Beginning's End
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Saratanya merely shook her head, but he didn’t know if it was because she was denying his offer, or if she didn’t want to think of it. Instead of answering, she began walking around the Council table, her hands running along the backs of the high wooden chairs that lined each side. “Some things never change,” she murmured as she looked at the various maps and documents framed and hung around the room.
“Some things need to be left as they are, while others change around them,” Reylor admitted as he watched her walk aimlessly through the room.
“How have you changed?” she asked him.
Reylor peered at her. “I don’t understand what you mean.” Though something deep inside told him he knew exactly what she meant, and he felt his defenses rise ever so slightly.
“Oh, I think you do,” she countered, stopping to rest against a side table pushed up against the wall that held various books and registers. She crossed her arms over her chest as she met her son’s gaze. “I’ve heard quite a lot about your misgivings as of late.”
“I don’t know what you’ve heard,” he began, but she immediately cut him off.
“Don’t lie to me, Reylor—I raised you better than that.”
He could only stare at the woman who was his mother, gone for so long yet still never letting go of that matriarchal power only the Queen Empresses in their family seemed to possess. He wondered if that’s what drew him to Alex, her strong will, her independence...
Alex...
“What have you heard, then, if what I say to you is going to be construed as a lie?”
Tanya held his gaze for what felt like an eon, but Reylor would not cave, would not give in. It was a test of wills, and just when he thought he would falter, she began to speak again.
“I’ve heard the story of the banished Lord Steward who used one of the Empress’ own Mistresses as his spy. That through deceit he manipulated that Mistress to do his bidding, finding him a way to infiltrate the palace once the Queen Empress was coronated and the relationship consummated. That that same Lord Steward kidnapped the new Empress from her bed, right in front of his own brother, and carried her away into the Borderlands.”
Reylor felt incredibly small as he heard his mother tell the tale, but he held her gaze as she continued.
“From there the tale becomes quite incredible if I’ve heard it right. Some say the Lord Steward locked the Empress within the lowest dungeons, taking her out only to service him—”
“Please...” Reylor scoffed.
“Others say she was chained to a bed for months, barely fed, raped morning, noon and night—”
“Enough,” he snapped.
“No, Reylor,” his mother countered, approaching the table as he stood to meet her. “It’s not enough. It was never enough. Regardless of the tale that was told, one thing is certain—you abducted Alex for some warped, twisted and dark agenda and ruined everything.”
“Do you think I don’t know that? Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what I did—”
“Do you? From where I’m standing, I now see a Lord Steward who is continuing to manipulate and deceive to get what he wants.”
“That’s not true—”
“You sent Treyan away. You made Alex believe he was dead—”
“I thought he was.”
“Yet when Sarayna returned, telling you what she discovered, you still didn’t tell Alexstrayna.”
“I—” Reylor hesitated.
Saratanya just looked at him with a perked brow.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he said, shaking his head as he began to lift a volume from the table into his arms.
“It does matter, Reylor. It all matters.”
“How can you say that, when we thought you were dead for years?”
Saratanya at least had to decency to look taken aback.
“If we want to discuss stories told, Mother, perhaps you could tell me a little more about your own.”
“What about my story?” Saratanya asked cautiously, peering at him with suspicion.
Good, Reylor thought. It was about time he was no longer the scapegoat.
“Tell me about Razen.”
She straightened, a hand going for her throat. “What about Razen?”
He let loose a sardonic chuckle as he lifted another large volume into his arms. “You’re standing there, admonishing me about my choices...”
“Razen was Lord Steward of the Empire. He was your father’s brother, and—”
“And your lover,” Reylor interrupted.
He saw his mother’s eyes widen, but she did not refute it.
“How could he have been your lover when you were so enamored by our father? Or at least that was what we were led to believe...”
“It’s complicated, Reylor.”
“As complicated as it may have been, he never once told us he was our uncle. Were you aware of that?”
She nodded.
“When we found our father’s remains in the dungeon...”
“There are plenty of reasons for how they could have gotten there,” Tanya began, as if defending whatever Reylor was about to accuse her of.
Reylor looked at her a moment longer before he let out a sigh and picked up the last book he was going to bring with him to the library. Whatever denial she was living in, it included Razen, and she would just have to see for herself what kind of man he had become.
“It was a very trying time, Reylor,” his mother said to him as he began to walk away. “A lot happened that you were unaware of—”
“We were children! We knew nothing!” he reminded her as he turned to face her
“Which is why coming back to all of this now...I fear history is repeating itself and I don’t want to see any of you as devastated as I once was.”
“We need to know, Mother,” he pleaded. “You have to tell us what else he could be capable of.”
Saratanya merely shook her head. “He’s not the man I once knew, Reylor. I don’t know what he’s capable of anymore.”
