“Got your eyes on someone else, Sinclair?” Kade roughly taunted.
“You’re pretty attractive Lyrise. Too bad your personality’s shot, but you have a sister, right?”
Kade’s eyes dipped. “Unless you're into necrophilia, hooking up with my sister is off the table.”
“Oh, Kade.” Pia clutched a hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. She had been sick for a while. It was for the best when she finally passed.”
“Damn. I’m sorry man,” Sawyer consoled before returning to his regularly scheduled sarcasm. “You got a brother?”
While Kade offered Sawyer some rather vulgar words and gestures, I whispered to Sebastian. “Who’s Stella?”
Turning his head, he answered with a low-toned explanation, “King Franlow had a handful of his soldiers study at Caelestis Academy during our years there. Stella was Sawyer’s regularcompanion,I guess you could say.”
My eyes widened. “How was that not considered treason?” Caelestis had held some of the continent's most strict laws, treason being top on the list of importance.
“They had some sort of truce. The students got special privileges. I dunno exactly. Never questioned it too much. My father always had some stupid reason for his ways of thinking.”
“Was it only treason in regard to Draemor then?” I asked, wondering if I had missed some very important information somewhere during my upbringing.
“Franlow allowed Caelestians into his borders at will, despite my fathernotallowing them to leave the bounds of his kingdom. If my father liked you though, he allowed special privileges to travel into Mealioria, hence why Sawyer, Kohen, and I have been there before. He was beginning to open up to the idea of doing the same for others, so I suppose you could call it a test run of a truce between the kingdoms. That's all I know on the matter, though. This is more of a question for Aldoussenior,” he quipped, reminding me of my choice of name for him a few days back.
Pia audibly yawned as she lifted her head off of Kohen’s shoulder, drawing my attention to her.
“What do we have to offer besides Maeve's power which we're trying to keep hidden?” she inquired.
Sebastian and I had debated keeping the information we discovered regarding my markings between the two of us, but my friends were risking their lives for me, and it felt wrong to keep them in the dark. I wouldn’t do to them what I hated being done to me. When we had filled them in on our discovery, every one of them found themselves in utter disbelief, and Kade took a lot of convincing to get on board.
“Guess that brings us back to sex. Lyrise, maybe you can give him a little mouth action.” Sawyer made a gesture involving his clenched fist and tongue.
“Sinclair, you better shut your godsdamn mouth before I push you off of Luna,” Kade snapped, the white mare Sawyer rode whining in response to her name.
“We have nothing to offer except for valuable information that could very well save his kingdom. That should bemorethan enough, but even so, Franlow may make a request. All we cando is wait and see what happens during our meeting,” Sebastian finalized, shutting the other two right up.
“I wonder if any survivors from Caelestis came to King Franlow's aid,” I whispered to only him.
“Maybe. If you were to rank Franlow, Beaumont, and my father by who was the most generous, it would hands down be Franlow.”
A glimmer of hope sparked in me.
The warmth of Sebastian's body and the slickness of his leather jacket against my cheek convinced me to take a brief rest. By the time I roused, we had broken through the forest and were deep in a meadow of white and yellow flowers, the last of summer’s petals before the first frost came.
About an hour in, the mountains came into range, the view forcing my lips to fall away from each other. The setting sun peeked out from behind the highest peak, illuminating the entirety of the range with an alluring orange hue.
“Wow,” I whispered, unable to break my gaze from the spectacle. Birds flew in and out of fluffy clouds that hid the leftmost side of the mountains, and trees of all sizes coated the entire landscape.
“First time seeing mountains?” Sebastian asked.
I nodded. Caelestis had them, but I never had an opportunity to venture far enough to see the glorious peaks in person. “Yes, and not going to lie, this viewalmostmakes up for the lack of ocean in Lumosia.”
“I can’t believe you just said that.”
“I saidalmost,” I clarified.
“Still.”
“How much of the continent have you seen?” I asked him, tightening my grip around his waist as Honey picked up her speed.
