by Ali Winters
“Oriana… is that you?” he asked.
Dark marks she’d mistaken for dirt, covered his face, the bruises already yellowing.
“Torvlad, what happened?” she asked, reaching between the bars to stroke his head. Dried blood flaked off his hair. “How did you get here?”
“They said you were dead, Oriana.” His eyes narrowed as he looked beyond her.
“Who’s your companion? Why isn’t Prince Caelan with you?”
“Caelan couldn’t make it. He’s preparing his Citinal… what’s left of them. He’s waiting for us to report back to him about who did this.”
Lucian stepped out of the shadows and kneeled beside her. “King Torvlad, I am Prince Lucian of Earth.”
“Ah, you are the one they framed.”
“You know?” Lucian asked amazed.
“Yes, I may be old, but I don’t fall for deception so easily. The treaty between our worlds is not so new. You should run before you’re caught. They might not be far away and I suspect all the planets will be after you.” He coughed, blood splattering against the back of his sleeve when he pulled his hand away. “Don’t worry about me. We need to find out who did this.”
“So you don’t know?” Her heart sank.
“I… I didn’t recognize them. They must be from the Outer Ring.”
“Where are the Citinal who did this to you?” She had so many questions she needed the answers to.
King Torvlad lifted his hand and pointed to the darkened end of the corridor, the opposite way they had come. “They will return soon. You must leave, now.”
“Who else is here?” Oriana cut in, ignoring his warning. “Is Mercury here?”
“Yes, and Mars,” he coughed, his breath wheezing in his chest.
“The most inner planets were brought in, then fewer and fewer. There was no one after me.”
Oriana’s eyes shot to Lucian’s; it was what she’d feared.
“W—what,” she cleared her throat, “What about my parents?” This was her home, surely they would have brought them here… hope blossomed in her chest at the thought that she’d been mistaken. They could still be alive!
“I never saw them. If they did, your parents might have been taken to the back—before anyone else arrived.”
“Lucian, we have to rescue everyone.”
“There is no time, Oriana. They keep the keys on them at all times,” Torvlad said.
“Then we will figure out another way that doesn’t require a key. I won’t leave you here.” Oriana pulled herself up and looked around for anything she could use. The hinges were soldered together preventing her from taking the door down.
“Oriana,” Lucian whispered in a hushed voice. “We need to find out who else is here first.”
She stopped and looked down at the King of Saturn. He was hurt, there was no way they could run or even hide if they had him with them.
Reluctantly, she nodded. “We’ll be back soon to get you out. I promise.”
With that they took off toward the innermost dungeon.
A hand rested just outside of the bars of a cell. Oriana rushed to it and gripped it. The fingers were ice-cold and limp. The hand didn’t feel real. She fell back gasping as she dropped the hand. Taking a shaky breath, she leaned forward. The tan hair with yellow streaks, with hollow yellow eyes, met her gaze. Flynn, Saturn’s Prince, was dead.
Oh stars… does Torvlad know?
“No…” she murmured as her eyes shot in the direction of the King.
Two hands fell on her shoulders and her head jerked up, her gaze lifting. Lucian was looking at her, pulling at her to keep moving. His brown eyes were dark in the weak light as he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hall.
“We can’t stop for the dead, Oriana. We don’t have time. Don’t worry, we’ll come back for them as soon as we can.”
She allowed herself to be pulled along. They came to the end of the corridor, three cells next to each other. The middle was empty, leaving the two across from each other occupied by a single figure each.
“O—Oriana?” a soft voice whispered to her left.
“Vashti!” Oriana knelt down to the woman with the blonde and red striped hair, clutching at the bars. “Are you okay?”
“I will be all right. What are you doing here? We were told you were dead in the initial attacks.”
Dropping her eyes, she answered, “No, Celeste took my place, they didn’t recognize her.” She shook her head refusing to give into her emotions. The more time that passed the harder it was to keep them from floating to the surface. Oriana gripped the orange eyed Princesses hand. “Who did this? Please tell us.”
Lucian turned and knelt down next to Oriana, his hand resting on her shoulder.
Vashti’s orange eyes narrowed. “What are you doing with him?” She sank away from them, looking from Oriana’s confused face to Lucian’s. “Did you do this Oriana? Why?”
“What are you talking about Vashti?” She reached out to the girl. Vashti cowered just out of Oriana’s reach, avoiding her touch.
“He did this. You must run from him,” Vashti hissed.
“No, he didn’t do this. I swear to you he didn’t. You can trust him. Earth was framed, they know nothing of the attacks.”
“I found the evidence before I was captured. Do not lie to me!”
“Please, Vashti, keep your voice down,” Oriana pleaded. “The same button was found on every planet. Whoever did this thought they were clever enough to get away with it. They never expected anyone to connect the dots.”
“I can’t believe it, I am sorry.” Vashti hung her head.
“I will prove it to you, Princess Vashti,” Lucian interrupted. “We knew nothing of this. I will find out who is behind this, and I will free you. I swear it.”
“If you can do all that, then I will believe.” Doubt sharpened her stare.
