The Black Mage: Candidate (31 page)

A rampant hate was spreading across the countryside like the plague. Our king had been cut down in cold blood. Just a year before our stronghold, attacked. The Caltothians were ruthless, relentless in their pursuit of our land.

Any reluctance to war had disappeared under the latest attack.

Darren was at its head. Following his father’s funeral, the prince had channeled his grief into rage. Rage that boiled over into his work. I hardly ever saw him outside the Council doors. Every waking moment was spent at his brother’s side. Daring the rebels of Jerar to try an attempt again, daring Caltoth to send its army now. His mother and father had been murdered, his brother barely left to live. The Black Mage of Jerar was ready to lead us to war, and I was ready to serve.

Our enemies had to pay. Those heartless, faceless others who had stolen so much. It was a fire consuming the dark. Fanning us with its flames. Searing a brand right across our hearts.

Perhaps that was why I didn’t notice when one walked right through the palace doors.

Chapter Sixteen

“Derrick?” I stopped dead in my tracks. Paige’s blunt practice sword hit me across the stomach, hard. I barely noticed.

My little brother was standing behind the spectator glass of the palace’s indoor training courts.

“Surprise, big sister.” He gave me a small smile and my heart did a flip. “Did you miss me?”

My casted polearm vanished, and I all but slipped across the marble floor as I ran to meet my brother in the stands. No one else was present except my knight who had returned to her own warm-ups now that I had stopped our practice. The rest of the court was still asleep. I would have been too, if I had been able. Unfortunately my many late hours of restless duty had left me unable to sleep for more than a few hours at a time.

“What are you doing here?” I threw my arms around him, for a moment forgetting that I was covered in sweat. “Why aren’t you in Ferren?”

“I felt terrible after I left Montfort.” His voice was muffled. “After what happened I realized the person I was really mad at was myself. I—I was punishing you for something that wasn’t your fault—”

“Derrick.” I pulled back. “I’m so sorry about Alex, I never—”

“I know.” He cut me off. “I knew then, too, but I was so angry I just didn’t care… After I returned to the keep I started to think about that night. Nine people were murdered, and my own sister could have been one of them. I wouldn’t have been there to save you because I was too busy sulking like a child.” Derrick drew a deep breath. “I would have never forgiven myself. So I wrote Darren and begged a position on the palace regiment.”

“You did?” He had never mentioned it.

Derrick nodded, his arms tightening around my waist. “I couldn’t let anything happen to my sister. He understood and I-I think he wanted you to have some family here… so you wouldn’t feel so alone. He mentioned you’d had a hard time adjusting to the palace.” My lungs constricted, just a little. Darren had noticed. All this time I had been envying his role, and he had been worrying over me. “I now serve with you on the King’s Regiment. I’ve a cot in the barracks outside. I reported to their lead soldier last night—I was so tired it took me until this morning to come find you. I checked your chamber first but the guards told me you were in the practice court with her.” His grin turned teasing. “Neither of you has changed one bit.”

“Neither have you.” I stepped back with an embarrassed laugh. His freshly pressed clothes were now damp with my perspiration. I pointed to his tunic. “Sorry, that wasn’t my smartest moment.”

“You couldn’t contain your excitement to see me again.” His eyes danced. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Even if it does smell like an army of men rotting at sea.”

I shoved him away and made a face. “I don’t smell nearly as bad as the men we trained with in Ferren. And I wash regularly. Unlike the others.”

“Well, why don’t you wash up again? And then give me a tour of this palace? It’s your day off, the guards said, no?”

“It is.” I waved at Paige to let her know I was done for the morning. I could make up our practice later on my own. Or maybe Derrick could join me. “When do you start service?”

“Tomorrow.”

****

Everything was better now that Derrick and I had made up from our fight in Montfort. Better even, because Darren was right. I
had
been suffering from loneliness since our return. I hadn’t grown up highborn. I hadn’t spent endless summers in the palace. I didn’t have friends among the court. I had tried, with some of the regiment’s soldiers, but most of them preferred silence in duty and the nobility were too eager to strike up a friendship with the Crown’s future princess. I’d been wary of all but Paige, and now that Derrick was here I had another to turn to. Someone to confide my own thoughts so I wouldn’t have to burden Darren with my jealousy and resentment.

