“Why don’t you go inside and help Sarrask with his nose, Kaido?” I suggested, looping my arm through Navan’s.
“Have I said something offensive again?” he asked, looking to me for guidance.
I smiled kindly, wanting to reassure him. “Not at all, Kaido. It’s just not a good time.”
Apparently satisfied with my response, he turned around and headed through the gate, walking up the path and through the front door of Sarrask’s cottage. Not wanting to be the third wheel, Ronad took his cue and made himself scarce by heading back up into the ship.
“I’ll start unpacking some of the things we brought with us from the house,” he called back, before disappearing into the belly of the ship. He was using it as an excuse to hide, and I didn’t blame him.
“Sarrask kissed you?” Navan muttered, turning to me with furious eyes.
I kept my expression calm. “It was nothing, Navan. He’s already apologized to me for doing it. I think he was just confused, or something.”
“How did you end up in that position?” he hissed.
I felt a prickle of anger inside me, but I held on to my rationality. “I didn’t put myself in any position, Navan. I don’t appreciate you saying something like that, as though it was my fault,” I said calmly. “Sarrask and I were having a heated argument. He must’ve gotten carried away, because he lunged toward me. I pushed him away as soon as he did it, and that was that. You’re making something out of nothing.”
“You let him kiss you. I don’t think that’s making something out of nothing.”
“I didn’t let him kiss me, Navan! You’re already angry, and you’re not thinking clearly. If you were, you’d realize how silly you’re being,” I insisted, wrapping my arms around him. He moved his face away, refusing to look at me. “Navan, you should know this by now—I only have eyes for you!” Proving my point, I grabbed him and pulled him toward me, pressing my lips against his with all the pent-up frustration I’d been feeling since the moment we were separated. I pressed my body against him, letting my tongue explore his mouth as my hands ran through the soft buzz of his dark hair. I wanted to feel every single part of him, and had we not been out in the open, I would have.
Breaking away with a gasp, I left Navan reeling, his eyes glazed over, his mouth set in a goofy grin.
“Do you believe me now?” I asked.
He smiled, scooping me up into his arms. “I believe you.”
I wished we could have stayed like that a while longer, but there was too much work to do. I stared into his eyes, leaning in to kiss him deeply, savoring one last moment of pure, selfish joy.
“There’s a lot we need to discuss,” I said, shattering the fantasy. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.”
He set me down, his fingers intertwining with mine. After telling Ronad where we were going, and throwing a blanket around my shoulders, the two of us set off down the winding trail that led to the edge of the glistening lake, before veering off toward the trees, sticking to the shadows. I was still waiting for Queen Gianne to come for us after the blast that destroyed the mansion, but something seemed to be keeping her away. At least here, hidden by the canopy, she wouldn’t be able to see us from the sky.
I turned my gaze to the lake. Water always soothed me, and I hoped it would give me the strength I needed to get through the things I had to tell him. It would mean pushing away everything I wanted for myself, but this wasn’t just about me anymore. It wasn’t even about me and Navan anymore.
The weight of Seraphina’s fate loomed over me. The time had finally come to get it all off my chest.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“My father… and Aurelius?” Navan had repeated the same words twice already, but I could tell they still weren’t sinking in.
We’d walked halfway around the perimeter of the beautiful lake, and I’d managed to get him mostly up to speed with what had been happening, and what we had to face from Queen Gianne. It was cowardly, perhaps, but I was building up to the Seraphina stuff. Every time I felt like I could start talking about it, a sick feeling twisted in the pit of my stomach, forcing me to switch subjects.
“I suppose it makes sense. Despite everything, he’s a smart man,” Navan continued, feeling out the news. “Of course he’d want to ally himself with the successor to Gianne’s throne, putting himself at his right hand, the way he did with the queen herself before the coronation. Plus, nobody wants to be associated with a leader who’s losing their mind. Even to a loyalist, having an insane, immortal queen would be a freaking nightmare.”
“So you agree with him?”
He shrugged. “I don’t agree with his choice, but I can see why he’s doing it. As long as he doesn’t get our family killed as a result. Aurelius is a snake. I wouldn’t trust that old coot as far as I could throw him.”
“Yeah, but you could throw him pretty far,” I teased.
“You know what I mean. He’s not to be trusted, especially not when so much is at stake.” Navan sighed. “A coldblood like that has no backbone. I wouldn’t be surprised if he buckled under the pressure way before anything could be done to overthrow Gianne.”
“With your father in prison, things might start going awry sooner than anticipated,” I mused.
“All because of that idiot,” he muttered, glaring at the cottage.
“Forget about Sarrask,” I urged, feeling suddenly self-conscious. “Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you about. My climpet stopped flashing, and I… was wondering why? I thought you might have lost it in the landmine incident, but I don’t think you did, and it’s got me all worried.” It had occurred to me that the light might have gone out because Navan’s love for me had faded. That’s what the seller said could happen. Even though Navan had been so happy to see me, I couldn’t help fearing the worst. What if absence hadn’t made the heart grow fonder?
