Five Kinds of Love (The True and the Crown Book 5)

by May Dawson

  I’ll do it. It’s her voice, warm and resolute. There’s no doubt in it.

  You know what it is? She didn’t even ask why I can’t ask Rian—although I can’t explain that either.

  For god’s sakes, Devlin, I can hear you’re in pain. Just do it. I’m wearing Rian’s ring.

  She sounds anguished and steely all at once. My heart swells, and a grim smile twists my lips.

  My mother’s eyes widen. “No—”

  “Effugium,” I whisper.

  Chapter 29

  Tera

  All of Devlin’s memories—his everything, his very soul—is in my head. His voice is in my ear constantly now.

  So now if you die… I ask.

  Nice delicate trail-off there. I won’t be a guest in your brain forever. If my body dies, I die. If I’m not reunited with my body in a few days, I’ll die.

  It’s all so grim, and then Devlin says, I don’t know why it never occurred to me to ask you to be my host in effugium. I am so very excited to poke around your brain.

  “We’ve got to get him out of there,” I say to my men, who are clustered grimly around my bed in the safe house.

  Taking Devlin in knocked me to my knees, and I barely clung onto consciousness as his memories and thoughts swirled around me. His life has been so painful, so full of suffering, despite all the luxury and privilege. Being a prince didn’t protect him from being brutally beaten by tutors until he left for boarding school. He saw things in his parents’ court that no child should witness.

  Devlin seems to be held together with little more than grim sarcasm and spite, but a kind heart beats under those dark layers.

  This is like the ultimate getting-to-know-each-other date, that’s for sure.

  I sit up against the pillows, pushing my hair back from my face. My eyes feel hot. I want to fall apart, but that won’t save Devlin. “We have to get to Vasilik. Now.”

  “We can’t portal there.” Rian crumples the letter from Alia in his hand. “I wanted to hear from her how my father ended up with the shield. She says that she went through a portal, and he’d diverted it. She just barely managed to open another and get through it in time. She’s gone to ground.”

  “So you believe that’s how your father took the shield?” Airren asks.

  Rian hesitates. “I want to trust her.”

  But he shouldn’t, Devlin says. Family is the worst.

  “We need to get into Vasilik undetected,” Airren says. “Tera can call Aerowyn, and she can take one of us. But not all.”

  “I can make us passports,” Cax offers. “We can go like tourists.”

  Mycroft fixes him with a look. “Who would visit Vasilik right now?”

  “You really don’t know anything about how stupid tourists can be, do you?” Cax asks.

  Don’t put yourself in danger for me, Devlin orders.

  I do my best to ignore him, even though he’s in my head.

  “I don’t want us to split up,” I say. “I want to stay together if we can.”

  “We’re safer if we split up,” Airren says. “The king’s men are looking for us.”

  “Aren’t they always?” Rian asks lightly.

  “Are we really safer if we split up?” Mycroft demands. “We work best as a team.”

  Airren’s brows arch before he schools his face. Mycroft has never been a team player type, despite serving in the Marines. He often seems like he’d be happiest on his own.

  Mycroft sighs as we all exchange glances.

  “It’s the truth,” he says. “It doesn’t mean anything sappy.”

  “He totally means something sappy,” Cax says. “He’s just trying to wiggle out of it now.”

  Mycroft gives him one of those bleak, expressionless looks, but it only makes Cax smile.

  Cax goes on, “What if we use magic to change our faces and I make passports to match?”

  “The Vasiliks will be looking for that kind of magic at the border,” Airren warns. “We’ll have to get off the train once we’ve crossed the border, before we reach the first stop, and take the rest of the route by foot.”

  “We’ll come up with something,” Cax says lightly. “We always do.”

  “Great plan,” Rian says. “Very detailed. You guys are going to save the realm?”

  “With your help.” Airren claps his shoulder. “Maybe you’ll even come up with a plan yourself, your majesty.”