Someone who—unlike Paige—could share in my opinion. The knight would never dare open her feelings up to the world. Even if she was formerly lowborn and now placed in a position of power. She preferred to stick to the task at hand and that was the end. Derrick was like me. He had chased power, pursued Combat even, and then turned to the Cavalry when his first dream got pushed aside.

“I was jealous of you and Alex,” he admitted, one afternoon while we were drilling in the soldier’s training court outside. “But especially you, because you had it all. The faction, the apprenticeship, you even made a name for yourself with Sir Piers and the Black Mage. You convinced a prince to call off his engagement. Our parents were so proud. They would talk about Alex, but it always came back to you. Every letter.”

I swallowed as I blocked his blade with my own. “I had no idea.”

He shook his head, tufts of blond, curling locks clearing his bright blue eyes. “And I didn’t want you to. I was proud of you… Just, even if I
was
happy, it hurt. For years. It wasn’t until Commander Nyx promoted me to her keep’s regiment it finally started to fade. Until I started to make a name for myself.”

I fell back and let Derrick take another swipe and kick at my feet. I twisted and parried his cut with ease. Hearing my own brother confess to his own insecurity, his own jealousy… it made it easier to breathe. What I was feeling was normal.

“Did you… did you ever start to believe you were a terrible person?”

“Every day. I would try to stay positive in our letters. It was easy because of the distance, and I really did miss you. But every time we were together and I watched you smile talking about your new life, I hated you. And I hated myself even more for thinking it.”

Our match ended and Derrick sheathed his blade. My own casting vanished. The two of us went to sit against a bench. “I’m so sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. It wasn’t you, Ryiah. It was me. Something I had to overcome for myself.” His gaze fell to my own and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “You wouldn’t happen to have the ring your foolish brother cast away like a dolt?”

I tugged the leather cord from underneath my shirt. The tarnished copper band hung from its center, the letter “R” glinting along its surface. “Does this mean I am your favorite again?” My grin was wide. “Because I will only give it back if I am.”

Derrick snickered. “Poor Alex never had a chance. The two of us are far too evil for the likes of a nice brother like him.”

****

The next month passed by in a blur. My duties became more bearable after my talk with Derrick, and as much as I resented Mage Mira’s obvious distaste where I was concerned, I embraced my role to the fullest. One thing was for certain: the Council chambers would be the most well guarded room in the palace.

And it was. Until the night I was doing a routine patrol down the hall and Darren appeared leaning against the entry with a wicked smile in play.

“Hello, lady mage,” he said, “perhaps you can tell me why this chamber was left unattended for an hour putting our entire kingdom at risk?”

One eyebrow shot up as I fixed the prince with an incredulous expression. “It’s been attended all night.
I
was the one guarding it.”

He peeled himself off the paneling with an even deeper grin. “I think you are mistaken.”

“And I think you have lost your mind.”

“Then tell me why the inside is a mess.”

“A-a mess?” I faltered.
Had I missed something? Someone snuck past me the moment my back was turned?
Why was he still smiling like one of the palace cats
who had gotten into the cook’s cream?
“Show me!”

He produced a key and swung open the handle. I hurried past to check.

Not a thing was out of place. All the books still on their shelves, the giant maps of Jerar and its neighbors aligning the walls, the great Council table and chairs, the great chests still with their locks, even the flourishing tapestries exactly as before. Not since my inspection an hour ago had one object moved in the slightest.

I turned an accusatory finger back at the prince. “You see, nothing has changed!”

“But it will.” Darren shut the door and locked it behind him, looking up at me from underneath long, sooty lashes. The side of his mouth was twitching to hold back a smirk.

Oh.
I wanted to kick myself.
This
.

“I am sorry,” he said, “that I have been so busy.”

I sucked in a sharp breath.

