“Gruff-looking man, wasn’t he?” Theon says at my left. “I’ve been meaning to take this down. He was no king of mine.”
“Funny. I was gonna say the same to you.” I say sarcastically, offering a grin.
“Oh Aaric Boudelaire, I do believe we can be friends.”
“You killed my girlfriend.” I snap.
Theon raises an eyebrow to me. “Girlfriend is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”
I hate that he knows that. I hate that he knows everything he knows. I wonder what secrets he’s forced Kara to spill in the last five months.
“Aaric?” Kara’s strangled gasp comes from somewhere behind me.
I spin at her voice and my heart pounds inside my chest at the sight of her. She’s beautiful, as she’s always been. Her golden hair hangs in intertwined waves down her back. It’s twice as long as it was the last time I saw her. Her middle area is twice as big, though she wears it with grace. A pretty, short, dark pink dress hangs over her baby bump nicely, making her glow somehow. I didn’t know how much I missed her until now.
“Kara,” I breathe.
“Oh man, am I hallucinating?”
Theon chuckles. “You’re not hallucinating, love.”
I march up to her and wrap my arms around her. Despite being pregnant she holds it all in her belly because she feels so small in my arms. Her arms squeeze me around the back and I hate the tears that pool in my eyes. “I can’t believe you’re here right now.” I say to her, refusing to let her go. Not yet. There was a big part of me that thought we’d fail and I’d never see her again. But seeing her, knowing it’s possible, gives me hope that I’ll see Amara again too.
“I can’t believe you’re here right now.” she challenges me, holding me tight for another moment. When she breaks our embrace I let her go reluctantly, but she doesn’t pull away. She brushes a strand of hair out of my face and laughs, tears moistening her pretty green eyes. “Aaric, you’re here.”
“I’m here, beautiful.”
She laughs again, letting her tears spill. “I missed you.” The way she says it breaks my heart for reasons I don’t quite understand.
“I missed you, so much.” I say. “You’re very pregnant.”
This makes her laugh, a sound I had prayed to hear again. “I am.” Her hands move over her stomach. She’s glowing so bright I almost forget that her baby is destined to end us all. “But, in my defense, there are two in there.”
“Right.” I’d almost forgotten. The thought reminds me of what Haydan had told us, that her babies are actually Theon’s, not Tristan’s.
“Hey, it’s my turn.” Niykee shoves past me and throws her arms around Kara, making me, Bay, and Felix all laugh.
“Aaric,” Kara says nervously. “Niykee’s hugging me.” Niykee never hugs anyone.
I laugh and Niykee squeezes her tighter. “Shut up.” she says. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Niyk.”
After that Bay and Felix get their turn until finally Kara turns to Malia. “You,” she says. “You’re the…holy shit.”
“I told you Amara was a Shadowblood.” Malia laughs. “And you both thought I was crazy.”
“We really did.” Kara says. “How are you here right now?”
“Malia is kind of the reason we’re here right now.” I tell Kara. “Without her we never would have made it here.”
“I’d like to take some of the credit. I did find you.” Haydan says from across the room where he stands at a small bar, making himself a drink.
I’m about to say something when I see Kol step into the room. He doesn’t look surprised to see us here so I’m guessing someone informed him of our arrival. Seeing his face brings memories of Limacore racing back. Memories of my dead friend, who’s burial was ruined by his master behind me.
So I do the only thing I can think of.
I punch him in the face.
“Ah, not again.” Kara grimaces from my side.
“That is for betraying my sister.” I say to Kol who is on the floor, cradling his now bleeding nose. “And not warning us of Theon’s attack. He’s all yours, little prince.” I say, stepping back.
“Time to talk I think, big brother.” Roman grabs Kol up off the floor and shoves him out of the room, sending me a grateful look before walking out.
“In his defense he didn’t know about the rescue mission.” Theon says.
I spin on him. “Is that what you call that? A rescue mission?”
“Theron Novak was holding a royal princess against her will. I had to do something.” He grins, letting me know he doesn’t actually believe his foolish words.
“Enough.” Kara hisses at him. “If you can’t play nice then leave.”
Theon seems to soften at the very sight of Kara. “I’m sorry, my love. Please come sit.” he begs her. The way he moves around her, the way he looks at her, it’s not hard to tell that they are more than reluctant soon-to-be-parents. He’s in love with her. I wonder if she knows.
Kara follows after Theon. I begin to protest, to tell him I can help her myself, but a voice coming from the door freezes me in my place.
“Hey stranger,” Clea says comically.
I smile over at her. I know the voice right away. I know the difference between soulless Clea and soulful Clea. I had been successful. I know it shouldn’t matter and that I should hate her for what she did to Tristan, but deep down I know she wouldn’t have done it if she’d had her soul. She never would have hurt Amara that way. Everything she’d done was to protect her from her brother. She’d failed, but she’d tried.
“Hi.” I say stupidly. She marches over and pulls me into a hug. Then she punches me in the shoulder. “Owe.”
“That’s for not getting here sooner.”
I pull back and brush a lock of blond hair behind her ear. “I’m here. And I’m starving. Can we eat?”
