Defy (33 page)

“I don’t know,” I said crossly. “I don’t know what I want. No

more surprises, I guess.” The one thing I knew I
didn’t
want was to spend our last night together fighting. I might never see him

again. “What I want is to be able to trust you.”

It was so dark in the hallway, I couldn’t tell for sure, but it

looked like he grimaced. “Someday, you will.”

We stared at each other for a long moment. My heart thudded

dully in my chest. Then we heard the sound of other people head-

ing our direction. My eyes widened in alarm. We couldn’t be

caught standing here in the hallway, unguarded.

I turned and hurried to the stairway, with Damian on my heels.

Rylan was already lying down, his back to the door, when we

rushed into the room. I stared at him for a long time, hoping he

would roll over and say
something
to me — anything before I left in the morning. But he stubbornly stayed facing the wall. Damian

also walked over to his cot and sat down, staring into the fire.

The chill in the room didn’t come from the wind battering the

window. With a sigh, I crawled under the blanket in my own bed

and curled into a ball. It was going to be a miserable journey back

to Tubatse.

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I wondered what I would find when I returned. Would Kai be

alive? And what about the rest of the guard? This whole time, I

had forced my thoughts away from that line of thinking, knowing

it did me no good to wonder. But now, as I lay in the silence, I

couldn’t stop the questions from rushing through my mind.

Oh, how I hated unanswered questions.

I heard the creak of Damian’s cot, but I kept my eyes shut,

willing my brain to stop spinning in useless circles, wishing I could just go to sleep. It felt like hours passed with nothing but the

sound of the fire slowly consuming the wood and burning itself

out, and the wind howling outside, before I finally succumbed to

my exhaustion and drifted off to sleep.

The morning dawned cold and clear, blue sky stretching as far as

I could see outside our window. My stomach was already twisted

in knots when I opened my eyes and sat up. Rylan was sitting on

his bed with his head in his hands. Damian was sprawled out on his

stomach, fast asleep.

I was about to say something to Rylan when the door swung

open and Eljin marched in with two men behind him. Damian

jerked awake and scrambled to stand up.

“Which one are we taking?” one of them asked in our lan-

guage, glaring at us.

My heart raced and my hands went cold. This was it? I was

going
now
? I thought I’d have a chance to say good-bye — to try and get Rylan to talk to me one last time before I left. A chance to

mend the fight I’d had with Damian. But I remembered what he’d

told me last night; these men didn’t know the truth. I had to act

like the unattached male guard of the prince — nothing more or less.

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“That one. Take him. But be careful, he’s the best guard the

prince has. If you drop your attention for even a second, he’ll have

you disarmed and dead on the ground before you realize what

hit you,” Eljin said severely, pointing at me.

Rylan looked up at me in alarm, while the prince schooled his

face into a mask of indifference. I stood up slowly, drawing on all

of my training, all of the years I’d spent pretending to be some-

thing I wasn’t — some
one
I wasn’t. It couldn’t be any harder than pretending Marcel’s death hadn’t affected me.

The two men came over. One grabbed my hands, roughly

yanking them behind me and tying them with rope.

“You expect me to walk the entire way to Tubatse with my

hands bound?” I asked disdainfully.

“Yes.” The man who wasn’t tying up my hands grinned,

revealing stained, yellow teeth.

“Let’s go.” The man behind me shoved me between the shoul-

der blades, and I stumbled forward.

“Alex —” Rylan jumped to his feet, his face pale.

My new captors kept pushing me forward, and I had to crane

my head to look at him.

“Be careful,” he said, his voice strained. “And look out for

Jude — if you can. If he’s . . . if he’s still alive.”

I nodded, feeling as though my stomach were full of lead.

“How sweet. Now let’s go,” the man behind me snarled with

another shove to my spine.

I didn’t even get to look at Damian again before the door

slammed shut behind me.

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 thirty-eight 

T
he journey back to Antion was even worse than I’d

feared. My captors kept my arms bound either in front of

or behind me, alternating the position each day. Since it was

just the three of us, the pace they set was grueling, and I collapsed to the ground exhausted every night when they finally stopped to

make camp. When we crossed back into Antion, we nearly ran

right into a battalion. We had to crouch behind some large bushes

for an hour while the soldiers passed. Angry about the delay, my

captors made us run the rest of the day until my legs literally gave

out and I fell to the ground, unable to stop my fall with my hands

tied behind me.

The muggy heat of the jungle was even more oppressive after

the cooler air of Blevon. I was too tired and worried to be afraid

of the jungle when we’d stop for the night, sleeping in the small tent I was forced to carry on my back during the day. But we made the

entire journey in just under two weeks because of the quick pace.

When the walls of the palace rose in front of us, I nearly cried

with relief. Until I remembered what came next.

My captors led me up to the wall with their swords pressed

into my back.

“Halt! Who goes there?” A sentinel shouted down at us.

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“Answer him,” one of the men growled at me.

“It’s Alex Hollen, guard to Prince Damian,” I called out. “I

have been brought back to deliver a message about the prince to

his father, the king!”

“Throw your weapons down!” came the shout from above us,

at the top of the wall.

The men behind me muttered to each other in their language,

and then I heard the sound of their swords hitting the ground.

“Step away from your weapons!”

We all moved forward, closer to the gate. It ground open, and

we were suddenly surrounded by a host of soldiers from the

Antionese army, swords and arrows pointed at us from all sides.

