Page 26 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

I t was late by the time Amos and I walked her back to the barracks.

It was so late, in fact, that we didn’t have time this night to explain to the team all that transpired today.

Amos headed straight to Nerede. He would retrieve the princess’s younger brother Artem and had approval to sneak him into the castle where we could better protect him.

“Goodnight, Princess,” I told her just before the freshly fixed deck of the barracks.

She had the necklace back on. The one that altered her hair and eye color, also making her look a few years younger.

She was planning to use the shadows to deposit her back in bed without the others noticing. Hopefully.

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped. “I don’t like being called a princess any more than you will like being called a prince.”

“Why not? You actually are one.”

She looked to the sky before taking a deep pull of breath. “I did nothing to deserve the title. I merely exist. Because an evil king wanted the power from my mother. I am no princess.”

“I’ve seen you train,” I argued.

Her head went back, confused. “And? ”

“And I think a disciplined and unselfish princess is the best flavor of princess.”

“Didn’t realize you had tasted me,” she blurted out, shifting on her feet.

“Didn’t realize you wanted me to,” I fired back, grinning.

“Can we not?” She ran a hand over her forehead. “Can we not flirt? Or whatever this is. Is this the part where you’re just trying to distract me because of all I have to say to the team tomorrow?”

Dammit. She was catching on to all my favorite tactics already. “I’ll never tell.”

“You are impossible,” she groaned. Then after a few beats she whispered, “How angry will they be with me?”

“I think you should consider allowing them to meet Artem eventually. Look at how the rest of you have rallied around Wren and her man problems. Give them some credit. Pippa will be annoyed. Jessina will be flustered. Molly will think this is the best fake marriage that ever existed.”

She took another deep breath. “We are really doing this.”

“We are,” I agreed. “But I’m still a little pissed at you.”

“It’s been a long day.” She flung her arm out like a door swinging. “Can you be more specific of which thing incited it?”

“Two things really,” I mused. “The first is that you didn’t come clean to me about your Enchantments.

You should’ve been training them this whole time.

Not suppressing them.” I intentionally paused, letting her have the time to hear my words.

“And the second, that it took you this long to tell me everything.”

“You would have thrown yourself into a loveless marriage even then?”

I turned to leave for my cabin. “I would’ve found a way. Now you’re just stuck with me.”

“There are worse curses, I suppose,” she smirked.

“See you bright and early in the morning, Zar—” I cut off, realizing I didn’t know what to call her anymore .

“You can call me whatever you want,” she said.

“Well, you’re going to have to get used to calling me Owen,” I reminded her. “Goodnight, Princess.”

She groaned at the sky. “Ugh. Anything but that.”

I had known she wouldn’t like it. Had still done it anyway. It was better to see her frustrated with my antics than broken like she was when she stormed into that throne room.

I never wanted to see her like that ever again. If I had to marry her to accomplish it, so be it.

I fell into my bed at my cabin, and surprisingly, I was able to sleep immediately. Maybe it was the fact that I finally knew what was going on with Zara. The threat was finally identified.

“Hold up,” I told the women already heading to get started running. “We have a little item of business that we need to discuss first. Take a seat for a minute or two.”

“Great,” Pippa groaned.

“Fantastic,” Elsie agreed.

This could’ve waited until after we ran, but I knew Kessara had likely not slept as soundly as I had, mulling over the information she had to share today. I didn’t know how much she would tell them, but I was going to give her the space to tell them as much of it as she wanted.

“Zara,” I said, lips pulling at the corners. The urge to call her princess weighed on me.

She stood and came forward, brushing invisible dirt off her hands.

When she hesitated, I just went for it. “We are to be married.” And as the women’s eyes all bugged out and various what statements were heard, I added, “Soon. ”

“We thought a family member of hers died!” Molly exclaimed. “When that man showed up yesterday.”

Kessara pinched the bridge of her nose. “That? That is how you begin this?”

I whispered, “Telling them who you really are is not my business to share.”

