Two Thousand Years | The Empire Saga #1

Chapter Thirty-Five

Alex sat in front of her dresser mirror, pushing her hair away from her forehead. She lightly touched the scar-like mark left behind on her forehead. It was always warm to the touch; never in a feverish way, but more like a comforting warmth. The placement was too coincidental to ignore, and she still remembered the feel of Saratanya's lips upon her brow while she lingered in the limbo between life and death.

"You know, if you keep touching it, you're only going to make it worse."

Treyan was leaning in the door of the bedroom, handsome as always.

She glared at his reflection in the mirror and returned to inspecting the scar.

"It's not going away." She rubbed at it again.

"It probably won't, if the story you told me is true."

She turned back to him. "Oh yes, because making up stories about your mother on my deathbed was exactly what I had in mind."

"I've heard crazier."

"Well, believe what you will." She rubbed it a little more and felt nothing more than the pulsating warmth. "What does it even mean?"

"Funny you should ask." He walked into the room, holding a book in his arms.

"Researching without me?" she chided. "Treyan, I'm offended!"

"Enough, Empress," he murmured. "One can only walk into the library so many times and not be compelled to open a book or two on his own."

She turned from the mirror to face where he sat on the bench at the end of her bed. "So?"

"So." He opened the book to the marked page and flipped it around for her to see. "You now possess the Mark of the Empress."

Alex got up and sat next to him to get a closer look, taking the book in her own hands.

"The Mark of the Empress," she began to read, "shaped like a starburst...only bestowed from one Queen Empress to another...every two thousand years? What does that even mean?"

Treyan shrugged. "Keep reading."

"To the Empress who possesses the mark shall be bestowed the Gifts of the Empire upon the birth of the twin Princes." She looked to Treyan. "What gifts?"

"I have no idea."

"You're kidding me. You brought me this book and you don't even know the context?"

"I didn't say that. Anything that happened two thousand years ago might as well have been wiped from existence. Unless you can remember something that I don't that you've come across in our searching."

"Unfortunately, we don't have the time or the resources at the moment to begin another project." Sighing, Alex closed the book and put it aside. "I suppose we can conduct research another time. As for now, we're still no closer to apprehending Reylor and that should be our priority." She stood up, heading over to her own pile of books that had accumulated within her room.

"Alex, it is our priority, but don't you think something like this could be the key to finding our answer? Perhaps there's something here."

Alex had stopped in her tracks, her back still to him. "What did you just say?"

"That this is our priority?"

"No, you said the key to finding the answer..."

Treyan raised an eyebrow. "Yes?

"Treyan, the Key!"

She looked back to her books and hurriedly found one that was sitting at the bottom of five others. Allowing the tomes to tumble to the floor, she brought the text over to Treyan.

Taking it from her, he looked it over, extremely unamused. "Alex, The Complete Manual of Key Construction? This is the most boring book in that whole damn library. Do you know how many times I chose not to read this book?"

Her annoyance was starting to show. "Treyan, you said it yourself. Keys!" She pointed to the cover for added effect. "Keys are going to get us into the Borderlands!"

He peered at her oddly, but his eyes widened when he understood. "Wait. The only way Keys work is if two are planted. You need an entrance and an exit. Planting an in here is not the problem, but you need an out—somewhere to go—otherwise you're damning yourself to an eternity in limbo."

"So, we plant an out," she concluded matter-of-factly.

"Planting an out means we have to actually get into the Borderlands, and that's our issue in the first place. Not to mention, an army could never travel through a Key—the magic isn't strong enough to send more than one to two through at a time, and by the time we send through a whole armada, we'd be discovered. It would be too risky."

She considered it a moment. "Unless we're thinking too big."

"What?"

Alex started pacing. "All this time we've been trying to figure out how we're going to get our forces into the Borderlands, but what if instead of hundreds, we only need to send one?"

Treyan stood. "Alex?"

"The goal is to apprehend Reylor and make him confess to his crimes against the Empire, correct?"

"Yes, to say the least, but..."

"Why put hundreds of lives in danger just for him?"

He watched her carefully. "I don't like where this is going."

"We only need one person to cross into the Borderlands," she continued. "One person who we know will suffer little-to-no harm."

"Don't, Alex," he protested.

"Someone who's been there." She stopped her pacing and turned to face him. "I need to go."

Sighing, Treyan hung his head.

"It makes the most sense, and we both know it," she added.

"It doesn't mean I have to agree to it."

"I don't see any other way for it to work."

"It's too risky. For you, for the twins, for the Empire."

She started to feel her anger rise. "Well, it's not like more damage could be done."

He looked sternly at her. "That is not funny."

"I know." She sighed. "But in the greater scheme of things, it's true. You know it as well as I."

He started walking to her. "It doesn't have to be you. It should be me. I should be the one to go—"

"Something tells me I'll last a hell of a lot longer over there than you will. Reylor would have you killed in an instant."

"He could try," he countered. "You're not going alone. It's too dangerous."

"I won't go unprepared." He was standing in front of her now, and she put a reassuring hand on his cheek. "This is going to be the only way to put an end to this, once and for all."

"Unless there's another way—"

"I am not going to have you put yourself in harm's way for this," she reminded him. "Not when we know he'll be waiting for you. And you can't tell me he wouldn't use you crossing the line as an excuse to make sure you never make it back."

He closed his eyes and rested his cheek in her palm. "I hate it when you're right."

"Better start getting used to it."

He wrapped her up in a hug and held her tight, as if already terrified of having to let her go.