Chapter 4 Bahira
Chapter Four: Bahira
His shock only seizes him for a few seconds before he eats up the remaining distance between us in just a few strides. His hands frame my face, my own clutching his wrists.
“Are you okay? You’re home earlier than expected. Did you— Was it because—” He swallows, his eyes searching mine for answers to the questions that dangle perilously between us.
Did I come home early for him? Does this mean I will marry him? Fucking gods, I hate that my gut response is to get angry with him. Not because I actually am, but because this seems unimportant compared to whatever else is wrong here.
“Please tell me what is going on with the guards? Is my family well?”
Daje’s thumbs slide over my cheekbones, his touch on me gentle as if he’s holding something delicate.
We both know I’m anything but. Slowly, I draw his hands away, and something flashes in his expression that’s there and gone in the length of a blink.
“A lot has happened in the past few days,” he answers, his voice lowering while his attention focuses on something behind me.
“It’s best to hear it directly from your father.
Come on, he and your mother are in the council room.
” He takes my hand, his fingers trembling in mine.
“Daje, you did not answer my question. Is my family alright?” In the silence that grows, I bounce my focus from Daje to the hallway and back again. Nothing looks out of place, but everything feels wrong. As we near the door to the council room, he finally answers me.
“I honestly don’t know.” Then he tugs on the door, and I step into chaos.
Each of the council members is standing around the ancient wooden table, their cheeks stained red as eyes of gray, blue, and brown bore into each other with ferocity.
My father glowers from the head of the table, his gaze firmly fixed on Daje’s father as the men speak through gritted teeth.
The other council members argue around them, Borris and Osiris’s voices the loudest amongst the group.
My focus shifts from the table to the startling cracks that trickle up the large wall to the right of the table and up to the ceiling, where one of the chandeliers hangs crookedly.
The jagged cuts into the stone spread like a spiderweb down the length of the room and to the adjacent wall, right to where a woman with familiar curly brown hair is standing and staring out one of the windows to the forest beyond, her hand cradling the side of her face.
I let go of Daje, tension bracketing my shoulders as I make my way to my mother, ignoring the council as my boots crunch over loose debris.
Whipping her head around, her deep gray eyes meet mine, a glassy sheen covering them.
Dressed in a short-sleeved mauve day dress, a belt of gold leaves cinching her waist, she would appear as regal and steadfast as she always did to anyone who only knew her queenly facade.
But I know her as my mother, and as I close the gap between us, I see what she tries to conceal from everyone else.
The furrow of her brows and the pursing of her lips.
Instead of a healthy glow to her brown skin, it’s paled to the point that the dark circles cresting beneath her eyes stand out viciously.
“Bahira,” she rasps, reaching out for me just as I curl into her embrace.
She smells like the flowers of this kingdom, like the earth after it’s been freshly tilled.
Robust and delicate, all at once. “Thank the gods you are here.” Her hand rests on the back of my head, holding me to her as her body quakes in mine.
“What is going on,” I whisper into her hair, my eyes once more drawn to the damage that’s evident around the room.
“Something has happened, and your brother—”
“Bahira.” My father’s voice ricochets through my chest as I watch him approach.
His black wavy hair hangs freely, the ends scraping his shoulders.
He wears a tunic of black, an intricate silver design threaded along the collar.
Yet it’s his face that stalls my next inhale.
He looks older than he did mere months ago.
Deep lines brace his mouth and dig into his forehead, his warm gray eyes lined with red that usually accompanies sleepless nights or boundless worry. “You’re home.”
Mother carefully unwraps her arms from around me, just in time for my father to replace them with his. Neither of us speaks, the embrace saying more than words could ever allow. I am home, and something is wrong. I am home. And something is wrong.
Unnerving silence settles into the room, and after a moment, my father releases me, and together with my mother, we walk to the table, the gazes of the council heavy upon us.
“Princess Bahira, it is good to see you back in your own kingdom,” Councilman Arav says, his light blue eyes assessing as he smirks.
I glance over his appearance, everything about him disheveled from his blonde hair to the gray tunic he wears.
I scan the other councilmen, finding the state of their clothing to be in a similar disarray.
“It is good to be home, though I would be remiss if I did not point out that tensions seem to be rather high.” At this, Councilman Kallin’s jaw clenches and Borris snickers under his breath. “Would someone please catch me up on what is happening?”
The sound of my father’s finger gently tapping the table top is the only sound in the room as seconds pass before finally Councilman Hadrik answers. “Prince Nox’s fiancée, Lady Rhea, was taken.”
I try to temper my reaction as Kallin watches me closely, but my heart fucking skips a beat at the news. Siyala was right to fear for Rhea’s safety, it seems. I measure my words carefully. “Taken? How can that be?”
“My fellow councilman is leaving out a crucial detail,” Kallin answers for Hadrik, sliding a piece of parchment across the table to me.
It’s a letter, one addressed to Nox from Rhea.
My gaze flicks to my father’s, then my mother’s, both of them torn between looks of pity and ones of deep concern.
“This letter, along with the engagement ring His Highness gave to Lady Rhea, were left in the prince’s room.
Not something someone who was taken abruptly would have the forethought to leave behind. ”
Hadrik narrows his eyes at Kallin, but I turn my attention back to the letter as I open it.
Rhea’s handwriting—loopy but elegant—details her fears of becoming queen and her subsequent decision that Nox deserved someone at his side who was better fit to rule.
She claims she cannot in good conscience marry him despite loving him because of the tension their marriage would cause in the kingdom.
Added at the bottom of the page is a warning not to go after her.
I lay the letter back on the table as I reconcile its words with the woman who I did not know but had seen glimpses of.
The one I met on the beach who was timid and frightened.
The one I later saw in the Mirror who appeared shy but loyal.