“Yes.” she beams, linking her arm with mine. “Wait until you try Llìrian food for the first time. You’ll never want anything else ever again.”
Once I make up my mind to ignore both Theon and Kol we actually have a good time. We tell Kara and Clea about our travels. Not about the Nexus, of course, but our journey from Limacore to get here. They laugh about how we met, how Malia had saved my ass and for a time I forget about all the things that are still going wrong. I forget that we still have to find this Nexus, stop whatever diabolical plan Theon has for it, and save Haven and my sister.
After dinner Meg and Ari, who I now know are twins with an Echo like Kara’s and Amara’s, lead us all to our own set of chambers. I glance over at Felix as we walk, wondering if he’s hating this. He was so against us coming here.
“Felix,” I say cautiously. “How are you fairing over there?”
He sighs. “I’m not saying this was a good idea.” he begins. “But I’m glad to see Kara. I guess you don’t really know how much you miss someone until you’re around them again.”
“You read my mind.”
“But we have to stay on mission.”
“And we will, I promise. This changes nothing.”
I take a bath when we get to our chambers. A much needed one. I still smell like ocean water. When I get out I see a folded piece of paper lying in front of the door. I grab it up to find it’s a note from Theon asking me to meet with him privately.
A part of me wants to refuse, but Theon Beleros has never scared me. He didn’t back then and he doesn’t now. My only fear is that he’ll try to spin some kind of story to get me on his side. Even if he does, it still doesn’t matter. The mission is to find the Nexus, destroy it, and end this.
I dress quickly and as soon as I step out into the hallway there’s a guard waiting to escort me to wherever it is Theon wants me to meet him.
The room they bring me to surprises me. It looks like a mini tavern inside the palace. There are a few tables scattered around the room for sitting and then there are about six stools in front of a large bar. The room is empty though.
I’m the only one here.
“His Highness will be along shortly.” The guard tells me before taking off.
“Okay then.” I say, walking up to the bar and pouring myself a drink. I sit at one of the stools and drink down at least two or three drinks before Theon slips onto the stool to my left.
“Nice, isn’t it?” he asks, eying the room around us. He takes a glass and a bottle of whiskey and pours himself a drink. “I had it built a decade or two ago.”
“Why did Theron tell us Llìria was an abandoned country? We were all over that city looking for this place. This country is not abandoned.”
“Because he wanted to make you feel like you didn’t have anyone on your side, Aaric. He wanted to make you think that Serpentarians were damn near extinct, but we are not and we are going to show them that we’re not.”
“We?” I laugh. “In what world do you think I would ever trust you? You murdered my sister’s boyfriend and her best friend’s sister. She’s not just going to forget that.”
“Maybe not, but do you know much about Vakrov, Aaric?”
“I know they’re the pricks that took my sister.”
“Well, Vakrov has no love for my kind. Or the like.”
“The like?” I ask, unsure of what he means.
“The Borderlines. Theron did teach you about the Borderlines, didn’t he?”
“I don’t know what that is.” I shake my head and I hate that, again, he’s got some bombshell to drop. And he drops it, hard. I understand now why Niykee can do what she does. Why her powers suddenly morphed into a combination of fire and nether. She’s a Borderline, a cusp child, born of two elements. It only manifested when she got angry enough to trigger her nether magic. But Niykee isn’t a twin, so how she manifested nether magic and not ether is a question to revisit later.
“Vakrov hates them as much as they hate us. And by they I mean their king, your sister’s captor. Whatever she’s been going through there, Aaric, it’s not like her captivity at Limacore. It’s much, much worse. I’m willing to bet spending a few months seeing the hatred Zodiacs have for our people will sway her to side with us, to fight this war with us. Kara is already on board.”
“What?” I whisper.
“Kara’s about to give birth to two Serpentarian babies, Aaric. She may not be one herself, but she knows the struggle her children will go through if she does nothing.”
“Don’t you mean your children?” I sneer.
“So she told you.”
“Haydan told me.”
Theon smiles darkly, without amusement. “Haydan, of course. The boy has never liked me.”
“I understand that.”
Theon chuckles. “Well perhaps you might put your feelings for me aside when you hear what I have to say next.”
“And what is that?”
“We’re going after her, Aaric. Amara. By week’s end.”
My heart pounds in my chest. I get a twisted, sour feeling in my stomach I recognize now as anxiety. I’d never felt it before, until Amara was taken from me. Nothing’s ever given me more anxiety than losing her, not knowing what’s happening to her, being helpless to stop it.
“We could use you, Aaric. You’re like her. Your powers are stronger than any Serpentarian I’ve ever known, just like her. We’re going to rescue her, but we might have a better chance of succeeding with your help.”
“And Haven?”
“If they’re together yes, the Limacoran princess can come. She is Kol’s sister after all.”
I don’t want to condone anything that this man does, but I cannot refute this. The prospect of seeing my sister again far outweighs my mistrust and hate for Theon Beleros. I will not pass up a chance to save her.
“I’m in.”
—CHAPTER THIRTY THREE—
AMARA
BLOOD
“Uri, please stop mothering me.”
