The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series) Read online

  She let me move her around, not trying to fight the dance, or my touch or what I was realizing was between us. The music picked up speed and so did our dance steps, soon we were out of breath and laughing with the effort to keep up to the practiced gypsies. I moved faster, more accurately and found myself caught up in the dance…. caught up in Amelia. Soon, it was just us dancing around the fire, just us in the Romanian wilderness, just us in….

  The song ended, breaking the trance dancing with her put me into. I stared down at her as her chest heaved with the effort to breathe and her hair was pushed back away from her face. Her eyes held mine for a few moments with nothing in between us but the raw attraction that ignited her blood as hotly as it did mine.

  It was at that moment the night ended and it was time to leave. I didn’t have time for girls. Even if one had finally managed to grab my attention. And I didn’t have the patience for the complexity I knew was love.

  “Thank you for the dance, Amelia,” I forced a strong polite voice, when she had left me frustratingly breathless and dizzy.

  Her eyes narrowed on me, and she waited a second before speaking. “I think you should call me Mimi,” she struggled to make herself sound stern. “I think I would like it better if you called me Mimi,” she agreed with herself, nodding her head slowly.

  “And I think I like calling you Amelia better,” I confessed, biting back a grin. Her eyes widened with the sound of her name and I couldn’t help it, I really liked how she reacted when I used it.

  With that, I turned around half loving how I left her staring after me and half hating how I had to walk away from her. But there were more important things than an infatuation with a spoiled princess and sick curiosity for how she made me feel. Hundreds of girls had been paraded in front of me and not one of them had caught my full attention. Amelia would be no different as soon as I distanced myself from her.

  And I needed to distance myself from her. I needed to get back to the castle and figure out how to protect my Kingdom from another round of evil set on their destruction.

  Chapter Eight

  “Ah! Sorry!” I all but shouted on my way out of the throne room when I accidentally walked in on a very private moment between Eden and Kiran.

  I shuddered against the image I was pretty sure would never be erased from my memory. I wondered if there was a magical ceremony that could cleanse my brain, like scrub it completely clean. That was going to take years of therapy before I could emotionally move on from that. And they were crazy if they ever thought I was going to sit in one of those thrones again.

  I shuddered again.

  “Avalon, is everything alright?” Talbott asked while walking briskly towards me. He was in full military mode with his soldier style walk and classic black dress pants and gray polo, the casual uniform of the Titan.

  “No!” I whined, knowing I was being a baby, but there was nothing I could do to stop it at this point. “Nothing is alright! I will never be the same after that!”

  I shuddered again. Violently.

  “After what?” Talbott asked but then seemed to think better of the hallway. “Here, let’s go in here and we can wait for Eden and Kiran.”

  “Uh, maybe we should wait before we-“

  “Avalon, I’m sorry about that,” Eden peeked past the heavy brass door to the throne room. I looked away afraid of what I would see. And then I looked away in a different direction and then in another direction, basically I needed to look anywhere but at her. “Oh don’t be a baby, it’s not like we were having sex.”

  I let out a growl of disgust and slapped my hands over my ears. “Don’t ever say that word around me again. Ever!”

  I got giggles in response. Giggles.

  “Sorry about that, brother,” Kiran offered.

  “Wait, what actually happened Avalon?” Talbott asked, while putting these very awkward pieces together. “Is this why you called me in to talk? Listen I can solve a lot of problems for you, but I don’t think that is one of them.” And then he laughed. Talbott laughed.

  “No, that is not why I called a meeting,” I snapped. “And, honestly I’m not sure anyone can help with the emotional damage from that.” I gestured in the general direction of Eden and Kiran still not able to make eye contact with them.

  “You are a full grown adult now, Avalon. Please tell me a little PDA does not make you this uncomfortable,” Eden chastised me. And she was right. A little PDA shouldn’t make me uncomfortable. But there was nothing little about that public display of affection happening in the throne room, unless you wanted to call it a little PDB…. public display of banging.

  “When it’s your sister, it should always make you this uncomfortable,” I drawled dryly, another shudder shaking my core.

  “Is everything alright?” Gabriel asked. He had approached wearing a stern scowl on his face and flanked by Angelica and Silas.

  “No, it’s not,” I sighed, gesturing toward the throne room. There were other rooms we could have congregated in, but most of them still reminded me of Lucan and I tried to avoid them. The throne room definitely still held his signature style, but when I stood inside his once place of honor wearing the crown he used to oppress my people, I stood with pride and confidence because it was my throne room now and I offered freedom to the people.

  “Avalon enough! You can’t seriously be this damaged!” Eden interrupted, and I felt more than saw how embarrassed she was.

  “I am damaged!” I defended myself, but then released her from some of her humiliation. “But this is about something more important than my future therapy sessions.”

  With that everyone filed into the throne room looking solemn and serious. This was going to be a hard conversation. We had succeeded in bringing both peace and freedom to our people and all of us had fought vigilantly to ensure that our people would enjoy the fruits of our labor for thousands of years to come. Hell, Eden and I had even given up our own personal freedom so that the rest of the Kingdom could feel stable with a King and Queen.

