SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter One
Maren opened her eyes and sighed happily when she saw Donovan beside her. She had a horrible dream about Kieran trapping and hurting her, but it was all right now that she was awake and Donovan was there. In her dream she’d had to leave the palace, and it was so heartbreaking, she cried in her sleep.
“Good morning, love,” Donovan said with a smile. “I’m so happy you get to stay with me forever.”
Did she get to stay with him forever? She didn’t remember that, but if Donovan was saying it, it must be true.
“I love you,” she said, smiling back at him.
He smiled again and leaned in to kiss her. His lips were soft on hers, and she sighed as he dug his fingers into her hair. It felt nice until he began to pull her hair.
“Oh, ow, stop,” she said.
Donovan didn’t stop. That was strange. He never hurt her before.
The hand in her hair yanked viciously and she cried, “Stop!”
“I won’t stop until you’re my pet,” a chilling voice hissed.
Maren gasped. It wasn’t Donovan anymore; it was Kieran. He was suddenly standing over her, pulling her out of bed by her hair. Donovan was gone.
“You’re mine now,” he snarled.
“No! No! No!” she cried as he dragged her away.
She heard knocking on the door, knocking that turned into pounding, but the door wouldn’t open.
“Maren!”
Someone was calling her name. She had to tell them she needed help. But she couldn’t speak. She could only scream. Someone was still pounding on the door.
“Maren!”
The door opened and Maren sat up with a gasp.
She looked around the room wildly. She didn’t know where she was. The room was small, and the walls were wooden—not paneled like the palace walls, but planked. Her bed was small with a simple white coverlet. It was not Donovan’s large bed with luxurious blue bedclothes.
“Are you all right?”
Maren expected to see Donovan or Kieran in the room, but it was Alec.
And then her memories came crashing down upon her. She was in an inn. The horrible dream about Kieran taking and hurting her had been real, and so was leaving Donovan. Being in bed with Donovan was the dream. He was lost to her forever. At least Kieran was also gone.
“Fine,” she breathed, “just a nightmare.”
Maren buried her face in her hands. She was still catching her breath, but she was starting to feel all the bruises covering her body. She was in a lot of pain from what Kieran had done to her.
“I apologize for coming in, only… I heard you scream…” Alec said.
He was standing awkwardly by the door. It was only then that Maren realized how inappropriate it was for him to be in her bedroom. He had on his dressing gown at least, but she was sitting in bed only in a nightdress. A man she wasn’t married to should not see her that way. Fortunately, he was politely averting his eyes.
“It’s all right, I’m all right. Thank you, Alec,” she murmured, still slightly out of breath.
“Do you need anything?” he asked. He sounded anxious.
“No, thank you. Go back to sleep,” she insisted.
He nodded and left, quietly closing the door behind him. She was glad he left; there was absolutely nothing he could do for her anyway.
Maren flopped backwards onto the pillows and winced at the resulting pain. Her back was very sore. Well, everything was very sore after Kieran had beaten her earlier that day—or was it the day before? It didn’t matter.
Tears welled in her eyes. She couldn’t decide whether she was more frightened of Kieran or devastated that she had lost Donovan. She felt both emotions intensely, but trying to decide which was worse provided a distraction for her, and she was able to keep her crying to a minimum.
Maren tried to be angry at Donovan, knowing that anger would feel better than either grief or fear, but she couldn’t manage it. She knew that Donovan had only made her leave the palace early to keep her safe. He wanted her safe more than he wanted to be with her and he loved her enough to let her go. She could not stay angry at that.
It was some consolation that she would have had to leave him a week later anyway, but not much. They had been robbed of the ability to properly say goodbye to one another. Instead, they only had a few hours to weep together before Donovan tucked her into the speeder and Alec took her away.
She sighed and shook her head—something she also instantly regretted. She wanted to dislodge the grief that seemed fixed in her mind, but only managed to aggravate the awful headache she had.
Alec told her that since she had a mild concussion, she’d have a headache for about a week at least. She really wasn’t looking forward to it was good she happened to be traveling with a physician.