  Chapter 30

  Cax

  By that night, we’re on a train. Since there are five of us, we have to take two private sleeper cabins, which gives us a more defensible position than if we sat in the regular cars. Also, I do hate the cheap seats.

  In the morning, as we near the Vasilik border, I sit in the second car with Mycrot and Tera, glancing between the two of them often. Even though they wear different faces, their little mannerisms and the way they speak are so familiar to me and well-loved that it almost feels like the face itself doesn’t matter.

  Tera rests her head on my shoulder as if she’s weary, and I put my arm around her. I wonder if she feels the same way about our faces.

  I hope so. She’s beautiful, but it’s never been her beauty that drew my eye to her. It’s her, her personality and warmth and gentle strength and moments of adorable awkwardness. Just thinking of all the moments we’ve shared makes me want to kiss her, and she’s right there so I drop a kiss into what is now dark, wavy hair, twisted back into a neat chignon.

  She looks up at me and smiles, and it doesn’t matter that her face is different now. I still see her in that smile.

  “How is it having the prince on your mind?” I ask her lightly. I was terrified when he entered her mind and her face contorted with horror before she stumbled, then fell. We all were. We can’t lose her.

  Ever since she and Airren had it out about the Shield, we’ve been plotting how we make sure she survives. All of us would rather die than lose one of our friends. But she matters most of all.

  Without her, there’s no us. Even Mycroft, Airren and I can’t go back to the way things were before.

  She twists the ring around her thumb absently. It’s too big for her, so that’s the only finger it fits.

  She chooses her words carefully. “I know all kinds of things about him that I don’t think he would’ve chosen to tell me.”

  “Like what?” I’m curious about the man Tera loves that I barely know. Bringing Rian in has felt natural enough. I don’t know how Devlin will change the dynamic between us all, and that makes me nervous.

  But, with the world disintegrating around us, relationship challenges seem pretty manageable in comparison.

  She pulls a face, and I know his voice is in her ear. “Well, for example…I know he hasn’t slept with another woman since he met me, and I know he slept with a lot of women before.”

  I raise an eyebrow, and as if she knows what I’m wondering, she adds, “And the occasional man. I think he’ll fit in fine around here.”

  “Then I suppose we do have to save his life.” I sigh as if I’ve been debating it. “And here I really did just want to skip the drama and visit the ice wine groves. I hear they’re wonderful this time of year.”

  She grins, and I can’t be sure if it’s at my words, or at something he’s just said. For a second, jealousy tightens my chest.

  But as long as she’s smiling, does it even matter?

  She snuggles her head into my shoulder, and I close my arms around her.

  “Can we talk about Vasilik magic? The four of us?”

  Tera turns her face up to look at me. “What are you up to, Cax?”

  “Me?” I ask, spreading my hand across my chest. “Nothing, of course.”

  Our discussion of Vasilik magic is interrupted when Airren sticks his head into the car. “The dining car is open. Anyone?”

  “Yes please.” Tera jumps to her feet.

  As she passes through the doorway, Airren touches the small of her back, and she looks up at him and smiles before they share a
quick kiss. I’m glad the two of them made up.

  The five of us are drinking tea and waiting for our breakfast when the train stops at the last stop in Avalon. I cast a glance out the window at the thick snow falling outside. I’m surprised the train is still moving. Just looking out at the cold makes me shiver.

  From here, I can see two men in non-descript trench coats boarding at the next set of doors. I glance down the platform to see if there’s a newspaper hawker getting on too—I really want the paper with breakfast, even though the news is terrible for my appetite—but there are only two more men getting on at the next car.

  King’s men.

  If they’re able to see through our disguises—depending on what magic they have at their disposal—they’ll be far more concerned about Rian and Tera, a pair of high value targets, and Mycroft and Airren, a pair of killing machines.

  No one really pays the nerd much attention.

  I lean into Airren, and he turns away from the conversation at the table and bows his head immediately. I whisper what I’ve just seen, what my plan is, and he nods.

