“I can’t remove it,” Ivan said heavily as Andrew stood behind him, looking more despondent than I had ever seen him. He wasn’t even trying to keep up his usually sharp posture; instead, he simply kept his head down, one hand resting absently at his neck where Ivan’s had been. “This is more than a tracking spell; it’s a curse.”
Izzy waved with the tips of her fingers. “Yeah, hi. Human here. What’s the difference?”
“It’s older magic,” Ivan explained. “The kind that draws from souls themselves instead of our life forces.” He gestured toward Andrew. “I don’t know how to remove it without damaging his soul; the two are too intertwined.”
“If it’s soul magic, maybe I could help,” I offered.
Ivan smiled sadly. “Maybe you could,” he agreed. “But you would need to be trained first. This is worlds beyond what you have accidentally accomplished, Michelle. This is targeted, evil magic—nothing you would ever dabble in if you could help it. Breaking it will require more than natural talent, even talent as extraordinary as yours.”
I could see Elaine’s hands clench and unclench in fists at her side before she whirled around to face Wendy. Before any of us could react, she had not only ripped the gag off of Wendy’s mouth but shoved her backward into the nearest tree, letting the tree swallow her up until just the front half of Wendy was visible.
“Fix it,” Elaine demanded. “Now.”
“No.” Wendy didn’t even hesitate in her answer. In fact, she looked way too happy to throw her denial in Elaine’s face.
Elaine reached out with one hand, squeezing her fingers shut in a motion that the tree mirrored, crumpling against Wendy until Wendy cried out. “I said fix it,” Elaine said.
“Elaine!” I rushed over to her and grabbed her arm, but she shrugged me off. “Elaine, come on. You’re better than this. You’re not one of them. You’re not a torturer.”
Elaine narrowed her eyes but didn’t look my way. “She’s not going to tell me how to save him,” she said.
“And she’s not going to tell you even after you hurt her,” I pointed out. “You know that. You know Andrew’s the one that taught all of us to stand up to an interrogation. You think his big sister doesn’t know too? Use your head, Elaine!”
“Oh, let her try it,” Wendy broke in, her eyes glittering with malice. “And then let her go back to her precious Rendezvous knowing she’s just like the king.”
Elaine looked like she’d been slapped. “What?”
“You don’t see the family resemblance?” Wendy’s sneer deepened. “King William has a temper, too, but he’s honest about it.”
“Don’t compare me to him,” Elaine ground out through her teeth, though by that time, Andrew had rushed forward and put himself in between Elaine and Wendy.
“Elaine—”
“Get out of my way, Andrew,” Elaine said. “I’m going to fix this whether you like it or not.”
But rather than step aside, Andrew surprised the rest of us by pulling Elaine into a long kiss. He had her face in both of his hands, and he was so gentle about it that I’m pretty sure Elaine couldn’t possibly get upset again even if she wanted to.
The rest of us looked away until they must have stopped kissing, because we heard Andrew say, “I love you too.”
Elaine was latched onto Andrew like a lifeline. Honestly, if we didn’t need to be there to make sure Wendy didn’t try anything and if we didn’t need to know what the next step was to help them, I think all of us onlookers would have tried to give them more privacy. But it didn’t seem to matter to them that we were all right there.
“What do we do now?” Elaine asked softly, while Izzy tried to make herself busy by putting the gag back around Wendy’s mouth, Ivan found himself a seat on a fallen tree, and I . . . stood there like an idiot. Brilliant move, I know.
Andrew hadn’t stepped back from Elaine, so when he shook his head, it moved against hers. “It’s alright,” he said. “I’m glad I got to fall in love with you, Elaine.”
Elaine was already shaking her head before he finished the sentence. “No. You’re not leaving.”
“Yes, I am,” he said, already taking a step back, though she grabbed his hand to stop him. “I can’t go back to the Rendezvous; I’ll lead them right to you.”
