A kiss was supposed to be a sign of affection, or used to seal a pact, or even bestowed as a final goodbye.
It was never supposed to bring someone back from the dead.
Alex had already mourned, grieved and accepted the loss of her husband.
She and Crystal spent a month trying to save his life after he appeared through the Key, wounded and poisoned.
She said her farewells. She accepted their fate and was ready for both of them to have some semblance of peace and carry on.
Yet there he was, sitting across from her with a mug of coffee between his hands as though it was just another day in their mundane existence.
Treyan was supposed to be dead, but she brought him back to life.
She didn’t know which scared her more.
“I suppose it’s not that surprising, when you think about it.”
Treyan broke the silence, snapping Alex from her train of thought, and she looked to her husband as he took a sip from his mug. “You received the Mark from a kiss. Why should its powers not be transferred in the same manner?”
Alex’s hand went to the starburst-like burn scar between her brows, ever warm to the touch. “But you were dead.”
“And so were you, if you recall.”
She tried not to and brought her hand down to her own mug of coffee before her.
“So, what do we do now?” Alex asked, softly blowing at the steaming cup between her hands.
The question lingered between them for a moment, as if each were weighing the severity of the inquiry through the uncomfortable silence. Finally, Treyan shrugged, his attention focused again on his own mug.
“Whatever we do, we’ll do it together just like we have in the past, and we’ll survive doing it.”
She didn’t want to think of the need to survive or otherwise, so Alex quickly changed the subject. “You still don’t remember anything?”
Treyan’s inability to remember exactly how he arrived back at her apartment in Boston proved to be more of the mystery. Alex watched her husband for a minute, and she could see the flashes of memory from his last moments within the Empire as they ran through his mind.
Treyan shook his head as if trying to clear away the haze. “I remember confronting Reylor in the library while he hovered over the Annals, and I remember the agony of the sword coming down along my back.”
Alex’s brows furrowed and she pursed her lips. The last person she wanted to think about was Reylor. The banished Lord Steward should have remained in the Borderlands and left the Empire alone. Instead he infiltrated their sanctuary and turned their own people against them.
She grit her teeth at the thought. If she ever got her hands on that spy of a Mistress, she truly believed she would murder her. It was Bria who so cowardly attacked Treyan, and it was Bria, through whatever poison she coated on that blade, who inflicted Treyan’s back with such a severe wound that it sent them all through a month of torment.
Bria who, in the end, caused Treyan’s demise… or would have if not for one perfectly timed kiss.
Her musings were interrupted by the startled cry of an infant waking up from yet another nap. Even after a month, the actuality of the baby belonging to her remained fresh and new. Yet every time she heard the familiar cry from her daughter’s lungs, the initial smile that came to her face quickly turned to a frown as she remembered the son they had been forced to leave behind.
“I’ll get her.”
Treyan stood before she could move, the look on his face almost sympathetic as if he knew where her memory took her. Alex’s eyes met his before he left the room, and she had to remind herself Sarayna was his daughter as well.
Instead of arguing, Alex simply nodded.
She watched her husband retreat down the hallway of her one-bedroom apartment. Having Treyan with her in her realm, and knowing him for who he was instead of some wannabe-stalker-turned-rescuer, sent butterflies through her stomach. Regardless of what had happened, or what brought him to the Otherrealm, he was hers and she his, and they now had a family together.
She shouldn’t need anything more.
And yet there was still so much she wanted.
With her mug in hand, Alex stood from the small breakfast table in the kitchen and padded into the living room where she would be able to look out to the familiar city street. From her ground-floor apartment, she watched the sun kiss the cityscape as a soft breeze rustled fallen leaves down the sidewalk. It was October, just over a month since she and Sarayna fell through the Key’s portal, but it felt like it was only yesterday when Treyan first brought her to the Empire.
With a slight smirk, Alex remembered it might possibly have only been yesterday.
When she returned to Boston, bruised, battered and fresh off the birthing bed, her best friend Crystal had informed her that it was only two days—forty-eight hours at the most—since they were last together.
For Alex, however, almost a year of her life had passed within the Empire.
In that time, she became the Queen Empress.
She married the Empire’s Crown Prince.
She gave birth to the twins that could continue their Prophecy.
The cold grip of despair returned to her heart as she recalled those final moments with their stolen son.
While Sarayna was soothed by her father in the next room, their son Lexan remained with Reylor, Betrayer to the Empire. Neither of them knew what Treyan’s brother planned to do with their son while he was in the former Lord Steward’s custody.
Alex’s grief quickly turned to fury as she clenched the coffee mug so tight, she didn’t care if it shattered between her hands. She imagined it was Bria’s scrawny little neck between her hands.
“Alex?”
Treyan startled her from her murderous rage as he lingered in the entryway with the baby cradled in his arms. The sight calmed her nearly instantly as she looked at her husband gently holding their daughter.
She was their daughter, just as Lexan was their son.
Alex plastered on a smile as she walked towards them, but the look on Treyan’s face told her he wasn’t falling for it. Placing her cup down on the side table next to the couch, she reached out for Sara but he didn’t appear to be ready to give her up. Instead, he gave his wife a knowing glance as if he was trying to assess the current state of her mental readiness.
