To Catch a King

13.

“How come we don’t have a carriage?” Victor demanded. Jask rolled her eyes just as Andreas snorted. They’d been traveling for less than an hour, and Victor finally felt the need to return to his boisterous, spoiled self. If he wasn’t the prince, she would have smacked him. Since they’d started traveling, he’d only complained. “I want an answer from you.”

Jask ground her teeth. He was much more annoying than Nil. Eight days of traveling with him would feel like an eternity. A glance at Andreas said that he was thinking the same thing.

“It’s not feasible,” Achak answered. “We do not want attention drawn to ourselves.” Jask could tell that even the old Chief-King was losing his patience.

“But—”

“Quiet!” Andreas snapped. Jask glanced at him, her eyes wide. The entire ride, he’d been quiet, lost in his own thoughts. And he’d never snapped at anyone, either. She watched as Andreas used his horse to stop Victor’s. The prince looked terrified. Andreas glared, and Jask was happy that she wasn’t receiving it. “I am sick of your complaints. You’re being an ungrateful child while we are risking our lived to get you home safely. If you think that you have a better plan, or if you think that you can make it on your own, you’d better tell me now or shut the hell up.”

With that, Andreas returned to the front of the group, quiet as he was before. Jask wanted to kiss him then and there. She was normally the surly one, but Andreas filled that description at the time being.

Looking back at Victor, she could see that he was shocked. Andreas was normally the amicable one, never with a bad thing to say.

And speaking of kisses, she enjoyed last night. They had done nothing but kiss on the beach, with no expectations of going any further. Afterwards, they made their way back to Andreas’ family home, where they both slept in his bed. To her, waking up in his arms was one of the best things she’d ever experienced.

The group continued on like nothing happened until they stopped for a break.

Getting back into Hena was relatively easy. All of the Elites in Hena knew that Jask and Andreas were on a mission, but they weren’t told the specifics by Luka, so they didn’t know what was going on until they saw Prince Vincent. Each one of the Elites that guarded the gates gave a hasty bow and Jask noticed the smug look that Vincent sent Andreas, which the latter ignored.

The entire city was in mourning of their king, so shops were closed and almost no one was about except for homeless people and Enforcers. Jask had never seen Sarae Square so empty. Usually, even on slow days, the area always had a few shops open with people loitering about, conversing with each other and trading wares.

Jask told no one and kept an impassive face, but she was inwardly celebrating the king’s death. He was a vile, lecherous, greedy man who stomped on whomever he wanted so that he could get his way. He’d been the cause of many wars back before Jask was born, and the semi-peaceful era that she lived in had been the longest that the country had lived without major violence.

Soon, the castle was in view. Jask had flashbacks to just before she became an Elite, when she’d just gottern her apartment—one of the very small pool of single women to do so—and when she had charged high prices to steal precious artifacts. As they made their way to the palace gates, Victor paused. Andreas and Jask pulled their horses to a stop and the prince took a deep breath, as if readying himself to face his grieving mother.

“I know I haven’t been that appreciative of the two of you,” he started, “but before I go inside and before all hell breaks loose, I want to say thank you. For finding me…for not giving up…for everything.”

“You’re welcome,” Andreas answered. “You should also thank Achak. Without his people finding and taking care of you, you would never had made it back here.”

Victor bowed to the former Chief-King and the group of four entered the palace gates.

***

The queen burst into tears as soon as Victor stepped into the throne room. Heads swiveled, the faces of guards and Elite soldiers alike sharing the same shocked features when they saw the prince. Once Victor hugged his mother, the blubbering queen dismissed court for the day, gaining outcry from her advisors. One glare from her had them all quiet.

While the two family members reunited, Jask nudged Andreas as she noticed Lukas motioned for them to follow behind him to his office. In a quick whisper, Jask handed her apartment keys to Achak and told him how to get to her home.

“I must congratulate you on a job well done,” he said, sitting at his desk. “Not only did you find the prince, but you’ve gained an ally in the Suechi and diverted a war.”

Andreas and Jask glanced at each other, slight panic showing on their faces.

“With all due respect, sir,” Andreas corrected, “that’s not exactly true.”

Lukas raised an inquisitive eyebrow and Jask told him about the assassins, from the beginning. In fact, she told him everything that related to the mission. By the time she finished, Lukas was pale-faced and his fingers were gripping the desk, turning white.

“Are you sure this is solid information?” he demanded.

Jask nodded. “They’re the ones who snuck into the castle and killed the king without anyone realizing it, and they did kidnap the prince. They described his room perfectly, down to the flaws and servants doorway. This was done in less than fifteen minutes, sir. Coming from someone who snuck into places and stole things for a living, this was perfectly executed and well planned. I’m sure that their information is sound.”

She didn’t add in that they wanted Andreas and Jask, specifically, to be recruits.

Andreas squeezed her hand, knowing that she had spoken more than normal and that she was most likely drained. As far as he knew, this was the most that she had spoken.

Lukas stood up. “We have to tell the queen, gather a war council. Train our soldiers harder.” He paced around his office, temporarily forgiving his two peers. He suddenly looked up. “You two are going to be there. Tell them everything that you told me.”

Jask looked at Andreas, who was staring at her.

“What about the Chief-King?” she asked. She didn’t tell her commanded that the old Chief-King was her father. She didn’t really trust anyone in the palace, and she only trusted Andreas because she traveled with him and he was completely honest with her. She knew that if the information that former Chief-King Achak was her father, her superiors and peers would try to use her to gain information and sway his choices. Though she hadn’t known the man long, she didn’t want that for either him or herself.

“He needs to be there, too. Go. Wait outside the throne room for the council to convene.”

