Blakeshire (24 page)

“And what were you offered, considering that this occurred in your kingdom?”

“A vessel,” he said with a sly grin.

I knew he was talking about Drake, but I was going to play this out. I glanced over him once more. “You got the short end of the deal.”

He grinned again.

“I’m not diving into water until I have some kind of proof that your word is not worthless.”

“My word is true.”

“Proof, dear King of Fear. I need proof.”

He said nothing for what seemed like forever, then he pursed that half lip of his. “There is going to be an explosion in twelve hours. The city north of here. The eruption is one of three omens meant to tell the people in this dimension that Drake is courting the wrong girl. Evacuate the city, do not bring them here, move them further north so the other kings will not be aware that you have blocked this. After you realize that I just helped you save thousands of lives, consider diving, and do so before they’ve bound your hands this time.”

“This time,” I mused. “And were you there the first time around?”

“No. If I were, I would have told the fools to spare the child. At the very least not bind him so he would not be damaged when we needed him.”

Rage. I could not believe how calm he was about whatever had happened so long ago that a child was involved.

“There was a child at my death. Is that what you are telling me?” I said as uncaringly as I could.

His one eye filled with the evil I knew he was. “The child was
your downfall. The King of Obsession swore to the others that it was his—that you were faithful to the devotion he claimed he felt coming from your energy. He went as far as stating that the child carried his eye color, assuming that would be enough proof that his essence had collided and created that babe.” He let out an evil laugh. “You see, a sovereign cannot produce a child with a mere human; not on this plane at least.”

When I first came here with my cousins, Charlie, Monroe, and her brothers, Donalt had formed before us, and he didn’t look at all like he did now; he was near perfection, even sported some impressive wings. Monroe was the one that hindered him then, by simply stating, “Father, tempt me not.” Now, I knew that Monroe had supernatural powers, but as far as I knew she was human. If that were the case, then how was he her father? Of course, I couldn’t ask him that because that would hurt the uncaring character that I had displayed thus far. I made a mental note to figure out where exactly Monroe was born and what, if any powers her mother may have had that would have allowed her to bear children with this ghost at some point in time. My gut was telling me that Donalt was a father to no one, that that was a ruse. Seemed as if no one was who they claimed to be.

“Glad we agree that I am a human now and then; nothing to worry about,” I said in a bored tone, which seemed to irritate him because the room turned arctic.

“The others knew the King of O
bsession was delusional and chose to offer a compromise—a test, if you will.” His one eye gazed forward as what was left of his mind replayed what he knew of that time. “You had fallen for an Earthly prince, and I allowed it simply because your image had fooled me then.” He glanced at me and shook his old finger playfully in my direction. “Should have tested the energy. You were a sly one then, too.”

“Then—now? Not sly. I have no fight with any of this.”

He grunted before he spoke. “To prove that the child belonged to the King of Obsession, you and your child were tested; you failed.” He glanced over me. “Obviously.”

I hindered any thought or conclusion I wanted to make in my mind, knowing that he very well may be able to see those conclusions.

“So I hooked up with this king in a past life, cheated on him, then he killed me? Do you see how insane this sounds? Whose baby was it? What Earthly prince?”

His laugh was so cold that I felt my breath seize. “The same prince you are courting now. And it was my kingdom then and now. Drake slipped through my fingers then
because the King of Obsession let his favor fall on you. To this day, he still thinks you were killed by Xavier for spite, that you never cared for Drake. That blue-eyed boy was and still is his.”

“I don’t get the king thing, man. This is your kingdom, but you have pointed out at least one other, or two—did you not say Xavier was one, too? Why where they in your kingdom?”

“They are not Earthly kings, and neither am I. This was my domain, and of course I let my fellow kings dwell here when they came to this plane. We were still trying to sort it all out back then, who was who, and in that assembly confusion was born. The point is you are not a threat to me. So, I care not if you undo your beginning.”

Just to ensure that I should still hate this ghost, I pressed on. “All you care about is a vessel, right? One that you have prepared to take over?”

He didn’t bother to answer, which led me to believe his goal was to survive the trials before him now and wait for Landen and Willow’s children to be born. It also told me that the other kings, at least this Xavier guy, didn’t care to wait that long; they were pushing forward with the original plan. The reason behind that plotting was still absent to me.

“Fine,” I said with a shrug as if I didn’t care to know his answer.

“You need to return; otherwise, they are going to harm that looking glass searching for you, and that would not be good if you ever intend to leave this dimension again.”

“Well, on that note,” I said as I stood, “I’m going to get out of here. I don’t need anyone blocking my way out of this hell.”

