by Linda Kage
Hearing footsteps storming toward me, I dropped my hands just in time to see a dark shadow barreling from the shadows.
“Hey!” I shouted in warning just before the figure plowed into me, tackling me to the ground.
“Where is she? Where the fuck is she?” a familiar voice demanded, just before I got an eyeful of fiery red hair and then a blade pressed against my jugular.
“Melaina?” I choked in surprise.
“You fucking High Cliff piece of scum,” she snarled. “I left you alone with my niece for one hour—one hour—and look what happened.” The blade bit into my flesh, producing blood. “Now, where’s Quilla?”
“She was supposed to take you to Earth,” I rasped.
“Oh, she brought me the damn amulet you’d been hiding from us. Bastard. Then she told me to go without her because she needed to save you. You. Can you believe that shit?”
“She did what?” I asked, unable to believe Quilla would be so reckless. Or loyal. She had honestly cared about me.
But, dammit, I had told her I’d be okay.
“So where is she?” Melaina demanded.
“I don’t know. They caught her.”
“They caught her? Wrong answer, asshole. I said, where is she?”
I had a sense she really would cut my throat open then, so I kicked her off me and rolled away, just as the door to the cottage flew open, and Olivander stepped outside, lifting a lamp and peering into the dark.
“Indy?”
“I’m fine,” I called, out of breath, just before diving to the side when Melaina screeched like a banshee and leaped toward me again, her dagger raised with deadly intent.
“Um. You sure about that?” the prince asked, not intervening, simply watching as I panted and dodged, trying to avoid being stabbed to death.
“Yep.” I tossed hair out of my eyes and then grunted when Melaina threw the knife and it hit me handle-first right between the legs, doubling me over.
Jesus, that hurt. I guess I should’ve been relieved it wasn’t blade-first. But I didn’t feel too relieved at the moment.
Clutching myself, I bent my knees in and I slid toward the ground. “Just—just having a little discussion with Quilla’s aunt.”
“Ah.” Olivander leaned against the opened doorway and kept providing light for us as Melaina proceeded to kick the crap out of me, grabbing a hunk of my hair before slamming her fist into my jaw.
“If they have her, then why the hell are you here and not out there saving her, huh?” she roared.
“I don’t know where she is!” I cried defensively, deciding I needed more hands to protect all the parts she was attacking.
Melaina kicked me in the ribs. “Don’t you dare bullshit me. I know that mark of yours can track her anywhere, so I’m going to repeat my question.” Bulldozing into me again, she pushed me onto my back. And then she crawled on top of me and straddled my face, her knees squeezing forcefully around my neck. “Where is she?”
“You know,” Olivander spoke up conversationally. “I’m beginning to think she’s legitimately kicking your ass, and you’re not just letting her win anymore.”
I spared him a glare, and then grabbed Melaina’s thigh and flipped her off me, causing her to scream in rage and surprise when I pinned her down and got into her face.
“Look at me!” I snarled, pointing at my temple. “They took my mark. They took it so I couldn’t find her, and now I can’t feel her at all. I don’t know if she’s okay. I don’t know if she’s alive.” My voice cracked on that word, and I grew defeated as I repeated. “I have no idea where she is at all.”
“No,” Melaina whispered in horror, lifting her hand slowly to touch my wound. “But you—you have to. You’re my only hope in getting her back.”
“I don’t know where she is,” I said steadily. “But I will. We’re doing everything we can to locate her, and we will get her back. I swear it.”
“Yes.” A sob shook her frame. “We have to,” she ordered. “That girl is my heartbeat. No matter how much I tried to contaminate her and sully some of that pure soul she has so she wouldn’t be too fragile and she could take care of herself, a part of her could never be tainted. There was just this innate kindness that lurked below the surface no matter what I did, and it infected those around her. She infected me. The little bitch was like my own little ray of hope. No matter how dour things got or dark our future looked, she never gave up. She was always there. With me. I can’t give up on her. Oh God. Please. She’s my child. I can’t do this without her. Please…” She clutched her face and moaned. “I can’t leave the Outer Realms without her. She—she…” Looking up at me and revealing a face full of blood that dripped from her eyes and nose and mouth, she sobbed. “Find her, Indy. Find her.”
