The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series) (14 page)

              “Avalon, what are you planning to do?” Kiran matched my long strides with his own, his jaw set and his hands clenched into fists at his side.

              “I’m going to Siberia,” I said without missing a step.

              “By yourself?” he ground out, and I didn’t have to be magic to feel how badly he wanted to join me.

              “No, I’ll assemble a team,” I said carefully, knowing without a doubt he would not be included on it. I made a promise to Eden and I intended to keep it. Besides, someone had to run this place. “Jericho will be more than happy to go with me and I’m sure I can dig up Xander and Xavier…. maybe even Titus.”

              He opened his mouth to say something so I quickly moved on, “You and Eden can run things for a while, right?” I threw in my sister’s name reminding him of his responsibilities. When he nodded like it was painful to agree with me, I knew I had made my point clear. “Good. Siberia is where the Titans trained for a while, isn’t it?”

              Now that it was clear Kiran would have to stay behind, I felt more at ease discussing details of the mission with him. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to go with me, for wanting to hunt down Terletov and deliver a righteous reckoning, but I wouldn’t risk something happening to Kiran. I wouldn’t risk making my sister’s nightmares come true. She deserved peace of mind and I was bound and determined to give it to her.

              “Yes, they used it during and after World War II, while most of this part of the world was occupied with war. They didn’t move back to the Romanian Citadel until after the fall of Communism in the eighties,” Kiran sighed, clearly unhappy with his resignation to stay behind.

              “What happened to the training facility after they moved back here?” I asked before biting down on my thumb nail.

              “A small group of Titans was left to maintain the property and look after it, but other than that it was abandoned,” Kiran explained.

              “Have you checked on the facility or with the Titans who stayed there since we took over?” I asked, careful not to sound like I was accusing him of anything.

              “It was one of the first places we stopped on our honeymoon,” Kiran explained and I felt another prick of relief. At least we hadn’t been completely negligent. “I knew that since they would be hearing of my father’s death second hand I should stop in and prove that I was in charge and that they still answered to someone. The property was a bit rundown and the Titans that kept it were all older generation and a bit rundown themselves. But everything looked and felt fine. Everything but their housing was empty and I would have pulled the Titans from that post all together, but they were proud of their work and had built a life there. I didn’t see the point.”

              “Alright, show me where this training facility is on a map. I’ll leave tonight,” I announced, confident that we were on the right track, even if we were a few steps behind. I would catch us up. That’s what I did. This was what I had been born and raised to do. I was finally back in my element, even though it was under the worst circumstances possible. Even through the desperation, I felt to find this son of a bitch and make him pay for his sins, this was familiar territory to me. I could turn my rage and hatred into action and accomplishment.

              And even though I couldn’t think about what happened to Henri and Sophie without nearly choking on intended wrath, I could feel the relief of finally identifying the threat, of finally being able to put a game plan together and start to act.

              The peace and safety of my Kingdom came first.

              Always.

              This was the destiny that Gabriel was always going on about. I wasn’t good at sitting still and governing menial issues. But I was good at this. I was good at fighting.

              And Terletov had no idea just how good I was.

              Not yet.

              Kiran led me toward a planning room I had rarely used for lack of reason. My blood had already ignited into a frenzied boil of anticipation and adrenaline. I started making a mental list of everything I needed to do. I wouldn’t waste time, I would leave tonight. Tomorrow morning at the latest. I needed to call the old team back together and have them meet me en route. As long as no one had gone and fallen in love or somehow tied themselves down, I knew they would be just as anxious as me to jump back into the action.

              Maybe I should even call Roxie, I didn’t need to bet that she was bored out of her mind.

              This time around I wouldn’t involve those married couples, especially the ones with children. But my single, unattached friends had spent plenty of time in the field and were probably restless with the everyday monotony of life.

              As my magic snapped and popped around me in an anxious cloud of readiness, I prepared my mind too. There were plenty of things I wasn’t primed for. And I wasn’t delusional enough to deny that this wouldn’t be hard and I wouldn’t be rusty.

              But the prospect of leaving this Citadel with a mission on the horizon made me the most alive I had felt in a long time.

Chapter Thirteen

              Silence.

              Finally.

              The day had been spent in all kinds of preparations to leave. With Kiran here, I didn’t think it would be a big deal if I just slipped out for a bit to go chase down Terletov and kill the bastard. But apparently it was a very big deal.

              Or Angelica was making it one because she didn’t want me to go.

              And then Talbott jumped in the argument to complicate matters, demanding to know why I didn’t want to use the trained Titan Guard when they were at my complete disposal. He didn’t take it too well when I explained that the main reason I wasn’t taking them was because I honestly hadn’t thought about using them.

              They had been enslaved by birth, made soldiers because they were born a Titan and not because of any personal desire to serve the Crown. Even though most of them had been soldiers long enough to be completely dedicated and gladly lay down their life for the cause of this crown, I couldn’t in good faith ask them to sacrifice their lives for me for any reason.

              Plus, and this was splitting hairs, I didn’t trust them to perform at their maximum potential in this kind of environment. The rest of the Titans were theoretically trained in covert ops, but had never needed to use their training in real life. I trusted my team over them. Plain and simple

              And then there was that.

              I had been on a team once. I had trusted men and women with my life and they felt the same toward me. I could have assembled a Titan team that didn’t let me do any of the dirty work and reacted to my every order. Or I could assemble the only people in this world I trusted with my life more than myself, other than Eden of course. The same people that knew exactly how I operated a mission, who took orders from me while complaining and questioning my every decision and the same people I missed deeply.

              Although I would never admit it to them.

              Or maybe I would.