She tipped her head back and added loudly, “We are getting married, but not because we can’t keep our hands off each other.”

Wren commented, “I mean, there is some tension.”

I pinned her with a glare.

Kessara finally went for it. “I am Enchanted. Dually Enchanted and I am really from Agria.” And then she lifted her necklace over her head, handing it over to me again.

A silence blanketed the group like I had never heard before. They were stunned.

“I am Princess Kessara Zavatari of Agria. I am also the half-sibling of the brother kings.”

Brother kings. I knew that phrase well, but it still shook me how much life had changed in four years. Then again, I was holding a sort of vision cast into a necklace. A wearable vision? Life was wild.

Kessara kept explaining, the team remaining quiet to hear her. I was somewhat surprised to find that she left nothing out. Finally ending it with, “So we are getting married because this oaf wants to protect both Wylan from war and from my narcissistic ex fetching me and taking me back to Agria.”

“What do you want?” Vivian asked quietly.

Kessara took a deep breath. “I would like to stay. Full disclosure, I had ulterior motives for joining this team. I originally joined to get closer to my half-brothers. But—” her voice cracked, and she took a deep breath to steel herself.

“But you all made it past my defenses. I do like it here in Wylan. I like training. I would like to stay. Marrying the general maintains the peace of the realm and allows me to make some decisions for myself for the first time in my life. It is a selfish decision, yes, but if it keeps my brother safe too, I’ll do it. ”

“How long will you have to be married for?” Pippa asked. “And won’t that be a conflict of interest?”

I interrupted to answer, “No more than me training Wren is. As for how long—as long as it takes.”

“Shouldn’t we be concerned she is some sort of Agrian spy? What if all of this simply isn’t true?” Pippa countered.

It was Fern who said, “I’m proof that you can be from a different country and still be loyal to our team.”

Pippa didn’t look entirely convinced. “Had the same thought about you.”

Kessara said calmly to Pippa, “I understand your concern. I wouldn’t trust me either. But when my poor excuse of an ex arrives in Wylan in a few days’ time, you should see that at least that part of my story is true. Like Wren, I also have poor taste in men.”

“Rude to say with your fiancé present,” I deadpanned.

Molly was almost jumping from her seat with her hand in the air.

“Molly,” I groaned. “Why in the hell are you raising your hand?”

She looked at it as if surprised. “Oh. Right. It’s just that you do know that whenever this sort of thing happens, it never works right? The fake always turns real. Just ask Jor”—she cut off and corrected herself, “the queen.”

“Back to that tension ,” Wren whispered to her, sending me a wink.

Kessara didn’t wince or hesitate, she held her shoulders high.

And I realized she was entirely too good at taking people goading her.

It didn’t really faze her at all. Which meant it happened to her often, numbing her to it.

“Should it ever become real, that will be up to the two of us. For now, the general has offered himself up as sacrifice and it is an offer too good for me to refuse.”

Pippa snapped, “So we’ve been calling you by the wrong name this whole time? And now we are just supposed to call you by your princess title?”

Pippa the Pepper was a little mad, but honestly, I was surprised she wasn’t calling for Kessara to be immediately kicked off the team.

Kessara shook her head. “No. My mother and brothers called me Zara growing up. It’s a family nickname of mine. And also no, I do not want to be called princess.”

“Do you like being called Zara?” Molly asked gently.

She shrugged. “There are worse things to be called. Kessara is fine too.” Her eyes darted to mine before she added, “Just please not princess.”

Jessina asked, “Are you just going to stay until it’s safe to go back to Agria? Do you even want to be in Wylan long term?”

The princess shrugged. “I cannot answer that because I do not know the future. I would like to stay and finish training with this team, but the entire reason I came here was to keep my little brother safe. If he is not safe without me by his side, I will likely return.”

Kessara took a handful of more questions, until Wren finally asked me, “So when is the wedding? Do Mom and Dad know?”

