by Jamie Magee
I stopped just before my passage. “Are you ready for this?”
She smiled boldly up at me.
“That is an odd response,” I mused.
“You just passed another test. I thought you were going to stuff me away.”
Called that one right.
I raised my brow playfully. “Do I look like a fool?”
Before she could answer, I pulled her to me and gracefully let my lips meet hers. I tried not to give her a gallows kiss, one that would forecast an end to us, but I couldn’t hold back. Her body fit mine perfectly; our day together, even though I had stopped time, wasn’t long enough. I wanted to be alone with her, not walking on this stage.
She nipped my lip as she pulled away. That gaze in her eyes was full of heat; it was one that told me to hurry up and do what I had to do so we could find more time to steal.
“This is the stage. We both have to step on it for this to work. The only other choice is for me to go mad and kill them all and we run like hell.”
She knew I wasn’t joking.
“Not running anymore. I think I can read you pretty well. Know when you mean something and when you don’t.”
“If you see anything that is not right or if I push you too far, then I want you to glance away and look at the ground.”
“You want me to look down like a broken woman?” she bit out.
“No, I want you to do that thing you do when you’re mad: look away, then down. I know then that we need a break. To stop what is going on.”
One nod; that was all she gave me.
I let my fingertip trace her bottom lip once more, then took her hand to guide her through the passage that led to my kingdom.
~Madison~
After we stepped through the gray haze, the entry hall that was made for this passage came into view. Normally no furniture was in this space, but now there was one chair with a regal high back in the center. Sitting there was a man in a black robe. The stench of sulfur was present in the air, but that wasn’t as difficult to handle as the face of the man in the chair—it was nothing more than a wave of black ink. If I had any fear at all in my emotions, I would have dove back into the passage.
I held my breath as I glanced to the ground at my side.
“We are not having this same conversation again,” Drake bit out to the man as he stood to face us.
“We are going to have it a million times over if that is what it takes to get through to you that you have a kingdom to run and no time to take a hiatus in those passages.”
I knew that voice; it was Alamos’, the only man I knew Drake really trusted in his court. He was his guide, a father figure—and he never before smelled like this, never had a wave of ink across his image.
“I’ll do what I want, when I want, old man.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alamos move closer. “You leave here for days, then show up with her dressed in jeans and a modern coat—and what is this?” I saw him reach for my locket. I went to block him, but something beat me to it. What looked like lightning emerged from my locket and stabbed Alamos’ hand.
“Listen to me, little one. We are going to play this game the right way, or not at all. You can’t accept gifts from him until your courting has been established and moves forward. Give it here. I will return it to you when the time is right for him to gift you. When there are witnesses to this act of devotion.”
“Back away,” I sneered, trying to speak without breathing.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Drake bellowed.
Alamos reached once more for the locket, but this time it didn’t have a chance to strike him; with a glance, Drake had sent him flying backward, landing in that chair. I saw his head move from side to side. “Trying to protect her. She may be disposable to you, but right now she is keeping Willow alive,” Alamos said with a sigh.
“DISPOSABLE,” Drake bellowed into the echoing passage of the entry hall.
“Don’t growl at me,” Alamos said as he adjusted his robe. “Go ahead, get it out of your system. Hold her, pretend she is Willow. If that is what it takes to get your head in the game, so be it. But do not serve her up before we are done with her.”
“No one is touching me. Ever,” I spat, bristling as I glared at Drake, then walked toward the doorway that led out of that room. I wasn’t sure I knew where I was going, but I thought I knew where Perodine’s study was, the woman that was a guide to Willow. I hoped that either she was there or Drake’s grandfather was.
My brisk walk nearly turned into a run. I was only a few doors away from that study when I ran right into a wall of a man. I took a step back, ready to fight who was in front of me; right when I did, I saw Landen and took the first breath I had since we had come back.
Landen was Willow’s soul mate. He was tall, lean, and had the most tantalizing blue eyes in existence. If he was here, that meant all of them were. That could be good or bad.
“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” he asked as his hands reached for my shoulders and those eyes of his blazed right through me.
“Is Aden here?”
“I was just passing through. I haven’t seen him.” He glanced around. “I feel him, though; that way.”
Of course, he nodded in the direction I was running from.
“Why do you need him?”
I rolled my shoulders in an attempt to find my balance and silently ask Landen to let go of me. “I need him to see what I saw.”
Right then, Landen’s pupils expanded; that was a classic sign of seeing. He must have picked that up from Charlie and the others. He was already on the brink of discovering this curse when we met him. His varied insights allowed him to peer into souls and find the answers he was seeking.
“Who taught you that?” I muttered.
An overwhelming sense of rage consumed the air. Before I could question it, I felt Drake’s hand on my arm.
I met his gaze for an instant, then looked back to Landen. From Landen’s anger and confusion, I knew he’d seen what I’d seen.
“We have a problem,” Landen said to Drake, so quietly that his lips didn’t even move.
