QUEST WORLD

Not So Familial After All

I come to a jarring halt on the shore and pivot to face the adventurer. He's just reached the sand himself, where the smaller girl helps him to his feet and says something that makes him shake his head and stomp away from her.

"What are you doing?" Steel pulls on my arm. I don't know how long he's been holding my arm, but I look down at his fingers, then up at him, and he lets me go.

"Follow me," I tell him. "Or don't. Honestly, I'm not sure I care anymore."

I let my sodden skirts drop around my ankles and push into a jog.

But that probably isn't intimidating.

So I slow to a walk.

But if I go too slowly, the adventurer might try to leave, or charge me.

So I speed back up. But I try to look serious about it.

"Smooth," Sela hisses, and I jump when I realize she's kept pace with me.

"Shut up—you!" We've reached the adventurer and the girl—bypassing the still-unconscious Esery—and I plant my hands on my hips.

The adventurer swings in front of the girl with his hands up defensively. The girl makes an annoyed huff and rips two daggers out of her belt.

They...they're afraid of me?

I laugh. I can't help it.

It makes them intensify their postures.

"Obviously, you're both adventurers," I start.

"Hardly," the girl scoffs.

"And you know about the king's quest for me," I press on. "So you know how...how powerful I am."

The guy who saved me eases, the muscles in his neck relaxing, but his hands stay lifted. His leather clothes are clinging to his body from the pond water, and I temporarily forget what I'm talking about.

"Powerful!" I say, probably too loudly. I clear my throat and stand taller. "And unless you tell me what I want to know, I will unleash my mighty and dangerous power on you. Both. On both of you."

Both the guy and the girl squint at me.

I'm losing them—my reputation is way more intimidating than I actually am.

Sela taps my shoulder.

I frown and give her a one-off glare. "If you say smooth again, I swear I'll—"

"No. Well, yes, but—" Her eyes shift to the two adventurers. She looks like she might be sick. "I know them. That's Prince Thertan and Princess Imina."

Every last remaining shred of my confidence flickers and fades. But it fades like a breath draining out of my chest, slowly, without me even realizing it's gone.

The prince and princess.

King Dynwar's son and daughter.

If the king is my father... then...

The only coherent thought that breaks through is Wow, it was really inappropriate that I thought this guy was attractive.

In my pause, the adventurer—the gods-damned prince—decides I'm not going to attack him and his sister. He pulls his sopping hair out of his face and attempts to tie a piece of twine around it.

"What is it you want to know, sorcerer?" he asks. But his jaw tenses and he averts his eyes.

I still haven't managed to breathe. I can feel Sela behind me—Steel must have caught up by now too—but my attention goes from Prince Thertan to Princess Imina and I try to see myself in either of them.

Thertan is pale and willowy, with the richest auburn-red hair I've ever seen. Imina is small and dark.

We look nothing alike.

That doesn't mean much, of course. King Dynwar is well known for being... um... a bit promiscuous with his bed. He has almost a dozen children scattered throughout the kingdom, princes and princesses given castles here and titles there but none of them have officially been made his heir because he's never taken a queen. Prince Thertan is the oldest—and I realize then why he's after me, why this quest appeals to him. He wants his birthright.

But if Dynwar does have so many children, why am I the special one? Why am I the one destined to overthrow him, according to Steel's family?

"My mother," I say to myself, but it makes Thertan frown at me.

"What?"

I shake my head. "Nothing. I—"

I look at him.

Eight and a half gods. This is my half-brother. And my half-sister. But thinking that doesn't feel right. Something about this is wrong.

Sela steps forward. "She wants you to stay in Morine and discourage any other adventurers from coming after her, or she'll use her mighty and dangerous powers to erase you from Ildodar."

I nod my thanks at her. I really had no idea what I was going to say.

But Thertan laughs. "Can we stop pretending that the sorcerer—if that's even what you are—has any dangerous powers? If you haven't used them by now, I don't think you will."

I feel my face heat. It'd be great if I could conjure up some sort of display of my magic, but my mind is blank, my heart is hammering, and I feel like I might pass out.

"Do you know why the king issued this quest?" I shout. "He wouldn't have issued it if I wasn't—"

"No," Thertan cuts in. He takes a step closer to me, his eyes on mine like he can see the thoughts in my head. "I don't know why he issued this quest. You aren't a threat—so why are you so important?"

Sela turns to me. "Amelie, we should go." To Thertan and Imina, "Don't follow us."

Imina gives a feline smile and winks at Sela. "No promises."

Does Sela blush?

I let Sela pull me back a step, but I point at Thertan, who looks like he might give chase. "Unless you do want to find out why I'm so important, I suggest you stay here and keep doing that." I wave at the unconscious Esery, who moans. "Keep other adventurers away from me."

Thertan runs his tongue over his lips. "And what if I do want to find out why you're so important, sorcerer?"

Gods, is he flirting with me?

"You have no idea how inappropriate this is," I say and spin away, pushing into a jog with Sela.

Steel is, surprisingly, back up the shore, with the horses. He's pacing, arms folded, looking beyond agitated.

"Horses are ready, fire's put out—can we go now?" He looks behind us, back at Thertan and Imina, and then at me. "What could you possibly have had to say to two adventurers?"

"Not adventurers," I say and yank myself up onto my horse. "The prince and princess. And also, according to you, my half brother and half sister. So, you know, had a little family reunion on the—"

"No, they aren't."

***

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