Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

I tore after him, leaping onto Liana and flying in Onyx’s wake before pulling up alongside them.

“How dare you say that to me!” I screamed at Kohen.

He looked over at me with surprise. “Say what?” he yelled over the wind.

“I love you!” I screamed.

He shot me a half-cocked grin. “You do?”

I rolled my eyes. “No. You can’t say you love me!”

He shrugged, seemingly unperturbed by my outburst.

“I love you!” he shouted back unflinchingly.

I growled. This man! He was so annoying and so adorable at the same time.

“Where are you going?” I realized we were flying away from Riverine and deeper into Imbria, where those lights were. To Sorak.

“To see my brothers like you suggested. Come with me!” he yelled as Onyx and Liana tried to fly close enough so that we could speak but not so close that their wings touched.

It was so late. The middle of the night. And he wanted me to go deeper into Imbria? To meet his brothers? It could be a trap .

“It’s a small upscale town with a lot of aristocrats who will likely all be sleeping. I’ll protect you.”

Why would I want to meet Kohen’s little brothers? I was supposed to be breaking up with him…

I peered down at Liana, and I felt her assessing all the information through our bond. ‘If it’s a small town, I think we should be okay. If there is a mob of people, I’ll simply fly you home.’

Oh, Elaine was going to kill me.

“Why should I go with you?” I screamed back at him.

He met my gaze, the moonlight casting shadows across his face. “Because I want you to meet my brothers.”

Why was I even entertaining this?! I’d had every intention of breaking up with Kohen today, and now we were flying to meet his brothers in Imbria? My father would roll over in his grave if he saw me… but there was an allure to Kohen that dragged me to him like a moth to a flame. Did his brothers look like him? Were they taught to hate me? Would my going there make them think we were a couple? Were we a couple?

I had a thousand questions and no answers.

“Okay!” I shouted and followed his lead. My curiosity to see more of Imbria and what his brothers looked like won over all rationality.

We flew over green rolling hills and then small villages that were in disrepair until we reached the cluster of lights that designated the city of Sorak. It was huge and entirely fortified. The lights were coming from outside a giant wall. There was a glowing sconce every six feet that ran in a circle around the entire fort. The second we flew lower, I noticed that this city didn’t hold the signs of war the others did. Sorak was well protected, with a huge stone wall around it that came up like a dome; only the top was open to let in some light. We flew down into the open top, which seemed small at first, but as we went through, I realized the opening was hundreds of feet wide.

I gasped when we dropped down over the city. It was incredible. Small, neat rows of houses ran in concentric circles around the outer edge, with a beautiful park inside the center and some larger buildings dotting its edges. I peered up at the sky and was taken with how beautiful it was. The moon was directly over the center hole in the dome, and now that I was inside the city, I noticed a few stones were missing in the covering to let a glimpse of stars and moonlight through. It was an incredible marvel of architecture.

I peered back down and lost sight of Kohen for a second until Liana caught up with him. He was lowering Onyx at the edge of the park near a large, beautiful estate.

Sorak Boarding House for Boys , the sign read in front of the white stone building. There was no one outside. Considering it was late and everyone should be sleeping, I wasn’t too surprised. I was, however, in shock at how beautiful this place was. And Kohen could tell. He was watching me keenly as Liana landed beside Onyx.

“What do you think?” he asked.

I shook my head in wonder. “It’s amazing. I… didn’t know Imbria had places like this.” I was embarrassed to admit that. I was slowly realizing how much I’d judged the Imbrian people and their land with preconceived notions my father had taught me.

His jaw clenched. “All of Imbria was like this before the Occupation.”

The Occupation. I didn’t want to argue about that, so I just nodded. “No guards at the gates?” I noticed we weren’t stopped.

Kohen scoffed at that. “Who would guard us? The Imperial Fleet? Your father ordered the Imbrian army disbanded when he took over. We have no protection but what you designate.”

My chest constricted at that. Yes, technically Imbria was now a part of Amersea, a state in a country if you will, but we didn’t treat it as such. We didn’t allocate an even percentage of our resources here like we did in Riverine. I felt so conflicted at that moment that I just wanted to leave. I was already so overwhelmed at becoming empress and my father’s death… I didn’t have the mental and emotional bandwidth to confront all of my father’s decisions of the last decade.

