Wind Flowers, page 10
Still in his black suit, he stepped out from his strange hiding spot, brushing off the errant dirt from his trousers. But he’d abandoned his black mask, those honeyed-tea eyes on full display.
My breath caught as he stared at me, his chest rising and falling as he took me in. His grin expanded to a full smile. “Sorry for hiding, I didn’t know if you’d show, and I didn’t want to get caught by anyone else.” He tucked his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels. A deep dimple appeared on his cheek. “Walk with me?”
I mangled out a nod, and he laced his hand through mine, tugging us forward.
My heart danced a brisk jig as I followed him further into the conservatory, jasmine blossoms and peonies and rare orchids reaching toward us, curious spectators to our rendezvous. But my thoughts centered solely on his hand in mine, his palm a cool counter to my clammy one. And for once in my life, I was too nervous to be self-conscious, my head spinning at the contact.
I cleared my throat, grasping for any conversation to break the awkward quiet that’d settled between my lips. “If it’s not too forward to ask…what you were doing at that bar in Hiku City, of all places?”
Vox slowed, twisting to face me. “I could ask you the same thing, Princess.”
I shrugged, masking the way my chest squeezed tight. “Can’t a girl want a night of freedom before her future is signed away to the highest bidder?”
His eyes narrowed, like he was trying to unknot some tangled thing in his head at that comment. But that mesmerizing, elicit dimple remerged, chasing away any disquiet. “Can’t a man need a breath of fresh air?”
“I could use some, too,” I admitted, my sweaty palm trembling in his. I jerked my head toward the garden doors, the sprawling lawns beyond beckoning. Maybe out there, I could catch my breath, could slow my hammering heart. “Walk outside with me? My mother keeps this place too hot.”
Vox snorted in agreement before leading the way again, unlatching the door with swift fingers and twirling me out into the welcoming night. My giggle floated into the suddenly open air, dancing away on the breeze that ruffled my skirts.
A glassy, star-studded black sky greeted us, the air outside of a friendlier sort, and I inhaled deeply, tasting the fresh-cut grass and sleeping roses of the towering garden hedges.
“Much better,” Vox murmured, but his gaze did not leave my face, calling forth a new blush that had nothing to do with the heat. I hoped the glow of the golden lamps softened the shade of red.
Despite my embarrassment, I took a brave step toward him, the evening shadows emboldening parts of me I didn’t know I possessed. “So, my cloaked rescuer, what were you running from that night?” I quirked a brow, but it quickly fell, a new pit opening up inside me as clearer memories rushed in. I tugged my hand back, realizing he’d never dropped it, a sickness souring the air. “Wait, didn’t you say you had a—a girl—?”
This time, it was Vox who laughed, the sound just as wicked and wonderful as I’d remembered. “You misunderstand. She’s my little sister.”
“Oh.” The single syllable blurted from me, a victory cry blaring through my heart.
It shouldn’t have mattered–I barely knew this man. Yet it did, more than I cared to admit.
Vox’s laugh fled, the corners of his mouth dipping. His gaze tore from me, his profile cast in creeping shadows as he stared out into the gardens. “She’s…sick. I guess I needed a break from the responsibility.”
I didn’t need to ask to know he meant the Blight, the grim set of his jaw one I could pinpoint on any face, old or new. Something in my chest pulled taut, the weight that drooped his shoulders one I knew well—though he carried his for his sibling, whereas mine had saddled me with it, along with the dark grief of his absence in my world and a crown.
“What’s her name?” I whispered, winding my hand through his again, relishing the cool touch.
He swallowed, turning back to me, a new mask of something dark veiling his features. “Aya.”
“Pretty.”
“You are.”
I blinked, disarmed again.
I gulped down words I was not yet courageous enough to spout, instead pivoting faster than the dancers in the ballroom beyond. I walked along the lit path, our hands still linked and swinging between us, the tall hedges surrounding us fully, though part of me wished they’d swallow me whole. My heels echoing along the stone walk, I reached for a new topic that would lead me to safer ground…or that would at least distract me again from the calloused skin beneath my fingertips.
