by Kaylin Lee
“So competitive.” I gave him a mock frown. “Well? When was it?”
“When I was following your team.” His cheeks flushed further. “Probably just about the time when I figured out which one was Alba Mattas. All curves and beauty in that black uniform, and you carried yourself like a real princess. That skinny blond guy kept teasing you, but you barely seemed to notice. You just held your head high and kept hiking, not a word of complaint. I remember thinking you were exactly the kind of girl someone would want to steal. And then …” He frowned, his expression losing its humor. “I realized you weren’t mine to take, but it was too late to undo the damage.”
And in that moment, I knew exactly what to do. “I love you, Si.” I pressed my lips to his, cutting off his words. I had to erase the shame and regret from his face. He met my kiss immediately, his lips as eager as mine.
When I broke away, we were both smiling. “I really, truly love you,” I added. “Just wanted to make sure you knew.”
“Got it.” He cleared his throat. “So are we going to eat those sparkleberry something-or-others or not? Because your dad gave me quite a lecture before we left.”
I laughed and stepped back.
We sat on the small bench beside the edge of the rooftop, looking out over the bustling villas and shops of the Mage Division as we sipped our coffees. “How much more time before we have to be back?”
“An hour.” Si shot me a sidelong glance. “You don’t need to come, Alba. You described the entrance well enough. We’ll find it.”
I shook my head. “But will you find it before they find you? I’m coming. There’s no way I’m staying back, not when I’m the only one who knows for sure how to find the hidden entrance.”
“It’s going to be dangerous.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Good thing I’m a healer mage. I’ve realized I like being useful.”
“You know there’s no guarantee we’re going to save Bri, right? Your parents will think we’re crazy if they get wind of your plan. Even if we find the man, he might not believe us about breaking the curse. He might not get the chance to kiss her. And if he does, what if the curse is too strong for him to break?”
“I know.” My smile faded. “I thought finding her true love would solve everything, but I guess love is just the beginning, isn’t it? Not a guarantee.”
I thought of my parents, separated for thirteen years by the danger of my mom’s magic, followed by my father’s countless missions into the Badlands over the past five years. I remembered the way my mother fell into his arms after every mission, welcoming him home with a wordless embrace, like there was nothing that needed to be said to bring them back together.
“Maybe it just comes down to making a choice, to love and to keep loving, even when things are hard. Even when they might not get to live happily ever after, like in stories.”
At some point, I’d stopped talking about Bri, hadn’t I? I swished a finger through the dollop of frostberry cream on my pastry and stuck it in my mouth to distract myself from the new turn of my thoughts, but it didn’t work.
Si was a Badlander. Wild. Independent. A fighter and a hunter. Could I really expect him to stay safe in Asylia for me? To spend the rest of his life dealing with obnoxious, condescending shopkeepers like the one downstairs, who didn’t see that Si was worth ten of him?
I chanced a glance at Si, admiring for the thousandth time the way his shoulders filled out his shirt, and the callused, wide hands that were capable of such gentleness and strength at the same time.
He smiled slowly, his eyes on my lips. “Tastes good, huh?”
I nodded absently and swiped another dab of cream. Si would always be in danger of some sort, wouldn’t he? Just like my father. Maybe real love—true love—meant being willing to get my heart broken in the end. And resolving that even if it happened, it would be worth the risk. “Even when I might lose you.”
Si’s smile faded. “Lose me?”
“To the Badlands, the Masters … I don’t know, Si. You want to be a free man, don’t you, like you said to Damian back at the cave? You want to make your own way. You’re not the type to stay safe in Asylia forever. You’re always in danger of some kind, it seems like.” I forced myself to meet his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want you to break my heart. But I think …” Familiar panic rushed through me, tightening my throat, but I forged ahead anyway. “I think you’re worth the risk.”
He leaned forward and took my hands in his. “What about you, healer mage? You’re always running off to heal somebody. And who knows if they’re trustworthy, or if they even deserve your healing. Could be some crazy, semi-reformed bandit like me. I’m afraid I’ll turn around one day and see you trying to heal a wounded bear.”
I couldn’t help smiling as I leaned forward and kissed his concerned, frowning lips. “Poor, sweet, wounded bear.”