“Melaina,” I murmured, taking her arms kindly. “We will. Now stop this. Stop crying. She wouldn’t want you to bleed out.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head, too far gone. “I need her. I can’t stop.”
I shook her. Hard.
Startled, she blinked at me.
“Stop crying,” I ordered. “It’s not doing anyone any good. Especially yourself. Start planning what we’re going to do to Quilla’s kidnappers when we catch them.”
“Oh, we’re going to flay the bastards alive,” she seethed, only to hiccup and sniff, unable to quell the bloody tears. “First, I’m going to slice their stomachs open with the thinnest slit so that their guts don’t spill out all at once but need to be pulled forth one inch at a time, drawing out the pain so they feel it for hours and days.”
“That’s really gross and barbaric,” I said, climbing off her and then holding a hand down to help her up. “But I like where you’re going with it. Keep up the savage thoughts. Alright?”
She nodded, but the blood kept coming. Because she kept crying as she spoke. “We’re going to make them scream in agony,” she promised, taking my hand but not having the strength to pull herself up. “Every last one of them.”
“Yes, we will.” I let go of her fingers as she passed out, so I could scoop her into my arms.
After picking her up, I turned toward the cottage, where Olivander scuttled back out of the way, wide-eyed and gaping as I carried Melaina forward. “So that’s Quilla’s aunt? Lovely woman.”
“She’s an acquired taste,” I answered as I brushed past.
“Obviously.” The prince followed to watch as I laid her down on my cot and mopped drying blood off her face.
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked. “I’ve never seen anyone bleed from the eyes like that before.”
“Her Graykey husband suppressed her gentler emotions like compassion, love, and kindness. When she does manage to feel them, they begin to kill her.”
“Shit,” he murmured sympathetically, kneeling next to me so he could study Melaina’s prone features. “It always manages to amaze me how corrupt some people can get. Why would you subject another human being to that kind of suffering?”
“I don’t know,” I murmured, though a part of me maybe kind of did know.
Fear, it told me. Fear made us crazy and ugly and unrecognizable. I understood fear now, on an up-close-and-personal level. How it plowed through me and reared its ugly head, telling me I had no power. No control. It made me want to do almost anything to feel the presence of dominion over pretty much anything again.
Giving in to fear and letting it rule him was probably why Melaina’s husband had felt the need to subordinate her to his will. So he’d always have control. So he’d never experience the helpless, gripping loss of it. Because he’d been utterly weak.
My gaze focused on Melaina’s face. Since I couldn’t feel Quilla, and I no longer had the mark to tell me if she was even still on the planet, I had held on to a small hope that she’d managed to escape and that she and her aunt had gotten away to Earth after all. But with Melaina here, just as desperate to find Quilla as I was, that hope cracked.
“So what do you want to do?” Olivander
asked.
Heaving out a breath, I pushed to my feet and faced him. “I want to go to Tyler and talk to my uncle.”
“Uh…” Olivander blinked as he stood as well. “I was actually asking about the violent redhead, but okay. What brought about this decision?”
Melaina had. Her presence had prompted me to act, to stop relying on my hope alone, and to do something.
“My friend, Nicolette,” I answered though.
“You mean, the Queen of Far Shore? My sister’s sister-in-law?”
I nodded. “Yes. Her. She told me her true love began to read her emotions, just like she could read his. But he never got a love mark.”
“Really?” Olivander lifted his eyebrows, intrigued. “That’s interesting. Not sure how it’s relevant right now, but still an interesting fact.”
“And true loves don’t need the mark to heal their partners with a kiss,” I went on.
