Steel Maiden (21 page)

“I would never want that.”

“Really, well you could have fooled me.”

I looked at him in frustration. “Then why?
Why are you even here? What do you want?”

His eyes fell on the plate in his hands.

“I came to see if you were hungry,” he said,
his voice soft.

“Well, I wasn’t.” I brought my knees up and
rested my head on my arms, fighting the angry tears that I knew
would come.

“Yes, I can see that now.” He sighed
emptily. He stood there like he wanted to say something, but he
couldn’t bring himself to say it.

My brows knitted together. “I don’t get it.
I just don’t get it.”

Mad Jack shook his head. “No, you
don’t.”

He walked away, and I felt even worse than
before.

I couldn’t think straight.

What had he meant by that? What didn’t I
get? Why did he look like a lost puppy?

I put a hand down on the ground to steady
myself. Resolved to put the conversation behind me, I lay back down
on my bedroll and stretched my arms out to keep me from
vomiting.

I wondered why Landon had been so quick to
leave me, and why he had looked ashamed. I thought of the command
in Mad Jack’s voice when he had spoken to the noble man. What had
Mad Jack said that had affected Landon so much that he had to
excuse himself and leave?

If Mad Jack hadn’t appeared when he did, I
knew I would have slept with Landon. I had not abandoned all
reason, and although I could blame my behavior on the wine that
Landon had brought, I didn’t care that he might have planned to
seduce me.

I closed my eyes and focused on the feeling
I had felt in Landon’s arms. I had craved it for so long. For a
short moment, in Landon’s arms, I had felt safe.

CHAPTER 21

E
VERY MUSCLE WAS SORE when I woke the
next morning, but I felt worse about what had almost transpired
between Landon and me the night before. It wasn’t like me to bed a
stranger just because I was longing for some intimacy. I knew I
would have never let it go as far as it did if it hadn’t been for
that damn wine and his smug gentility.

I shuffled around in a funk, folding my
bedroll and getting ready to set out again. According to my map,
Hollowmere was about a two-day journey on foot. The sooner I got
there the sooner the race would be over, and the sooner my life
could get back to normal. That is,
if
I brought back the
stone. Although my innards felt like churned butter, and I felt as
though I had been slammed by a galloping wagon, I could feel the
comfort and warmth of my healing power surge through me. It was
becoming familiar now, and I could feel my muscles easing and my
cramped neck beginning to loosen. Unfortunately it didn’t appear to
cure hangovers.

That wine had been treacherous. Its sweet
taste disguised its strength. I was drunk with only a few sips.
Well, I had more than a few sips. In fact, I couldn’t remember how
much of the wine I had.

Just thinking about Landon’s hands all over
me made me flush with embarrassment. I didn’t think I could face
him this morning.

Perhaps what was done was done. I couldn’t
go back and erase things. I just had to accept what had happened.
When I found him he was lost in conversation with his team, and he
did not once look up to meet my gaze. My face burned with shame
again.

I couldn’t let what happened between us
deter me from my goal.

Get over it, Elena.

It had happened, and I had to accept my own
actions. I needed to get my hands on the stone. That’s the only
thing that mattered.

With my bag over my shoulders, I set out
towards the North. I was just behind a few Espanians and Romilians,
and I let them set my pace.

The mood of the groups had changed. Everyone
moved with more haste and more energy now, and I knew it was going
to get worse. The nearness of the prize weighed heavily on
everyone. I had to watch my back.

I kept to myself as I wandered along the
hard desert floor. The air was hot and stale. The endless gray
terrain seemed to spread its gloom into me as well, and I walked in
silence.

I was deep into my thoughts when I was
surprised to find Mad Jack walking along beside me. He forced a
smile.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I’m about to cough out my liver, and
like I’ve been hit with a blunt object. Other than that, I feel
great.”

He laughed and handed me a canteen. “Here,
drink that. It’s beef broth. It’ll help settle your stomach.”

The last thing I wanted to do was drink, but
I did as I was told and gulped it down. I raised my brows.

“This is good. Surprisingly good.” I handed
him back his canteen. “Is it from a stew you made yourself?”

“It is,” he answered proudly. “I like
cooking. It relaxes me.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. I’d never
thought he’d be the type to cook. I was even more surprised at how
relaxed I felt with him, even though he had seen me in a scandalous
entanglement last night. His easy demeanor comforted me somehow. I
didn’t quite understand it.

We walked side by side in an awkward silence
for a while until he broke it by asking plainly, “So, what’s going
on between you and his highness?”

I nearly tripped.

“Nothing. Not that it’s any of your
business,” I added sharply. “Have you stooped to name calling now?
Can’t you use the usual…I don’t know…
bastard
…
son of a
bitch
…or something of that sort?”

Mad Jack shrugged. “Because he’s not a
bastard. Landon Battenberg is the real royal prince of Anglia.
Well, at least he would be if the monarchy still existed.”

I nearly spit up the broth. I knew I had
heard the name Battenberg before. Of course, I had read it in one
of Rose’s history books. The Battenbergs were a long line of kings
from Anglia. They went back for generations, long before the
priests established their empire.

I had nearly slept with royalty, and I
wasn’t exactly sure how that made me feel.
Good? Bad? Really
good?
And what were the prince’s motives?
Was I a prize? A
tool? A cheap thrill to distract him?

Mad Jack frowned. “I thought you knew.”

“Well, obviously I didn’t,” I exclaimed. My
knees were wobbling.

