“Thank you for everything you have done for us,” I said, finding my voice. How was I supposed to respond to such a grand compliment? “I will find a way to repay you one day.”
He bowed and kissed my hand, glancing up at me through thick lashes that framed his amber eyes, and winked. “I look forward to it.”
I laughed and swatted his arm. “Flirting won’t get you anywhere, Santino.”
“It was worth a try,” he grinned. “I will go and see how our friends are faring. Lord Delacourt is not happy with his lodgings and has been hassling my steward for better quarters.” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t think he understands the difference between a ship and an inn.”
He mumbled something about sons of nobleborn lords. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched him jump down two steps and walk briskly across the deck.
Strong arms clasped me around my waist. “I’m glad to see you have recovered, my love,” Rafe whispered.
I smiled and turned to face him. “If you hadn’t been there. . .”
He put his finger to my lips. “You don’t have to thank me, Aurora. I would do anything for you. You know that.”
My heart leapt in delight as I gazed up at his sinfully handsome face. “You have already done so much.” Brandon’s warning rang in my head and I knew I had asked too much of Rafe as it was. “You have to go back, Rafe. Captain Gerard told me things have become much worse in Eldoren.”
“I know,” he said with a sigh. “I leave tomorrow at dawn. Santino’s ship will drop me off a little further down the coast. I can take the King’s Road back to the capital from there. I have lost enough time as it is.” He clasped my hand in his. “Kalen has decided to come with me—he needs to find out what happened to his mother.”
I nodded. “Yes, of course, I understand.” It was safer for Kalen to stay with Rafe.
What else could I say that didn’t sound childish and selfish? I knew he had to go back and I had to go to Elfi—that hadn’t changed. But I had hoped we would have more time.
“Silverthorne is in trouble and the Blackwaters have some sort of strange hold over my father,” said Rafe, letting go of me and taking a step back. “I have to return to Neris and find out what is going on.”
I held on to the railing behind me for support and kept quiet, letting him talk.
He stood beside me and gazed out to sea. “I’ve been foolish and blindsided by my feelings for you. I’ve made a grave error in judgment by helping you leave the Summer Palace when I knew you were not ready. I thought I would be able to convince you to see sense and get you to go back of your own accord. I didn’t realize the Blackwaters would take this opportunity to return.”
“Never underestimate the Blackwaters, right?” I said, trying to smile. I knew what he was saying was right. He had to go back and I wasn’t about to stand in his way. I may have already cost him his throne.
Rafe nodded but didn’t smile. He took my hands in his. “Santino and Brandon will see you safely to Elfi.”
“What happened to Marcus?” I asked, remembering the little man was not on the ship. “I thought he was coming with us?”
“I have no idea.” Rafe shook his head. “Marcus was gone by the time I got back to the inn to get Kalen.”
My eyes went wide. “Do you think he was the one who betrayed us to Lucian?”
“That is what it looks like, and Brandon is convinced it was him,” Rafe said. “He disappeared as soon as the archmage came to Calos. But I have known Marcus since I was a child, and he would never betray me. My old nurse Maggie, the fae lady who you met in the woods, used to trade with him. She trusted him, and she is never wrong.”
“I didn’t know Magdalene was your old nurse.” I couldn’t imagine him as a baby. He had the aura of someone who was born fully grown with a sword in his hand.
Rafe smiled. “There are still a few things you don’t know about me.”
At that moment Katerina Valasis came onto the deck. Her almond-shaped eyes, so like those of her brother, sought out Rafe in an instant, and she waved to him.
I raised my eyebrow. “Apparently, there is quite a lot I don’t know about you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rafe’s eyes narrowed.
“You know what I mean,” I said, and forced a fake smile on my face as Katerina walked toward us.
“Rafael, my love, why didn’t you mention you were leaving?” said Katerina, pouting and putting her arm through his, virtually ignoring me. “Santino just told me. You know how much I’ve wanted you to visit my palace in Sanria again.” She batted her lashes at Rafe, and I saw her glance at me. “Do you remember how you kissed me behind the fig trees in my father’s garden?”
I had heard enough. I turned to walk away when Rafe caught my arm. “Don’t leave,” he said softly.
Katerina’s eyes shot daggers at me. But she behaved as if I wasn’t there. “Darling,” she said, running her finger over Rafe’s chest, “don’t you want to take me back to my room to say a proper goodbye before you leave?”
“I think I should go,” I said, pulling my arm away.
“Aurora, wait!”
I stopped.
Rafe turned to Katerina, his gray eyes piercing and angry. “Katerina, I told you at the ball in Calos I was not interested in resuming our relationship.” His voice was calm but his tone was icy. “The person I love is standing right in front of me.” He glanced at me before turning back to her. “And that person isn’t you,” he said, looking her straight in the eyes.
Did he just say that?
Katerina’s ears went red and her mouth fell open. She recovered quickly, her eyes narrowing, and she slapped Rafe hard across his face. “That’s for leading me on for all these years,” she said, gathering her skirts and stamping off, presumably to find her brother.