“True,” Olivander agreed. “But what does that have to do with—”
I held up a hand. “You share something with your soulmate,” I told him. “Something you can’t share with anyone else. The mark might help point it all out and bring it to light, but it doesn’t invent new or special powers between true loves that don’t already exist. Somewhere inside me, I’m still connected to her. I just can’t tap into it as the mark could.”
I shook my head, not quite sure how to explain what I was feeling, but I tried anyway. “I might not feel her here.” I pointed to my temple. “I might not know where she is. But she’s still here.” I pressed my hand against my heart before balling it into a fist and digging it against my stomach. “And my gut keeps telling me to go back to Tyler and talk to my uncle.”
Olivander studied my face a moment before giving a single nod. “Alright then,” he murmured. “That’s a good enough reason for me. We can leave in the morning.”
Releasing a breath, I returned the nod with one of my own, one full of gratitude and relief. I knew there was a reason he was my favorite Bjorn brother.
“Thank you, my prince.”
Chapter 39
Indigo
“Must we take this many guards?” I turned in my saddle to scowl back at the dozens of riders following us down the road.
Next to me, Olivander sighed. “I’m a scholar, not a warrior, Indigo. If we meet with any trouble, you’ll appreciate their presence, trust me.”
I snorted. We’d been traveling for almost a day now and we were currently a couple of hours shy the village of Ashley. I’d left a note for Melaina, explaining how I was following a lead in the hopes of discovering Quilla’s location, and I planned to return in a week or two. Then Olivander had left one of his knights behind to watch over her.
Her guard happened to be young and attractive, so I figured Melaina would be able to distract herself just fine with him after she woke and recovered from her compassion overdose. But I was still convinced we could make better time and return faster if we didn’t have so many damn riders with us.
Everyone knew that the bigger the group, the slower the travel. And I needed to return to Tyler, like, last week.
“I’ve seen you train,” I grumbled moodily, facing forward again. “You can fight just fine, Vander.”
“Ah, but why bother to fight when you can afford to pay a dozen other men to do it for you?” he countered on a smirk.
I rolled my eyes and muttered, “Pampered prince.”
“Erick travels with a larger entourage than I do, you know,” Olivander shot back with a scowl. “Did you complain to him about the size of his group when he escorted you to Belle?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Oh.” Mollified, Olivander waved a hand. “Well then, continue complaining, I guess.”
I arched him a questioning glance. His brother had told me to shut up and stop annoying him when I had whined about his numbers. But Olivander only shrugged. “If irritation helps you avoid thinking about all the horrifying what-ifs that could be befalling your true love right now, then I will put up with your peevish disposition. It’s the least I can do.”
My throat went dry with emotion. “Thank you,” I said gruffly, dipping my face as I tried to wipe the speck of dust out of my eye that was making it water. “I…” Jesus, I couldn’t talk about this. “Well, just thank you.”
“No problem. I owed you one, anyway. You were the only knight I trusted to lead Unity’s escort to Tipton when she went off to the academy, and you didn’t even try to talk your way out of it when I asked you. You’ll never know how much I appreciated that.”
I smiled fondly. “It was no trouble, honestly. She was a fun kid to hang out with.”
Olivander sighed, his expression turning solemn. “I’ve been thinking about her a lot since I learned about your situation. How none of our futures are guaranteed and we shouldn’t squander the time we have left. We should hold close those who are dearest to us. Maybe I should stop delaying her return to the castle. Maybe I should call her home already.”
“Why haven’t you?” I asked.
