by A Lonergan
Not as close as I hoped, but it was something. I was getting better at it. Willow struggled in the water beside me, her wet hair covering her face like a drowning feline. She fought against the waves hitting us nonstop and screamed, “I hate the water!” She was more like a feline than a feline was. I couldn’t help but laugh. I grabbed the back of her tunic and dragged her behind me. “I can swim you rutting fool!”
“Why are you so scream-y?” I kept laughing, it was the only thing that was keeping me swimming against the current. It was the only thing keeping me above the water. A wave smacked me in the face and I faltered. The Wasted Sea was given that name for a reason, it wasn't a place for swimming. I was struggling more than I would have admitted, and as much as she said she could swim, she wasn’t keeping herself above the water. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an affinity for the substance drowning us, and neither did any of the men on my ship. Nico was waving his arms with the most excited look I had ever seen on his face. He was the sweetest man on my elite squad, but he wasn’t the friendliest.
There was a difference.
When we finally reached the boat, Willow had stopped acting dramatic and we were both hauled up by a rope. I didn’t know why none of my men didn’t have more elemental affinities. Being in these situations was starting to drag on me. I expected to hear Willow say something about how cold we were. But she kept silent and when I turned back to her, she was completely dry. She gave me a shy smile and shook her head. The questions would all be answered later because as soon as she saw her mother, she collided with her in an emotional embrace. Her mother looked just like her, especially the eyes. She had aged well, even through all the stress she had been under with her daughter working for an evil tyrant.
They finally released each other, with tears still streaming down their faces and Willow turned to me. “This is the King of Rosalia.”
Willow’s mother threw herself down at my feet and pressed her forehead into the deck. I bent over and pulled her from the ground. “Please, call me Cal, Mrs. Bane.”
Willow watched our exchange with a smile on her face. I still wanted to know how she had managed the dry clothes because I was dying in mine. Her mother shook her head. “Then please call me Salina,”
I bowed my head to her. “It’s nice to finally meet the woman that raised the lady that is stealing my heart.” I could have sworn that the whole ship stopped breathing. I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. You all act like I would have orchestrated this entire thing for just anyone. Am I really that giving?”
Nico slapped me on the back. It was nice to see his real face again after weeks of disguises, just in case. We would have never made it across the Wasted Sea without changing our appearances. Willow probably wouldn’t have let us go through with it anyhow. If she had seen us on the ship, she would have found some other way to get back to her home kingdom. Knowing she was leaving tore a hole through my chest. I knew she could take care of herself, I applauded how resourceful she could be, but I couldn’t leave her to die, especially not knowing what her magic was.
“You really aren’t that giving, but we could see the look in your eye,” Nico said. “We all knew.”
I nodded my head. Of course my elites would know.
Willow furrowed her brow. “So how did you pull all this together? Is your kingdom defenseless?”
I chuckled. “Never, only a few of my men are here, the rest are a crew I hired. I’ll answer all of your questions when you answer mine.”
“How thoughtful of you,” She watched me carefully. “What now?”
“I could use a good assassin in my corner,” I said, playfully.
“What if this assassin wants to retire?” She looked out over the Wasted Sea before us and her mother grasped her hand on the other side of her.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Willow
Cal hadn’t let me out of his sight. I didn’t mind it one bit, until he wouldn’t let me go when it was time to sleep. My mother gave him a look that would have scared any sane man. He chuckled.
Guess he wasn’t that sane after all.
I had decided that drying his clothes was in both of our best interests. I couldn’t concentrate with his clothing clinging to his body the way it was, and my mother present.
“My mother is tired,” I whispered beside him. We were laying on a hammock overlooking the sea. My mother was fussing over the sailors not eating enough and the elites not getting enough exercise. She was fitting right in, but I could see the fatigue on her face.
Cal nuzzled his face into my shoulder. “Let her go to bed then.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed him off of me. He had been too handsy and as much as I enjoyed it, every time I touched him I could feel the death that he had done. I could smell it in the air on his men too. I didn’t say anything, but Cal could feel the tension. I needed to learn how to control this.
He propped his head up on his hand. “What happened with the Emperor?”
“He knew about me, about my magic and where it came from.” I sighed. “I could feel it in the air.”
“Are you going to tell me what that is?” he asked.
I closed my eyes and began. “I have killed my entire life. I killed my first man in the throne room. I killed handmaidens, servants, queens, any magical being that I could, and more. He gave me a task and I took it. I didn’t mind and I didn’t care what was next. I lived to keep my mother alive after he killed my father. Eventually I didn’t even care what I did. But I was good at it, so that was something. I was always the best, just like my father. I was ten years old being sent on assignments that not even grown men could come back from. I accomplished everything he sent me out to do.” I paused.
“Until me,” Cal whispered.
“Yes, there was nothing I could do, because for whatever reason, I knew I couldn’t kill you. I was struggling with the mission when he gave it to me. I thought for sure that I would find Claudia and be able to get out of it…”
“But you didn’t,” he finished.