Uri’s russet brown eyes snap up at me from where he’s been focusing on my knee. “I’m trying to keep it from getting infected, B.” Uri replies.
He ripped off the only clean piece of my dress and is now trying to clean out the cuts on my knees from when the guards had thrown me into this pit.
“It’s been days and we still haven’t figured it out yet. We’re never going to.” Missy complains from a few feet away. Bastian had Missy and Finn thrown into our cell not long after me. He’d given them a reprieve for me, but now that I’m being punished he’s punishing them too.
“That’s because we’re not focusing hard enough.” I say, standing to my feet. Uri grumbles, but stands with me, abandoning his attempt to clean out my wounds. “We have to try harder.”
“I’m not even sure I really understand what we’re trying to do.” Finn replies.
“Look, a Piscean used magic to make the doors to our cells immune to the elements. If magic created it magic can break it. All we have to do is infuse all our magic together and focus it on the door and it should open.”
“We don’t know how to do that, princess. We’ve been locked in this cell for years.” Says a young girl by the name of Kaia. Even in rags she’s one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen. Stormy gray eyes and wavy dark hair, milky white skin.
“Kaia,” Finn begins, but she does not let him finish.
“Do you know who I am?” she asks. I certainly don’t, but it seems Uri does because he rolls his eyes, as if he’s heard the speech she’s about to give a hundred times. “I am Kaia Redgrave. Princess of the Tempus Islands. I do not belong here.”
“Not even one of the important ones.” Uri mutters to me. I think Kaia’s thundercloud eyes grow even bigger when he says that. “The Templanders are notorious for popping out kid after kid. She’s like seventh in line for the throne.”
“I can hear you ya know.” Kaia calls to us.
“What are the Tempus Islands?” I ask him.
“Don’t feel bad that you’ve never heard of them. They keep to themselves, stay out of Endecoran politics as much as they can. See, they can do that because they’re practically on the other side of the Khandraki sea. They’re actually the only ones who’ve ever caught a glimpse of the Provian sea.”
“The Provian sea? Isn’t that a bedtime story? The Provian sea doesn’t actually exist.” I remember Meela telling us stories of the Provian sea when we were children, a sea so blue and so massive that even sailors and pirates could never sail the whole thing in one lifetime. It’s said to be the home of creatures a lot like mermaids, but far more deadly.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Uri shrugs.
“Kaia,” I say and her eyes fly to me. “All you have to do is focus on your magic, tell it what you want it to do, and it’ll get you where you need to go, I promise.”
We’ve been in here for three days trying to figure out how we can bust out of here so it’s given me time to work on the new ability I recently discovered when we were at Talvinder’s shop. I somehow blasted him back with my nether magic and it seems Bastian is a great motivator. All I do is think of him and the blasts come pouring out of me. The ability will be instrumental in our escape.
“I hate to suggest it,” Uri begins. “But it might be time.”
“You might be right.” I admit.
“Time for what?” Kaia asks, eyes darting between me and Uri.
“There’s a reason Bastian was so interested in me.” I confess. “It’s because my blood is supposed to be some sort of power enhancer.”
“What does that even mean?” she asks.
“It means for anyone who drinks her blood their magic grows stronger.” Finn elaborates. “It doubles the power of your magic. She’s saying that if we all drink a little of her blood our powers will grow and we’ll be able to get out of here.”
“Ewe.” Kaia says, sending a dirty look my way.
“I’m not especially excited about it either.” I say back.
“Amara,” I hear Keenan’s voice and when I look up he’s standing outside the door peeking in through the small o
pening, hands gripping the two small bars there.
“Keenan,” I race to my feet and over to him. He reaches for my hand and I slip them through the bars so that he can take them. “What are you doing down here?”
“Bastian revoked my privileges down here, but I am still a prince and I managed to bribe the guards to let me in here to see you. It’s been days. You said you had a plan. How are you going to do it in here?”
“Being thrown in here was the plan.”
“What? Amara, that doesn’t make any sense.”
I look around him to make sure none of the guards posted outside the cell doors are listening and I lean my lips up to his ear. “These cells are full of hundreds of Borderlines, Keenan. If we can get through these doors we can get out. I’m just having trouble getting them to concentrate hard enough to break down the door with our magic. They are a bunch of teenagers, after all.”
“That’s sort of brilliant, Amara. You might be a little more dangerous than I thought.”
I smirk and that brings a smile to his face. “I know you can’t let us out because Bastian would know it was you, but can you do me a favor?”
“Anything.” he says eagerly.
“Find Grayson and Daxon, wherever they are down here. Tell them to be ready.”
Keenan just nods. Then he squeezes my hand in his, looking at me thoughtfully. “How can you be so calm and…good to me after what I did?”
“To Kara or to me?” I don’t say it to be cruel. I just need to know that he feels remorse for what he did to his little sister.
“Both.”
I sigh, feeling defeated. This conversation is exhausting me more than me overexerting myself on magic over the last three days. “You asked me to trust you, to believe that everything you’ve done was to protect me. I’m trusting you had a good reason, and that one day you’ll tell me.”
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