Betrayed Page 4
“Try me. Try to let me understand.”
“I’ve traveled so many places,” she whispered, “but they all brought me back to you. You realize that, don’t you?”
“I’m glad you’re back.”
“I’m glad, too,” she whispered. Then she pressed a button on her wristlet and a huge hologram chart appeared. “Time to get to work,” she shrugged.
“Fun time is over?”
“Pretty much.”
“Disappointing,” I murmured, looking at her.
Lane cleared her throat. Surely, she had to feel the chemistry between us, too. Then again, maybe she was right. Maybe the reason we’d never gotten together was much deeper than I’d ever know. Maybe it really was fate that we were apart.
“So, I’m thinking of seating everyone here, at the south side of the ballroom.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“And the food will be over here.”
“I like it.”
“And the dancing can be here,” she gestured to the center of the room. “We’ll have a chance for you to dance with as many people as you like.”
I nodded, agreeing. It sounded like an appropriate arrangement. Actually, it sounded like Lane had thought of everything. Everything, that was, except for a way out of me getting married. The only person I could ever see myself choosing to marry was her, and it was quite clear that Lane and I were not meant to be.
“That sounds important. I’d like to be able to at least have a conversation before proposing marriage.”
“Now, do you only want women?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m going to be sending out galactic invites,” she told me. “Do you only want women? Do you want me to invite men, too?”
“Malum isn’t an archaic planet,” I murmured.
“I know that perfectly well,” she agreed, nodding.
“You may invite both,” I told her. I wasn’t sure whether I’d marry a man or a woman, someone with horns or without, someone with a tail or not, but I already knew that no other creature could ever compare to her.
I was in so much trouble.
LANE AND I FINISHED going over her plans for the event. She was sending out invitations and planning to hold a huge dance in a month. That would give us plenty of time to organize and arrange for people to come visit the planet. Oh, it would be rushed, of course, but it was better than nothing.
“You’ll need to decide what you want in a mate,” she told me.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you want someone tall? Someone short? Someone in-between?”
“I’m not that superficial, Lane.”
“You could be,” she shrugged. “I don’t know you that well anymore.”
“And whose fault is that?” I snapped, glaring at her. I was suddenly irritated.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry,” I reached for her chin and tilted it up to me, forcing her to look me in the eyes. “Whose fault is that, Laney?”
“It’s my fault,” she said quietly.
“Where did you go?”
“Why is it so important?”
“Because I missed you. I looked for you.”
“You...what? You looked for me?”
“I looked for you,” I confirmed.
I’d never planned on telling her, but it was too late to backtrack now. I had looked for her. I’d searched the world for her. I’d searched the universe, and for what?
For her to come back and pretend like everything was normal and okay?
It wasn’t normal.
It wasn’t okay.
“What is it that you want from me?”
“I want the truth.”
“You’re asking a lot,” she said.
“I understand that.”
“Just because you’re the king of this planet doesn’t mean you’re in charge of me,” she whispered.
“Oh love, that’s exactly what it means.”
“No.”
“I could have a dozen guards in here with the snap of a finger,” I whispered.
“They can’t control me, either.”
That was always the problem with Lane, wasn’t it? She was wild. Free. She was always in full control of herself, but nobody else ever got the chance to try.
Lane was like the wind. She was there, and then she was gone. She’d break your heart if you weren’t careful. She broke mine.
“Where did you go, Lane?”
“Everywhere,” she whispered breathlessly.
“Tell me.”
“I went to Sapphira for a little while. I went to Mirroean. I went to Orchid.”
She went to many of my favorite planets. Sapphira was known as the Hidden Planet. It was a tucked-away little place that hadn’t allowed visitors for many, many years. As a result, it was sort of a quaint kind of place, but it was lovely if you could ever get the chance to go.
“You traveled the universe.”
“I did.”
“And did you find what you were looking for?”
She blinked, staring at me. I wondered what she was going to say. Had she looked for true love? For freedom? Had she looked for acceptance or happiness?
What was it that sweet Lane had been seeking?
“No,” she whispered.
“Then you’d better keep looking,” I told her seriously.
“Yeah,” she swallowed. “I guess I’d better.”
We sat in silence for a little while, both looking over different documents and items we’d need for organizing the dance. I still wasn’t sure whether this was going to be a good idea or not, but we’d find out.
“How are you deciding who to invite?” I asked her.
“Royals first, and each kingdom can select a few citizens to send.”
“Citizens?”
“Would the word ‘peasants’ be more suitable?”
I shrugged. “You know that royal status isn’t important to me,” I told her.
“Perhaps it should be.”
“Why?”