I didn’t even bother to wait for his response. I dove into the dark water and pushed my way into the tunnel that had led me there. Halfway through, I ran into another body—it wasn’t Aden, and it wasn’t Drake, so I had no idea who had dared to try and come after me. I swam past him, pulling his arm to follow. Once out of the tunnel, I hugged the wall; the swim to the top was faster than the descent simply because the current was pushing me upward. I broke the surface seconds before my rescuer. One glance told me it was Marc, and he was furious with me.

Aden was drenched on his knees by the pool. He reached to pull me out yelling, “What the hell, Maddie?”

The only one not mad at me was Zander. I felt pride and honor coming from him. Must be why he was not wet. He’d trusted me. I was really starting to like that guy.

“I was exploring,” I muttered as I took in the room. All of the guards were in there now, and at least three of them were soaked.

“Underwater?” Marc bit out as he pulled himself out.

“I didn’t bother the rings,” I said in instant defense.

“You don’t know that! Do you have any idea how many lives you put at risk?” Marc bellowed at me. The anger in his voice, his fierce, dark eyes, and the way his wet hair was waywardly tossed out of his eyes made him look
so
much like Drake.

“Did you find anything?” Aden said, raising his hand to tell Marc to back off. Chrispin helped Marc up and said something sternly to him, which I’m sure was along the lines of ‘cool it.’

“There is a waterway feeding this. There may be more tunnels, but I didn’t go that far,” I answered Aden.

“You were down there for almost fifteen minutes,” Aden argued.

“I was only under water for less than two.”

“There is a cave?” Aden asked as his eyes expanded and I let him see everything I had said or done down there.

He glared at the water, then to me. “You believe him?”

“The question is, what if I don’t and something does happen?”

“Better safe than sorry,” Aden said with an exhausted sigh.

Marc, Chrispin, and the others were looking at us like we were crazy.

“What city is north of here?” I asked.

“You would call them churches, something like a Vatican. Deeply religious followers of this reign live there,” Chrispin answered as Marc put his shirt back on after pushing as much water as
he could out of his suit pants.

“Perfect target,” I said under my breath.

“You need to evacuate it, move those people north, quietly,” Aden ordered.

“What are you guys trying to tell me? Some ghost gave you the heads up?” Chrispin asked, obviously gauging what I had been up to.

“Yep,” I said with a wink. “He said to go north, too. I’m not sure how deeply to believe this, but like I said, it would suck if we were wrong and something did happen.”

Marc’s dark eyes raked over me. “What ghost?”

“Donalt. Like I said, you can believe him or not. He said it was one of three omens. To move them north, not here, because if you did the person who set this in motion would know.”

“And who is that?”

“Didn’t ask.”

After a moment of indecision, Marc nodded once. “I’ll tell Drake. Will the two of you go to your wing now? I don’t need anything else to worry about tonight.”

He nodded in Zander’s direction, silently telling him to watch over us.

“You have twelve hours. It’s going to be a long night,” I said in an offer to help.

“We’ll figure it out.” Marc handed me the dress I had taken off. “Do you have any idea how horrible it would have been to tell him that I lost you?”

“I’m not his—not anyone’s. I’m going to bed. This day has been long enough.”

Sorrow engulfed Marc. It killed me to make him feel that way, but I was still on stage, and letting him or anyone else know that I was in love with Drake was a risk I wasn’t prepared to take.

Chapter
Fifteen

~Drake~

Madison Marie had been in my palace for less than a day and already turned it on its heels. Stopping a royal in his path is punishable by death, and she did that when she halted to put whoever was imitating Clara in her place—which still had me grinning on the inside because I knew that meant she gave a damn. She had decided I was worth fighting for.

Madison Marie didn’t stop there; no, she exited a royal dinner without being excused. I almost erupted in laughter, I really did. It took all I had not to fall over with joy that she was brave enough to stand up to every one of those pompous asses. The only thing that stopped that action was when the thought arose that something had driven her to do that. If I found out someone at that table was solely responsible for her reaction—Creator help them—I was going to rip them apart piece by piece.

I was so distracted with that thought that I barely listened to Xavier and Alamos—the real one—when they gave me a briefing of the kingdom. Xavier was quick to point out that the kingdom was breaths away from a civil war, a war where half the souls demanded the reign of any and all Blakeshires to end. Half was an improvement in my eyes. Zander had told me the entire dimension was seeking a hostile takeover up until the moment Madison Marie and I shared that dessert before all of them.

Xavier was shouting words like ‘democracy’ as if that would be hell on Earth; little did he know that when I took my reign, I would ensure that was reached in this world. I had one purpose: to ensure they were all powerful enough to withhold one, that all self-doubt, all self-inflicted pain had ended—and equality was born. I was going to relinquish the dominion to the public. I wasn’t a fool. I knew it would take decades for my people to reach that point, to be able to make a unified decision that would satisfy all their needs, but I knew it could be done within my lifetime—or rather, the lifetime of my heir.

