Chapter 34 Callan
CHAPTER 34
CALLAN
C allan pushed the door shut to his bedroom, not really caring if it latched or not. He’d told his night guard that only Tava was allowed into his suite, but he doubted she’d show up tonight.
He’d only seen her for a few brief moments over the last few days. His mother had been keeping her busy with wedding preparations, and when she wasn’t with the queen, her father seemed to be monopolizing her time. Callan didn’t particularly like that, considering he was in league with Mikale and Veda, but Drake promised he was keeping an eye on her.
He unbuckled the weapons belt he had around his waist, before toeing off his boots.
“Hello, Callan.”
Callan swore as he whirled towards the hearth.
She stood there, the shadows of the crackling ?re dancing around her. Then again, maybe they were her shadows. She was clad in black. Just like she’d always been all those nights ago. Weapons in place. Hood up. A silver braid snaking over her shoulder. Toying with a dagger in her hand.
He just stared at her for a long moment, and she stared back from beneath that hood, waiting for him to make the ?rst move apparently.
“You need to stop sneaking in here,” he said lamely.
She idly spun the tip of her dagger against her ?ngertip. “I no longer need to sneak in, Prince.”
“I suppose you wouldn’t,” Callan agreed, his tone tight. “What are you doing here?”
“While I do not need to sneak into the castle, there are other places I do need to get into, that have wards to keep me out,” she said. She slid the dagger into … wherever she hid all those godsdamn weapons of hers. She crossed her arms and leaned a hip against the wall. “Seems a little backward to me that the castle doesn’t have wards at this point, but I digress. It did make this little meeting easier.”
“What are you doing here?” he repeated.
“We are in need of your assistance.”
“We?”
“You did not think I would let her travel alone, did you?”
Callan whirled again at the dark voice that spoke from the shadows behind him. Sorin stepped into view, a wicked, sensuous smile on his features as he looked Callan up and down once with disinterest.
“Don’t be a prick, Sorin,” Scarlett sighed, pulling her hood back.
“I have done nothing.”
“Look,” Scarlett said, drawing Callan’s attention back to her. “There is something I need, and we have reason to believe Mikale has it.”
“And?” Callan asked.
“ And there are wards around the Lairwood Estate so I cannot Travel onto the property.”
Callan crossed his arms. “I fail to see how this affects me or my people.”
“You cannot be serious,” Scarlett replied. When Callan just stared stoically at her, she said, “Callan, they … They want your throne.”
“And we are taking care of that,” he answered. “As I told you before, we do not want or need your help.”
A knock on the main door had them all going still before it opened a crack, and Tava slipped through along with Drake.
“We came as quickly as we could,” Tava said, rushing into the bedroom.
“How did you—” He turned to glare at Scarlett. “You gave her a warning, but not me?”
“I didn’t know how amicable you would be,” Scarlett replied. “Apparently, it was the right choice.”
“What is this about?” Drake asked, pushing the bedroom door closed behind him.
“As I was just telling Callan, we need help retrieving something I believe is at the Lairwood Estate,” Scarlett answered.
“What is it?” Tava asked, moving to Callan’s side.
“A spirit amulet,” Scarlett answered. “It was Juliette’s. She would have been wearing it the night she died. We were never given her body. We do not know what Mikale did with it.”
“Sybil does not have her personal effects?” Tava asked, reaching up and unbuttoning her cloak. Callan reached for it as she removed it from her shoulders.
“I don’t know. If it’s not at the Lairwood Estate somewhere, my next guess would be Alaric has it. Maybe he gave it back to Sybil. But I am unable to Travel into the Lairwood Estate, and it would be unwise for me to enter the Black Syndicate right now,” Scarlett said.
“Again, I fail to see how this affects me or my people,” Callan cut in coldly.
“We believe the amulets to be keys that will enable us to enter Avonleya. Alaric is also trying to get into Avonleya,” Scarlett answered.
“And?” Callan said.
Scarlett huffed a sigh of frustration as Sorin silently came to her side. “They’ve already in?ltrated your kingdom, Callan. We do not know what they want, but I can only assume it is nothing good, considering they went to war centuries ago over whatever it is,” she said.