Alec’s profession, of course, was not why he was escorting her from the Capitol. He was doing it because they were going to his family home. The home that would also be Maren’s home once she married Alec’s father in a few weeks.
She couldn’t help but cringe at the thought. Maren really did not want to marry Alec’s father. Likely, there was nothing wrong with him, he just wasn’t Donovan.
Donovan was the only man she wanted to marry.
Unfortunately, that was impossible. Even if he hadn’t been the Crown Prince or even if she had been a more suitable match for him than the daughter of a rural count, they would not have been able to marry. It was far too dangerous for Maren.
It was primarily Kieran’s fault. Donovan’s younger brother had been trying to prove that Maren was a witch for the entire year she had lived at the palace. He had never been able to get the proof he needed, even after beating her, but he would never stop trying. To be fair, as head of the Trackers, it was his responsibility to arrest witches, but he wanted Maren for more personal reasons.
Kieran hated his brother, and had long since been deeply jealous of him. Therefore, as Donovan’s mistress (at first in appearances only and then in actuality), Kieran would have hated her no matter what. He wanted to use Maren to get Donovan disinherited. Aiding a witch was as treasonous as being one, so Kieran hoped to prove that his older brother was helping her.
They might have found a way around Kieran’s obsession if he had been mistaken. Perhaps Donovan could have gone to the King and Queen to have Kieran stopped. But Kieran wasn’t wrong. Maren was undeniably a witch.
Witch wasn’t the proper term, of course, but it was more socially acceptable than “Light Wielder.” Almost no one used the proper term. “Witch” was considered to be rude, even something of a slur, but it was what everyone said. Maren had bigger problems than terminology, though, and cared quite a lot more about not being arrested or murdered than what someone like her was called.
The fact that Kieran was determined to imprison her under horrifying circumstances was a problem she couldn’t ignore. She was very lucky she had gotten away from the palace at all.
She’d be even luckier if they made it safely to Worthingham. Donovan would be trying to keep her departure a secret, but Kieran had many lackeys watching the palace. Alec was also the Court Physician, and his absence would be noticed quickly. She didn’t think it would be possible for their departure to be kept quiet for very long, it just needed to be long enough for them to safely arrive at Worthingham.
Worthingham. Where she would be married. To a stranger thirty years her senior.
She knew she was actually very lucky to be marrying the Duke of Worthingham. He was wealthy, had an impeccable reputation, and, if photographs were to be believed, was quite handsome. But the real reason she was marrying him was because he was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom.
He was the titular commander of roughly half the kingdom’s military forces, and he worked closely with the forces stationed near his home. He was a direct link between the military and the King and, therefore, had enough power to deter Kieran from interfering with his wife. Or at least, that was what Maren and Donovan hoped.
The military was a greater source of power and influence within the kingdom than the Trackers. The military was generally popular, while the Trackers were regarded more as a necessary nuisance. The population at large was deeply suspicious of Trackers—they had a reputation of being overly aggressive and dealt too closely with witches to be trustworthy. So, even Kieran, a prince and head of the Trackers, had to step lightly around the Duke of Worthingham.
Maren knew she would be as safe as someone like her could ever be when she became the Duchess of Worthingham. She even would have the good fortune of not being required to produce children for her new husband. Which was particularly good because she couldn’t. All witches were barren.
Many women who did not have children were arrested under suspicion of being a witch. But Maren would hopefully escape that fate, since the Duke had already grown sons and grandchildren. Not producing any of her own would reflect more on him than on her. She just had to hope he did not decide he wanted a late-in-life baby.
So, it was very fortunate that she would marry the Duke. But she still couldn’t bring herself to want to marry him, even with everything the union would give her. She didn’t have a choice, though. Like it or not, she would marry him.
She felt a bubble of anxiety building within her. They would arrive at her new home that evening, and she would finally meet her future husband. She hoped she could muster up the proper enthusiasm when the time came.
She and Alec had driven about four hours from the Capitol the night before. Then they stopped at an inn to sleep and swap the speeder’s batteries. The inn was quiet and quaint in a small town that was probably charming, but Maren cared very little. Alec had booked two adjoining rooms for them, forced her to eat something, applied ointment to the burns on her ankles and wrists, and then allowed Maren privacy to cry herself to sleep.
