Against the Crown

Chapter Fifteen

Prince Lucius stood outside their hiding place, looking for all the world like a bratty little royal. Dhara closed her eyes, opened them again, and stared. The boy was still there, grinning impudently.

Malachi was rock still, his muscles like iron beneath her hand. She looked up into his face, seeing that barely perceptible tick in his jaw, which was achingly familiar.

"It has been quite a few months for you, Stone," Prince Lucius said. Dhara noticed that Forlorn was gone, the prince's portal was closing, and the undead soldiers had started moving toward their grove.

"A warrior mage's instincts are tough to fool, but isn't impossible," the prince continued. "But, with an Analyst's abilities, I was able to scour centuries of information to find out how to do it, and I did. And it turned out to be easier than I thought, which means that you were distracted enough not to notice a single thing happening beneath your nose. What was it?"

Malachi moved his fingers a bit. Dhara glared at the prince with contempt. The prince smirked.

"Oh, I can tell you what got the great Malachi Stone so distracted: you."

Dhara's contemptuous glare turned to a bemused look, and she looked at Malachi, who steadfastly refused to look at her.

"What is he talking about?" she asked the silent soldier. The prince decided to answer for him.

"Sometime in the past year, Stone started letting all those denied feelings catch up with him and he realized that he missed you," the prince gagged. Dhara kept wondering how it was possible that the beast was only 8. "Stone and my father had a rather close relationship, and Father always had a sense of these kinds of things, so he asked. Malachi told him all about you, and Father told him all about his lost love and the daughter he would never get to know. Morons didn't know they were talking about the same person."

"And how did you get to know all this?" Dhara spat, fury rising from within. The undead had them surrounded, but stood still, waiting for orders.

"I listened. I am 8: no one cares what I do or where I am. And since everyone thinks I'm the nicest royal around they let me do whatever I want. Hell, they help me!" the boy cackled.

"So all that grief and anger over the king's death, fangirling over Brynn, all of that was a lie?"

"Oh, no, no. See, that's what makes me the perfect villain: I am always truthful. Unlike my mother, who prefers bluntness with zero subtlety or panache," the boy scoffed. Dhara was troubled, and it showed. The prince rolled his eyes and cursed, a word so vile that instinct made Dhara raise her hands to cover her ears.

"I already told you, I am truthful. I was mad that Mother killed Father because I wanted to bastard to live long enough to see how great I would become, then kill him myself! I was excited to meet Miss Callaway; to Analysts in the Southern Continent, she is a celebrity figure! Look, you could dose me with your most concentrated bottle of truth serum, and you wouldn't find the lie. I am better than my mother can even imagine."

"And you're a bastard."

"No, no," Prince Lucius chuckled, sounding older than his age, "you, Dhara, are the bastard. When we discovered that Father had a daughter with a legitimate claim to the throne, Mother and I hatched a plan to get rid of you. Then she had a change of heart because as the king's firstborn, and he being a Life mage himself, there was every possibility that you would be too. She changed the plan without telling me and tried to get you to work with her instead," he snarled, lip curling, face arranged in harsh, evil lines. Dhara wished Brynn could see her precious apprentice right now.

Speaking of...

"What did you do to Brynn? Samson?"

"Left them arguing about their stupid bet," he said nonchalantly. "Grandfather isn't here, by the way. Dead these past 2 years."

Malachi clenched his fist so hard, Dhara thought she heard bones cracking.

"I am assuming not from natural causes," she muttered, glancing around surreptitiously for Forlorn.

"Mother killed him. And the rest of the Daans. What, you thought she would leave them alive?" he said at Dhara's shocked gasp. "Mother's family has always been a drag on her abilities. For sorcerers, they were very conscientious about the proper use of Dark magic. What is the point of leaving the Light with all its rules and strictures if you can't do whatever the hell you want?"

Dhara was fed up. She splayed the fingers of her right hand, palm down, and cast a soundless shielding spell. She felt the invisible protective barrier snap up around her and Malachi. She had made it tight, the shield going only one foot in all directions.

The smile that curved the prince's lips was pure malice. "Ah, ready to face your deaths already. Malachi Stone, why so quiet? Shock got your tongue?" Prince Lucius mocked gleefully. Dhara looked up at Malachi, concerned that the arm flexing and jaw ticking had stopped. What she saw in his eyes made her whisper a prayer for all the beings standing outside their grove.

"Remove the shield," he growled, lips barely moving. Dhara glanced at him, then at the prince and the veritable army surrounding them.

"Mal, we don't even know if the queen is here or..."

"Dhara. Remove the shield." He turned his head to look at her. "Please. Trust me."

Dhara sighed, then closed her fist. The shield shimmered, then vanished.

And Malachi unleashed himself on the undead army.