“Because you can tell a lot about a person by how they’re bred.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“No,” I shook my head. What had gotten into her? Why was she being so snarky like this? “It’s not so.”
“You’re telling me you don’t care if someone is a royal?”
“I never cared that you weren’t,” I snapped.
She stared at me, blinking.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“You never liked me, Andy.”
“Are you being serious right now?”
“Yes.”
“I was in love with you, Lane, and you just left.”
My words hung in the air for far too long. I didn’t know what else to say. I was surprised I’d said as much as I had. I meant every word. I hadn’t just been in love with her, either. I’d been obsessed with her. Every waking moment had been spent either with Lane or thinking about Lane.
“You made it clear you were destined for the crown,” she whispered. There was a slight tremble in her lip.
“I was.”
“I would have been a distraction.”
“A welcome one.”
“I would have broken your heart,” she told me.
“I wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“There you go again, thinking you make all of the rules.”
“I do.”
“And what about me?”
“What about you?”
“Where do I fit into all of this?”
Lane’s question was a valid one. It was a hard one, too. Where did she fit in? She was a normal sort of Malum citizen. She was a normal creature who was gorgeous, kind, and sweet. She had the deep purple skin of someone from Malum, but she had that damn tail. It drove me crazy.
“Did you know that when you’re mad your tail changes color?” I asked her.
“What?”
Lane blushed furiously. Sure enough, her tail did, too.
“It’s red now.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Stop tucking it away. I want to see it.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s hot as hell, Lane.”
She stared at me.
“You can’t do this, Andy.”
“Can’t do what?”
“You can’t pretend that everything between us is normal.”
Normal?
No, nothing between us had ever been normal. Never. Not when we were young, and certainly not now. A “normal” relationship didn’t involve someone showing up after a dozen years away and then worming their way back into your heart.
A normal relationship didn’t have me panting for breath every time the woman walked into the room.
There was nothing normal about me and Lane, and there probably never would be.
Now things were complicated even more because I was supposed to get married.
Oh, I really, really didn’t want to get married. The crazy thing was that if I ever did want to get married, it would have been to someone like Lane.
That just wasn’t meant to be though, was it?
“It’s never going to be normal.”
Lane turned and walked away. She didn’t look back. She didn’t turn to see what I was thinking. She didn’t watch to see if I was okay. She just turned, and I knew that no matter what happened next...
Well, it wouldn’t make me happy.
Chapter 6
Lane
I screamed into my pillow, and then I tossed it onto the floating platform bed in my room. All of the guest rooms were outfitted with this special tech. The King of Malum might live in this hug
e castle, but it wasn’t outdated by any means. He had every modern luxury from every possible planet. I doubted there was any new tech invented in the last year that he didn’t have right here in his home.
Pacing the room, I thought about everything that had happened and everything that we still had to arrange.
His wedding.
Andy was going to get married.
Not to just anyone, either. We were going to find him the perfect person to wed, and yes, oh yes, I wanted it to be me. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to audition to be his wife. I wasn’t going to be able to compete.
Besides, I’d never make the cut.
Still, it was nearly impossible not to daydream about the idea that he might want me to be his wife...
That he might want me to marry.
Once upon a time, Andy and I had been the best of friends, and it still hurt when I thought about it. I’d been staying in the castle rent-free for nearly two weeks, just helping him plan this big event, but every single day I came back to my room and just cried.
Today was no exception.
Throwing myself onto the floating bed, I let my legs dangle off the side as I finally let out all of the emotions I’d held in all day. I let myself get caught up in the moment, sobbing until I forgot why I’d been crying in the first place.
When I finally passed out, the dream that I had was actually a memory: something I’d lost long ago.
Andy and I are standing in a field just outside of the capital city of Tria. His little brother, Ryssi, is running around chasing bugs, but Andy and I are looking at each other.
We’re always looking at each other.
He’s the most handsome person I’ve ever seen in the entire world that sometimes it kind of hurts to look at him. Shouldn’t it be illegal for someone to be that good looking?
“You’re the smartest girl I’ve ever met,” he tells me.
I laugh and shake my head.
“No way!”
“You are,” he says.
When he talks to me like this, it feels more like a promise than anything else. It seems more like he’s making a vow than having a simple, casual discussion.
“What about the smartest boy you know? Who’s that?”
“Probably myself,” he laughs.
I don’t think he’s making it up. He’s the smartest guy in our class. He’s the smartest guy on the planet. His dad makes sure of it. Even though Andy comes to class with me at the local school, he has private tutors for everything, too.
“If you could go anywhere, where would you go?”
We’re lying side by side on the grass, just staring up at the clouds. Ryssi is running around singing a song he made up, but Andy and I are completely enamored with the sky...and maybe a little bit with each other.