Growling out a sound of frustration, Olivander rubbed an aggravated hand over his face. “I wanted to give her a chance to live and learn who she was before I turned her into a wife and forced her to be stuck as my partner for the rest of her life. She’s still so young. She should get a chance to be her own person. To—to…”
He shook his head and laughed bitterly. “Oh, who am I kidding? I haven’t brought her home yet because I’m fucking scared. When they learned her true love was a prince, her parents foisted her off on me completely, naming me her guardian. I raised her from a baby, Indigo. She was like a daughter to me. How the hell am I supposed to see her as a true love after that? What if she comes back, all grown up and ready to be a wife, and I can't look at her with any kind of passion in my loins? Jesus, what if she comes back and I can? I’ll feel like a sick, creepy bastard for desiring my own mate? I don’t—I can’t…” He shook his head violently. “I haven’t seen her for almost nine years because I have no idea how to deal with the transition of protector to lover.”
“You’ll figure it out,” I said. “Your marks will help you more than you know.”
“Yeah.” Olivander’s brows knit with more worry as he agreed, though. Then he nodded slowly. “You’re probably right.” Then he glanced my way and cringed. “Sorry. My predicament sounds incredibly trite and trivial, compared to—”
I lifted a hand, stopping him. “No,” I said. “It’s a welcome distraction. Better than me complaining about everything anyway.”
Chuckling softly, the prince lifted his gaze and squinted when a rider approached, galloping at top speed to reach us. Realizing it was the scout who’d gone ahead of our party to check the roadway, I straightened in my saddle, alert, my muscles tensing in preparation for trouble.
But when the scout pulled up next to Olivander’s mount to give his report on the situation ahead, all he said was, “Another royal convoy approaches, my lord. We should intercept them presently.”
“Another…?” Olivander shook his head, confused. “Whose royal party?”
“The King of Lowden, my lord.”
“Tomrick? What the fuck is he doing in High Cliff?”
Ever since the end of the Great Lowden War, where King Ignatius had given the Lowden crown to the House of Gill, the two kingdoms had been allies, but they still didn’t cross over into each other’s territories without fair warning. And the prince obviously had no prior knowledge of the king’s visit.
Strange.
“I couldn’t say.” The scout shifted his horse uneasily as if he thought he was in trouble. “Should I prepare our entourage for a formal gathering in order to receive them properly?”
Olivander closed his eyes and sighed but waved a hand. “Yes, yes. Please do.”
“What?!” I cried incredulously. “My true love is being held captive somewhere and has most likely been tortured.” She might even be dead, I refused to add aloud. “And you want to pause for high
tea with the fucking King of Lowden? Really?”
“Jesus, Indy, shut up,” Olivander hissed under his breath. “Meeting Tomrick Gill on the road isn’t something I can just shrug off. He’s a royal. I’m a royal. Do you want me to insult the man by giving him the cut direct and risk breaking the alliance between our kingdoms? That’s the kind of thing that creates wars, my friend. Thousands of good soldiers, dead. So, yes, we’re going to stop and greet the fucking King of Lowden when he passes by.”
“Fine,” I muttered, dismounting and following him to the side of the road, where his guards were setting up a perimeter around a small clearing and transforming it into an imperial meeting space, creating seating and a table. One page was even setting out bread, cheese, fruit, and wine.
I wandered over to check out the spread, stealing a grape and popping it into my mouth. “Is all this really necessary to avoid a war?” I asked, chewing aggressively.
Olivander crossed his arms over his chest as he watched me moodily grab a slice of cheese next. “Yes,” he answered dryly.
I rolled my eyes. “Great.” Then motioning to the food, I asked, “You ever try those grumpacker fruits they grow up north? They’re pretty good.”
“I’ve never been north of Booker, so no, I haven’t had the pleasure. But Urban has praised them in letters he’s written. Are you planning to join our tête-à-tête as a guest, or would you rather stand back with the guards?”
I snorted. “As if I want to talk in fake banalities about politics or the weather.”
“Then get into position,” Olivander snapped, growing stiff and formal, his back straightening and chin lifting as he folded his hands together behind his back. “Because they’re almost upon us.”
I glanced up and sighed as I moved off to the side to stand next to another guard. “How long do these bullshit encounters with other royals usually last?”
We hadn’t even reached the village of Ashley yet. At this rate, we’d never make it back to Tyler.