“Maybe whatever they are after is not something Avonleya should possess alone or at all,” Callan countered.
“Callan.” All she said was his name, clearly not knowing what else to say to that.
Delicate ?ngers landed on his arm, and he found Tava looking up at him. “You said you wished to ?ght back,” she said, her eyes searching his. “Here is a way to do that. Help Sorin and Scarlett ?nd something Mikale and my father clearly want.”
He glanced back at Scarlett and Sorin, trying not to roll his eyes at their perfection as they stood there, side-by-side.
“You do not know what they want?”
“Not yet, no,” Scarlett answered.
“Will you share the answer when you ?gure it out?” Scarlett looked up at Sorin, who only shrugged slightly.
“If it will not needlessly endanger anyone, yes,” she answered.
“The secrets you keep tend to needlessly endanger everyone,” Callan retorted.
Sorin’s hands slid into his pockets. “This will be your only warning, Mortal Prince. Speak to her like that again, and her secrets will be the least of your worries.” Flames ?ickered in his eyes, embers seeming to ?it amongst his hair.
“How will we know if we ?nd it?” Drake cut in, stepping closer to his sister.
Scarlett reached into a pocket and pulled a necklace out. A black stone spirit amulet hung from an ivory chain.
“The chain will be ivory with silver in it, and the amulet itself will be black.”
“You just described an amulet you can buy from any peddler on the street corners,” Callan said.
“Whose symbol will be on it?” Tava asked, her ?ngers reaching for her own necklace and sliding Falein’s amulet along the chain.
When Scarlett didn’t reply, Callan glanced back at her to ?nd she’d gone still. Her eyes were narrowed on Tava’s hand. “Where did you get your necklace, Tava?”
Tava froze next to him. “What?”
“Your spirit amulet? Where did you get it?”
Tava looked at her brother before glancing quickly at Callan. “I found it in a box of what I assumed were my mother’s things. Years ago.”
Scarlett took a step forward, her hand outstretched. “May I see it?” Tava hesitated before reaching up and unclasping the necklace, placing it in Scarlett’s palm. She held it up, studying the jewelry intently.
“She has mixed blood, Scarlett,” Sorin was saying.
“I am aware, but if it was her mother’s, it could be the mortal key …”
“We would need to take it to the Shira Cliffs with the others,” Sorin replied.
“Tomorrow. We should take them all tomorrow after the meeting with Talwyn.”
“We are still in the room,” Callan cut in dryly.
“Tava, can I take this? I think it may be one of them,” Scarlett said, ignoring Callan.
“One of what, exactly?” Tava asked.
“One of seven keys that were hidden by Eliné. Together, they can unlock the wards to Avonleya,” she answered. “I believe we have already found three, and if this is another …”
“How can you be sure?” Drake asked.
“I can’t,” Scarlett said. “Not until I take them to the Wind Court and Princess Ashtine con?rms the chains are, in fact, windstone.”
“Why do you think my mother would have had one of these keys?” Tava asked, her eyes ?xed on the necklace Scarlett still held aloft.
“Because one of each was hidden with a child of each bloodline on the continent. If this was your mother’s, it could be the mortal key,” Scarlett answered.
“But why would she have it?” Tava pressed.
Scarlett seemed to be debating how to answer. “The best way I can explain it, is that the keys have been trying to get back to me. How the current owners have come into them have all seemed like weird coincidences to be honest, but I am ?nding they are anything but coincidence.”
“Say we ?nd an amulet at the Lairwood Estate,” Drake cut in. “How will we know if it is the one you seek?”
“I suppose you won’t,” Scarlett admitted. “Just bring me any amulet you ?nd with Reselda’s symbol.”
“And how are we supposed to contact you?” Callan asked.
“Amaré will come to you every evening at this time,” Sorin replied. “If you have found something, give him a note to bring to us. If not, you can send him on his way.”
“But you have that vial if anything urgent arises,” Scarlett added.
He did still have it. Despite everything in him wanting to get rid of the thing, smashing it would only summon her here. That was the last thing he wanted, yet here she stood anyway.
