Lichgates

by S. M. Boyce

  “This is the world beyond my walls,” Carden said as he walked closer. “If you disobey me, I will hunt down everything you love and make you destroy it. I am the fury within you that you’ll never control. Your stubbornness will only hurt those who help you.”

  “No, please!” Braeden begged.

  Kara’s knees gave out. All that held her against the wall, now, were his hands against her neck. Carden’s hazy outline lifted the amulet and slid it over her head. The king’s next words echoed in her fading consciousness.

  “Do you want to see where you belong, boy? Look into her eyes as the light fades. Once she’s dead, look down to the stone to see the only world that wants you.”

  Braeden bit his cheek and choked on whatever he was trying to say. His eyes shook, and she saw a hint of wet in the corners. Carden stroked her cheek. His touch was warm, but she flinched until he pulled away. She fought through the vice grip on her neck to breathe.

  “Vagabond, I regret that you were caught in this web,” Carden said carelessly. “You might have been quite useful.”

  “Father, please! Stop!”

  “Will you return to me if I spare her?”

  Braeden didn’t answer.

  Kara couldn’t see much of anything anymore, but she shuddered with unfocused disbelief and fought the surging wave of lightheadedness, trying to weigh both options. Neither was the right choice. She didn’t know what she wanted him to say.

  Something tickled her side, but she barely sensed it through the numbing tremors in her body. She couldn’t pivot to see what it was until it jumped onto Braeden’s arms and let loose a bark too vicious for something so small.

  In one fell swoop, like a punch to her stomach, heart, and head all at once, her final breath in the cavern left her. The room went black, and her body hung in the air like she was floating. There was no sound, no fear. If this was death, then at least there wasn’t any pain.

  Survival

  Something cracked. Kara thudded on the ground. Air forced its way back into her lungs with a searing bite, forcing her to cough and sputter until her breath was normal again.

  She gasped and turned over. At first, all she understood was the color green, but then the rough itch of grass irritated her skin. Flick scampered onto her shoulder, purring and whimpering. She picked him up and stared into his ridiculously massive eyes.

  “You can teleport?”

  The little thing chirped and licked her nose as Braeden walked into her peripheral vision. Flick squirmed out of her hands and stood on her head, growling at the prince with all his tiny might. She cupped him in her palms in an effort to contain his minute ferocity, but he watched Braeden with bared teeth from between her fingers.

  The prince knelt over her, his eyes furrowed with worry and regret. He bit his cheek and looked at her with deeper concern than she’d ever seen in his face before, but her neck ached and her body shied away from him as she tried to make sense of what had happened.

  “I thought—” She coughed again. “I thought I’d died.”

  He shook his head and pulled her into a hug. Though she wanted to kick him to the ground, she just burrowed her head into his chest until she could subdue the stinging threads of pain still lingering in her throat. Flick growled with useless twists of his body from somewhere in between them.

  Braeden cradled her head in his palm, but nothing could make the sharp pain in her throat disappear completely. He rubbed her cheek with his thumb, and her skin prickled under his fingers. She pulled away, resisting the urge to run her hand over any bit of her that he’d touched.

  She returned Flick to his place on her shoulder and looked into the forest to distract herself. A dirt lane curved through the woods, cresting over a distant hill before it turned down another. A tavern stood on the road nearby, the sound of clinking glasses escaping through the windows.

  The amulet glistened on the ground a few feet from her, near where she’d landed after Flick had rescued them, and she preoccupied herself with lifting it off the ground and slipping it into her satchel. Flick snuck in after it.

  “How were you going to answer Carden?” she finally asked.

  He paused. “I don’t know.”

  She glared over her shoulder, trying to catch his expression, but flinched and sucked in a sharp breath because he was closer than she’d expected. He looked at the ground in shame and stepped back, his expression twisted with the same searing pain that burned in her neck.

  “Kara, even Aislynn can’t always look me in the eye,” he said. His voice was gentle, and he didn’t try to touch her again. “I know that when she sees me, she remembers the most painful time of her life, even though she will never admit it. Carden wants me back in the Stele, but it’s because he’s after something that I haven’t yet figured out. Richard and Gavin would disown me the moment they found out what I am.

  “But you—you’re the one person in this entire world who knows what I truly am and stayed by me without caring. You’re the last person I want to hurt. We were lucky this time, but we might not be if it happens again. When it happens again. I need to fight this ba—”

  “Oh, shut up.” She rubbed her neck.

  “What?”

  “Save your ‘I have to fight my battle’ speech. I don’t want to go around Ourea alone, and you’re the only one I trust here, despite—that. I just don’t want to be alone, not right now.”

  It wasn’t the only reason she didn’t want him to leave.