“We can figure something out,” I said, unable to keep my silence. Not with something this important. Andrew was my friend; Elaine was family. They couldn’t break apart because of the callousness of his family.
Andrew turned my way and then smiled sadly, shaking his head. “It’s fine,” he said, his tone incredibly even. “I knew as soon as it happened—”
“You knew as soon as it happened that you couldn’t go back to the Rendezvous,” Elaine cut in, her tone and her gaze sharp. “You and I go on missions all the time away from the main forces. This doesn’t change anything.”
“You can’t lead the Rendezvous if you’re not even there,” Andrew countered.
Elaine had her hands on her hips. “Well, obviously, you don’t have to come with me when I check in—”
“Elaine, that’s not—” Andrew let out a noise of frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re supposed to take the throne. What are you going to do when you’ve won the war and I’m still running away from my family? You can’t take the throne on the run!”
“We’ll figure it out before then,” Elaine countered, drawing herself up to her full height. “We’ve got time.”
“You know the only way to get rid of a curse like this is to get the one who placed it to rescind it.”
“Wendy—”
“Wendy’s just the messenger.” Andrew shook his head, stepping back from Elaine, who looked shocked at his tone. “Don’t you understand? My father gave her the order. Why do you think Ivan can’t break it? This curse comes from the top of my family.”
“Then . . . then I’ll find him and make him revoke the curse! Or kill him myself if he won’t!” Elaine shot back once she was over her shock. “This isn’t like you, Andrew. Since when do you give up?”
“Since it became a choice between killing his father or letting them come for him so he doesn’t have to fight them anymore,” I said, frowning Andrew’s way. I didn’t like it, but I could understand it. And I hated it.
“That’s ridiculous,” Elaine scoffed.
“Could you do it?” I asked, crossing my arms. I couldn’t believe I was taking Andrew’s side on this. I wanted him to stay, but on the other hand, I couldn’t stand by without making sure that both of my friends had a chance to be heard. “If you had to kill your father, would you?”
Elaine blinked at me. “That’s different,” she said. “My father isn’t—”
“Elaine.” I didn’t say anything more than that, letting her name and the tone behind it speak for me.
She tried to hold my gaze for a moment longer before she let her shoulders drop, deflating like a balloon. Finally, she turned back to Andrew, her tone much softer this time. “I don’t want you to leave,” she said.
In answer, Andrew simply pulled Elaine into a long kiss that had the rest of us turning our backs once more to give them privacy. Even with as uncomfortably close as we all were, Andrew kept his voice at a bare whisper, so that we could only hear that he was speaking without picking up on the specific words being used.
Still, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was saying goodbye, and I was honestly upset about it.
I didn’t know how to argue the case, though. Andrew had a point. Annoyingly so. (He always had such annoying points at the most inconvenient times.) If he stuck with the Rendezvous, he would become a roadmap to our secret hideouts, not to mention to the princess herself. And as good as Elaine and Andrew were, I was pretty sure they weren’t good enough to infiltrate deep into Royalist territory and convince the patriarch of the Family to break the curse, either. Not alone, anyway.
“What if—” I turned to face them and saw that they were once again locked in a long kiss and quick
ly turned around again. I coughed to get their attention and then waited what felt like the right amount of time before I even thought about looking their way. “What if—well, I know it would be a lot to ask you to fight your own father, Andrew,” I said. “But what if I came with you? Both of you? The three of us have been able to take on pretty much anything, and Elaine and I could handle the Family while you watch our backs.”
“And risk you getting captured by your father?” Andrew asked.
“Hey, we all take risks.”
“I won’t let you take that risk for me,” Andrew said flatly.
But Elaine had her head tipped to the side, and she was studying me intently, looking like something had just occurred to her and she wasn’t sure what to do with it. She bit her lip and shifted her weight from one foot to the other before she finally nodded to herself. “You’re right,” she said at last. “You can help.”
I gestured to Elaine with one hand and gave Andrew a triumphant look. “See?”