Her nightmare had awakened her though and she did not think she would be able to go back to sleep. She didn’t really care, but decided she wanted to know what time it was. There was no clock in the room so, she sighed and got out of bed. She went to her small bag of belongings for travel and then realized her watch would not be in it. Donovan still had it.
She had dropped it in the palace while Kieran’s men were escorting her to his hiding place. She hoped someone would find it and find her. Fortunately, Alec and Donovan did find it, only, in all the turmoil, Maren had forgotten to get it back from him.
She pressed her eyes closed as the tears came back. She knew it didn’t really matter; it was just a watch. But it was the watch Donovan had given her for her birthday. He had gotten it specially made with a horse on the crown, just for her. He later told her that her birthday was when he began to fall in love with her. She desperately wanted to keep that small token of his affection, one of the few physical reminders of their love.
But, like Donovan, the watch was still at the palace. She hoped it would perhaps bring him some comfort.
Maren laid back down in bed, still crying. She didn’t care what time it was anymore. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, hoping for some relief from her grief.
“All right, we have fourteen hours to go. We’ll get there sometime around eight or nine tonight,” Alec said as they resumed their drive.
“I’m sorry I can’t help you drive. I know you’re tired,” Maren said.
Under other circumstances, Alec would have offered to teach Maren to drive, not because he needed her help, but because it would have been an enjoyable way to pass the time. But he really didn’t think they could afford to take any extra time on this trip. Not to mention, Maren did not appear to be in any condition to learn a new skill or operate heavy machinery. He knew she was both exhausted and in a lot of pain; he could see it on her face.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve made the trip before. It’s not so bad.”
“Hopefully, we’ll make it in time,” she said, and by that, he knew she meant that she hoped they arrived before Kieran could have his men intercept them.
Alec hoped so, too. Trackers were concentrated in the Capitol, but they had stations all over the kingdom.
“We will,” Alec said.
He hoped his blind optimism helped her, even if it wasn’t completely genuine. Truth be told, he was worried. Kieran had men all over the kingdom, and it was easy enough for him to relay his orders via telegram. And if they did run into trouble…
Well, they just had to hope they didn’t run into trouble.
“You sent a telegram to you father, didn’t you?” she asked.
“I did,” he confirmed. “I said that you were injured, and I was bringing you to recover, and we’d be there by the end of today.”
She sighed. “Is your father going to recognize that doesn’t make a lot of sense?”
Alec cringed. There was no medical reason to bring an injured person halfway across the kingdom—especially when said injured person was already with a physician—and Alec knew his father would recognize that instantly.
“Yes,” Alec said. “He’ll know that something is wrong—especially because we’re making the trip so quickly.”
Normally, the trip would be made over two days, driving about nine hours each day and not in just over twenty-four hours as Alec and Maren were trying to do.
“And do you have a proposed explanation for him?” Maren asked.
Alec sighed. “We have to tell him the truth…or at least part of it.”
He knew she wouldn’t like it, but there were not any other options.
“You think it’s a good idea to tell him that the head of the Trackers is convinced that I’m a witch, and we had to flee because he also wants to kill me? I am hard-pressed to believe your father will still want to marry me, even though I’m not a witch!” Maren cried through gritted teeth.
Alex doubted very much that he would get a better opening than that for what he had to tell her. Still, he regretted it. Maren was already so upset, and he knew telling her he knew her secret would be terribly distressing. Gods, he could only imagine what he would feel like if someone told him they knew his secret.
He knew he had no choice, though.
“Maren, I know.”
“Know what?” she asked, and he could hear the alarm in her voice.
“I’m sure Donovan would have told you if there had been more time. When we found you yesterday, just before you passed out, your fingers…glowed. Donovan told me about the Selection and what’s really been going on with Kieran,” he said.
There was a tense silence before he heard her speak softly.
“Please…please let me go…just please…don’t give me to Kieran,” she breathed.
Alec glanced at her and saw that she was absolutely panic-stricken. Gods, he had not expected her to be that upset. Did she really think he’d turn her in and to Kieran? He wouldn’t have given Kieran custody of a goldfish, much less a person, any person.
