God, I’d missed her. So much.
My eyes burned again and I blinked back a fresh round of tears. Jeez, I was a mess.
“What are you looking at, Destiny? I do own the place,” Mom finally replied to my statement. My thoughts were moving so quickly I’d forgotten what I said.
Captain Turaya, who looked at least as happy as we were that the queen was alive, pulled out her chair for her. While the look on his face wasn’t infatuation—he wasn’t in love with Mom—he moved with a depth of loyalty and reverence I hadn’t really seen before. He clearly loved her. Not the way Nix looked at me, but it was still love. Dedication. Absolute loyalty.
I remembered being told he’d been one of two—and the only one still alive—who had helped her escape the attempt on her life all those years ago. He’d helped her make it to the citadel, where she’d disappeared. Until now.
With Mom at the head of the table, Trinity sat at her right, Faith on her left. Their mates sat beside them. I took the foot of the table with Nix beside me. Captain Turaya sat in the open chair on my other side. There were two empty seats on each side, but I had no doubt that they would be filled soon. I would suggest to my mother that one of the seats be offered to High Cleric Amandine.
It was time to unite the planet once more. And my mother would need everyone to feel like they had a seat at the table to make that happen.
I slapped my forehead with my palm and shook my head. God. I sounded like fucking Trinity with my diplomatic thinking. What was happening here?
“There is much to discuss. Shall we start at the beginning?” Mom asked, although since everyone remained silent, the question was rhetorical. The only ones alive at the beginning of all this were Leo’s dad and the queen, herself.
“Twenty-seven years ago, not long after my official mating ceremony to King Mykel, we were suddenly and brutally attacked by a band of masked assassins during a dinner event with my mate’s family. The king was stabbed in the heart right before my eyes. I saw the dagger pierce his flesh. Watched him fall. His parents were murdered as well.” My mother placed a hand over her chest and looked at Leo’s father. “Would you continue from there, please, Travin.”
Holy shit. I didn’t even know Leo’s dad had a first name. But I had no doubt only Mom would be allowed to use it.
“Of course, My Queen.” Captain Turaya stood behind her chair, one hand on her shoulder. A friend offering comfort. “I was there. I, too, watched the attack unfold. A fellow member of the queen’s guard assisted me in fighting off some of the attackers. We could not save the king, but we dragged the queen from the room. She was defiant, even then, and wanted to stay and fight.”
“I do not bow down to traitors, Captain.”
“No, you do not.” His hand tightened on her shoulder and he released her, pacing along the length of the table as if the pain of his memories made it impossible for him to remain still. “As I said, we pulled her from the room. Then took her through the secret tunnels to the exit nearest the citadel. We were all bloodied, hurting. The guard with me did not survive the night. But we managed to escort the queen to the citadel, where she disappeared.”
Mom looked to the older man. “I am sorry for leaving you. For disappearing like that. I trusted you, but I could not risk your life by revealing my plan.”
“Plausible deniability,” Captain Turaya said with a nod. “I understand and you did what was right. Your spire remained lit all these years and has given us all hope. We remained faithful, ready for your return.”
Mom smiled warmly at the man, cleared her throat and nodded. “I stayed on Earth for all these years. I was selfish. First, I convinced myself that my daughters were not ready, but that was a lie. I was not ready. Our life on Earth was good. Peaceful. I am ashamed to say that I was not in a rush to return.”
“Did you notice anything amiss during your time on Earth?” Leo asked.
Mom shook her head. “Nothing. The kidnapping was a complete surprise. One minute I was sleeping, the next I’d been transported.”
Leo looked to his father. “And in all these years, you never figured out who was behind the attack? Who killed the king?”
Captain Turaya sat, at last, his shoulders slumped. “No. It was as if the attackers vanished into thin air. There was no trail. No DNA. No comm traffic. No abandoned EMVs. No vid records. Nothing. It was as if the entire incident had never happened.”
“They left behind corpses, Captain,” Mom said.
