“We could hide behind that huge boulder, and nobody would see us. Let’s go.”
We climbed behind the rock and nestled into the hiding place, an excellent shelter from enemies and the furious wind.
As Della made a resting spot for us in the dirt, pushing twigs and pebbles and leaves away, she observed, “If anyone saw us out here, they would never guess we are queens from another world, another dimension.”
I chucked at the thought. “You’re right about that.”
She wiped the dried mud off her face. “Back home, people obey my every command. I eat the best meals and live in the most beautiful castle. Yet here I am, about to sleep on a stone, freezing, in the middle of nowhere. It’s quite ironic, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Here, we’re nobody special. I know that must be very hard on you, since you’ve been a queen for centuries. In the blink of an eye, you went from high royalty to no one in particular.”
“At the moment, I don’t even have my powers,” Della said. “Nobody calls me Highness, bows at my feet, or treats me special. I once ruled a great kingdom, but now I’m just a regular person, with no power or authority.”
“Now you know how your peasants feel, though most of them are poor and starving, watching their children die from malnutrition.”
“I have to admit I was impressed when you sent food to not only your kingdom but also to mine.”
“Della, if you ever go back, you must take better care of your subjects. The people in Lato are especially in need of help.”
“That tears at my heart,” she said, her voice quivering after I told her about the horrible things I’d seen there.
“You are the queen of Dornia. While you’re enjoying the privileged life of royalty, you mustn’t forget to take care of the people who need help. That is the true measure of a good queen, you know.”
“Our world was truly amazed by your humanitarian act. No other queen has ever been mindful of the peasants. Everywhere I went, people talked about your kindness and generosity. Then, when Victor joined your campaign of compassion, the people forgave him and embraced him as their king, so much so that they dubbed him king of the Immortals. Everyone loved the two of you so much. Did you even realize the impact you made?”
“I was just doing what was right.”
“You must go back to Tastia when you are able, Sarah. Our world is in dire need of someone like you. You taught all of us across the lands that peace is possible, and you even managed to convince that stubborn Victor to put an end to his insane war and reunite the lands and people. Sarah, your name will go down through the archives of history in our world.”
“We just have to squish Ethano under our boots, and then we can have that world once again,” I said.
A twig snapped, and my heart thundered. All my senses were on high alert. Breathing hard, I flattened myself against the rock and peeked out.
Della continued to stare at me, her gaze intense. “See anything?”
“No.” I reached for a stick. I knew something or someone was definitely out there, and I worried that we were being tracked. I clenched my teeth as heat rose into my cheeks. My shirt stuck to my back from my sweaty, damp skin that even the cool mountain breeze could not relieve. I aimed the gun with steady arms, my legs in a wide stance, and a doe bolted into the vegetation. My shoulders shrugged in relief. “It’s only a deer.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes, pearls of sweat shimmering on her pale face.
I felt her hot forehead. “You’re running a temperature too,” I surmised.
“I’ll survive. I’m Immortal, remember? The shot they gave me will not allow me to heal because it is inhibiting most of my Immortal powers. I would love to get my hands on that potion and give them a taste of their own vile medicine!”
“I’d love to use it on Ethano if I ever have to face him again.” I felt my blood boiling, anger rushing through me at the memory.
She stared at me hard. “Don’t even mention him. I need go get my beauty sleep tonight.”
I blew out a breath. “Sorry.”
It was difficult to get comfortable on the hard rock, not to mention that the weather was freezing. I flexed and contracted my numb fingers as the cold continued to bite into me. I couldn’t take another minute in that horribly place. I just wanted to be home, snuggled next to Victor. It was springtime, and cuddling by a cozy fire was more of a winter thing, but at that moment, I would have killed to be near my fireplace. It was chilly in the mountains, no matter the time of year. I rubbed my hands together to take advantage of the friction, then blew into them. “Maybe if we huddle together, we can stay warm.”
She rolled her eyes.
Goosebumps pimpled my skin as ice-cold wind beat across my body. “Hey, I’m freezing here, and I know you are.”
Shivering, she huddled next to me. “No one is to find out about this.”
“Got it, but tell me something, Della.”
“What?”
“Why are you so mean to me?” I asked. “I’ve done nothing but try to be nice to you.”
“Do you want me to lie and give you the more polite answer?”
My cheeks grew hot, but my gaze didn’t waver. “No! I want the truth.”
“Well, I’ve thought long and hard and have finally decided that I’ll never be truly happy if I don’t be honest with myself.”
“And what does that mean, Della?”
She met my gaze dead on and let the words out slowly. “I want your husband.”
My stomach churned as my rival verbalized her true intentions. “You think you can just come in and steal my life? What’s your problem?”
“You,” she said. “You are my problem. You are...in the way.”
A surge of anger flooded through me. I’d given her a chance to make amends, to prove me wrong about her, but she’d blown it. Victor had fought a war against her new husband and had begged her to come back for hundreds of years. She could have had Victor anytime she wanted, but she decided to wait until he was mine, until I was about to give birth to his firstborn child, and I had no idea how someone could be so selfish and malicious. “I don’t deserve that, Della. I’ve never done anything to you.”
