Blakeshire (2 page)

Madison Marie ran from me. Who could blame her?

When I saw her again, we were in this very palace, in a room that was not protected from the eyes and ears of the ghost of Donalt. I had no choice but to play a part for both her and Willow. I could not let Donalt or anyone else know that I’d found the missing part of my soul—for if I did, she would be taken just as surely as my heart beats in my chest.

The only problem was that I was the only one who knew I was playing a part; to everyone else, I looked like a ruthless king pining for Willow Haywood, too prideful to admit I had been fooled.

My mind, soul, and heart were at war. It was so hard for me to understand why my life had been plotted the way it was. Why Willow was put before me in the first place, and not only in this life, but past ones.

I would only dare admit it to myself, but I was terrified of rejection. Willow had broken my heart a hundred times over the past few months, and it was entirely my fault. I feared walking up to Madison Marie and her taking what was left of me and shredding it to dust. And she had every right to. If I were in her place—if I had found my soul mate lusting after a man that looked just like me, using memories of me to persuade him, I would have been murderous. I would not have had the courage to stick around to hear the pleas of my true lover. Madison Marie had. I’m not a fool. I have no doubt she had done that to protect her friends; nevertheless, she had not run where so many others would have.

Last night, I had taken her on a real date. It began in my world with a ball for my kingdom to see, a stage we were all but forced to stand on, but it ended in her world, in the life she had abandoned to come and save my ass a week before.

I fell asleep with her in my arms, and for the first time in my life I slept without dreams of any life beyond this one. Even though we’d been awakened by a call to war, I kept finding myself smiling when no one else was looking. I let myself believe I was breaking down her walls. I was reaching her. But now, if she truly were without emotion, I had no idea where I would stand with her. Emotions feed the heart; without them black and white reasoning comes into play, and I knew without a doubt reason would not be on my side.

“My friend, my patience with this world has long since thinned. I have reason to take you and my mother and flee. Madison Marie should at the very least see the home I built for her before that time comes.”

Zander grinned broadly, which was rare in and of itself. “So you plan to claim her openly?”

“As openly as I can and not put her in danger.”

His smile faded.

“What?”

Silence.

“Listen, if you have seen anything, past or present, that tells you that I am wrong again—tell me now.”

He stared at me endlessly before sucking in a harsh breath.

“What? Zander!” I yelled as I shot up from the floor and went to shake him out of whatever spell he was under. His visions were dangerous. They had been known to pull him so far away that death was nearly declared. I held his chin, forcing him to look me in the eye. A second later, he focused on me.

“Honest.”

“Honest what?” I asked as my heart thundered.

“If you must stand on a stage, sire, tell her why. Never let a lie leave your lips when your words are aimed at her.”

My thoughts rushed back, questioning how many times I had already done that.

“Too late.”

His stare told me I was wrong. “Be honest now. She is your queen.”

“A queen to a world that you yourself said I would not rule. Am I set to make her a widower? Is that what you are saying?”

Zander was back completely now. He leaned away from me. “What the hell is your problem? Why is death your way out of everything?”

I nearly punched him.

“I don’t want to bring her here, but everything is telling me that I need to.”

“Everything?”

I slammed my fist into my chest.

Zander let a slow smile come to his face. “Honest. If you are honest, she will let the walls down.”

“She’s hurt, Zander.”

“For good reason.”

“Bring her here. Open the wing—you agree with that?”

He raised his brow. “I do. But I would take my time with that notion.”

“You’re a jacked up soothsayer, you know that?” Take my time? What did that mean: an hour, a day, a decade?

“Few days,” he answered as if he’d read my thoughts. He shrugged. “Try being Drake and not a king for a few days. See where that gets you.”

“More than likely with an overrun kingdom by the time I come back.”

“Sire, do you not know how to bend time in your favor?”

“Call me sire one more time, and I’m going to kick your ass from one side of this palace to the other.”

He burst into laughter. He was one of two that knew the non-king Drake. Landen was the other, but that was another story in and of itself. Neither Landen nor I were eager to tell Willow that we had been fast friends in our childhood. Torn apart by fate and thrust back together by the same measure.

“Have you figured out anything about Alamos?” I asked him.

Alamos had always been a close advisor of mine, a self-proclaimed father figure. But lately I had noticed that his aura seemed to shift drastically at times. Never in front of me, but nevertheless each time I saw him his energy was vastly different. I was concerned that either he was manipulating me or he had been possessed. I could not afford for either to happen. He knew of Landen and Willow’s plots, that the palace was full of native Charans in place to protect anyone that lingered near me.

“Nothing. I need something personal of his in order for me to make it clear to you if he is the real deal or not.”

I clenched my jaw. I didn’t have time to go rooting through his things; his chambers were at least a mile away from where I sat right now.

“No rush. If you are not here, he can bring no harm.”

I hesitated as I thought of all the fires I had burning right now. All the false stories I had in the air. This was the worst time in history for me to leave, but I needed to. I had to.

“I want you out of the shadows.”

Zander raised his brow.

“Marc is my doppelganger. Chrispin is the commander of my royal guard. I want you as my second-in-command. Front and center. Starting now.”

No fear came to his eyes. Even if there were a real threat, I doubt I would see any there. Zander was not the small, disheveled boy he was when he watched his mother perish. Even though he was barely seventeen, he was a man, a warrior, and fit the bill to a T. Any king would want him at his side, with or without the brotherhood factor we shared. I knew his weaknesses just as he knew mine.

