Page 31 of The Never List (Never List #1)

Rylee

Brooks Bertrand looks so much like his son, but in a more casual way, where Pierce is infinitely more refined.

I do my best to quell my rising nerves, my eyes darting around the teashop as if the other kings will arrive at any moment.

“Please,” he says after my previous server has brought over a fresh teapot and cup for him. “Relax.” He eyes the undoubtedly tense set of my shoulders.

“I’m not entirely sure that’s possible, your majesty,” I say, electing to stick with the truth.

Brooks Bertrand chuckles as he pours hot water over a strainer full of tea leaves, lifting the thing in and out of the cup as he looks at me. “I suppose that’s fair. I doubt any of the other kings singled you out when you were in their sons’ cities.”

I shake my head, my mouth suddenly dry, but I can’t bring myself to reach for my abandoned teacup. I’m trembling and hiding my hands beneath the table. Why is he singling me out? Why is he here? Where is Pierce?

The thoughts race through my mind in a chaotic way, and I struggle to draw in a full breath. He’s not Baydel; thank goddess for that. He’s never done anything like Baydel did that first night, but being alone with a king… It feels more like a trap than a friendly chat.

“I can assure you, I mean you no harm,” he says as he continues to dip that tea in and out of the water. “And none of the other kings know I’m here.”

That creates more questions than answers and in no way relaxes me.

“Why are you here?” I ask when he doesn’t continue. My eyes dart to where the Occuli still sit and stare in our direction, but there are no green flames in their hands anymore.

Did they alert Brooks Bertrand to my presence here? Did they let him know the minute I was alone?

“I wanted to see how you are enjoying your time with my son,” Brooks explains.

I don’t believe it for a second. Not because I can sense any ill intent from him, like I usually can Baydel, but on the sheer fact that he’s a king of Lumathyst and has way more important things to do.

Still, if this is some form of test, I need to do my best to pass it.

“I’m enjoying my time with Pierce immensely,” I answer.

“Even after that horrendous display in the Sapphire Cove?” he asks, keen eyes on me. “You came here the next day.”

“Yes,” I answer, unsure of what he’s looking for from me.

“You didn’t go below deck with us and our elite enforcers,” he says, and I simply nod. “You chose to go with the Legends. It’s plagued my mind ever since. Part of my motivation in coming to find you when my son isn’t around.”

I shift in my seat, all comfort from spending time with my friends disappearing.

“Why?” he asks a bit forcefully, taking his tea strainer out of the water and discarding it to the side before he takes a sip.

“Why what?” I ask, unable to keep the bite from my tone to match his energy. I chide myself silently, doing my best to remember who sits across from me.

“Why did you choose to go with them? I doubt a Cedar and Silk citizen has much battle training.”

The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as the reality of that question hits me over the head. Why would any seemingly untrained Cedar and Silk citizen follow the Legends into battle? I did so because my instincts demanded it. Because the thought of them fighting for those innocent people without me was abhorrent, but also because I knew if things got seriously dangerous, I had power of my own to wield. Not to mention that Erin and I had been sparring together since before our parents were taken for a Never List mission. Those skills helped during situations when enforcers abused their power.

“It wasn’t really a choice,” I say.

Brooks tilts his head, eyes narrowing. “Did they force you to accompany them?” His features are deadly serious, as if there will be repercussions if they did.

“Of course not,” I say quickly, my brow furrowed. I force out a laugh. “Kal begged me to stay back on the ship,” I admit. “But I couldn’t.”

“What do you mean, you couldn’t?” he asks a little softer this time as he sips his tea.

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, searching for the right words. “Axl’s people, Kal’s people, and now Pierce’s,” I say as I glance around the teashop before returning my focus to him. “After spending as much time with the Legends as I have, growing to know them and love their cities and their people, they feel like my people, too. I couldn’t let the innocent suffer without doing something, even if that meant only guiding people to safety. The idea of being left behind and not knowing if the Legends were okay or not…” My voice trails off as the genuine terror takes up residence inside my chest.

I remember that first night in the Ruby Aire, when they’d left me behind and I had no way of knowing if they were all right. I never wanted to feel that way again.

