Reckoning (6 page)

Stone focused on me, and I knew he was fighting not to say something to Emma. But he wouldn’t betray the secret we carried—protecting the mixed-bloods—to set a prejudiced Supernatural straight.

My chest tightened. “I’m going to find Riley.” I forced my gimpy leg into action and choked off a scream when pain ripped through me. Bending over, I pressed a hand to my knee but didn’t dare touch the injured area directly. I was afraid I’d pass out if I did.

Stone clasped my upper arm in a grip tight enough to surprise me as he jerked me upright. “Don’t be an idiot. You can barely walk. Riley can take care of himself.”

“Take your hand off me. I’m going.”

Stone sighed, nice and dramatic to let me know what he thought about the idea,

before digging in the pocket of his pants and handing me the flashlight. “It’ll be easier to walk holding this rather than the fire-rock.”

“Thanks.” Nudging him with my arm, I said, “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through. Losing Chloe and all.”

“Timing is important, you know that. You’ve always known it, and yet, you reacted instead of thinking things through.” He glanced at me, the bitter disappointment easy to read.

“They were going to kill Riley,” I said, silently begging him to understand. We’d been friends for years and his opinion mattered to me.

“Juliet.” Stone drew out my name. “I don’t care if you think the guy hung the moon. You can’t put love above an entire species. Had you not led a rescue attempt, maybe you could have stopped the Great Extinction instead of failing.”

“Wow. That’s kind of vicious.”

“Better the ugly truth than a pretty lie.”

I knew it was useless. I couldn’t defend my actions prior to the Void. Couldn’t tell him the truth. He had to think what he wanted to about me. “Whatever, Stone.”

RILEY

I walked out of the corridor behind Stone to catch the tail end of Juliet’s argument with him. I wondered what ugly truth he’d referred to. Juliet limped forward. I hurried to meet her and wrapped her in my arms. She shouldn’t be moving around. Every time she did, the T-shirt tied over her wound grew wetter with blood. Seeing all the blood worried me. We were both young. I’d never thought of the possibility that one of us might not live to see the future I hoped we’d have together. Keeping my hand on her back, I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “I think I found a trail that might lead us out.”

“Where?” Hope laced Juliet’s voice.

“Past a line of eight boulders. There’s a corridor divided by—” I stopped talking when I noticed the girl I’d seen in school. “How’d you end up in here?”

Emma gave a curtsy that made Stone roll his eyes. “Your Majesty, the humans took my mother. I confronted a Guard and demanded he find my mother. He wasn’t impressed.”

I nodded at her explanation and sat on one of the outcroppings to stretch my legs out. It didn’t slip my notice the way Stone watched Juliet put her hand on my knee to ease down beside me. She might believe there was nothing more than friendship between them, but the way he looked at her was anything but friends only. I scooted toward her until my hip bumped against hers. Stone lifted his eyebrows in a challenge I chose to ignore. The last thing I needed to do was engage in a pissing contest with him. He could hunger for Juliet all he wanted. I knew I was the one she wanted. “The trail isn’t going to be an easy one. Here’s what we’re going to do. First, everyone will—”

“Hold on a second. Should you even be the one making the plans?” Stone demanded, sending me an ugly look. His hatred toward me had grown since our conversation when Mallen was here. I’d told him Ide’s plan to kill Juliet once we escaped, and Stone hadn’t liked the only solution I could come up with. But since he didn’t have another way to save her, he was forced to accept it. The idea to abandon her in the Void and send someone else to retrieve her to prevent her from walking into Ide’s trap was tearing him up as badly as it was me. I needed Stone to back up the lie I would tell Ide or he’d never believe it.

Stone wasn’t just angry with me. His anger was fueled by the situation and by what I suspected were his feelings for the girl he would never call his. Spoiling for a fight, he stood and propped his foot beside me on the rock. “You’re not worthy to be king.” He spit at my feet.

