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But I didn’t.
Instead of feeling at home when I looked at the Lux King and their Prince and Princess, I felt a cold, numbing darkness. I found myself leaning closer to Sie without realizing it. As if sensing my unease, Sie squeezed my hand, but loosened his grip once I winced from the cut that was still bleeding into him.
“We will be looking forward to meeting with the youngest Prince of Lux soon. Thank you for coming to our wedding,” Sie said, his voice sounding regal and every bit the King he would soon become.
The King of Lux smiled before sauntering off with his two children in tow. But even from across the room, I felt his eyes on me. The light blue and silver pinning me to my spot on the dais, fixed on our blood bonded hands. There was no light in his eyes, just dull emptiness like staring into the bottom of the ocean, unable to gasp for air. Like he was sucking the oxygen out of me from the moment he stood before us. I was drowning on land.
When they were out of hearing range, Sie leaned forward and whispered into my ear, “Whatever you do, Scotlind, don’t ever be in front of that male without your necklace on. In fact, any of them. Him and his children.” A chill went down my spine. The feeling the Lux King had given me made me know what he said was true.
I found myself saying, “He is coming to your coronation? Theyallare?”
“Yes, three months from now.”
“And he has another son?” I pressed.
“Yes. They are all known to be ruthless. All three of his children are ranked five. Prince Arcane will inherit the crown. He takes after his father the most and has devoted his life to politics.”
“Inherit,” I mumbled, forgetting for a moment that the Lux Kingdom did not operate the same as Tennebris. They didn’t have a King’s Tournament where males competed to rule. They lived by rankings for status among their court, but as for their ruler, it had always been one bloodline passed down from the same family. One powerful, scary family.
“Princess Dovelyn is as cunning as she is beautiful. And the youngest Prince is rumored to be the worst of them all. There is talk that the Lux King offered him the crown because of how strong his abilities are, even though it is unorthodox to skip over the eldest, but he declined. Since he refused, he took up the military route. He has been the commander of the Luxian armies for almost a century, and they are brutal. He makes our King’s Guard seem like nothing.”
According to my classes at LakeWood, all the Luxian royals had arranged marriages with the strongest ranked females, creating stronger and stronger heirs. They must think of me being Sie’s Queen—with him being the only rank five in Tennebris—a complete joke. I shuddered thinking about just how powerful they had to be. How there were many rank fives in Lux and only one in Tennebris.
As if Sie could read my thoughts, he added, “He’s strong. They all are. Their entire bloodline has been rank fives for many generations, and the youngest Prince’s powers are rumored to be the strongest amongst our kind throughout both Kingdoms. He is someone you do not want to get to know.”
I reached for my necklace as I asked, “What are their abilities?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” he admitted. “They each have multiple. I know the two you met today both possess air abilities. The youngest Prince possesses fire. I’m not certain what else they have, though.”
My calf ached as I thought about the damage a fire ability could do. I tried not to touch my leg as I felt the heat of the flames burn my skin all over again, dragging me back to when I was seven.
“The Lux King said that the youngest Prince was busy in a diplomatic affair, but I thought all meetings were held together?” I asked.
Sie glanced around the room before whispering softly, “They are. He’s not in a meeting. The youngest Prince is in battle right now.”
“Battle? With who? Tennebris and Lux have been at peace with one another, have they not?”
“Shhh,” Sie hushed as he glanced around the throne room. Everyone was too drunk and far too into dancing to pay attention to our conversation, and the dais was positioned furthest from the crowd. “There’s a rebellion. It’s been going on for the past three hundred years. It’s been kept hidden from the general public as best as possible. The Luxian armies are much larger and stronger than our Guard, so whenever the rebellion attacks, they fight in it. And the youngest Lux Prince is their leader. He chooses to fight right alongside his men. He has been battling against the rebellion for the past century ever since he took up the role of Commander, and since he joined, there isn’t much left of it.”
“A rebellion,” the words were breathless on my lips. “Against what? What are they fighting for?”
“For things to be equal. To get rid of the ranking system. Most of the rebels are made up of the lower ranks. Twos, ones, and zeroes. They are sympathizers to nixes.”
“How do you know all this?”
“From King Lunder. It is kept a secret, Scotlind, so you cannot do anything with this information. Only members of the royal court and the High Council of each Kingdom are aware of this. The men in our Guard don’t even know as they don’t fight in it. Only Lux’s soldiers are and they are sworn to secrecy.”
“How have they been able to keep it a secret, though? Surely battles are difficult to keep hidden.”
“Most are happening in Lux, and they are capable of handling it swiftly. But when the rebels attack their castle, we have set Advenians that we send over on work visas who have compulsion abilities to wipe the memories of anyone that might have witnessed it.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, unable to hide the fact that my voice rose an octave. I was not the only one who wanted things to change. It gave me hope and exhilaration knowing that a group of people already wanted what I sought. That they were battling for it right now. Sie and I could work with them. We could fight with them. That was if I could convince Sie. Maybe Peter would help.
“Because,” he said, breaking my thought, “I want you to understand how dangerous what you want is. Because any time the rebellion attacks, the Prince’s army wipes them out entirely, and I mean that literally. The Luxian army is powerful. Everyone in it is strong, way too strong. You should avoid all of them. Especially the Prince. His fire is so powerful that he leaves the battlefields in flames. There are no survivors—no bodies to bury. Just ash.”
I swallowed. Fire. The ability that killed my real family. The ability that haunts my nightmares. And the one Prince who has killed thousands with it.
THIRTY-ONE
