CHAPTER 37
Sakura
When Keenan had implied he was dangerous when angry, Sakura had believed it was an overdramatic exaggeration. He was a protector by nature; he would never hurt her.
But as he loomed over her, his blue eyes as hard as diamonds glittering in the light from the torch on the floor, her certainty wavered. He looked quite capable of harm.
She flinched away from him, and something in his eyes flickered – a sign of rational thought returning?
Then he spun away from her, his fist pulling back like he intended to throw a punch into the empty air behind him…
and sagged, the fight draining out of him at the same rate as the blood leaching from his face.
He stumbled backward so fast he bounced off the wall.
“Keenan?” Sakura took a step toward him and paused. His blue eyes were wide, terrified, and staring up into the darkness as he curled in on himself. She shot a worried glance at the guard next to her. “Oliver, what’s wrong with him?”
Keenan squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face to the ground, bringing his arms up as if to ward off a blow. His breathing sped up, and he dropped to one knee.
Where was the man who had rescued her from the waterfall and put himself between her and any hazard that presented itself, whether that was falling rocks or an unknown danger in Oliver’s warning shout?
She’d seen him unsure of himself, but she’d never seen him cower like this.
It was a stark contrast to his blazing anger of a few moments ago.
Cherry launched herself off Oliver’s shoulder to land on Keenan, but he didn’t seem to notice her weight. The dragon stuffed her nose in his hair. “He’s caught in an illusion!” she cried.
“Can’t you pull him out?”
She turned a frustrated look on Sakura. “I can see magic. That doesn’t mean I can alter it.”
Oliver grabbed Sakura’s wrist and hauled her forward. She tripped as she tried to get her feet under her, but she was too shocked to protest. Placing his other hand on Keenan’s shoulder, the guard closed his eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“Adding us to the illusion,” he tersely replied.
Sakura’s jaw dropped. “I thought you couldn’t alter it.”
“Churippu can’t. I can.”
“Then why not—”
His head flew up, and he glared at her. “This is not simple. Kindly hush so I can focus!”
She had more questions, but she snapped her mouth shut. Better to help Keenan first and then ask why Oliver didn’t simply remove the illusion, and why he was in a hurry if it wasn’t real.
Although she was just as eager to make it stop. Her weapon-smith’s accusations had hurt, but he wasn’t wrong. And even if his words had been unjustified…
She couldn’t bear to see him looking so helpless.
A numbing sensation ran up her arm from Oliver’s hand. Sakura tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip. “It’s a side effect. It will go away once we’re in.”
Her mind felt like it was covered in tiny bolts of lightning. The dark tunnel dissolved into a dimly lit, dingy hallway with a narrow staircase. Their surroundings were hazy; if she focused, she could see the stone walls in the flickering light of her abandoned torch.
“And I thought you’d grown up. But look at you! You’re just as pathetic as the last time I saw you.”
The unfamiliar voice and a loud smack drew her eyes back to the magic-induced scene. Keenan huddled at the base of the stairs. An older man stood in front of him, his right hand curled into a fist.
She took a hurried step forward, though she didn’t know what she planned to do. She was a princess. She knew nothing about fighting.
Oliver pulled her back. “I don’t think they can see us. We can’t affect anything yet.”
Tugging her wrist away from him, Sakura cringed as the man struck her friend again. “Why doesn’t he defend himself? He’s not a trained guard, but surely he could fend off an unarmed attacker!”
“Because he’s eight years old,” the guard said quietly.
“Eight—” She looked at the scene again, confused and desperate to stop the beating. Magical illusion or not, the pain on Keenan’s face made it clear that he could feel it. “But he’s—”
His attacker spun away. “Useless boy,” he spat before raising his fist and resuming the assault.
But not before Sakura saw his eyes. Brilliant blue, with a familiar shape. And a hard light more reminiscent of what she’d seen a few minutes earlier than what she’d grown used to over the last few weeks.
That’s why he hates his eyes.
“The Daric crown doesn’t often impose the death penalty.
” Oliver’s soft voice was heavy as he too watched the terrible scene unfold.
“King Phillip prefers to match the punishment to the crime in the hopes his citizens will become better people. But thirteen years ago, he found cause to implement it.”
Sakura’s hand covered her mouth as she turned away from Keenan’s shout of pain. There had to be something she could do!
“A man killed his wife in a drunken rage after she interfered with his abuse of their son,” the guard continued.