“More than one,” Drake bit back.
“Let me take her to Chara,” Landen demanded.
“What? No,” I fumed.
“No is right. Don’t make me add you to my growing list of enemies.”
“Aren’t I already on that list?” Landen quipped in a tone that was laced with sarcasm.
“Let’s not go down this road again,” Drake said as his anger leveled off. “You all right?”
Was he all right? I was starting to sense a bond between these two. A deep one that not only had a past, but a future.
“Are you practicing what I taught you?” Landen asked him.
“Somewhat.”
“You need to use it. Right about now,” Landen said as he glanced at me.
Drake glanced down at me with questioning eyes. I didn’t dare say a word. I had no idea who was listening or watching.
“Why are you here? Did something happen?” Drake asked Landen.
“I was looking for someone.”
“Someone here?”
“Long story,” Landen answered absentmindedly as his stare moved to me. I felt concern bellowing within him.
“I don’t have time to hear it. So long as no one has been kidnapped, murdered, or possessed, then we have to go.”
“Right, then,” Landen said with a nod. He threw up a fake salute at Drake, but when he did it he used three fingers. That was his way of silently telling Drake that the third thing Drake listed was an issue right now.
Landen leaned in and said something to Drake that I could not hear.
Drake nodded. “Tonight.”
Landen glanced down at me. “Perodine has robes in that study. They will cover your jeans until you get to where you need to be.”
And with that, he vanished. Behind where he was standing, there was a massive oil painting of angels wrapped in black silk, hoverin
g over the sea. In that sea I saw not only a massive octopus, but the eyes of Horace staring back at me.
I acted like I couldn’t see it as I moved forward.
“Where are you going?” Drake asked as I broke free from his grasp on my arm.
“I’m going to find a robe. Then I’m going to find my brother. I’m tired of trying to play this part. I hate it here, and I will not let you shape me into some symbol that your people need to find hope—for there is no hope. This is hell. A hell I am getting out of.”
I felt his confusion. I had called my cousin my brother, as the court believed he was, yet Drake’s stare mocked rage. “You are not roaming around my palace of your own free will. And your brother is not letting you go home. This is home. You will stay here until the right girl is found and you will give my people whatever I tell you to.”
I rolled my eyes at him and turned to briskly walked to the study.
Every room in this place had a ceiling that was hundreds of feet in the air. Deep red carpets paved the way; gold gilded archways and priceless paintings. Even the smallest thing in this palace surely cost more than the house I grew up in, and what was so sickening about it was the fact that everyone outside of these walls was only given enough to survive on, enough so that they had the strength to work.
The study was empty, which was a good thing because the last thing I wanted to know was that Perodine, the woman who protected Willow and guided both Landen and Drake, was evil, too.
I opened the closet door and pulled out one of her long robes. It fit like a dress; tight at the top, then flowing outward as it hit the floor. To make it fit right, I had to take off Olivia’s jacket. I hung it up in the closet, knowing she was here just as much as anyone and that she would surely find it.
Once I was covered, Drake nodded in the direction I was to walk in. I stayed one step in front of him, which was the custom here. At the end of the hall, there was a group of eight men. A sigh of relief came to me when I saw Chrispin standing there. These must be the guards from Chara that were in place not only to protect me, but also Drake, in this palace that held more traitors than loyal servants. That was part of the ploy we had used to get me here in the first place: we arrived by ship with three hundred souls from Chara. I was starting to think that number was far too small, especially considering that the one man Drake should be able to trust not only looked like evil to me, but smelled like it.
Chrispin and Zander came to my side as others framed themselves around Drake and me. I was relieved to see that Zander was not evil, at all. In fact, I felt a wave of peace flow over me when he came near. Drake gave him a simple nod. Brotherhood.
I walked closer to Chrispin on purpose. My expression was stern, and I affected that I was unimpressed with my surroundings.
We moved through the vast hallways that had more than their fair share of visitors. As we passed, each of them stopped his stroll and bowed to Drake, who was one step behind me. The jealousy that I was known to swim in absorbed me as more than one of the female members of the court bowed extra low to reveal their carefully placed cleavage.
They were all wearing black veils to show that they were mourning the deceased king, but their eyes held nothing less than seduction. I might have gotten over that if I didn’t manage to see Drake smile darkly at them as we passed. The girls’ grins would expand as they winked at him, clearly offering an invitation to a private meeting.
It took all I had not to knock them down with a single thought.
“Ready for your part?” Zander said under his breath.
Right about then, we approached a girl who was standing before a host of others. Her face was not ink, at least not constantly. A beautiful image was flashing every other second, and when the image flashed I could see into her life. I could see every private moment she thought she lived with Drake. Some supernatural being was trying to tick me off. Too bad Zander didn’t give me lines to say because I was surely going to muck this up bad.
I halted just as I saw her move to speak to Drake behind me. I moved my body in front of hers as I stared forward, unable to handle how her image would be there one second and ink and sulfur would be there the next. I felt every one of the souls in the hall tense, with the exception of Zander.
