After the discussion of last night, no one doubted that Rhia actually was as dangerous as either of them had thought to begin with. Neelis had agreed to help in any way he could by assigning as many shifters to guard her, even if she had demonstrated how easily she could get out, this was about slowing her down in case she turned on them again.
“My apologies, Princess Laura,” Neelis stepped forward when the first rays of pale daylight broke the darkness of the night outside the frozen windows. “But I must be on my way. I have urgent matters to attend to.”
He had been fighting for the past minutes, glancing at the dawning day from the corner of his eye, and Maray was eager to catch him alone and talk to him. So when Laura dismissed him with a nod of her head, she excused herself and, before anyone could object, followed Neelis out the door.
“I must be on my way, Your Royal Highness,” Neelis informed her in a tone that made clear he’d rather not talk to her right now.
“Where is he?” Maray asked bluntly, eager to waste as little of Neelis’ time as possible. She was aware that he wanted to be there for Jemin and that Jemin would need him, but she knew that she couldn’t let Neelis leave without some answers.
Neelis shook his head. “I can’t risk telling you that or you might sneak out at night to find him and endanger both yourself and Jemin.”
Disappointment settled in Maray’s stomach. “Then tell me, at least, when I can see him,” she asked Neelis as he stopped and bowed, indicating that he was leaving.
“I am not able to tell you, Your Royal Highness,” he said, and as Maray opened her mouth to object, he clarified, “Not because I don’t want to, but because I honestly don’t know how long it will take for him to grasp what is happening to him and how to control himself.”
“Control himself?” Maray repeated, and it dawned on her that this was real. This was happening. Jemin was a shifter, and the way she saw it right now, her mother would probably happily cancel their arrangement. She would find a way to not let them see each other any longer when the time until she had to decide for a proper suitor wasn’t far. She had heard whispers among the servants when she had passed by that the new Princess would be presented with a bunch of noblemen to pick from at the ball by the end of the month—New Year’s Eve. Another thing to dread apart from all of the dangers that were already looming over her and everyone she held dear.
Neelis didn’t show any signs he was going to explain further but instead nodded at the door behind them. Maray glanced over her shoulder and found Pia waiting with a grim face, and as Neelis asked her to explain to Maray, Maray stepped back and let Neelis move on. “Take good care of him,” she said, her heart already sinking as she watched him disappear along the hallway and into the stairwell.
Pia joined her under the chandelier right in front of the grand gallery. “It won’t be easy,” she said, her voice sounding as dark as the look on her face.
Maray nodded, not knowing any longer if Pia was referring to what lay ahead for Jemin or what that meant for their relationship, or what Rhia’s revelation meant for all of Allinan.
With a sideways glance, she eyed the grand gallery. The window blinds were shut and the magic illumination reduced to a bare minimum, which left a ghostly echo of the brightness of daylight. It was difficult to imagine a royal dance there with the way it looked now. “You know that I was planning to graduate and go to college in the other world?” Maray murmured, not even sure what made her think of what would have been the alternative to the life she had now.
Pia touched her arm and led her away from the room where her mother would make her meet the crème de la crème of Allinan bachelors in less than two weeks. There was nothing she’d like to do less than that—maybe face Gan Krai, but for now, she chose not to fall into a panic about him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Maray,” Pia responded, and Maray shook her head.
“A job, being able to pay my own bills, independence, a narcissistic boss the worst problem to deal with,” Maray rambled more to herself, but the shifter-girl caught every word.
“You’d rather be in someone’s service than to be on the side of the elite?” Pia asked, but there wasn’t any offense in her words. The look on her face gave away that Pia understood exactly what Maray was saying. Maray nodded and started walking with Pia tagging along. “What’s a narcissist?”
Maray didn’t find it in her to explain about someone who by definition had an excessive interest in themselves and their own importance to the world. “Think Rhia,” Maray suggested even if narcissism was probably not a strong enough term for what was going on with the Queen of Allinan. But Pia gave a shrug and accompanied Maray back to her father’s room.
Before they entered, Pia stopped Maray at the door, fingers already pressing down on the handle, but not yet pushing the door open.
“I will help you deal with Jemin’s transformation,” Pia promised. “I know, I am a child in your eyes, but I know what I am talking about when it comes to the hassles of becoming a Yutu.”
Maray shook her head. “You are not a child,” she corrected, and the look in the girl’s eyes suggested her assessment was correct. “You have experienced more pain and drama than most adults ever do in the other world, and here you are, humbly offering to assist me in dealing with mine. I can’t wish for a better guide for this situation.”
Pia’s eyes brightened at Maray’s words, and Maray could see the wild spirit in the girl tame a bit in her wish to help. She was no longer there because she was looking for an escape from her mother’s plans to be married off to a wealthy noble but because she saw real value in being a handmaiden to Maray—not in the handmaiden part, but in the bodyguard and friend part. Maray’s lips pulled into a feeble smile, but it was a smile despite the flood of bad news of the past hours, and Pia pushed the door open.
When they entered the room, everyone else but Laura had left, and Maray’s parents were in deep conversation. As they noticed the open door, their dialogue stopped mid-sentence.
