Eli is staring at me with his eyebrows raised. It appears he doesn’t seem to believe me. “Every word of this story is true,” I tell him. “I may have undersold how much of a bastard Aeolus was, I guess. But other than that, all true.”

  Eli nods. “I’m sure. So you go back to Incarta and elope with Kira?”

  “Not exactly,” I say. “That leads us into the next part of this tale.

  ***

  It had taken me an hour to find King Regalia’s horse and get him to calm down. The rain had cleaned most of the blood off my face, but I knew I must look like a real mess. There was no time to clean up, though. I had to get back to Kira before that piece of shit Aeolus did.

  Going as fast as my horse would allow, I made what felt like record time. My sole thought the entire way was getting to Kira fast, and what our plan would be to escape Regalia. Where would we go? Where would we live? What else could I possibly do for a living? I would be hunted down, I was sure, but it was worth it for my love.

  When I made it across the river and back to Incarta, it was midday. That meant that Kara would be out in the gardens, tending to her sunflowers. She was royalty and didn’t need to work for a living, but the sunflowers were a good hobby for her, and she loved the way they looked bright and happy, even on rainy days. ‘Like little suns on land’ she had always said. It was a beautiful thought, and she was such a kind soul.

  Just as I’d hoped, she was there in the sunflower garden. I rode the horse right up to her as she sat there on the stone slab bench, admiring her hard work and the beauty of the flowers. She jumped a little as the horse ran up and snorted near her.

  “Good, you’re here,” I said, jumping down from her father’s horse. She smiled at me weakly, but there was a sad look in her eyes. It looked like she was looking at a sick puppy dog that wasn’t going to make it.

  “I am,” she said simply, and then waited for me to speak again.

  It was hard to look at her when she looked at me like that. All of her beauty that was there before was still there, but it was a ghost of what I had seen before. Now she just looked distraught, as if she had something to say to me she couldn’t quite bring herself to say.

  “So… the trial didn’t go well,” I said to her, thinking this may cause her to break don’t into tears. I sat down next to her and held her hand, bracing myself for what I had to say next. “You are still to go to Aeolus. At least that’s what Tylowthus has ordered…”

  “Then we shouldn’t fight it,” she cut me off. I was shocked that she would ever say such a thing. Was she afraid of living a life on the run? “These are powerful men, Cosimir. We can’t run from them forever.” She paused, unsure how to phrase her next words. “We have to accept our fate.”

  I stood up from the bench

  “You can’t be serious!” I yelled at her. “We have a chance to run away together. Right now. We have a chance to pack our things and leave. To be together.”

  The look she gave me at that seemed to be a moment of disgust, followed again by sadness. There was a thick silence in the air as I waited for her to say something. Anything. And then she nodded.

  “Alright,” she said. “Alright. We can leave in a few days…”

  “Tomorrow,” I said perhaps a bit too abruptly. “Sorry, but Aeolus can’t be that far behind me. He will be here to collect you in the next day or so. We have to leave tomorrow, at daybreak.”

  A small smile crept onto her face, but I can still see the odd sadness that contradicted this in her eyes. “Okay, love. Tomorrow at daybreak it is.”

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  “Perfect! I’ll head back to my quarters and start gathering my…” something hard connected with the side of my face, and I crumpled to the ground. My head was spinning, and I couldn’t get my bearing fast enough to see what had hit me, before something hard connected with my stomach.

  “Father don’t!” I heard Kira yelling in my fog and confusion.

  “Steal my horse, you son of a bitch!” came the haggard old voice of King Regalia. “Steal my horse and make a damn embarrassment of all Incarta in front of the High King? I had this handled. You had no fucking right!” he screamed, aiming another kick, this time at my face. Yeah, that’s how I got this beautiful, crooked nose you see right here. Bastard broke it with that kick.

  He wasn’t done yet either. I was writhing on the ground trying to get up, when I heard a rustling sound, and felt something tighten around my ankles, pulling them together.

  “No!” Kira screamed at the top of her lungs. There was real panic in her voice, and I was slowly beginning to piece together what was about to happen.

  “Hiyah!” yelled Regalia, and I heard hooves a split second before the ground started moving underneath me. That old bastard had decided to drag me through the town behind his horse as punishment for going above him to the high king. He likely meant for it to kill me. Later he would wish that it had.

  I don’t remember much from this punishment, other than sheer panic and the thought that I was going to die for sure. No matter how much I scrambled, I wasn’t able to free myself of the rope. Regalia dragged me all the way back through the town and to the gate. I slammed hard into several things along the way, breaking an arm and several ribs.

  He reached his limit when we were at the gate I guess. He saw I was still alive and hopped off his horse. Spitting on my dust-covered, broken body, he reached for his dagger. I thought he was going to end me, but instead he cut the rope. He stood me up and kicked me right in the ass, sending me sprawling through the open gateway.

  I staggered back to my feet and turned to look at him, standing in the gateway. Behind him a crowd had gathered to stare at the spectacle that was my punishment. Regalia had a look of such hatred and malice in his eyes. I’d never seen him so angry before.

  “You are exiled, by penalty of death if you return. Never again will you interfere with the affairs of Incarta,” he shook his head at me. “I expected you to know better how the world worked, my old friend. Now get the hell out of here. I never want to see you again.”

  He would see me again, of course, but he definitely didn’t want to see me that time either.

  ***

  Can’t get much worse from here you say? Sorry to say, but you’re wrong.

  Kira had agreed to leave with me, so I couldn’t just leave her to a life with that awful Aeolus. Even though I was threatened with death, I had to go back for her.

  Even with a broken arm and ribs, I still knew my way around Incarta better than anybody. I found my way back in without being spotted easy enough. My heart beat wildly in my broken chest, so hard that it hurt. As I approached the door of her bedchamber, my hand was shaking. The door was slightly ajar, so I feared the worst; that she was already gone, or that Aeolus was in there right now, sealing the truce, if you know what I mean.

  Before I could push the door open, I could hear her voice through the door.

  “I’m just glad he’s alive,” I heard Kira say. There was genuine relief in her voice. “I was so afraid that my father was going to kill him before the entire kingdom.”

  There was a pause, and then another voice sounded. I breathed a sigh of relief that it was a female voice, that of her chamber maid, Drilia. “He looked pretty broken, but yes, it’s good he’ll live.”

  I moved to open the door, but then Kira spoke again. “It’s really for the best, anyways. Cosimir was great and all, but he’s no king, you know?”

  My eyes grew wide in shock and horror. Could I have misinterpreted what she just said?

  “Queen Kira!” Drilia giggled. “Has a nice ring to it!”

  My heart sunk as I heard Kira laugh too. “It does, doesn’t it? Can you even imagine? We’re going to the big city in the sky. I’m going to be queen of the sky!”

  “Better than a lady of the dungeon,” Drilia chimed in. “Such a downgrade from princess.”

  I could hear Kira giggle again. “Drilia stop! You’re so bad!”

  Their laughter bored through the door and into my very being. I couldn’t believe it. The whole time Kira had pretended to like me to appease her father. Tolerate me, sure. Like me, maybe. But there was definitely no love there. Only love for status.

  I felt like I’d been hit harder than anything Regalia had thrown at me that day. Not only had I lost the love of my life, but I’d also lost my status and career, for nothing. I wanted to confront her, but I knew at that point she would just call the guards and have them kill me for breaking my exile. Instead of giving her that pleasure, I just slunk off into the darkness, my soul and body completely and utterly ripped apart.