Impulse (15 page)

Hours later, Jilly shook my shoulder, announced it was morning and handed me a cream envelope.

‘I'm to lock your doors when I leave. I've left you plenty of food and I'll be back each morning and evening to see to you until this is all over.'

I tore the envelope open after she left the room.

Miranda,

Sylvia is being held for questioning. You were right to be suspicious, and for this I thank you. I'm sorry, too, for not believing you at first. I'll never forgive myself and I dare not ask it of you, though I wish it.

We are questioning each staff member and every single guard until we are confident of their allegiance. This may take several days.

Do NOT leave your room. Remember what happened when I last gave this warning. Lauren is safe.

Yours,

Marko

After reading the letter several times, I tucked it beneath my pillow and rested my head on Marko's words, wondering if they were his last to me. I wished now that I'd confessed that
he
was the main reason why I'd returned to Marin—not just to see if Sylvia was plotting against him. That I had returned to be with him again.

If I couldn't tell him, I'd show him how much he meant to me—by following his advice to the letter, and staying put in my room, even though the idea of being locked in for days made me want to climb walls and dig tunnels.

As the hours passed, I switched between begging the stationed guard outside my door, through the keyhole, for answers and pigging out on the food Jilly had brought.

The adjoining door was also locked, and every time I put my ear to it, to listen out for Marko, there was no movement or sound.

Three torturously long days later Marko came into my room. The grey shadows under his eyes and the stubble darkening his jaw told me he hadn't slept the entire time.

I'd been drying my hair in the bathroom at the time and quickly tossed the towel to the floor and ran into the room.

‘Thank God you're okay,' I said, wanting to throw my arms around him. But I just couldn't. He looked so beaten and broken, and stiff, like he didn't want to be touched.

‘Sylvia wasn't helping Damir with an escape. She was using him.'

‘What do you mean?' I asked, flicking a wet curl off my face.

Marko scratched his jaw and raised his brows. ‘For science. Sylvia lied about my grandfather's book. You were right. There is only one copy.' He yawned and rubbed his face. ‘She gave it to Damir, on the condition he help her to find a cure for infertility.' Marko shrugged. ‘My brother's always been smart, like my grandfather. But only technical, scientific smart—he's never possessed emotional intelligence.'

‘But you said the fertility problems were to do with the lack of moon cycle.'

‘True. But I've always wondered how Kraja's civilisation survived down here for so long without a moon. There's something missing now that was here then. But I can't work out what it is.'

‘So did they come up with anything?' As I said this, my mind flashed to the doorless room in the secret passageway, the one with the hand-drawn pictures on the wall of the Kraja statue holding a large crystal moon in her hands, exactly like the one in the castle ballroom.

Marko shook his head. ‘Damir wanted to perform some of his own experiments first, so he struck a bargain with my sister to allow him access to our grandfather's room for several hours a day.' He snorted and shook his head. ‘My brother wanted to perform an operation that our grandfather had attempted on our grandmother.' Marko cleared his throat. ‘The very operation that killed her.'

I didn't need him to tell me what that operation entailed. I'd seen it in Frano Tollin's book.

‘That's sick—and awful.' I stepped forward and rested a hand on Marko's arm, but he moved away.

‘You're not going to like what you hear next, Miranda.'

‘What do you mean? Has something happened to Lauren?' I headed towards the door. ‘Oh my God, I have to see her.'

‘It's not Lauren. She's safe. You'll see her in a minute.'

I sighed with relief and rested my back against the door. ‘Then what is it?'

‘Damir hasn't attempted the operation yet; but he has a volunteer. It's Anne.'

Anne?
Now her weird behaviour made sense.

‘I saw her, when I was near the dungeons. She looked horrible and she was talking about being in love…' I groaned and raked a hand through my wet, knotted hair. ‘That's why she volunteered. She's in love with him.'

Marko sighed. ‘Yes, Miranda, and people do strange things when they are in love.' He looked at me pointedly, his chest rising and falling, his tired eyes piercing mine.

My heart stuttered beneath his intense gaze. Luckily the door was behind me or I would have buckled. ‘So is Sylvia in—'

‘The dungeons? No.' He eyed the floor. ‘My sister has dreamed of having her own child for as long as I can remember. Do you really think I can punish her for that?'

‘But she let Anne be a science experiment
and
she allowed Damir to roam the castle! How dangerous is that?' My entire body shivered at the idea of violent and demented Damir lurking the darkened corridors of the castle. Perhaps the man with the beard and hat who'd glared at me in the city had been Damir, in disguise. He could easily have returned to the dungeons via one of the castle's underground tunnels before the guards had checked on him.

‘She's loyal to me, Miranda, and that is all that matters.'

‘What about the guards?'

‘They've been dealt with. Several guards and other staff members have been stood down and banished from the castle. We've lost a lot of men and women. I'm going to have to recruit new guards over the next couple of days, and it won't be an easy task; so, please, stop questioning my decisions. I am the king, Miranda, remember that.' He rubbed his face. ‘And I'm tired. I need to sleep.'

I flinched at his raised voice.

‘Why don't you ask Sylvia to open your secret door? Wouldn't that solve the trust issue? Then you'll know if you can truly trust her or not.'

‘Stop it, Miranda!' He stepped closer, his breath hard and fast. ‘My mother died the moment I was born, and Sylvia cared for me.' Unshed tears shone in his eyes, making him appear vulnerable instead of angry. ‘I won't test the only mother I've ever known.' He rested his arms on either side of my head. ‘Why can't you understand that I love her? Why can't you trust my judgement, just this once?'