“I know you think you are handling things, Callan,” Scarlett said, her tone softening slightly, “but I assure you they are ten steps ahead of you.”
“And you do not think they are ahead of you?”
“After being held captive by them for weeks, I know they are,” she replied. “That is what terri?es me most. That is what steals my sleep at night. That is why I am here.”
“What are we supposed to do? Invite ourselves over for dinner?” Callan asked, pacing on the rug in his sitting room.
Scarlett and Sorin had left minutes ago, disappearing into thin air. She’d given the Tyndells an update on Cassius and the orphans, and she’d listened to any information Tava had for them. Callan hadn’t said much after the discussion of the amulets, but he’d listened.
And he’d watched.
Scarlett had seemed tired. Exhausted. He could see it in her eyes. She held herself with the grace of a queen, but her darkness still lingered, even though her shadows never made an appearance. Sorin was discreet, but Callan caught the quick glances he sent her way. The slight tightening of his lips at whatever he saw when he looked at her. And while Sorin’s marriage band still adorned his ?nger, Scarlett’s did not. They might resemble perfection on the outside, but something was off.
“You are the Crown Prince. It is not as if they could refuse,” Drake replied from where he’d taken a seat at one end of the sofa.
“They would be too suspicious,” Tava said, bringing Callan a glass of liquor before taking another to her brother.
“I would be more concerned with where we are even supposed to begin looking if we get in,” Drake said with a nod of thanks to Tava as she perched on the arm of the sofa next to him.
“Juliette was killed in the cells beneath the house,” Tava said thoughtfully. “If it came loose while they moved her body, it could be anywhere. Anyone could have found it and pocketed it.”
“This will be like trying to ?nd a black cat in the dark,” Callan said.
“Dif?cult but not impossible,” Tava replied. “The cat’s eyes would give it away.”
Drake huffed a laugh. “Only you Tava,” he murmured.
“I think instead of focusing on getting into the Lairwood Estate, we need to draw Mikale and Veda out so someone can go in and look,” Tava continued, ignoring the teasing comment of her brother. Her hand came to her throat, her ?ngers dragging across her skin, searching for the amulet that had hung there for years.
Callan ran a hand along his jaw, mulling that over. “Mikale would be easy enough. We could plan a hunting outing, but how do we draw out Veda and somehow get away to go into the Estate?”
“I could go in myself—”
“Absolutely not,” Drake said before Callan could say the same.
“Then perhaps we wait for an opportunity to present itself,” Tava said.
“I would prefer to get this over and done with so we no longer need to deal with them,” Callan grumbled.
“Bitterness does not suit you, Prince,” Tava commented, taking her brother’s glass and swallowing a sip of his liquor.
“Tava,” Drake chided.
“It is ?ne,” Callan said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “She is to be my wife after all. She should be able to speak openly.”
“When did it stop being a ruse?” Drake asked, his brow arching.
“It didn’t,” Tava replied, handing the glass back to him.
Drake looked back and forth between Callan and Tava. “We should go, Tava,” he said after several beats of awkward silence.
“I need to visit with Callan for a bit,” she replied.
“And how are you to get home?”
“I will make sure she gets home safely,” Callan said, staring at Tava over his glass as he took another sip. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to visit with her, even if only for a few minutes. She kept him sane these days, especially in their private moments. She didn’t spare his feelings or mind her manners. She was like the queen that had left a little bit ago if he were being honest, albeit much less … dark.
“I can wait if I need to,” Drake said, pushing to his feet and setting his empty glass on a side table.
“I will be ?ne, Drake. I will send word. Father is gone on business again anyway. No one will know I was gone,” Tava reassured him.
He bent and pressed a light kiss to her cheek. “Be safe, Tava.”
“Always,” she said with a soft smile, reaching over and squeezing his hand.
“Prince,” Drake said with a quick bow.
“Thank you, Drake,” Callan replied, motioning dismissal with his glass.
Tava slid into Drake’s vacated seat when the chamber door clicked shut behind him. She held Callan’s gaze, her head tilted slightly to the side as if she were searching him for something.
“So, little fox, what did we need to discuss?” Callan asked, taking another sip from his nearly empty glass.
