by Genna Love
With a bend so subtle most wouldn’t even notice, it curved perfectly and struck the target’s center. This was so much better than playing an instrument or stitching embroidery for hours on end. If the prince was telling the truth, perhaps her new life wouldn’t be as dreadful as she feared.
Marius clapped his hands. “Impressive.” He reached out and took the bow from her hand and passed it to his servant. “It seems we both are full of surprises.”
Zarah turned toward him, suddenly aware of his proximity. This was the first time she’d been alone with him—well, mostly alone, save for the servant. All of their previous encounters had been at public events and dinners where they’d sat next to each other and barely spoken the entire night. Not that she’d tried to engage in conversation. The moment her father told her that she must marry the prince, she hated the idea. But her opinion didn’t matter. It never would. Wishing for anything different was a waste of thought.
With narrowed eyes, Marius moved closer. “You aren’t what I was expecting.”
“No?” She met his gaze. “Did you worry I would be shy and awkward?”
“I worried you’d be a bore. A woman taught to live inside the lines. But you’re so much more. I can sense the fire your soul holds.” His hands found her hips.
The way his light eyes latched onto hers sent a chill from her face to her fingertips. Denying his outer beauty was a waste of energy. The short stubble across his face combined with the warmth of his skin would make any woman in either kingdom melt. He was wealthy and powerful. Someone Zarah should be grateful for.
But no matter how progressive the Cardasian Kingdom might be compared to her own, as a wife, she would become his. His word would become her law, her body would belong to only him. But her marriage wasn’t just about her; it was about her people. If sacrificing her independence meant saving so many lives, there was no choice to be made. All she could do was make the most of it.
Marius leaned in, towering at least a foot taller than her. He dipped his chin and brought his lips to hers.
Zarah lifted a hand to his face as the warmth of his mouth brought heat to other sensitive parts of her body. How many times had she dreamed of being kissed like this? His stubble poked into her palm, but she didn’t mind. As he shifted his hands from her hips to her arms, she tensed.
Marius pulled his mouth from hers and brought it to her ear. “Father told me to play nice before the wedding.” In the cocky tone she’d become accustomed to him using, he continued, “But I can’t wait to use you in the bedroom as I please. I have no intention of being gentle. I will suffocate the spark right out of you.”
This had been a trick. He had no desire to be a kind husband. This was not a gesture to make her fall in love with him or any other fantasy she might have. He was just as cruel as the rumors promised.
The fevered expression of the guard from last night flickered in Zarah’s mind, his desire strong and dangerous. Next came Marius’s cold stare.
Marius screamed, pushing Zarah away as he covered his face with his hand. She stumbled three steps, barely catching her balance before she could fall to the ground.
“What happened?” Zarah asked as she moved toward him, bewildered by his sudden recoil.
“Stay away from me,” he spat. “You witch.”
Confusion filled her as she looked to her hand. It appeared completely normal, but heat tickled her skin.
“Go get the guards,” Marius ordered his servant. As he dropped the hand covering his face, Zarah saw the burn seared into his skin in the shape of half a handprint. “Your title won’t protect you from this.”
Had she been the cause?
But how?
There was no time to wonder, not right then. She needed to get out of there before the guards returned and arrested her.
As Zarah darted around Marius, he reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist. “You’ll pay for this.”
Panicked, Zarah kicked and punched, but no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t pry herself from his grip. Then as instinct took over, she grabbed his finger with her hand and willed her body to burn his.
Marius threw her to the ground. “You bitch.”
Zarah pushed herself from the grass and, without a look back, sprinted away.
Zarah
With the head start, Zarah knew the servant and the Cardasian guards could be coming out of the castle’s front door at any moment.
She sprinted to the side entrance. Gasping for air, she rushed inside. Once the door shut behind her, she leaned against its thick wood to catch her breath.
How had this all happened? She urged herself to wake up and realize it was all a bad dream, but reluctantly, she accepted the fact that this was no nightmare.
This was Lyria. It was her home. Prince Marius had no authority to have her arrested. If she could get to her father, he would protect her.
She might not know how she’d just done what she’d done, but she knew that she couldn’t be caught.
The burn mark on the prince’s face couldn’t be denied. It would be shaped perfectly to Zarah’s hand. She could plead her case. He had threatened her. Her instincts had only reacted from the fear his words had incited. And perhaps if she’d only slugged him with her fist, the offense could be forgiven.
That wasn’t what happened, though.
She’d burned him.
Burned. How was that even possible?
Unless…
She’d read about the days of magic, centuries ago, back before it had been banned from within Lyrian walls. The history books told of a time when some families held elemental power in their blood. Their ability to harness fire, earth, water, and air was envied by those in power who were non-magical. Many of the rich enslaved the elemental mages, until one day, the mages revolted.
Any magic wielder caught was killed, their necks slit with no questions asked. Some were rumored to have fled, never to be seen inside the kingdom again.
As a child, Zarah prayed to the gods for such power. But when her father overheard her prayer, she received six lashings. It was the most severe punishment she’d ever been given.
