CHAPTER 15
Axel
T
he wind whipped against Axel’s face as he leaned over his horse’s neck and urged it to go faster. They had already outpaced the carriage. Soon, he would have to slow for his horse’s health, but the roiling thoughts and emotions swirling within him eased with the bracing air.
His sister might be alive.
His wife had waited months to tell him he was a father and had failed to tell him that she’d bartered away their child when she was still a girl.
In a few hours, Lord Ulrich would be pushing for names at the council meeting, but an heir was finally on the way.
A bubble of excitement blossomed in Axel’s chest, but his next thought shoved it back down.
Katy’s stranger planned to steal the child. With magic, a myth.
But if Helena had been roused from a twelve-year enchanted sleep, didn’t that mean magic was real?
He winced as his mind rejected that thought. No, it wasn’t. But if Helena had been cursed, then—
His thoughts fought him, twisting inside his head. Katy had said it months ago: the evidence was right in front of him. But magic—magic couldn’t—it couldn’t be real.
“Your Highness, we should slow down.” Bertram’s voice cut through his distraction. “With the chill and the snow on the road, it is unwise to push the horses for so long.”
Axel pulled back on the reins, gradually slowing his horse. Small white clouds puffed around the animal’s nostrils as it tossed its head. “Thank you, Bertram. It is always a comfort to know you are looking out for me.”
“At twenty-eight, you should look after yourself more,” the guard muttered.
Laughing at the comment relaxed the tension in Axel’s shoulders. “Ah, Bertram, what shall I do on that far-distant day when you decide to retire from my service? It will not be the same without you at my back.”
“Less distant than you might think,” Bertram grumbled. “I’m not as young as I once was.”
“I know, my friend. And I thank you for every year you have spent with me.”
They drifted into silence as their horses walked. After a while, they pushed back into a trot, alternating between a faster pace to cover ground more quickly and a slower pace to allow the horses to rest.
Finally, at a little past noon, the turn-off to Reineggburg appeared out of the trees. Axel’s anticipation began to mount again as his horse cantered down the trail. Since it was more sheltered than the main road, less snow covered it, allowing them to move more easily.
Was Axel really about to see his sister again? Would she look like the thirteen-year-old in his memories? Would she be thin and gaunt from lack of nutrition, sustained by magic but only barely?
The thought warred with his mind’s insistence that magic was myth, but other memories crowded in, memories of listening to servants discuss the curse cast at Helena’s christening.
Of his father lamenting the need to keep her away from the capital so her curse wouldn’t drive them from their home and center of government.
It couldn’t be true, could it?
But as holes in his memories filled, the unnatural resistance in his head was pushed to the side. He remembered. He remembered so much. Visiting Helena at Reineggburg, playing there with Michael when the Daric royalty came to Ralnor, riding to Flussendorf to take the monthly orders for supplies.
Spending extra time at the mill amusing himself with the blushes of the miller’s oldest daughter. Enjoying the simple way she let him be himself. Letting her drag him to the Felsig River when she had a free afternoon.
No wonder he’d been so taken with the girl who found his dressing room after The Tanner’s Secret. Katy was right: she was his village girl.
The guards at the gate stood aside at his approach.
Not bothering to slow, he barreled through, only pulling up when he reached the front steps.
“Is there no groom available?” he called out, throwing himself from the horse’s back.
With the weather, he wasn’t surprised no one was waiting, but he was impatient.
Bertram and his horse trotted up behind him. “Excellent. I’ll let you handle the horses,” Axel declared, tossing his reins to his guard and running up the stairs. Bertram made a swipe at the reins while dismounting, but Axel didn’t stay to see how he fared.
As soon as Axel reached the front door, a footman pointed him toward the dining room. He charged off down the hall, barely keeping his pace below a jog; the whirling thoughts and emotions drove him forward. After twelve years of believing his little sister was dead, he was about to see her again.
When he reached the last turn, he broke into a run. His boots slapped against the floor, echoing down the empty hallway. He skidded to a stop at the dining room, flinging the door open before he rushed in. “Helena!”
She half rose from her chair, green eyes wide with surprise. Her chestnut hair hung loose like it always had, framing a face that had aged, but not enough to question her identity.
It was true.
