Cassian raised an eyebrow in disbelief but Kyra’s eyes widened with amazement and I found myself wishing it were true.
“Really?” she breathed, drawing closer to me.
“No, not really,” I admitted and her tinkling laughter rang out in response. It hadn’t exactly been a joke but if it made her laugh then that was fine by me.
“Oh, well if you do turn out to be afraid of snakes then I could come to your bed with you and make sure that none appear in the night?” she offered and I smiled at the idea of that. I wondered if she realised that what she’d just said could be interpreted as an offer of her flesh but somehow I doubted it. She seemed a little too innocent for that. Which is a pity.
“Maybe we should think about returning Kyra to the lamp if she’s going to draw attention with her peculiar behaviour?” Cassian suggested before I could reply.
Kyra recoiled like he’d struck her and I ground my teeth as I moved between them.
“No,” I growled. I wasn’t entirely sure why I cared so much but I could see that the idea of going back into the lamp terrified her and I refused to do that to her after everything she’d given me. I might have been a selfish bastard but she’d only ever asked me for one thing and I refused to go back on my word about it. “She isn’t ever going back in the lamp unless she chooses it herself. And I don’t want you to mention it again.”
Cassian’s eyes moved to Kyra as she peeked out from behind me and he sighed as he nodded.
“I’m sorry, Kyra,” he breathed. “I’m just concerned about Gothel realising what you are. She wanted you for herself and I don’t believe her motivations can be good.”
“I’ll be more careful,” she promised breathily. “I won’t jump on the furniture again.”
“That’s all settled then,” I said, kicking my boots off as I headed for the couch.
I threw myself down onto the soft cushions with a groan. I’d never sat on anything that comfortable in my entire life.
“Where is the lamp anyway?” Cassian asked super casually like he had no plans at all to steal it from me, which I doubted.
“It’s safe, mate. Don’t worry about it,” I replied dismissively.
“It’s just that Gothel was desperate to possess it and if it fell into her hands then I can’t begin to imagine the damage-”
“No chance of the queen getting her hands on it. Or anyone else for that matter,” I added, fingering the necklace as I caught his eye with a challenge in mine.
“Is that it?” he asked, seeming impressed by the means I’d already gone to to disguise it.
“Sure is and this chain can’t be broken so unless someone rips it off of me or removes my head, it’s not going anywhere.” I grinned, pretty damn pleased with myself and Kyra for coming up with this.
Cassian seemed satisfied with that and I leaned my head back, sighing as I soaked in the opulence of the rooms I’d been given.
Cassian moved to sit on the other end of the couch and I could feel his eyes on me as I pushed my hair back out of my face.
“So?” he asked and I could tell he was practically bursting to know how the Unveiling had gone.
I kicked my feet up onto a dark coffee table which sat before us and I could see him trying to contain a cringe.
“Yeah, she’s hot, mate,” I said, placing my head in my hands. “A bit forward for a virgin. I was pretty surprised when she begged me to come to her chambers tonight but I told her she’d have to wait ‘til our wedding night for that.” I winked at him and I could actually hear him grinding his teeth.
“And she didn’t even mind about your face?” Kyra breathed, her eyes widening. “That’s so romantic.”
“The Princess of Osaria would never invite you to her bed like that,” Cassian snarled in outrage, ignoring the genie.
I released a breath of laughter. “Well at least not until I marry her after the pageant, eh?”
“To do that you would have to win the pageant and I highly doubt that a low-born criminal like you would ever-”
“There’s the truth then at last,” I said. “At least now you’re willing to admit you think I’ll lose.”
“I never said I thought you’d win,” he stated.
“But what if I do?” I asked and the question hung between us. He knew what I could do in a fight. He knew it wasn’t impossible and yet he’d brought me here all the same.
“Then I suppose that will mean that you’re worthy of her hand,” he said in a tone of voice that made it clear he didn’t believe any such thing.
“I’m not a fool, Cassian. I know you aren't just going along with this without a reason. And I know you manipulated me into participating in this pageant despite the fact that you don’t seem at all enthusiastic about the prospect. So that means you wanted to come back here for your own reasons.”
“And what if I did?” he asked, dropping any pretence he’d been clinging to.
Kyra watched our exchange with wide eyes but she didn’t seem to want to voice an opinion. Maybe she didn’t have one.
“So what is it then? What’s so important to you that you wanted to come back and be amongst the people who sentenced you to death for looking upon a pretty face?” I pressed.
Cassian didn’t seem to want to answer but I was done with playing this game. We were here in the thick of the biggest con I’d ever attempted and I refused to carry on without my eyes open to all components.
“Gothel,” he growled, her name a curse on his lips. “Ever since she arrived in the kingdom everything that the Emperor had planned to do to improve our beautiful country has been tossed to the wayside. He’s different since he married her and I know it’s more than infatuation with his queen. She is using witchcraft to manipulate him to her own purposes and I fully intend to get the evidence I need to see her executed for her crimes so that Osaria can be free to prosper once again.”