  But now all of that was in jeopardy and I couldn’t even give them concrete details. The crown, that I had slipped on as soon as I was back from the gypsy village, weighed heavily on my head tonight. And for the first time in three years it wasn’t because of my own selfishness or boredom. Tonight was the first night I felt a real, tangible responsibility as King to protect my people.

  “Earlier this evening I paid a visit to Ileana,” I began when everyone was seated around the room. I stepped back to take my seat on the middle throne before thinking better of it. Halfway into sitting, I frantically stood back up from the contaminated seat.

  So. Gross.

  “The gypsy queen?” Silas asked, his Caribbean accent thick and his gray eyes fierce. “What did she see?”

  “For a while she has been having visions of another rebellion,” I paused and waited for that to sink in. When no one asked any immediate questions I continued, “She could not give me any specific details or even a country or place where these visions originated from, but she could say that whoever is plotting to take over this Kingdom has been at it for a while, and they will not stop until they have the throne,” I paraphrased.

  Other than Angelica’s sharp intake of breath, the room stayed utterly silent for a full minute, each Immortal lost in their own deep well of thoughts. Usually prone to fidgeting I was surprisingly still as I waited for the flood of questions. My arms crossed themselves out of a battle born instinct and I chomped down on my thumbnail so that I could think better, or so I told myself. I hadn’t stood in this position in a long time, and even though it seemed I should be rusty when it came to strategically thinking about defense and attacking, I felt sharper and more prepared than ever before.

  “What’s the meeting all about?” Sebastian asked, entering the room without knocking. He was trailed by Lilly and Seraphina.

  “Ileana has predicted another rebellious faction,” Gabriel explained, while tugging at his priest’s collar. I nearly smiled as
I watched him struggle against the traditional religious outfit. He hadn’t been back to his parish since he left Peru with Eden years ago and he served no religious purpose in my council. Yet, he continued to identify himself with the Catholic Church, even though his orders had been given centuries ago. And even though he was a born warrior, his very nature was fighting against the binding uniform. “She hasn’t seen anything with clarity, but she is certain there is a group of Immortals plotting against Avalon.”

  “And Eden and Kiran,” I reminded them, not wanting to be viewed as the lone royal. “There are no vivid details, just that there is someone out there that would like the throne.”

  “A disturbance in the force?” Sebastian asked on a laugh. My lips twitched at his reference, but I was more than confident at least half this room had no idea what he was talking about. “So there are a few greedy bastards out there that see Avalon’s coup as an invitation to play musical thrones. So what? It’s not like we don’t have the support of the majority of the Kingdom, plus the army is on our side. How could they possibly overtake us? We are the original Resistance, they can’t do what we did.”

  “Why can’t they?” I demanded, needing an answer.

  “Because we have goodness and truth and freedom and all that on our side. Now that the people have that, especially freedom, they are not going to want to give it all up,” Sebastian reasoned.

  Silence fell over us again as we contemplated Sebastian’s argument. It should be simple to agree with him, it was the truth. We did have freedom and more on our side. That should be enough for any people to embrace and occupy. But I knew that it wasn’t. Our own ancestors had given up freedom in exchange for oppression centuries ago and I couldn’t be certain that wouldn’t happen again.

  Ileana’s words came back to haunt me as I contemplated an evil worse than Lucan. A feeling like ice cold water doused my stomach, sending me reeling with a fear I refused to accept. I opened my mouth to share her thoughts with the room, but then closed it quickly again. We had to fight whatever this was with a fierce intensity and unwavering dedication. Filling us with an unproved fear would do nothing but cast doubt on our cause and make us our question every move.

  “Thank you for the words of encouragement, cousin,” Kiran answered Sebastian regally. “You’re right about everything of course. But I am not sure we can treat this threat lightly. This Kingdom has given up their freedom before and even still recently they chose a king over a democracy. We need to get to the bottom of this as quickly as we can.”

  “Gabriel, Silas, Angelica, do you know of any older generation Immortals that were unhappy with Lucan?” I asked, hoping to ferret out the threat before anything happened. Although, after replaying my conversation with Ileana in my head for the last two hours I was almost positive that they would make the first move according to her vision. And until then we would have to play the waiting game, which went against everything in my nature and caused me physical pain.

  “Everyone was unhappy with Lucan,” Angelica laughed. “I’m sorry Kiran, dear.”

  “It’s nothing I didn’t already know, given his ultimate assassination and all,” Kiran waved her off with some dry humor.

  “There are those that were more than in favor of a new regime, even if they didn’t want to join Amory’s Rebellion,” Gabriel offered. “But none that were motivated to start their own.” He sat pensively for a moment before adding, “Or that I knew of.”

  “There are thousands of Immortals living all over the world, how will we ever narrow them down to even a list of suspects?” Eden observed a bit desperately and I felt the fear of another war snake through her blood. She loved her people too much to want to see another fight break out. We were lucky in the last battle because it ended so quickly. By the time I came face to face with Lucan, the majority of the Titans had joined a very willing army of Immortals desperate for his death. He died because we all took a piece of his magic; the entire Kingdom stood together and demanded his blood.

  That night was the first step in a new era for my people.

