CHAPTER 7 CALLYN
CALLYN
I expect a carriage, because that’s the only way I’ve ever traveled with Alek, so I’m shocked when we don’t head for the carriage house, and instead he leads me to the royal stables.
I still have no idea what he’s doing here, and he hasn’t said a word to me since we left Nora in the arena.
“What are we doing?” I demand.
“I’m fetching my horse.” He gestures to the stable hand waiting by the doorway. “Fetch Lady Callyn’s as well.”
The stable hand frowns, and he looks to me in surprise.
He’s barely more than a boy, and he falters.
“Ah . . . my lord. My lady. Forgive me, but—” He looks me up and down.
He probably has no idea who I am— just like I have no idea who he is.
I’ve only been here once, when Sinna wanted to show me her favorite pony.
“Alek,” I say. “I don’t have a horse here.”
“Oh, yes.” He nods to the boy. “Send word to the southern stables—”
“No,” I snap, wondering how it’s possible he made this so awkward so fast. “I mean I don’t have a horse at all.”
He looks back at me in surprise. “How is that possible?”
I glare at him. He’s so arrogant— and this is almost humiliating. “Because I don’t know how to ride? Because I’m poor? Because I didn’t need a horse when I ran the bakery?” He’s just staring at me, and my gaze narrows. “Should I keep going? Do you need more reasons?”
Alek sighs, then looks back to the stable hand, whose eyes are wide as saucers. “Ready a trap instead,” he says.
The stable hand scurries. “Yes, my lord.”
I have no idea what a trap is, but Alek says nothing else, so we stand there awkwardly while the stable hand outfits a horse with a gleaming leather harness, then leads the animal out of the barn.
As the minutes tick on, I’m so aware of the beat of my heart, pounding hard against the inside of my ribs.
I can’t separate those two moments in my head: the warm weight of his body against me, the way he held me afterward and made me feel so treasured.
And then the moment when he looked at me like the most terrifying creature to ever exist.
Against my will, tears gather behind my eyes. I hate him. I hate him. Hooves clop from behind us. “Here you are, my lord.”
I blink the tears away, but not quickly enough. Alek catches a glimpse of my expression, and he does a double take.
Ugh. I sniff back the tears and turn to face the stable hand. It seems that a trap is a small carriage, because the vehicle tethered to the horse has two wheels and a wide seat, but no doors and no cover.
Without a word, Alek offers me his hand. I reach out and take it, which is clearly another surprise, because his eyebrows shoot up, and he guides me forward.
Then I squeeze his fingers together like a bunch of twigs, and he jerks his hand away, cursing under his breath.
“Did you learn that from your little sister?” he growls under his breath.
“As a matter of fact, yes, I did.”
“I should have known better,” he says.
There’s a rueful note in his voice that I can’t quite figure out, and I peer at him curiously before I can stop myself. He glances over as he takes the reins in hand, then clucks to the horse.
“I was once a little brother,” he says, as if that explains everything.
In a way, it does. His tone is light, but those first words— I was once— hit me harder than I expect.
Because I forgot: his sister was attacked by soldiers, just like mine. Only his sister never came home.
He’s so bold and brazen that I always forget that he’s lost his entire family to war and magic.
Maybe the emotion over Nora never really left me, because I find myself clearing my throat again.
“I’m sorry,” I say, and then I immediately regret it.
He’s the last person in the world to deserve an apology— and I’m not even the one who brought this up.
Alek tsks under his breath. “Come now, Callyn, you were ready to stab me half an hour ago. Now you look like you’re about to cry.”
Well, that chases away the tears. “Don’t worry. I’m still ready to stab you.”
He chuckles as the horse draws the carriage— the trap, I suppose— through the gates, and we rattle over the cobblestones. But after a moment, his own emotion goes somber.
“Forgive me,” he says. “I truly did not consider that you wouldn’t know how to ride. My intent was not to imply weakness or poverty.”
He’s so frank about this that I really do think he’s being genuine, and it takes the wind out of my sails a bit— but not so much that it changes my attitude about him being here.
I shrug and look out at the city as we pass.
“I suppose it’s no surprise that a man born to privilege would forget that other people are not. ”
I expect him to bristle or spar with words, but he nods. “True enough.”
“Tell me what you’re doing, Alek. Are you dragging me outside the city walls to abandon my body somewhere?”