Which made Zander’s comment that I would not rule this dimension, but my heir, painful. This curse that what was haunting me stood to rob me of more than my vessel; it planned to rob me of my dreams. I could shoulder the grief of that realization, but I could not handle that my failure would let down and leave behind billions of souls who saw me as their last hope. This entire time, I had been fighting for them. Now I was fighting for them and the woman that carried half my soul, Madison Marie.

Ever since Zander gave me that flask, I’ve felt off. More on edge. Almost as if I were all too aware of the coldness building deep inside me. I was so focused on that, I barely noticed that his presence, Donalt’s, was absent for a few moments. That caused a warning signal to go off inside my heart. I stood from my desk and started to walk to the wing I knew Madison Marie was in. I was nearly running when the presence came back all at once. I slowed my pace, finding relief for the first time ever that he was with me—for if he were with me, he wasn’t hurting her.

Zander was approaching me now. He came to my side and strolled along.

“You want to tell me what happened at dinner?”

“Whatever could you mean?” he asked with a poorly hidden smirk.

“Was that you, another staged event?”

“I had nothing to do with tonight. I assure you, your queen had complete control of that situation.”

I felt that cold deep inside wave through me.

“What was in that flask?” I asked him in a low voice as we walked through the vacant halls.

“You wanted a remedy.”

“It’s worse.”

“Then I suppose that would cause the remedy you need to heal it to surface.”

I felt a wave of powerful energy move through the air. I stopped in my tracks, then moved on. It was only Landen. Here lately, I could sense him from a mile away. His energy carried that much power. I knew I felt Draven here, too.

“Landen has arrived.”

Zander glanced to his side at me. “Sensing their whereabouts is becoming easier to you.”

Their
. I didn’t tell him I knew Draven was here, too. Sometimes I wondered if he meant to slip up like that or if he were silently testing me to see if I was paying attention.

“Why do you suppose that is?” I asked in a knowing tone, even though I didn’t have a clue.

“Suppose you are all rising to power, becoming aware of who you must defeat and why that is so vastly important to the Creator Himself.”

“We have been aware of who we had to defeat from day one.”

“Landen was.”

“What are you trying to say? Siding with Alamos now? Saying I’m too lovesick to see the good of my kingdom?”

“No. I’m saying some enemies are easier to see than others…that, and your path has been unnaturally crossed with other fates in the hopes that you will all self-destruct—but each of you are managing to turn what was used to hurt you into your advantage. Quite brilliant.” Zander peered forward. “I’m interested to see where intent and fate will lead us all from this point.”

He was leering at a man that was walking past us, one that was at the dinner tonight. He couldn’t be much older than me. He wore a royal collar, so I assumed he was related to someone at that feast we had tonight, but something else was familiar about him. What, I didn’t know. I just knew I didn’t like him.

“You’re telling me that you can’t see where all this is heading?”

Nothing.

“Does this have anything to do with the seven deadly emotions? Seven kings that must fall?”

“This? You mean what Madison is contending with? No, I told you she has to focus on your beginning in order to save your now and protect your future.” I started to argue with him to be clearer, but we had reached the wing that was made for Madison.

“Your fellow kings are awaiting you.”

Fellow kings. Thanks for the hidden message, Zander. I stared at her doorway for a long moment before walking to her library and descending the stairs to the bottom level to where I knew Landen, Draven, and the others were waiting on me.

~ Madison ~

The guards that were still dry, along with Chrispin, led us back to our wing. Considering that we were soaking wet, they chose to lead us down back passageways. We emerged in the hallway that led to our wing in less than two minutes.

At the end of the hall next to the double doors, Britain was leaning against the wall. A cart of food was next to him.

“You need help with that?” Chrispin said coldly as he pulled his shoulders back.

“No, man, sorry to jack up your night. I’ve got this,” Aden responded dryly.

Chrispin nodded once, then he and the others leaned against the walls, giving me the impression that they were not leaving us unguarded tonight. So much for exploring.

Aden glanced at me as we walked. “Does he not understand what the word ‘no’ means?”

“Never has before. Why should he start now?”

Aden halted in the hallway as rage rippled off him and his tall, lean body tensed. “Are you telling me that he has forced himself on you?” he fumed.

“He’s still breathing, isn’t he?” I answered as I passed by Aden and gestured for him to stop, to let me deal with this. Grudgingly, he stayed a few steps behind. Once I reached Britain, Aden gave us all of six feet of privacy.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Britain with an exhausted sigh.

He glanced over my dress, which was wet from my tank top and briefs. “What have you been doing?” he asked as concern filled his eyes.

