I took in a breath to try and respond, but I was so incredibly shocked by his words and his knowing my full name that I choked on it. “Excuse me?” I asked with difficulty, clearing my throat as if that would help. “How do you know me? What is this place?”
“When you found me last night,” he explained, “I would have sworn you were your mother. You look so much like her in her youth.” I met his dark brown eyes, feeling my brow converge with confusion. “Kiena, this is your father’s rebellion, stronger than ever.”
That statement hit my ears, but it didn’t fully sink in right away. I let out a dry, disbelieving laugh and stood. I took in another breath to try and say something, but shook my head because nothing would come out.
“We’ve met before, you and I,” Kingston said. “You weren’t even old enough to stand on your own, but your father and I were close friends.”
“Caedia,” I repeated his surname under my breath, trying to think if I’d ever heard it mentioned before.
He released a humorless huff of laughter. “Caedia was my mother’s maiden name. My given surname was Tithian.”
My eyes widened with recognition. “Lord Tithian’s son.”
Kingston bowed his chin in acknowledgment. “I chose to follow your father when he defected from the ranks, and was by his side as he built this rebe—”
I held up a hand to keep him from saying any more, because I needed to reverse, and I already had enough to process without focusing on who he truly was. “My father’s rebellion was destroyed, along with him and my family’s name.”
“That’s what we’d have the king believe,” he said. “We masquerade as bandits and common thieves, building ranks and buying time. Searching for our moment.”
“My father,” I began to ask, thinking of everything I’d ever been told about him. “Did he want power? Was he mad?”
“Mad, no,” he answered. “Power…” His lips pursed with conflict. “Yes and no.” I took in another deep breath, releasing it in a heavy sigh as I began to pace in front of him. It was already so much so fast; part of me couldn’t believe this was real. “Are you alright?”
“Just,” I rolled my hand in the air, “tell me. Everything, please.”
He didn’t even try to ease me into new information, just went straight into saying, “Your father wanted power, but not the kind that comes with a throne.” I nodded but didn’t stop pacing, so he continued. “All he wanted was for the people of this kingdom to be cared for, and he knew once Hazlitt had the throne that wouldn’t happen. Fighting an international war with Ronan whilst there was unrest amongst rulers was tearing this kingdom apart, and he wanted it to end.” When Kingston paused, I made a hasty hum for him to keep going. Now I wanted him to say everything so I could process it all at once. “When your father recognized Hazlitt’s greed for power, when he learned the true motive behind our king’s desire for the throne, he deserted the infantry to start a rebellion.”
“Motive?” I cued.
“I don’t know what Princess Avarona has told you, or what she knows herself,” Kingston said, and I finally stopped pacing to meet his gaze. “Hazlitt is a sorcerer, hiding it from all but his most loyal followers and close military because of this kingdom’s profound fear of magic.” He watched me for a reaction. “You suspected as much?”
“Aye.”
“Good, you know more than I hoped.” He stopped again, this time inhaling a slow breath before saying, “The power your father wanted was also magic. Well, more magic.”
“More?” I repeated, feeling the blood ice in my veins.
“Because of kingdom law, those born with the ability nurture it under penalty of death should they be caught. For most his life, your father chose not to risk it.”
I sat back down immediately, pulling one foot up on the wooden box so my knee was against my chest. “Magic,” I whispered, staring straight at the cavern floor and setting my chin on top of my knee. I didn’t know what to think or say or do, or how to feel. I didn’t know what it meant for Ava, or for me, or the kingdom. “My father had magic?”
“But not enough experience to stop Hazlitt,” Kingston said.
“The princess said Hazlitt wants a book from Ronan,” I told him, wondering if he knew better. “A book of dark magic.”
“It’s not the book he wants,” he replied. “It’s a bottle of elixir hidden within the pages. There’s a mage in Ronan history, a woman who discovered such deep secrets of magic that she could bestow a dark power greater than anyone could be born with, or that anyone could learn in a single lifetime. Before she was put to death so she could never give that gift, she made the elixir in an attempt to bribe the king for her life. It can’t be destroyed, but the king knew the consequences of magic that powerful, and so he locked it away.”
I nodded understandingly. “But Hazlitt doesn’t care for the consequences.”
“No,” Kingston agreed. “He doesn’t.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “I need to sit on this a bit before you tell me any more.”
“Of course,” he said.
We sat there for a minute in silence, during which I searched the immediate area for Ava, because in the intensity of everything I’d just heard, I’d lost sight of her. I spotted Albus before I spotted her—he was sat with the group practicing at swords. My eyebrows furrowed at that, because I’d told him to watch Ava and he always followed my instructions devotedly. Then I realized he was watching Ava, and picked up my head with shock. She was in the middle of a ring of swordsmen, with a practice rapier in her uninjured hand and dueling with another warrior. I hadn’t known she could even hold a sword, let alone know how to use it. But she was, and she looked to be having an incredible amount of fun doing it. All of them were smiling; Ava, the man she was dueling, the crowd around them. Meanwhile, all I could do was stare, entirely perplexed.
Kingston must’ve noticed it for the first time too, because he chuckled, “Your princess has skill with a sword.”
“She’s not so delicate as she looks.” I couldn’t help that my lips curled with an impressed smile, even though my cheeks colored darkly at the fact that he’d deliberately distinguished her as my princess. She was his princess too. “And she’s not mine,” I clarified, adding with a sigh, “she couldn’t be.”
But even as I said that, Ava finished the duel, skillfully tripping her opponent off his feet and holding the point of her practice sword to his chest when he hit the ground. Then she happened to glance our direction, and when she saw that we were watching, she grinned at me, bending at the hips and sweeping her arm in an unsubtly flirtatious bow.
“I think any woman,” Kingston began, laughing as he nodded toward Ava, “especially one so bold as that, might be whatever she desired.”
“I’ve never been one to challenge fate,” I told him. The last thing I needed was someone else encouraging my affection for her and making me feel like it was possible. Fate was that she was a princess, and I was far from viable as a suitor in every way.
“Maybe not yet,” he said. “But it’s in your blood.”
I ignored that and changed the subject. “What do you know of her situation?”
He knew I was talking about Ava, and was silent for a few thoughtful seconds. “Next to everything.” My eyebrows rose at that. “With our numbers, Kiena, I have eyes everywhere.”