Chapter 14

W e rode in silence out of the gates and to a small town that had many cute shops I would have loved to explore if these were different circumstances. We found an inn with a tavern on the bottom floor. When we checked in at the front desk, they led us to the dining hall for dinner. It was packed with travelers and so Stryker asked for a private booth in the back.

After we ordered, I reached out to hold his hand but he quickly tucked his under the table.

Okay, not one for public displays of affection. Or did he regret that kiss? That made my heart feel like it was going to tear in half. Maybe he just needed time. He hadn’t called me little witch in a while, and I considered that a plus.

“I hate Elisana,” I announced, and he peered up at me keenly.

“Agreed.”

I wondered if he was being weird because he thought I needed his money like his ex-lover who betrayed him.

“And for what it’s worth, I’m rich too and will never need money from you,” I added.

His gaze flicked up to mine and amusement danced there. “Is that so?”

Just then the barmaid arrived, delivering our meal and drinks. I waited until she left before saying anything else.

“I’m just trying to show you that I don’t want you for your wealth,” I said as I took a spoonful of my soup.

He nodded, his expression unreadable. “I know. You haven’t yet tried to steal from me.”

I frowned. He was testing me? Waiting to see if I stole from him?

“Well,” I said, clearing my throat. “I just thought you should know that I have my own money.”

Stryker set his drink down and leaned forward, his gaze snagging my own. “To be clear,” he said carefully. “I don’t care if you have money or not. I have enough for several lifetimes.”

“You clearly do care. A lot. Enough that a small loan to your brother caused you to have a falling-out.” The words left my mouth before I could take them back. I watched as a wall seemed to slam down over his features.

“It wasn’t really about money,” he finally confessed, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t truly care about money.”

In the short time I’d spent with him I’d watched him give generously, so I believed that part could be true. But I’d also seen him freak out over people stealing from him, proving that he did care.

“Then why did you stop talking to Adrien?”

Stryker sighed, looking like he wanted to run from the table.

“I am the eldest quadruplet brother, even if only by a few minutes, so I became a lord before any of my quad brothers,” he said. “When I first arrived in Easteria as its lord, I was barely fifteen.”

Fifteen! My jaw unhinged. That was so young. And quadruplets! His poor mother.

He continued, “Right away I uncovered three theft attempts. That’s not all my money, it’s also for my people. For new roads, for wells, for farm equipment, or schools, there is so much that a lord provides for them. When money is stolen from me, it’s stolen from them too.” He growled the last part, speaking so passionately about this that my heart softened toward him.

I reached out and grasped his hand and he took it into his this time. I knew what he was saying was true because it was the same in my court. The people paid taxes and we certainly kept a portion but the majority went to schools and roads and everything he said.

“So, what happened with your brother?” I stroked his palm.

He sighed. “The first assassination attempt on my life happened just after I moved in and became lord.”

I gasped. “First? There have been more than one?”

I couldn’t imagine having someone try to take my life at fifteen.

He nodded. “And people were stealing and I was overwhelmed so I put out a call to my three younger brothers for help. Begging them to help me or ask my older brothers, who were lords at the time, for reinforcements, or advice. Anything.”

I held my breath, knowing this story wouldn’t have a happy ending.

“They all wrote back with their apologies and said they had their own problems and could neither do, nor spare, anything,” he finished through gritted teeth.

“So you felt abandoned.” It was a statement, not a question, because that’s how I would feel too. It all made sense now.

He nodded. “And then the first month into Adrien’s lordship, he had the audacity to ask for a loan.”

It truly wasn’t about the money, it was about feeling used. This poor man felt like he couldn’t trust anyone.

“You were so young, so they must have been young too,” I said.

“I know what you are getting at, but they could have—” Stryker’s words were cut off by someone who’d just leapt up next to our table.

“Brother!” A blur of dark hair leapt into our booth and hugged Stryker.

Brother?

“Aribella!” a woman’s voice nearly sobbed.

I froze. I recognized that voice.

I slowly spun in my seat.

Dawn Ambrose stood before me with tears in her eyes.

“We found you,” she breathed.

