“I have a sword, but you will not take it from me,” she insisted, opening up the cape, revealing her father’s sword.
“Then you will not be allowed inside,” he said.
Had they not heard her?
“My name is Ceres and my brothers, Nesos and Sartes, are with the rebellion,” she said with an irritated voice. “I am with the rebellion. Rexus sent me on a mission to the palace and I am here to report. Go ask him. He will vouch for me.”
“You’re the girl who is supposed to marry Prince Thanos,” the other watcher said, mockingly.
She didn’t want to waste time explaining to them that, no, she wasn’t going to marry Thanos and that she had refused him. Rexus would vouch for her once she was inside.
“Go tell Rexus I am here to report,” she said, her voice stern.
One of the watchers headed inside, while the other held her at arrow-point. After a few minutes, the watcher returned.
“Rexus will not see you. He told me to tell you to go marry your prince charming, and to stay away from the rebellion,” he said.
She gasped, bursts of pain, but also wrath clenching inside. He would not see her? He thought she had agreed to marry Prince Thanos?
“I demand to see him at once!” she shouted, her body rigid.
“Get lost,” one of the watchers said, nudging her with the tip of his arrow.
Ceres realized standing here and arguing would not make one difference.
She spun around, clipping one of the watcher’s feet from underneath him so he fell to the rocks with a thud, and before the other watcher could react, she had already drawn her sword and knocked him unconscious with her hilt.
With not a second to waste, arrows raining down at her, she sprinted into the cave. She zoomed by dark, glistening walls, her eyes on the lit torches in the distance, her hands fumbling to get her sword back into its sheath.
“Stop!”
Yells came from behind her, but she would not stop. She would see Rexus, and as soon as she would be given a chance to explain, he would understand that she loved him, and she would know she loved him too. More than Thanos. More than anyone.
“Rexus!” she yelled, slipping on the slimy rocks.
She reached the end of the narrowing, and when she stepped into the larger space, hundreds of eyes were on her, menacing expressions causing her to want to shrink.
“Seize her!” someone yelled.
“I need to speak with Rexus!” she yelled.
A mob of men gathered around her, grabbing her arms. One took her sword and it vanished into the crowd of men and women.
“Rexus!” she yelled.
The mob opened up, and Rexus was standing there before her, his blond hair gleaming in the light of the torches. He looked so forlorn, Ceres thought.
“Rexus,” she said, tears in her eyes.
She wrestled free from her captors and threw herself against his firm chest, embracing him so tightly, he grunted.
After a few moments, she noticed his arms were still by his side, limp, not embracing her in return. She pulled back a little and looked up into his gorgeous face. It was as hard and cold as ice.
“I didn’t send you on a mission to marry Prince Thanos. I sent you to gain the royals’ trust,” he said, his eyes burning with hatred.
“I refused to marry Prince Thanos, but the queen pushed it through anyway!” Ceres said.
“What made the prince think he could marry you in the first place? Were you encouraging him?”
The crowd went silent, waiting for her answer.
“Can we please go somewhere quiet to talk,” Ceres asked.
“No. I want everyone to witness this.”
“Rexus, you know me. You have known me for years! Why are you doing this?” she asked.
“There must have been some reason he thought he should ask you.”
“What? Rexus, I denied him!” Ceres yelled.
“Of all the people to betray me, I never thought you would.”
“But I – ” Ceres started.
“One of the princesses at the palace sought me out and told me she had seen you and Thanos in the library gardens, kissing,” Rexus said.
“Stephania?” Ceres asked.
Rexus’s eyes flared just a tad, then softened, and she hoped maybe he would finally listen.
“So it is not true?” he asked, a look of slight relief on his face.
“Stephania was supposed to marry Thanos, but when the king and queen saw their opportunity to create peace in the Empire, they broke off their engagement and – ”
“First, answer my question. Did you kiss him?” he pressed.
She couldn’t lie to him, but she could explain. Or at least try to.
“Yes. But – ”
“And was it of your own free will and choice?” he continued.
She couldn’t respond to that. She just couldn’t, for so many reasons.
Rexus nodded, knowingly, his nostrils flaring, his expression hard again.
“So how can I then believe that you declined his proposal of marriage? Maybe you have even been sent as a spy here?” he said.
“No!”
“Get her out of here. And let it be known to every revolutionary that Ceres is banned from joining the rebellion forever!” Rexus said.
He swiveled around, but then stopped and glanced back at Ceres one more time, his expression disturbed.
“And I thought you should know. Nesos endured to the end. He gave his life for the rebellion while his sister was off flirting with the enemy.”
She collapsed to the ground, her grief crushing her heart so thoroughly, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t see, her eyes overflowing with tears.
As the revolutionaries dragged her out of the cave, she called her brother’s name again and again. Everything she had was now lost to her.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
“May I have a word?” Thanos asked Cosmas in the library, his hands shaking like leaves caught in a storm.
Cosmas looked up from reading a scroll, his expression worried, but loving.
“Of course.”
They walked together out into the palace gardens and sat on a bench in front of the marble fountain, beneath a cloudy sky.
“What can I help you with, son?” Cosmas asked.
Thanos huffed.
“The king and queen commanded Ceres and I to be wed to restore the peace in the land,” he said.
“So I heard.”
“She rejected me.”
“Ah, that, too, I heard.”
Thanos took a deep cleansing breath.
“I have fallen in love with Ceres, but she believes I only proposed because I was commanded to.”
Cosmas nodded, paused, and brought a hand to his chin.
“Have you spoken to her, opened your heart and let her know how you feel?” Cosmas asked.”
“I told her some things, but I didn’t tell her I loved her,” Thanos relied.
“Heavens, why not?”
She had been so angry with him, he remembered, but that hadn’t been why he had held back.
“When I was on my mission, I fought with her brother and he fell onto his sword and died. I told Ceres what happened, but she was so furious with me, it was as if she believed I had killed him.”
Cosmas nodded, pondering.
“You told her the truth, and she will be devastated and angry and hurt for a time. If you had remained silent, and she found out, she would never have forgiven you. You did the right thing.”
“But she hates me now, even though I tried to save her brother,” Thanos said.
“I have known you your entire life, Thanos. You are a good man.”
Thanos moaned.
“How am I a good man when I am ready to run away and leave everything behind?”
“Running away might offer you a new start, but soon the ghosts of the past will come to haunt you,” Cosmas said. “You must talk to her, and then she can decide.”
“She will not speak to me.” Then Thanos had a thought. “Will you try and talk some sense into her?” he pleaded.
Cosmas bushy eyebrows grew heavy and he huffed.
“Very well, but only if you promise me you will tell her you love her.”
Thanos nodded. “I promise.”