Alec pulled over the speeder and parked on the side of the road. He took her hands in his and held them firmly to stop her trembling.
“Maren, look at me,” he said.
He waited until she met his eyes. She was clearly terrified.
“I’m not turning you in. I’ll never turn you in. I’ll keep your secret.”
“You will?” she breathed. “Why?”
He smiled. “Because you’re my friend and I know you don’t belong in prison. Because my oldest and dearest friend loves you, and I could never hurt him by hurting you. But also because I took an oath to do no harm. Turning you in would absolutely cause you harm. I won’t. I can’t.”
He could tell she didn’t really believe him.
“Besides, would I hold your hands if I thought you belonged in prison?”
He hoped she’d see the logic in that. He knew she could burn him or something, but he also knew she wouldn’t.
Alec watched her carefully while she thought. He saw how frightened she was, and then a reluctant acceptance came over her face.
She nodded. “All right.”
He smiled, relieved, and squeezed her hands before letting them go.
“Maren, I promised Donovan I would get you to Worthingham and get you married. I mean to do that,” he said.
She frowned. “But your father —“
“My father doesn’t need to know,” he said.
“But —“
“I’m not being a bad son, I love my father and would never do anything I thought might harm him. He’s lonely and looking for a companion. I’m fairly certain the two of you will get along. This will be good for him, and it will help you too. I’m delighted to see this through, truly,” he said.
“All right,” she said with a small nod.
She still looked very upset, and he would have liked to stay parked for a bit longer until he was sure she was more composed, but they couldn’t spare the time.
“Will you be all right if we keep going?” he asked tentatively.
She nodded and he drove back onto the road. He felt terrible for frightening her like that. Perhaps he should have waited to tell her until they got to Worthingham, and he could have given her a medicinal brandy.
“A note for you should you ever inform someone you know their very illegal secret, tell them you won’t be turning them in before you tell them you know,” she said.
Gods, he was an idiot. He absolutely should have known better.
“Oh gods, I’m sorry, I just assumed you knew I wouldn’t turn you in,” he said.
She sighed. “I have to assume everyone will turn me in.”
“Probably a safe assumption.”
“It’s kept me alive this long,” she said.
Alec thought that was no small feat. It seemed that most of the women executed for being Light Wielders were only around nineteen or twenty. Maren was twenty-six.
He was tempted to keep talking to her because he was always tempted to keep talking, but he could tell that she needed some to herself.
Alec wondered if he should tell her his secret when she recovered. He really didn’t want to; even though she had once said such things didn’t trouble her, it was deeply ingrained in him that he could never tell anyone. But, he could, and he would if it would help her understand that he could never judge her for her secret.
Ultimately, he decided against it, at least for the moment. He wasn’t sure it would help her, and she was about to marry his father. His father was at the very bottom of the list of people he wanted to know about him, right next to Donovan and his brothers. He trusted Maren not to tell anyone, but it did not seem fair to Maren to ask her to keep such a thing from her husband.
He had to admit, it was a bit strange that she would be his stepmother.
Alec thought of his various relationships with others as organized into a series of compartments. There was one for his work as a patients and colleagues, one for his family, another for friends, a separate compartment for amorous relationships (that one was further subdivided into physical-only and romantic sections), and a catch-all compartment that contained all the other relationships that defied explanation. Who he was, what he thought about, and how he behaved shifted slightly depending upon which compartment he was with at the time.
Generally, he found dealing with people who fit into multiple compartments to be far too complicated. People sometimes moved to a different compartment, but he tried very hard to keep them contained to the new one. He did not have friendly dinners with people he slept with, and he did not take afternoon tea with patients. Keeping the people in his life organized helped him keep straight the many facets of himself. He thought without it, he’d go mad.
But there were a few people who defied categorization or slipped into more than one category at a time. A few years ago, he had learned a very hard lesson about the dangers of treating family as a physician when his stepmother became ill. It had been so traumatic that afterward, Alec flat out refused to treat family members unless it was an absolute emergency.