“I’ve been going mad,” he confessed. “Our wedding postponed. All the Council meetings. Only sharing meals. I…” He stopped as he drew up next to me at the center of the room. My back was pressed against the cold stone table, and there was nowhere else I could go.

Even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t.

“I miss you even when you are standing in front of me now.” The words came out in a rush as he met my eyes. “All I’ve been able to think about is you. We are going to go to war, and I’m the Black Mage and the whole time I am supposed to be leading those meetings I am thinking about you.” His head dipped so that his lips were bare inches from my own. “I haven’t stopped, love.”

“I…” I could barely speak, my pulse was deafening. “I think about...”

“What do you think about?” His hands fell to either side of the table, pinning me in place. His eyes were like coals.

“You.” His whole body was pressed against me, and it did odd things to my head. I was dizzy and too hot and too cold. All at once. All I could think about were his legs brushing mine, his chest rising and falling with my own, his hands on my skin.

“And?”

I licked my lips and his eyes followed the movement. A smile tugged at the corner of his own.

“Kiss me, Ryiah.”

I rose to my toes, and he cut the distance in half. Sparks flared in the shadows as his mouth found mine in the dark. I heard him choke back a groan, and it was all I could do not to gasp.

“What else do you think about?” His breath was hot in my ear. His fingers were trailing down my ribs as he pressed down, my back arching against his.

“Do you think about this?” He bit down on my lower lip, and I couldn’t stifle the whimper I emitted in response.

His tongue tangled with mine, and my whole body was ablaze. Hot, searing chills assaulted my limbs until I was panting for air. The prince of Jerar kissed me, and I swear to the gods I was catching fire because of it.

Heat flared in the pit of my stomach as he whispered the words. “What do you want, Ryiah?”

His hands lifted me against the cold marble top, and my legs wrapped around his waist before I even realized what I was doing. Shock and desire coursed my cheeks.

“Darren,” I stammered.

“Ryiah.” He was staring down at me, and I fought to break the spell that had found its way inside my head. His hands were pressed flat against the table on either side of me and heat was chasing through my veins, filling the pit of my stomach and up, up,
down
. The entire room was a haze. I wanted to pull Darren down to me and close any semblance of space between us.

I didn’t want him wearing those clothes.

I swallowed. The thought should have stunned me but now… Now when every part of me was dying just for this.

I knew what he wanted.

I wanted it too.

“Ryiah.” Darren raised one hand to lift my chin and meet my eyes with his own. His gaze was a bottomless abyss. Dark garnet swallowed me whole. The color reminded me of a setting sun: the moment red faded into black and became something else, something that pulled and drove you to madness, so beautiful you kept staring because you could no longer see anything else.

“I love you,” he whispered.

I pulled Darren to me and kissed him. One long, slow kiss that told him everything I was too afraid to put into words. His eyes flared and Darren pressed into me in response, kissing me back in a breathless rush. His fingers slipped down, down to the hem of my shirt and my breath hitched.

My pulse thundering as I tore off his vest, my grip sliding on tile as his mouth found my neck.

There was a scratching, an odd creak, and for a moment I thought it was my fingernails against the marble top. But they were still in his hair, pulling as hot lips pressed into my skin, searing me alive.

Then the creak again and the soft squeak of a hinge.

I jerked back, my head banging against the table while Darren threw himself around, blocking me from the intruder, one hand casting a bright sheen of light against the chamber door.

“Derrick?” Darren’s wheeze was echoed in my own. I struggled to right myself and adjust my top that had fallen low to one shoulder, snarled in my hair.

“Your highness… Ry? I–I’m so sorry, I didn’t…” My brother’s neck flushed pink as he stammered on. “I–I came to find my sister, a-and I saw the hallway was empty. I was worried and thought to check…” Derrick’s voice trailed off as his eyes darted from one side of the dark chamber to the other, clearly getting an idea for why that was.

“Thanks for checking.” The prince’s gaze assessed my brother with a slight frown. “Wasn’t that door locked?”

Something pricked at the back of my spine.