“I’m sorry, Mom, Dad.” Maray was about to turn around and leave again, making Pia wait on the threshold as she didn’t move further inside.
“No, it’s good you’re here.” Gerwin waved her inside with one hand, the other resting on his chest. His face was pale, and his breathing was shallow.
“Everything okay, Dad?” Maray crossed the room at his gesture and grabbed his wrist to take his pulse.
Laura eyed her with an unreadable face.
“Could be better,” Gerwin admitted. “But Corey checked on me before she left, and according to her, spasms and breathing problems will be my constant companion until I transition into the next stage of regeneration.”
Maray frowned at the prospect of what her father would have to go through and all because supposedly Gan Krai wanted to get to her. She still wasn’t convinced that this entire situation wasn’t a big scheme Rhia had invented to finally get Maray’s blood.
“What’s the next stage?” she asked and ignored the dark thoughts.
“I’ll need to do something like physical therapy. Getting back into shape is important after a major reset like what happened to me. But this—” he pointed at his chest, “—will get worse before it gets better.”
“Is this why you decided that it was time to tell the truth?” Laura bit out.
Gerwin didn’t say yes or no but eyed Maray for a long moment, as if struggling over whether or not he wanted to say what was on his mind.
“Spit it out, Dad,” Maray helped him, and he grinned half-heartedly.
“Even if it hadn’t been for Rhia, I would have told you the truth eventually,” he said diplomatically, which seemed to upset Laura even more.
Maray didn’t want to hear it, either. She had listened to Gerwin’s side of the story and to Rhia’s side. Neelis had filled in some of the missing pieces of the puzzle. Maray was going to have a talk with her father one day, but not today. This was between Laura and Gerwin, and Maray had had
enough for one night. She needed to rest her head and have a couple of moments to sort her thoughts.
“I’ll be in my room if you need anything,” Maray informed them and turned to leave, but her mother called her back.
“Corey mentioned something before she left,” she said in a tone that was hard to ignore. “And I thought you might want to know, too.”
“What is it?” Maray stopped and glanced over her shoulder, unsure if she could handle any further news.
“You won’t like to hear this—especially not now,” Laura started, and her words triggered the natural teenage instinct in Maray to ignore whatever was coming after the comma. “But with everything going on, we need to appear strong and untouchable more than ever, and you know what the one thing is that will make us stronger…”
Maray knew. It hadn’t occurred to her, though, that her mother would have the guts to bring it up to her so fast—basically the moment they learned about Jemin.
“We need to hold the ball for the suitors.” Laura spoke the words Maray never wanted to actually hear. Until now it had been easy to ignore the fact that it was ever going to happen and to delude herself about a future with Jemin, even if it was hidden behind closed doors. She wasn’t ready to move on. Not with everything else going on. Jemin was the one person she never wanted out of her life. No one could force her—
“No.” Maray said it before she took a moment to think it through.
“You know it doesn’t matter what your heart says, Maray,” Laura said as if that would make it any easier. “And it’s just the ball. You don’t need to marry anyone right away. Just be polite, meet them, show interest, show Allinan that the Cornay line is strong and ready for the next generations to step in.”
“Maybe you are,” Maray said coldly. Maray wasn’t ready to step in. She wasn’t ready for anything. “And while we’re at it, you’re a hypocrite, Mom.” She saw with satisfaction as her mother’s composure slipped and she stared as if Maray had slapped her in the face. “You ran away with the man you love, and you are forcing me to choose some random guy over what my heart wants. You are repeating history, and how can you be so sure I won’t.”
Maray felt the rage, the frustration, all of it break through. She was revolting against the one thing she felt a normal human reaction would make a difference with. She wouldn’t let Jemin go. She wouldn’t marry anyone else, and if her mother made her, she would prove she was her mother’s daughter and find a way to make Jemin forget his sense of loyalty to Allinan and run away with her.
“And how can you be so sure Jemin loves you just as much?” Laura countered, all royal dignity gone. She was taking on the one role she had neglected most in the past years and excelling at it—not in a good way. She was acting like a desperate mother. “How can you be sure that Rhia hasn’t incentivized Jemin to ‘court’ you the same way she did with Gerwin to ‘court’ me?”
“That’s hardly fair, Laura,” Gerwin interrupted with a weak voice, but Laura ignored him.
“You think you are the first to be in love, the first who will be heartbroken forever if you can’t be with him…” Laura’s eyes were like daggers shooting in Maray’s direction. “Trust me, you’re not the first one, and you won’t be the last. This family is falling apart, and if it does, Allinan will fall to whatever is threatening right now. Rhia, Gan Krai, the Shalleyn. I honestly don’t want to find out. I want the people on our side. I want you to be untouchable for the nobles’ criticism, and I want a strong, loyal man at your side who will protect you—and not just behind closed doors. Someone all Allinan can look up to.