I rose and advanced until my face was inches from his. “Watch your place, soldier.”

Stone was from the soldier lineage, a Supernatural bloodline destined to serve as protectors for the royal leaders. The Supernatural who’d created Juliet using King Faulk’s DNA was from the same bloodline.

“Down here, you’re nothing more than a prisoner. You have no authority over any of us,
Your Majesty
,” Stone mocked, jabbing his middle finger into my chest. His action was a vulgar insult, meant as a slur on the mother of the Supernatural he touched.

I grabbed Stone’s hand, and in a quick movement jammed his arm up behind his back, shoving his face into a rock jutting out from the wall. “Back down. You don’t get another warning.” I held Stone’s face against the rock for a few seconds before I released him.

Taking his time, Stone turned and wiped the blood trickling from his nose and lower lip with the sleeve of his shirt. He jerked his head toward Juliet. “She’s the future ruler. I say let her make the plans.”

I tensed. “I’ll assume the throne.”

Stone’s lip curled into a sneer. “How do you figure it’s your right?”

“How? Because of my bloodline, it’s my destiny.”

“That proves nothing,” Stone argued. “Doesn’t matter if Juliet was created. Her bloodline is still through King Faulk. He was king before your father. That gives her the right to rule. Plus, she’s better equipped.”

“Better equipped?” I narrowed my eyes. “I was tutored in Shimea Prime’s ancient history starting when I was five years old. At six, I entered combat training. For my seventh birthday, I received instruction in the art of diplomacy among the galaxy leaders. Every year since then I’ve done nothing except train for the day I would assume the throne. I’ll be eighteen in a few days. According to our law, it’s my time and destiny to rule.” My voice carried the authoritative royal ring that made Stone’s eyes darken.

“What’s wrong
Your Majesty
? Have a fight with the girlfriend?” he taunted.

“You wish,” I said, and his face flushed.

“You’re both forgetting an important detail,” Juliet said in a tight voice, unhappy with us for arguing.

“What?” I asked.

“Without a fail-safe, I can’t leave the Void. I’m stuck here.”

Chapter 5

JULIET

The others would be forced to leave me behind. I couldn’t muster enough go-on-and-leave-me-I’m-brave to fool anyone.

“After we find a way out, I’ll make sure Henry can install a fail-safe in you right here. It’s not an ideal place to operate, but it’ll have to do,” Riley said.

“Maybe I should stay behind with Juliet instead of leaving,” Stone offered, putting his hand on my shoulder and moving his thumb back and forth in a caress. The move drew Riley’s gaze. There was nothing between Stone and me. Never had been, never would be. Irritated at him for using me, I brushed his hand away. “With the war going on, you should both go. Once you’re out, split up. That way, if one of you gets captured, the other one can get Henry and come back to me.”

“Or I could stay,” Emma said, even though I could tell she didn’t really mean it.

Forcing a calmness I certainly didn’t feel, I said, “I don’t need any of you to stay. I’ll go as far as I can with you, and when we find an exit, I’ll remain right inside.”

Riley paced the area as he thought about it. “I don’t know.”

When stopped next to me, I said, “You have to. Gather the Supernaturals who fought with me to save you. They’ll help stop the war. They won’t follow Stone but they’ll listen to you.”

“She’s right,” Stone said.

Riley raked his fingers through his hair and blew out a breath. “All right. We’ll hit the trail in the morning. Stone and I will take turns keeping watch until then.”

“I’ll take the first shift,” Stone said, turning his back on Riley without giving him a chance to respond. Another insult.

Though his jaw clenched, Riley didn’t address it.

When Riley looked at me, I said, “I feel like the war is changing us.”

He didn’t deny it. “We’re both fighting to throw off the constraints living among the humans placed on us. We’ve adapted to their ways, to their emotions. Felt things we were never meant to feel. We’ve become accustomed to downplaying who we really are, convincing ourselves we can play nice with other species.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, sucking in a breath when I moved and my injured leg connected with a small rock.

