Ever So Madly (16 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Jocelynn

Before the transmitter could rip me out of my world and into the secret one my mind preferred, someone barged into my suite.

“Good, you’re up.” The Baroness looked disheveled like she hadn’t slept. “Get dressed in your uniform. You’re needed in the council room.”

I snatched my comm as she pushed me toward my dressing chamber. I sent a message to him in the matrix using the code Jacob had given me in case something like this ever happened.

J: I got grabbed by the Baroness. I won’t be there for a while.

I pulled on my clothes quickly and tied my hair up in a knot at the back of my head. He was going to go through all that and leave. He had to be exhausted after working all day. I strapped my comm to my wrist and sent another quick message.

J: Stay, please stay. You can sleep there. We won’t be able to go back until your next set of off days and I don’t want to miss you. Just please wait for me.

I pressed my eyes closed and stepped out to face her.

“What are you waiting for? Hurry up.” She turned and left. I pushed my hands over my face and stepped out, closing my door behind me.

I hurried toward the opposite end of the palace, and Jacob caught me before I could duck into the council room.

“Stop.” He hissed, pulling me into a dark alcove.

“What is this about?”

His hair was mussed, and he smelled like sex. “It’s not good whatever it is. There have been whispers.”

“Of what?” I pulled my arm back from him, staring into his bloodshot eyes. But I couldn’t get a good read on him.

“If you’d been paying attention for the last month maybe you would be able to tell me. You sit in on more of these than I’m allowed. But we both have been woken before dawn on the one day the Baron takes for rest. What do you think that means?”

“Jok?”

He shook his head. “It means something is going on. I saw Phillip walk in before you.”

I brushed my hands down the red of my formal uniform shirt, smoothing out unseen wrinkles. “Which means the Emperor knows.”

“I think your idea for the new trade routes is causing problems.”

“What? How?”

“Keep your ears open. It’s going to be a long day.” He peeked out from behind the flickering half drape making sure no one else was in the hall. “Wait five minutes before you come in after.”

I grabbed the back of his shirt. “I don’t want to be here all day. This is the first day.”

He spun around grabbing my arm harshly, hard enough I knew there would be bruises under his fingertips. “This isn’t all about you. There is more at stake here than your heart.”

He shoved me back half a pace and slipped into the hall. My heart pounded in my chest, and my knees shook. It wasn’t just about my heart. He’d gotten to fuck off for the last four years while I went to every damn meeting and earned my position on the war council. He had no room to talk. I took a slow breath. Nothing I said to myself in the hall would make a difference. I had to see what was going on and assess if I could get away. He was only right about one thing. I needed to change my attitude and behavior, if only so the Baron didn’t catch on to where I was spending my free time.

I straightened my back and held my chin out as I stalked into the council room. All eyes turned to me as I did.

“Good of you to finally join us.” The Baron scoffed. “It seems I have two children who choose to slack off now.”

His comment was uncalled for in front of the entire full council, and he knew it.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Thank you for waking me before dawn without a pervious engagement and expecting me to show up in full dress uniform in five minutes flat.” I met his eyes. He would have never made a comment on me showing up ten minutes later than everyone else in months past. I knew I had a long way to go to get back into his good graces before I was granted my full freedom again.

I took my seat at his right hand side and swiped the glass table to access the brief pages. I scanned it and lifted my gaze to my brother. He had just finished reading the same thing.

“We had an unknown attack just after five local time at one of our outposts, as you can see.” The Baron adjusted his seat. “It was the outpost close to Harden, which is why I called you all here out of your warm beds on the holiday.” He looked over at me, but I didn’t flinch. Years of his stern gaze had made me immune to it.

“What happened?” I asked flipping to the next page of the rushed report.

“Briggs,” the Baron said, referring to his Admiral of Defense.

“Reports are still coming in from our ships that survived the attack.”

Both my brows rose when he said survived, and a few members of the council gasped.

“We were attacked by an unknown vessel. One my men have never had experience with, which appeared out of the unexplored side of far reaches of the outer planets.” Briggs commanded the attention of the entire room as he spoke. “It traveled at a speed also unknown to us, but of course we know the Emperor has new tech from Jok and the Time4.” He nodded at Phillip.

“That is correct. Do you have the readouts so I can compare them?” Phillip held out a hand as Briggs handed over a paper thin tablet.

“You’ll see on the readings, which I suspect you’ll come to find yourself, I believe the speeds we clocked the ship at were quite a bit faster than what I understand even Jok uses for trade.”

“I have my compatibles on me.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a condensable square. He expanded it so the screen projected on the table and started to pull things up. “I’m sending the reports over.”

“One ship came out of folded time and attacked the base?” Phillip pressed, keeping his eyes on his screen.

“That is correct,” Briggs answered.

“What was taken?” I flipped to the next page of the report, skimming as I waited for the answer to my questions.

“Nothing.”

I glanced up at Briggs. “How can that be so?” Raids were always for supplies.

“The first responders are saying they took nothing and that they didn’t respond to open channel calls,” Briggs replied.

Briggs clicked his own light tablet, and the scene rose out of the center of the table. It was broken in places from where sensors were destroyed before they could give their readings. But a general three-dimensional image of the space around the base came into view. I stood to get a better vantage point and inspected the scene.

“They took scans?”

“Yes, ma’am, which was why we sent out crews from the base.”

“And the crews were attacked?” I asked.