He had treated me with true kindness since
the beginning of this journey. Royalty or not, he was the only one
who had bothered to come to my aid. Maybe he was just lonely. Maybe
all he wanted was some company, just like me.

I searched the long line of heads and found
his tousled dark blond hair and broad shoulders easily. There was
something regal about the way he carried himself, and the way
others always looked to him to lead. I knew he was highborn, but I
would never have guessed he was of the highest sort. I steadied my
heart.

“Well, it’s not like he’s parading his
position anyway.” I had noticed, however, that most of the wealthy
and noble Anglians addressed him by his title.

I thought of Thea’s murderous glare and her
use of the word
peasant
. It all made sense. She didn’t want
me to taint her beloved prince. And I couldn’t blame her.

“I thought the priests had stripped away all
their titles and their lands,” I said after a moment, my heart
still pounding in my ears.

Mad Jack watched me through narrowed eyes
for a moment.

“They did. Officially, the priests took away
the nobility’s power, their crowns, and their castles. They don’t
have any real authority anymore. But if you travelled through the
other parts of Anglia, especially in the south, you’d find that
most folks still speak of the monarchy like it still exists. They
still believe in the monarchy.”

“Really?” I wasn’t surprised. “The Anglians
were lucky to have kept their way of life after the rebellion. They
still live in the exact same way with all their gold and their
grand houses. Nothing really changed for them. They weren’t forced
into the Pit to rot like us.”

“No, they weren’t, that’s true,” he
answered. “Those with gold used it to their advantage when the
greedy priests came to collect. The wealthy kingdoms signed a
treaty with the priests and paid to keep their lands and way of
life.”

“Sounds pretty hypocritical to me.”

I pictured Landon and Thea laughing and
drinking his fine wine from golden goblets as they looked out over
his vast vineyards and crystal castle.

“Not really,” he shook his head. “It’s more
about biding their time. Would it surprise you to know that most of
the noble families want the monarchy
back
in power?”

I stopped walking and turned to him.

“It would, yes. But…Where are you getting
this information? I mean, since when did you become an expert in
everything royal?”

Had I been blind all these years not to have
noticed? Had I been too preoccupied with my own agenda to have seen
this coming? Could it even be true?

A sad smile spread across his face.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,
Elena.”

His comment stung a little, but I kept a
straight face. He started walking again, and I followed.

“I’m sure there is,” I said.

I thought about my own secret and wondered
if one day I’d be able to trust him enough to tell him the
truth.

“I conduct transactions… I do business with
a lot of wealthy families from time to time,” he informed after a
moment of silence.

This came as a surprise to me. I furrowed my
brows. “What kind of business?”

He chose not to answer my question. What
kind of
business
did he mean?

“I meet with them on a regular basis,” he
said and raked his fingers through his dark locks.

“I know you look at me and see a nothing but
a street thug,” he said quietly. “I’ve seen the way you look at
Landon, and it’s not the same way you look at me.”

I felt an edge of jealousy in his tone, and
I felt my ears burn.

I didn’t know what to say. It was true.
That’s how I’d always thought about him. And now that I knew that
Landon was a prince, it did make things more …
complicated
.

“But there’s more to what I do in the Pit,
and why. There’s a reason why I keep a close relationship with the
priests, you know, and it’s not because I admire their
wardrobe.”

“Such as?” I didn’t care to hide my
skepticism.

“Such as I need to keep them close to know
what they’re up to.”

He paused and then added, “And there are
other reasons, too. But I can’t tell you, not yet at least.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I
said firmly.

“It means that there are things that I can’t
tell you
yet
,” he said abruptly. “Things that are not
entirely up to me to tell you, to discuss with you.”

I snapped my head back to him. “I doubt
that. You’ve never needed anyone to tell you what to do.”

“This is different.”

“How so?” I pressed.

“I can’t talk about it.”

I shook my head. “You’re so infuriating.
What can you say then?”

A sly smile spread across his face. “Did you
know that Prince Landon isn’t the only royal in this race?”

My mouth dropped open in shock. “What? You
mean in the Anglian group? Prince Landon has siblings?”

Mad Jack laughed, and I found myself
smiling.

“No, in the other groups. There’s Philippe
Touraine, Duke of Fransia.” He pointed to a short, stout man with
too much lace around his high collar.

“And over there is Enrico Caserta, Duke of
Romila.” He pointed to a tall and handsome young man around my
age.

“The big one over there,” he pointed to a
giant of a man with light hair and fair skin, “that is Otto Sassen.
He’s the would-be-king of Girmania.”

“And over there,” he pointed behind us
cautiously. “The older gentleman with the hat is
Bartolomeu Dias
, a nobleman from the
royal household of Purtula.”

“The only female royal
here is
Isabella
Velasques, Princess of
Espan.” He motioned towards a tall, dark-skinned woman who carried
more weapons than Mad Jack and I together. Her eyes were fierce,
and she resembled a warrior more than a princess. I remembered her
from the first day of the race. Her eyes had sparkled with
curiosity when she looked at me then.

If he hadn’t pointed them out to me, I would
never have known.

It was obvious Mad Jack knew much more than
he let on, and much more about the royal families, too.

“Why would any of these royal families risk
their lives in this race? Why are they even here if they want to
restore the monarchy?”

“Same reason as everyone else, for the
stone. I think that getting the stone is part of bringing the
monarchy back. Well, in essence at least.”