Just as I was going to suggest I leave, Kohen reached for my hand, stroking my palm with his thumb. “I want you to meet Tej and Arjun. It’s important.”

It’s like he knew I was thinking about leaving.

“Your brothers?” I asked. “Do you speak to them often?”

He nodded. “I send them any spare money I get from the Fleet, and in two years, my brother Tej will be old enough to enter the Lottery. Then Arjun will be two years behind him. Assuming they get their names picked.”

Tej. Arjun . Hearing their names made them real.

“Do you want them to get picked?” I asked as he led me around the side of the building.

He looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “Of course I do, Aisling. The only way left to make any decent money in Imbria is to join the Fleet.”

That made an ache form in my chest. I yanked his hand, forcing him to stop and look me in the eye. “If you want your brothers’ names to be called, I’ll make sure they’re called,” I promised. I’d rig the Lottery for him.

Oh man, I had it bad.

This dark-skinned, blue-eyed dream of a man had lured me to him like an animal in a trap. I still had yet to figure out if his trap would kill me or set me free.

He gave me a small smile and squeezed my hand before letting go. There was something about that smile that said he knew more on that. Like maybe he’d had a vision about it. Would I break my word and not get his brothers in the Lottery? I hated that he knew the future and I didn’t.

He walked over to the third window and rapped his finger against it in a certain rhythm. Three times fast and two times slow. A moment later, the light turned on, and the curtain was pulled back. Then, I was confronted with a handsome mini-Kohen.

My gut clenched at the sight of the maybe fifteen-year-old boy. He tore the window open, grinning ear to ear.

“Get up, idiot. Kohen’s here!” the young boy snapped at someone in the bed next to him. He leaped out the open window. Kohen tackle-hugged him and my heart pinched in my chest. Seeing the young boy with bronzed skin, wild dark hair, and piercing blue eyes shook me. But as I watched them, I noticed there was a stark difference between Kohen and Arjun. Arjun had a childlike joy, like maybe Kohen had shielded him from things when he was growing up. There wasn’t a brokenness to him like I saw when I looked into Kohen’s eyes.

When they pulled away, another boy about seventeen years old appeared in the open window with his hair flattened to one side. He gazed sleepily at us all.

“Holy shit, that’s the empress,” he said and seemed to perk up a little, appearing more awake.

This must be Tej. He had more of a hardened look in his eye, like Kohen.

“It is?” Arjun asked, eyeing me for the first time. “Should we bow?” The young teen looked at his eldest brother.

“No, that’s fine,” I said, but at the same time Kohen said, “Yes.”

Arjun made prayer-clasped hands and bowed deeply to me, obeying his elder brother. Tej did the same, but warily.

“Nice to meet you,” I said nervously.

Why was I here?

Tej leaped out the window and eyed me from feet to head. “I didn’t think you’d fly over Imbria, or we would have stayed up.”

There was a veiled diss in there. Like I didn’t think Imbria was good enough to fly over. I couldn’t fault him, though—I hadn’t intended to.

Before I could respond, Kohen cleared his throat. “Aisling isn’t here as empress. She’s my friend, and I wanted you to meet her.”

“Why?” Tej asked.

Awkward . I was wondering the same thing.

“Because it’s important to me,” was all Kohen said, and I shifted awkwardly on my feet.

What was he doing? It was like I’d come to meet the family of a guy I was seriously dating, but we weren’t seriously dating.

Right?

“Why?” Tej pressed.

“Because one day you will serve her, and I want you to respect her like I do. She’s not her father.”

My knees went weak. Not that there was anything wrong with my father, but he’d just paid me a huge compliment, and teaching his brothers to respect and follow me as their leader was about the hottest sign of loyalty I’d ever seen.

“Fine,” Tej shrugged.

“Are you guys friends?” Arjun asked as we began to walk to the back gardens.

Please, for the love of every star in the sky, just say, ‘Yes’ , I begged Kohen with my gaze. Telling his brothers that I would one day be his wife or any of the other insane things he’d told me would not be smart. He could believe those delusions, but I didn’t want him spreading them around.

“Yes,” Kohen said. “We are the only two in the Fleet that have creatures we can fly on, so we get sent on missions together.”

Oh, that was good. I nearly sighed in relief.

“Are you important in the Fleet?” Arjun asked his brother and looked excited at that prospect.