“How dare you approach a king as he strolls through his palace? Your services are no longer needed. The future King of Esterious wants a real woman in his bed.” I glanced over the ink image her face now was and coldly said, “You’re dismissed.”
And walked on.
I felt everyone’s eyes on me, but I didn’t care. Once out of earshot of the others, I heard Zander say, “Bravo, Sovereign.”
“If any of those images were true, I am coming for you.” I could tell he wanted to smile, but he didn’t.
My glare became fierce, but I refused to look down in front of these girls, to give Drake a sign that this ridiculous walk was testing my nerves.
What was killing me was the confusion I still felt in Drake’s emotions. I knew he was trying to pick apart what I said to that girl before in the hall, if there were any truth at all to my words. I’m sure my angry stance right now wasn’t helping him figure anything out faster.
Before long, the walls receded and the hallway grew wider. You could see the floors below. I smelled that stench of sulfur and glanced down.
Below, there were at least fifty men in robes like what Alamos was wearing. They were all holding candles and walking in a straight line from one side to the other. I couldn’t see their faces to know which one reeked.
I felt a cold stare and moved my gaze—standing in the threshold of the door the priests were leaving from was where that stare was coming from.
I lost my breath for an instant. It was Britain. He was dressed in a sharp black suit, one that seemed all too fitting to his dominant personality. What the hell was he doing here? Britain let a smug smile come to his visage right as I passed above him. I moved my eyes forward as if I didn’t see him.
The walls returned as our entourage traveled through several other vast halls and open rooms.
As we approached a golden doorway, Drake stepped closer and took my hand; seeing that Drake had made that move, the others halted their walk. With a glance, Drake willed the doors to open for us. Now there was nothing but a dead end in front of us. Maybe twenty doorways down there was yet another set of golden doors.
All at once, the air grew bitterly cold. At first I thought it was coming from Drake because his emotion was near wrath at that point, but when a growl echoed around us I knew we were not alone; something sinister was lurking behind the veil of my vision.
Because we refused to acknowledge it, that arctic air chose to vibrate the paintings on the walls, even overturn a few narrow couches that lined the way.
With nothing more than a glance from Drake, the doors at the end of the wall opened before we reached them once again.
Whatever was toying with us didn’t want us to walk any farther. The growl grew louder. I saw the air move as it pounded against the threshold we aimed to cross.
I listened intently for any whispers of the damned. The first time I came to this palace, they were so loud that I thought my eardrums were going to burst. The night of that fake courting, they were loud, too. But now, nothing. Maybe I’d lost that, too, when some unseen force decided to reprogram my insights. Either that or they were hiding from this evil that was lurking.
Drake gripped my arm, encouraging me to walk faster as rage flared in his emotions.
When we reached the doors, he put his arm around my waist then insisted I pass through.
As soon as we passed the threshold, the door shut and a stainless steel plank that looked like it weighed more than the doors themselves slid into place, effectively locking and barring the doors tight. Right then, the doors started to shake viciously as a roar bellowed on the other side.
“Not a fan of doors?” I mocked, still looking less than happy to be here. I wanted to ask him why he smiled at those
girls, but I would be damned if he ever knew I was jealous of them. I wasn’t playing that game anymore.
“Not a fan of salt,” he said through a locked jaw. “Every one of these walls is lined with three inches of it, and just to be thorough, protective herbs make up another layer.”
This was the delay? I thought as I glanced behind me. I never assumed he had kept me from coming here before because he was building this hall, a place that he knew would keep me safe.
This hall was wider than the others; a few doors down, the walls broke out into a large oval where large leather couches and chairs were sitting. It reminded me of when Aden’s dad would book a floor at a five-star hotel for the bands he was managing, only this was far more luxurious.
There was even a spiral staircase that led to another floor with more eccentric doors.
The floors and walls were a mix of white and black marble. Large chandeliers lit the way. It wasn’t like the rest of the palace; it looked way more modern and edgy. It looked ‘real’ to me.
Drake tensed his shoulders and said, “I need you to stay here.”
“What? So you passed the test by not sending me back to Chara—and instead you built me a prison?”
“Does this look like a prison to you?” His tone was cold, hurt.
“Feels like one,” I threw back at him. “I have stuff to do.”
“Yeah, well, so do I.”
My eyes narrowed on him. “Yeah, I bet you do.”
With a mix of anger and confusion in his emotions, his dark eyes cascaded over me.
“You can’t keep me here,” I argued as I glared at him.
“Do you want me to go and get Landen for you? Have him usher you off to his perfect little dimension so you can sit in a field and draw butterflies?”
I felt like I had just been kicked in the stomach. I stared at him like he was a fool. I thought we were safe in this room, that no one could see or hear us—and if that were the case, why was he acting so coldly?
“No. I want you to let me out of here. You have more than a few traitors that you are letting too close to you.”
“Are you calling my brothers traitors, or the people they have selected?”
