Page 3 of The Crimson Princess
“She doesn’t get her full powers until she comes of age at twenty-three.”
“Many have competed and won their place as guardian or shadow at younger ages.”
“Even so, I’m two years younger than her and I beat her every time we spar.”
“Because you train with me and your father, but in the heat of the moment, her magic will work for her,withher.I promise.”
“You always say practice matters. You learn your magic and it learns you.”
I want to ask her why she didn’t tell me about Raven sooner. I could have trained Raven. I could have helped her, but the question serves no purpose at this point but to create regret and guilt. My hands settle on her legs. “She needs to believe in herself to survive. She needs to believe you believe in her. Tell her she can win. And you mean it. Understand?”
“Yes, but—”
“No but, everything has a purpose,” I say, finding myself repeating the general gist of what Killian had said to me in the gardens, and trying to believe it with all my heart. “The book didn’t choose someone so young to strip away her life. She has a destiny, a future we do not understand.”
“Like she’s supposed to do something great, that no one else can do?”
“Exactly.”
A knock sounds on the door, and my handmaid, Marion, pokes her head in, grinning at the sight of Satima. “How about some sweet bread?”
Satima hesitates, as if it’s wrong to enjoy her favorite breakfast while Raven prepares to compete. “Live in the moment,” I whisper, “and tell Raven to do the same.”
She gives me an agreeable nod and I push to my feet and pull her with me. A moment later, she’s greeting Marion. “Ilovesweet bread,” she declares and she really does. It’s a love she developed after I told her it was similar to the human pancakes I’d tried when her father had taken me to visit each portal, though our sweet bread is just a bit nuttier. For a while, she was downright obsessed with the human realm which is not a bad thing, considering she is the future queen tasked with protecting them from a Third World leak.
The three of us gather around my lounge table by the window, enjoying our breakfast, and for at least a bit Satima’s distress over Raven fades. She slathers her sweet bread with syrup as Marion andI share a smile. Marion is my age, centuries old, but she looks as youthful as a human in their mid-thirties. In the highborn territory, she’s considered a commoner, but in my prior life, she was my best friend. And she still is, which is why I brought her here with me. At first, Killian resisted, but when the council shunned who they considered a commoner as his wife, he decided I needed loyalty close to me. He was sheltering me, the way I desperately want to shelter Satima, but later today, her best friend will fight whatever comes through our portal, and I fear the outcome. I fear she will die while my daughter watches.
I can’t stop it from happening.
And I know Killian well enough to know he won’t intervene. He wants her to learn hard lessons. He’ll say he’s protecting her, preparing her. He’ll say he’s king and this is his decision, not mine.
Chapter two
IdressfortheChallengein my royal battle gear, black leather pants with a matching vest, combat boots on my feet. The magical Ravengale royal emblem etched into my shoulder that only our king may bestow on any gale. I can feel the pulse of magic inside me, activated by the edginess of my mood, as if I’m headed into battle, as if I will be the one to soon defend myself and my people. I’m standing at the window overlooking the gardens again, willing my magic deep below my surface when the door opens. I rotate to find Killian entering the room, looking magnificently handsome in his own battle uniform, power crackling off of him as much. In a few agile strides, he’s in front of me, his hands solid and warm on my shoulders as he walks me to him, studying me with the intensity of a beast who wishes to own his maiden. “Don’t be angry with me,” he compels, his voice silk along my frazzled nerve endings.
“I don’t want Satima to go today.”
“I do not like to overrule you, my queen, but on this I must. It’s done. She’s attending.”
I draw in a breath and turn my head. He catches my chin and forces my gaze to his. “I do nothing that is not to protect you and her. I need you to trust me on this. I love you. If I could give you what you want, you know I would. You are my everything.”
There is no winning this battle so I manage an inconsequential nod. He captures my hand and settles it on his arm at his elbow.
I force myself to accept his offering, but as we begin walking toward the door, my bottled emotions threaten my composure.He reaches for the knob, and I yank my arm back and rotate on him. “In the garden you said you’ll do anything for me. I guess that means anything but staying out of other women’s beds.”
His magic slashes through the air at the shock of the words I’ve never spoken to him, but his voice is soft, and his response is without delay. “It’s not like that. You are the only woman who matters to me.”
My laughter is barely my own, bitter as I am inside. “I need a purpose that isn’t being your eye candy, and it seems the role of queen is nothing but that.” I try to move away from him, reaching for the door. He catches me to him, turns my body to his, his hand on the back of my head a moment before he kisses me with such passion and desperation that I can hardly breathe. And when his lips part mine, he vows, “We’ll talk when this is over. I’ll make this right.”
He’ll make it right, I repeat in my mind. The way he makes everything right for everyone, including his other women, but I let it go. He’s already gripping my hand, guiding me out of the room and down the stairs. Wordlessly we reach the exit of the elegant Ravengale castle, built for the original King Lares, thousands of years before our time. A guard opens the door for us and we exit to find Satima and Marion waiting on us, and I am not pleased to find my daughter in royal battle gear rather than the princess gown I set out for her. My eyes meet Marion’s, and her only reply is a bow and a formal greeting. “Your highnesses.”
I know then that Killian forced her hand, and I don’t bother to object, not with guards on either side of us and waiting by our limousine, a version of transportation similar to that of the humans, only ours are powered by magic, not fuel or electricity. There are many gale influences within humanity, and vice versa, all originating from a time when Killian sent our kind to mingle with humans, to understand why the book demands we protect them. Then one of those gales did the forbidden and mated with a human. He was exiled and the gales were called home.
Satima runs toward Killian and flings her arms around him. “Raven’s competing,” she announces, her words bleeding from her, a plea in the depths of what becomes nearly incoherent rambling. “She’s my best friend. She’s only fifteen. She’s not a fighter. She’s going to die. I don’t want her to die.”
Killian doesn’t dare look at me, his gaze fixed on Satima. “She was born with the skills to win her battle. Magic is inherent. You know this.”
Satima’s rejection is instant. “But she doesn’t know how to control her magic. She’s afraid of it.”