She clung to my brother, and he to her, as if they were each a pillar made to support the other.
That Rhea didn’t match the one that would leave my brother with only a note.
Siyala had been so worried about her friend.
So sure that the mortal king would do something, even if she didn’t have proof of how he could.
“Where is Nox?” I ask, folding my arms over my chest.
“We found him passed out at the beach. He is in the healers’ wing,” Councilman Borris quips, making my eyes narrow as he adds, “The prince has all but denounced his claim to the throne over this gi—” His words sputter, his fingers tracing over his neck as if something is bothering him there.
I glance out of the corner of my eye to my father, watching as his lips twitch just once before he evens out his expression. “Over Lady Rhea,” he finally spits out.
“Nox wouldn’t do that,” I say, earning a noise of derision from Councilman Osiris, his forehead wrinkled in disdain. I give him a look that silences whatever stupid retort tries to bubble up his throat as I add, “My brother loves his kingdom.”
“Love and duty to one’s kingdom can be two separate things,” Kallin retorts, his dark gray eyes latching on to mine.
“The council’s role is to aid the king in ensuring that this kingdom is protected and secure.
While I have no doubts that your brother would never let an enemy take over these lands without a fight, his loyalty to the kingdom and this council has been tested in a rather unfavorable light for him. ”
“Let us not forget that you placed an impossible choice at his feet. One that should have been denounced years ago,” my mother snarls at the head councilman.
Charged silence thickens the air, making the hair on the back of my neck rise. “What does she mean?”
Kallin sighs, the sound heavy with barely tempered defiance.
“We informed Prince Nox that while he has the ability to choose a consort, it is up to the council to vote on whether or not we believe the match to be a good fit for the kingdom. It appears neither he, nor His Majesty, were aware the council possessed that power.”
“Of course I wasn’t aware,” my father grits out, light purple flaring around him as his magic seeps from his profile. “I had no reason to question what I was led to believe was already true.”
“An unfortunate lesson, indeed,” Kallin responds.
It’s an effort not to let my jaw unhinge at the blatant disrespect.
“Regardless, the next matter at hand is to make sure our borders are secure. There is no telling where Lady Rhea might go—who she might let whispers spill to of what she’s learned while wooing the prince and—”
“You cannot be serious,” my father interrupts.
Kallin has the gall to look upset. “Unfortunately, I am. We have proof that Lady Rhea left of her own volition with that note. What we do not know is if everything she wrote in it was true. If those things were her only motivation. Preparing for possible threats should be our first priority.”
“What about what happened to your son?” my mother snaps, her hand gesturing to where Daje has pulled an extra chair to the other end of the table. “He came to us beaten and bloody, with no memory of what happened. What proof does that sound like to you?”
He had been beaten? Bloody?
“Perhaps it is proof of Lady Rhea’s intentions,” Councilman Arav offers, his light blue magic twirling over his knuckles as he plays with it. “All we know is that she and Daje were last seen together before the latter was knocked out and the former is now gone.”
“And what of his claim that a guard retrieved them?” my father asks, his tenor as foreboding as the sliding of a sword from its sheath.
Councilman Kallin regards his son. “Perhaps he only thinks that is what happened. Such a nasty hit as the one he received could have altered his memory of what actually occurred.”
Daje glares in his father’s direction. “I am sure there was a guard,” he growls, leaning so far forward that the edge of the table digs into his torso as anger contorts his features.
“I am sure that they beckoned Rhea and I towards the beach under the guise that Nox wanted to speak with us. I am sure that I spoke to Rhea as we walked under the night sky. And I am sure that I awoke to blood tainting the pathway, both mine and hers.”
My stomach drops as I shake my head. “You were ambushed by someone?”
Daje’s eyes snare mine, their hue the brightest I’ve ever seen them. “Yes.”
The councilmen begin chattering over each other as I sit back against my chair. It is only now clicking in my head that in order for all of this to have happened, it means there are mages working with King Dolian. What would motivate them to do that?
“What is more likely, Son? That you and the lady were attacked out of the blue the same night she pens a goodbye letter? Or that perhaps, with your guard lowered around her, she took advantage of you to aid in her own escape?”
“She wouldn’t have done that—”
“And you know her?” his father cuts in, spearing Daje with a menacing scowl. “Well enough to predict her actions? Her whims and desires?”
“She was my friend!” Daje shouts, slamming a fist on the table and lurching from his chair.
“And Nox entrusted me to keep her safe, and I—” He stumbles backwards, a hand running over his head and then down his face.
He stares at his father, unspoken fury floating between them before he spins on his heel and marches out of the room.
My father stands from his chair and reaches a hand out towards my mother. “I think this council needs a break. We should adjourn for now.”
Surprisingly, Kallin agrees. “Our job, first and foremost, is the protection of this kingdom and the people that reside within it. If that expectation cannot be met under the current state of affairs, then we will act as we need to in accordance with the rules that are laid out for our kingdom.”
The threat pierces my father’s chest, but he does a good job of hiding his reaction.
Our laws are written to retain a balance of power between sovereign and council except in moments when the council feels their ruler is not acting in the kingdom’s best interest. If the majority votes to remove my father as king, there is nothing he can do to stop it.
I stand from my chair and move to join my parents when Kallin speaks at my back.
“Princess Bahira, I understand you have only just returned, but we expect a full report of what you have learned in the Shifter Kingdom. As well as if relations with them are still on friendly terms should this event with Lady Rhea turn into something more.” Trepidation slithers down my spine, and I don’t spare the councilman a glance before exiting the council room with my parents.
I follow them down the hall, heading deeper into the palace and ignoring the way our presence—or more accurately, my presence—draws the gazes of those we pass. “Where are we going?”
My father waits until a pair of guards walks past us to answer. “To see your brother.”