A half-smile tugged at her lips, her head coming to rest on her hand where she had her elbow propped on the arm of the sofa. “You know that even once we accomplish this task, you will not be rid of them, do you not?”
“What would we need them for?”
Her lips tipped up again in a knowing smile. “Scarlett is not one you simply forget.”
“And if I want to forget her?”
“There’s that bitterness again, Prince.”
He scowled at her. “Stop calling me that.”
She just shrugged at him, and Callan had to ?ght back the smile that tried to form on his lips at how casual the Lady had become with him.
“I am simply saying that once Scarlett claims you as one of her own, there is no going back. She will forever see you as hers. Not as a lover,” she added quickly when he opened his mouth to argue. “But as someone she would give her life to protect. She will always worry about your wellbeing, Callan.”
“I am not her subject. I am not her responsibility.”
“No. You are so much more. She would consider you family,” Tava replied.
Callan could only scoff at that.
Her pale brow arched. “You think I do not know what I am speaking of ? You shared a bed with her for more than a year, Callan. And while she may have kept secrets, you cannot tell me she did not make it clear that she would risk her life for those she loves.”
“I am not one of them any more,” he answered.
Tava tsked under her breath. “Then you have clearly gone blind and deaf, because if you knew where to look and truly listened when she spoke, you would know that is not true.”
He gritted his teeth at the response.
“I think what irritates you most is the fact that she does still care so deeply for you, even if it’s not how you envisioned,” Tava said, her eyes seeming to watch him carefully. “But to be quite frank, and all of your history aside, you would be stupid to alienate yourself from someone so powerful.”
“And why is that?”
“Obviously because should you ever need her assistance to protect your people, it would be best to be on good terms with those who can literally set the world on ?re,” she answered. “It is about more than you and her and what you may or may not have been. It is about your kingdom, and if you cannot set your bitterness aside for your people, then you are not the king I thought you were becoming.”
“If Drake could hear you speaking to me now,” Callan muttered.
“I am to be your wife after all,” she replied with a wry smile.
He mulled over some of what she said for a few moments before he asked, “You lived with her for over a year. Did you ever question who or what she was?”
“I knew who she was. I knew the night Cassius brought her to us.”
“And you were ?ne with that? With bringing Death’s Maiden into your home?”
“I trust Drake, and he trusts Cassius. And if you had seen her that night … In the days and months that followed that night …” She swallowed, again absent-mindedly reaching for the spirit amulet that was no longer there. “She may as well have been a spirit of the After.”
Callan took another sip of his drink, trying not to think about what had happened that night. What had changed everything.
His own would-be Hand-to-the-King.
Memories of Scarlett asking about Mikale that night surged to the forefront of his mind. How they’d argued on the paths in the gardens. How he’d already known then, before everything happened with Mikale, that she’d already started pulling away from him. How he’d desperately clung to some idealistic vision he’d formed of the two of them ruling over Windonelle together.
“Were you two close while she lived with you?”
Tava seemed to contemplate this for a minute before she shrugged slightly. “We became friends of a sort, but I would not say we were particularly close.”
“Yet you still knew more of her life than I did, and we’d shared a bed for over a year before she came to your home.”
“I never asked her to be something she’s not,” Tava replied. “Just as I have never asked the people in the slums to be something they are not. No one should have to change to feel worthy of someone else.”
“She changed me,” he countered.
“But did she ask you to change, Callan?”
“No, but that doesn’t negate the fact.”
“Hmm,” she hummed.
And that sound. It always came right before she said something that was going to make him reevaluate everything. Some profound statement was about to come from her mouth, and she wouldn’t even realize it.
“Do you regret any of the changes that were not forced upon you? Because if you do, then you are, of course, free to go back to how things were. No one is stopping you.”
He swirled his glass, the few remaining ice cubes clinking lightly against the sides. He didn’t regret how Scarlett had started to open his eyes to those on the streets. He didn’t regret rising to the ways she had challenged him, challenged his ways of thinking. He didn’t regret trying to help her and innocent children. He supposed as the months had worn on, though, his motivations had shifted from trying to help to trying to gain her favor. How else could he explain missing the ones only Tava seemed to remember? How else could he explain being willing to leave his people to save his own life, when he knew there were threats lurking in the shadows of his streets?