Rafe grimaced and rubbed his cheek. “I guess I deserved that.”
I laughed at him and nodded. “Probably.”
“Katerina means nothing to me,” he said, as he took my hand and led me to a more secluded area on the deck.
“I know that now.”
He turned to look at me at me with a hunger in his eyes I had never seen before. “No, I don’t think you do.”
My breath hitched in my throat.
“I love you, Aurora, and it’s about time I tell you the truth about my feelings. I have held it in for so long, hoping it would go away, but it has only become stronger.” Rafe put his hand around my waist and drew me to him. “I have never felt this way about anyone. You haunt my dreams every single night, and when I am away from you I feel like a part of me is missing.” He lowered his voice to barely a whisper. “I would give my life for you.”
My hands had started trembling—I couldn’t believe he was talking this way.
Rafe’s lips crushed mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled me closer, pressing my body and molding it to his. He had never kissed me like this before. My mind and body exploded with pleasure as Rafe held me to him, devouring my mouth and invading it with his tongue.
He broke the kiss, and I gasped to catch my breath as he held me tightly in his arms, breathing heavily.
“There is something else I have to tell you before I go.” Rafe moved back and released me from his embrace.
“Is there something wrong?” I tried to compose myself.
Looking around once he said, “Elial Dekela is dead.”
“What!” Professor Dekela couldn’t be dead. He was the Mastermage of Evolon. “Are you sure?”
Rafe nodded. “Captain Gerard told me he was found dead in his study at the Academy. We don’t know how it happened. But now we have a bigger problem.”
My eyes went wide. “His key?” Professor Dekela was one of the guardians of the keys that opened the Book of Abraxas.
“Yes.” He nodded. “His key is gone.”
“Did the Blackwaters do this?” My heart was heavy with grief as I remembered Professor Dekela’s kind eyes and wise teaching. He had helped
me at a time when I needed it the most, and he was also one of my father’s supporters. Now there were so few left.
“I suspect they had a hand in this. We know Morgana is after the keys, and we can assume she now has Dekela’s key, which is the second one she has retrieved. I have no idea what has happened to Silverthorne’s key. I suspect he’s managed to hide it from them, otherwise he would already be dead.”
“Let me go back with you,” I said impulsively. “I want to help you save my granduncle and Eldoren. And I need to find out if Aunt Serena and Erien are safe.”
“No, Aurora. I will make sure your family is safe. Go to Brandor with Santino—he will take you to Constantine Redgrave. Get the information we need about the dagger, and then go straight to Elfi. Santino will help you get there, and I believe you can trust him.”
“When will I see you again?” I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling. Tears formed in my eyes but I held them back. I didn’t want to let him see me cry.
“Soon.” He pulled me toward him, enveloping me within his powerful arms. “I promise, I will come back for you, Aurora.” I rested my head on his broad chest. I could hear his heartbeat as he kissed the top of my head and smoothed my hair. “Train hard, and master your powers. I give you my word I will return to help you find the dagger and free your mother. We just need more time.”
“I will always love you,” I whispered into his chest.
“And I you,” whispered Rafe, holding me closer. “Forever.”
A single tear fell onto his shirt. I brushed the rest away, steeling my heart for the days, weeks, and months to come. Rafe was leaving, and he was taking my heart with him. But this time I was not sure I would ever get it back.
8
The Pirate Prince
At sunrise the next day, Rafe left the ship with Kalen and was rowed ashore near the town of Shadowvale, where he could procure horses and ride back to the Summer Palace. Soon Santino’s ship would leave the Eldorean coastline and sail eastward into open waters towards Brandor and Elfi.
I stood on the upper deck and watched him leave. This time I wasn’t sure he would return. Our kingdoms were separate and so were our destinies. Once he got back to Eldoren they would force him to wed Leticia. He hadn’t said anything about what he was going to do and I had no idea if he was going to go through with it or not. His promise to his mother still hung over our heads like an executioner’s axe, ready to descend at any moment and sever our love forever.
When I saw him next, if I ever saw him again, he would be married. It was futile to get my hopes up about our chances. Nothing short of a miracle would suffice.
I had gone back to wearing the traveling clothes Kalen had brought back for me from the inn. He had also brought the sword and daggers Rafe had given me. I strapped them all into place. If I was going to be a warrior, I had to start behaving like one, which meant being armed at all times. I started sleeping with a dagger under my pillow, and was ready to use it if I needed to.
* * *
Santino was sparring with his men on the deck. I watched with fascination as he moved, surefooted and deadly but still graceful like a dancer. His every move was perfection, his instincts honed by a hard life and superior training. I had never seen anyone fight the way he did, and I had been in a lot of fights since I came to Avalonia. Santino wielded his daggers like they were extensions of his arms. His muscles glistened as his shirtless chest heaved with the exertion of fighting three of his men.
He glanced at me as he threw one of his men over his shoulder and held a dagger to his throat. This was the first time I noticed how handsome he was—I looked away, embarrassed to be caught staring.
Brandon was leaning against the railing of the ship, also watching Santino sparring, and I walked over to stand beside him.