Donovan, of course, slipped between categories, but that was more comfortable. The compartment for friends was right next to the compartment for family, so it didn’t trouble Alec too much that Donovan flitted between them as both a friend and someone he thought of as a brother. And, when the time came, Donovan would also sometimes fall into the sub-compartment for Alec’s interactions with the King. That would be fine.
But Maren defied his organizational system more so than anyone else. She had been in the friend compartment and began dipping her toes into the family compartment when she was engaged to his father. But then after Kieran assaulted her, she fell into the patient compartment too. Patient, family, friend, and probably there was something else that categorized the relationship where he acted as her matchmaker.
He adored her, but she was troublesome to his usually tidy organizational system. It would be a relief when at least he could move her out of one or two of them.
Once Maren felt calmer, she and Alec were able to return to the subject of what to tell his father. She still felt very agitated, but knew she needed to let it go. She had decided to trust Alec, both because he’d earned it and because he had no choice. But she disliked it. Having four people who knew her secret felt like entirely too many, Hopefully, no one else would find out.
“What excuse did you come up with for Court?” Maren asked.
“Riding accident. Donovan intended to make it seem like you were confined to your rooms and hadn’t left yet. Probably not the most believable story, but it doesn’t have to hold up for much longer,” he said.
Just long enough to keep Kieran in the dark until she was safe at Worthingham. The thought made her uneasy again, and she shied away from it. She needed to focus.
“Would your father believe a riding accident?” she asked. She didn’t think it was likely, but it was a much better story than the truth.
Alec made a skeptical sound. “Hmmm… I don’t think so. I’m not familiar with horses in the slightest, and even I know you’d have different injuries were you thrown from a horse,” he said.
She sighed. Alec was right. She would have injuries like a broken arm or leg, scrapes and scratches, or even back injuries. The only way she could think of for a horse to cause massive bruising to her side was if she was standing behind it at an odd angle, and it happened to kick her in the ribs. It was not very likely.
“Some version of the truth is our best option,” Alec said. “Firstly, I cannot come up with any compelling reason to drag you a few hundred miles away besides removing you from danger. And second of all, you recall that I’m good at reading people?”
She did. Alec was excellent at reading people. Maren occasionally wondered if he was reading her mind and not her expression.
“Please don’t tell me you got that particular skill from your father,” she said, wincing.
He cringed. “I did. Only he has a few decades more experience than I do, so he’s a lot better at it. He’ll spot a lie in a heartbeat,” he explained.
She sighed. “All right. Is it plausible that Kieran would harm me just because he hates Donovan? I’d rather not bring the subject of witches up if at all possible.”
Alec thought for a few moments before answering. “I think so. I’ve told him plenty about Kieran. I expect he’ll be shocked, but not skeptical. And it is, at least in part, the truth.”
“And we decided to flee instead of telling the King because…?”
“Hmmm…because he threatened to arrest you if you did, and it seemed safer to send you away quietly,” he said.
She thought for a time, trying to poke holes in the logic. When she couldn’t find any, or at least not very large ones, she decided it was a plausible story.
“It’s the best we have, I think,” she said.
Alec nodded. “I think it will be fine.”
“What will happen when we arrive?” she asked.
“Ah… I suppose he’ll want to get to know you before the wedding,” he said, sounding uncomfortable.
“No, I mean literally, will he be in the drive or will we be summoned before him or…something?”
She wanted to know what to expect. Well, what she really wanted to know was whether his father would insist on going to bed with her that very night, but she did not think Alec was the appropriate person to answer that question.
“Oh… I see… I…ah… I’m not certain. He likes to meet people in the drive, but I think he wouldn’t want to make you overly nervous by being the first thing you saw upon arriving. So, under normal circumstances, I’d say he’d probably meet you a bit later over a meal or tea or something after you had a chance to settle. But under these circumstances…well, he’s likely concerned and may want to see to our arrival personally. Or not. I’m sorry, that isn’t helpful at all, but I could predict he would do either,” he said.
She sighed. “That’s all right.”
She knew most dukes probably never met their guests in the drive, but it did not surprise her to hear that Alec’s father was not a usual duke. She would just have to improvise when the time came. And hopefully, he would be perceptive enough to know that she was in no condition to go to bed with anyone, much less a stranger.
