Garrin grabbed Lex’s shaking shoulders. “My father knows you’re here because I told him we are to be married, remember?” Garrin didn’t know what had frightened Lex so, but his father couldn’t have entered her dream. He hadn’t that ability, unlike other Fae.
She shook her head. “The dream was real. How would I know what your father’s crown looks like?”
“It’s an angelic symbol. Perhaps you’ve seen it in the Earth realm.”
Lex’s small hands grabbed Garrin’s and squeezed, squeezing a place in his heart as well. He didn’t like to see her so afraid. “The man with the crown knows who and what I am. And I swear he was in this room.”
Garrin pulled away gently and stood. “It can’t be the king.”
“Why not? What Mertha did—sending her last energy into me—that was impossible. My mother waking from inside a cave after hundreds of years and saving our asses, that was impossible too. But this”—she held up the sketch again—“this isn’t impossible. Not when you consider what has happened so far.”
She peered aimlessly as though searching her mind. “Your father is a magical being, right? He came to me in my dream like a phantom. You were gone, and the man in my dream was made of icy-cold fog. I couldn’t see his face, but I had a clear view at one point of the shape of his crown.”
“My father doesn’t have the ability to project into people’s dreams, but if he used alchemist magic…” Garrin didn’t want it to be true. But the longer they were in Dark Kingdom, the more anything seemed possible. And the more dangerous it became.
“What if what my mother and Mertha said are true?” Lex said. “And now your father suspects me in some way. What will happen?”
An image of his father bringing down the full force of his power upon Lex flashed through Garrin’s mind, and his heart sped up. “You can’t stay here. Not in the castle.”
“Where will I go?”
Garrin paced across the bedroom he hadn’t slept inside in over a year, his travels taking him far and wide to find Lex. “I’ll find someplace safe until we can leave Dark Kingdom.”
He stopped and closed his eyes, calling to a guard in his court who read minds. He commanded the Fae to put together a small group of royal soldiers for an errand.
What Garrin didn’t mention to the guard was that he intended to have the men remove Lex from the castle unseen.
“What if—” Lex started to say when a knock sounded.
That was fast. Garrin crossed the room to open the door.
Four castle soldiers stood on the other side. None of them the Fae Garrin had reached out to.
Garrin frowned. “What is this?”
“His Majesty wishes for you and the lady to join him and the queen for supper.”
“A moment,” Garrin said, and shut the door. He ushered Lex to the other side of the room and away from the guards’ hearing. Speaking quietly, he said, “We must leave now.” He rubbed his forehead, pressure building at his temples.
She nodded, but her eyes were filled with worry.
Another knock sounded, and Garrin’s jaw tensed. “They are ambitious, these soldiers whom I’ve not met before.” He wondered about that for moment, until he caught Lex’s terrified expression. “Have you everything you need before we go?”
“Of course I don’t!” she said in a low, forceful voice. “I’m still in this dress.”
“There is no time to change. I only meant a shawl or some such.”
Lex’s shoulders relaxed. “I don’t have a shawl, though I will say I’m not as cold as I should be wearing this gauze dress. But I doubt it will hold up to the outdoors.”
“We’ll find a coat on our way through the hidden passageways.” He motioned for her to precede him into another room. “Amund hasn’t returned, and he’s still drained. The passageways are our best bet—”
Another knock sounded, but this time, the person on the other side didn’t wait for Garrin to answer.
The king walked inside and took in Garrin’s surprised expression—as well as his rapid exit at the other side of the room. “Going somewhere?”
There was enough information about Garrin’s father to fear for Lex’s life should she remain in the castle. But he couldn’t fight the king and the army of men that stood behind him. There was no escaping. Not in this moment.
Garrin’s only tactical maneuver was to feign ignorance. “You and Mother requested our presence at supper. We were just leaving.” No need to mention he and Lex had been leaving the castle entirely.
His father’s smile was stiff as he took in Lex. “Allow me to escort you.” He extended his arm in the other direction.
“Of course.” Garrin glanced at Lex with his back to his father and sent her a stern look he hoped conveyed that they must go with the king.
She swallowed and walked to the exit.
His father strode off, but fifty or so soldiers did not. The men surrounded them.
Garrin sidestepped the guards and gestured for Lex to precede him. “Gauze?” he said, attempting to keep the moment light when it was anything but.
She sent him a sidelong look. “Yes, prince. What is with the frothy gowns you make your women wear?”
She was doing a good job performing in front of the others.
His mouth twitched. Lex managed to give him grief even at a time like this. “It is tradition for women to wear such gowns around the castle. Does it displease you?”