“It’s not possible.” Thor spoke up. “My mother spent decades in the Optimus Unit. Their tech is everywhere. They track every transport. Every message. What you are saying is not possible.”
“But it’s the truth.” Leo’s father leaned back in his chair, suddenly looking his age, which was several years older than my mother. “Whoever orchestrated the attack was a genius. It was no random or hasty action. The plan was executed perfectly. They murdered the king and his parents and left absolutely nothing for us to trace.”
“Perfect, except for Mom’s escape,” Trinity added.
“That’s because she’s a troublemaker, like me,” I tossed out there. I had to grin at Mom, break up the tense mood. All this talk of death was making the air too thick to breathe. I had heard the stories before, but it had never been real. Not until now.
I looked around, felt the blood drain from my face as an idea occurred to me. “Wait. Here? It happened here? In this room?”
Mom looked around, her eyes taking in everything, but seeing the past. “Yes. I am not pleased to be back, but at least the décor has been changed.” She looked at the dark green silks on the windows, the pale green sofa cushions, the dark marble table. “It used to be dark brown and burgundy. The cushions on the couch were like red wine.”
“Okay.” Faith waved her hand through the air. “Enough of this bullshit trip down memory lane. If everyone died, who was looking for you all these years? And how did they find you?”
Trinity squirmed in her seat and I leaned forward, my hand on Nix’s thigh squeezing tightly. I didn’t notice, until his warm touch covered mine. I let up, but didn’t lean back. Whatever Trin was about to say was going to be good.
“I think that’s my fault, actually,” Trinity said.
Oh, hell yeah. Called it.
Faith’s head looked like it was about to explode. “What?”
Trinity looked from Faith to Mom to me. I was nodding in agreement. I’d figured it out a while back. “You contacted Warden Egara, didn’t you? Asked about Alera. The Ardor.”
Mom offered Trinity a small smile.
“Yes,” Trinity continued. “My stupid Ardor. And less than two days later, Mom was gone and we were running from the CIA.”
“I don’t think they were CIA, Trin.” Faith leaned to the side and into Thor’s shoulder. She processed fast. We all did. “Those Men-In-Black were probably NSA or some other way-top-secret organization that doesn’t exist.”
Nix went stiff next to me. His glare focused solely on me. “Are you in danger? Are these males from Earth hunting you, mate? Do we have more to worry about than just a ruthless killer on Alera?”
I sighed. God, he was so damn cute. “No. They were after us, but we ditched them at the Bride Processing Center. You should have seen those big Atlan guards back them down.”
“God, they were huge,” Trinity said with a laugh.
“And hot,” Faith added, waggling her eyebrows.
“Enough.” Mom interrupted before we could go into a full-out assessment of the Atlan warriors and their big... everything. Not that Faith was wrong, but I had Nix now, and absolutely zero interest in any other man, or alien, touching me.
“How they found me is irrelevant. I was transported using a mobile transport beacon. I have no idea how they acquired such rare technology from the Prillons, but they did. They slapped the beacon on me and transported me right out of our house and into a prison cell aboard a spaceship orbiting Alera. They held me there for several days, beating me, sta
rving me, demanding the jewels. Once the spires lit for you three, I was transported again, to the planet, into the custody of Lord Wyse.”
“That bastard. I knew it! If he wasn’t dead, I’d kill him again.” Trinity, in a full rage, was a sight to behold, so much like Mom it was scary sometimes. “We saw signs of a struggle, heard you scream, but nothing more,” she said. “We immediately went to the Interstellar Brides Program because we knew that was the nearest transport center on Earth. We had to get to Alera.”
“And your father?” Thor asked.
“He said you two had talked about things before,” Faith replied, looking to Mom. “He said he had a safe place to go until we could send for him.” Faith reached across the table and offered her hand to our mother, who took it. “He’s fine. He’s smart as hell and not afraid. The Men-In-Black were after him, but I know Dad. They’ll never catch him.”
“Yes, you’re right. Good.” Mom sighed in relief and leaned back, breaking Faith’s hold. “So, Lord Wyse is dead?”