“I’d rather be in danger with them than be safe somewhere without them.”

Brooks studies me, his eyes older and more calculative than Pierce’s.

I’ve never been more relieved that his power isn’t like his son’s, because I fear with his age and experience, he’d break through my thoughts immediately and find all the secrets I’m hiding.

Luckily for me, he only has the power to manipulate energy—something he passed on to his son, right alongside his mother’s mind-reading abilities and alternate-reality creations.

“Do you say this because you’re a mate potential?” he asks with all seriousness. “Do you say it because I’m the king, father of one of your possible mates, and because you think it’s what I want to hear?”

I laugh genuinely this time as I shake my head. “I thought you would’ve noticed by now from my absolute blunders at every dinner that I rarely say what I’m supposed to say.”

Brooks chuckles, nodding as he takes another sip of tea. “You certainly don’t get along with Baydel,” he says, shrugging. “But then again, only a few of us do. Old age affects others differently, and I do say that it’s made Baydel more rigid as opposed to wise.”

I don’t feel like I have the right to comment on that, so I keep my mouth shut.

“I have a question for you, Rylee Gray,” he says, setting down his teacup. “And since you are so honest all the time, I’m hoping you’ll be honest with me now.”

I swallow hard, heart pounding as I wait for him to speak.

“I came here to offer you something,” he says. “Something I think you desperately need.”

I tilt my head. “What is it that you think I need?”

Brooks leans back against the cushioned seat, eyeing me. “An escape, for one,” he says. “And answers about your sister, for two.”

I try to school my features, try to keep them calm, but my eyes flare just a bit.

The wise king tracks it.

“I know the Legends have been looking for her,” he continues. “I know that she’s not on a Never List mission or in Cedar and Silk where she should be.”

Ice water fills my veins, but I hold entirely still as if that will make me a smaller target, as if that will make my weaknesses less apparent.

“Breathe,” he says. “I do not say this to threaten you. I’m simply stating facts.”

“I don’t understand what you’re asking me.” My lip threatens to tremble at the adrenaline coursing through my body, at my instincts shouting at me that I’m being threatened, even though nothing about his demeanor says as much. He’s relaxed in his seat, his features calm and interested, even; there’s no hint of the malice or disgust that I see on Baydel so often.

“I’m offering you a chance to escape,” he says plainly. “As you know, I have a wealth of power, not to mention means and status. I know the kings better than anyone else. There are places even Baydel can’t reach. I could make sure you get to that place with enough wealth to start a new life. One that includes your sister.”

My eyes widen. “Are you saying you have my sister?” I ask on a loose breath.

Brooks waves me off. “Of course not,” he says. “I’m not a monster. I have no need to track down your relatives and loved ones…unless you brought harm to my son, and then that would be a different story. As it is now, Pierce is absolutely smitten with you. But, if you choose to take my offer, I will find her. If she’s alive to be found. Either way, you could start your new life away from the Legends, away from the kings’ eyes, and put this whole Choosing business behind you.”

The picture he paints is an offer I would have considered three months ago. A fantasy Erin and I used to have ever since our parents were called away on the Never List mission. Us coming into money somehow, coming into wealth to help the Ashlands before escaping somewhere to live peacefully on our own together, no longer threatened by kings’ enforcers.

But now? That fantasy is drenched in a sadness I can’t entirely explain, and when I picture my future, it has the Legends all over it.

“You’d only have to do one thing for me in return,” he says, and that draws my attention back to the present. I keep quiet, not wanting to give anything away. “Reject them,” he says when I’ve remained silent. “Reject them at the Choosing. Don’t go through with the Athanry, and I’ll make sure you’re well taken care of.”

My hackles rise at his condition, not that I was seriously entertaining the offer to begin with. His condition is a direct threat to the Legends, to the men I…

I finally work up the courage to hold my teacup, lifting it with a steady hand as I sip on what is now cold liquid and swallow it down.

Things have changed.

I’ve changed.

And the idea of rejecting the Legends is…

Unfathomable.

There’s no other way to describe it. I used to visualize the ceremony, used to think about the best way to reject them without incurring any of their wrath, but now? I can’t picture me saying anything other than yes.

