How in the hell have I let more than one person get the drop on me?

  I literally trained for situations like this and yet… The man on the hill attacked me and I should have been able to take him out easily. He was only one man, and no matter his royal guard training, he wasn’t better than me. I made amateur mistakes. The fight shouldn’t have lasted longer than thirty seconds.

  The men in the jungle also managed to ambush me. I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been, something that never happens with me. If Conrad saw all the mistakes I made, he’d shake his head in disgust.

  I’m mentally doing the same.

  What in the hell is going on with me?

  I’m not sure, but you need to pull yourself together quickly, because you just got to this place and there’s much more in store.

  The sound of running water reaches my ears, bringing me out of my shameful thoughts. With a frown I turn my head, looking for the source of the sound. My eyes finally settle on a stream a few feet in front of us. It’s narrow and almost easy to miss with the rocks surrounding it. It's hard to see where it ends, seeming to go along as far as I can see.

  Just beyond it is a cave and I know without asking that it’s where Walker has taken up shelter.

  The spot is a great defensive spot since anyone trying to sneak up would have a hard time. The cover of trees ended some yards back and even the last few were so far apart that it’d be hard for a group to hide in them.

  Walker steps over the stream easily enough considering that it can’t be wider than two feet even though the length of it is huge.

  I follow behind him and when we enter the mouth of the cave, I look around, though there isn’t much to see. The width of the cave looks to be maybe about ten feet long and when I narrow my eyes, I realize the cave doesn’t go too far back, just enough that there are shadows aligning the back because it’s far enough from the entrance. If it wasn’t for my Cael blood, I wouldn’t be able to make anything out.

  Walker’s soft footsteps echo through the cave slightly and I cringe.

  A pro and a con.

  If sound travels easily, it’ll be hard to miss any attackers, but it’ll also be hard for attackers to miss us.

  I place the bow and quiver down against a rock that reaches up to my knee.

  A good hiding spot.

  I mark the thought away for later.

  “Walker, what-”

  Fury rages through me as Walker holds out a hand to halt my words, keeping his back to me.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You said you’d open your fucking mouth when we go-”

  “Yeah, I need you guys here. He should be able to find me easily enough.”

  This man has lost his mind. Who in the hell is he even speaking to?

  Clenching my jaw, I move closer to Walker, intent on getting him told off and letting him know that only crazy people talk to themselves when I see a small light radiating upon his face. I couldn’t see it from the back, but now that I’m standing beside him, the object in his hand is clear, especially as he brings it away from his face.

  My mouth drops open slightly.

  “You have a cell phone.”

  He looks at me as if I’m crazy for stating the obvious, but I’m not. Cell phones are rare in Caelumine, like most technology, the cael magic throwing them off. Another thing that should have tipped me off to magic not being almost nonexistent. If cael magic was really disappearing, we wouldn’t still be having such problems with technology, now would we?

  Knowing I don’t have time to fall back down the rabbit hole of I should have known magic wasn’t gone, I take in Walker. The only people with access to legal technology these days are the royals, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the best friend of the crown prince has a phone.

  “Who were you talking to?” I question.

  Before Walker can answer, a tingling cracks across my skin, hot and sharp, before a blinding light fills the cave.

  I close my eyes, instinctively reaching for Gwev.

  A hand wraps around my wrist before I can fully get the hilt in my grasp.

  “Calm down, and don’t attack,” Walker hisses and I feel his grip tighten on my wrist before releasing.

  The light dims before disappearing completely and I blink a few times as my gaze settles on the three men now standing in the cave with us.

  I’m not sure whether I should be relieved or bothered by their presence.

  Elyjah takes a step forward, his grey eyes narrowed in an emotion I can’t quite pick up on as he takes Walker and I in. Orrael steps in beside him, his lips drawn tight. Orrtyn moves around the two, not hesitating to draw close to Walker and I. He steps directly in front of us, his eyes searching for something.

