*Isla*
Walking down the hallway toward Maddox’s office, I hear Trinity’s voice echo in my head. “You need to be more assertive,” she’d told me. “You have to make sure the king realizes if he can confide in Trinity, he can confide in you. Why is it she always knows what’s going on and you don’t? Because she asks! And when she asks, he feels compelled to tell her. She demands it.”
My friend isn’t wrong. I definitely don’t know how to be assertive like Trinity.
As I approach his office, I hear voices filtering out into the hallway. I recognize Maddox’s voice immediately. The response comes from Seth.
I shouldn’t be standing here eavesdropping, but the door is open just a crack, and they are standing right by the door. I can’t NOT hear them. I could walk away or announce my presence.
But they’re talking about Maatua. I can tell by the few phrases I’ve picked up. If Maddox isn’t going to tell me the truth, I’ve got to find out some other way what is going on.
“I’m just saying, Alpha, if you were to get the diamond, it could restore the faith of the citizens in the crown, including the Alphas that are currently threatening to fight.”
“And I’m telling you, it’s too dangerous, Seth. I’m not going to take the time and risk the men to have them go to an island that is allegedly cursed to look for a treasure that probably isn’t even there. Even if it is, there are no maps in existence, no way of finding it. And if it’s truly guarded by magic, then how will we even retrieve it?”
“I didn’t realize you were such a firm believer in magic.” Seth sounds cynical.
“I wasn’t. Until I saw the woman I love bring her brother back to life. The things that Isla can do are clearly magical. If she can do that, then who am I to question the existence of magic?”
Hearing him talk about me this way when he doesn’t even know I’m standing here listening to him warms my heart, but it doesn’t make me announce my presence. So he believes in magic now, thanks to me, but he isn’t willing to go after the treasure.
“Why not take her there?” Seth’s suggestion makes m freeze. Did he really just say that? Alpha Maddox is not going to like it.
“Are you insane, Beta?” I can hear the rage in his voice. “You want me to let the woman who is carrying my child cross a turbulent sea to go to a jungle-covered cursed island to look for a treasure we have no clue of finding, and attempt to break a magical spell she might not be equipped to try to break. Why? Why in the world would I do that?”
“She’s not a delicate flower, and she’d be surrounded by troops. Hell, I’ll go. Or you can. We can figure out where the Diamond of Faith finally is, and then we’ll be able to restore balance to the kingdom.”
The Diamond of Faith? What the hell is the Diamond of Faith?
“Absolutely not,” Maddox says with gusto. “I will never put Isla in that kind of position. We’ll make the Alphas believe in the power of the crown without it.”
“And we’ll continue to have these uprisings,” Seth mutters under his breath. “They’ve consistently gotten worse since the diamond was lost!”
“My reign has been much better than my father’s. Things are getting better, not worse.”
“And yet,” Seth began, “the amount of dissension we have in the realm is ramping up by the day! Whether it was those stupid cufflinks or her arrival here in the castle, something has stirred up all of these bad feelings between the other Alphas and the crown. Without the diamond, chaos cannot be kept in check. You know that! It’s in the history books, the journals, and the other papers passed down from your ancestors.”
“Seth, I don’t know what to tell you.” Maddox sounds even more dismissive than he did before. “You may as well stop because there’s no fucking way I’m ever going to agree to let Isla go to Maatua to look for a goddessdamn diamond or any kind of treasure. Not now. Not after the baby is born, never. She’s not capable of doing something like that! She’s not strong enough. If it were Trinity, maybe I’d consider it, but Isla is… too soft.”
My eyes bulge from my head as my mouth drops open. Is that really what he thinks? That I’m not strong enough to do it?
It’s no wonder he won’t trust me as the Luna Queen if he thinks I’m so weak that I can’t even go to an island, one where I was born, find a treasure, break a magical spell, and bring it back here so that the kingdom can be saved.
Okay—that does sound like a lot. But… I can do it. I know that I can!
For him to say that Trinity could do it, that she is stronger, braver, smarter, whatever, than me… I can’t even process how that makes me feel.
I turn around and head back down the hallway. I suppose I’m headed to my room, but maybe I’m not. Maybe I’m going somewhere else. Maybe I’m headed right out the door right now.
As I rush away, I hear footsteps behind me. Turning a corner, I try to avoid being seen by whoever is following me, but when I hear the footsteps speed up, I turn around and meet Seth’s eyes.
“Isla!” He is whispering in a harsh voice. “Wait!”
I can’t! If he figures out that I overheard their conversation, he’ll tell Maddox. If Maddox finds out I was eavesdropping, he’ll be so mad.