I peered over at Stryker, who sat woodenly in the man’s embrace. It was as if by merely speaking of them, we’d conjured one of his brothers.

Considering Dawn was with him, I assumed this was Lord Roan—who Stryker had told me went by his middle name, Zander—the Ethereum lord she’d married, and Stryker’s brother. From the look on Stryker’s face and the set of his body I could tell that it was taking him effort not to push Zander off. Especially considering the story he’d just told me.

At last, Zander released Stryker, climbing out of the booth again to wrap his arm around his wife.

“Adrien told us where you were,” Zander said in response to the unspoken question in Stryker’s eyes. “He also told us you weren’t alone.” His grin widened as his gaze shifted to me.

“I knew it was you the moment Adrien described Stryker’s companion to us,” Dawn told me excitedly.

The shock of seeing her finally wore off and I really looked at her. Dawn had always been a serious fae. I supposed that was to be expected since the fate of Faerie had been placed on her shoulders since birth. It’s not that she was ever mean or cold, but the few times we’d interacted it was like I could almost see the weight of her responsibilities pressing into her.

But looking at her now it was like someone had taken that weight off her. She finally looked comfortable in her own skin and even though I detected a hint of sadness in her gaze, it was clear she was truly happy. And as Zander beamed down on her, his love for her was also clear.

This was hard for me to process, the fact that the men we were sent to kill were nothing like we were told.

Pushing those thoughts from my mind, excitement bubbled up in me and I rose and embraced my fellow Faerie princess. Well, princess no more, in Dawn’s case. If what I’d been told was true, she was a Lady of Ethereum now.

“We’ve been all over Ethereum searching for you,” Dawn said when I stepped back.

“Searching for me?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Yes, ever since the day of the fall equinox. We knew you’d be coming to Ethereum. By now you’ve probably discovered that what we’ve been told about this place is false,” she said, taking my hands in a firm grip. Her eyes begging me to understand.

“Oh, I know we’ve been fed a bag of lies,” I told her, my gaze shifting to Stryker before bouncing back to Dawn.

I didn’t miss the bemused expression on her face as she looked between us before she wiped it away.

“Here, sit,” I offered and moved down the seat. Stryker sent me a scowl, but shifted down as well to allow Zander into the booth beside him.

“I’m so sorry we didn’t find you sooner,” she said once she and Zander were settled. “We thought you’d appear in the Western or Southern Kingdoms, which was why we started there first.” She sounded a little funny when she said that and I couldn’t help but wonder if rather than thinking I would turn up in the Western or Southern Kingdoms, they’d just hoped that. “We arrived from the Western Kingdom last week and have been traveling through the Southern Kingdom to find Adrien ever since then. He wasn’t in Soleum like we’d expected so we came to see him at his country house. It was just good luck that we arrived today.”

“Not luck, my love,” Zander said as he reached across the table and took Dawn’s hand. “Fate.”

She smiled warmly back at him and nodded. “Fate.”

It felt like I was intruding on a private moment, but being trapped in the booth next to Dawn, there was nowhere to go to give them privacy.

Stryker cleared his throat loudly, breaking the pair apart. Dawn’s cheeks turned pink as she put her hand back in her lap.

“Great. So now that you’ve seen I haven’t killed the girl, you can be on your way,” Stryker said gruffly, clearly put out that his brother was here.

Zander leaned back in his seat and assessed his brother. There was a knowing look in his eye that was clearly annoying Stryker. “So, what happened to taking your time torturing her to send a message to her descendants?”

I gasped and Stryker sent me a guilty look before glowering back at his brother. “There were … extenuating circumstances,” he ground out.

Zander chuckled. “Oh, I’m sure there were.”

“She did try to skewer me the first moment we met.”

“Hey,” I said, defensively, and he arced a brow at me as if baiting me to refute his words. He knew I could not. One corner of his mouth twitched up ever so slightly, making him look extra roguish and so it was my turn to blush.

“Well done,” Dawn said with a small smile, referring to me attacking Stryker. Seeing as she had been raised to be an assassin, I easily understood the respect in her gaze.