She stared ahead. “It’s more comfortable than I thought it would be, but not nearly as comfortable as my normal clothes.”
“When we are finished with supper,” Garrin said, conscious that every word would be noted, “you may wear what you are accustomed to in the Land of Sun.”
She made a sound, and Garrin glanced over. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t wear the dress,” she said, her chin tilted up.
Stubborn.
He questioned every choice he’d made since finding Lex in the Earth realm, but he would never regret the time he’d spent with her. Lex would eventually return to her normal life. Perhaps marry… The thought put Garrin in a worse mood than the one he was in after his father’s ambush.
Before long, they entered the royal quarters, and Garrin took in every guard, every servant he’d never seen before. He’d traveled for years, but he typically knew the royal soldiers.
In the time he’d been gone, many of his father’s staff had been replaced. And that was not a good sign. It meant his father didn’t trust them.
Soldiers and servants peeled from the walls, carrying trays or armory, depending on their role, and followed Garrin and Lex into the dining room, while their escorts remained outside.
There were more than the typical number of attendants inside the dining room, another sign that didn’t bode well.
Garrin peered down the twenty-person table set for four. Large chandeliers were lit, and the walls were covered with pictures of kings and queens of millennia past, their various children depicted behind them. A king was no king without his progeny, even if that progeny numbered one or two over a lifetime. The only king missing from the walls was his father.
Casone Branimir had been waiting for more children that would never come. Garrin had considered it reasonable for his father’s portrait to be withheld, assuming it a king’s right to see if more children would arrive. But why not celebrate the one who existed? If Garrin were a legitimate heir, there was no shame in presenting the land with one child. Unless Isle was right, and Garrin wasn’t legitimate.
His father stood with his back to Garrin and Lex, though there was no question he heard them arrive, not with the number of guards in tow. But while Casone remained with his back turned, his wife stared at Lex, mistrust etched along the edges of her oval eyes that would never be considered warm, despite their russet color.
“Your majesty,” the king’s head butler said. “The prince and his companion have arrived.”
The king slowly turned from looking at a painting of one of Garrin’s more virile ancestors standing in front of four children, to peer possessively at Lex.
A surge of adrenaline filled Garrin’s chest.
He shifted closer to her. “Father, I’d like to formally introduce you to Lex,” he said, careful not to give her full name. The name Lexandra was common, but not so common that it wouldn’t stand out among his people. Lex had spent her youth in Dark Kingdom. It was best to tell the truth and no more. “She has made the arduous journey to Dark Kingdom and is to become my bride.”
Without taking his eyes off Lex, the king said, “What is your surname, child?”
Garrin heard Lex audibly swallow. “Meinrad,” she said, her voice shaky.
Garrin stiffened. There was no doubt his father would investigate who her parents were.
His father’s brow rose. “An old noble name.”
“Not where I’m from,” Lex said.
Which was true. In the Earth realm, Lex’s surname would have no noble bearing.
“Interesting.” The king tapped a bejeweled dagger sheathed at his waist, and Garrin looked to the sides, preparing for an attack.
His heart raced. He had made a grave mistake. He should have never allowed Lex to meet his father. Should have fought off a hundred, two hundred soldiers, if need be.
He’d believed if he presented Lex as his future bride, it would distract long enough to get Lex out of Dark Kingdom safely. But there was no calm behind his father’s intense green gaze. No warmth from his mother’s brown one, either.
He’d watched as others attempted to come between his father and the throne and witnessed his father’s calculated maneuvers for snuffing out threats. Some involved words powerful enough to dissuade, but most entailed lethal force. Before attacking, his father always tapped the dagger he carried at his waist, a precursor to what lay ahead.
Casone Branimir suspected Lex. Possibly from the moment Garrin had brought her into the kingdom. Or earlier.
A trickle of sweat slid down Garrin’s back as the queen approached the mahogany table and gestured for them to sit. “Tell me,” his mother said, “where did you meet Lexandra?” She smiled in Lex’s direction, but the gesture, like his father’s dagger tapping, made Garrin ill at ease.
“In the Land of Sun,” Garrin said, and sipped from a crystal glass that had been set out. For humans, brune was potent, but Lex was Fae. The beverage shouldn’t harm her.
She sent him a questioning look, and he smiled encouragingly. She must pretend to know brune, as everyone did in Tirnan. She lifted her glass and sipped, her eyebrows rising at the flavor or the strength, he wasn’t certain.