I shook my head. I continued on and told him about Hel and what had happened there, sometime in the middle of it, my mother had come to listen. I didn’t stop with my tale, even when she started to cry. My voice was steady and strong as I told them about my gifts and what I could do. What I did to get out of that throne room.
“I knew that if you could get through what my sister put you through, you could easily get away from whatever he had planned for you.” Cal said.
My mother gave me a quick look and I waved my hand to tell her later. She would be complacent for now, but when we were alone she would want to know everything that had happened at the hands of Cal’s sister.
“Speaking of your sister, what happened with that?” I looked up at the stars above us and tried to imagine what he was going through, or what he had gone through. I had always wanted a sister, until I realized that meant the Emperor using her to get to me.
Cal watched Nico on coming from the stairwell and sat there for a moment before he answered. “I thought about sending her back, but then I would have to always wonder if she would try something like this again. I realized that whether I had her or not, there would be war in our kingdom’s future. She’s locked up under the castle with as many spells as I could muster and sealed with my blood.”
“Sounds airtight,” my mother said
“If you knew my sister then you would agree with me, its the only way for her now. I gave her the chance at freedom, and she wanted to be evil.”
I didn’t add to it. That was all there was to it.
I awoke with a start. My arms and legs flailed around me and I tried to remember where I was or how I had gotten there. My hammock twisted around me and deposited me on the hard ground.
Ugh.
I squeezed my eyes closed and felt for my knives. When I couldn’t find them I began to panic until my mother spoke up, “Eventually you are going to have to be comfortable
without those.”
I rolled over and found her sleeping arrangements directly beside me. “How did I get here? I don’t remember walking down here or even getting ready for bed.”
“Cal carried you,”
I rolled my eyes, here we were again with the manhandling that I despised so much.
“He’s not so bad.” Her voice sounded hopeful as she watched me. Her hair was pulled up into a knot on the top of her head and for once in my entire life I could see my mother relax.
I smiled. “No, he’s not. He’s the best, but I don’t know how to move on with my life, especially now with a king.”
My mother got a distant look on her face. “I remember when your father started courting me,” she smiled sadly. “He worked for a ruthless man for years before we met, and he was lonely. Emperor Hildiguard was not as bad then as he is now. Something changed for the worse when he had you. Your father knew that he needed to try to have a family eventually, but he pushed me away for far too long. Our love was inevitable, just as his death was.”
I nodded my head and rolled onto my stomach.
“If you push this man away because you are afraid, you will regret it for the rest of your life. He cares for you and I can see that you care for him too. He has also lost much, and he can relate with some of your pain. Don’t keep him out of it.”
My mother had always been wise. She let her arm drop from the hammock and grabbed my hand in hers. She had always had the softest hands. She was tender where I was rough and tough.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
I dressed without my knives, though I was a bit frustrated to find that they had gone missing. I knew I didn’t need them now, but I wanted them. They had become apart of me, and many of them were souvenirs from the other kingdoms I had killed in. They had memories that I tried to keep from my occupation. They had actual fond memories as I had gone to bazaars, marketplaces, and vendor carts all over our realm. Those weren’t even the ones I missed the most either, it was the dagger that had belonged to my father that was my prized possession.
The white tunic I wore billowed in the wind and I enjoyed the feeling of my tight leather pants, even without the knives, they were better than dresses. I stalked up the stairs and let the sunshine hit me before I stalked Cal. I knew he was the one behind my missing weapons. Except when I found him, I couldn’t find my voice. I couldn't find the anger that had swelled within me.
He had his breakfast on one knee and my knives resting on his other. He would take a bite of porridge and then sharpen the blades. He took his time, admiring the craftsmanship of each weapon. He threw his head back and laughed at something before he took another bite. Nico caught me staring before Cal did. He gave me a small knowing grin and I couldn’t help but return it.
Cal turned, and his face turned bright red. “I was going to ask, but you were so tired, and they were dirty. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I took care of them.”
I nodded, dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe he had done that for me. He lifted his hand and gave me an awkward wave. I smiled and walked to the mess hall for breakfast, the rolling of the ship was starting to get to me again. If I wanted to make it across the Wasted Sea, I needed some kind of nourishment.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Willow
Magic was great.
I was really coming to enjoy it. Mainly for the reason that it took us a week to get back to Rosalia. I didn’t know if it was because of the rumors of us being pursued, or the fact that my nausea had come back tenfold and I was hauled up at the bow of the ship everyday wasting away. Cal had stayed by my side for as long as he could, but it was misery that I didn’t expect him to go through just for me to have company.
Plus, my mother preferred to be my main caretaker. When we could see the kingdom in the distance, I almost threw myself from the ship and swam the rest of the way. Anything to get off of this rutting boat.
As soon as we were docked, I didn’t care about anyone else and I ran onto the loading station. I pushed through the goblins, fairies, and any other magical creature that I would have usually gawked at. I fell to the sand and just laid there, until I could hear Nico laughing.
