The Pledge (28 page)

“Leave her with Sydney,” I offered. “And then you can come back.”

Xander and Eden exchanged a meaningful glance. It occurred to me that Eden wore her moods the way others wore their garments; they hovered about her, invading the space wherever she went. At the moment, I could feel a heavy veil of reticence.

“Brooklynn, go,” Xander insisted, and he waited until she and Angelina were out of earshot before turning back to me. “Sydney’s not here, Charlie.”

“What do you mean, she’s not here? Where is she?”

“She was feeling better, so we sent an escort to take her home,” Xander explained.

“Aren’t you worried that she’ll tell someone about you? That she’ll turn you in?”

Xander just smiled, a patronizing smirk. “She won’t. She cares about you, Charlie. She’s grateful for what you did to help her. Besides, even if she did try to bring someone down here, she’d only get lost.”

I remembered the convoluted pathways we’d traveled, one passageway connecting to the next, twisting and turning. And then I thought about what Brooklynn had said, about how long they’d been down here—over a decade—completely unnoticed.

Yet it seemed a huge risk to take.

“We couldn’t keep her here forever, Charlie. She needed to go home to her family.” Xander’s voice was more reasonable now, less boastful.

And then I heard Max’s quiet voice behind me, his breath tickling the back of my neck. “I think maybe you liked having her follow you around like a puppy,” he teased, and I grinned at the absurd suggestion, elbowing him as inconspicuously as I could.

Unfortunately, there was nothing inconspicuous about the gesture. Everyone saw that single, simple action.

And all hell broke loose.

Within the span of a heartbeat, the two enormous Royal guards lunged toward me with deadly intent etched in their expressions. Before I could think or react—or even blink—Xander’s men had raised their weapons, and were aiming them directly at Claude and Zafir.

Xander came crashing into my side, wrapping himself
around me to soften the blow as we hit the ground. Every ounce of breath burst from my lungs when we landed. And at the same time, from between Xander’s arms, I could see Max launch himself between me and his determined sentries.

“No!” he shouted, raising both of his hands, his voice hard, angry. “Stop! All of you!”

I gasped against Xander’s grip, struggling for breath, my head reeling. Xander’s arms loosened, but not by much.

“I mean it,” Max snarled, and I caught a glimpse of him turning in a circle to glare at the soldiers around him. Yet only Claude and Zafir obeyed their prince’s command, each halting where they stood.

No one else complied, and weapons remained readied.

“Are you all right?” Xander whispered against the top of my head.

Somehow I was able to nod, and when I did, I heard his voice rumbling from deep within his chest. “Stand down, soldiers.” I couldn’t see all of them, but I could hear the simultaneous withdrawal of both bodies and weapons. When Xander finally released me, lifting me to my feet, the look on his face was fierce.

Max reached for me, dragging me away from Xander and drawing me against his side, his arm wrapped protectively around my waist. There wasn’t a single person in that room I would’ve traded places with, including Eden, who had shouldered her rifle as well.

When Xander spoke to his soldiers, his voice was deceptively composed. But there was a fury coiled below the surface as he turned on his own. He was a snake, ready to strike as he moved with dangerous precision around the small space.
“You raise your weapons without my order? Do you have any idea the damage you could have done? The danger you put
our guest
in?” I knew he was talking about me; everyone in the room knew it.

I looked first to Claude, and then to Zafir to judge their reactions to Xander’s rant. I don’t know why it mattered, but I needed to know if they’d been told yet, if they knew who I was.

Zafir appeared bored, his brown eyes glazed over. Claude looked incensed, as if he’d like to personally snap every neck in the room.

I was suddenly self-conscious in their presence, knowing they were still unaware.

“You could have hurt her,” Xander continued, treacherously quiet. “I expect you to protect her with your lives. All of you.” And then he said the words that made my stomach twist. “As if you were protecting your future queen.” He reached Eden and lifted his fingers to her cheek, the ropy muscles of his forearm visibly tense. He ran his hand along the side of her face, and she squeezed her eyes shut. “Do I make myself clear?”

Jumbled emotions surrounded her like a thundercloud: fear, regret, devotion, and something that felt unexpectedly close to passion. A tear slipped from her closed eyes, cutting a path down her face. She nodded, opening her black eyes once more and staring, not at Xander but past him, to where I stood.

“I understand,” she vowed, swearing her fealty to me.

“
How is this possible? She’s a simple merchant girl you met in a club.
” Claude raised his voice, shouting now in the Royal tongue. He had refused to look at me since Xander’s men had holstered their weapons. Since Xander had dropped the bomb about who I was.

Zafir seemed more open to the idea. “
How do you expect your grandmother to react when she finds out?
”

The reminder that Queen Sabara—the woman who Xander and his revolutionaries were waging war against—was Max’s grandmother was jarring. It was something I shouldn’t forget, I told myself. I had no idea where Max’s loyalties lay.

“
She’ll be thrilled,
” Xander interjected. “
Why shouldn’t she be? Charlie could be the heir she’s been searching for, the one her own family was unable to provide. And I intend to make certain the old woman never gets her hands on her.
”

Zafir tipped his head, as if accepting Xander’s cryptic statements. I, however, remained in the dark.

I glared at them all, unable to keep my opinion silent any longer: “I have no intention of taking the queen’s place.”

Only Claude and Zafir reacted to my interruption, reminding me that they were still unaware of my ability to comprehend the Royal tongue.