“You were sent on a mission to find the prophesied one,” the king said. “How did this meeting in Sunland come to be?” His attention moved to Lex. “Has my son mentioned our struggles?”
Lex set her glass down. Her gaze strayed to the king’s crown, and she flinched. It was the same crown she’d drawn after her nightmare. “He told me you have no way of leaving the land,” she said.
“Indeed.” The king’s eyes were curiously intent. “Though that’s not entirely true, or you wouldn’t have managed the trip. What else has my son said?”
Lex’s shoulders straightened. “That he wishes me here.” She held her hand out, palm up on the table, and Garrin blinked.
When he didn’t immediately respond, she glanced at his arm.
For someone so new to Dark Kingdom politics, Lex was remarkably good at rearranging the truth. He placed his hand on the table, and Lex slid her palm into his.
“And what are your plans?” his mother said, eyeing the handholding with open hostility.
Lex’s hand shook, and he sensed her panic. It seemed her ability to lie without lying had limits.
“I plan to show Lex the land and people, and to share our history,” Garrin said. “We also plan to return to the Land of Sun for Lex to meet with those she left behind.”
The king set down his glass with a heavy thud. “Return? You’ve only just arrived. Surely it will be years before your bride wishes to return to her homeland?”
“I have friends I missed,” Lex said. She glanced at Garrin. “My fiancé was so dashing when we met, I’m afraid I didn’t take time to say my goodbyes before we rushed here.”
The king made a sound of disbelief. “Sunland is more hospitable than other parts of Tirnan. Regardless, crossing the Land of Ice isn’t worth risking the life of our future princess. I’m told you both were haggard when you arrived, my son more so than his future bride. I see no reason for you to leave Dark Kingdom.”
Garrin squeezed Lex’s hand firmly in a silent plea for her to remain quiet. “As you say, Father.” Now was not the time to call more attention to them.
“And when is the wedding to be held?” his mother asked. “Had I known there was cause for celebration, I would have planned a feast.” Her smile was bitter. She smoothed her hand across the silk damask tablecloth. “You know how much time goes into our formal food preparation.”
Garrin’s shoulders tightened. He’d never seen this side of his mother. The cold side, most certainly. She was aloof in a way that put off most Fae. But the bitterness seeping off his mother’s tongue was new. Or he’d just never noticed it before. “There’s no need for a feast that uses up our larders. Lex is aware of the challenges we face producing food, and we have no wish to burden the people. We will hold a small ceremony.”
Garrin sensed Lex’s questioning glance, but he didn’t dare look in her direction and let on his concerns to the king and queen. The longer they remained in the room, the more danger they ran into with their words and actions.
The king raised a hand, and several servants placed a first course of soup in front of them.
“Now, now,” the queen said, then took a small sip from the bowl before her. “We must have a proper ceremony for our only child.” She looked at Lex. “You will come with me this evening to choose a gown. I see no reason to wait.”
Lex dropped his hand and pinched him in the waist below the table.
Garrin coughed lightly into his palm. “I fear we are both tired after our long journey, as Father pointed out. Wedding gowns can wait.”
The queen peered at Lex. “Are you having second thoughts? There is no undoing a royal wedding. Do make sure you value my son before you bind yourself to him.”
“I value your son,” Lex blurted, her skin coloring. “Very much.” She glanced at Garrin, and he couldn’t look away. Not from the declaration, and not from the sincerity in her eyes. She wouldn’t have said it if she hadn’t meant it.
“Well, then,” came his mother’s bitter tone. “There is no reason to wait, is there?”
“Every couple needs time to prepare, Mother,” Garrin said. “I will inform you when Lex has had time to tour the land, meet our people, and adjust to winter.”
The queen didn’t flinch, but the hand that rested atop the table had balled into a fist. “Don’t leave us waiting too long, son. It is your father’s dream to have a second heir to the throne.”
“Don’t nag him, Ailith.” The king wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin and stood. Garrin and the queen stood as well, followed by a startled Lex. “You will meet with me tomorrow, Garrin,” he said, and moved swiftly to the exit.
Garrin touched Lex’s elbow and escorted her toward the door as well, the food and drink abandoned upon the king’s departure.
But his mother stopped them before they could leave. “A gift,” she said, and extended a ring with a sparkling yellow stone secured in a basket-weave gold setting.
Lex’s mouth parted and her eyes widened. “I-I don’t know what to say. This is beautiful. But I have nothing to give in return.”
Ailith slid the ring onto Lex’s finger. “For my future daughter-in-law,” she said, and walked away, sending one last sidelong look as she did. “I’m certain in time you will give me far more.”
