CHAPTER ONE
RYVEN
There she was.
Juniper in all of her magical glory. I could hardly believe my eyes as the magic rushed forth from her fingertips and coated the dirt floors beneath our feet. There was a collective gasp around the arena as the vines wrapped a protective cage around our future queen. When the thought entered my mind to push her to her breaking point, I never in a million years thought it would bring forth magic. I was merely doing it to get her out of my head, to push her away. I didn’t think it would do something like this.
Leo rushed forward with his sword but one of the thorned vines snapped forward and batted him away. He dropped his sword to the dirt and pouted at the snaking plant wrapping around Juniper. I knew better than to try to break through it, it was her magic protecting her from me. I didn’t know if I should’ve felt ashamed or proud that I brought out such a reaction to manifest her magic, but there was no taking it back now. All I could do was explain myself or pretend this had been my plan from the beginning.
I ran my hands down my face and sighed. The three women who deemed themselves Juniper’s family were going to have afield day with this. They hadn’t been here when Juniper bested Leo, the giant, and now they were really going to be furious that they missed her power manifesting. But to be honest, would they have ever let me push her this hard? They would’ve interrupted and stopped my berating. They would have never let me push her to her breaking point. So, maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing. I had dealt with worse in the past. I could certainly handle The Three, which was the nickname they’d started calling themselves once they fled the fraud empire. I hadn’t realized it was their doing until that day in the apothecary. They started rumors about a ferocious band of men that were writing the wrongs of the Ender Kingdom. They’d defended peasants and women on their journey to the keep for the first time. The rumors went wild until people were wondering if the men would eventually join the rebel’s cause.
Reva never confirmed or denied the rumor she started but I could see the satisfaction shining in Grove’s eyes and it gave it all away. Ash pretty much admitted that they played heroes when they went above ground. No one was the wiser and it worked perfectly to use the name as a threat when they were in a bind. People were either terrified of the Three or worshiped the ground they walked on, unaware that the Three were actually women. Incredibly powerful women, but women all the same. I knew why they said the Three were men, what person would quake in their boots over the thought of three ladies coming to rescue someone? Not many.
Leo stared at me expectantly like I was supposed to fight the vicious thorns around the queen. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t going to try to cut her out and I wasn’t going to fight them.
He waved one of his big hands. “Do something!”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as I got closer to the brambles wrapped around Juniper. As I got closer, the vines gotsmaller until they revealed an exhausted beauty. Her chest rose and fell slowly and her silver hair was a tangle around her face. Her cheeks were still flushed from all the drills and training I put her through. Guilt shot straight through my chest and caused me to stumble. I couldn’t believe I had been so harsh and hard on her. But now as I looked upon her sleeping form, I knew it was for a reason. Whatever thought that entered my head to do such a thing could have come from the magic. It wanted Juniper on a specific path, it was the only way to explain it.
“I told you she was our Queen,” Leo whispered over my shoulder and I groaned. He was right and I’d been too blind to see it. Her magic had been waiting for the right moment to protect her and while I’d done the right thing… I’d also done the wrong thing. She must have truly feared me for it to react this way. I frowned.
But then why was it letting me get to her now? Carefully, I reached forward and pulled her body from the magical bramble nest. As soon as she was lifted from the soil, the magic slipped back into the ground as if it had never existed. A collective roar went out around me and a new fear lit up in my gut. It would be even harder to protect her now. Now that the entire keep knew exactly who she was. It was easier before, everyone waited with bated breath for what would happen next. They didn’t need to now.
I closed my eyes briefly before I carried her from the arena, Leo on my heels. He knew as much as I did what this meant, even though he’d never doubted Juniper for a single second. When I asked him about it, he shrugged, “I just knew. She has a queen look to her.” I brushed it off, but as I spent time around her it was no surprise why the magic sought her out. Her kindness knew no bounds and I hadn’t seen nearly as much as others. I carried her to the room she was still staying at within my home and Leo locked it up tight.
Her brow puckered as she dreamt and I had to fight myself to put her down. My heart didn’t want to let her go but my brain forced me. Just as I tucked the blankets under her chin, her brow smoothed out and I was able to leave. Leo waited for me in the kitchen as I thought over everything I would need to do now.
“What has your panties in a wad?” Leo grumbled as he dug through my food. He found my stash of brownies and grinned as he shoveled two of them into his mouth.
“I don’t know how I’m going to protect her, there is no telling how her magic will drain her… How it will take to her. She could be completely at the mercy of those around her either during or after her magic use.”
Leo chewed as a thoughtful expression passed over his face. “Or maybe, she finishes the warrior program and goes to the forge.”
Once upon a time I told Juniper about the forge, I’d seen the hope in her eyes. But now everything was different. If she went to the forge then that meant she was ready to kill. That meant she was ready for patrols. How could I let her go that route knowing how it would strip her bare? All of the soft, innocent parts of her would be gone. She would be hardened and different. There was a chance she would end up like all the other monarchies that came before her. How could I let that happen?
As if he could read my thoughts, he shook his head. “She is different from your past. She is not the Fraud Queen. She is not General Nova. She will not try to hurt you with her power like they did.” He sighed as he scooped up another brownie. “You have to trust her and you also need to let her make that decision for herself.”
He was right but… “She is almost done with the program. She was much more advanced in her training than I thought.” Leo fought a grin and I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you know?” He stuffed as many brownies as he could get into hismouth to keep from answering me. A few crumbs rolled down his chin and got stuck in his beard.
I tried to steady my anger through my breathing. I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly before I faced him again. “As your commander, you need to tell me what you know.”
The twitch at the corners of Leo’s eyes told me I crossed a line but I didn’t like being out of the loop and I knew in my soul I needed to know this. What was I missing?
“You are no spy,” Leo laughed and sprayed bits of brownie everywhere. He didn’t have the decency to even look embarrassed. “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out when she slipped into the trunk and onto your journey unnoticed.”
I raked both of my hands through my hair and then tugged on the ends. “What is it I’m missing? Just spit it out!”
“She’s been watching from the caverns, learning all of our moves and everything we do in the arena. That cave collapsing? It caved in on her.”
I blinked at the man across from me. Was I really that stupid? Was I really that dense that I hadn’t noticed the changes in her and realized what she was up to? How dumb could I be? Honestly…
Leo shrugged. “She bested me. Eventually, she will best you and when she does, you will bring her to the forge and let it determine her future. If you don’t, I will do it and you will not be able to stop me. She is made for greatness and you will not stand in her way.”
“You sound like Alric,” I chuckled. My friends loved her, the people loved her when she went around them. She tried. She wanted to be worth something to someone, I could see it burning in her eyes. She wanted—no needed—a purpose.
Leo puffed up his chest with pride. “That’s because Alric told me to get your head out of your ass for you.”
Pressing my lips together, I rolled my eyes. “Of course he did.”