  “Are either of you hurt?” he finally asks.

  “No,” Walker says. I watch as he reaches out a hand toward Orrtyn before dropping it as his entire body stiffens and his hand falls limply to his side. “We’re fine even though one of us decided to get into a fight on top of a hill.” And it wasn’t me, the words are silently implied and everyone turns their attention to me.

  I shrug before crossing my arms over my chest. “The roll down the hill wasn’t that bad, it just got me to where I needed to be quicker.”

  Elyjah lets out a dry snort before moving closer. He tilts his head to the side as his eyes land on my forehead. “Are you sure? You do have a makeshift tourniquet wrapped around your head after all.”

  I’d completely forgotten about the gash and the ripped cloth I had to wrap around my head since it didn’t take long before the other group of men attacked me. I reach a hand up to touch it and only wince slightly. It isn’t painful until I touch it, so it must be healing quickly enough.

  My wrist doesn’t hurt anymore either.

  Elyjah’s eyes drift to my torso and I realize he’s looking at the bare flesh on display from where I tore my shirt. Silence resonates through the cave and I have to refrain from wrapping my arms around the bare skin. I’ve never been ashamed of having my skin on display. I know that I’m more than in shape from all my training and with the activities I get up to, I’ve ended up with torn clothes on more than a handful of occasions. Yet, having someone’s focus on my bare skin in an atmosphere that isn’t full of chaotic activities feels… different.

  A throat clears and Orrael steps up. He pushed a hand through his blonde hair. “Tell us what’s going on,” he says, breaking the silence and I’m thankful for it because suddenly everyone’s attention is off of me and onto Walker, including mine.

  The big man folds his arms over his chest as his jaw clenches. “She’s being attacked by royal guards.”

  My eyes widen slightly, knowing that I didn’t tell Walker about the man who attacked me being a royal guard. Before I can voice my thoughts, he’s going in his pocket and I watch as he withdraws leather wallets like the one I took off the guard earlier. My mind flashes back to him collecting things off the fallen bodies.

  He opens the wallets and starts pulling out identification cards of the men who attacked me and it quickly becomes clear by the coat of arms on the cards, that they are most definitely just like the man I killed, royal guards.

  Elyjah’s eyes widen slightly before he reaches out to inspect the cards. He lets out a low curse before blowing out a breath. His grey eyes slide over to me. “You’re being targeted.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Walker says. He presses his lips into a thin, unsatisfied slash.

  I frown at them. “You can’t just assume I’m being targeted.” The words don’t come out with as much conviction as I’d like as I think back to Samir Luick and the Queen’s gazes on me before we departed from the castle.

  Fuck.

  “This is The Culling, after all, this could just be part of it to have the guards attack,” I say, trying to continue with the idea that this is all a coincidence.

  Orrael shakes his head as he eyes the cards over Elyjah’s shoulder. “No, the guards are not participating in The Culling. The risk of losing them is too great when the queen could use other methods for the Culling, we discussed this with our parents once before.” He glances at his twin who nods in agreeance.

  “And I haven’t had anyone attack me and I’m betting the fella from the hill was a guard too,” Walker says.

  “He was,” I admit hesitantly after a moment, pulling the confiscated card out of my wallet.

  At the sight of it, Elyjah lets out a sigh. “Fuck, there’s something more at play here,” he hisses out.

  Walker nods in agreeance, “I agree, I’m not sure what it is, but she’ll be dead within days at this rate.”

  The fact that he doesn’t say it as an insult and more of an honest statement is the only thing that keeps me from going off on him.

  All the attention in the room turns back to me.

  “We have to protect her,” Orrtyn is the first to say.

  My brows knit together in confusion as I stare back at the group, “I don’t need protec-”

  “They had you cornered in the jungle,” Walker cuts me off shortly.

  It’s the truth and we both know it. Maybe in the end I would have been able to escape, but the men had ambushed me effectively. With a shooter in the tree and more men hidden in the bushes, they had the upper hand.