I was growing closer to my newfound blood brothers Marc and Chrispin, but not close enough to reveal to them that at times I may fall to the floor as ice ran through my veins, as Donalt tried to seize me. Zander and Landen were the only ones that knew of that weakness, and Zander was the only one that knew how to bring me back.

“Honored.”

“As soon as I see Chrispin, I will tell him as much. If anything goes south while I’m gone, you get my mother the hell out of here.”

Zander could see in the string. Not odd, considering his other gifted senses. My father had taught us both the passages long ago. I’d asked him more than once to get out of this hell and run, but he was waiting on something; what, I didn’t know.

Zander glanced up quickly then stood, pulling me up with him. When he started to walk briskly toward the hidden passage in the room, I went to follow him, but he held his hand up. “Mommy’s home,” he said with a smirk. “I will guard your fires while you’re gone, my friend.” And with that, he vanished into the dark passage.

Zander was not a fan of my mother; not in a sinister way, but in the way of respect. He told me once that the energy was too tense around her.

No argument on that matter would come from me. My mother was, at least until I met Madison, the fiercest female I had ever known, though she hid that well from every other soul in this dimension.

I started to pull a few clothes together, noting that I had very little attire that allowed me to present a ‘non kingly’ appearance to Madison.

I had pulled a few outfits and such together right as my mother walked into my chambers.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.

I raised my brow. “Swearing?”

She huffed out a breath as she came to my side. We’d had more than a few arguments since Madison had been found, and no doubt they had placed a cold wall between us. She wanted me to admit fault, not only that I was wrong about Willow but to face the fact that I had killed my own father. I refused to do either in her presence, even in a protected room. She was the first woman that had broken my heart. She had hidden my heritage from me, a family from me, and furthermore, she let Donalt do what he did to me. I don’t care how powerful any king is, if my child were in their grasp I would not dress in royal clothes and turn the other way. I would fight to the death and ensure that my child was safe.

“Drake, you are not running. Not now.”

My shoulders tensed. I was not in the mood for her half-ass attempts to steer me. I knew I wasn’t running, that I was going to claim what was mine, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Why not now,
Mother
? Would you not be satisfied until I am in the grave?” She had reached my side at that point, so she was in easy striking distance. I didn’t even blink as she slapped my face. That was a first. She’d never even raised her voice at me, much less taken a hand to me. Her eyes welled as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth.

“Mother, if I were the king that you allowed Donalt to morph me into, you would be looking at the gallows before the sun rises.”

“I did not allow him to do anything,” she said with a quake in her voice.

“Why do you want me here? Why am I to play this part any longer? This is not my reign. Not my blood, or my war. If anything, it’s Landen’s.”

“It is
my
blood that will rule this kingdom.”

I raised my brow. My mother may be fearless, but she had never once been materialistic. “You want the crown? Little Drake princes running around?”

She went to speak, but she held back.

“I get that you have endured witnessing my pain, that you may have a reward due to you, but I am releasing you. I want you to return home. And stay there.”

“This is my home.”

She was born and raised in Esterious; no doubt there. But my father had found her and taken her to Chara, where she had the first of her two sons. He’d rescued her from hell, and somehow my birth had flung her right back into its claws.

“Not anymore.”

“Fate states it to be true.”

My eyes met hers with those words. She had never admitted having any additional insight to me, but I knew this woman kept her secrets, and she was daring to tell me one now, one that she thought would keep me here. Even though I wasn’t running, I needed her to think I was if I wanted to hear this.

“Whose fate? Not mine. This is over.”

“My blood will rule this dimension. This is the beginning.”

Those words were far too close to what Zander had predicted long ago.

“You do wish me to meet the grave. You want me to leave a widow, children that may give you a second chance to get this motherhood thing right.”

Those words stung her, and she swayed back as if I had hit her.

“I sent your brothers for her. You will proclaim her. You will find vindication.”

Weak or not, my brothers would have a hell of a time getting Madison Marie to listen to them on any day of the week. My mother might as well have sentenced them to death.

“I could take you to a thousand kingdoms, I could build you your own. Why this one? Why now?” I demanded.

“It must be reclaimed by our blood.”

“Our blood? It was never ours.” Esterious had been ruled by Donalt for over four million years; he was the one and only king.

“Blakeshire blood is within each of my sons.”

Now I was the one that looked as if I had been slapped. I could not hide my shock.

“His bloodline was destroyed.” From what I’d gathered, that happened not long after the soul of Donalt was overcome by the evil demon that lives in the remains of that vessel now.

“One escaped. One girl.”

“A girl?”

She nodded as she eased herself down on the edge of my bed and stared into thin air. She was trembling, so much so that it took all I had not to comfort her.

“One girl, who bore girls, and those girls bore girls.”

Her story was only believable because it could not be proven. Without a male heir, the name Blakeshire would have forever been masked. The fear of Donalt in this dimension would have caused its citizens to hide the blood relation even further. No doubt, the kingdom itself would have slaughtered anyone that even posed a threat to be as evil as Donalt living amongst them.

My mother balled her fist. “It is said that once our blood bore males, the kingdom would rise, it would become more than it ever was. It would be redeemed.”