I raised an eyebrow at his impassioned speech and let out a low whistle. “Don’t want much then, do you? Just the death of the damn queen.”
His jaw tightened and I could tell there was no talking him out of this. I turned over his plans in my head and came to the conclusion that I didn’t care. If he wanted to risk his life by going after some witch then more fool him. And in the meantime I’d continue to use his guidance to pass myself off as a Count and win the Princess’s hand.
“Well, on your head be it, mate. If that’s what floats your boat I won’t get in your way. You keep helping me and I’ll keep on providing you with your cover story. Win win. And when I’m Emperor I’ll give you your old job back as my royal bitch.”
“A royal guard is a position of absolute prestige,” he replied indignantly. “Only the best of the best are selected to join our ranks and-”
“And you’re made of steel. Got it.” I winked at him teasingly and he gave up on trying to lecture me about the importance of his chosen profession.
Cassian sighed heavily and the arguments went out of him. “For now we need to focus on getting you through the first fight,” he said. “A scroll arrived before you got back. You’ll be facing Lord Kalaviv in the first round tomorrow.”
“The peacock with the flashy swords? I can take him,” I said confidently as I started unbuttoning my shirt. It was hot in the room and I always preferred to give the breeze a chance at finding my skin if it appeared.
“Well you need to do it like a nobleman,” Cassian said and I sighed.
“No dirty tactics then?” I guessed. Being noble sure did seem to go hand in hand with being boring.
“It would help if I knew a little more about the way he fights,” Cassian murmured.
“He’s from the Forken Empire and a war hero apparently but anyone who has to announce themselves as a legend probably isn’t one really.” I shrugged out of my shirt, noticing Kyra’s gaze trailing over my muscular chest and resisting the urge to smirk.
“You mean like the way you did when we met in the dungeons?”
I grinned at that. “Fa
ir point. But where I come from, everyone knows my name.”
“And now those same people all know you’re dead too.”
“I’ll take that trade,” I said, indicating our extravagant surroundings.
“You really don’t care about any of the people you’ve had to leave behind?” he asked.
I considered the question for a moment. I’d joined The Forty at the same time as Balthazar when we were thirteen and I’d spent a hell of a lot of time with him over the last ten years. But we’d always been more like rivals than friends. And I liked Pip well enough but he was just some street kid who made me laugh. There were other members of The Forty who I’d drunk and laughed with many times but none of them mattered enough for me to grieve over losing them.
“No, not really,” I admitted.
“You’re as lonely as me,” Kyra breathed and I frowned at her as her eyes glimmered with tears.
“I’m not lonely,” I objected. “I’m just alone. There’s a difference.”
“Yes there is a difference,” she agreed. “I have been stuck alone for more time than I could count, wishing that the day would come when I might be surrounded by people again so that I wouldn’t have to be alone anymore. You have been surrounded by more people than you could count for your entire life but instead of taking joy in the relationships you could forge with them, you have chosen a miserable life of solitude. It’s kind of sad when you think about it. You’ve turned your nose up at the one thing I wanted more than anything.”
I frowned at her for several long seconds. “I never said I was miserable,” I said eventually.
“You never said you were happy either,” she replied and the look she gave me was like she was peering right into my soul.
I pushed myself to my feet, shaking my head irritably as I headed across the room in search of a bed. This conversation was starting to annoy me and I just wanted to rest a while without having to hear their constant chatter.
“Where are you going?” Cassian called as I stepped into a wide chamber with a huge four poster bed at the centre of it. Silk sheets in shades of gold and silver lay across the thick mattress and a thin, gauze curtain surrounded it where it lay before a wide window which looked out on the gardens.
“I’m having a lie down,” I replied tersely as I dropped my shirt to the floor followed by my pants and clambered onto the soft bed.
“Well enjoy it while you can - in an hour we need to start preparing you for the fight tomorrow.”
“Whatever,” I mumbled as I closed my eyes, taking in the peaceful silence of the wide space which surrounded me.
I’d always found it easy to shut my brain off and get to sleep when I needed to but as I drifted off, one thought kept whispering through my mind.
If the genie had spent all that time wishing for people to care about then was she right about me wasting time being alone?
While Aladdin was sleeping, I headed across the room to leave. I needed to find Gothel. Find a way to get close to her...expose her.
I gripped the door handle, my sole purpose on Earth seeming to thump inside my veins.
Protect Osaria.
“Where are you going?” Kyra called and I blinked out of my focused state, glancing back at her.
“For a walk.”
“Ooh can I come?” she asked, her eyes so bright they actually shone for a moment. If anyone looked too closely at her, they might notice things like that. How there was something so captivatingly magical about her which meant she simply couldn't be human.
“Sorry, Kyra, it's too risky. I need you to stay here.”
Her expression fell and I glanced toward Aladdin's door.
“But you have the very important task of protecting your master while I'm gone.”
“I do?” she breathed and I nodded.
“Yes, don't let anyone put snakes in his bed,” I said with a smirk and she nodded firmly, hurrying to sit in front of his door.
“No snakes,” she said seriously.