“If she had succeeded, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Stryker grumped and Dawn just shrugged and made a meh face as if that wouldn’t have been the worst thing.

Stryker crossed his arms over his chest and shot her a glare equally as icy as the one he’d given his brother. Dawn didn’t seem to care in the least bit.

I wondered what actually had happened between the two of them and made a mental note to ask Stryker later.

Zander shook his head at his brother. “Are you still mad about us not coming to help you when you first became lord?”

My gaze flicked to Stryker.

“Why would I still be mad that my own flesh and blood didn’t care that I’d had an assassination attempt on my life?” Stryker asked sarcastically.

Zander groaned. “Of course we cared! We were drowning in our own problems though. Did you think that you were the only one that had a rebellion rise up after you were crowned? I was still training under Cal and helping him fend attacks off weekly.”

Stryker was silent and I wanted to urge them to patch this up, but I knew it was best not to get involved.

Turning, Stryker peered at his brother, giving him a full view of the scar on his face. “Show me the scar that your assassin left?”

Shame crossed Zander’s face and he nodded. “Fine. One of us should have come or helped get reinforcements sent or something. I’m sorry, okay. We were fifteen. Can you get over it?”

I winced at the wording, get over it , and so did Dawn.

She reached for her husband’s hand. “I think Zander means, now that he’s apologized, can you move past it?”

Zander nodded. “That’s what I meant. Come on, Fire Dragon. Forgive me for being a young and overwhelmed jerk of a brother.”

Stryker tried to fight the smile that was threatening to come up but couldn’t. Fire Dragon must be some inside joke and my heart warmed at seeing the brothers’ relationship thaw a little.

“Fine. For now,” Stryker grumbled.

Zander banged his hand on the table in triumph. “I’ve thawed the heart of the cruelest lord in Ethereum.”

Dawn laughed at her husband’s antics and I couldn’t help but enjoy seeing them banter. It made me almost forget our troubles. Almost.

“My heart has thawed,” Stryker agreed. “But not because of you.”

He gave me a look across the table that nearly undid me and I couldn’t help the flash of heat that rushed through me. But thinking of my people back in Faerie, probably dying from the curse, made my smile slip right off my face.

Dawn turned to me with an intense look. “Don’t worry, Aribella. We did it. We found a way to break the curse.”

The breath froze in my lungs even as my heartbeat accelerated.

Then it was true? There was a way to save Faerie that didn’t involve cold-blooded murder.

* * *

We ordered more food for Dawn and Zander and tucked into our dinner while Dawn explained everything. She mentioned some ancient group of fae who had foresight to see the future. They’d told her that rather than just satisfying the curse with an Ethereum lord’s heart every hundred years, there was a way to completely destroy it. But the catch was that each princess had a task to complete before that would happen.

She also explained that the curse had started to bleed into Ethereum, starting with her and Zander’s Northern Kingdom. The magical sickness that afflicted the unseelie we’d come across on the road had started thirty days after she arrived in Ethereum. Exactly when she was no longer able to use her faestone dagger to return to Faerie.

I did the math in my head and realized I’d have about two weeks before the faestone dagger would be useless helping me get home.

“The Wise Ones?” Stryker’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

Zander nodded.

Stryker, who was fearful of nothing, appeared concerned.

“Have you met them?” I asked him.

He scoffed. “No way. My grandfather used to tell me stories about them though. They told one of our uncles that he would die in seven days, and he did. They always terrified me.”

They what?

Zander chuckled. “They aren’t that bad.”

“You need to go see them,” Dawn told me, and I turned to look at her.

“Visit the fae who can tell you what day you will die? No, thanks. I’d rather not know,” I said

Dawn gave me a look. “They’re the ones who are helping us find another way to end the curse, Aribella. Each princess has a task and only the Wise Ones can tell you what it is. They will only answer one question per fae, so they wouldn’t tell me any of the other princesses’ tasks, only my own.”

Silence descended over our group.

Save my people without killing the man I was falling for? Well, if it meant I had to go see some old fortune-tellers, then sure.