“You’re insane, Princess.” Si kissed me back, sliding his hand over the back of my head and pulling me close. “But you’re mine.”
“I’m just teasing,” I mumbled between kisses, starting to feel a bit distracted. “I probably wouldn’t do that.”
“Probably.” I felt him smile against my lips before he pulled away. “You make me so happy, Alba.”
“Same.” I tucked my head into the warm, comforting spot between his neck and collarbone. When I pulled away, I realized the sun had edged almost all the way to the western side of the horizon. “Should we go back?”
“Soon.” Si ran his fingers over my cheek then tugged my hair away from my face. “I’d stay in Asylia for you, you know. If … if that’s what you needed from me. I’d do it.”
I shook my head as a new thought sparked through me, sending shivers of certainty up my arms. “I don’t want you to.” I bit my lip. “And I don’t think I want to stay either.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “What?”
“When this is all done … when we’ve rescued Bri and stopped whatever the Masters are doing, maybe I want to go to the Badlands too. Or at least spend more time out there. It isn’t right that there are so many Badlanders suffering from curable wounds and illnesses, yet they have no healer mages to help them.” I thought of young Cat, with her new baby on the way, and Baby Elis squirming out of her arms. “I could help with the expectant mothers and their babies back at the Hollow, for starters. And if there were any other injuries in the area, I could see to them too.”
Si was silent for a moment, studying me with an indecipherable expression. Then he let out a low laugh and shook his head. “Your parents are going to kill me, aren’t they?”
~
We hired a fomecoach outside the coffee shop to take us back to the Sentinels’ compound. Si tucked me under his arm as we snuggled together in the back seat. “I knew you were a Badlander, deep down,” he murmured in my ear. “I knew it all along. Didn’t I say it, that one night, outside?”
I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I guess we should listen to you a bit more often, huh?”
“Just don’t tell me you’re getting a double-axe tattoo. I don’t think I can take another one of those in the family.”
“I don’t need one.”
Those four, simple words were the last I spoke as the fomecoach pulled up beside the compound.
Si paid the driver and helped me out of the back. As we walked silently into the compound to prepare for the mission, I turned my words over in my mind, growing more certain with each moment that passed.
I didn’t need a double-axe tattoo or anything else to find my purpose in life. I’d had it all along. I’m a healer.
I’d spend the rest of my life healing those in need, whether with magic or with love, no matter what pain came my way. That’s just who I am.
The bone-deep certainty of the thought kept my panic at bay as we picked up our packs and entered the yard where the fomewagons waited to be loaded. It even kept my breathing and pulse steady as we left the city gates and re-entered the Badlands to find my sister.
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Si’s hand on mine helped too.
Epilogue
The tall, stone-faced man had been cleaning his bow for the past hour. Surely it had to be clean enough to use as a fork by now.
I nudged Si as our fomewagon rumbled over the rough ground of the Badlands toward the Gold Hills. “It’s got to be him,” I whispered.
Si brushed his fingers subtly over the small, heart-shaped locket that dangled from my fingers. “Ow!” He grimaced and shook his hand. “That thing is dangerous.”
“Exactly. That’s the hottest I’ve ever felt it burn, Si. It’s him.”
We’d mingled among the Sentinels while waiting to board the fomewagons, sticking with the team where the locket seemed warmest. We’d taken turns shifting positions on the fomewagon until we’d narrowed it down to one man. This one. The only one who hadn’t smiled or spoken once since we’d boarded.
“Are you going to tell him? Or should I?”
Si ran a hand over his face. “I don’t think he’s going to take it well from either of us.”
I looked left, then right. The other Sentinels nearby were either dozing or lost in side conversations. It was now or never. “Well, I’m going to try.” I gave the locket to Si and drew a deep breath, then I reached across the center of the fomewagon and touched the man’s knee.
He jerked, his eyes meeting mine. “Yeah?”
I pulled my hand back and tried for a smile. “I know you’re in love with my sister,” I said quietly.
His face remained expressionless. I expected shock or denial, but he was silent. The only sign that he’d heard me was the sudden, complete stillness to his hands.
“You know she’s under a powerful curse,” I continued, leaning closer so my voice wouldn’t carry. “Well, I don’t think our strongest crystals will break it. But true love’s kiss will.”