“That is correct.” Briggs swiped his hand over the tablet, and the scene changed to a partial piece of the battle.

I kept my expressions blank as I watched. It was a grim scene. Nothing our ships did seemed to touch them.

“Replay it.”

He did, and it occurred to me that this wasn’t an attack. I was about to open my mouth to say as such when Jacob caught my eye. He shook his head, and I remembered his warning to listen and not comment. What did he know? But I didn’t think this was an attack at all. I think whoever we were dealing with wanted to test the ship against our defenses and put us on high alerts.

The room was silent, and when I looked up I found all the eyes in the room locked on me.

“Do you have a hypothesis?” the Baron demanded.

“I suspect this won’t be the end of these intruders, and we need to do everything in our power to prepare for next time.” I watched Jacob out of the corner of my gaze as I spoke. He knew more than he was letting on, and I wanted to know what it was. He was rarely rough with me, and there were too many red flags going off in my head about the entire situation. If I didn’t get answers as soon as we were alone I was going to be livid.

I tore my attention away from Jacob to watch Phillip closely. There were reasons he was in this meeting, one of which was being an attack it was mandatory we report the incident to the Emperor as his kingdom was at risk. But this wasn’t the normal protocol. After a council meeting he should have received a report, and then the Emperor could appoint a representative to sit in on further meetings. But of course the Baron would never let any spy for the Emperor sit in on the real meetings unless he thought he had something to gain by doing it.

Again, Jacob had been right. I had missed much with my head in space over the last month, and now I had a lot of catching up to do. I was only putting myself at risk by not knowing the politics of my own house.

The meeting came to a close, and we were told we would all receive updates during the day. We would meet again in the morning unless there were any developments. Only two hours had passed, but I was emotionally drained. When the rest of the council dispersed I grabbed Jacob by the sleeve.

“Care to explain to me what you hinted at before the meeting?”

“I can’t.” He pulled out of my grasp. He’d never been like this. I felt like my one ally had abandoned me.

“You know I covered in there for you. I saw what you did. Someone is testing that thing.”

He growled, leaning in closer. “Not here and not now. Go play house, and I will explain when I have time.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I swear to you, brother mine, I will go to the Baron with what I know this instant.”

“Will you trust me?”

We stared each other down until I broke it.

“Fine, but if you don’t explain when I get back…” I didn’t know what I’d do, but I wanted answers.

“I don’t know as much as you think I know, but I know the same thing you do. Someone is testing something. Now go play, and we’ll talk later. I am going to go see if I can find more answers.” He was lying. I knew he was lying, but there were more important things than the truth.

My head was full when I closed myself in my room. I picked up the spinal transmitter and pressed it to the back of my neck. I opened my eyes to find a white wilderness.

It was bitter cold. I’d left with a coat like Madden had instructed me to, but I’d imagined the cold of my world. This was bitter. A shiver ran down my spine, and I wrapped my arms around myself. I turned a slow circle to find I was in a thick forest. I’d only seen pictures of such a thing before, and I reached out to touch one of the massive trees. The largest were as big around as one of the castle towers while the smallest would take many men linked at the arms to span the base. I looked up to find out an overcast sky through the bare trees. Tiny snowflakes were falling from the clouds adding to the meter of snow under foot. I looked harder through the sea of trees, trying to figure out where Madden could be.

My gaze finally landed on a small cabin camouflaged in the distance. I tucked my hands into my sleeves and started in that direction. It wasn’t as far as I first thought. The trees created an illusion, but walking through the snow was tiresome. The lights were on when I got there, and my heart picked up.

I tried the handle to find the door open. He was standing there with his back to me, looking out the window. I stepped inside, and closed the door quietly behind me, watching him. A smile took over my mouth as he sighed and checked the contents of the old-fashioned oven again. I couldn’t see past him, but the aroma wafting from it made my mouth water. I shrugged out of my coat. My cheeks already rosy from the difference in temperature, I was starting to become over heated.

I tiptoed across the room and slid my arms around his middle. He leaned back into me as I stood on my toes and brushed my lips over the base of his neck.

“Jocelynn.” I could hear the smile on his lips. “You got away.”

“It took a while. I’m sorry.”

He turned in my arms and picked me up. I moved my arms from his waist to his neck. Our lips met needfully, and he pulled my legs around him. I crossed them behind his back, and we stayed that way for a long time. The kiss was desperate and rushed, but then it slowed as we explored each other’s mouths like it was the first time. By the time we broke apart my cheeks were stained with tears I hadn’t known I’d shed. He rubbed his face against mine.

“It wasn’t normal stuff keeping you away, was it?” He didn’t look at me when he asked.

My lips trembled. “No.”

“Tell me?”

I closed my own eyes and forced my voice even. “Life is never going to be with us. So we have to make the best of it.”

“Do you always have to be stronger than I am?” His voice gave him away.

“I’m your rock, remember.” I laughed, trying to get him to calm down.

“I remember.”

A soft beep ruined the moment, and he set me down to grab a pair of oven mitts.

“You designed this place with an oven?”

“I wanted to make something.” He pulled a tray from it and set it on the counter above.

“You could have written whatever it was you wanted into the program or made a materializer.”

He pulled off the mitts on his hands and picked one up of the items off the tray. He winced a little but held it close to me. The smell of the spices wafted up to my nose. I leaned closer trying to get a better breath of them.