Half an hour later, they, Achak, and the war council all joined each other in the throne room. This time, Andreas relayed the story, adding in information that he knew from his research. After he finished, he and Jask were dismissed. They headed to Andreas’s apartment, as it was the closest in the pod of Elites.

“Why didn’t you tell Lukas that we were recruited?” Andreas asked.

“Why didn’t you?” Jask countered. She burrowed down into a thick blanket that Andreas had provided. The servants in the castle hadn’t made a fire, so he had made one and was waiting for his living room to warm up.

Once it was warm enough, Andreas disappeared into the adjoining kitchen to make them dinner. They’d missed dinner in the dining hall, which was fine with the two because they wanted to avoid the questions about Victor and their mission.

“I haven’t made a decision,” Jask answered. When Andreas returned with plates of food, she started to eat. “I’m thinking about it, really. They influence change. They work in the shadows. They don’t ask for anything in return. What about you?”

Andreas scooted closer to her, so that their bodies were touching. He leaned into her a bit, still eating.

“I didn’t even have to think about it,” he answered. “I’m not joining. Sure, this is a fantastic opportunity, but I have people that I want to protect and a purpose here in Hena, in the military, in the Elites. What’s holding you back?”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Jask answered. She finished eating and put her plate on the small table in front of them. She pulled herself back into the blanket and huddled closer to Andreas. By this point, she was practically in his lap, while his arms encircled her, providing her with a sense of protection.

“Alright,” he said, leaning forward to put his plate down as well. “Well, I have something I want to say.” Jask nodded at him to go on. “When we went to Talehaven, I took a walk with Sahna the night before we left. We…talked, and I realized some things.”

He suddenly removed Jask from his lap and stood. He pulled Jask to her feet and she noticed that he was fidgety. He was nervous about something.

“What is it?” she asked quietly, grabbing a lock of his hair and twirling it. It calmed him down almost immediately.

He took a shuddering breath and looked Jask in the eyes.

“Jacqueline Victoire, with your permission, I’d like to court you.”

Jask stopped breathing and froze. “W-what?”

“I want to court you,” Andreas said. He slouched a bit. “Are you okay?”

Jask sat back down. “Y-yeah. I mean…I…”

Andreas started to feel a little sliver of panic.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know what to say,” Jask answered. “I want this. I do. Just… just…why are you putting me on the spot like this?”

“I’m not,” Andreas said, the panic being replaced by annoyance. “I never said that you had to answer me right then. I just asked your permission.”

“You stated, not asked,” Jask replied. “You implied nothing about giving me time.”

“Jask…”

“I don’t want to argue with you,” she said, trying to defuse the outburst that she knew was coming. “Just, the way you said it…”

“You know what I really want to say, Jask?” Andreas was angry. He hated being isolated like this, in his own apartment, while a war was starting. He hated that he and Jask was stuck together while Victor was busy getting pampered and preened by people and not being properly guarded. He hated that she was still in shock from the realization about Achak, that she didn’t really want to hear anything else, that the entire time that they knew each other, they hadn’t argued at all.

“What do you want to say?” Jask retorted, sitting on his couch, giving in to the annoyance that she was starting to feel. She wanted this place to be her domain while the war council was going on, deciding what to do with the information that she and Andreas had provided. She didn’t want to be here, in Andreas’s apartment, arguing about courting when bigger things were going on.

“I…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Jask…”

“If you say something stupid—”

“Me being in love with you is not stupid!” he exclaimed. Suddenly, he was glad that he had said this in an outburst, rather than the carefully crafted speech that he had originally prepared. He moved to the front of Jask. She looked even more shock than before, if that was even possible. “Yeah, I’m in love with you. Have been ever since Challus. The tub thing, remember?”

Jask nodded. She remembered. She remembered quashing the little infatuation that she had had after seeing him shirtless and smiling in the tub. Like he was waiting for her, when in fact he wasn’t. She remembered going back to her room that night and not sleeping because of the fact that she had seen him naked.

Andreas, feeling like a weight was lifted from his shoulders, sighed and sat down. Of course, he sat on a different chair, away from the mess of blankets, shock, and anger that was soon to be Jask. He glanced at her, and saw that she was looking forward, barely at him.

“I’m not going to explain how I feel—I don’t do that. I can’t say that I’ve loved you ever since you saw me naked, because it’ll seem like we’re in a love story. I’ll seem fake. I can just say why I love you. I can say that this is because you were annoyed by me when we first met, but you still stood with me because we were partners.”

“I don’t understand why you love me,” Jask whispered. “I’m a thief. I was born into aristocracy and then given away by my step-father. My mother was killed by my real father because she tried to kill his wife. My brother is the king of Suecha.” She looked up at him. “Why do you love me?”

“Because of all of those,” Andreas breathed. There was no hesitation after Jask had finished. “Because you’re flawed, like me, and you don’t try to hide it. I’m not saying you’re perfect, because you’re not. You’re just…private. Like me.”

Jask stood up. She paced around for a little but sat back down after a while. She didn’t look at Andreas, and his stomach dropped. “You don’t feel the same way.”

Jask was stricken. “I do—really. It’s just…there’s a war. And we’re Elite. And all of this drama…Andreas, we can’t be together right now.”

Andreas smiled. “I can wait. I can wait until you’re ready.”

“What if you fall out of love with me? What about then?”

Andreas braved the mass of blankets on the chair with Jask and moved beside her. “I won’t. After this war is over, after Victor is put on the throne and all of this settles down, we can be together.” He smiled at her. “And while all of this goes on, we can both look longingly at each other like love-stricken fools. It’s going to be hard, there’s no mistaking that, but it will happen. Do you believe me?”

Jask nodded, leaning into his shoulder. “I need to get dressed. We’re going to be summoned to the throne room soon.” Andreas kissed her on the forehead and let her go. She stood up once again and faced it. “I believe in us,” she said. “I do.”