“Come now, Callyn. I certainly wouldn’t undertake such a task myself.”
I think he’s being funny, but the sad thing is that it’s probably also true.
He glances over. “I haven’t lied to you. The queen did ask me to take you on my rounds among the nobles. While many people are pleased that the king is gone, I suspect there are some who believe the queen should be, too.”
I gasp.
“You’re surprised?” he says. “You yourself know the queen’s life was threatened when she was captured in Briarlock.”
I suppose that’s accurate— but it’s jarring. I’ve spent so much time thinking that the king is gone, so the threats about magic should be gone, too.
If the queen isn’t safe, it’s unfair for her to lose her husband. It’s unfair for Sinna to lose her father.
Alek glances over. “As usual, I find it fascinating that you still regard me as a villain from one of your storybooks, when I’ve never told you anything but the truth— from the very first moment I met you.”
That makes every muscle in my body go tense. I want to throw myself out of the carriage. “You are a villain.”
“Am I? Why?”
“You just kidnapped me!”
“If I wanted to kidnap you, I’m sure it would take a good deal more planning and execution. I simply spoke of the queen’s order and you willingly joined me.”
“After you threatened to tell my sister about you and me,” I say, seething.
“Ah.” He glances away from the road, and his blue eyes are piercing. “Is that my fault, or is it your own? I certainly can’t be blamed for the secrets you keep from your own sister.”
My cheeks flare with heat, and I’m glad for the breeze. Oh, I hate him. I hate him.
I especially hate that he’s right.
“I told you to take your magic and leave,” he says. “You refused— or I assume you did, as you’re still here. When I learned that the queen could be at risk, of course I immediately came to the palace to warn her of the danger. I was rather shocked to see her demise.”
That makes me frown. I think of the queen moving through the palace like a ghost. “She’s not . . . she’s not in demise.”
“Well, she certainly looks like she hasn’t slept in weeks. It’s no secret to anyone among the nobility that she’s grieving the loss of her husband as if he’s an insect- ridden corpse, and not simply sitting on his own throne— where he should’ve been all along.”
Now I want to shove him out of the trap. “Truly, Alek, I can’t imagine why anyone would consider you a villain.”
He chuckles under his breath. “Despite your lying and deceit, I really have missed you, Callyn.”
I feel the impact of that sentence like a punch to the face. “There’s been no lying and deceit.”
The smile slips off his face. He glances over, but says nothing.
His silence is sharper than a word would be, and I scowl. Fine. Maybe there’s been a little deceit.
We’re well away from the palace now, and the wind tugs at my hair, a welcome relief from the blazing sun.
The dead heat of summer was always a challenge in the bakery.
Milk would spoil and eggs would rot, and mice always got into everything.
I’d sometimes try to hang supplies down the well to keep them cold, but then I discovered Jax’s father was skimming from the food, so I had to stop.
I never told Jax about that. He would’ve been humiliated.
Thoughts of my friend make my heart give a tug.
I’ve wanted to send him a letter for months, but so much has happened that I’ve never known what to say.
I certainly couldn’t write to him about Alek.
Admitting my failures in the arena with Verin would’ve been humiliating, and I would’ve been terrified word would’ve gotten back to Verin herself.
I might’ve trusted Lord Tycho with a secure message— but he and the king left so abruptly that I never had a chance to send anything at all.
I’d give anything to whisper in the bakery with him again, or to shiver around the forge. We might have been hungry and cold, but we were friends.
Instead, I’m stuck here with Alek.
Did I lie to him? Yes. But I had no choice. What does he think, that I could simply say, “You know how much you hate the king’s magic? Guess what I have!”
But as the vehicle rattles along, I want to squirm in my seat.
I’m remembering the moment Lord Tycho healed Jax’s hand after he’d been badly burned in the forge.
I had no idea Tycho had magic at all, and once he used it, I faced him with a knife and a frying pan.
Jax yelled at him and chased him out of the bakery.
Was that different? Or the same?
“It wasn’t deceit,” I say softly now. “You made it impossible to tell you.” “How?”
I cut him a narrow glance. “You know how. You hate magic. You practically plotted the king’s death.”
“Because his magic endangered the queen.” He pauses, glancing my way, his blue eyes piercing. “Does yours?”
I swallow, thinking of the fact that the queen has her own magic— but I can’t ever share that secret. It’s not mine to tell. “No. I’d never endanger her.”