There was just the slightest twitch in his jaw. His eyes flickered from me to Si and back again, almost too fast for me to track.
“So I need you to kiss her,” I finished, making my voice firmer than I felt. “When you rescue her, you have to kiss her. You have to break her curse.”
He broke eye contact and resumed cleaning his bow.
I leaned back, shooting Si a frustrated look. Seriously? How could this man ignore me at such a time?
Si leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “Listen. Her sister’s life is at stake, man. Do you love the girl or not?”
“I’d do anything for her,” the man said. His voice was low and tense. A bit of color appeared on his cheeks, but he continued to clean his bow like nothing had happened.
Si swung the locket with one hand, staring down at the rhythmic pendulum for a moment. “She doesn’t know, does she?”
The man gave a barely perceptible shake of his head and didn’t look up. “Don’t think so.”
“And from what I’ve heard about this girl, she won’t take it well, will she?” Si’s tone was neutral. “Finding out like this.”
I bit my lip. Bri thrived when she was in control. She had ever since we were children. One night on the bakery’s rooftop, she’d whispered to me that she would never want her true love to sweep her off her feet like our novels described, that she wanted to fall in love slowly, with a friend, a true partner, not a rescuer. How would she react when she learned that one of her fellow Sentinels loved her just as much as Weslan loved Ella, and she’d had no idea? Would she appreciate finding out from a kiss in the middle of a rescue mission?
He gave another slight shake of his head. “Probably not.” The two, quiet words hung heavily in the air between us.
Si swung the locket again, pocketed it, and leaned back. “Well, you’ve got a choice to make. And your choice might be the only chance she has to survive.” His voice was hard. “So you either love her or you don’t, Sentinel. You either do what it takes to save her, or you play it safe. What’s it going to be?”
“Like I said.” The man set his bow on the ground beside him, his jaw hard. “I’d do anything for Briar Rose.”
afterword
“Daddy go, Daddy go, Daddy go …”
—My daughter, age 2
“I miss my daddy.”
—My daughter, age 3
“Daddy’s taking a long time to come home.”
—My daughter, age 4
Military kids endure so much heartache through the deployments and training trips that mark their childhood. Their pain manifests in many ways—emotional outbursts, potty training and sleep regressions, wild behavior, irrational fear and insecurity, and more.
As a military wife and mom, I’ve learned there’s no easy answer to give my children in the hard moments when Daddy has to leave once again. How do you help a little girl manage pain she can barely understand, much less articulate?
And yet, I can’t teach her to avoid such pain and heartache completely, because I know that some of the most wonderful things in life come from risking your heart.
Here’s to everyone fighting through the fear of loss and pain, whatever your age. Keep fighting. Love for others is always worth the risk.
~
Thank you for joining Alba on her adventure in this twisty Snow White retelling. Cursed: Briar Rose’s Story is currently in the works and will be the final book in the Destined series. I am honored you’ve been following along with this series and can’t wait to share the end of the story with you.
If you enjoyed Hunted: Alba’s Story, please consider leaving a review to help get the word out!
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Lindsay, Mary, Serine, and Mom for being amazing beta readers and loving Alba’s story. Your tireless help with this series has meant the world to me.
Thank you to Jena and Megan for your faithful, long-distance encouragement. You’ve helped me through so much and reminded me of the bigger picture just when I needed it the most.
Thank you to my editor, Kathrese, who always takes things to the next level when I’m stuck. I’m so glad to be working with you!
Most of all, thank you, Jesus, for teaching me that there’s more to life than staying safe—and for holding me close even as you call me to venture out into the unknown.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kaylin Lee is an Army wife, mama, and white cheddar popcorn devotee. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her real-life hero husband and sweet children. After a lifetime of staying up too late reading stories, she now wakes up too early writing them. It was probably inevitable.
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The Destined Series
Book 1 – Fated: Cinderella’s Story
Book 2 – Hidden: Rapunzel’s Story
Book 3 – Twisted: Belle’s Story
Book 4 – Betrayed: Ruby’s Story
Book 5 – Hunted: Alba's Story
Book 6 – Cursed: Briar Rose’s Story – Coming Soon
