Page 3 of Randall (The Tenth Step #3)

Randall

I was ready to beat Valter. Not that I could lay a hand on the youngest prince, but the boy was…

taxing. Nearly from the moment he’d confided in me that he could “hear” his mates, that he could communicate with them, I’d seen more of the spirited child than I had in all the prior seventeen years that I’d served the royal family of Obrusa.

Valter held so much… potential, but he simply would not pay attention long enough for me to teach him unless it interested him.

Meditate to center his mind…? Practice these simple spells…

? By the gods, it never happened. I shook my head in fond recall of how he would—somehow—end up doing something incorrectly, and the lesson would abruptly end in my exasperation and having to undo the damage he’d caused.

Kat was his constant companion. She’d been a cute fluffball of black and grey that had grown into a sleek, black-haired beauty who’d learned to keep her distance until Valter was old enough not to pull her tail.

Her powerful presence lurked in the shadows of his bedroom, under the bed, behind the curtains any time someone was around except me.

I realized after a time that she trusted me to watch over him.

She trusted Tolliver, Valter’s valet and bodyguard, and after a time, Nasi Ironson, the commander of the King’s Guard.

Kat liked Samantha, the head cook, who treated Valter like her own son, but also gave her tasty morsels to eat.

The last person she trusted was the Fae Ambassador, Jarrah Quicksilver.

Although he didn’t come into the castle anymore; I’d seen them meet by the gates.

Why he was barred from entrance, I later learned, was because he was the one who “blessed” Valter with the power running through his veins.

After seeing Kat and the Fae together the first time, I asked her if she was Jarrah’s familiar, but she sneezed and shook her head.

I’d laughed not just at her disgust with me, but also at the fact that I could cross that idea off my list. Magick had trapped her, whoever she was.

So when her yowl startled me from my scrying, disrupting the spell and splashing water everywhere, I hurried from my rooms. Kat met me at the bottom of the stairs, pacing in tight circles, mewling angrily as if I could understand her tirade.

“Valter?”

Kat bobbed her head.

Since I knew the Queen loved her youngest child and the King mostly ignored him, I asked, “Jacalyn and Jonathan?”

She wound through my legs, bobbing her head, her tail curling around my calf before she paced to the hallway and looked back, making sure I was following. Of course, I followed. After years of learning her tells, I knew what she wanted.

“Mercy, what have the Twin Terrors done now?” For certain, the King and Queen would be overjoyed if they could find suitors for those two.

Just thinking about the balls and gatherings Their Majesties had held recently was enough to give me fits and a headache.

Any such event became a security nightmare that kept me awake long into the night, watching for anything that might affect the festivities.

I’d had to up my diligence with their increasing frequency.

When she picked up speed, I clutched my numerous amulets and lengthened my stride, swinging around the doorway and coming to an abrupt stop, staring at the Queen’s back.

Her hands were fisted, her body heaving, and in front of her were her four oldest children.

I didn’t see Valter, but since I could hear his near-silent sobbing, I assumed she blocked my view.

“What have you done? What have you done!” Queen Guenevere screeched. Her children stood straight-backed, though their heads were bowed.

“How dare you?” she seethed, her icy tone shredding the room. “I thought I birthed leaders, but you proved me wrong. Again. Arrogant, hurtful, spineless followers.”

She turned her head slightly, and I followed her gaze. Tolliver knelt by the wall, chin to chest. “I’m not sure why you didn’t intervene, but we will discuss this later.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he mumbled. While the queen may have missed the wisp of a smile that crossed his lips before he schooled his features, I did not.

Why had he let it happen? Why had he let any of Valter’s siblings tease and bully him?

Had he done so at the queen’s bidding? The only reason I could think of was that she wanted to “toughen” up her baby.

But Valter and his long, flowing silver-blond hair were her pride and joy.

This was fact. The other children were good-looking—they’d all been adorable children, though disrespectful and disobedient whenever they could get away with it—but they all looked like their father.

Dark hair, dark-eyed, stockier. In contrast, Valter looked more like their mother: slender, blonder, with warm brown eyes made brighter by the Fae-blessed starburst in his irises, and unlike his siblings, Valter had been a shy, quiet, introspective child who had knelt at his mother’s knee.