“As a doornail,” I said. Nix looked confused by the term, but he could figure it out. Context was key. Although, now that I thought about it, a doornail… dead. Yeah, it was stupid phrase, but Wyse was dead. Sooo dead.
I thought back to how our house on Earth had been trashed. Not a lot, but enough to know something had happened. Mom had warned us about the possibility of someone eventually finding her. We’d heard her scream, but by the time we got upstairs, she was gone.
But we were ready. Our entire lives, she’d told us what to do. Still, we’d only imagined the scenario. Then it had become real. All of it. The stories of a faraway planet. The strange language she’d forced us—and Dad—to learn. The culture and customs she’d drilled into us but we had never used. Until now.
The car chase on the way to the Bride Processing Center felt like a lifetime ago. Earthlings. God, it had been so simple. Just a car chase. No ion blasters. No transport technology. No aliens. Or assassins. Or thirty-year plots to unravel. It had been like the Wild West, now that I looked back. Some of my last moments on Earth.
“So, you were treated poorly. Questioned about the royal necklace.” Trinity was back in analyst mode. “What else?”
Faith’s eyes widened and she leaned forward. “Someone wanted the necklace? Did they find it?”
Mom shook her head. “That night.” She tipped her head toward Captain Turaya. “When I went into the citadel, I hid it. No one knows of its whereabouts, but me.”
That was a lie, of course. Mom knew where it was, but so did we. We’d made sure it was still in that hidden compartment inside the citadel when we’d first arrived. We had all agreed it was safest to leave it where our mother had kept it hidden all these years. And we’d been right to protect it. Someone kidnapped Mom to get the necklace. “If they want the necklace, then someone thinks they can take the throne.”
“But what if…” Leo lifted his chin. “I beg your pardon for speaking plainly, but what if your spire had dimmed? The necklace would have been lost forever.”
She shook her head. “No.” Her gaze flicked to each of us, nearly too quickly for anyone to notice. But Nix did. His hand still rested over mine on his thigh, and I felt his muscles tense.
“The royal jewels will remain hidden until I decide to retrieve them.” She said nothing more, and I glanced around the table. It didn’t answer Leo’s question, but he didn’t point that out.
“Why would someone want the royal necklace? What use is it without the queen herself?” Thor asked. “With no spire lit, there is no heir. The jewels are worthless without an heir.”
Mom looked to him, smiled. “A common belief, but not correct. The citadel chooses who shall rule. How the ancients created such a gift, I do not know, but the citadel is more than a building. More than stone. The citadel is alive. Intelligent. If the royal line were truly to die out, I am sure the citadel would choose another to rule in our place.”
“So if someone wanted to rule, but wasn’t the queen or a descendent, they would need the necklace,” Thor offered. “And what? Hope that by having the necklace the citadel would make him or her the true ruler of Alera?”
“Correct.”
“What?” What the hell was Mom talking about? I’d never heard this before. “Mom, are you telling me that if they actually managed to wipe us all out, they could actually take over and rule the planet?”
Mom thought for a moment, tilted her head. “It is possible. But not likely. The citadel sees all, and would likely not reward such dishonorable behavior.”
“It really is alive?” Thor seemed fascinated by the fact. Me? I was not amused. Not in the least.
“Not alive, as we are,” she answered. “But an ancient intelligence dwells within. I cannot explain it or tell you more.”
Well damn and double damn. I was going to be spending some time in the citadel. See what I could see. What Mom was describing was the most amazing artificial intelligence ever conceived, and it was millennia old. Five millennia, at least. No. More. That was more like ten… ten thousand years.
Holy shit.
“Then the person who kidnapped you wanted you dead and the necklace for himself,” Nix said. He’d been quiet until now, but clearly analyzing everything. “Or herself.”
“I’ve had a lot of time to consider the possibilities,” Mom said. “Years. You said there have been attempts on your lives as well since you’ve been here. I was found… after all this time. I was kidnapped and brought to Alera and questioned after the necklace. But then—”
“Oh my god,” I said, cutting Mom off, everyone’s heads whipping my way. “But then we arrived. Whoever wanted the necklace never expected the queen to have kids. Daughters to take over.”