“
She interprets?
” An expectant smile lit Zafir’s stony face.

“She does,” I replied tersely, as if he’d been speaking to me.

He hadn’t been. “
What else can she do?
”

Max answered. In Englaise. “Nothing that she’s aware of, but time will tell.”

It was the first time I’d considered that possibility, that I might be capable of more than just deciphering the languages of others.

“
What of the child? Has she displayed a proficiency yet?
” This was Claude, sounding irritated by the discovery. The only difference was that he addressed me directly.

“No.” Max shook his head, and I guessed that he’d taken my silence when we were at my house as a denial.

Xander draped his arm around Eden’s neck. It was a brotherly gesture—like comrades—and I wondered how long they’d been fighting together. “We need to figure out what our next step will be.” He raised his eyebrows expectantly. “I, for one, think it’s time to let Sabara know we have Charlie.”

“What about my parents? And Aron?” I cried, tired of being spoken about as if I were livestock, cattle for them to do with as they chose. “We need to get them back.”

Xander’s expression turned serious, and his words were callously indifferent. “It may already be too late for them. They can’t be our concern right now,” he explained.

“No, no, no! You don’t get it!” I shook my head, crossing my arms defiantly. “They
are
your concern.” I glowered at him and at Eden, and then turned to face Max. “Do you think it’s too late? Do you?” I demanded.

Max moved toward me. “I don’t think they’re dead, if that’s what you’re asking.” He frowned, watching me intently, his intense gray eyes boring into me, delving into my psyche and searching for cracks in my spirit as if the weight of this bit of information—or the next—might be too much. “But my grandmother is ruthless, and if she thinks there’s even a chance they might know where you are . . .”

I spun on Xander once more, not wanting Max to finish his sentence, or even to contemplate the words he hadn’t said.
“You see? They’re alive,” I rasped, demanding that he pay attention to me. “I need to go there.” Then to Max, I said, “I need you to arrange a meeting with your grandmother.”

“It’s a bad idea, Charlie,” Xander explained to me, and I took it as a good sign that he was no longer shouting at me. “Sabara can’t be trusted.”

“You can’t reason with her,” Claude insisted, repeating the words he’d already stated several times.

“They’re right, Charlie,” Max agreed. “She’s both my queen
and
my grandmother, and I don’t trust her. She’ll say, and do, almost anything if it means getting her way.” He reached for my hands as if somehow he could convince me through his touch.

I was tired of having this conversation. They were my parents—what was I supposed to do? I withdrew my hands, watching as his fingers slipped through mine. “I have to,” I whispered. “Please, just make it happen.”

Xander tried once more. “What if I refuse to let you go?” But there was no real weight behind his words now.

I bristled at the idea. “What choice do you have, really? You need my cooperation, and unless you help me get my parents . . .” I let the meaning hang between us.

His eyes warmed, even as his brows drew together. “So are you saying we have your cooperation? That you’ll agree to be our queen?”

“I’m saying that you’re guaranteed
not
to have my cooperation if you don’t help me.”

Xander beamed at me. “Already I see a promising negotiator,” he lauded me, and I recognized the cunning behind his carefully chosen words. He’d missed his true calling, I thought. He should have been a diplomat. “You’ll make an
excellent
queen.”

xix

“There are things you should know, then, if you plan to actually meet her in person,” Xander explained, and I wondered why it was Xander offering this lesson and not Max or one of the royal guards. Surely they had more firsthand experience. Yet they seemed satisfied to let Xander take the lead in this instance.

“She’s cunning, deceptively so. Don’t allow her feeble appearance to fool you into believing otherwise. And she’s brutal, don’t ever forget that.” He paced, and I had difficulty following him with my eyes. He was making me dizzy. “I’d feel better if we all went with you. I’d rather you not be alone with her.”

“What if she doesn’t agree to meet with us?” Max questioned Xander.

Xander dismissed the notion with a wave. “Of course she’ll want to meet with Charlie. She’s been planning this for years.”

Max was as uninformed as I was, it seemed. He shook his head. “How would you know what she plans?”

“I know more than you realize. More than anyone else, probably.” He laughed derisively, yet no one challenged his statements. Still, I was baffled by how this revolutionary had such intimate knowledge of our country’s ruler.

He stopped pacing and stood before me. He stared down at me with such a familiar tenderness that I nearly forgot into whose eyes I was looking. I blinked as I realized that it was Xander—and not Max—gazing at me with such intense adoration. “She means to force a promise from you, to share the throne.”

“That makes no sense,” Max finally interrupted. “How can she expect to co-rule? Loyalties would be divided. How would disputes be settled?”

“Her magic is ancient—she’s much older than the body she inhabits. This is not her first time on the throne.” Xander’s story sounded like a child’s fancy, but still, no one disputed him.

“What is he talking about?” I asked, turning to Max instead of Xander.

But it was Zafir who answered, his voice low and almost melodic. “He’s right. The queen’s soul—her Essence, she calls it—has been passed from body to body since before she accepted her post on the throne of Ludania. Same ruler, different body.”

Xander took up where Zafir stopped. “She’s powerful, but she must have permission to make the exchange from one body to the next. And she’s desperate, she’s running out of time. She needs your approval before she can transfer her Essence to your body. Otherwise she’ll remain trapped in the body she’s in. If it dies, she dies.”