“A weapon-smith took the boy in. When he grew up, he developed a habit of getting into trouble with the city guard.” He turned to look at her.
“But every time, it was to protect a woman in danger.”
That’s why the topic of his parents upset him so much.
His father’s hard, angry eyes flitted through her memory as Keenan whimpered. That’s why he’s afraid of his own anger.
She heard Keenan’s solemn voice outside her door, assuring her that he didn’t hurt women. That he protected them.
That’s it!
Stepping boldly past Oliver, Sakura strode up behind Keenan’s father. She lifted her chin and molded her face into her best haughty expression. Now, if only the illusion would let her interfere.
“You will cease this assault at once,” she demanded. “It is reprehensible and ill-suited to anyone who dares call himself a man.”
Keenan’s arms lowered enough for him to turn a horrified stare on her. “No. Sakura, run!”
Ignoring the thrill that he’d used her name, she focused on his father. The man sneered at her. “And who are you to order me around?”
Drawing herself up to her full height, she replied, “Sakura Koyoshu, Princess of Ryuni.”
Her declaration had as much impact on this man as she expected it to.
“A princess?” he scoffed. Shaking his head, he looked at Keenan.
“You’re a bigger fool than I thought, boy.
First refusing to put your woman in her place, then being willing to buy such an absurd story?
Ain’t no real princess ever going to look twice at a weak, pathetic thing like you. ”
Keenan slowly pushed himself to his feet, cradling his right arm to his chest and leaning against the wall for support. Cherry swayed on his shoulder. “Please, Sakura. Get out of here,” he pled.
“That’s right, little miss,” Keenan’s father mocked, waving his fingers in a shooing motion. “Do as the little boy tells you and leave us be.”
“Are you coward enough to strike a woman?” She knew he was. But it was just an illusion. It couldn’t truly hurt, could it? Too much?
She glanced over at Keenan and the arm he was favoring. Or maybe it could.
But if she couldn’t undo the mistake of ever following her mother’s plan, perhaps she could at least prove her sincerity now.
“He is, Princess. Please don’t stay.”
She opened her mouth. To reassure him, to encourage him to take a stand, she didn’t know. But the next moment, she was on her knees, reeling from his horrible father’s backhand. If this was only an illusion, how did it have physical force?
“A lot of good your fine airs do you now,” he laughed. “Now stay down, or I’ll—”
Sakura heard a dull thump above her as Cherry squawked. Spinning on her knees, she saw Keenan scrambling off his father while the dragon flapped frantically overhead. The older man caught him with a mean-looking punch, but he managed to stagger to his feet.
His father followed, an unpleasant smile on his face. “So you do have guts after all.”
Sakura tried to stand, but her foot caught in her skirt, sending her back to her hands and knees.
Keenan positioned himself in front of her.
“You won’t touch her again!” he snarled.
His father swung at him, but he ducked out of the way and whipped his dagger out with his left hand, holding it in front of him in a clear threat.
The older man lifted his hands and took a step back. “What do you intend to do with that? Not planning to murder your own father, are you?”
“Not so tough when your victim isn’t helpless, are you?
” Keenan challenged. He turned as he followed the man’s movement, giving Sakura a glimpse of his face.
A trickle of blood ran down his chin from a split lip, but his eyes were as hard and unyielding as when he had snapped earlier.
But now his fury was under control, even as he directed it at the one person he had the most right to hate.
“Bold words when you’re pointing a blade at my gut,” his opponent bit back. “Why don’t you put it away and fight me like a man?”
“With my weak hand because I can’t use the dominant one,” Keenan laughed harshly. “If my arm wasn’t broken, it would be my sword. And I still wouldn’t put it down. This has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with ending your ability to hurt those weaker than yourself.”
“You planning to run me through, then?”
Sakura pushed herself slowly to her feet, minding her skirt this time. Keenan’s hand flexed on the hilt of his dagger, but he neither lunged forward to remove the threat nor lowered his weapon.
“I’ll not hang for dispensing justice on my own.” He jerked his head down the translucent hallway. “Get out of here. I’m sure Hugh and Milo have called the guards by now, but maybe you can give them a good chase before they catch you.”
His father spat on the ground. “I always knew you were weak.”
Keenan’s jaw tightened. “Having no desire to mete out death is not a weakness. But if you insist that I incapacitate you, I will. It won’t be pleasant.”