“Mirroean,” he tells me. “Orchid.”
“So you want to explore.”
“I’d even go to Dreagle,” he admits.
“You’d go to the Dark Planet?” I yelp, sitting up, but he tugs me back down.
“I’d be careful if I went,” he says.
“You’d have to be.”
I’ve never met anyone who has even talked about that planet openly, let alone someone who wants to go there. The idea of Andy visiting a place known for being so wicked and horrible both scares and excites me.
He’s kind of a bad boy, I think.
He’s kind of wild.
“You’re brave,” I tell him.
“Nah,” he shakes his head.
“You are,” I insist.
I look over at him, but he’s staring at the sky. I wonder what’s going to become of Andy. One day, he’s going to be king. He probably won’t have time to go flitting about from planet to planet. He won’t get to travel as much as he wants to. He won’t get to do all of these incredible things.
He’ll be locked in a castle.
I know that much for certain.
Princes don’t get to do the things they want to do. They only get to do the things that their fathers tell them they have to do.
One day, I’m going to find someone wonderful and fall in love, and I hope that person is just like Andy, but I know that it won’t be him. Andy isn’t the kind of person who could ever truly love a girl like me, and even if he did, he’d be locked away.
Unreachable.
I woke with a start, covered in sweat.
What was that dream all about?
I knew it was a memory that had long been locked away. It had been something I hadn’t wanted to think about, and so I hadn’t. There were plenty of other identical memories just like it: memories where Andy and I were trapped together, spending time together.
Now, the biggest concern I had was getting him married off so that nobody else would try to swipe the crown of Malum. Of course, this wasn’t going to prevent war when war would happen. There would always be people who tried to usurp the throne, but having an unmarried king apparently opened the door for lots of legal loopholes, and getting married was going to close those up.
Fast.
I climbed off of the bed and pressed a button on my wristlet. The time appeared in front of me in holographic form. It was nearly midnight. I’d slept the evening away, passing out around five, most likely.
I’d missed dinner, and I’d missed dessert, and I’d missed him.
Sighing, I decided to head to the kitchens. Hopefully I’d be able to find something suitable to eat. As I made my way down hall after twisting hall, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that I was being watched. I looked up and noticed that there were new cameras on some of the walls and ceilings. They blended in almost perfectly with the stone walls. If I hadn’t been looking for them, I might never have noticed them.
So, apparently, I was being watched.
Was Andy watching me?
Was he curious about where I was going?
It made sense to have security cameras installed before the big event. After all, if a huge number of people were going to be traipsing through the castle, the king would probably want to have some say over who they were, what they did, and where they want.
I turned around and focused on walking quickly, hastily, to the kitchen.
I needed something to eat, and then I’d go right back to bed.
Alone.
Chapter 7
Andy
She was heading to the kitchen.
It wasn’t unusual to need or want a late-night snack. That was something I always needed, too. When I saw her heading down that way, though, I leapt to my feet and hurried out of my chambers. I wanted to join Lane. It was a terrible idea, but I wanted to talk with her more.
I wanted to find out more about who she was, where she’d been.
What had she been up to?
Why had she left?
If I could find the answers to these questions, then I could rationalize the need for me to marry someone that wasn’t her. I could. I was sure of it.
Only, I needed to know more first.
As it was, I was constantly asking myself whether I should just cancel this entire “ball” event. Maybe it would be best if I just told everyone not to come because I’d already found the woman of my dreams.
And maybe, just maybe, that woman was Lane.
She was lovely, after all. She always had been. She was pretty and sweet and sassy.
I made my way down the hall toward the kitchens. When I reached the double-doors that led to the place where all of the castle’s delicious treats were made, I paused for a moment.
Was I making the right choice?
Should I have even come here?
Lane was right: I needed to get married. She was also right in that I didn’t want to. I already had three different people researching the laws of Malum, searching for anything that might give me an out because the truth was that I wasn’t made for marriage.
It just wasn’t me.
Lots of people were happy in that type of relationship. Some people loved the idea of choosing one person to grow old with and to love forever and ever.
I wasn’t that kind of person.
Besides, Lane hadn’t come here because she wanted to warn me. There was something else. She was in trouble, and I was sure of it.
I’d known Lane long enough to know when she was hiding things. I’d known her long enough to understand when she was keeping the truth to herself. The lane I’d known never would have come back over some stupid law, some stupid ritual.
Unless me losing the crown somehow impacted her.
I didn’t know how it possibly would, though. Lane and I had been best friends once upon a time. We’d done everything together. Then, as far as my own memory was concerned, one day she’d just gotten tired of it.