“Magic is unnatural. It only brings death,” he’d warned, anger glowing in his eyes. She’d never seen him so mad.
She hadn’t listened, of course, instead keeping her prayers inside her mind where no one else could overhear. How could something so amazing be as horrible as her father had made it seem? Despite her daily pleas to the Divine, she never found any magic in her blood, and finally, she’d let the dream go when she was twelve.
Her father wouldn’t protect her now. He couldn’t. Magic was forbidden, and death was the punishment.
But did she really have magic? The thought was ludicrous. From what she’d read, it was all based on bloodline and developed during childhood. No one in her family, at least as far as she knew, possessed any power, and she was already an adult. As outrageous as the idea of her using magic seemed, until she could be sure there was another explanation, she needed to keep hidden.
If Zarah ran to her bedroom, the Cardasian guards would find her. It was too far from any exit and was sure to be the first place they looked. But they didn’t know about her love for the lower library, and no one knew about its secret passage.
The library was on the far side of the castle, and she needed to get there without being caught. Thankfully it had only taken her a minute to get her breath under control, then she pushed herself away from the door and made her way down the hallway.
Zarah minded her pace as not to seem suspicious. Ahead, three servants exited the kitchen. All three paused and moved out of her way as she walked by. Normally, she would give a smile and a short quip like “good day,” but she didn’t dare speak for fear her voice would shake.
Her gaze remained forward as she passed the sitting room.
“Zarah, there you are!” Aerilyn’s cheery voice said. “Where have you been?”
Zarah froze. She didn’t have time to ta
lk. But she wasn’t sure how long it would be until she saw her sister again, and the thought of ignoring her was too much.
After a deep breath, Zarah turned and entered the room. “Prince Marius heard I loved archery so he had a target set up in the courtyard for me.”
“How romantic.” Aerilyn sat near the window with a stitching set in her hand. She placed it on the side-table next to her and scooted to the edge of her chair, straightening her posture. “Did it go well?”
Zarah searched for a lie, staring at her little sister like she never had before. Although she was two years younger than her, she’d always held a maturity Zarah could never hope to possess.
There wasn’t time to say everything she wanted, but she couldn’t run away without saying goodbye. Zarah hurried to her sister and bent down.
“I have to go. I messed up, and I’m not really sure how it happened.” How much could she tell her sister without endangering her? They’d always told each other everything. Zarah shared her deepest secrets, and not once had her sister betrayed her confidence. But she couldn’t say anything that could bring her harm, and despite Aerilyn’s ability to always know the right thing to say, she was a lousy liar, which was why she never told her sister about her secret escapades to the tavern or the hidden passageway out of the castle.
Confusion set in Aerilyn’s brow. “What do you mean? I’m sure whatever you did can be fixed.”
Zarah covered her sister’s hands with her own. “It can’t, and I don’t want you involved so I won’t say anymore. But I love you and I will see you again when I can.”
“Zarah, let’s go to father. He will be able to help.”
She shook her head as she stood. “Don’t trust Prince Marius. There’s something off about him.”
“Zarah! Please!” Concern thickened Aerilyn’s voice.
“Goodbye.” Before she could see the tears she knew her sister would shed, Zarah turned and hurried to the stairs.
When she made it to the lower library, she shut the door gently so no one would hear. How long did she have? She’d spent many hours hidden away there with the books, almost never interrupted. But that didn’t mean no one in the castle would think to look for her there. Some of the servants had found her there before, her nose buried in a book. If the Cardasian guards, or even her father once he found out what she’d done, questioned them, they might reveal her secret spot.
She locked the door and hurried across the room.
She couldn’t stay there, not for long, but she wanted information. It had been years since she’d been obsessed with magic, but she knew right where to find the books she needed. In the back of the room on a lower shelf were the books of the elements. She’d hidden them there, spines facing inward, so no one would take them from her. These weren’t books of the Kingdom’s history. They were filled with pages of instructions to use the different types of magic, chronicles of the forms of the powers themselves.
Four books in all—four heavy books. She stacked them all on a table then went to the mirror. Once she opened it, she hurried back to the books. Voices rang from beneath the library’s door, growing louder with each second. They were already coming for her.
She couldn’t leave the books sitting there or they’d think she’d been studying magic to harm the prince. If she had any hope, she needed to get the books out of the castle before anyone else found them, and if she really did have magic, they might provide her the answers she needed.
Zarah lunged toward the books and lifted them as quickly as she could. Her muscles shook beneath their weight. If one fell, they would hear it and know she had been there. Moving as fast as she could while balancing the books, she rushed to the mirror. When she made it, she heard the library door’s handle jiggle.
“Open it,” Marius’s voice yelled.
Zarah set the books down and, as quietly as she could, shut the mirror behind her.
A bang erupted as the voices entered the library.
Zarah remained still. She didn’t dare risk lifting the books with everyone so close, and she couldn’t leave them behind. As she sat there, she felt like she had as a child playing hide-and-seek with the other children who lived in the palace. Just like then, her pulse was racing and her breath left her lungs in short puffs.
