Grace Goodwin - Destiny

The old woman actually rolled her eyes. “Right. You’ve been here less than two weeks, appearing in my fortress the day after three mysterious females disappeared inside the citadel. There are no records of you from your previous years of life. No birth records. Nothing. And you can hear the microscopic buzzing of a comm transmitter, which means you and your sisters already received your gifts from the citadel.”

“What?” No one knew about the gifts. No one outside the royal bloodline. That was what Mom had always told us. It was too dangerous for outsiders to know. Then how?

“Don’t worry. I am loyal to your mother, Queen Celene. I have been protecting her throne for nearly thirty years, waiting for this day.”

“How did you know she wasn’t dead?” I asked, then groaned. Stupid question. I already knew the answer. So did all of Alera.

“The spire, of course. It never dimmed.”

“Right. Sorry. I forgot.” I lifted my hand to rub my face, saw the blood and dropped it. I took a deep breath. Allies. We needed allies. “All right. Look, I know you are loyal. And I know you sent Crayden to find out about the mysterious prisoner in Cell Level C in the Optimus Unit.”

It was her turn to frown. Ha!

“How could you possibly know that? Unless you are the one who placed the comm transmitter in my office.”

“No. I was… well”—I blushed. I couldn’t stop it this time—“I broke into your office last night to look for clues. Heard the two of you talking.”

“That’s impossible.”

I shrugged. “Not really. You’ve got a really strong vine outside that window. I highly recommend you cut it.”

She studied me closely, her lips pursing. “I see. What else did you hear?”

“Enough to know you aren’t my enemy. Or an enemy of my family.”

“So, you truly are the third princess?”

I nodded. “Yes. My name is Destiny. Faith is my twin sister and Trinity is older than both of us, and the only full-blooded Aleran.” I held out my hand, Earth style, and she smiled kindly as she took it, dried blood and all. Squeezing, not shaking up and down, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

“An honor and a pleasure, Your Highness. Now, tell me why you are hiding here, and how I can help you.”

“I’m not sure yet. I’m very sorry about Crayden. I think the first thing we need to do is find out who put that bug in your office.”

“Agreed. I will give it to my people.”

That worked for me. It wasn’t something I could tackle, and since she didn’t seem too surprised her office had been bugged, had evidently been through this before.

“And I will keep your identity a secret. It is the only way you will remain safe within the fortress.”

“Thank you. I’m going to contact Trinity and catch her up to speed on things. Then, once we know who set that bug, we can make a plan. Someone kidnapped our mother, and we’ve tracked the traitors to the clerics, and the Optimus Unit. I believe the mystery prisoner you mentioned is the queen.”

She stared at me wide-eyed. It was one thing to have the queen missing for twenty-seven years, another that she was in one specific place and could be saved. “Do you have proof?”

“No. Just gut instinct.”

She smiled at me. “My gut agrees.” She chuckled, as if this was incredible fun, an adventure, not life and death.

“This is serious.”

“Of course it is. Life is always serious for people with power and responsibilities. But that does not mean you can’t take moments and make them more, even after what happened with Crayden. Life is too short to pass by an opportunity to laugh. You are young, but you will learn. Steal laughter. Steal joy. Steal love. If you don’t, you’ll never have it.”

How did this go from a cool spy mission to a lecture? Sheesh. I didn’t need more of that. Between Nix and Trinity, I’d heard enough for a while.

“I’ll contact my sister. With your permission, I would like you to meet me back here in the morning.”

She nodded, even patted my arm. “Go. Get cleaned up. I will discover what I can while you rest and recover.”

“Thank you.” I didn’t mean to run, but I was suddenly in a hurry to get back to my room. The blood was gross. The memory was disturbing. And now that I had the most powerful female in the clerical order on our side, I felt just safe enough to let my guard down and drown in the shower for a solid hour and wash off the smell of death clinging to me.

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