“Well let’s hope you know enough,” he said to her as he turned to leave the room, “because you are coming with us to see him in the Borderlands.”
He heard her begin to protest but he let the door shut behind him before she could say any more.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sarayna stood before the doorway that led to the veranda where Jared’s coronation ceremony was to be held. They had gone through the entire ceremony and the history and the meaning behind it all repeatedly, over and over and over again, so much so that Sara swore she would have been able to recite the whole damn thing from beginning to end all on her own.
The one who would be conducting the ceremony, however, was leaning against the wall next to those same double doors. Reylor watched her silently but had the sense not to say anything. Sarayna didn’t know what she would say to him even if he tried. Everything was a clusterfuck since her father had returned, and none of it seemed to be working in her favor.
The impending coronation meant she was one step closer to the wedding, and just thinking about it made her want to puke up her guts. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to marry Jared, or get married in general, but something about the idea just felt wrong. She couldn’t wrap her mind around it entirely—perhaps it was the threat of war and what she would do if anything happened to him. Or perhaps it was the enduring threat from Lexan about what would happen to Jared once she brought him to the Empire.
Well, he was already in the Empire, and she wouldn’t allow her brother to ever get close enough to him to follow-up on his threat.
“Will you stop that?” Reylor finally drawled. “Pouting isn’t going to change anything.”
Sarayna, ever mature, stuck her tongue out at him before she returned her attention to the veranda. Reylor only rolled his eyes in response, and the princess was disappointed.
She was looking for a fight.
With all the preparations as of late, she hadn’t had the time for one.
Even Jared had received the brunt of her anger especially whenever the wedding was brought up in conversation. Just that morning she had snapped at him because he dared mention what would happen once the coronation was over.
Which was why she was down there in the foyer, pouting in her dress with her hair undone while Jared was up in their shared room as he finished getting ready for the ceremony.
She didn’t want to think about what would happen once the coronation was over.
First things first, they would need to ready themselves to go to the Borderlands. Preparations were already underway and waiting for Crystal to wake would be the final piece of the puzzle. Her father didn’t want to step foot beyond the tree line without knowing everything Crystal could tell them about the Councillor, Lexan, and every guard and patrol sent out from that castle. Reylor, though in agreement, seemed less ready to wait for Crystal to wake up and more apt to force her into consciousness himself. Sarayna could tell news of Lexan plagued him, but the less the princess heard about her brother, the better.
She bit the inside of her cheek as she glared at Reylor, holding back everything horrid and inappropriate she wanted to say to him. In return, he stared back at her with those damned red eyes.
She had just about lost her patience when the Lord Steward pushed off the wall, straightening to attention as his gaze traveled to the main stairway. Expecting Jared, Sara’s heart pounded in her chest as she, too, turned towards the stairs.
Only to see her father descend, in deep conversation with Jamison, to the point where he almost didn’t notice either of them standing there.
Almost.
The moment Treyan’s eyes met Reylor’s, all conversation with his Captain ceased, and the Crown Prince’s countenance turned to one of bitter hatred.
Sara figured they had talked by now, but the tension between them told her otherwise. She suddenly found herself longing for Jared’s company, for if this was how they handled each other now, she could only imagine what it would be like when they left together for the Borderlands.
Expecting him to pass by without a word, Treyan instead approached his daughter, a small smile on his face as he admired her. “You look beautiful,” he said softly, almost proudly, as he braced his hands on her shoulders and leaned in to give her an affectionate kiss on her cheek.
“Thank you,” she said meekly in response, uncertain why she was feeling so timid around her father.
With a reassuring smile and a gentle pat of her shoulder, he released her and continued to the veranda.
“Treyan,” Reylor started, taking a step towards his brother.
The Crown Prince raised a hand, signaling a silent request that he stop talking. Treyan continued to walk outside, Jamison in his wake with a smug glance towards the dumbfounded Reylor.
Yes, their trek to the Borderlands was definitely going to be interesting.
She was about to make a snide comment to the baffled Lord Steward but was interrupted by the sound of her name being called, and the distraction caused by her King Emperor walking down the stairs.
It was different being on this side of the ceremony, Alex thought as she stood upon the veranda that overlooked the palace’s gardens. Her dress for the occasion was simple for being the Queen Empress—white and flowing with thin straps and a modest bust line. Saratanya wore a dress in a similar style, though in the deep blue color of the Empire. Alex found herself wondering if there were ever this many generations present for a coronation before. Before she could vocalize the thought the door to the veranda opened and Treyan emerged with Jamison at his side.
The Crown Prince looked exactly as he had on the day she was coronated—Alex would never forget it. Instead of the finery of the royal family, he instead wore the uniform of the guard’s highest-ranking officer. For on such a day, his position was to serve and protect the new Empress at all costs.
