed. Out tumbled sensible travelling clothes and I hurriedly started to change.

  “Do we have time for this?” I asked.

  “I can’t be sure they haven’t put trackers on us. I think it’s best to change now. The rooms outside should conceal the fact that we’re missing for a while,” Marcus replied. He smirked over at Devyn who was less than prepared for a long journey in his waist-wrap toga and sandals. Devyn glowered back at him.

  I stopped to also glower at Marcus who begrudgingly pulled a spare pair of trousers and a shirt from the pack on the floor. Devyn put them on with ill grace. They were plain, nothing like the Celtic outfit Bronwyn had tried to get him to travel home in.

  As I tied on the cloak that had been in the pack, Marcus pulled aside a barrel strategically placed over another trapdoor.

  “It will drop back into place when we close it,” Marcus explained. “They won’t give up this exit too quickly.”

  “A smuggler’s passage,” Devyn identified, sounding grudgingly impressed. I was too. Marcus had unexpected talents.

  We stepped down into the passage and Devyn picked up the light that lay waiting. We heard the thud as the barrel snapped back into place as Marcus lowered the trapdoor on us.

  The passageway was dark so Devyn led the way with the light. We moved quickly together, staying in the pool of light, which shone brightly against the total black of the tunnel. I was coming to hate the passageways that lay underneath the city. I’d always thought that crime in the city was low, given the severity of the punishments handed out at the Mete. However, it appeared that evasion of taxes was a thriving industry in the city. I wondered if other crime too was much more prevalent than the public displays of justice suggested.

  I would do well to wonder less about crime in the city and more about what awaited us on the other side of the walls. Devyn should be pleased that Marcus had decided to come with us, instead of which I could feel waves of distrust and suspicion rolling off him. He was wary, and I could understand why. Marcus had betrayed us before, but he’d had no real choice; he’d been caught and in order to keep treating the sick he’d had to comply. The wristband had allowed him to think clearly, to understand the trap closing around us. I too had once been happy to go along with the life that had been laid out for me since birth. Or rather, as it turned out, since I was ripped from my dead mother’s arms. With all the facts laid out before me and the rise of magic within me, it seemed downright suicidal to remain inside the city walls. We no longer had lives here. We were just prisoners, puppets on strings being pulled this way and that by our parents and whoever was behind all this. I wasn’t sure I ever needed to find that out.

  The roughly paved path beneath our feet turned to shallow steps which went upwards for a few minutes until the passageway came to an end at a doorway. Marcus stepped forward and tapped on it.

  “The door only opens from the outside,” he explained.

  I took Devyn’s hand as we watched the door slowly open. I couldn’t bear to be so close to escaping only to be once again pulled back as we had in our last attempt. I dreaded the sensation of my own consciousness ebbing away again. We had to make it this time.

  Marcus reached out to take the torch from Devyn.

  “Wait here,” he instructed. “They’re only expecting two of us.”

  Again I felt that pulse of distrust from Devyn. I tightened my grip on his hand in reassurance before pulling away. I followed Marcus through the door to find myself surrounded by trees. In fact, looking back, it sort of appeared as if we had stepped out of one. How clever.

  The boy in Shadower clothing who had opened the door had stepped away and was now leading two horses towards us. The horses were saddled and carrying packs. Marcus had prepared well. How had he done this? I guessed that he had recently come into contact with a much wider spread of the population than one would expect of a member of such an exalted family, many of whom might have felt obliged to help him if he had reached out to them.

  Marcus went to the boy and explained we had another person with us, asking if the boy had another horse. With a shake of his head and a shrug, the boy indicated he hadn’t. His hand went out for the money promised, apparently keen to be on his way. Marcus put a small pouch in the boy’s hand and he scampered off into the night.

  “Looks like we’re going to be a horse short,” he sighed.

  “We’ll be all right.”

  I stepped back to the door which had remained ajar, thus maintaining a close proximity between myself and Devyn. I beckoned him out, and he stepped out into the opening before closing the door behind him. He immediately scanned the area before turning to look up at the wall looming behind us.

  “Time to get out of here,” he suggested, introducing himself to the larger of the two horses and rubbing its velvet neck. “You won’t mind carrying two, will you, girl?”

  Marcus watched as Devyn bent over, interlocking his fingers to help me mount before hoi
sting himself up behind me. His arms came around me, instantly making me feel more secure. I wondered if Marcus was annoyed at Devyn’s automatic assumption that we would ride together. If he thought anything, he didn’t show it as he climbed onto his own horse before looking to Devyn to indicate which way we should go.

  “Stay close,” Devyn advised as he turned the horse’s head north. And we took our first steps to freedom…

  And immediately halted as out of the darkness an entire squadron of sentinels stepped into view. They had the Shadower boy in their custody.

  No, no, no.

  We had been caught and this time they had all three of us. My instant panic whirled into the air, the trees stirring in response.

  “Donna Shelton.” There was a shout and a black uniformed figure stepped forward from the shadows. Praetorian Alvar.

  His weapon was raised and pointed directly at us. Luckily, Devyn was behind me and I didn’t think he would risk hurting Marcus or me.

  I exchanged glances with Marcus. We were mounted; if we rode straight at them, maybe we had a chance of breaking through. Devyn’s arms were bound tight around me.

  They would kill him if they took us. Decision made, I looked back at Marcus and willed him to understand me. I took a deep breath, tensing my muscles in readiness.

  Suddenly, a shot rang out.

  My hands jolted to my chest as a burst of adrenaline went through me.

  “No, no…” But I was all right; it wasn’t me. Devyn’s arms had tightened around me and I looked over at Marcus who was still seated on his horse, and then he was off, racing across the glade.

  It was then I saw the fallen Shadower boy on the ground.

  I looked back at Alvar in shock. He had killed the boy, an innocent boy. The storm whipped overhead.

  “He’s not dead,” Alvar shouted over the rising wind. “But if you aren’t off that horse in five seconds the next shot will be through his head.”