  I could only hope I wouldn’t go down as easily. If there was a fight, people would die. People I loved would die.

  “Terletov,” Eden mumbled into the silent room and I was positive I was the only one who understood her and it was only because of our twin connection.

  “What was that, Love?” Kiran asked, putting a hand on her lower back.

  “Terletov,” I ground out for her. “I should have thought of him immediately.”

  “But I thought he died?” Seraphina asked in a small voice.

  “He did, I mean, Eden took his magic and Lucan had him and his men killed after the Titan Guard brought him back here,” I explained, wondering where Eden’s thought train was headed.

  “I, um, I didn’t take everyone’s magic,” Eden explained weakly. I felt regret and ice cold fear ignite her magic. Kiran instinctively put his arms around her. “There were a few men that escaped. I let them go…. I couldn’t…. I didn’t want to be the reason any more Immortals lost their lives. I haven’t really thought about the kidnapping since it happened. I mean…. I’ve really tried not to think about it.”

  I wanted to put a comforting arm on my sister, knowing the very thought of how vulnerable Terletov had made her feel when he shot her and dragged her from Lucan’s imprisonment unnerved her. Hell, it unnerved me. And I realized that I too had tried to put that entire incident behind me.

  I should have thought of him immediately.

  “But there were probably more Immortals involved than what were with you, Eden,” Talbott reasoned rationally. And he was right.

  “Were you part of the rescue team?” I asked him, having a hard time remembering.

  “No, I wasn’t. But I was debriefed later. Lucan sent a team of Titans to see if they could sniff anything else out, but our hands were tied with Eden and you and I don’t think they were able to dig very deep. They followed a trail from Latvia through Hungary, but then it went dead. Other Titans had followed Delia and Justice to our neck of the woods and so they left the mission in Hungary and returned here.” Talbott spouted out the details slowly as if he was struggling to remember them too.

  “Gabriel and I will pick up where they left off,” Silas stood abruptly. And with his movement I could feel the magical current of the room snap and pop with anxious, determined energy. I wasn’t the only Immortal restless and bored apparently.

  “I’ll go with you,” Sebastian volunteered.

  I shot a quick glance to Seraphina, wondering if she would give him her permission but she just rolled her eyes and then avoided looking at him completely.

  “Alright, and you’ll leave first thing in the morning,” I conceded, ignoring the devastating pang of disappointment at being left behind. There was a time when I would have been sent first to investigate and control a situation. Now I was chained to a golden throne I couldn’t even sit in until it was doused with some seriously strong disinfectant. “We can stop this before anything gets out of hand. Be diligent and thorough and call for back up at the first sign of trouble. I will assemble a team that will be able to meet you at a moment’s notice, but for now let’s keep this investigation discreet. We don’t need to cause any unnecessary attention and spook these guys.”

  “Or scare the people,” Eden offered in a voice barely above a whisper.

  I barely contained a growl of anxious energy. It felt good to plan and delegate again, and for plans more important than political parties.

  With those final orders the meeting dispersed. I watched as Talbott walked to Lilly and pulled her into his arms. Kiran whispered soothing words into Eden’s ear and even Seraphina walked over to give Sebastian a kiss and a hug goodbye, even if there was a weird, strange tension between the two of them.

  I stood awkwardly in the middle while Angelica discussed travel routes with Silas and Gabriel. I stood alone. And for the first time in my life, standing alone felt lonely.

  Chapter Nine


  I woke with a start, fast and quick. My heart pounded, my ear drums rang and a thick sheen of sweat plastered my hair to my neck. I reached out into the thick folds of blankets on my massive king-size bed and felt around until I was sure I was alone. Until I was sure I was safe.

  I didn’t scare easily. I wasn’t scared ever. No, I couldn’t remember a moment in my life when I had felt nothing but fear. Sure, there were those moments when fear was stronger than any other emotion, but always coupled with it was confidence, or determination or anger. This fear stood alone and consumed me.

  And seriously, a nightmare?

  But it was so real. It was so…. they were gone. The details, the events, the haunting dreamscape that tortured me with chills and boiling blood at the same time; the visions that had me hunting down a sword and a gun and setting out for vengeful retribution. They slipped away, back into the abyss of my subconscious.

  And I wished they would stay there.

  But mine was the kind of life where nightmares became reality, where I had to suffer against the brutal torture of a tyrant, where I watched and mourned as friends died, where my sister’s life was exchanged for mine and my parents and grandfather were murdered in front of me. My life was the stuff of nightmares. And three years of peace meant nothing when war was on the horizon.

  I drew another stuttering breath and ran my hands through my damp and matted hair. I forced myself to breathe deep and even breaths and my heart to slow its rapid rhythm. Whatever was left behind when I opened my eyes would make itself known soon enough; there was no use worrying over it now.

  The sun shone through my long windows and I glanced over at the clock, surprised by how late I slept. Usually I was up before the sun, and I enjoyed the quiet peacefulness of a castle not yet awake, before everyone started demanding my attention and required me to make menial decisions.

  I stumbled to the shower, stepped out of my boxers and into the hot water I started magically from across the room. I needed a steamy bathroom before I even crossed the threshold in order to wake up.