  “Kara, when Carden gets that close again—”

  “He won’t,” she muttered, but she looked to the ground when she tasted her lie. She nodded to the pub farther up the hill. “Now buy me a beer, and let’s go to the village.”

  Braeden walked beneath an overhanging branch and whistled for Rowthe. “This isn’t a time for jokes. I always held on to the belief that I could free myself from my tie to the Stele, but since that isn’t an option anymore, I need to find someone who will help me control myself.”

  “You’ll never be that close to him again.”

  “But I will! He’s always hunting, always chasing, and I have no idea why!” He smacked a branch. Leaves shook off from the force.

  “Braeden—”

  “No! Listen to me.” He marched over, getting so close to her that she could smell the oaky cologne on his collar. He whispered, his voice a breathy growl.

  “I was going to kill you, not ten minutes ago, because he told me to. I was going to strangle you and watch you die because that was what he wanted at that moment. I need someone to teach me to be stronger than him, or Flick might not save you next time.”

  She held her breath and fought the impulse to shield her neck. His intense gaze froze her. Even as a Hillsidian, he was just as terrifying as his father.

  He stepped away and watched the forest. “I think Adele will be able to help me. She and Garrett are the most powerful creatures I’ve ever met. When the Vagabond possessed you and told me off, he said that a muse would guide me. I think he was referring to them. I need to do this, and I promise this is best for both of us. I can be lucky for only so long. Once I take you back to Hillside, I’ll set off for the drenowith.”

  She didn’t answer, preferring to look off into the trees instead. Twigs crunched. Rowthe appeared behind a bush, barely visible in the bright daylight. His head hung low and his tail curved between his legs as he looked up at her with pitiful eyes.

  “We know you were scared, Rowthe. It’s okay.” She scratched his ears and the creature let out a soft growl.

  Braeden leaned against a tree. “Let’s head back to Hillside. I don’t think you should go to the village alone. Twin will keep you company until I get back, and then I’ll go with you to find the village.”

  He gestured for her to get on Rowthe while maintaining an overly respectful distance from her.

  She shook her head. “I’m not going to wait, even if it means that I have to go alone. I have what I need.”

  “Kara, no.”
/>   “You take Rowthe. There are other mounts in the Grimoire that can help me.”

  “Kara—”

  “Go.”

  He tugged on her arm to make her face him. “Look, I apologize for putting you in this position, but I need you to wait. You don’t know what’s waiting there. Let me take you back to Hillside. Use it as a chance to relax or—or burn an effigy of me if you want. But wait. The village has waited a thousand years for you, and it can wait another month or two. There have to be more safeguards set up to protect the village. If you go in there angry and distracted, you’ll fail.” He paused before letting out a shaky sigh. “You might even die.”

  She glared at him, but he kept his gaze steady.

  “Please, Kara.”

  “I’ll do more than burn an effigy,” she muttered.

  He sighed and offered to help her onto Rowthe, but she mounted on her own. He pulled himself up behind her once she was situated. She shied away from his touch, and during the six-hour journey back to Hillside, they didn’t say a single word to each other.

  Kara lay in her room, watching the roof of her canopy bed shiver in the subtle breezes coming in from the open window. Someone rapped on her door. She didn’t answer. The door clicked open.

  “I didn’t say you could come in,” she said.

  “I don’t usually have to ask permission,” Gavin answered.

  She looked over her knees to see the Blood standing with his arms crossed, watching her. He looked down over the brim of his nose.

  “What’s wrong, Vagabond?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Lying isn’t one of the gifts you acquired.”

  “Did you just call me a bad liar?”

  “I did.”

  She sighed and sat up.

  “Where’s Braeden?” he asked. “I heard that he left you at the gates and tore off on what the guards believe to be a flaer.”

  “It is a flaer.”

  “Where did he go?”

  She caught Gavin’s eye and paused. She could give Braeden away right now. She could tell Gavin everything. The one person she’d thought was her best and only true friend left in the world had tried to kill her, after all. Even if it was at Carden’s behest, he’d had the chance to save her and he had done nothing.

  But she remembered the promise she made to Adele the first time she woke up in Hillside. She would protect Braeden as often as he’d protected her. Here, now, she would lie. Well, mostly.

  “We ran into Carden. We only escaped thanks to that little guy.” She pointed to where Flick slept on the mantle. “And Braeden needed to—um—I guess he needed to kill something after the experience.”

  “It’s a miracle that you both survived,” Gavin said. He sat on the edge of her bed and rested a hand on her ankle.

  She swallowed hard as the memory of Braeden strangling her resurfaced. She clenched the sheets beneath her hands and glared at the floor.

  “Are you all right, Kara?”

  “I’ll be fine. I should just relax.” She had borrowed Braeden’s words. Her throat tightened.