“I do expect that at some point he’ll delicately pull me aside and ask me what happened, and I will delicately inform him,” Alec said.
“Unless, of course, you’d prefer…” he added as an afterthought.
“No, I don’t think so. I really don’t think I’m in any condition to have a delicate conversation,” she said. “Besides, it isn’t very proper for a lady to discuss such things, and I at least do not want to start out by being unladylike.”
Alec responded to her thought and not her comment.
“He’ll like you, I’m sure of it,” he said.
She wasn’t sure that made her feel better. She needed him to like her enough to marry her and stay married to her. But she didn’t want him to like her too much. That idea felt…uncomfortable.
“You’ll like him too, I think,” Alec added.
That felt even more uncomfortable. She knew on the whole it was good for spouses to like one another, but she felt as though liking the Duke would be a betrayal of Donovan.
Thinking about Donovan brought instant pain, like touching a bad tooth. She was both grieving his loss and hurt that he made her leave, even if it had been for the best. It felt confusing and made her want to cry, so she shoved it aside. Focusing on her future husband was terrifying, but it didn’t make her want to cry until she ran out of tears.
Additionally, if she was focusing on her future husband, she was not thinking about what Kieran had done to her and how much pain she was in and how frightened she was he might somehow get a hold of her again…
So, she decided to think about her future instead. It was certainly terrifying, but not nearly as terrifying as Kieran.
What would it be like to be married? She had never really considered it. It had not been an option for most of her life, and as soon as she had accepted it was happening she was swept into a romance with Donovan, and then had purposefully ignored it.
“What’s he like?” she asked Alec.
Alec chuckled. “My father? He’s ridiculously kind; so kind it can be irritating or embarrassing. He’s the worst person to have an argument with because he’s always nodding and saying how he understands and would feel the same way instead of actually arguing back,” he said.
Maren couldn’t help but snort in laughter at that. It did sound like that would be annoying.
“But I think you’ll enjoy his company a great deal. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and he’s easy to talk to,” Alec added.
“Alec, you think fenceposts are easy to talk to,” she said.
He laughed. “All right, well, I should say he’s like me in that he can also talk to anyone.”
“He sounds nice,” she said absently. It was very uncomfortable to think about having any sort of relationship with this man.
“I wouldn’t take you somewhere I thought you’d be unhappy,” he said.
She sighed. “I know. I just…”
“I know. It’ll take some time,” he said.
She supposed she had a lot of that on her hands.
--
The drive was tedious. They stopped periodically to exchange batteries and refresh themselves, but otherwise they just kept driving. Maren slept a bit, but Alec knew it was difficult for her to get comfortable. She didn’t say it, but he thought it likely her ribs ached every time they hit any bump in the road.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her sometime in the afternoon.
She huffed in annoyance. “Will you ever stop asking? Or could we at least keep the asking to no more than two or three times a day?”
He supposed he had been asking her a lot. Donovan said he fussed over people, but Alec couldn’t help it, especially if he particularly cared about his patient or if he thought his patient might not be truthful or follow his directions. In Maren’s case, it was both.
“I'll keep it to a minimum as long as you promise to tell me if anything gets worse,” he offered.
“I can accept that,” she said.
“Excellent. Now tell me how you are, and I promise not to ask again for at least two hours.”
He didn’t look at her, but he swore he could hear her rolling her eyes at him.
“I am the same as I was the last time you asked. I’m fine,” she insisted.
Alec doubted very much that was the case, all things considered, but he knew he needed to leave her alone. She had been through a lot in a very short amount of time. He supposed that if he were in her shoes, he’d also want to be left alone.
It was about five o’clock in the afternoon when they exchanged the battery for the last time in a small town that looked the same as every other town they drove through that day.
“Nearly there!” Alec said brightly as they returned to the road. “Just about four hours, maybe a bit less.”
Alec was getting tired. He knew he had a tendency to talk more when he was trying to stay awake, but Maren didn’t seem to mind, and he didn’t expect her to respond. So, he rambled on energetically.
“You are just going to love the ocean. You’ve never seen it before, right? It’s wonderful, really the best. When the weather’s nice, you truly must open the windows in your room, so you can hear the waves at night.