A door clanged shut behind them in the distance. Boots pounded down in a rhythmic beat against the crystal stone floor.
“You have to get out now,” Vashti spoke urgently, her wide eyes shooting toward the sound. “Run, Oriana, before they find you!”
“Who?” she demanded.
“Run,” Vashti hissed.
Footsteps echoed down the corridor, growing louder.
“We can’t leave you,” Oriana insisted.
“No! There is no time. You must get out while you still can. Go. Get help, and then come free us. Hurry, Princess, go, now.”
Lucian pulled Oriana to her feet and dragged her closer to the voices.
“Lucian, what are—” He was racing her toward danger.
Glancing behind her, she realized there was nowhere to hide. The guards would find them. They would die, and no one would know about the imprisoned royals.
No, no, no! It can’t end like this.
He skidded to a stop at the corner as Oriana glanced around, her heart speeding up, as the voices grew closer and closer. Their heavy footsteps pounded, echoing off the walls like warning shots. They could go straight and hope that there was somewhere to hide, they could go back and wait to be captured, or… they could run straight into their captor’s arms.
Loud voices spoke in an accent she didn’t recognize. Who were they?
“Lucian,” Oriana whimpered, gripping his shirt.
He pulled her into the shadows of the three pillars. Her back pressed against the wall, shielded by his body, his back to the opening, his chest against hers. Oriana peeked over his shoulder, balancing on her toes as she strained to see.
As the black and white uniforms of Soleis came into view, their golden threads glittered in the flickering light of the sconces that lined the wall. They were not the Citali guards of her world, but strangers. Her breath caught.
“No…” The word made its way past her lips before she could stop it and within a second, Lucian’s hand covered her mouth, silencing any further sound.
A tall skinny man followed behind the group of soldiers. The man who’d given he
r the satchel on Jupiter, the man who’d spent time next to Celeste as Prince Erik visited…
Edin.
Shock froze her in place.
Edin’s dull, black eyes flicked to hers meeting her gaze for a split second before he continued moving ahead. Her eyes went wide, fear stealing her breath. They were caught. Any second now the soldiers would come rushing back and capture them. Her blood turned to ice in her veins. The edges of her vision became eclipsed as she struggled for breath. The air was running out.
Lucian
Her body stiffened in his arms, then shrank away, back against the wall, shaking. Her breath came out in short bursts.
She’s hyperventilating.
Lucian had to calm her down before she did something to give them away.
Placing a hand on either side of her face, he brought his gaze even to hers. Wild eyes stared unseeing through him, as her body trembled. He pulled her with him, lowering his lips to her ear, “I’m here Oriana, I won’t let anything happen. You’re safe. You’re safe,” he murmured just loudly enough for her to hear. Shifting, he blocked everything else from her line of sight with his body. “I’ve got you.”
Slowly, her breathing started to even out and her hands rose, gripping tightly to the material covering his arms.
Oriana’s eyes focused on him as if she just realized he was still here. Tears brimmed her eyes, sparkling like the stars in the night sky, threatening to spill over.
“Shhhh,” he cooed, stroking her hair. Carefully, he loosened his embrace and looked back over his shoulder. The hall was clear. Whatever, or whoever, had spooked Oriana was gone. But for how long, Lucian wasn’t sure. He wasn’t about to risk them coming back and being found. They needed to get somewhere and fast, but didn’t know the castle well enough. She needed to calm down and tell him where they needed to go next. Cursing to himself, he grabbed her face in his hands.
“Oriana, listen to me,” he said, watching her eyes welling up further. “It’s okay now. You are safe. But we have to move. Where can we go from here?”
Her head tipped to the side, uncomprehending.
Lucian clenched and unclenched his jaw. What had she seen? What could have done this to her in a matter of only a few seconds?
Listening carefully, he waited until the stairwell was quiet.
Grabbing Oriana’s hand and led her up the stairs to the main level. As they started up the stairs, he realized after a few steps that it wasn’t working. She was too out of it, stumbling. He wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her against his side, helping her to climb.
Once they reached the landing, he stopped to catch his breath. She wasn’t heavy, but she wasn’t doing anything to make the situation any easier.
Lucian pressed his ear to the door and listened. Thankfully, it was silent.
Quietly he inched the door open, guiding her through, before closing it behind them. He pulled her against him one more time, aiding her ascent up the spiral staircase. There was only one place he knew that was safe at this moment, the passage through the Queen’s library—thankfully, it was also the closest.
Pulling on the candelabra, he waited for the passage to open, then pulled it again, dragging Oriana through as it slid closed behind them. With his back against the wall, he slid down, letting her slump down next to him. Her limp body leaned on his as he released a heavy sigh. They could leave now—or as soon as Oriana recovered from her shock—but there was still so much information they were missing.
A harsh, muffled voice yelled out on the other side of the wall. Oriana twitched against him, startled by the unexpected shout, and squeezed her arms tighter around his waist.
When had she wrapped herself around him? Her soft body pressed tightly against his—
Shouts pulled his thoughts from the dangerous territory they were heading toward as he tilted his head to the side and strained to listen.
