*THIS NOVEL IS A SEQUEL TO WILD CARD & CANNOT BE READ AS A STANDALONE*
There is a legend that one in four royal advisor-mages will betray their monarch, overthrow them for power.
***
Gwenore, the new Queen of Acewood, is on a throne most would kill...
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Luned, Jack, and I moved on from the Hartland Ruins where we'd been hiding for the past few days. Knowing my fellow Aces, they'd think to seek me out in my territory first, and I'd warned my companions of this when we settled in our remote cabin.
Luned obeyed me without argument, but Jack...
Well, Jack couldn't seem to shut up long enough to listen to my plans.
"We should head to the other side," he kept saying as we packed up what little we had grabbed on the run—Luned's dresses, Jack's gear, my potions.
"Other side?" Luned squinted at me, shoulders raised. "What is he talking about?"
The topic Jack attempted to bring up was one I'd concealed from Luned for a long, long time. And his bringing it up now, of all times, would be treacherous to his health if he wasn't careful.
I knew what he was doing. Trying to corner me into a situation where I'd owe Luned explanations. Where I'd have to barter for her forgiveness. Where we'd argue and our loyalties would be tested. He wanted to cause a rift between us, take advantage of Luned's sorrow, her pain from my omissions, and swoop in to take her for himself.
Over my dead body.
I wasn't easy to kill.
"No," I said, as we departed the ramshackle cabin, breathing in the humid air of Hartland's jungle ruins. I knew we'd be safe here temporarily, at least; most didn't dare venture here, wary they'd get lost. My namesake's forests of chunky trees and marshes were perilous to those who didn't know their way.
"We'll head north. Sunflower Steppes," I ordered, glancing up at the blue sky and finding our location through the clouds. I pointed behind the cabin. "That way."
"North?" Jack cringed. "The Steppes are deeper and harder to navigate. And they're closer to Ossenna's territory. Don't you think she'd sense us?"
I scoffed as I set my fingers between Luned's, keeping her close. "That's not how our magic works, you dimwitted boy." We paraded around the cabin and broke through the line of trees, treading into the depths of the jungle.
I wasn't afraid; I'd grown up here, familiar with the bark and the dirt-passages and the sounds echoing in the background. Every creature hiding in tree-trunks or within berry bushes was known to me. And they wouldn't attack unless I urged them to.
Though I had to admit that the thought of them attacking Jack became more appealing by the minute.
"She won't know where we are unless she actively searches. And that kind of power..." I snorted. "She doesn't have it."
"Arden did," said Luned softly, wincing as we traipsed over enormous roots and side-stepped puddles of moisture dripping from hanging branches. "Arden could track. And since Arden is gone..."