  The train lumbers to a start again. We need to near the Vasilik border without any trouble.

  The first pair of king’s men are going carriage-to-carriage. I step out into the cold passage between cars, and the wind whips at my shirt; I didn’t bother to take my coat when I went to breakfast. I can see them moving through the carriage. They don’t even try to hide the fact they’re looking for someone as their eyes sweep carefully over every occupant.

  There’s a man sitting by himself who turns away, and one of the king’s men grabs his shoulder roughly, yanking him around. The soldier studies his face, then lets him go.

  I press myself against the side of the car. The hum of the engine through the cold steel wall seems to soak into my shirt.

  The first one steps out, and his eyes widen as he catches me in his peripheral vision. I shove him before he can even react, pushing him off the train. As I whirl to grab his friend, I can see him rolling down a snowy hill before he comes to a stop. He’ll be fine. Chilly, but fine. I hope he has gloves.

  The other one manages to punch me in the face as we struggle briefly. The door between the cars slams shut. I catch the back of his calf with my heel, throwing him off balance as I push, and he tumbles off the car just a hundred feet behind his friend.

  Well. That was probably far less bloody than if I’d left it up to one of my wonderful Marine friends.

  Two to go.

  I can’t find them, and then as I reach the second-to-last car, the one next to the control car, I hear them arguing with the train engineer.

  “I’m not turning the train around,” he says impatiently. “You might have the king’s authority, but we crossed the Vasilik border halfway through that tunnel through the mountain. He’s no longer the king. He’s just a king.”

  “And this is just a knife,” one of the king’s men says, just before the second slams the engineer into a wall. “Whether it’s the knife that kills you or not is entirely your choice.”

  I swear under my breath. Then I go in there, fast.

  The man with the knife spins. I kick it out of his hand, and it clatters to the ground. The two of us have a short, fierce fight, but far more dangerously, the second is pulling out his wand from his jacket.

  I slam my elbow into the first’s nose, and he stumbles back, giving me space to close in on the one with the wand. I can’t have his blasts of magic cripple the train. We need to make it further across the border. There’s a cold, arid wasteland between us and the first stop in Vasilik.

  He throws it out toward me, muttering a spell, but when his magic blasts toward me, I throw out my arm and my own wand is in my hand in a second.

  My magic freezes his and for a second, he hesitates. Then he throws a punch at me with his free hand, and the two of us duck and weave, searching for a place to land a blow.

  His friend comes at me again from the other side, and I kick him in the chest. He stumbles back across the car.

  I duck under the other’s arm as he throws a punch, reach behind me and fling open the door when he throws himself at me. He falls onto the narrow platform between the two cars and, losing his balance, rolls over the rail into the snow.

  The second comes at me again, and I persuade him to follow his friend.

  Clapping my hands together as I turn back to the train’s engineer, I flash him a smile. “I never could stand a bully.”

  He eyes me doubtfully. “We’ll reach our next stop in half an hour.”

  “I’ll see myself out then.”

  When I rejoin the others, someone has stolen all the bacon off my plate. I shake my napkin out in my lap. My adrenaline is still up, my heart beating a bit too fast.

  “More tea?” Tera asks me brightly.

  “Yes, that would be lovely, thank you.”

  She pours for me. I add two sugar cubes and stir it. The table feels too quiet as my spoon clinks against the porcelain cup.

  “Well?” Airren finally prompts.

  “Ah. Yes.” I thought they’d all just assume, from my return, that I took care of the king’s men. “We reach the first stop in Vasilik in half an hour, and I think perhaps it’s time we disembark. But all’s well.”

  I eye my plate dolefully. “Well, all’s well except that I ordered bacon, and there’s nothing here but toast and eggs.”

  “Get the man a plate of bacon,” Tera says. “He deserves it.”

  Mycroft stares at me for a second, as if something is troubling him.