“Get up, we still have a long way to get to the castle and the King will want you by his side.” That was when I noticed the horses. Cal sat on a monstrous, white winged horse and all of the other horses were ordinary. My mother sat on a black one, her hair was piled high on her head and she looked regal down to her toes. She was wearing. dress that fit her station now, and not some flimsy attire that belonged in the brothels.
I looked down at myself and laughed. “He wants me by his side like this?” I had sand covering my body, and I smelled like vomit, and I hadn’t washed my hair in days.
My mother was the one to answer. “If you hadn’t darted off the ship like a flash, we would have warned you.”
“Warned me of what?”
It probably couldn’t get worse, so I remained hopeful until Cal said, “I am announcing our courtship. It could possibly pacify your former Emperor from declaring war. Though, I very much doubt he would do that. When I was in his kingdom I could feel the magic there, and it wasn’t much. Our magic greatly outnumbers his. War would be stupid”
“Courtship?” It was all I had picked up on.
He smirked. “Yes, I have to declare it to all of Rosalia.”
I nodded my head then lifted my arm. “What about my ink?”
He bit his lip for a moment. “I’ll have someone come from the Elven Kingdom, that I’m friends with, to add to it. To make it a masterpiece you will be proud of showing off. Removing it would be extremely painful.” He held up his hand knowing what I was going to say. “I know you can’t feel pain like normal, it would kill a normal witch. It would kill me to have that removed.”
Oh.
My mother dismounted from her horse and practically yanked me back on the ship. “You are about to meet the people of Rosalia for the first time. First impressions are everything.”
She wasn’t wrong. Because of that, I let her shove me into a corset, then squeeze the life out of me with it, then she put a dress on me. That was probably the worst part of all of it. My mother was a seasoned pro. We were done within a matter of minutes. She sprayed perfume on me, popped a mint leaf in my mouth, took a sniff, then popped three more before she took a bottle of black powder from her sleeve and dumped it over my head.
I flinched away from her and tried to duck from her musings. “How did you get so good at this? So fast?” I coughed as inhaled the rutting powder she had poured on my head. She started to massage it into my scalp as she considered answering me.
“When the Emperor would come calling, I wouldn’t have time for a handmaiden, or even a bath. I quickly learned things that would keep me pretty and alive.”
I didn’t say anything and let her tug on my clothes and hair. It was the least I could do for all she had done for my father and I. All she had put up with. She took a step away from me and her face glowed. Even though she was happy, there was an undercurrent of worry, now that I had seen her in her attire for the Emperor. Had she been his consort?
“They will not know what to think when they see you now.”
I was about to ask whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, when she shoved me out of the captain’s quarters and onto the ramp that led to the dock. I held my breath, but the gasps around me had me snickering. Served these rutting men right.
Cal whistled from his beast. The horse trotted around like it was dancing for me at the sound of his voice. “I had always dealt with women that took hours to get put together. Now this is something I could get used to.”
I wished I had my throwing knives tucked in all the ruffles of the dress, but a scowl would have to work. He led the winged monster my way and Nico helped me up. I adjusted myself on the saddle, and tried to figure out how to make my skirts do right on this thing.
So glad Mother spruced me up.
“You look radiant,
but you smell like a horse’s ass.” Nico’s voice flitted into my mind.
I leaned back into Cal’s chest. “I am going to need my knives back as soon as you have an availability.”
“Is Nico tormenting you?” He chuckled in my ear as he straightened in the saddle.
“You too?”
I could feel him nod as he took us away from the ship. Nico and the rest of the elites rode in front of us and my mother held the reigns for her horse to wait behind us. Cal held his hand up and turned in his saddle, “Someday, you will be my mother and I don’t ever want you to feel like you are second or last. You stand beside us, please bring your mare forward.”
My mother held her head high as tears streamed down her face. Cal had officially found the way to my mother’s heart.
Chapter Thirty
The King
Nico addressed the waiting crowd, but I couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Willow sitting in front of me was enough of a distraction. I could tell she hated dresses, but this one was breathtaking on her. The red velvet fabric hung off of her shoulders, and the sleeves ended at her elbows. Her ink was on bright display in this gown.
I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “It’s okay to wave to them,”
I held my arm up and gave her an example. She wasn’t used to being the spotlight, she had always hidden in the shadows, and now here I was forcing her to be someone she wasn’t.
Guilt filled my gut. I clicked my heels on the rump of Gestavos and he took flight before Willow had the chance to win the crowd over. Willow let out a squeak and grabbed my thigh. I grunted and removed her hand. Her breath was coming out in quick puffs as the ground grew lower and lower beneath us. Gestavos was the only winged horse I owned that would fly for me now that the dragons were back in this realm, thanks to Freya. He trusted me and I trusted the dragons. Even though I hadn't gotten the chance to see them again lately.