“You have the life I was supposed to have.”
I gaped at her. “I don’t get it.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You left Victor hundreds of years ago, when you broke your engagement and married another man.”
“Sarah, I loved Victor with everything in me, but he wasn’t the man he is today. Back then, he was a monster. If he were still the same, you’d be running from him now, for he was ruthless and heartless. It isn’t fair.”
I tried to keep my teeth from chattering, but something about the words she was saying was warming me up. “What’s not fair?”
“He finally settled down—for you. You were able to tame him. I keep asking myself where I went wrong. Why wouldn’t Victor change for me? Damn it, I loved that man.”
“Wow. What queenly language you have.”
She shrugged. “I’ve been in your filthy world long enough for it to corrupt my tongue, I suppose. Besides, I’ve watched lots of television in my holding cell.”
I couldn’t believe Della was so quick to admit to me that she was in love with my husband. Even though her words stung, I felt for the woman; I knew from experience how hard breakups and broken hearts and disappointments in love could be. “It’s hard for me to admit this, but I know how much you two loved each other.”
“Victor wasn’t the man you know today,” she said. “He was a tyrant then, just like his father.”
“Those days are long gone,” I said softly.
“I know.” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “When I see the man Victor is today, my heart melts.” Her voice wavered. “Now he’s the man I wanted all along, the man I was supposed to marry. I was supposed to be his queen, the one who woul
d birth his heir. The life I was supposed to have now belongs to you.”
I shook my head, not sure what to say. By the emotion in her voice, I could tell how much she genuinely loved Victor. She didn’t want to give him up back then, but she couldn’t stand by and watch Victor destroy everyone and everything around him. She refused to be married to a monster, no matter how much she loved him. She chose to break free, and knowing Victor as I now did, I realized just how difficult that must have been.
“Even when I said goodbye, Victor fought for me like no other. Part of me wanted to rush into his arms, but the larger part hated him. I was scared of him, for I’d seen him do such heinous things. What do you do when you’re in love with a monster?” When I didn’t answer, she continued, “William got me through the pain, and I was able to walk away from Victor, even though it hurt like a knife slicing through my heart. Victor was my first and only love, and we’d spent centuries together. Do you know how hard it was to separate myself from him when he was my life?” She sobbed.
“I can imagine.”
“I know how deeply you love him, and you’ve only experienced it for less than two years. Imagine loving him that way for centuries.”
“I don’t think I could’ve given him up like you did,” I whispered, sounding more accusatory than I meant to.
“You’re so foolish, Sarah. You can easily say that because you’ve never seen Victor in action. You’ve never seen him for the monster he was! Why do you think everyone feared him in every kingdom?”
“I’ve never seen him like that.”
“That’s because he put on his best act for you. Ultimately, he became what he was pretending to be to impress you. How did you do it, Sarah? Even after knowing him and loving him all that time, nothing I ever did changed him. What did you do to make Victor such an honorable man? As I said, now he melts my heart because he’s the Victor I wanted, the Victor I knew he could be, the man of my dreams.”
“Is that why you left William? Because you wanted to come after Victor?”
“I’ll never stop loving your husband, Sarah—not ever.”
“Liz said you hate him.”
“I hated the man he had become. I was mad that he had destroyed our love, furious with the revenge he took on Dornia, my new country. I was even more enraged that he didn’t change for me, that my love wasn’t enough to lure him out of the darkness he had stumbled into.”
“I accidently read a love letter he wrote to you. I found it buried in his library. He poured out his love to you in the most beautiful way. I know he loved you then, Della.”
She sobbed. “It cut so deeply, because I’ve never loved anyone so passionately. He always promised me he’d love me forever, that we spend the rest of our lives together. I can still see his face when he stared into my eyes and said, ‘Della, I love you.’”
Again the words stung, and I felt the pang of jealousy. I knew it was ancient history, but the thought of my Victor declaring his love to another woman made my heart ache. I had almost two years to her centuries, and I had to ask her, “Della, do you want Victor back?” My voice cracked slightly, like it always did when I felt uncomfortable.
She laughed, as if I should already know the answer. “Yes, more than anything. You have no idea what we’ve shared and what we’ve been through.”
I said the dreaded words I’d been afraid to ask, even though I already knew the answer. “Are you going to make him choose between you and me?”
She stared into my eyes. “I will leave that choice in Victor’s capable hands.”
I swallowed hard, trying to grasp the reality that another woman was after the man I loved. His ex wanted him back, and I had no idea how to respond to that.
She wiped her eyes, then met my gaze once again. “Oh, Sarah, don’t be so naïve. We both know he’ll choose you. Congratulations. You don’t believe in fairytales, yet you have one right in your hands.”
Chapter 18
I awoke to Della hovering over me and shouting in my face.
“Enough sleep,” she said. “It’s light out. We must be going.”
“I slept longer than intended.”
“We both did.”