“Oh, and the Duchess’s Suite has the best window seat I’ve ever seen looking out over the water. It has the best view, and it just demands that you curl up and read a book.
“Oh, and you’ll have to meet Josephine. You’ll love Josephine; everyone loves Josephine. She is the best baker in the whole kingdom. I swear I would marry her if I could, even if she is old enough to be my grandmother, just so I could bring her back to Court and have her cake and pastries all the time. She makes my absolute favorite cake. Do you like chocolate with raspberries?”
Maren did not respond.
Alec glanced at her. She appeared to be sleeping. That was for the best, he knew she had had a bad night.
They kept going and going, and Alec kept up a running commentary in his head to stay alert.
“Oh, what a lovely lake that is. Does Maren know how to swim? I’ll have to ask. I'm looking forward to a swim. I think it’s still warm enough to have a swim in the lagoon. Lagoon is a funny word.”
He knew if he said any of it out loud he’d sound like a madman, but thinking to himself kept his mind from becoming too tired almost as well as speaking aloud.
They were only about an hour away from Worthingham when Alec rounded a corner and saw the bright lights up ahead. They were stationary.
His heart sank. A checkpoint.
“Maren, wake up,” Alec said. He sounded alarmed even to his own ears.
Maren sat bolt upright.
“There’s a checkpoint up ahead,” Alec said. “I can’t tell if it’s Trackers or the military.”
If it was the military, likely they’d be fine. If it wasn’t…
“All right,” she said. “I suppose we’ll find out when we get there.”
“I’ll do my best to put on my ‘son of the Duke’ impression. We’re close enough to Worthingham for that to be impactful,” he said. “It’ll be ugly, though. Don’t judge me.”
Maren made a sort of snorting, choking sound. “I won’t judge you as long as it works.”
Alec did not like to speak to people as a lord. It certainly wasn’t something that assisted him in his line of work. But he would do it if it would help Maren.
The checkpoint was fairly typical. There was a wooden barricade blocking half the road and an oversized speeder used by both the Trackers and the military blocking the other half. The headlights of the speeder were on, and in the dwindling daylight it was impossible to make out any detail of the men at the checkpoint.
Two men came out of the speeder and walked towards them. Alec still couldn’t tell if they were military or Trackers. It was too dark to make out the subtle differences in uniform.
He waited until one of the men knocked on his window before rolling it down.
“Good evening, sir —“
“It’s ‘my lord,’” Alec snapped in the rudest tone he could manage.
“Ah…yes…apologies, my lord,” the man at the window said. “We’re looking for a witch.”
Alec’s stomach dropped. They were Trackers. He had to get Maren out of this.
“Very well, as you can see, no witches here,” Alec said. “Let us pass.”
“Ah, yes, my lord, only we’re looking for a woman with dark hair traveling with a man with light hair, and I can’t help but notice you two meet the description.”
Alec released his full anger on the Tracker.
“How dare you suggest that my companion is a witch!” Alec snarled. “Do you know who she is? She is the next Duchess of Worthingham, and if you have any idea what’s good for you, then you’ll let us pass.”
The Tracker didn’t really seem phased. Probably plenty of men talked to him that way, especially if they were trying to keep a woman they were with from being arrested.
“And your names, my lord?” the Tracker asked.
Alec huffed in annoyance. “Lord Alec Drake, son of the Duke of Worthingham and Lady Maren Casteris, His Grace’s betrothed. Obviously, I am escorting the lady to the family estate, so they can marry. Any delays in our arrival will be noticed!”
“Just a moment, my lord,” the man said, and then stepped away to confer with his colleague.
Maren and Alec did not look at one another.
“I won’t let them take me,” she breathed. “Not alive, at least.”
Gods, she was going to kill them if she had to, or worse…kill herself. He wanted to object, but really couldn’t blame her. Alec thought that he would also prefer to die than be Kieran’s prisoner if he were her. So, he nodded. She didn’t need his permission, but he wanted her to know he accepted that she’d do what she had to do.
The men stopped talking to one another and both men approached the speeder. One went to either side.