Only today, it wasn’t Alex who would need protecting.
Alex didn’t realize she was staring until his blue gaze met hers and held it. As she assessed him, his eyes roamed over her, and she knew he was remembering the last time they were here on this veranda. When they stood just at the top of those stairs, hand-in-hand, and promised their vows to one another...
The memory of that moment was interrupted then as it was now by the same individual.
Reylor, dressed in his dark-toned ceremonial best, strode through the opened veranda doors just as Alex tore her gaze away from Treyan’s. There was no reason why she should feel ashamed, she reminded herself. Everything she had done was justified. Treyan was thought dead, and Reylor helped heal her heart...
Yet why did thinking about either of them make her heart feel so empty?
She didn’t have much time to think about it—not as the attentions of the others on the veranda turned towards its open doors as Sarayna and Jared arrived, hand in hand.
At least there was one happy couple, Alex thought almost bitterly, but hated herself for allowing thoughts of her daughter and her intended to become so dark.
Sara wore a beautiful dress of dark silver that complimented Jared’s eyes, and the Emperor himself wore a blue suit that complimented hers. Their attention seemed to be on each other, as if ignoring the rest of the world around them. Alex wondered how long that would have gone on if Reylor didn’t begin to speak, thanking the gods and granting the power of the Prophecy of Fire and Light upon them, and thus beginning the ceremony Alex remembered all too well.
She didn’t know how long she stood next to Saratanya while they watched the new Emperor swear himself to the line of the Empire. The former Queen Empress next to her hardly moved the moment the ceremony started, and Alex felt that perhaps it was dredging up as many memories for her as it was for herself.
Treyan didn’t take his eyes off her. She wanted to think it was because of his mother standing next to her. More often than not, however, when her gaze drifted from her daughter, when she wasn’t daring to look at Reylor, Treyan’s eyes met hers.
It had happened again just as Reylor began to call on the crown of the Emperor, simply made in haste from braided metal. As the Empress’ crown was still upon Alex’s head, and due to the swiftness needed to complete the ceremony before they moved on the Borderlands, the traditional crown would need to be reformed into the proper adornment at a later time.
If she had not been looking at Treyan, she would not have noticed the guard that rushed onto the veranda and whispered to Jamison, who in turn whispered to Treyan. She also would have missed their glances to the room a few floors up, whose windows looked out over the veranda and the gardens beyond.
She would not have seen Treyan leave without watching the end of the ceremony because of the woman who now stood at that window, her blond hair and green eyes dull from exhaustion and the day’s dying light.
If she hadn’t been paying attention to Treyan rather than the ceremony, she would not have seen their unexpected guest from the Borderlands looking down at Alex just as she looked up at her.
Chapter Thirty-Five
With Crystal awake, things began to move very quickly in preparing for the journey into the Borderlands to retrieve the Annals.
Alex insisted she stay at the palace. There were arguments, but she brushed them off. No one trusted Crystal, Alex knew, but even if Crystal was there for less than honest reasons, Alex needed to know why. She clearly wouldn’t allow Crystal free reign of the palace without her being by her side, and she would get answers—there were so many answers she needed, and she wouldn’t get anywhere close to them if she left Crystal in the palace alone.
It was obvious Treyan was torn. She could tell he wanted to stay with her, even without him saying anything. It was as though he still had the desire to keep her safe, but the urgency and need to retrieve the Annals was paramount over anything else. That the Prophecy was still the center of his existence, as if he wouldn’t know how to survive otherwise. Without
it, he never would have had the purpose to venture into the Otherrealm in the first place, setting their whole story into motion.
Which, she knew, was why he assigned Jamison to remain by her side, ordered to never leave her, not for a moment, especially whenever she was with Crystal. Even then, she knew he would never go far. Not after the history between them and all that was left unsaid. Alex didn’t have the energy to argue with either of them.
Once the Crown Prince, always the Crown Prince, and Alex knew his duty would always be to protect his Empire first. She would never fault him for that...
She had to wonder, however, if she would get the chance to talk to him one more time before he left.
If she would get a chance to speak with any of them before their departure, when Sarayna, Jared, Reylor and Saratanya were also preparing to make the exodus from the palace with Treyan at the dawn’s early light.
She needed to be sure her daughter understood what it now meant, with Jared being the coronated King Emperor. Alex needed to make sure Sara knew what would happen now should she and Jared consummate their relationship—the same that happened with her and Treyan after her own coronation, only she had never been informed. As for what happened from there...
There were arguments, too, about Jared going with them.
“As the new Emperor, your safety is far more important than your pride,” Sarayna reminded him among the protests.
“The Empire needs the support of its ruling family now more than ever,” Treyan added.
“Says the one who allowed his pregnant wife to venture off into the Borderlands on her own?”