Even to Jax and his obvious distaste for me.

The offer the king presents has made it abundantly clear—there’s no going back for me. I can no longer straddle both sides of the line. I’m either all in with them, or all out.

“Why would you, not only a king of Lumathyst but Pierce’s father, want me to reject them? Isn’t it you and Baydel and the others who are so worried about their draining powers? Powers needed as offerings to keep the goddesses appeased and connected to Lumathyst?”

“Ah, clever. I suspected as much, as you’re capable of holding my son’s interest for longer than a day, but the way your mind works is quite riveting in person. You’re right in that regard,” he admits. “We want our sons’ powers at their full potential, for themselves and for the goddesses’ needs.” He takes another sip of tea before looking at me again. “I mean no disrespect, but your behavior the last two and a half months has been anything but royal decorum. I just don’t see you as our next queen of Lumathyst.”

Shame unfurls inside me, despite his no disrespect comment. I may as well be wearing my threadbare Ashlander clothes, as opposed to Axl and Kal’s colors of the finest royal materials.

“Of course, it’s hard to see anyone as a queen when the last ones we had were goddesses,” he continues. “But there’s something about you that is lacking where the others weren’t.” He doesn’t speak the words in a malicious way, more like it’s a simple, logical fact. “Some of the other potentials—the heirs of dukes for certain—had more of that regalness I believe our kingdom needs.”

Acid claws up my throat, but I swallow it down and hold my head up high. “And yet not one of those other potentials made it as far as I have,” I say, my voice only trembling slightly as I shift my right hand on the table. Axl and Kal’s tokens sparkle on my wrist and finger. “Why do you think that is?”

“Why indeed?” he counters. “Regardless of my reasoning, you’ll find no better offer out there. And as you’ve so poignantly brought up, past potentials have left for much less.”

Anger prickles my skin at that admission.

Some of the other potentials were given offers similar to this and left?

They were never genuinely interested in the Legends in the first place, then.

“So,” he says, folding his hands on the table, a move that has me tracking it, suddenly worrying that bolts of energy might spear from those hands and wrap around my neck, disposing of what would be a shameful potential. “Will you take my offer?”

I sip my cold tea once more, mostly to keep my mouth under control and remind myself that I’m talking to an immortal king who could easily take my life right here in this very teashop.

“It’s certainly a generous offer,” I admit, thinking about how much he sweetened it by dangling my sister in front of my face.

I’m sure he has no clue where she is. If he did, he would’ve given me way more details about her to make the offer irresistible.

But it doesn’t matter. Even if he showed me proof right now that he had her in his power, it would be hard for me to take the deal.

And that certainty fills me with the courage I need in order to tell the king no .

“But I’m going to have to pass,” I finally finish.

Brooks blinks in surprise, barely holding back the shock that ripples over his features before he smooths them out in an indifferent look.

“Interesting,” he says, scooping up his teacup again and holding it close to his lips. “Price is too steep?” he asks.

“The Legends aren’t a price point for me,” I say as clearly as I can. “Never. Not a bargaining chip, either. I’m theirs,” I continue with absolute confidence, despite the fact that I only have two tokens on my right hand and have yet to earn Pierce’s or Jax’s.

“Very interesting,” Brooks says, finishing his tea. “Very, very interesting, Rylee Gray.” He slides away from the table, and I do so as well, bowing as I’m expected to. “Until we meet again,” he says, dipping his head just slightly, the ghost of a smile playing across his lips that I’m sure I’ve mistaken as he turns around and heads out of the teashop.

I slump back into my seat the moment he’s out of sight, doing my best to get a grip on my breath.

“Darling.” Pierce’s voice breaks through my racing thoughts a few moments later, startling me with his sudden appearance at the table. “Are you ready to go home?”

I blink up at him, hurrying out of my seat to wrap my arms around him.

“What is it?” he asks as I cling to him, trembling from the encounter.

I breathe easier as he holds me. “Take me home?” I ask, unable to recount the story for him right this second. I need to think, need to sit with the overwhelming realization that the king so abruptly provided me with tonight.

I will choose them.

No matter what is offered.

No matter the risk.

I’m going to choose them.

And it could kill me.