“I always go for a swim after dinner; helps me control my rage.”

“Rage?”

“Yeah, rage. It ticks me off when boys feel me up while I’m trying to eat my dinner.”

A near sinful smile came to the corners of his lips. “I touched your knee. I just wanted you to know I was there and no one was going to hurt you.”

“It was dinner, and I was very aware that you were there. Don’t make me ask you again to leave me alone. I’m sure Anna is wondering where her Prince Charming is.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I used that girl to get your attention? That I knew you would come when you felt my anticipation?”

“And I told you it was not my idea to come there.”

“I don’t buy it. You can act tough all you want, but I have known you across far too many lives. Your eyes give you away—they always have.”

“Well, right now they should be telling you that I don’t give out second chances.”

“You will get over it eventually. Right now, I’m just trying to keep you alive, salvage what is left of your power.”

“Right, your source of food. Must suck to know that your ticket to rule that Realm is null and void. I’m not giving you anything.”

He moved forward in the same slow, commanding manner that he had always used with me. “I don’t need you to rule anything.” His eyes moved across my furious image. “Fate brought you to my doorstep. Literally. I knew Charlie was special, but I had no idea she was harboring you. That she would hand deliver the one girl that has had my attention for the better part of an eternity. I’m not going to stand by and watch you allow Drake to destroy you.” He raised his head to look down at me over his chiseled profile. “I’m here as a friend. We’ll work on the rest later.”

“I’m detaching myself from friends currently. That includes you.”

“You are bewitched. Right now, you are walking into this prison with your stomach empty and you have the audacity to think it is your idea.”

“I’m going to bed. Alone.”

“Fine. Tomorrow, let me know how comfortable Willow’s bed was.”

“Will do.”

My smug response ignited something in him, and in that instant I was against the wall with my arms pinned above my head. “This attitude is going to kill you,” he breathed down my neck.

One nod from me sent him flying backward. There, he met Aden, who flung him against the opposite wall a second before he charged him, holding Britain in place with his forearm. “I’m sick of watching her tell you
no
. You have two choices right now: walk away, or let’s take this to The Realm and end this argument once and for all!”

Britain smirked as he pushed forward. I couldn’t tell if Aden had let him go or if he had overpowered him. The shock in Aden’s emotions led me to believe that whatever strength Britain had displayed was unprecedented, at least in Aden’s mind. I’ve always known that Britain was far more powerful than he let on.

“None of this has anything to do with you. Stop hiding from your own hell.” With that, Britain adjusted his suit, glanced at me, then sauntered down the hall.

Aden glanced at the cart, and with his energy he sent it soaring down the hall, barely missing Britain. I felt sorry for anyone that was in that vicious cart’s path.

Aden pointed to the door, telling me he was done with this day. Of course it opened with ease, and once the door closed that stainless steel bar fell into place.

Simply because I had far too much doubt mingling in my thoughts, I pressed the lever that I’d seen Alamos touch—and sure enough, the door opened with ease.

“Good. You’ve figured out how to work the door. I’m going to bed.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Maddie, this is your business. I don’t know what is real or not with you, but make sure you don’t confuse yourself, that on the inside you know who you are.”

“My head is swimming.”

He smirked as he looked over my damp dress. “It always has been. Do your thing, and you’ll be fine.” He took one last long gaze into my mind, into that conversation I had with Donalt, then turned and briskly walked to his room. A few seconds later, I heard the beat of his drum sticks against what sounded like stone. That was his thing—his release.

I glanced around the vast hall, hearing Britain in my head, him calling this a prison, him telling me that I was sleeping in Willow’s bed. I thought about chilling on one of those couches that centered the hall or finding a reading nook in the library, but I finally decided that if I did
, that would be my way of saying I believed him.

I made my way to my room. After the door was closed, I let the dress fall to the floor. I was too waterlogged for a shower and too restless to settle down. I was sure that I wouldn’t see Drake again tonight. He had a few thousand souls to save.

My mind kept going over what Donalt had said to me about my first death. None of it really made sense to me. The only reason I was hung up on it was that Drake had mentioned hearing a crying child in his dream and Donalt had confirmed that there was a baby there. The question was: what were both Drake and I doing here, and how in the hell did unearthly kings come into play?

Now that it was dark, the flaming water amplified the room. Knowing that I was basically in my underwear, I nodded to the drapes around the window and urged them closed.

I walked closer to the nearby basin as I studied where that water fell from, how the fire remained unscathed. Wondering if it was real or artificial fire, I blew air against the water; the spring bowed inwards, touching the flame, but as it did a power pushed through the fire and it became stronger than before. Maybe that was how you turned it up…I wondered how you turned it down.