“Let me through!” I heard a familiar voice. My legs almost

went weak with relief when Deron shoved a sentinel out of the way

and stood in front of me, his eyes wide. He had a new, vicious-

looking scar on his face, stretching from his eyebrow to his jaw,

barely missing his mouth. But it was him — my captain — alive

and in shock at the sight of me standing before him. “Alex, it
is
you. We thought you were dead!”

“I have a message for the king about his son,” I said, keeping

my mind carefully walled in to the present. If I let myself think too much —
feel
too much — I’d break down right then and there.

“Take these men to the dungeons,” Deron shouted at the sen-

tinels, pointing to my captors. The Blevonese soldiers looked at me

in alarm, but I had a hard time feeling bad for them after the last

thirteen days. “Alex, come with me. And someone cut those ropes

off his hands!”

My shoulders burned, and my hands and wrists ached when I

pulled them in front of me, rubbing the raw skin.

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“Let’s get you some clean clothes and some food, then you

can go see the king.” Deron began to lead the way back into the

palace. I stared at the familiar building with my chest tight.

General Tinso’s castle had been massive, but compared to the pal-

ace, it looked like a summer cottage. So much depended on me. I

felt as if the weight of the entire palace hung over my head.

We’d made it halfway across the grounds when a door opened,

and another familiar figure rushed toward us. But this one filled

me with dread.

“Alex Hollen, the king requests your presence immedi-

ately,” Iker said, his baleful gaze sending a shiver of foreboding

through me.

“I’ll go find some food for when you’re done,” Deron said

after bowing to Iker.

“That won’t be necessary. We’ll see that he is taken care of,”

Iker said, and Deron gave him a sharp look.

“You may go,” Iker dismissed him. Deron bowed and did as

he was told, though worry shot across his face.

I watched Deron walk away, fear practically choking me. I

didn’t want to be alone with Iker. Now that I knew the truth

about him, I was even more nervous around him. I’d always

noticed something
off
, but I hadn’t known what it was. There was an aura of dark power that surrounded him and sent a chill down

my spine.

“Follow me, Alex. The king and I are quite interested in

what has happened to our beloved Prince Damian.” He began to

walk back the way he’d come. I reluctantly followed, my heart in

my throat.

272

We stopped before the thick mahogany doors that led to the

king’s counsel room, next to his private chambers. Iker knocked

once brief ly and then opened the door.

“Sire, I’ve brought the guard for your questioning.”

“Excellent. Let him enter,” the king’s deep voice answered.

Iker swung the door wide, and gestured for me to precede him

into the room.

King Hector sat upon his throne, one of many that he had

placed throughout the palace. The signet crown encircled his head.

He looked at me with his pale blue eyes — Damian’s and Jax’s

eyes — and then beckoned me forward with a f lick of his fingers.

Sunlight f lashed off the jewels of the many rings and the diamonds

lining the collar of office draped over the silk robes he wore.

I strode forward and bowed low to the king of Antion. I had

to appear confident, calm. A bearer of a message that I should

assume would be good news for my king.

“You may rise,” King Hector said. I stood up straight, my

fist pressed to my opposite shoulder. I could feel Iker’s presence

behind me.

“Sire, I bring word of your son,” I said.

“Yes, I assumed that was why you were brought back. We’ve

had reports of my son’s whereabouts. I believe you were being held

at General Tinso’s castle in Lentia. Am I correct?” Damian’s eyes

had always been piercing — beautiful and sharp. King Hector’s

eyes were more gray than blue. There was a spark of intelligence

in his eyes, but also a dark hint of the cruelty our king was fond

of. This was the man who had killed his wife in front of his sons.

He was the man who had ordered countless girls raped to breed a

273

bigger army. I had to take a deep breath to calm the fury that

began to pulse through me.

“I don’t know the name of the town we passed through, my

liege, but the man whose castle we were imprisoned in was General

Tinso, as you say,” I replied, thankful that my voice remained

steady and calm. I’d never needed my years of practice pretending

to feel and be something I wasn’t more than I did right then.

“You may proceed with your message.”

“I’ve been asked to tell you that General Tinso and his army

are preparing to march on Tubatse with the prince as their pris-

oner. He said to warn you that he has gathered together the most

powerful sorcerers in the land of Blevon to rain fire upon our walls

and our nation until we burn to our deaths, if you do not agree to

a truce with Blevon.

“However, if you are willing to sign a treaty of peace, he will

release Prince Damian back to you, unharmed, and will take his

army and leave Antion without further loss of life.”

As I spoke, Iker made his way over to the king, taking his place

on his right side, staring at me as well. He bent and whispered

something in the king’s ear. The silence stretched out for a long

moment as Iker straightened back up, and they both looked

down at me.

And then the king began to laugh. A cruel, mocking sound

that turned my blood to ice in my veins.

“Is this their big plan, then?” He stopped laughing and

pointed at me, his voice thunderous. “They think to fool me into

believing my son is their prisoner? Of the nation he loves so

dearly?”

“Sire, I don’t understand —” I began, but he cut me off.

274

“You and your men are ignorant of a great many things regard-

ing my son. He has never loved Antion; his heart is with Blevon,

where his mother came from. And I will not see my efforts come

to an early and unsatisfactory end to save his worthless life.” He

stood up to glare down at me. Iker stood just behind him, his

mouth twisted into a derisive smile. “He wants to end this war? So

do I. We will crush General Tinso and his army of sorcerers, and

Blevon will fall to my power.” His gaze was wild as he shouted at

me. In that moment, I wasn’t sure if he was entirely sane.

I dropped to one knee before the king. “Sire, please, do not be

so hasty. We
have
been imprisoned, and the prince
does
love Antion.

He has told me of his love for his nation many times.”