Before Kohen could speak, I interrupted him.

“Very,” I told them both. “We have a mission coming up that only Kohen and I can do because of our special skills.” I tried to be vague so as to not compromise the mission.

“That’s cool,” Arjun said, kicking a rock and watching it roll away.

“What are your powers?” Tej asked, sitting down on a bench and yanking a flower from the ground, pulling petals off of it as he looked up at me.

“I’m immune to flame?—”

“Like my brother!” Arjun said. He was so excited I couldn’t help but smile.

“Yes, and I can… blow up, kind of like a bomb,” I added, and Tej stopped pulling petals off the flower and peered up at me open-mouthed. Arjun was speechless too, so I gave a nervous laugh, and then they both broke into a rapid-fire commentary and questions of, “ No way, so cool. Can you show us? Have you ever blown anyone up?”

Kohen was laughing by the time they were done.

“Okay, okay, let her breathe,” he said because Arjun had stepped closer with each question, eagerly awaiting my response. I had to admit, he was adorable. A young and innocent version of Kohen without the tattoos and broken soul bleeding through his eyes. Kohen had seen things in his life, and probably Tej too, but they’d shielded Arjun from it all. It made me sad.

I changed the subject. “How do you like living here?”

“It’s way nicer than the government school, but the kids are stuck up,” Arjun said.

Tej rolled his eyes. “Who cares if the kids are stuck up? We get three hot meals a day and clean sheets.”

A pang of sadness ran through me at that. Did their last school not have three hot meals a day or clean sheets?

Tej glanced at me, reading my face. “Has the empress ever gone without a meal?” There was a bitterness in his tone. I knew I hadn’t fully won him over yet. Not that I was trying.

“Way to ruin the mood,” Arjun scolded his brother.

“Tej,” Kohen warned. “Of course she hasn’t. She’s the empress and was raised without want for anything. As it should be,” Kohen told them both.

“You’re wrong,” I said to Kohen. “I often went three days without any food as a part of my training for the Wilds.” I could still remember being fifteen years old and lying awake as my stomach felt like it was eating itself. The craziest thing is after two days, the hunger just goes away. As if it knows it won’t be getting anything, it gives up.

All three of their eyebrows shot up.

“Three days?” Arjun said.

“For training? That’s messed up!” Tej commented.

I squirmed a little under their gaze. My father wanted to make sure I was ready for anything, and so even against Elaine’s consultation, he made me go without food often. For training, of course.

“Being trained to be empress isn’t all glory and riches,” I declared. Though I did have a nice life with all the comforts, so I wasn’t complaining.

When I looked up into Kohen’s eyes, I could see an inferno of emotions there. He looked mostly angry …

A yawn escaped me then, and I covered it. “I should be getting back. I still haven’t checked on my sisters.”

Kohen nodded, giving his brothers a hug. “Mind the teachers, and don’t get in trouble. I’ll send more money when I can.”

Tej shook his head. “You already overextended yourself paying for this place. I have ways of making money.”

Kohen pinned Tej with a glare. “You will not steal for money. I will send you money next paycheck. Stay out of trouble until then.”

Steal? Was the Fleet not paying enough for Kohen to take care of his brothers and himself? I’d have to look into how much we paid entry-level soldiers. Though this place looked nice. I was glad he was able to get them here.

Tej rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Fine.”

He and the triplets would get along well, I decided. They both had sass.

After bidding them farewell, we went out front, where our creatures were waiting. Something about coming and meeting his brothers felt a little off to me. Like Kohen was going out of his way to get them to like me. And for what? Who cares? I liked meeting them, but I wanted to know if he had a motive behind it.

“Why were you making me sound so good to them?” I asked him before we saddled up to ride home.

Kohen glanced over at me with those handsome blue eyes, and my stomach warmed.

“Well, first of all, you are good. Secondly, one day it will be important that my brothers like you.”

A chill broke out onto my arms, and he said nothing more. “Let’s head back,” he agreed, and we took to the skies.

He’d had a vision, and this was all to play into that. I decided right then and there that I wished Kohen had the power to control people and I could see the future. When I used my power, I took away a person’s basic freedom, which felt awful. When Kohen used his, he knew everything, which put him at an advantage over me. It felt like we were playing chess, and Kohan was three moves ahead of me at every turn.