Lives of Kings Read Free Page B

Seth’s sleeve, gripping it tightly. He clutched it as if steadying himself, though he sat. “And they will help us decide our own fate, and turn the future for the good of the world.”
    The crying woman sobbed louder, and the dark woman holding her, who I knew to be the queen, let her tears fall silently to the floor. There was movement to my left. A man kneeling next to me, his chestnut hair flowing past his shoulders, sat back onto his heels looking stunned but determined.
    I realized this was it. This was the moment the king had decided to have us killed. My stomach turned. In less than a day, I would die. The thought didn’t frighten me as much as losing Seth. My past self was terrified of it.
    The panic and grief she felt at being without him formed a lump in my throat that turned into a throbbing pain. My heart stopped when Seth turned and his eyes met mine. I knew then that I was ready to lose everything except him. I would betray my husband, my king, and my home. All I wanted was to reach out.

    I came back to my body with the force of falling onto the beach from above. Sucking in the night air, I coughed up sand that burned upon touching my skin. Seth instinctively came toward me to help, but I could feel the magic building. I had experienced this once before, but I had meant it to happen. Now it was beyond my control. My past self was still caught in the dream, and I couldn’t stop it. The pain was too much.
    The grief of losing him didn’t subside with time. Every time she remembered life without him, how her husband had found her out and made her late, how Seth had gone without her to be sacrificed, how she wanted to die rather than to live without him, a new wave of anger and sadness would roll over me.
    I did the one thing she would never do. When Seth reached for me, I used all my strength to push him away. It was for his own good. I added magic to my strength, and he was thrown backward into the sand, right before flames engulfed my vision and I felt the pure heat of my magic leave my body in a wave of fire.

Chapter Two
    K ian kept low to the ground, making his way through the forest as quietly as possible. Though he already carried several dead rabbits in his bag, the deer would be welcome at home in the settlement. He was so focused on the hunt that he hadn’t noticed how far into the forest he crept or how high the sun rose above him.
    Finally, the deer stopped to drink from a pool and Kian lay on the hard ground, reaching to pull his bow from his back. An unwelcome but familiar vibration in the earth made him freeze.
    The deer looked up, feeling it as well. Hooves carrying heavy loads were quickly coming his way. He looked back just in time to see the deer bolt. Kian sighed.
    The Kaligan refused to accept their new surroundings. Coming from a land over the sea, they valued heavy armour and leather, even if it was high summer. They outfitted their horses with metal buckles and donned so many layers that they were practically roasting on horseback. The Romans had come far but refused to believe they were somewhere different.
    The people of Kian’s tribe had started calling them the Kaligan after the big boots they insisted on wearing. Calling them what they were, Romans, soldiers of the empire of all empires, made them strong and intimidating. Nicknames helped to make the threat less real.
    It was a decade since the Kaligan came to Kian’s homeland and gave it foreign names. Britannia. Caledonia. The land was really called Alapa, but it was now only said in hushed whispers.
    Kaligan settlements were built and surrounded by tall walls of imported stones, while the tribes who had made peace with them were closely monitored. Men on horseback, weary to be so far from home, patrolled the forests around their villages. While the current general was a decent man, the legions were getting restless and the tribes knew war would come if anyone with a less firm hand succeeded