  “What you need is a distraction. I’ll send Twin to you immediately.”

  Kara laughed, but the smile faded as she remembered the way Carden sneered at her and lit his own flame when hers had petered out.

  “I do have good news,” Gavin said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Ayavel, Kirelm, Losse, and Hillside have agreed on a peace treaty. We will have the Gala in a little over a month.”

  “That’s amazing,” she agreed.

  “Now, since you aren’t from Ourea, you might not know that each of the Bloods expect gifts at an occasion such as this. If you would like, I would be happy to help you brainstorm.”

  “Would you be helping me brainstorm your own gift?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “You’re shameless.” She laughed, shaking her head.

  “At least you’re laughing.” He squeezed her ankle and smiled before he left the room, latching the door behind him.

  She stood and walked over to the window. The cobblestone road below was shrouded in the tree tops of Hillsidian houses, and in the distance, the market quarter boomed with life. She was safe in Hillside. This was home.

  Someone knocked on the door. Before Kara could say anything, it opened with the swoosh of a skirt.

  “Hi, Twin,” she said without turning around.

  “I’m so glad you’re back! Try this on.”

  She turned to see Twin dump a pile of crimson fabric on the bed.

  “What—?”

  “It’s your Gala dress! I hope you don’t mind, but pants simply won’t do for such a formal affair. Quick, slip it on! I had to guess your size, and I just know it’s wrong.”

  “Do I get a say in this?”

  “How ridiculous! Of course not. Come on! You have to try this on for me.”

  Kara lifted several layers of fabric off of the mattress, but couldn’t for the life of her find the bedspread beneath it. Twin hoisted the fabric into her arms, and the sloping outline of a formal ball gown blocked out large chunks of the sunlight before it was dumped over Kara’s head. A gap in the material appeared, and Twin grinned through it as the dress finally settled onto its victim.

  When Kara’s head was freed from the red fabric, she saw a different person in the mirror. Sure, her hair was still gritty and there was a streak of dirt on her chin, but the dress made her look like a princess despite all of that. It had silver trim on the bodice and hugged her waist, tumbling out from the hips to a long train that pooled around her feet. The fabric clasped at her elbows and her wrists with round silver buttons, while hemmed slits ran down the sleeves and tugged the neckline away from her shoulders.

  She brushed her hair back and as she did so, two growing bruises on her neck that were shaped like hands became visible. Twin gasped when she saw them, but Kara cleared her throat and shook her head.

  “Please don’t ask.”

  “Are you all right, at least?”

  “Yes, I think so. Twin, did you make this dress?” she asked, trying to change the topic.

  The girl nodded and began to pin it so that she could better tailor it to Kara’s body.

  “I wanted to make it green and gold,” Twin explained as she worked. “It would have looked great on you, but Blood Gavin told me I wasn’t allowed to do that because the other kingdoms would take our national colors as a sign of possession. The thought! I merely wanted the dress to suit you.”

  “Well, it’s stunning nonetheless. Thank you so much.”

  “This is only the beginning, because we get to go shopping for accessories tomorrow!”

  Kara groaned at the thought of shopping as her friend helped pull the gown back over her head.

  “Is that—?” Twin stepped toward the mantle, eyes widening as she caught sight of Flick. “Is that a—?”

  “Yeah, I can’t pronounce it, either.”

  “What an adorable little thing!” Twin giggled and rubbed her finger on Flick’s forehead. He flipped onto his back to play with her fingertip.

  “You really are a blessed girl, Kara! You have a gift from the heavens and the affection of a royal man!”

  “You don’t really think—wait, who are you talking about?” Kara paused, catching herself. There was no way Twin could know what Braeden really was.

  “Oh I’m an idiot!” Twin slapped a hand over her mouth and set Flick back on the mantle.

  “Twin, who are you talking about?”

  “No one!”

  “Twin!”

  “No!”

  “Twin!”

  “I—” The girl gasped, sat on the bed, and stuffed her face into the yards of fabric lying there in all its pinned, pointy glory.

  “You shouldn’t—come on, don’t do that.” Kara tried to pull her friend’s head out of the fabric. “Seriously, stop. You must have put a hundred pins in that dress.”

  “I can’t tell you, Kara. I apologize. Blood Gavin wo
uld be furious!”

  “Wait, are you trying to say that Gavin is interested?”

  “Oh, Bloods!” Twin threw her face in the pile of cloth and pins again.

  “Twin, that has to be a rumor. Even if the political implications of a Blood and the Vagabond weren’t important, I’m not interested.”

  “Not interested?” Twin looked at Kara as if she’d just slapped her. “Not only is he the Blood, but he’s a good person. How could you not be attracted to him?”