“Why don’t you marry me to Gan Krai then?” Maray said in an impulse of rage, leaving both her parents gaping. “Rhia has promised me to him already. Follow through, and everyone gets what they want. The people of Allinan love him, by the way. Isn’t he sort of their favorite author?” Maray didn’t like the heavy sarcasm in her own words, but she couldn’t help it. She was on a roll, exploding like a volcano, and with no one there able to get through to her.
Jemin would have known what to say in order to make her calm down. He would have found a way to sell another man to her as if it was the best thing in the world. And she would have forgotten it meant the end for the two of them just by looking into his eyes for a minute. But without him, she was thinking of flames.
And then she remembered that the last time flames had actually rushed from her hands, she had almost killed her friends, and that watching people running from danger she herself had created had inflicted an even worse sense of helplessness than her situation now did. She lowered her head and took a breath to steady herself.
“When?” Maray asked, hoping that at least they wouldn’t move up the date for the dance so she might have the chance to see Jemin again before it was time—if Neelis would let him, given his current state.
Laura cleared her throat. “New Year’s Eve.”
It was as she’d heard whispered throughout the palace, and it was all Maray needed to hear. The anger had retreated back into the prison of diplomacy, and she nodded. “Thanks for letting me know.”
Without being able to take another look at either of her parents, Maray turned back to the door, leaving them to their thoughts.
As she slouched from the room, she no longer cared if anyone would see the Princess stagger under the burden of her royal life.
Corey
Corey’s head weighed heavy in her hands as she sat and stared into the haze before the setting sun.
“Do you sometimes wish you had been born on the other side of the border?” she asked and continued to study the color change of the sky behind the palace walls. From her point of view at the table in Feris’ study, she could see the pale-yellow wall and the trees behind it. It would be easy for her to climb out the window and disappear into the city, and leave everything she knew behind. It would also be easy to portal to the other world and get stuck there without the proper equipment.
“No.” Wil shook his head, his red hair a much warmer tone than the pinkish tint of the horizon. “All I ever wanted is here.” He eyed her knowingly, and Corey was glad he couldn’t see her cheeks flush under the dark layer of skin.
She pulled her head up and placed her hand on Wil’s. Her childhood had been full of the angsty looks of people who didn’t understand what she was—a devil-child. And Feris had done everything to make sure she felt as little of their rejection as necessary. If everything Laura and Maray had retold was true, Feris had helped Rhia, not for his own selfish reasons, but for the greater good of Allinan—and to protect her. Moisture collected in her eyes, threatening to drip down onto the table.
Wil wrapped his fingers around hers, and his other hand reached around her shoulders and pulled her closer until she leaned against his side. “You are the strongest, smartest woman I know, Corey. I love you, not just because of that, but because there are so many layers to you, each of which I want to know and each of which I’d die to protect.”
The tear escaped but instead of onto the table, it seeped into Wil’s sleeve. They sat for a while, each of them in thought, Wil’s steady heartbeat like a fortress in Corey’s inner turmoil. She no longer knew what was right and what was wrong. Was it right to be upset with Feris if he had done the wrong things for the right reasons? Was it true that he had sought out Gan Krai to help protect Corey from herself and her magic? Why had he never told her? And then, there was the task of figuring out how to break the binding spell between Rhia and Laura.
If it was true, what Maray had repeated about Gan Krai’s journals, she needed to find them. If she couldn’t find Feris’ copy of ‘Laws and Rituals’, she needed to find those journals. Rhia couldn’t be left with the one weapon that would always give her the advantage of time. Her immortality had to be connected to the binding spell, or Feris wouldn’t have had that specific spell with instructions and scribbles in his book. If there was a way to separate Laura and Rhia, they had to do it. For Laura’s and Maray’s sake. For Allinan’
s sake.
A whisper claimed her attention. It wasn’t Wil or the wind outside. It was coming from the door.
Corey almost hit the floor when Wil jumped out of his seat, drawing his sword in the process, and held one finger up to his lips, indicating he wanted her to remain quiet.
He inched forward, the tip of the blade directed at the door, careful not to make a sound as both of them listened.
When Wil got there, a fierce knock made Corey’s heart stutter. Wil shrank back as if expecting the door to blast into the room, but the whisper was gone.
“Who’s there?” Wil called.
They waited for a couple of seconds then Corey pulled herself to her feet and made her way to join Wil at the door—much to his dismay as his gaze suggested. But as no one answered, Wil reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open in one fast swing. Corey held her breath—
A package wrapped in brown paper sat on the threshold, the size of a soap dish, but there was no one there.
Wil stepped outside, sword ready, his shirt folding between his shoulders as he turned left and right, screening the hallway for anything suspicious.
“No one there,” he reported and picked up the delivery with the tip of his blade.
Corey’s hands were already reaching out for it, but Wil shook his head, balancing the package on his sword all of the way to Corey’s lab desk. “You never know what is inside one of those.”
“Maybe a love letter,” Corey suggested darkly and earned a frown.
“I am serious, Corey. This could be from Gan Krai himself. Or from Rhia. If she can really come and go as she pleases, who says she won’t roam the castle, making people’s lives miserable…” he pointed out. “She’s done it before. Disguised as her youthful self and maybe as someone else completely…”
Two Worlds of Redemption Page 16