“I want you both to look again. It has to be here somewhere. Something that important doesn’t just go missing without a trace. We need the Lumeria so we can station our troops on Venus and Saturn before Jupiter salvages what’s left of their army. I want to move in on them within the week and so help you if I don’t have the Lumeria before then!”
Two male voices answered in the affirmative. Then the quiet rustling on the other side of the wall, as the men searched.
The Lumeria.
The twins had mentioned it, but he still had no idea what it was.
Weapon or … what else could it be?
Whatever it was, it had to be small to be hidden so well. What amount of power could something possess that was worth the destruction of so many worlds? It was obviously important, or they wouldn’t be turning a room upside-down looking for it.
His gaze traveled to the pendant Oriana wore around her neck. Oriana’s fingers played with the crystal. It obviously meant a lot to her. She’d been wearing the night they met.
It was a habit she probably wasn’t even aware of but he could tell that she constantly played with it when she was anxious or uncertain.
The crystal hung low, and his eyes began to wander. He shook his head. This was not the time for that. There were so many questions he needed to ask her, but he couldn’t bring himself to interrogate her about it in the state she was in. She needed to talk about something to ground and calm her. Lucian waited until the noise in the Library quieted.
“Oriana?”
“Mmm?” she murmured.
“Are you okay now?”
A long silence followed his question before she answered. “I… don’t know…”
“We’re safe. You don’t need to be scared anymore.”
“Okay,” her voice wavered with uncertainty.
He brushed the hair from her face and tilted her chin to look at him, grateful he’d left the lit candle from their last time in the passage.
“You owe me,” she mumbled after a few moments.
“Owe you? What do I owe you?” He hoped she wasn’t talking nonsense.
“I won the bet. You said so yourself, remember?”
“The b—Oh.” He’d forgotten all about that. At the masquerade she’d guessed his identity even if there was only one name left for her to guess at that point. “What would you ask of me, Oriana?”
Silence stretched between them for several minutes before she spoke. “Never leave me again.”
Her words were a dagger to the gut. He wanted nothing more than for her to mean forever, but Lucian knew she meant until this ordeal was over and she was safe with Caelan. However, that little fact didn’t stop the urge to pull her into him, and kiss her until all her anxieties melted away, was strong. Too strong.
He needed to distract himself from these thoughts before he did something he shouldn’t. He was sure she needed the distraction just as much as he did, just not for the same reasons. Lucian clenched his fist at his side to keep from reaching up and bringing her face to his and…
“Tell me about your pendant,” he requested.
“This?” She lifted it and let it spin between her fingers. Prisms of light scattered the room, dancing off the walls and her skin as the small flame flickered on its wick. The crystal seemed to glow from within, a pale light from the center. He’d never seen anything like it, but it had to be a strange trick of the light mixed with the unique material of the stone.
He nodded for her to go on.
“My mother gave it to me when I was young, and it was given to her by her mother. It’s just a simple necklace handed down through generations. I’ve always worn it. I love the stories it holds. I feel connected to all the women in my family’s history.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Thank you…” she paused. “And thank you again for returning it to me.”
He shrugged but said nothing. Oriana sighed, finally calming down. Talking about her necklace seemed to have grounded her.
Lucian glanced at Oriana out of the corner of his eye again. Her fingers wrapped around the small stone
.
He needed to know what she had seen, but would asking her bring her back to a nonfunctioning state again? There wasn’t a better place for them to be at the moment to find out. Taming his nerves and preparing to do what was needed to calm her, he asked, “Oriana, what did you see, when we were in the dungeon? That wasn’t a typical reaction to a group of soldiers we know nothing about.”
She let her hand drop to her lap, and her eyes slid closed as she took a slow, measured, breath. Her words were soft, and he strained to hear.
“I recognized one of them. He was Prince Erik’s escort when King Mobius came for talks. His name is Edin…” her voice trailed off.
There was something she wasn’t saying.
“Why would that frighten you so much?”
“Because,” she shuddered and pushed away, turning to face him. Her grey irises blocked out by large pupils. “He looked right at me. He knows we’re here, Lucian.” She looked around the room as if she just realized where they were. “We have to go, now. If they find us, they’ll kill us. They’re probably already looking for us.” Her breathing grew rapid.
Before she could slip back into her panicked state, he held her face in his hands and rested his forehead against hers.
“Breathe, Oriana. You need to calm down. We are in the tunnels; they can’t get to us here.”
Taking several deep breaths, her body gradually relaxed in his grip. Her eyes returned to normal, as a wry smile formed on her lips. She pulled back and shook her head.
“Thank you, Lucian.”
He cleared his throat. “Even if they do come after us, you know this castle better than anyone. They won’t be able to catch us.” Her mouth dropped open, but his hand shot up, stopping her from speaking. “They won’t find us.” Hesitating, he averted his gaze from hers. She wouldn’t be happy about what he was about to say, but she needed to know. “I heard them talking. They are here looking for the Lumeria.”
“Why would they look for it here?” She shook her head, her brows knitting together.
“I think they believe it’s here.”
“No… I mean… I don’t even know what that is. If something like that were here, I would have to know about it… wouldn’t I?”