In all fairness, if I'd been a servant on the receiving end of some nobleman's fury, I might have been tempted to shove a snake into his sheets. I'd often been tempted to do shit like that to my former captain. But that wasn't the way of guards. Those urges had had to be stifled, repressed and beaten out of me.
Propriety, respect and a ferocious protection of the royals was all I knew. Yet I was now a fugitive keeping the company of a thief. I had a hand in deceiving Princess Rapunzel into believing that Aladdin was an apt suitor. But it wasn't like he'd win the pageant. It was all in the interest of saving her father, getting the kingdom back in order and on its way to greatness again.
I ran my hand over the stolen scimitar at my hip.
Who are you kidding? You're as bad as Aladdin now.
No, I'll return it.
Later.
There was something running through my blood. Keen and unknown. A thrill I couldn't shake.
Why does it feel so good being bad?
I stepped into the immaculate corridor, laying my faith in Kyra's disguise to keep me safe from recognition.
I headed along the hallways I knew so well, passing by servants as they brought food to the suitors' chambers. They paid me little attention as I increased my pace, heading toward the east of the palace where the royal quarters were. Gothel had her own special quarters in the east tower. Like a crow in a nest. The previous queen had never asked for such a thing so why was I the only one who thought that was suspicious?
I didn't know how I'd expose her just yet but I knew I had to. I had to hope I could catch her at her vile witchery. But then what..?
Think, Cassian, think.
I reached the arching doorway which led to the eastern halls but found my way blocked by two guards. I knew them. Rakus and Fikel. I'd trained with them, we'd stood beside each other for hours on end during our shifts. And yet we'd barely shared any words beyond observations on the weather, current affairs and comments on our training. How was it I'd spent twelve years in the company of these men and I suddenly felt I didn't know them at all?
My heart pounded as their gaze fell on me, but no recognition flashed through their eyes.
Thank you, Kyra.
I drew my shoulders back, marching toward them with every ounce of confidence that had been instilled in me during my years as one of them.
I'm still one of them, dammit.
“Good afternoon.”
No response.
“I was getting to know the palace and thought I might take my liege on a tour this afternoon,” I said, flashing them a smile I hoped might help them soften to me. It didn't.
“No one but the Osarian staff are allowed through these doors during the pageant,” Rakus growled, his eyes darkening with a warning.
I wasn't getting past them. I'd been in their position before. If anyone tried to break the rules we were ordered to enforce, we were allowed to intervene with our blades.
I nodded. “That's a shame. Good day to you.” I turned right, heading out onto a large balcony which overlooked the gardens. It was quiet, sheltered by several potted palms and a red silk awning.
I clutched the railing, staring across the grounds I knew so well. Every path, every shadow was my domain. I'd watched over it all for so many years and now I was outcast from that life.
“-no matter what he looks like,” a female voice reached my ears.
“Well I'm not sure we can call him the Gargoyle anymore. He's rather handsome,” another woman replied.
I shifted to the edge of the balcony, glancing back toward the corridor I'd vacated, but the guards didn't have a view of me here.
“Gothel is despicable. How could she bring magic into the palace so freely?” the first spoke again.
My heart hammered as their voices drifted out of reach. What was I overhearing? Two maids discussing Gothel and magic? What if they knew something I didn't? Something about the Emperor? What if they suspected what I did?
I threw caution to the wind, lean
ing over the side of the balcony and spotting a narrow ledge jutting from the wall beneath the line of windows. I tried to work out which rooms lay at this side of the castle. The Princesses quarters, perhaps...
I threw my leg over the railing and excitement and fear pounded through my blood as I lowered myself onto the narrow ledge. I crept along the wall, pressing myself flush to the cool stone as I moved. A row of window sills ran above me and I reached up to grip onto one, taking in a slow breath.
I'm dead if someone spots me here.
Screw it, keep going.
I carefully traversed the ledge, side-stepping until the voices reached me again.
“She thinks I don't know what she's up to,” a girl's voice reached me again. “But I know she's controlling my father. She has to be.”
I nearly lost my grip on the window.
Shit!
That wasn't just some servant girl speaking, it was the Princess herself.
My eyes dragged up to the window just above my head. If I straightened I could peer in. But that made me all kinds of a lech. But then...she had been unveiled already. And I'd seen her before anyway...
Do it.
Don't do it.
I did it.
Her back was to me. She wore a thin pink dressing gown and her golden hair was woven into a long braid down her spine. Her attendant, Zira, was fussing about with her makeup. My heart drummed in my ears. Adrenaline poured through my veins like liquid fire.
What the hell am I doing?
“If she’s got some sorcerer offering her potions, what’s to say she hasn’t used one of them on my father?” Rapunzel said, her voice quavering a fraction.
“You think she’s controlling him with magic?” Zira gasped.
“I don’t know. But it’s possible, isn’t it? After what she did to Kahn, who knows what other kind of potion she’s been feeding people?” Rapunzel said firmly. “My father hasn’t been the same since she arrived. You have to admit it makes sense.”
Forbidden Fairytales- The Complete Series Page 18