  Until Walker stepped in.

  “Look, we know you don’t trust us and with good reason, but we have no intention on hurting you,” Orrael steps in and his voice holds more depth than I’m used to. When I glance at him, I find his blue eyes serious. “Something is wrong and if you don’t let us help you, you’ll be dead by sundown tomorrow.”

  Disgrace.

  The word rings through my head but as I look at the men surrounding me it doesn’t hold the power it once did. Am I really a disgrace for surviving in any way I can, taking help from these men that I shouldn’t if only for a moment.

  “Gumdrop?” Orrtyn moves closer to me, his blue eyes holding concern. “Can you please trust us?”

  No.

  But Conrad said it himself, didn’t he? It’d be better if I was a disgrace and alive than a disgrace and dead and if working with these men a little bit could help then…

  “Yes.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Yes?

  The men in front of me seem just as shocked by the word as I am. Orrtyn’s lips twist up into a shocked smile, Orrael raises a brow, Elyjah’s lips part, and Walker… the man only narrows his emerald eyes which seems to be the only thing he’s able to do, other than glaring, when he looks at me.

  I straighten my shoulders despite the shock I feel myself. I don’t need the men to know that I’m doubting my own actions.

  “I thought… I thought it’d take more convincing than that,” Orrael says after a moment, his blue eyes studying me.

  I shrug my shoulders and look away from his watchful gaze. “Well, I’m stubborn, but I’m not stupid. If I really am a target, I may need a little extra help.” But I won’t forget the difference between a temporary ally and a friend.

  Elyjah nods before moving his gaze to Walker. “There’s only a couple of people with power to enforce the royal guard to come all this way to take out one competitor.”

  “Where is all this way exactly?” I ask, raising a brow. I glance at the mouth of the cave to take in the strange scenery briefly. There’s something so dreary about this place.

  I move my gaze back to the group.

  Everyone’s eyes move to the Bae twins and Orrtyn rolls his eyes. “Trasle, it’s an abandoned island.”

  “There’s some destruction here that looks to be intentional,” I say, folding my arms over my chest as I remember the place where I woke up.

  Orrael nods. “It is, because at one point this was a warzone, over two centuries ago. The people of Trasle thought they could leave Caelumine and disband from under the kingdoms’ rules without consequences. They were aware of the success that the people of Baerney had and also the Lokanians, so they thought they could do the same.”

  Over three centuries ago the Baernin wanted to be acknowledged as the third royal family of Caelumine. Instead, they only started a war that the Deightyns and Fawcetts won. However, the Baernin refused to give up and while the Fawcett’s voted to execute them, my family, the Deightyns, voted banishment. The Baernins relocated to their own island and no longer have any ties to Caelumine.

  The Lokanians, Walker’s people, also cut ties with the Deightyns and Fawcetts. While they technically still live in Caelumine, tucked away in the mountains, they are not ruled by the monarchy,

  Yet, I’ve never heard of these people from Trasle. I can’t remember them from my studies and that bothers me.

  “So, the Fawcetts bombed Trasle?’ I question, since it’s clear that the outcome for these people was vastly different from that of the Lokanians and Baernin.

  Orrael’s eyes narrow very briefly and I almost miss the action before his lips tighten slightly. “No, it was the Deightyns.”

  The name catches me off guard as it slips past his lips and I can’t help but to feel as if he’s watching me closely. As if he knows the name was once mine. Still I don’t let the shock show on my face.

  My family bombed this place.

  It's not as if I don’t know that the history of my family stretches back decades, centuries, and that it's filled with blood, yet something about the revelation feels… weird.

  Wrong.

  Maybe because it's a reminder that the Deightyns were killers just like the Fawcetts, they just didn’t get the last fatal stroke.