With his slight build, Valter had failed at sword-fighting but excelled at fencing and archery.

He preferred reading and learning to horseback riding and gallivanting through the capital.

His mother had sheltered him, but still, there were near-daily taunts and abuse in the empty halls, invisible nooks, and unescapable crannies—wherever his siblings could corner him.

The marks weren’t visible, but Tolliver knew… and so did I.

Looking on as the queen rubbed Valter’s upper back as she ordered her eldest sons stripped to their undergarments and sent on their way to the barns to muck stalls and bathe the pigs, I noticed the youngest prince silently pulling himself together.

There was a faraway glaze to his eyes as power surged through him, surrounding him in a faint purple glow that only another magick user could see.

His heart, which had been pounding as tears streamed down his cheeks, slowed its thumping rhythm.

I caught the flash of another power—another presence—threading through Valter’s.

Surprise jolted me, but the power neither harmed nor hampered Valter’s fae-blessed power; instead, it seemed to strengthen it.

As Her Majesty finished detailing the penance of her daughters, Kat wound through my legs, then sat beside me. When the queen turned, she beckoned me to follow.

“Did you see it?” she murmured.

“My Queen?”

She spun to face me, forcing me to stop quickly lest I run into her. Her gaze narrowed. “Don’t play the fool, Randall. I have my ways, and they are not for you to question.”

I bowed. “I wouldn’t dare, Your Majesty.”

She harrumphed and tapped her foot. “You would, just not to my face, but that is neither here nor there. What I want to know is who was it?”

“My humble apologies,” I said in lieu of answering as I ran an assessing gaze over her and straightened. How could she know?

“Walk with me.”

I again took up pace beside her. She remained quiet until we were alone in her sitting room. Sinking into her favorite chair, she motioned for me to sit across from her. Once I had, she slipped a magicked amulet free from her gown.

“On the eve of my marriage, the queen of the Fae attended me. She gifted this spelled amulet to me. As you’ve probably deduced, it allows me to know when magick is being used.

I am not, however, trained to pinpoint the nuances of it.

Thus, while I know something happened with Valter, I’m at a loss as to what it was.

You saw it. Do not lie to me, Randall, for I felt your power rise as well. ”

“You’ve kept your secret well and truly hidden from me, my queen.

I’m impressed,” I said, bowing my head. Her smirk said it all.

She flicked her fingers for me to continue.

“I felt it as well. Something or someone joined their essence with Prince Valter’s.

It did no harm that I could detect, but he seemed stronger with the assistance. ”

“I agree.” She was silent for a moment, her head turned in profile to me, her fingertips drumming the arms of the wingback chair. “Do you remember the Fae prophecy?”

“Of course. You made me memorize forthwith.” Shock rushed through me. “You think… what? One of ‘the three’ made contact?”

She nodded slowly, her gaze panning back to look at me. “‘Shifter pure?’ ‘Midnight Prince?’ Either… Both. I’m thinking wolf and vampire.”

“They would fit the criteria. Have you deduced who among them, though?”

The queen laughed. “That would be nigh on impossible with this mere trinket.” She twisted the pendant’s chain, letting it spin in the air. “I thought, perhaps, you…?”

“I’m not sure, but I can try.”

“You’ll keep me apprised of anything you discover?”

I opened my mouth to reply in the affirmative, but another thought held me back. “Will you try to stop him?”

Her gaze narrowed, eyes piercing me to the quick. “Do you think so low of me?”

“No, but…”

“His Majesty might not approve? I understand, but you needn’t worry. I have his ear and his heart.” Her ferocious grin had me sitting up and paying attention.

How had I missed this side of her? It wasn’t hard to miss her devotion to Valter, and while I wouldn’t go as far as disdain, there was disappointment in the comportment of her older children.

Especially, I believed, with her eldest, William, first in line for the throne.

At twenty-four, he should have already been married with littles underfoot.

Victoria, at twenty-two, should have had suitors lining the halls, hoping to catch her eye, but she was a princess through and through, with nary an original thought in her head.