“Your name is strange, though. Vox is Dunyasian, but Koishi is what, Soran?”
Surprise lifted his brows. “You’re quite the linguist.”
“My brother had a knack for languages. It rubbed off.” I didn’t try to hide the sadness in my tone, nor the pride, Vox’s soothing presence somehow giving me the strength to summon both. Everything good I knew came from Nikolaj, his wisdom and mischief both keeping me company even now that he was gone. And for the first time in a long time, I wanted to share those bits with someone else, not just keep them tucked close to my chest where no one could take them from me. “You would’ve liked him. He had a rebel streak, too.”
“I heard about what happened to him, and I’m sure you’ve had your fill of sorries.” He slowed us both and gave my hand a squeeze. “But from what I’ve heard, he was the closest thing to a decent noble that exists in our world.”
Tears burned at the back of my eyes, but I blinked them away.
“Not a fan of your own kind, then?” I snorted in surprise, but not a disagreement in the slightest. Nikolaj was the best of us all, noble or not. Then again, reaching for something more palatable, “Koishi—I feel like I’ve heard of them before. As in the Koishi silk traders, from Sora?”
He looked away again, lips thinning to a line as he let go of my hand. “One and the same, though I’m not much involved in the family business.”
The darkness that colored his tone was a warning flag, a sign not to press. But though I desperately missed his hand in mine, I did my best to weather the sudden storm, shrugging to dispel my own anxiety. “Wish I could say the same.”
“You don’t like being the Princess?” He squinted at me, the corner of his mouth twitching to a grin.
I sighed, trudging up to a nearby bench, plopping onto the stone seat. “No.”
“Why not?” His long legs carried him gracefully, and he lowered himself next to me. His shoulder brushed against mine, sending a new wave of goosebumps across my flesh. But there was something that edged his tone and scraped beneath my skin, guilt prickling across my arms and back as he spoke, “You have everything here.”
“All of this?” I waved vaguely at the hedges and the looming palace behind us. “It’s meaningless. It’s not happiness.”
No, happiness was a moonlit dance and a jaunt through Hiku City. Or the glorious surge of an opera house, with my brother humming along next to me.
“But you’re the Princess. One day, the Queen. If you don’t like the way things are, change them,” Vox scoffed.
I snapped to face him, fisting my silken skirts, wishing I could tear them to shreds with my bare hands. “I can’t even change clothes without stoking my mother’s contempt. I’ve never been offered a single choice for myself, and it’s—” I quelled the hot rage that burned my throat, swallowing it back. My grip on the fabric went white as I wrangled my emotions under control. “I’m sorry, I’ve said way too much.”
His hand covered mine, and my clutch slackened beneath it. His eyes flicked up, stoking something else in my chest. “No, I get it. I wish I had other choices, too.” His thumb rubbed a soft circle across my skin, and a shudder ran down my spine. Then, “If you could choose, what would you do?”
I paused, breath catching in my chest. “No one has ever asked me that before.”
“Well, think about it.” Vox’s gaze bore into mine, an urgency burning in it. He turned, leaning close, clasping my hand tighter. “Say I could sweep you away right now and take you exactly where you wanted to go, and I could give you the life you wanted…what would you ask for? Where would we go?”
I stopped breathing, a single word tingling through my skull.
We.
A truth unlocked, a desperate wish for that we blossoming in my core.
“Hiku City Opera House.” I straightened my shoulders, the command a dangerous declaration of desire.
“What?” His brow knotted, almost puncturing my ballooning hope. “That place burnt down years ago—”
But I shook my head. I would not be deterred, his earlier words singing in my soul.
If you don’t like the way things are, change them.
It was something Nikolaj might have said.
“So?” I lifted my chin in mock authority, the first decree of a would-be Queen tumbling from my lips. “You asked what I wanted. Well, I’d want to be a singer at the Hiku City Opera. So you’ll just have to restore it for me, Vox Koishi. Your princess demands it.”
His eyes glittered brighter than the stars, his dimple a wide valley I wanted to explore.