              So I had called them all, interrupted their life-after-war lives and asked them to join me in this endeavor for justice. Titus, Xander, Xavier, Jericho and Roxie were more than willing to meet up with me in Moscow before we headed deep into Siberia for this mission.

              Despite the ugly circumstances, it was hard not to get anxious for this mission.

              Which was why I had come out here to think things through. I didn’t want to just get caught up in being back on the field and mess things up. I enjoyed the idea of getting out of the castle, and I realized how important it was for me to find a freaking activity to occupy my time when we were back to peace, but right now I needed to focus and put this guy down. He kidnapped my sister, and now he was experimenting on my people. Words could not accurately describe how much I wanted to end this guy’s life.

              The full moon shone down on the dying garden around me, as I sat alone in the middle of the overgrown maze. The leaves had started to fall off the chaotic bushes, leaving jagged, sharp branches sticking out into every path and twisting toward the sky in an effort to find freedom. I sat on a stone bench, tucked away in a little alcove and closed my eyes. I thought through the next few days like professional athletes thought through their next match, visualizing every step, every move, every possibility.

              I couldn’t predict everything. Or anything really….

              But I could visualize my own actions, my own reactions to every possible scenario and emotion. If conditions were far worse than I could possibly imagine, I would be ready. If we were headed into a trap, I would be ready. And if this led to a dead end, I would be ready.

              This was a ritual I had performed countless times and it helped slow the riotous nerves that were pounding inside my veins and causing my heart to beat desperately trying to break free from the prison of my body. I vaguely wondered if I shouldn’t head off into the wilderness and practice some of my old familiar steps and offensive and defensive moves, when another magic approaching made my senses flare to life.

              I opened my eyes just in time to catch Amelia trying to turn back the other way without me noticing her. Not a chance.

              “Amelia?” I laughed, hoping to make her feel a little bit awkward for trying to avoid me. “What are you doing?”

              She paused with her back to me, her shoulders frozen scrunched up around her neck like she had been tip-toeing out of here old-cartoon-style. I heard her take a deep breath and then watched as she relaxed her shoulders while she exhaled. She turned around quickly, her dark hair flipping around with her. She gave me a sheepish grin that proved how embarrassed she was to be caught, but all I saw was how the full moon lit up the air around her, shining on the prettiest features of her face and bathing her in a seductive light.

              “I was uh…. I just wanted walk. I mean, take a walk. I wanted to take a walk. I’m leaving in the morning, there is this conference thing in Kenya that I’m meeting my mom at and I needed to walk through the gardens,” she cringed when it was clear she wasn’t making sense and I bit down on my thumbnail to keep from laughing at how adorable she was all flustered and blushing. “I love these gardens and I hadn’t had a chance to walk through them yet. That’s what I was doing, just checking on the gardens.” She breathed more evenly when her sentences started making sense.

              “Would you like some company?” I asked, giving her one of my best hopeful looks, one that I knew for a fact worked on every girl.

              “Oh, no, that’s fine. You sit. Here. Stay,” she cleared her throat and offered me an apologetic smile. “I mean, you’re not a dog…. Uh, do whatever you want to do, but you just look like you’re busy.”

              I laughed at her effort to get out of walking with me, and decided I couldn’t give up. Her cheeks were the sweetest shade of red and her golden brown eyes were shimmering with nerves. There was no way in hell I was giving this up now.

              “I look busy sitting here on this bench all alone?” I pressed, making her squirm uncomfortably, her hands twisted together in front of her.

              “Yes, very busy,” she confirmed quietly.

              “Well, I’m not,” I stood up so that I could take a step closer to her. “Busy that is.” The air around her was intoxicated with her scent, vanilla and lilacs and beauty. She looked up at me while I towered over her and I had the strongest urge to pull her against me and kiss her senseless. I couldn’t kiss her just yet, she needed to be aware that she wanted to kiss me and I wasn’t entirely convinced she was ready to admit the strong attraction between us to herself yet. So instead of kissing those perfect red lips, I did the next best thing. I made my intentions as clear as I could, “Would you like to take a walk with me, Amelia?” I dipped my head so that our mouths were only inches apart and heard her audibly gasp as I completely invaded her personal space.

              “I, um…. sure,” she resigned and I didn’t miss the small sound of disappointment in her voice.

              Maybe this attraction was only one sided after all.

              Damn.

              I turned so that we were standing side by side and started walking into the maze of towering bushes. I had to hold several branches out of the way in order to stay side by side with her, but it was a small price to pay. Besides every time there was a branch, it gave me an excuse to brush up against her, our bare arms pressing against each other and her perfect head of hair just barely reaching underneath my chin. Touching Amelia was quickly becoming something of an addiction for me.

              “Tell me what’s in Kenya, Amelia,” I demanded gently, not wanting to give her an option to refuse to answer.

              “Mimi,” she corrected, softly pleading with me. I nodded my head, but knew there was no way I would call her by a nickname when I loved the sound of her full name hanging in the tension between us. “I’m meeting my mom for a conference on AIDS.”

              “Ah,” I nodded my head, but suddenly I was really against Amelia gallivanting off to the middle of Africa. “Do you think that’s a good idea right now?” I tried to question her decision casually, as if I didn’t really want to use my power as King to order her to stay home.

              Even though I did.

              “Why wouldn’t it be a good idea?” She asked and then thankfully reason dawned on her. “Oh, because of the whole Terletov thing?”

              ‘Yes,” I chuckled at her indifference. “Because of the whole…. Terletov thing.”

              “Avalon, we’ll be fine,” she assured me with a roll of her eyes, which actually didn’t assure me at all. “It’s just Kenya. And we’ll only be there for two weeks or so.”