He stopped in his tracks and turned me toward him, his hands slipping to my waist as he pulled me in. “Our climpets didn’t stop flashing because of anything that had to do with you,” he said. “My feelings haven’t changed, and they never will. I love you more than ever, and that love only grows as each day passes. I don’t need a climpet to swear that to you.”
I glanced up at him shyly. “Then what happened to it?”
“A fleet of Gianne’s bombers broke through the barrier and attacked Nessun. Brisha’s defenders chased them away quick enough, but not before they bombarded the big solar modules that provide all of the city’s power,” he explained. “They used electromagnetic pulsar bombs, dropping them everywhere. They took out all the power, even the temporary generators we dragged out of storage for backup in case something stopped the solar modules. Anyway, I was standing too close to one of the electromagnetic pulses that went off after a bomb dropped, and it fried my climpet. I was lucky not to get electrocuted by it, but it only made a small spark.”
I gasped. “Did you get the power back?”
“No, Nessun has been without power since then. It’s caused all sorts of problems. It’s why the production of wing-serum got halted, because nobody had any power to make anything,” he replied grimly. “They managed to get the ships and weapons back online using a couple of nuclear cells they had hidden in the hangars. I guess, in times like this, war machines take precedence over alchemical progress, communications, and civilian needs.”
“Speaking of which, what happened to your comm device? Mort said he tried reconnecting with you, after he got in touch, but he couldn’t get through,” I said, trying not to worry about the shifter’s current location. Even now, I was struggling to trust that he’d managed to get Lorela the care she needed and hadn’t just run off at the first sign of real trouble. Then again, he had come back to tell me everything, even though he could have abandoned ship.
“Ah, the weird guy who called me up out of the blue, claiming to know you?”
“Yeah, the shifter who was masquerading as your mother’s doctor,” I replied, jogging his memory. Aft
er all, I’d just bombarded him with a whole load of information. “He’s the one I asked to get in contact with you. You’d been gone for so long, with no word, and I was starting to freak out that something really bad had happened to you.”
“I told him I was fine, then switched my device off in case he was an undercover spy trying to trace my position,” he explained, pausing. “Wait, he was a shifter?”
“Yeah, I told you that. He’s been pretending to be Doctor Ulani.”
Navan frowned. “Never trust a shifter.”
“You and Ronad are exactly the same.” I chuckled, rolling my eyes. “This shifter is the one we forced into taking us to the rebel base, back on Earth. And, while he seems like a reformed guy now, I’m well aware that I need to take everything he says with a grain of salt. Which I have been doing.”
“The one from Earth?” Navan sounded surprised. “How did he get all the way out here?”
“A mission for Orion, but he decided not to go back to the rebel life. Orion killed a friend of his, and he didn’t want to work for the rebels anymore,” I summarized. Navan was about to open his mouth, but I stopped him. “I know it might all be lies, but Mort could be a great ally, and, frankly, we need all the help we can get. So far, he’s proven himself worthy, and until he does something to make me think otherwise, I say we use his assistance while we can.”
Navan sighed as we started to walk again. “I haven’t exactly had much luck on the ally front,” he admitted. “I’ve been trying to contact the Titans, but every attempt has failed. Who knew those giant bastards could be so hard to pin down?” A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips, making him look even more handsome. It made it all the more difficult to say what I had to say next.
Steeling myself, I looked out across the water, watching the ghostly twist and turn of the fish that swam beneath the surface. I focused on one, following its trail as it curved in a figure eight. I let the steady movements ease my racing mind, helping me settle on the words I needed to get out.
“There’s one other thing, Navan,” I began, taking a deep breath. “I tried to tell you over the video call we had, but we got cut off before I could say much.”
“I remember,” Navan replied. “Was it something important?”
I almost burst into tears right there and then, but I held on to my sanity. “Queen Gianne is prepared to uphold her promise, to pardon you and allow you to return to the South without any consequences for your actions,” I began. “But there’s one big caveat to you staying here without being punished for defecting.”
Navan chuckled to himself. “Do you think I care about a pardon? She can shove it up her—”
I cut him off sharply. “Navan, you need to listen to me. You might not care about the pardon, but there’s more to it than that. There’s something else you have to do—something you really have to do.” My breath was coming in short, painful gasps, my heart racing. “You need to marry her!” I blurted out, unable to bottle it up anymore.
Navan looked at me, utterly confused. “Who, Gianne?”
I shook my head vigorously, pressing my hand to my chest as I struggled to get my breath back. It felt like the world was closing in on me, but I knew I couldn’t give up. Seraphina needed me to do this.
Understanding dawned on Navan’s face. “You mean Seraphina, don’t you?”
“You need to marry her,” I rasped.
“No way, Riley. I’m not marrying her,” he shot back. “There’s only one person in this entire universe that I could ever see myself marrying, and it isn’t her. I won’t do it.”
His words touched me, making me want to pull him into my arms and never let go. The feeling was mutual, but that didn’t matter anymore. This was about more than the selfish tug of my own desires. My heart could survive a battering, if I had to watch them wed, but I didn’t think Seraphina could survive a marriage to Aurelius.