I gave my head a shake. “Within a few days. And no, they do not. I assume I will have to tell them the truth like we are doing with you now. They know me too well to not sniff it out. But between the king and queen, my parents, Team One, and this team, the rest of the realm needs to believe this marriage is real. Granted that is still more variables than I’d like, but hopefully the ruse is only needed until Kessara’s prick ex leaves. ”

I made sure to look them all in the eyes.

“I don’t care if you have to tell yourself this is your first team mission like you’d traditionally get in the second session of training, because it is.

Well, second really. The first mission was arresting Wren’s ex.

This mission is keeping Kessara safe. No one outside this group can know that it isn’t real. Got it?”

“You’ve got it, lovebirds,” Sam grinned. “But won’t that be obvious when she stays at the barracks instead of with you?”

“She will have to stay at the barracks to finish out training per the regulations. After that, she will stay with me.”

Someone oooohed .

“Close quarters,” Molly whispered to Wren next to her. “Ups the ante.”

“Stop that,” I told them both. “This isn’t one of those racy novels you have been passing around thinking I didn’t know about it. Stop plotting when there is nothing to plot.”

Molly grabbed at her chest as if I had stabbed her.

Wren’s eyes went from me to Kessara and back again. “ Okay, General.”

“Before we get our run over with,” Kessara added. “I would like to apologize. I am so sorry I lied to all of you.” She took a shaky breath. “I didn’t expect to grow to like all of you this much.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” Jessina responded. “You might have darker hair and blue eyes now, but you are still our Zara.”

Sam had a hand in the air now.

I cocked my head and resisted the urge to make them run extra. “Sam.”

“The same Zara but more powerful. So shadow magic,” she grinned. “Can we see it?”

Kessara took a few steps toward a tree. “Gladly. Suppressing both Enchantments has been hell these weeks.”

She formed three clumps of shadows, and all three moved quickly to different directions, one enveloping her and moving her away .

“Oh!” Elsie exclaimed. “I know this game. This is like the cup game. Which shadow clump has Zara.”

They took their bets, but mine was on the one in the thickest shadows. All those times I had thought she liked sunsets, when really she was waiting on the dark. Kessara’s Enchantment thrived in darkness, as did she.

Sure enough, I was right.

Molly gasped as soon as Kessara could be seen again. “The king’s magic in the forest. It wasn’t his. It was yours .”

Smart, smart woman.

“Yes,” Kessara admitted. “My birth father, the dead king, had black magic and shadow magic. That day you saw the shadows calling to me. It was me. Not him. I just didn’t think you’d like an Enchantment which reminded you of the dead king.”

“He had shadows too? If that’s true, your shadows are thicker than his were,” Molly pointed out.

“Because mine are stronger and I know how to properly wield them. I can show you whatever you’d like later,” Kessara said with a shrug. “Shall we get the run over with?”

She’d only had her Enchantments for a few years before being unable to use them for nine, but I imagined the years between when Keir healed her and when she finally fled from Damek had honed her skills nicely. That training program she’d been in.

“So, can you carry things with that?” Sam asked her while they headed for the start.

“Yes,” Kessara confirmed. “I just moved myself with the shadows.”

“So you could carry our water bottles?” Sam asked. “While we ran?”

“Not without an abundance of focus,” Kessara smirked. “And I’m usually being loudly encouraged which would be hard to keep my focus through, but maybe.”

“I have so many ideas,” Sam stated as she began running .

“I also have an idea.” Vivian joined her.

I tried to give Kessara her necklace back, but she was already gone. I put it into my pocket and headed over to run with them.

Vivian continued, “Maybe the General will ease up a bit and would make us run less if Kessara would?—”

“Do not finish that unless you’d like to take three trips today,” I warned.

“Just something for Kessara to take into consideration,” Vivian said, feigning innocence as she ran away from me.

I snorted a laugh despite myself. Training this group of women was exasperating on a good day. Now that I was going to marry one of them?

For the first time since I had blurted out the words to Kessara, I finally thought it.

What had I done?