Meanwhile, the twins, Jonathan and Jacalynn, with their run of the castle, enjoyed terrorizing the staff and playing pranks on their teachers and siblings, especially Valter.

Only her youngest—fair of skin and hair, quiet, thoughtful, beautiful, and smart—held her regard.

Valter excelled in his studies, although all too often that caused its own problems. Unfortunately, the only area he failed in was learning to control and use his magickal gifts.

Since that was my area of expertise, I felt the failure keenly.

“Randall,” she said as she leaned forward in her chair, “I’m putting my trust in you to keep this between us. I’m also asking you to put your trust in me regarding my son. If you discover who they are, you must tell me so that I can make the necessary preparations.”

I nodded and sat back in my seat. “I trust you, but, if I may ask, what sort of preparations could you make?”

“You are aware Jarrah Quicksilver has been barred from the castle grounds since the night he gave Valter his blood?”

“I am.”

“I’m lifting that ban.”

I rubbed my chin, mulling over her declaration. “Is that wise?”

“Yes. The Fae’s support will be needed in the days to come.” She stared at me, unblinking, as my heart leapt into my throat.

Struggling to keep the surprise from my voice, I replied, “You know something I do not.”

She laughed lightly, her eyes bright with mirth before again narrowing. “And here I thought you knew everything. My spies have brought word of trouble. Nothing on its own I would have worried about, but in collecting the reports, my spymaster discovered a disturbing pattern.”

“Your spymaster?”

Again, she laughed. With a flick of her fingers, a shadowy figure slipped from a hidden alcove to stand at her back. I rose slowly, peering beneath the hood covering the top half of their face, trying to see who it was.

“Who—?” I cut myself off as they lifted a hand to their head and drew back the hood.

Perhaps I should have been surprised, but I wasn’t.

It made complete sense. Artor Angenoir, Master of Midnight Claimed—the only vampire clan who called the High City of Onamond home.

Swift and silent, strong, and essentially unkillable.

He made the perfect spy, and with his extensive knowledge, a near-perfect spymaster.

His fault was not including me and my abilities.

“Master Artor…” I perfunctorily bowed, seething at his dismissal of my magick when it might have helped him.

He held up a hand, forestalling my simmering, angry tirade. “Had I needed your help, I would have reached out, but these occurrences… Their power is impressive; strong enough to have blocked your abilities.”

“Had I known where to look, I would have—”

“Perhaps, but the episodes were fleeting, without pattern. The first coincided with Valter’s birth; the others have been sporadic at best. Recently, there has been an uptick in activity.”

“Do you know why?”

Artor sighed as he circled Queen Guenevere to sit in an open chair beside her.

She lifted an ever-present carafe of red wine and poured Artor a measure.

As he tossed it back, I realized it must contain blood…

whose I could not say, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn it was Her Majesty’s. Payment for services rendered.

“No, but there’s the prophecy to consider.”

I looked from one to the other, assessing them. Both had mentioned the prophecy foretold at Valter’s first birthday celebration. “He’s come of age.”

“I told you he’d figure it out,” Her Majesty crowed triumphantly at Artor.

“You were correct, my queen,” Artor bowed his head, offering her a bemused smile.

She rolled her eyes at him before settling back in her chair. “So…” She steepled her fingers. “We need to bring Valter together with his shifter and vampire mates. I’m thinking a ball.”

I groaned. Artor groaned. We looked at each other and snickered.

“Don’t laugh at me. You know I’m right.”

I nodded. “You are, of course.”

Her wolfish grin said what words couldn’t. “Excellent. Location: castle. Date… hm… a moon from now, give or take when we finish preparing the invitations. Reason… well, that’s easy. Potential brides and grooms for all my children.”

“You want to invite every eligible bachelor and maiden, Your Majesty?” Artor’s voice rose, his eyes widening with horror.

“Yes, it’s time. Valter’s mates will come and claim him, and with luck, I’ll have husbands and wives for the other four. His Majesty will be pleased.”

The king might, but I wasn’t. More sleepless nights awaited me, scrying to all corners of the kingdom for danger while attempting to discover why Valter’s power surged that afternoon. Sighing, I agreed with her plan, for her loving deviousness knew no bounds.