CHAPTER 3
Axel
S
tudying again, my love?” Axel said, wrapping his arms around his wife. “You promised to await my return from battle, yet I find you buried in the library. What topic has you so enthralled?”
Katy stiffened and shrugged him off. “Just looking for some answers.”
“Any luck?”
The set of her shoulders screamed tension, but after a moment of looking like she would explode, she sighed and drooped forward. “Not really, no.” Her forehead settled onto the book in front of her. “It’s hopeless.”
Curious and a bit concerned, he set a hand on the table and leaned down to read the first few lines on the open page.
“Why are you researching myths?” he exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise.
“Our dispute regarding dragons was insignificant. You shouldn’t exhaust yourself with searching the legends. ”
“I’m not,” Katy replied, but she left her head on the book as she twisted to look up at him. “Dragons might be a myth, but magic isn’t.”
“My love, it doesn’t exist.” He gently brushed aside a curl that hung over her face. “Therefore, by definition, it is.”
“You’re in denial, Axel,” she huffed. “Haven’t you ever wondered how I managed to spin anything into gold?”
He trailed his hand down her cheek. “Good connections and a bribe for the guard outside your room,” he glibly said, giving her an easy smile that contradicted the wrinkle in his forehead.
“Although simply paying your father’s debts seems like an easier solution in that case.
But what do I care, as long as it allowed me to marry you? ”
“You’re ridiculous. And what about the fire at the theater?” Katy pressed, sitting up and resting an arm on the back of her chair. “There was nothing natural about that.”
The corners of Axel’s mouth tugged down as he considered her point. “I admit, that has always bothered me. However, I’m not going to believe in fairytales simply because I do not understand something.”
She stared at him for a few moments. “If something is true, it’s true whether you believe it or not. How can you dismiss what you saw with your own eyes?”
He lifted one shoulder. Something prickled at the back of his mind, but he ignored it. “I may not know the answer, but that does not preclude the existence of a logical explanation. Something does not become true simply because many people believe it to be so.”
Katy shook her head, but she marked her place and flipped her book closed. “Never mind. Are you here to fetch me for lunch?”
“That is indeed why I came, my love.” Extending his left elbow with a charming grin, he said, “If I may have the pleasure of escorting you there?”
She was quiet as they left the library, gazing down the hall with puckered lips instead of conversing with him.
Left alone with his thoughts, Axel found himself mulling over their conversation.
Leaving aside her strange fixation on magic, several of her points nagged at him. “How did you do it?” he finally asked.
Katy raised an eyebrow. “Do what?”
“Spin the gold, of course.” Winking, he patted her hand. “You were the one who brought it up.”
Instead of responding, Katy looked straight ahead, her eyes taking on a distant look. Just when he thought she wouldn’t answer, she said simply, “Magic.”
“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.” Axel squeezed her hand and tipped his lips up in a small smile, but he couldn’t help feeling disappointed. “As I said before, it matters not how you did it; I am simply thankful that you did.”
“Did you know there are four types?” she said abruptly. “Elements, minerals and metals, living creatures, and plants.”
Axel’s feet stopped as he stared at her. Was he imagining the crazed look in her eyes?
“All magic-users can use one of the types innately, and sometimes a second.” Her words poured out with a desperate quality.
“If they’re strong enough and they study, they can learn to use the others.
They have a kind of pool within themselves that they can access, and the more efficient they are in using it, the more they can do before—”
“Katy, what’s gotten into you?” he asked, wrapping her hands in his own.
She had always enjoyed a good story, but she usually kept her research to practical topics.
Why the sudden fascination with myth and folklore?
“If this is about children…” A recent meeting danced through his mind, but he shoved it away; he couldn’t burden her with that.
“You should stop worrying, my love. We’ll have a child when the heavens deem the time is right.
Even if magic existed, it wouldn’t be the answer. ”
Her eyes dropped to the floor, but she sounded frustrated. “That’s not what this—I’m not trying to use magic. Or find someone who can.”
Axel rubbed the backs of her hands with his thumbs, watching her with concern. Someone had shaken her. For his practical wife to be so nose-deep in magic research that she could rattle off theory… Had one of the council members said something?
“Do you know what I think you need?” he finally said, lifting her face with a finger under her chin. “I think you need a trip home.”
“I am home,” she protested.
Smiling gently, he focused on the worry crease in her forehead and replied, “You know what I mean. You should go to Flussendorf and spend some time with your family. You haven’t seen them in a while.”
“That’s true,” she admitted. “But your father won’t let you—”
Axel squeezed her hands. “Let me worry about Father. But even if I can’t convince him that I can be spared, you should still go.” He hesitated only a moment before playing dirty. “I’m sure Otto would appreciate the visit as well.”
“Otto will be there next week.” Her lips scrunched together in a frown.
“Accompanying the supply wagons to Reineggburg does not count.” The castle had been abandoned twelve years earlier, so it needed some work before Michael and his wife Arabella could vacation there.
Axel tilted his head to the side, narrowing his eyes.
“Otto will be supervising repairs at the castle, not visiting family. And your mother—”
“You know Otto only volunteered so he could slip over to Flussendorf, and I get regular letters from Liesl. Mother’s health is no worse than normal.” Narrowing her eyes right back, she said, “Why are you trying to get rid of me, Axel? What don’t you want me to know?”
He wasn’t trying to get rid of her; he wanted to remove some of her stress. But the second question was dangerous territory.
“I’m not—”
“Excuse me, Your Highnesses.” The footman bowed politely, and Axel buried his relief at the interruption. “The queen asked me to locate you, as they are waiting for your presence to begin the meal.”
“My sincerest apologies,” Axel replied with a regal nod. “We shall repair to the dining hall immediately. Thank you for reminding me of my negligence.”
“Um—I—”
“Ignore him,” Katy said, cutting across the young man’s stammering as she jerked her head in Axel’s direction. “You can’t take him too seriously.”
As they started walking down the hall again, Axel squeezed Katy’s hand and leaned over to whisper, “I don’t think you relieved his anxiety. He looks more worried now than he did before.”
“He must be new. I thought the servants were all accustomed to your foibles.” She softened the comment with a smile.
“But the respect due a prince!” Axel protested, pressing his free hand to his chest. “If you tell him to ignore me, he might take it as permission to do so literally!”
Her eyes sparkled, her worries over magic and the succession apparently forgotten. And if he was lucky, her belief that he was hiding something as well. “You would survive.”
Instead of replying, Axel laced his fingers through hers and faced forward, a wide grin on his face as he reached for the door to the formal dining hall.
Some of his nobles would sneer at him for entering in such a casual fashion; they thought a prince should bring his wife in on his arm. But it had been a long time since he had worried about their opinions of Katy and how she affected his princely behavior.
Because the only thing keeping him in his role as crown prince was the fact that he had no understudy. He would gladly step aside if he could, because he didn’t need a throne; he only needed Katy and the opportunity to sing.
As long as he had those two things, he could face anything with a smile.