“Okay,” I said, peering across the table expectantly at Stryker. “Will you come with me?” I tried not to sound pathetic, but my voice shook. Leaving him now, after that kiss, just felt wrong.

He nodded once, but said nothing more.

“Perfect. We leave first thing in the morning.” Zander squeezed his brother’s shoulder. “My wife and I have had a long day so we’re going to turn in.” He then looked at Dawn and wagged his eyebrows.

Her cheeks went pink. “Zander!”

He grinned, and I couldn’t help but smile at their flirting. I’d thought Dawn was insane for marrying an Ethereum lord when I first heard, but now I understood. They were perfect for each other.

She gave me a quick hug. “We’ll meet you down here for breakfast. I’m so glad you are safe.” She squeezed me and they both left.

After that, Stryker paid the bill and got us lodging. They only had one room left.

We walked upstairs together, my stomach in knots. Sharing a room before, when I was his prisoner, was different now that we’d shared that kiss.

He stepped inside the room and I followed him. When he walked over to the bed, which was much larger than the last few, he just stood there and stared at it. I’d overheard him telling the man he needed two rooms or at the very least two beds but the man insisted this was the last room left.

My stomach now felt like it contained a lead ball. I’d never slept beside a man before, in the same bed, sharing the same blanket.

I stood next to him wondering what he was thinking. Now that we’d shared that kiss, did he expect to bed me? Was he thinking about it right now? I knew he’d had a past lover but my experience was pretty nonexistent.

After that kiss everything felt different. Days ago I’d slept in the same room with this man, handcuffed and in shackles and barely thought twice about it, but now I was no longer his prisoner.

“The last time I slept beside a woman I cared about, I almost died.” His voice was hollow and I was so surprised by his words that my body felt numb.

Relief bloomed in my gut that he wasn’t thinking about bedding me, but instantly turned sour when I thought of him thinking about how he couldn’t trust me.

I spun to him, taking him into my arms and running my fingers over the scar on his cheek. I peered into his deep gray-blue eyes and spoke with gentleness. “I would never hurt you.”

Hurt flashed across his eyes. Why hurt? That wasn’t a normal reaction to those words.

“Oh, how I wish I had the power to see if you were telling the truth,” he said finally.

I frowned; now it was my turn to be hurt. “You’ll never know that for certain, Stryker. But can you trust me anyway?”

I didn’t need a verbal response, I saw it in his eyes and the way he pulled away from me, taking his warmth with him.

“In time I hope,” he said and then yawned. “I’m tired. Let’s get some sleep.”

My heart nearly shattered in that moment, but I had to remind myself he had some deep trauma that I knew nothing about. I’d never been tricked and almost killed by someone who was supposed to love me. I’d never even been in love!

I tried to conceal my pain, wearing a soft fake smile when he took off his belt and peered at me.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you all of me all at once,” he muttered. “But please know that I want to.”

This complicated man had won me over, because in those words I saw promise of a solid future if I just waited and was patient.

“It’s okay. I’ve been told I’m very patient. As long as you don’t give up, we can work through this.” This time I smiled for real.

He gave me his back as I slipped out of my dress and shoes and then was just in my chemise.

“I can take the bedroll,” I offered and he chuckled.

“The bedroll is for enemies,” he said.

Stryker slipped into bed, patting the space beside him, and I smiled.

I was trying to be cautious of how he might feel sleeping next to me uncuffed, but also keep a proper distance for my own sake. Stryker was the kind of man I could lose myself in and as much as I cared for him, I knew we weren’t there yet. Sometimes if things burned too hot too fast, they burned out. I wanted what Stryker and I had to last.

Peeling back the covers I got into bed and faced Stryker.

We were silent a long minute, just letting the moment settle. My eyes adjusted to the light and I realized he was watching me.

“You frighten me,” he said to the dark room.

I frightened him? How? I didn’t want to ask.

“You make me happy,” I countered and felt his sharp intake of breath.

Reaching over, he threaded his fingers through mine.

“You make me happy too, Aribella. That’s what frightens me.” He lifted onto his elbow and pecked my nose and then wished me goodnight.

I fell asleep with a smile on my face and hope for tomorrow.