“I’m glad to see you have recovered,” Brandon said, his arms crossed, “but shouldn’t you be resting?”
“I’m fine,” I snapped. I was stronger than I looked and I had been in worse situations. I knew in the back of my mind Brandon only meant well, and my bad mood stemmed from seeing Rafe leave and not knowing when I would see him again. But I wasn’t about to admit that to anyone. They would think I was a weak, simpering girl who cried whenever her boyfriend left, and I was supposed to be a warrior queen who was not afraid of anyone. If I didn’t act the part, no one was going to follow me or accept my rule.
Brandon didn’t give up and turned toward me. “You don’t look fine to me, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. What you went through would be too much for anyone to recover from so soon.”
“But I’m not just anyone.”
Brandon smiled. “I know, believe me.” He took my hand in his. “But you still need time to rest and gather your magic. If I am not mistaken, your magic is dangerously low.”
I pulled my hand away. “How do you know?”
“Calculated guess.” He shrugged. “The point is, you should be resting.”
I turned to look out across the horizon. “I told you, I’m fine. I will rest when I get to Elfi.”
But I knew my bravado was only a veil. I was drowning in despair and had made so many mistakes along the way. If I had only listened to my granduncle, all this wouldn’t have happened. Now a second key had been taken, Professor Dekela was dead, Uncle Gabriel was in a dungeon, Rafe was on the verge of losing his crown, and I was not close to finding, let alone freeing, my mother. I had to make this right somehow, and the only way I was ever going to be able to do that was to master my powers and push myself as far as I could go. I would not give up, not this time.
“Tell me more about Santino,” I asked Brandon as we watched the sailors fight.
“What would you like to know?” Brandon kept his voice low.
“If he is a pirate, how does he hold so much power in Brandor?”
Brandon thought for a moment before answering. “He’s not a pirate anymore.” He turned from watching Santino sparring, placed his hands on the railing, and gazed out to sea. “In his younger days, Santino was indeed a pirate. The most dangerous pirate who ever sailed the five seas.”
“So why did he give it up?”
“About a decade ago, there was an incident in Brandor that caused the five families to fight amongst each other, plunging Brandor into the bloody depths of a civil war. Assassinations and killings were rampant in the desert kingdom, and Santino’s elder brother was murdered. That was when Santino’s father summoned him back. But by then Santino had already amassed an army of his own, consisting of highly trained fighters, pirates, and mercenaries. He responded to the other Emirs with sure ferocity and he subdued the rest of the nobility, bringing peace back to a once-troubled kingdom.”
“What happened to the other Emirs and the Council of Five?” This was a whole history of a kingdom I had no idea about; I was intrigued.
“Santino appointed a new council of five, consisting only of noble families who supported him and his father. But everyone knows the council is ruled by Rodrigo Valasis, with the might of Santino’s army keeping them in their place.”
Santino had finished sparring, and was putting his shirt back on while giving orders to his men.
I squared my shoulders and walked up to the pirate prince. He turned toward me, eyeing my clothes. “Suits you,” he said, buckling his sword belt around his waist. “Although I do prefer a woman in a dress.”
I ignored his comment. “Teach me to fight like you,” I blurted out.
His amber eyes twinkled with amusement as he considered my request. “That could take a while.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, looking around at the ship. The journey to Brandor would take more than a few days if the winds were in our favor, longer if not, and all I had was time.
Santino grinned. “It would be my pleasure, Princess Firedrake. But I must warn you, I will not go easy on you.”
“I look forward to it.”
The days aboard the Starfire went by quickly, with most of my time spent sp
arring with Santino on the deck. I made friends with most of the sailors as they stopped their work to watch their captain teach me to fight, and joined in from time to time to assist Santino when he needed more than one opponent to demonstrate what he wanted me to learn.
He taught me moves I wouldn’t have even dreamed of, and I was getting better at using daggers. They were my weapon of choice, although Santino did not let me learn with real daggers like Rafe did. We trained with small wooden sticks, making it far easier for me to master some of the moves.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Santino said, laughing, when I questioned him on when we would use real weapons.
I was knocked down more times than I could count. But I welcomed the beatings, each one reminding me I had so much more to learn.
“Get up!” yelled Santino, after a particularly hard session. “Your last teacher was surprisingly soft with you.”
I pushed myself up from the damp wooden deck. “I guess Rafe was not the right person for the job.”
Santino laughed. “No, probably not. I think he must have been more interested in courting you instead of teaching you to fight.”
I tried to look indignant, but ended up blushing. “It wasn’t like that. A lot of the time was spent on magical training, that’s all.”
Santino didn’t say anything, but gave me a knowing look and went about commanding his ship.
I walked back to my room, a mass of bumps and bruises. But he was right, Rafe had been going easy on me. Giving me time to adjust, but what I actually needed was to be pushed to my potential. I couldn’t blame him, and it was endearing to know he wanted to protect me. But the truth was no one could protect me now. I was the one who had to protect myself and everyone else from Morgana, who wanted to destroy everything my ancestors had built.
The Rise of the Dawnstar Page 8