He could blame Scarlett all he liked, but she had told him, said so many times, that his fate did not reside in her darkness. He was the one who had insisted she was wrong. He was the one who had refused to accept her life in the shadows. He was the one who had hoped he could change her in the ways she had changed him. And maybe he had changed her in some ways, just not in the ways he had wanted.
No, the only changes he regretted were the bitterness and animosity that had started growing in his chest, taking root and spreading like a godsdamn wasting disease. The bitterness and the disease were one and the same if he really thought about it. Both ate away at a person until there was nothing but a shell left. One killed the body, the other destroyed the soul.
He’d been so lost in thought, he hadn’t heard Tava get up and grab her cloak from his bedroom. She re-emerged now, her ?ngers working the buttons as she walked. He was on his feet and moving toward her in the next heartbeat. “It is late.”
She gave him a half-smile, one of her brows arching in amusement. “That is why I am leaving.”
“Stay. Please.”
The grin slowly faded. “I cannot stay, Callan.”
“It can be just like before. We can say we wanted to have breakfast because we have been unable to spend much time together lately. You can sleep in the bed again. I will stay out here,” he said, gesturing toward the sofa where he had slept after their visit to the slums.
Tava bit her lower lip, uncertainty entering her eyes. “I do not think it is a good idea, Callan.”
“And why is that, little fox?” he asked, reaching out and brushing her hair back over her shoulder.
Her eyes fell to the ?oor. “Because there are times I think you forget this is indeed a ruse, and I do not wish to make you think that is the case.”
Callan stiffened. “I apologize if I have made you feel uncomfortable, Tava.”
“You haven’t,” she said quickly. “Truth be told, I enjoy conversing with you. I enjoy these late night visits and honest conversations. I ?nd the small talk of Court to be quite pointless and talking about things that actually matter is a breath of fresh air. Something I only had with Drake, Cassius, and Scarlett until now.”
“And you think I forget this is a ruse at times because …?”
She met his gaze, that damn bottom lip between her teeth again. “I know how to read people, Callan. You know this.”
“And if I swear I only ask you to stay because I also enjoy our conversations? That I enjoy your candidness and ?nd your honesty refreshing? That I value the friendship that has formed because of this ruse?”
She shifted on her feet, her eyes staring into his intently. He had to work not to ?dget under her scrutiny. He felt as though she were somehow reading his soul. He had grown incredibly comfortable with her, but that was a necessity in and of itself. If they were going to make others believe this was a real relationship, they had to be comfortable around one another. They needed to appear to have inside secrets, to share coy smiles, to be seeking to spend time together.
She ?nally said, “I cannot replace her, Callan.”
He took a step back at her words. He opened his mouth but closed it again, unable to speak because nothing would come to him.
“It may not be intentional, but I am constantly compared to her. By you. By Drake. It is in the little things. Drake reminding you that I do not have daggers strapped beneath my skirts. I see it in your eyes when I speak or when you get lost in thought.”
“She has nothing to do with this. With us. With … any of it.”
A sad, knowing smile formed on her lips. “I should go.”
She turned to leave, and he reached out and grabbed her arm. “Tava.”
“I will think on ways to get into the Lairwood Estate. Perhaps we can meet at some point tomorrow and see if we have come up with anything,” she said.
He shook his head. “No. Stay, and we can discuss them over breakfast.” He could tell by the set of her features she was still going to say no. “I have meetings all day tomorrow. It is nearly impossible for us to meet these days.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “I think that has been orchestrated.”
Callan’s brows arched. “By Mikale?”
“By him. By my father. For what purpose? I do not yet know.”
“Then stay and let’s discuss it.”
“And if I am caught in here at such hours of the night?”
He couldn’t help the smile that tugged this time. “It would probably help the ruse if such a thing occurred.”
A laugh came from Tava that only made him smile more. He almost had her convinced.
“I suppose that is a fair point,” she conceded.
Callan slowly released her arm, his hand dropping to his side. “So you will stay?”
“I will stay.”