  “What?” I demand as conversation rises around us, giving Mycroft and I a moment of privacy. “Did you steal my bacon?”

  “Well, yes,” he says. But the expression on his face doesn’t change.

  “What?” I ask again. “Also, you don’t look remotely remorseful.”

  “I’m not,” he says. “Well, not about the bacon.”

  I quirk an eyebrow at him.

  Reluctantly, he goes on, “Airren and I have treated you like the kid who tags along behind us for a long time.”

  “Yep.” I take a long sip of my tea, watching him over the rim of the cup. There’s no point in denying it.

  “And you haven’t been the kid who tags along in a long time. We need you. You’re invaluable to our team.”

  His words are a year or two overdue, but they still light a warm glow in my chest. But my response is deadpan nonetheless. Stone-faced Croft deserves a bit of that back. “I know.”

  Mycroft pauses, his gaze steady on mine. “What do you want me to say?”

  “I want you to say you’re sorry,” I say. Mycroft hesitates, and I add, “Taking someone’s bacon is an unforgivable crime against breakfast.”

  But just then, the waiter returns with a plate full of bacon, which he places to the side of my plate.

  “Thank you,” I tell the waiter, and then, to Mycroft, say, “Ah, good. We can put that behind us, then.”

  Mycroft shakes his head at me, but then he gives in and smiles.

  Chapter 31

  Tera

  Given the arrival of the king’s men on our train, we don’t know what might be waiting for us when the train comes to a stop in Vasilik. The governments of Avalon and Vasilik might be at war, but we can’t afford any unnecessary complications as the clock ticks down toward Devlin’s final death.

  So the five of us head out onto the platform as the train slows, about to enter the city. The dark spires and towers of the nearest town jut out over the snow-capped pines.

  “We don’t want to get too spread out, so we need to jump fast,” Airren warns me, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Are you ready?”

  “I won’t hesitate, Airren,” I promise him, answering the question he’s really asking. I rest my hands on his corded forearms. “I’m not the same girl who arrived in Avalon, scared of everything.”

  “I know.” He squeezes my shoulders gently. “And you made me a different man.”

  His blue eyes are
full of appreciation, and I smile up at him.

  “And we’re all thankful for that,” Mycroft says behind us.

  “Jackass,” Airren says mildly. “Here I go.”

  Airren jumps first, and Rian follows after without hesitation. The two of them are two quick plumes of white rising from the snow.

  I tense, ready to jump.

  Mycroft grabs me around the waist and practically tackles me off the platform. I swear I can see Cax roll his eyes in the second before he jumps too.

  Mycroft twists so he lands beneath me, grunting as he takes the brunt of the force. Then the two of us roll over and over. I get a mouthful of snow and come up sputtering. Cold stings my cheeks, but not as badly as shame and frustration that Mycroft still thinks he has to manage me.

  “I was jumping,” I say tightly.

  Mycroft sits up. There’s snow in his hair, and it gives him an unexpectedly boyish look as he gazes at me.

  “I wasn’t trying to make you jump,” he says. “I know you were going.”

  “Then why did you just tackle me?” I demand.

  “I was…being playful,” he says drily. He runs his hand over his head, knocking off the snow. “Perhaps not my strength.”

  “Perhaps not.” I snap back. I’m still so heated that it takes a second for me to calm down. The others are trudging toward us, but the speed of the train spread us all out in a line, and Mycroft and I have a minute together.

  I draw a deep breath. He didn’t mean anything by it.

  He gets to his feet, his face as stony and unreadable as ever. He doesn’t notice the snow I gather in my gloved hand before he offers his hand to me. I smile up at him as I slap my other hand into his.

  When he pulls me to my feet, I toss my snowball at him. He glances down at the snow that sticks to his peacoat.

  “Hardly seems fair,” he says, my hand still in his, before he tackles me into the snow all over again. I laugh out loud this time as the two of us fall into the soft pillow of white.