  “It was a long time ago and it's mostly forgotten in the history books because it was deemed unimportant.” Orrael’s gaze finally drops off of me and I relax some. “However, it’s a perfect place for The Culling because of that. None of the competitors are likely to have researched this place and you can only get to it by portal or boat. And the portal still doesn’t put you exactly on the island, it puts you on an abandoned chain of islands a couple of miles off and you have to boat here.”

  I push all thoughts of my family away at the mention of portals. “You guys got here through a portal, right?” I question, thinking of the bright light that filled the cave when the men arrived. I may have been transported by Orrael before but this is the first time I’ve ever seen how it looks from the other side.”

  Orrael nods. “Not exactly, but also yes. When I teleport, it creates a portal but it doesn’t last. It’s like I create a temporary tear and we come through it.” Woosh, he just lost me a little. A temporary tear? “It’s the easiest way to get here quickly and as long as we stay under the radar we should be good. There’s no cameras here and no constant supervision so we shouldn’t have to worry and we’ve been able to securely transport from the castle often, over the last decade.”

  Where would they need to transport to often?

  Elyjah and Walker eye Orrael and I realize that maybe the last part was something he wasn’t supposed to let slip in front of me.

  And yet they want me to trust them.

  And I will, but not without having all eyes open and being cautious.

  Elyjah clears his throat. “We should look into the queen,” He doesn’t say mother often, interesting. “And Samir. I caught them eyeing Roxanna a couple of times before she parted from the castle.”

  So, I’m not the only one to have caught the sudden interest of the queen and her guard dog.

  Okay, well maybe it isn’t that sudden considering that she once cornered me and made sure to exhibit her power over me.

  Walker nods, “He seems the most likely to organize this whole thing, but I’m sure the two are probably working together. He rarely does things without the permission of his master.” Something dark passes in the eyes of Walker and his muscles clench.

  Orrtyn glances at him before placing a hand on his shoulder.

  “Orrael and I will go back to the castle and see what we can find out,” Elyjah declares, pointedly not looking at Orrtyn’s hand. “We’ll leave Orrtyn here as backup.”

  I can’t help but to let out a snort and all eyes fall to me. “Orrtyn as backup?” I question looking at the twin who has been nothing but soft since the moment I met him.

  Protect me?

  I think not.

  “And why do you guys even want to protect me anyway?” It hadn’t occurred to me at first, but now that I think about it, the men have no reason to try to make sure that my head stays attached to my shoulders. If anything, they should be focusing on doing the opposite.

  My eyes flit between them and I ignore the hurt I see in Orrtyn’s eyes.

  “First off, don’t forget that we saved you a couple of weeks ago and that includes Orrtyn, who can handle himself just fine in a fight,” Walker grits out as he glares at me.

  “And we told you, we want to be able to trust you, because we think there’s something special about you,” Orrael steps in and I’m sure he’s trying to kill the sharp tension already filling the air between Walker and I. “You don’t want to trust us, but here is our chance to show you that not only should you, but why.”

  “How vague,” I remark dryly.

  “You’ve already agreed to trust us so it’s a done issue anyway. And Walker is right, Orrtyn is better at fighting than you think and he helped save your life,” Elyjah says with a clenched jaw. “End of discussion.”

  Before I can say anything in response, the men start to move around in the dim cave.

  “Be careful and gather what you can and then come back. If there’s an emergency I’ll call but you know the phones don’t always cooperate,” Walker says, folding his arms over his chest.

  Elyjah nods, his lips pulled into a hard line. “We’ll be back the second we find something out.”

  Orrael pats his brother on the back as Elyjah and Walker exchange a silent conversation with their eyes.

  Throughout the entire thing I can’t help but to feel…. Left out.

  That’s okay, you’re not with them or a part of their group, you just have a temporary alliance, no need to be included in their little goodbyes.

  Orrael and Elyjah move a couple of feet away before Orrael reaches out to grasp Elyjah’s arm. The tingling feeling returns but the light doesn’t appear this time and then the two are suddenly just gone, disappearing before my eyes.