Spinning back around, I take off again.
But Seth is there in a flash. He pulls on my elbow. I have no choice but to stop and look at him.
“What did you hear?”
My mouth falls open. “Uhm… nothing.”
“Isla.” He cocks his head to the side. Obviously, he doesn’t believe me. He still has his hands wrapped around my arm, but he’s not hurting me. Still, when I give my arm a shake, he lets go of me. “I know that you heard something.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Seth. But I didn’t hear anything. Even if I did, I probably wouldn’t remember. I’m stupid, you know? I’m not as smart and talented as some other people.”
He slowly shakes his head. Maybe I’ve given away the fact that I have heard something, but he won’t know that I heard the part about the diamond.
Besides, I can’t help it. Hearing Maddox speak so strongly about how amazing Trinity is hurts. It’s like he still believes all I’m good for is to be his breeder, the woman who is carrying his child. Nothing more.
“That’s not what he said, and that’s not what he meant, Isla,” Seth says, but I do see understanding in his eyes.
“Well, whether he said it or not, that’s what he thinks,” I counter.
“No, he doesn’t. He absolutely thinks you’re special. He was only saying he thought that the task at hand would be better for Trinity. She’s not pregnant. She’s not as important to him as you are. If something were to happen, he wouldn’t be upset, like he would with you. Well, not as upset.”
I want to believe what Seth is saying is true, but it’s hard to because I heard exactly what Maddox was saying. He even said that he didn’t think I could do it if I wasn’t pregnant.
“What do you think?” I ask the Beta.
“What do I think?” He emphasizes the word I, clarifying. “It doesn’t really matter what I think. I’m just the Beta.”
“But it does matter, Seth. It matters to me.” Does he agree with Maddox that I’m incompetent? If he does, I need to rethink my own skills.
“I think you could do the task at hand, no problem. But it really doesn’t matter what I think. I’m not the one in charge here.”
Staring into Seth’s eyes, an idea begins to form in my mind. I shouldn’t even entertain it, but since he’s already told me he thinks I’m capable of this, and I already feel like I need to do it, I can’t help but ask, “Will you help me?”
Seth’s eyes widen as he stares at me. “Uhm… help you what?”
I tip my head sideways and stare at him. “Seriously, Seth. We both know I know what you were talking about.”
I see him going back over the conversation in his head, trying to figure out what I can possibly know just from what they were talking about.
I shouldn’t know enough from what I’d overheard just in to have a clue, but that’s not the only info I have about what’s going on.
He’s trying to determine whether or not I know.
“Seth, if I decide to go to the island and get the treasure, I’m going to need help getting out of here. Will you help me?”
He swallows hard, piecing together the fact that I already know everything.
The Beta is completely loyal to the Alpha. The Alpha has made his wishes known. But Seth also knows what’s best for the kingdom. That’s the only reason he is searching for an answer now.
“It’s dangerous,” he reminds me, shaking his head slightly.
“Most things worth doing usually are,” I remind him.
“If Maddox were to find out, he’d kill me and be so angry at you,” he points out.
“He wouldn’t kill you. And just because he finds out I’m gone, that doesn’t mean that he’s going to know that you had anything to do with it.”
Seth shakes his head. “I’d have to take responsibility, Isla. I wouldn’t let him think I didn’t do it when I was the one who had helped you. I think… it’s very difficult to go against the king.”
“Are we going against the king if I go there to get the Diamond of Faith, and that’s what it will take to force these Alphas back under the control of the crown?”
“What do you know of it?” he challenges.
“Not much. Only what I heard you say. I know more about the treasure, the curse, the witches, that information.”
He hesitates, his eyes darting around the hallway. We are alone. “The diamond was given to the first king by the Moon Goddess herself. She entrusted him with it. The diamond is meant to keep everyone in line, in check. But it was stolen from the kingdom by an enemy in a war under the rule of the third king. This treasure included that diamond, returned to the kingdom by another king of the land that stole it to show reconciliation. When the pirates took it, the kingdom was devastated. We need it back. There’s simply no way Maddox can ever restore order without it.”
All of what he is saying makes sense to me. “Seth, we both know I can do it! I can get it back—all of the treasure.”
He shakes his head. “It’s not a good idea, Isla.”
“That’s not what you said to Maddox a few minutes ago. Seth? What do you say? Help me get out of the castle, to Port Westerly, and I’ll go to Maatua, get the diamond, and come back before the baby is due. What do you say?”
Seth takes a deep breath and replies.