“Spoiled much?” He swallowed, his throat working hard as his gaze dipped to my mouth.
Under his scrutiny, my tongue darted out to run over my bottom lip, my torso moving forward on its own volition, like a magnet pulling my very soul. “Always the gentleman.”
“Well, if my princess demands it,” Vox leaned in close, one loadstone calling another. My heart thudded so loudly in my chest, I almost missed his next words. “Let’s go. Right now.”
The tether snapped, and I sat back. “What?”
“Hiku City Opera.” His mindless fingers toyed with the end of a curl that’d fallen forward; there was nothing but pure, primal intention in his eyes, a promise swimming in their mossy pools. “I’ll fly us there right now.”
There was no doubt in my mind that he meant it, too.
But a swarm of worry buzzed through my head, the glass of my vase pressing in around me. “But the party, my parents…”
“You’ll come back in no time, and they’ll all be waiting to scold you then.” He blew out a laugh, but his gaze scanned my face, searching for something I didn’t know that I could offer. But he pressed on, a gentle determination lacing his baritone, “Or, you could stay, and they’ll scold you for something else anyway. I’m offering you a choice.”
I stilled, the world coming in and out of focus.
A choice.
An adventure.
One last night in Hiku City Opera. A night with a man whose every word set something new on fire in my soul. Whose every movement made my heart skip two beats.
But the ‘yes’ that parted my lips did not get a chance to escape as a form lunged from the hedges, thick arms wrapping around me like vines of steel.
A scream tore from my throat instead, and a man’s hard body yanked me upright like I weighed nothing, caging my arms at my sides.
“Got her!” he grunted in my ear.
“Naveen, no!” Vox cried as he vaulted from the bench, but my captor took a step back, and Vox halted.
Dread rumbled through me like a rockslide.
He knew my captor’s name?
“Let me go!” I wriggled against the man’s hold to no avail, all other thoughts rushing from me as the panic rose to boiling in my blood. “That is a command from your princess!”
“Hold still, milady.” He squeezed tighter, restricting my movements. Hefting me up, he pushed forward, moving fast despite my weight. Helplessness sank to my toes, my heart racing.
Another flash, and two more bodies flew from the hedges on near silent feet. Two boys, black cloaks wrapped around their shoulders, their matching faces half-covered by scraps of cloth.
One splashed water at my wrists and ankles, the other snapping his fingers…
And they bound me in ice.
I thrashed again, but the ice bit at my skin so hard it drew blood.
“Help me, please!” I whipped my head around to Vox, desperate, begging—
He moved fast as the wind, my rescuer finally springing into motion—
And fell into step next to my assailant.
A sobering calm froze its way through my veins, every muscle in my body going rigid as reality crashed against my mind.
“This isn’t necessary, you idiots,” Vox growled at the man—no, Naveen, he knew his name. I glared at him, hurt tremoring through me, but Vox kept his eyes forward, avoiding my gaze.
“Dammit, Shin, you were supposed to be here an hour ago, we’re losing precious time.” Another voice— a woman’s—hissed, as a small girl in an orange gown materializing from the hedges as well.
Recognition sang through me. She’d been at the party, she’d been dancing with Vox….
No, not Vox.
Shin.
His name was Shin.
And this was all a trap of his sick design.
“You manipulative shit!” I bellowed, a rare, visceral rage steaming out of me, my voice an earthquake shaking my whole frame.
“Shh, quiet, sorry.” Naveen clamped his broad hand around my mouth, moving faster. “We can’t alert the guards.”
Shin’s eyes finally flicked to me, but there was no familiarity in them, just a hard adamant wall of purpose.
Real, genuine terror finally gripped me by the throat, silencing all protests.
The guards were all in the palace tonight, or lining the front steps. No one was supposed to be ‘trampling around’ in the gardens—Mama’s orders.
They wouldn’t hear me from here, no matter how loud I screamed.
No one was coming for me.
I was being kidnapped.