Elaine shook her head, slowly and steadily, her gaze still locked onto me. “No. Michelle, listen to me.” She still had a hold of Andrew’s hand with one of hers, as if she was afraid he might run off if she let go (and he very well might, so I understood the impulse entirely), but she reached out for my hand until I came close enough for her to take it. “I need you to go back to the Rendezvous, and I need you to do it as my next of kin,” she said, refusing to drop my gaze.
“What?”
“You’re my cousin, Michelle,” Elaine said. “And more than that, you’re someone I can trust. I need you to go back to the Rendezvous and be my voice. Anyone who knows you will follow you, and the rest of the Rendezvous will learn to trust you too.”
I was too stunned to say anything or even do anything other than shake my head slowly in disbelief, so I was glad that Andrew was right there to argue—sort of returning the favor, even if we weren’t exactly keeping score. “You can’t do that,” he said sharply.
Elaine turned to face him. “Why not?” she asked. “You said yourself you can’t go back, and I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“That’s not—you’re not thinking ahead,” Andrew insisted. “We don’t know how to break the curse, and if the Family finds out you’re working with me, they’ll use me to capture you again. Don’t you get that?” He had raised his voice, though he didn’t sound angry. If anything, he sounded desperate. “I’m trying to protect you, Elaine. It’s my job. Let me do it.”
“I don’t need to be protected. I need you.” Elaine’s eyes were wide, and her voice wavered. “I thought you understood when we decided to start actually courting each other: I’m not looking for a boyfriend. I’m looking for a partner. A prince.”
“Elaine—”
“I’m with you because I want to marry you,” Elaine blurted out.
And the whole forest fell silent.
Andrew couldn’t have been completely blindsided. I had talked to him about why he and Elaine danced around each other for so long, and he had always, always brought up the fact that she needed to marry someone that the public could trust. We had talked about the way the Family was too deeply ingrained in my father’s palace intrigue for people to entirely trust him as her fiancé. So when he and Elaine finally got over themselves and started dating, everyone knew that meant they were serious. That was why the Rendezvous had such an issue with the two of them getting together. Family members hired by the king were one thing, but to have one sitting on a throne beside the queen?
We all knew where this was going. So Andrew had to know as well.
That was probably why he didn’t look shocked. If anything, he looked pained as he closed his eyes and let out a breath. “You need a prince,” he said in what barely qualified as a whisper. “I’m not—I can’t be that for you.”
“Sure you can,” Elaine said. “This is temporary—”
“For how long?” Andrew asked. He gestured to Elaine with one hand. “You’re barely holding back Time as it is. You can’t afford to wait for me. Pick someone else, Elaine. You’re going to lose everything you fought for if you don’t.”
“Oh, what’s the point?” Elaine said angrily, her hand on her hip. “What’s the point of fighting to be queen if I can’t—” She let out a frustrated noise and then whirled around to face me. “That’s it. Michelle, you’re marrying us.”
I won’t lie: I had absolutely no idea how to react to that. “I’m what?”
“You’re a member of the royal family.”
“I mean, technically, that’s true—”
“Then that means you have the official power to sanction marriages,” Elaine insisted.
“Elaine, this should really be done officially, in full view of the kingdoms and your father and the ruling families,” Ivan said gently, though he had barely moved. I don’t think he could move. How could he? Here he was watching the woman he loved not only choose someone else but elope with that someone else right in front of him.
“Well, we can’t do that, can we?” Elaine pointed out. “An official wedding would draw attention, and there’s no way we could keep it hidden from the Royalists while Andrew is still cursed. It would be a huge target, and you know it.”
“Then wait until the end of the war,” Ivan reasoned. “We are turning the tide. The Rendezvous gets stronger every day, especially with the news that the Balance is on our side, not to mention the fresh soldiers rescued from the Bermuda Triangle.”