“Very good, love,” Mom said, beaming. She looked to Captain Turaya. “I was pregnant with Trinity when I fled.”
The older man’s mouth fell open as he processed the words. “I never knew. Then Trinity is full Aleran, King Mykel’s daughter?”
“My true heir.” She took Trinity’s hand in hers and gave it a squeeze.
Trinity looked to me and Faith, then stuck out her tongue. “The heir and the spares,” she singsonged, but I knew she was only playing around.
“Trinity can be queen,” I said, looking to Nix. “I don’t like people that much.”
Nix leaned forward hooked his hand behind my neck in a very possessive gesture. “You like me.”
“All right, you two,” Faith complained. “We had to wait forever for you to come up for air.”
“Like you weren’t well-occupied,” Thor said in a low voice. The way Faith blushed, I had to assume they’d made use of the time in very pleasurable ways.
Captain Turaya was the one who cleared his throat, yet smiled.
“Someone wanted to take over the throne by getting the royal necklace from you, then killing you,” Leo said, clearly not into the teasing. “But when it was discovered you had heirs, when the three extra spires lit, their plans went to hell. They had four females to kill, not one.” His gaze darted around the table, between us girls. “And they had one hell of a time finding you. Nicely done.”
“We are badass princesses, after all,” I offered. “Daughters of a badass queen.”
The captain looked confused. Stammered. “I don’t understand this phrase. You all seem to have perfectly good backsides to me.”
Trinity laughed, which was so unlike her, but seeing the uptight and formal captain so flustered was fun. Leave it to Faith to be having opposite day. As usual.
“But who could it be?” Faith asked. “None of this makes any sense.”
“Who’s left alive?” I added. “Or, who can we rule out because they’re dead?”
“My parents,” Thor said and Faith leaned into him, took his hand in hers and kissed the back of it.
“Almost everyone in the building that blew up,” I said and Nix grumbled to himself.
“We have a list of names. It is extensive. There was also Zel,” Leo
added, and explained to Mom about the queen’s guard who had tried to kidnap Trinity during the fancy reception. Another bit of excitement I’d missed because I was busy pretending to be a nun.
“As we all know, Lord Wyse,” Faith offered. “He arrested me and tried to have me taken to a scary prison. And poor Radella,” Faith said, looking down at her and Thor’s joined hands. “Her dad’s dead, her mate is dead and her son is in prison.”
Apparently, Trinity agreed. “I can’t imagine having that creep for a father. Lord Wyse was vile. And so was that scarred jerk who was always following him around.” She shuddered. “He disappeared. Maybe we should start looking for him.”
“No need.” The queen spoke immediately as she held up one hand. “He’s dead. Killed by the clerics who took me from Lord Wyse.”
“Killed by the clerics?” Captain Turaya asked.
“Yes,” Mom replied. “The last few days, I’ve been held by clerics.”
“And you are certain he’s dead?” he wondered.
“Yes,” she repeated. “They killed him in my cell and dragged his body out after. He's dead as a doornail.” That small grin on Mom’s face was for me. I grinned back.
The clerics had had her for days. Shit. I’d been soooo close. So damn close. “Contact Amandine,” I said. “She’s a good guy. I know for sure. Maybe she can help.”
“Amandine? Is she still alive, then?” Mom asked. By the smile on her face, she seemed pleased with the news.
“You knew her?” I asked.
Mom nodded. “She and my mother—the previous queen—were very close friends. She was Aunt Ama to me when I was young.”
I was glad to see at least one happy memory of this planet existed in Mom’s head, but this wasn’t helping us get anywhere. “There’s no way it was the clerics. At least not officially. Amandine sent her best to search the Optimus Unit prison. She’d heard there was an unauthorized prisoner there and she was determined to find out what was going on.”
Ascension Saga, Book 9: Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga Page 4