Riley frowned and moved the rock away from me. “We’re not a species that gives leadership of a planet over to others.”

“But Earth isn’t ours,” I protested.

“It will be once the war is over.”

“I’m supposed to protect the humans,” I reminded him.

He didn’t bother to hide his annoyance. “The humans lied to us, and now they want to destroy us, and you
still
feel empathy toward them. Your emotions have made you weak.” He stretched out on the ground with his arms behind his head. I imagined he would be cold after giving up his shirt to stop my leg from bleeding, but he didn’t act like it.

I processed his words. “You think loving someone makes a Supernatural weak?”

“Before you, I never would have chosen the Void. I would have died rather than surrender to Ide. Before me, you never would have rushed to face down the leaders. You knew you weren’t prepared. So yes, loving someone makes a Supernatural weak.”

I briefly closed my eyes and sighed. “I didn’t realize you saw
me
as your weakness.”

“I don’t mean it in a hateful way. If anyone wants to control a kingdom, they go after the person the king loves. It’s that simple.”

“You regret falling in love?”

He glanced at me and his expression softened. “Regret loving you? That’s something I’ll never do. We were meant to be.”

I slid closer to him, and he opened his arms. I settled in with my head on his chest. I traced the fresh cuts and bruises from his fight with the crocogon. The injuries overlay the older ones where the leaders had beaten him. My hand tingled and I wanted to heal him with a touch, but that wasn’t one of my Supernatural gifts. “I wish I had the power to erase your injuries.”

“I can handle this kind of hurt.” His throat worked as he swallowed. “The only kind of hurt I couldn’t take would be losing you.”

“Same here,” I said, hoping I’d never have to find out what that felt like. I chuckled at a thought.

Riley peered down at me. “What?”

“I was remembering how it was when we first met. You were full of yourself.”

He didn’t deny it. “Try growing up with my father. At least you knew you were loved.”

The sadness in his voice made me rise up on one elbow. “Was it hard? Growing up with King Dacce?”

“He was difficult.” His lips pressed into a flat line.

I touched the tip of my index finger to his lips. “Maybe he didn’t say he loved you, but showed it when he gave you things for Christmas or on your birthday.”

“On my seventh birthday, I asked for a toy I’d seen advertised on TV. Human children received gifts and a cake. I didn’t see anything wrong with the custom.”

“What happened?”

“My father flew into a rage. He said, ‘We are kings, and kings do not play with toys. We do not accept the ways and rituals of these pathetic humans.”

“How awful.”

He nodded, still lost in the memory. “He lifted me up by the back of my shirt, pulling the material tight against my throat. I couldn’t breathe. After he dropped me on the castle’s floor, he sent for the instructors. Instead of that toy, I received hours of lessons in the art of diplomacy among the galaxy leaders.”

Him sharing part of his past gave me insight into why Riley struggled to feel the same empathy I had for the humans. He’d been taught to hate them. “Is that why you were hard with me all the time?”

He raised his eyebrows and I blushed. “Stop teasing. I’m serious.”

“I left childhood behind and was well on my way to becoming a mini version of my father. I focused on the kingdom and my future place in it. I thought I had it figured out. Thought my father was right in his beliefs until I saw one of our leaders attack a human woman.”

There was no way Riley would stand idly by when someone needed help. Whether he realized it or not, his father had failed to eradicate the sense of right and wrong he had. I licked my lip, wanting badly to tell him my secret, but my mother had shown me what happened to people who talked about the destinies detailed in the Untolds. She’d smuggled the ancient writings out of the alien archives room in the castle. Making me watch through the window of our basement, she’d had a colleague of my father’s read aloud the words concerning me. As the man had spoken, it had stirred the curse, and the man had died instantly. I could still see the surprise on his face as he’d clutched his throat and gaped for oxygen.