“You don’t understand. This isn’t about us, and it isn’t about love. This is about helping someone we both care about. This is about helping a friend,” I said firmly, holding his face in my hands and gazing into his eyes. It was the only thing holding me together. “Seraphina is in danger, and the only way to get her out of that is a marriage to you. You see, if you don’t marry her, then she will be forced to marry Aurelius instead.”
“I won’t do it, Riley. I love you. I won’t betray what we have by marrying another woman!”
I gripped him harder. “He will kill her, Navan. It won’t be quick, and it won’t be painless. He will drag her suffering out over as many years as he can, until he pushes her to the very edge of what she can stand,” I whispered, my voice raw. “I saw the way he was with her. He said he wanted her to resist him, so it would make it all the sweeter when he conquered her. I saw how frightened she was by him. You should see her, Navan—she looks so ill.”
Navan shook his head, trying to look away from me. “What, so you want me to marry her?”
I kissed him desperately. “No, of course I don’t! But how can I stand in the way, staking a selfish claim to you, knowing what that will mean for her?” I sobbed. “I can’t bear to see a woman like that, who has helped us again and again, and has such hopes for the future of this nation, fall prey to a monster like Aurelius. I won’t be part of her misery.”
“Our love isn’t selfish, Riley. Don’t ever call it that,” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. I could see tears in his eyes.
It reminded me of a passage that people loved to read out at weddings. It was the one that said, in essence, “love is always patient and kind.” It said something about love never being selfish, either.
“If you married Seraphina, would it protect her from Aurelius—even if you were labeled a defector, later on?” I pressed. “It wouldn’t nullify anything?”
“No, it would still be legally binding. Seraphina would only be able to remarry a year after my death, but proof of death would be required before that timeline could be set in motion.” He paused for a moment, taking a heavy breath. “Those are the laws of Vysanthe. The only way out of a marriage is death. Divorce is illegal here.”
“If Seraphina is your wife, then she’ll be safe?”
He winced at the word “wife.” “Although extramarital affairs do happen, it’s illegal to solicit another man’s wife, or another woman’s husband. Most of the time, when these things get discovered, they get kicked out of court as misdemeanors, but it depends on the petition being made. If Aurelius approached Seraphina in a way she didn’t like, she could request a series of more severe punishments.”
“How did Aurelius even get considered in the first place, as an alternative to you?” It was a question that had been bugging me for a while. “If you were MIA, why didn’t they just pick another one of your brothers? You’ve got enough to choose from.”
A hint of a smile played upon his lips. “It’s considered improper to choose another member of the same family if something happens to the first betrothal option,” he explained. “With me gone, and no sign of me coming back, that left the field wide open. In Vysanthean law, the parents of the betrothed—in this case, Seraphina—have to go in front of the queen to request an alternative should option one never return, or break off the engagement entirely. I imagine Aurelius seized the opportunity to swoop in, and Seraphina’s parents had no choice but to accept him as a second choice. I guess they hoped I would come back, before their daughter was forced to wed a creep like Aurelius. Nobody refuses the engagement of the queen’s advisor, so that would’ve been their only chance of not ending up with Aurelius as a son-in-law.” He sighed bitterly. “Saying that, if he hadn’t swooped in, they probably would’ve broken off the engagement altogether, and none of this would have happened.”
I looped my arms around his neck and sank into his embrace, sensing he was coming around to the eventuality of his impending marriage. Seraphina was his friend, and no matter how much he loved me, I knew he wasn’t the kind of guy who could let something that awfu
l happen to anyone. I was just going to have to savor every moment I could with him before the wedding day came. Besides, as soon as it was done with, he’d be mine again.
“Look, it’s a stupid piece of paper, nothing more. It means Seraphina will be safe, and it won’t change anything between us,” I promised.
“Once you’re married, you’re bound to that person for life,” Navan whispered.
“But we can still do everything we planned to do. Seraphina already said she wouldn’t leave Vysanthe, but you and I can still leave here together, seeking out allies to make the universe safe again.”
He flashed me a nervous smile. “So there’s a light at the end of the tunnel?”
“Of course there is.” I grinned, kissing him hard on the mouth.
“Anything else I should know?” he asked, pulling away slightly.
I pulled an apologetic face. “You have to go to Gianne as soon as possible and receive her marriage blessing. She’ll pardon you at the same time, I imagine,” I said, nuzzling his neck to soften the blow. “She also said she’s going to force you to work in her alchemy lab, to help develop the immortality elixir alongside your father. Now that he’s the only one with the knowledge, I imagine he’ll be throwing his weight around.”
He grinned. “We’ll be long gone before she can force me to do anything. As long as we make sure nobody lays any blame on Seraphina, everything will work out just fine.”
I nodded. “We can always wait a little while, until you get your first ‘conjugal’ visit with her—though there better not be any funny business!” I teased, jabbing him playfully in the ribs. “We can break you out while you’re traveling between the alchemy lab and wherever your marital home might be. That way, nobody can blame her for anything. She won’t know anything about it, and when the soldiers guarding you get questioned about what happened, they’ll say you got stolen away by masked thugs.” I chuckled at the thought. “Gianne will think somebody took you because of what you know about the elixir; they won’t suspect Seraphina one bit.”