He rushed into the room, sweeping her up into a hug. “Helena, you’re really alive. You’re all right.” She was warm and real inside his arms as he crushed her against his chest. It was hard to speak through the knot in his throat.
“Yes, it’s good to see you, too, Axel, now will you let me breathe?” she gasped.
Giving her an apologetic smile, he stepped back but kept his hands on her arms. The emotion in his throat pushed its way to his face, but he restrained it. “I just can’t believe you’re really here,” he choked out. He looked her over. “You’ve grown. You’re taller than you were.”
She snorted. “So have you. Look at you, all grown up. Michael tells me you’re married.” She shoved him lightly in the shoulder, but there was a hint of emotion in her voice, too. “How could you get married without me?”
“Well, maybe if you had let me know you were still alive, I would have waited,” he teased lightly. “Mother and Father will be so thrilled to see you!”
“Where are they? Aren’t they here?”
Axel shook his head, wondering how Katy had fared with Lord Ulrich.
Hopefully, she’d roasted him as she had every other noble who had doubted her in the last five and a half years.
“It wasn’t a good time for Father to leave the city.
They sent a carriage so I can bring you back as soon as possible.
They wanted to be here,” he assured her with a soft smile.
“But it doesn’t matter. You’ll be home soon enough. ”
Instead of being pleased, Helena frowned and stepped back. “Home? I don’t want to go home right now.”
“What do you mean?” A furrow formed in his forehead. “We’ve believed you dead for years. Mother and Father are desperate to see you!”
Father loved Katy’s fire because it reminded him of his daughter. That fire lit Helena’s eyes now. “Well, if they’re so desperate, then they can come here. This has always been my home. I’m not going to Himmelsburg unless Michael comes with us.”
For the first time, Axel’s attention left his sister long enough to take in the rest of the room.
The atmosphere in the dining room snapped with tension.
Michael’s shoulders were taut, and his face was more serious than usual, which was saying something.
Michael’s wife, Arabella, was looking at Axel with a hopeful expression, but her hands were twisting in her lap.
Beyond the table, the head of her guard stood at a window.
He was angled toward it, but his eyes were on the room’s occupants.
“Helena,” Axel said slowly, keeping one eye on the others, “I know you two were friends, but I don’t understand why you would choose him over your family.”
“Because he’s my true love,” Helena replied. She raised her chin farther. “I’m not leaving him.”
This day just kept getting better, didn’t it? Glancing at his friend, Axel released an uneasy laugh. “Ah, Helena, you do know Michael and Arabella are married, right?”
“Of course I do,” Helena replied with a disdainful sniff. “But it doesn’t change the fact that he’s my true love.”
Shifting his weight to his back foot, Axel watched Arabella’s loyal guardian warily. Just what had Helena been up to since being disenchanted? He kept his voice light, hoping he wasn’t about to add to the tension. “And what makes you say that?”
“Because he’s the one who woke me up,” she replied easily. “Only a kiss from my true love could do that, so that means Michael. Is. My. True love.”
“Is it true, Axel?” Arabella asked. The quiet desperation in her voice drew his eyes to her. “Is that the condition that could break the curse?”
Heavens above, what a mess. He rubbed the back of his neck, wishing he had a conclusive answer for her.
“I was only three years old when it happened, and Mother and Father never discussed it around me. Mother might have said something the day Helena pricked her finger, but I wasn’t exactly taking notes. ”
“So, it could be true?”
“I don’t know,” he hurriedly said. “To be honest, I only remember the part about the magic that would drive everyone from her presence and the magic that would draw men to her location.”
Awkward silence descended on the room. How could Helena already be causing trouble? Michael had been heartbroken when they thought she died, but the man was married. And Axel’s strained nerves couldn’t handle Helena’s selfishness or his best friend’s idiocy.
Clearing his throat, he said, “I’m afraid I outpaced the carriage a bit, but I’m sure it will arrive soon.” He scanned the short, tight dress that his sister wore. “There is clearly no point in taking your clothes, but is there anything else you wish to bring, Helena?”
“Michael,” she declared, folding her arms across her chest as she stared at him.
The stress built up in his chest, and his mask cracked. “I meant belongings,” he growled at her. “You are getting in the carriage, and Michael and Arabella are not welcome.” He glanced sideways at the others. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Arabella hurriedly assured him. Michael said nothing.