“I’m fine,” she assured him as she again motioned to take the infant. He finally released Sarayna into her mother’s care, though she could tell in the way he watched her that he remained hesitant. Alex couldn’t blame him—her emotional stability aside, he had been without his daughter for so long, perhaps he needed the comfort as much as Alex did.
She cradled Sarayna against her, the child’s small head nestling right into the crook of her neck and returned to the window before Treyan could sense her unease. Sara, however, watched her mother with the attentive alertness unique to an infant through the bright blue eyes of the Empire born. Eyes exactly like her father’s…
As well as her uncle’s before he betrayed the Empire.
Alex shook thoughts of Reylor from her head as she returned her attention to the scenery outside her window. That bastard would die, too, if she had anything to say about it.
And she did.
She was the Empress, after all.
In her arms she held the future Crown Princess who would, in her own time, search for her King Emperor, bring him back to the Empire, and inevitably begin her own Prophecy.
Even though they weren’t there any longer, it still mattered. It had to matter.
What was any of what they had—and what they will go through—worth if it didn’t?
She knew Treyan was watching her, and she glanced over her shoulder to where he leaned against the doorjamb of the living room. He smiled at her, holding his own mug again, and she returned the sentiment with her own small grin.
Coffee was what first brought them together, and now it was coffee they drank as they tried to piece together all that was lost.
What were they going to do?
Alex held her daughter tighter to her chest. The question haunted her ever since she and Saranya came through the Key within her living room’s fireplace not less than a month ago, and even more so once Treyan arrived soon after. If it wasn’t for Crystal, Alex didn’t know how she would have gotten by on her own. Her friend was no stranger to shock and refused to leave Alex’s side while she helped her through it.
She was lost deeper in her thoughts than she realized for the next thing Alex knew, Treyan was standing behind her with his chin resting on her unoccupied shoulder as his arms wrapped around her waist. His touch always calmed her body, if not her mind, and she let out a sigh of relief as she leaned back against his chest.
“It will be okay, Alex,” Treyan whispered against her neck. “We’ll find a way to get home.”
Alex closed her eyes and scoffed. “And then what?”
“We will take back what is ours.” His tone grew serious and she glanced at him, trying to get a better reading on his intent.
He kept his gaze down, but she knew well what he implied, though it was the first time she had heard him vocalize it so vehemently.
Taking advantage of Sara falling asleep on her shoulder, Alex stepped out of Treyan’s grasp. “I’m going to put her back down,” she said quietly as she left to lay the newborn in the bedroom.
Truth be told, Alex didn’t have an answer, or a plan, or an opinion on the matter of returning to the Empire. Ever since she came back, her life revolved around caring for their daughter while making her ailing husband as comfortable as possible during his last days.
It wasn’t until Treyan’s recovery that she finally considered returning.
Of course, in her heart she hoped they’d be able to return to the Empire, but those aspirations seemed to dwindle the longer they remained in Boston. The longer they delayed, the more time Reylor had to prepare for them. Lexan would grow so much older than his sister…
Would he even acknowledge them as his parents? Or would his loyalty, love, and devotion belong solely to Reylor?
As she quietly shut the bedroom door, she wondered if her sleeping daughter would ever see her father’s realm again. Or meet her brother.
Treyan had made his way back to the couch by the time Alex returned to the living room. The sun from the window reflected on his black hair, and she swore she could see hints of dark blue highlights in the midnight-toned mane. Maybe he sensed her watching him because he looked over his shoulder with his striking smile that always made her need to catch her breath. His eyes still shone with the same unnatural blue that seemed to capture the sunlight within his irises.
As with the first time they met, Alex was drawn to him by some force beyond her control, and she was soon next to him on the couch, allowing herself to be comforted within his strong arms. His warmth calmed her while she snuggled against him, and they remained as such for a few moments longer before a knock at the apartment’s door captured their attention.
“It’s probably Crystal coming back to check-in,” Alex assured him as she stood from the couch. Picking up her mug, she reached her other hand out for his. “I’ll get a new pot of coffee brewing; we’re going to need it.”
Nodding, Treyan handed her his mug but remained on the couch. He seemed uneasy at the mention of Crystal, a stranger he didn’t know coming into the apartment where their remaining child slept. He’d need to get over it, she mused to herself as she walked into the kitchen. Without her, neither of them would have much to stand on, literally and figuratively.
She wondered if Treyan’s uneasiness stemmed from the awkwardness of having to deal with a drunken Crystal when they first met during Alex’s birthday gathering. She smiled while trying to imagine Treyan ever in an awkward position.
The knocking continued incessantly and Alex was beginning to get annoyed.
“I’ll be right there!” she yelled towards the door. Hurriedly, she finished filling their mugs, taking a sip from hers as she headed to the foyer. With her free hand, she unlocked the three newly replaced deadbolts and opened it to welcome her friend.
The mug dropped from her hand and shattered on the floor when it was evident the visitor wasn’t Crystal at all.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
M. Dalto 