“You said she comes here often?” Marius asked someone.
“Y-yes,” an unfamiliar female voice replied, likely a servant. “She spends much time here.”
Zarah wanted to be mad at the girl for giving the information so freely, but she couldn’t find any real anger. Prince Marius was scary, and she didn’t doubt he would follow through on any threat he made to the poor girl.
A loud smack cracked and the female shrieked.
“This was a waste of time,” Marius said. “Let’s find her sister.”
Zarah’s heart, which had been thumping louder than ever before, slowed as she heard the clunking of the guards’ boots disappear.
A new fear surfaced when she thought of Aerilyn. If Marius laid a hand on her… No, he wasn’t that stupid. He might be brave enough to abuse a poor servant, but if he touched her sister, her father would make him pay.
She hadn’t realized her hands had been shaking.
Zarah lowered herself to the ground and pulled her knees into her chest. She was safe, for now, but she had nowhere to go.
As tears pooled in her eyes, she sniffed. Crying would do her no good. She needed a plan and somewhere she could hide.
How had everything spiraled out of control so quickly? Yesterday, she’d been in her room, picking out jewelry for a wedding she might not have wanted, but had accepted. And now, she’d somehow burned her future husband. When the city guard had her in his grip, she worried for the marriage and the alliance it would bring. She couldn’t have imagined anything worse. Her virtue would have vanished, but getting assaulted wasn’t a crime.
She remembered how relieved she’d been when the man somehow had saved her. His hand had been hot. Like fire.
Was it possible that her rescuer was a mage? Had touching him sparked something in her?
With no other ideas, she knew who she needed to find.
Kailas
Kailas stood in the third row with his head lowered and chanted the same sacred tune he’d chanted thousands of times. His hands rested on top of his thighs, respectively folded as gratefulness to the Divine flowed through him.
Afternoon had arrived. Bright rays from the western sky shone brightly through the stained glass windows. Kailas snuck a peak, as he always did this time of day. The largest window to his right was his favorite, filled with a mosaic of the sacred roses. Red for eternal love, yellow for compassion, and white for purity, the three tenants of Monastic life.
The western beams of sun aligned perfectly with the large statue at the front of the room. It was the female depiction of the Divine, a mother holding an infant in her arms as the Divine cared for its people. Light flickered in the deep blue sapphire placed in the center of her forehead. The gemstone was rumored to be a gift from the Divine itself, a beautiful reminder of its eternal love. As odd as it seemed, he always felt peace when he stared at the statue. Something about it called to deep within him.
When the chanting session came to a close, Kailas lifted his chin and followed his Brothers out of the temple and to the dining hall.
He had devoted himself to the Divine when he was sixteen, which came much to the surprise—and disapproval—of his father, the Kingdom’s richest brothel owner. His father wanted him to learn the family business and to be heir to the empire he had created from his own two hands.
And perhaps if the brothels were the only way his father earned money, Kailas would have agreed despite his objections. But selling women’s bodies to lustful men wasn’t enough. The real money came through the selling of slaves in the Eastern Kingdoms. He’d urged his father many times to quit the dirty business. Slavery had been outlawed in Lyria after the last civil war, and anyone caught participating in the act wo
uld be tried, and if found guilty, locked in a jail cell for life.
After following the line through the serving station and filling himself a bowl of potato soup, Kailas sat down next to Taban, his best friend in the Monastery. Taban had devoted himself to the Divine a week after Kailas and the two had been inseparable ever since.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Taban said as he patted his stomach.
Unlike Kailas who had been blessed with a naturally strong, lean physique and took pleasure in physical activity, Taban was plump around the middle, which, thanks to the meager servings of food they received as Monks, was a rarity.
“You’re always hungry.” Kailas shook his head.
“If they would feed us real food, maybe I wouldn’t be.”
“I didn’t realize this soup was imaginary.” He dipped his spoon into the hot liquid and scooped himself a bite. “Sure tastes real.”
“Ha ha.” His friend circled his spoon in his bowl. “I meant something more substantial. For all the work we do for this city, I think we deserve beef stew.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t have joined a vegetarian Monastery.” Kailas enjoyed the soup. It wasn’t the gourmet food he’d been raised on, but the cooks used the right spices for a delicious flavor profile.
Taban sighed. A few minutes later, his soup was gone.
Kailas preferred to eat slowly, savoring each bite. He had the same view for everything in life. The world outside the Monastery was busy and hectic. He found comfort in the rituals and simplicity of life within the Monastery walls.
There, he felt safe. Secure. Pure. Emotions he hadn’t felt before taking his vows.
Because Kailas was not only running from the legacy his father expected for him, but from something given to him by his mother.
Magic. The most unholy of things filled his blood, and the only way he knew to make up for such evil was through dedication to that which stood against it. Since becoming a Monk eight years ago, not once had he used the dark power within, and every night before bed, he prayed for the Divine to free him from the curse.