“You, there!” A gruff voice ordered as we wove through the hedges, and my heart leapt, new hope flying through me. A man–no, a guard–stepped from around the corner, buttoning up his trousers beneath his armor.
A guard, taking a pee break. In the wrong place, but at the Mother-Blessedly right time.
He grunted. “What’s this ruckus?”
Naveen dropped me onto my own feet, but his hand still clamped around my arm, holding me to him as he whispered to Shin, “I thought there weren’t guards on this patrol.”
But this was my chance. I tugged free of his grip in a quick jolt of strength, my voice hoarse as I screamed, “Help! It’s me, Catirina—help!”
The guard went still, his hand flying to the sword as his hip. “Princess?”
“Yes!” A sob tore from my lips as I hopped toward him despite my bound ankles, dizzy and desperate. “Help, please, I’m being kidnapped!”
“Oh yes, please, help us!” The other girl knocked me over as she nudged past me, my knees slamming painfully as I hit the ground. Lying witch. I groaned, agony shooting up my legs as she flung herself into the guard’s arms, crocodile tears suddenly streaming down her cheeks in rivers. “These thugs found us, they’re taking us–”
I pushed back up on my hands, panic rattling my heart again. “Not her, she’s one of them!”
“Everyone, halt,” the guard growled, eyes darting between the girl and me as he unsheathed his sword, dropping into a defensive position. The others went still, Shin and Naveen and the boys all throwing their hands up in surrender. Relief washed over me as he pointed his blade at the girl, the sharp end coming right below her chin. “What in Mother Earth’s—?”
In a movement so fast I almost missed it, the girl twirled beneath his blade, and held up something white to his face–
She clamped the cloth over his mouth.
His eyes rolled back in his head, and his sword clattered to the ground.
Then he did.
Every bone in my body shook with fear as I eyed the girl, small as she was, as she stood over him, the victor in this duel.
This was not a game, and she was certainly not playing.
The girl stuffed the cloth back into the folds of her dress, her head on a swivel as she scanned the hedges. “Keep moving, before we attract others.”
“We said no killing, Malina,” Shin whisper-yelled as he shot to the guard’s side, fingers flying to his neck for a pulse. But even from here, I could see the guard’s chest rising and falling, slow, steady breaths snoring from him.
“Don’t worry, Shin, he’s just unconscious. It’s a mild dose,” Naveen cautioned as he lifted me and tucked me over his shoulder again; this time, I didn’t protest, horror numbing me body and soul. He picked up his pace, jostling me without letting up his iron hold as we turned the corner out of the gardens and toward the south stables, a dark carriage already horsed and ready. The twins darted ahead, one opening the carriage door, and Naveen hurled me into it.
The other twin followed me inside, shards of ice like blades in either hand, his expression unreadable as he clipped out cool words. “Sorry, milady, but you have to stay put, or we’ll have to dose you, too.”
I marked the ice, fear leadening my limbs into submission. There was no way I’d make it past him without being skewered. And though I knew that if this was a mission to kill me, I’d already be dead, the cold glare of the boy and Malina’s calculated cruelty were enough to caution me from attempting anything foolish.
But a small, rebellious spark found the courage to look past him, to where Shin stood just outside the door, firing fast hand signals at the girl.
“You—” My voice quaked with a vicious blend of hurt and rage, my eyes prickling with tears. “You tricked me.”
His jaw clenched as his eyes snapped to me, a crack splintering in the wall of darkness behind them. “I can explain everything, I promise.”
But without anything else, he looked down as he stepped into the carriage, ducking his head before slumping onto the bench across from me. The girl quickly followed, shutting the door behind her, while Naveen and the other twin circled around to the coach’s seat.
A stone settled in me as the carriage started rolling, defeat and panic battling in my tossing gut.
I’d trusted him.
I’d been a fool.
“You tricked me,” I repeated, each word a cut this time, my anger at both him and myself a dagger in my hand. “But I swear, whatever you all are plotting, whatever you think you’re getting away with, when my mother finds out, you will all be hunted like the pigs you are, and I will personally see to it that you rot in prison for the rest of your—”