“Ivan,” Elaine said, her tone both gentle and firm at the same time, somehow. “I’m tired of waiting. That’s all I’ve done my whole life.”
Ivan watched her for a long time, and I could see the heartbreak painted all over his expression. “I know,” he said softly.
Elaine gave him a sad smile before she turned back to Andrew. “I don’t know how long it will take me to be queen. Be my husband before you’re my prince. We can figure the rest of it out.”
Andrew finally looked flabbergasted. He’d probably expected Elaine to get talked out of it or to back down or something, but there she was, standing right in front of him, taking both of his hands in hers and looking so downright expectant that no one watching them could deny that she was absolutely, one hundred percent serious.
Finally, Andrew said, “Are you sure?”
“Very,” Elaine assured him. “I’m tired of people getting in the way of my happiness. I’d like to do something selfish.”
“You could lose the throne for this,” Andrew said, though he had shifted his hands so they were intertwined with Elaine’s. “You could lose all your support. The kingdom could decide to follow someone else and move away from your family entirely, especially after all the damage the war has done.”
“I know,” Elaine said quietly before she turned my way. “Well, Michelle?”
I was honestly at a loss for what to say. On the one hand, I wanted to shout, “Yes! Finally!” and celebrate the two of them embracing what the rest of us already knew: that they would do absolutely anything for each other. And on the other hand, I could see Ivan steadily steeling himself, and I could see Wendy’s triumphant look and knew that this move would put both of them in more danger. Elaine would be more easily accessible for assassination when they only had to find Andrew to find her, and Andrew would be an even higher-value prize, a bargaining chip on top of a target for revenge.
And on top of that, Andrew was right. Elaine could lose face for this. She could lose the confidence of the people she wanted to lead. There would be people who would never trust her leadership with a Family member at her side.
But as several people had already pointed out to me, I was a hopeless romantic. I couldn’t resist helping my friends choose love over despair and denial.
Besides, this was wartime. And I remembered what war could do to families. With the Family even more determined than ever to kill Andrew, my friends didn’t have a guarantee that they’d both be alive when the war was said and done.
So what else coul
d I do? I cleared my throat and said, “Yes.”
Elaine beamed at me and pulled Andrew over a few steps so that they were both standing directly in front of me. “I knew I could count on you,” she said.
“That makes one of us,” I said, mostly to myself, though I caught Andrew smirking all the same.
Two, Lila put in. I’ve always known how hopelessly romantic you are too.
You’re not helping, I told Lila before I took a deep breath and turned to my friends. “I don’t know how to officiate a wedding.”
“Say a few nice words, ask us to give our vows, and then seal the marriage,” Elaine said. “I’ve done it for a few Rendezvous agents before. It’s probably one of my favorite duties.” She was smiling that much wider as she said it, squeezing Andrew’s hand tighter with every word. “You’ll be fine. It’ll be good practice for when you go back to the Rendezvous in my place.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I simply nodded and then closed my eyes as I tried to think of something to say. Something appropriate. Something heartfelt.
Something that wouldn’t destroy Ivan, who was still standing a few feet away, acting as witness to the marriage he’d hoped to one day have with Elaine.
“Elaine, Andrew,” I said at last, opening my eyes to find that both of them were hanging onto each other like lifelines. “I knew as soon as I met you that you were in love. I’m glad you’ve finally decided to acknowledge what everyone around you knows: you deserve to be happy. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I do know that both of you will be amazing as you take it on together. Please don’t forget that you need more than love to get you through everything you’re about to face: you need each other’s strength. And you have the rest of us here as well. Always.” When both of them started smiling wider at that, I turned to Elaine. “Well, you asked him. So I think you should start the vows.”
Elaine nodded and turned Andrew’s way. “Andrew, you’ve been my partner for so long that life doesn’t make sense without you by my side. The thought of losing you stopped my heart, because I’d already given it to you. So please, let me promise to protect you and love you the way you’ve done for me all these years.”
Sister Seeker Page 20
