Page 3 of Randall
Kat was his constant companion. She’d been a cute fluffball of black and grey that had grown into a sleek, black-haired beauty who’d learned to keep her distance until Valter was old enough not to pull her tail. Her powerful presence lurked in the shadowsof his bedroom, under the bed, behind the curtains any time someone was around except me. I realized after a time that she trusted me to watch over him. She trusted Tolliver, Valter’s valet and bodyguard, and after a time, Nasi Ironson, the commander of the King’s Guard. Kat liked Samantha, the head cook, who treated Valter like her own son, but also gave her tasty morsels to eat. The last person she trusted was the Fae Ambassador, Jarrah Quicksilver. Although he didn’t come into the castle anymore; I’d seen them meet by the gates.
Why he was barred from entrance, I later learned, was because he was the one who “blessed” Valter with the power running through his veins. After seeing Kat and the Fae together the first time, I asked her if she was Jarrah’s familiar, but she sneezed and shook her head. I’d laughed not just at her disgust with me, but also at the fact that I could cross that idea off my list. Magick had trapped her, whoever she was.
So when her yowl startled me from my scrying, disrupting the spell and splashing water everywhere, I hurried from my rooms. Kat met me at the bottom of the stairs, pacing in tight circles, mewling angrily as if I could understand her tirade.
“Valter?”
Kat bobbed her head.
Since I knew the Queen loved her youngest child and the King mostly ignored him, I asked, “Jacalyn and Jonathan?”
She wound through my legs, bobbing her head, her tail curling around my calf before she paced to the hallway and looked back, making sure I was following. Of course, I followed. After years of learning her tells, I knew what she wanted.
“Mercy, what have the Twin Terrors done now?” For certain, the King and Queen would be overjoyed if they could find suitors for those two.
Just thinking about the balls and gatherings Their Majesties had held recently was enough to give me fits and a headache.Any such event became a security nightmare that kept me awake long into the night, watching for anything that might affect the festivities. I’d had to up my diligence with their increasing frequency.
When she picked up speed, I clutched my numerous amulets and lengthened my stride, swinging around the doorway and coming to an abrupt stop, staring at the Queen’s back. Her hands were fisted, her body heaving, and in front of her were her four oldest children. I didn’t see Valter, but since I could hear his near-silent sobbing, I assumed she blocked my view.
“What have you done? What have you done!” Queen Guenevere screeched. Her children stood straight-backed, though their heads were bowed.
“How dare you?” she seethed, her icy tone shredding the room. “I thought I birthed leaders, but you proved me wrong. Again. Arrogant, hurtful, spineless followers.”
She turned her head slightly, and I followed her gaze. Tolliver knelt by the wall, chin to chest. “I’m not sure why you didn’t intervene, but we will discuss this later.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” he mumbled. While the queen may have missed the wisp of a smile that crossed his lips before he schooled his features, I did not. Why had he let it happen? Why had he let any of Valter’s siblings tease and bully him? Had he done so at the queen’s bidding? The only reason I could think of was that she wanted to “toughen” up her baby.
But Valter and his long, flowing silver-blond hair were her pride and joy. This was fact. The other children were good-looking—they’d all been adorable children, though disrespectful and disobedient whenever they could get away with it—but they all looked like their father. Dark hair, dark-eyed, stockier. In contrast, Valter looked more like their mother: slender, blonder, with warm brown eyes made brighter by the Fae-blessed starburst in his irises, and unlike his siblings, Valter had beena shy, quiet, introspective child who had knelt at his mother’s knee.
With his slight build, Valter had failed at sword-fighting but excelled at fencing and archery. He preferred reading and learning to horseback riding and gallivanting through the capital. His mother had sheltered him, but still, there were near-daily taunts and abuse in the empty halls, invisible nooks, and unescapable crannies—wherever his siblings could corner him. The marks weren’t visible, but Tolliver knew… and so did I.
Looking on as the queen rubbed Valter’s upper back as she ordered her eldest sons stripped to their undergarments and sent on their way to the barns to muck stalls and bathe the pigs, I noticed the youngest prince silently pulling himself together. There was a faraway glaze to his eyes as power surged through him, surrounding him in a faint purple glow that only another magick user could see.
His heart, which had been pounding as tears streamed down his cheeks, slowed its thumping rhythm. I caught the flash of another power—another presence—threading through Valter’s. Surprise jolted me, but the power neither harmed nor hampered Valter’s fae-blessed power; instead, it seemed to strengthen it.
As Her Majesty finished detailing the penance of her daughters, Kat wound through my legs, then sat beside me. When the queen turned, she beckoned me to follow.
“Did you see it?” she murmured.
“My Queen?”
She spun to face me, forcing me to stop quickly lest I run into her. Her gaze narrowed. “Don’t play the fool, Randall. I have my ways, and they are not for you to question.”
I bowed. “I wouldn’t dare, Your Majesty.”
She harrumphed and tapped her foot. “You would, just not to my face, but that is neither here nor there. What I want to know is who was it?”
“My humble apologies,” I said in lieu of answering as I ran an assessing gaze over her and straightened. How could she know?
“Walk with me.”
I again took up pace beside her. She remained quiet until we were alone in her sitting room. Sinking into her favorite chair, she motioned for me to sit across from her. Once I had, she slipped a magicked amulet free from her gown.
“On the eve of my marriage, the queen of the Fae attended me. She gifted this spelled amulet to me. As you’ve probably deduced, it allows me to know when magick is being used. I am not, however, trained to pinpoint the nuances of it. Thus, while I know something happened with Valter, I’m at a loss as to what it was. You saw it. Do not lie to me, Randall, for I felt your power rise as well.”
“You’ve kept your secret well and truly hidden from me, my queen. I’m impressed,” I said, bowing my head. Her smirk said it all. She flicked her fingers for me to continue. “I felt it as well. Something or someone joined their essence with Prince Valter’s. It did no harm that I could detect, but he seemed stronger with the assistance.”
“I agree.” She was silent for a moment, her head turned in profile to me, her fingertips drumming the arms of the wingback chair. “Do you remember the Fae prophecy?”