“You’re going to need to get out of the speeder, my lord, and the lady as well.”
Alec gritted his teeth. Had it been a routine checkpoint, likely he would have been able to bully his way through it. But he suspected this checkpoint was set up specifically for them, so they would not get out of it that way.
Maren, much to her credit, was playing along with the annoyed nobility trope and made a “hmph” sound.
“They can’t really believe that a duchess would be a witch, can they?” she said to Alec in a loud and haughty voice.
Well done, Alec thought.
Alec sighed loudly in exasperation. “Not to worry, we’ll get this over with soon enough. Once they realize how much trouble they’re in, they’ll let us go.”
Maren made the “hmph” sound again, but opened the door of the speeder and stepped outside.
Alec did so as well, he wanted to keep eyes on the Tracker by Maren. He was a large and hulking figure with dark features. He didn’t at all trust the man to not do something inappropriate.
The Tracker reached out to take Maren by the arm, and she slapped his hand away.
“How dare you try to touch me!” she cried. “Didn’t you hear who I am? Do youwant to feel the wrath of the most powerful man in this half of the kingdom?”
Alec wanted to applaud her performance. It was perfect. The Tracker looked startled, even. Alec supposed very few women talked to Trackers that way.
“Step over this way, my lord, and my lady. We just need to check with headquarters,” the one by Alec said, gesturing to the other side of the barricade.
Alec made an annoyed sound and then came to Maren. He held out his arm to her and escorted her as the Tracker had directed.
Once they were on the other side, Alec could see another speeder and two more men.
The Tracker who had been doing the talking—Alec supposed he was in charge—went to talk to the other two men. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but whatever it was caused the two men to get in the second speeder and drive away.
The leader came back towards them. Now they were in the light, Alec could make out his features. He looked more like a beleaguered bureaucrat than a fearsome enforcer of the law. His eyes were tired, and his hair was wispy. Alec thought he would also be tired if he worked for Kieran.
“They’ll just head back to the station and as soon as we hear back from headquarters that you aren’t whom we’re looking for, we’ll let you go, my lord.”
“And how long do you expect that to take?” Alec snapped.
The man scratched his chin. He seemed to be too tired to be bothered by Alec’s rudeness. “No more than an hour,” the Tracker said.
“An hour?” Alec cried in outrage. He was channeling all his fear into anger, and it seemed to be working. “You expect us to wait here for an hour? Are you mad! You know where we’re going, and you know who we are, so if it really troubles you, come and get us there!”
The Tracker sighed. “Apologies, my lord. I can’t let you go until we hear back.”
The indignant lordling was not as effective as they might have hoped.
Alec turned to Maren and spoke loudly enough for the Trackers to hear. “I am so sorry, Lady Maren, this is outrageous, and I have no doubt my father will see to it that it’s taken care of, but for now, we have to wait.”
Maren nodded curtly. It seemed she agreed she should not to attack the Trackers yet. She had a stoic and dignified expression on her face, but he could tell she was terrified. Gods, Alec was terrified for himself and for her. They could arrest him just as easily as Maren since he was helping her.
They stood there quietly for what felt like a very long time. He wanted to talk, but for once, he could think of nothing to say. He stared out onto the road, waiting until he saw the lights of a speeder — no, two speeders — up ahead.
Alec thought about telling Maren to attack the two Trackers who stayed at the checkpoint, but decided against it. It was possible that the speeders coming down the road was just regular drivers and not Trackers. He did not want her to expose herself until and unless she absolutely had to.
The speeders pulled to a stop beside one another. He cursed inwardly when he saw tell they were both oversized. Definitely Trackers.
Four men, not two, got out of one of the speeders. No one got out of the second one, but there were perhaps up to four inside, for a total of eight more men they had to deal with. That was alarming. Alec was not sure Maren could take on all of those men by herself, and gods knew he was no good in a fight.
Then he head the Tracker who was in charge say, “Gods above, who the fuck are they?”
Alec very nearly whooped with joy. The new arrivals were not Trackers.
“They are His Majesty’s military forces commanded by the Duke of Worthingham. And I expect they’re here to put you in your place,” Alec declared with great smugness.