“Are you okay? How’s your shoulder?”
“It hurts badly. How are you?”
I bit my lip hard as electricity swept through me. “The current’s getting stronger.”
“We must make haste,” she said.
“I know.” The birds were chirping, and I was thankful for the dawn. I was growing weaker by the minute, and I was dying of thirst. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I had to rest against a boulder until it passed. The climb down was so steep, a trek through thick brush that reminded me of the rainforests I’d seen on nature shows and in those old Tarzan movies. As I fought through the leafy vegetation, we wandered past steep canyon walls and through the twisting trees and granite boulders. Several times, I stumbled on shattered rocks as my feet caught on big slabs of limestone.
“Sarah,” Della said, “what’s that up ahead?”
I strained my eyes and saw flashes of blue and red. Peering intently, I noticed pitched tents. “Somebody’s camping.”
“Will they offer weary travelers food and drink?” she said in a hopeful voice.
“That sounds fantastic,” I said. “Let’s hope they’re hospitable.”
Della grabbed my arm. “Wait. What if they are Immortals?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” I stepped forward. “Hello?” I called out, but no one answered. As I approached, the smell of death and rot lingered in the breeze. Nausea rose in the pit of my stomach as I glimpsed dead people strewn in the overgrown vegetation.
“They’ve been beheaded,” Della said, startled as she stared at the massacre.
“Only Immortals would do something so horrible,” I whispered in a stunned voice. I tried to keep myself from puking, shocked at the cruelty of the blue-ringed Immortals. How could they kill these poor people?
Della sucked in a deep breath. “Sarah, we must get out of here as fast as we possibly can.”
“Maybe we can find a cell phone to communicate with the outside world.” I blew a breath. “If we can even get a signal.”
She immediately began searching one of the bodies. “Perhaps they have blue rings. If so, we may be able to wear them to boost our power.”
“I doubt it. The drug paralyzes any kind of power. I heard them say it on the roof by the helicopter. They said maybe the drug wore off and didn’t work on Immortals like us. That means it must work like a charm on them.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t see any rings on any of them. I bet the Immortals took them.”
“I’m sure of it,” I said, and that was when I noticed the gold eagle ring glittering on one of the men’s fingers. I couldn’t stop staring at it.
“What is it? Did you find something?”
“I’ve seen this ring before, worn by a gang who surrounded my car and warned me to get out of town. They said they were the good guys, but they sure didn’t look like it. Their leader is named Jackson.”
“They didn’t harm you or threaten you?”
“No. They just warned me to leave town because the blue-ringed Immortals had marked me, so we heeded their warning.” I put a hand over my mouth, wondering if Jackson was among the deceased.
I started to gently frisk the bodies for a weapon or a phone. My gun was out of bullets, but I could bluff if I had too. I was hoping to find a radio or anything that could be of use. I searched the pockets of the victims but didn’t find anything useful.
I opened the flap of a weathered tent and walked inside. I tossed the blankets around and went through the backpacks. I saw canteens, a lighter, kerosene, clothes, sunscreen, and plenty of survival supplies. I grabbed the lighter, kerosene, and other important supplies, then stuffed them into a backpack. I also collected the jewelry and watches from the bodies and put them deep in the backpack. I planned to return them to loved one
s who would surely be missing the men.
“We can make a smoke fire if we have to,” I said, flinging the backpack over my shoulder.
“No fire!” she said. “It’ll bring every Immortal straight here. I say we keeping moving down the mountain.”
“I agree.” If anything happens to my baby out here... I took the biggest breath ever. If anything happens to little Alexander, I’ll never be able to live with myself. We needed to keep going.
As I dug through another backpack in the tent, I found bottled water. Jackpot! I threw one to Della, and then opened mine. My throat was parched and nothing tasted better. I guzzled down the entire bottle and then packed a few more I found.
“I found a diary,” Della announced, “but it appears the pages are wet and falling apart.”
I carefully flipped through the journal. Some pages were unreadable, but I was able to make out enough to learn that they were an elite team sent to rescue some of the people being held hostage in the lab. “Do you know what this means?” I asked Della.
“That this was a rescue mission that went horribly wrong.”
“More than that, it means there are some blue-ringed Immortals who are on our side. They were heading up that mountain to save humans. There are some good ones out there.”
Della cocked a brow. “So Jackson was right. He was one of the good guys.”
My mouth dropped opened, but no words came out. Is Jackson leading a rebellion against the blue-ringed Immortals? Will his rebels be willing to make an allegiance with us? I was dying to give Victor the information. Maybe we should relocate to where the rebels are. It’d be a lot safer, I thought, having no desire to be snatched up again for another go at a pre-mortem autopsy.
“Sarah, this is great news,” Della said. “We just have to find these allies.”
“I didn’t see any wallets or identification, but I’ll bring the notebook with us. Maybe it will help us figure things out.”
“These bodies have lain here for less than a day,” Della said. “Why haven’t the Immortals disposed of them?”
Eternal Faith - Book 4 (The Ruby Ring Saga) Page 17