My pulse throbbed in my ears. He bent his head and rested his chin on my forehead before moving down to graze his lips there.

I inhaled his woodsy, briny scent and closed my eyes. ‘Because I care for you, a lot, and I'm worried something bad will happen.'

He made a sound in his throat and trailed his lips down the side of my face.

‘But you said yourself, you didn't come for me; you came to save Marin.'

My hands found his waist and slid up his shirt, his skin hot to touch and his muscles hard. This was my moment to confess the truth.

‘That's not entirely true,' I said, turning my face slightly, so that my lips were only an inch away from his mouth.

His breath tickled my cheek. ‘Then what is the truth?' he said, his voice gravelly.

‘That I thought about you every day of the past year,' I whispered.

Marko drew away for a moment to stare at my face, before he bent down to press his lips against mine.

His mouth was hot and hungry and I kissed him back, just as eagerly. Our teeth bumped and our tongues entwined as I yanked on the ends of Marko's shirt and drew him closer. He groaned against my mouth—the sound sending a bolt of white-hot electricity through my veins—and his hands found their way into my damp hair, his fingers stroking the back of my neck.

‘I've wanted to do this the moment I saw you again on that beach,' he murmured into my ear. ‘It's been torture to sleep in the next room…so close but unable to touch you.'

I groaned softly and ran my hands up and down the cording muscles of his back, pressing him against me until I could feel every hard inch of his body against mine.

‘Sleep here, tonight, with me,' I whispered in his ear as he rained kisses down my neck.

Marko paused, his breath hot and heavy against my skin, before he groaned and drew away.

‘Sylvia's birthday is tonight. We have to attend,' he said, between pants of breath. ‘It's important that the people of Marin see that the Tollins are still united. And that trust has been restored.'

My head, which was still wrapped up in the kiss, suddenly started to hurt. After taking nearly a minute to digest his words, I sighed.

‘I'll never be the best of friends with Sylvia, you do realise that? Standing by and allowing Anne to become
a sacrifice for science, like a lab rat, is something I can't forgive.'

Marko's pained expression returned and, after seeing him so blissful during our kiss, I couldn't stand it.

‘Fine, I'll go.'

I'd never truly understood it when I saw married couples groan about their in-laws on TV; but now I did. With Marko came Sylvia. It was a fact I had to get used to. The world down here was different to the mainland. Marko couldn't just move to another state if he wanted to escape his family. He was a king, with all the responsibilities that come with the role.

I had to ask myself if I wanted to share my life with someone who was forever tied to the people and the city of Marin.
And
to his sister, who was more like a mother to him, which…made her my potential mother-in-law.

I shuddered at the thought.

Marko locked eyes with me and reached out to coil one of my wet curls around his index finger.

‘Jilly will bring some outfits for you. You choose and I'll dress to match.'

Oh, masquerade ball, right.

‘I'll pick you up at 7 pm,' he said, before disappearing into his room.

I
TWISTED AND
turned in front of the full-length mirror one last time. Marko was due any second and I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. My tight-fitting golden dress glimmered in the crystal light, and the cream Jilly had rubbed into my arms, neck and back sparkled as if I was made of gold. I held my mask over my face, shiny gold with a light fur trim around the edges, and posed, with one hand raised into a claw.

‘You make an awesome lioness,' said Marko, who'd managed to enter my room without me knowing. I spun around. Luckily for the mask, he couldn't see me blush.

‘Since when do kings of underwater civilisations use the word
awesome
?'

‘Jordon's sister, Henrietta,' Marko said, with a laugh in his voice. ‘Whenever I ask her how she is, she almost always answers with
awesome.
It has stuck, unfortunately.'

He cleared his throat and allowed his eyes to rove from my face down to my toes and slowly, very slowly, back up.

‘You look beautiful, Miranda.'

‘So do you.' My heart fluttered like butterfly wings against my ribs.

He drew his own golden mask over his eyes. It left his strong jaw and full lips exposed, emphasising them. He was breathtaking. Like a living version of Oscar Wilde's
The Happy Prince
, except with jet-black hair. It was hard not to stare at his lips and recall our passionate kiss from earlier. A kiss I wanted to repeat right now.

‘Shall we?' Marko extended an arm and I slipped my gloved hand through it.

‘Will Lauren be coming?' I asked. ‘I tried to see her before I got dressed but she wasn't in her room.'

Marko cleared his throat. ‘Apparently she has a headache,' he stared down at me, his face concerned at my worried frown, ‘but nothing that sleep won't fix.' He smiled to lighten the mood. ‘Don't worry.'

Of course I was worried, but I said nothing. Lauren with a headache meant she'd been drinking during her confinement, or that perhaps she was still experiencing the side effects of the travel drugs. I'd sneak out during the party and check on her in a little while.

A cool breeze drifted down the corridor and tickled the hem of my dress. The music from the ballroom grew louder as we neared and my stomach twisted a little. I wondered just how much Marko had told Sylvia about my involvement in what had led to her being found out.

‘No announcements tonight; it's a masquerade ball, after all,' Marko said to the guards as we arrived at the grand ballroom doors.

‘As you wish,' they answered, allowing us to pass without ceremony.

‘I wonder how long it will take people to guess.'

‘Not long,' I said, leaning in close so as to be heard over the music. Marko was wearing a hint of aftershave, but not so much that it overtook his natural scent. I wanted
to press my face into his neck and inhale, but resisted my impulses and instead laughed and added, ‘You have a certain walk.'