Page 35 of Cursed Crowns

“You’re not wearing shoes either, but you don’t see me making a big song and dance about it.”

Rose looked at her feet and flinched. They were indeed bare and positively filthy. She must have lost her other shoe in the getaway. Nomatter, she was still a queen, and she would act like it.

She raised her chin, doing her best to ignore his bare chest, as she cut her gaze at her mysterious rescuer. The first thing she noticed—apart from his obvious impudence—was how handsome he was. He had golden-brown skin and dark eyes, and his lips were naturally quirked as though he was teetering on the edge of a smirk. He was impossibly tall and broad, every part of him corded with muscle. His dark, wavy hair fell past his shoulders, and it was wind-whipped and dappled with sand.

The second thing Rose noticed was that he looked disconcertingly like Shen, if perhaps a little older. No wonder she thought he was handsome. And yet how peculiar.

She cleared her throat. “Shoes or not, you are expected to bow to me. And I’ll have your name, too.”

The man grinned, revealing a pair of pronounced dimples that momentarily stole her breath. Then he crossed his arm over his stomach and bowed low at the waist. Rose got the sense he was mocking her, but she was distracted by a familiar black horse thundering across the bridge toward them.

Shen’s sword was drawn long before he reached them, but the shirtless rider struck first, unfurling his whip with such speed, Rose only noticed it when it yanked the sword from Shen’s grip. She scolded herself for missing earlier what was now apparent: the rider was a witch, too.

A warrior witch.

More peculiar still.

Shen didn’t miss a beat. He leaped from Storm and vaulted through the air, drawing his daggers in twin blurs of silver. He landed in a crouch in front of Rose, ready to strike.

And then, to her surprise, he froze.

The rider had fallen still, too, his whip slack at his side.

“Shen Lo?” he said in barely more than a whisper. He took a step toward them, blinking in disbelief. “I swore I was hallucinating when I saw you outside Millis yesterday. I thought it was a trick of the shadows.”

Shen inhaled sharply at the sound of his name in this stranger’s mouth. “Who are you?” he said warily. “Why do you seem so familiar to me?”

The rider simply shook his head. “We thought you were dead.”

“What on earth is going on?” Rose demanded. “Why were you following us?”

The man looked at Rose. “They say you’re a witch. That your sister is a witch, too.” He took another step, slow and cautious. “I heard the whisperings in Gallanth on my way here. I knew, then, that you could help me.” He returned his gaze to Shen. “But no one spoke of you, Shen Lo. I couldn’t have known... I wouldn’t have believed—”

“Say your name.” Shen kept his daggers high, his body positioned like a shield in front of Rose. “Now.”

The man flashed his teeth. “Don’t you recognize your own cousin?” he said, pressing closer. “Don’t you remember your childhood in the desert? All those times I bested you at horse racing. All those mornings we sparred in the training hall until you were winded, flat on your back, begging me to stop.”

Shen stiffened, the name bursting from him in a half-shout. “Kai?”

“Ah!” The rider—Kai—barked a laugh. “I knew I was unforgettable.”

“Shen?” said Rose uncertainly. “Who is this man?”

It was not Shen who answered her. “My name is Kai Lo. And I come from the Sunkissed Kingdom in the desert.”

Rose frowned. “The Sunkissed Kingdom is gone,” she said, remembering what Shen had told her about it. Eighteen years ago, the desert had spat him out. He was the only survivor. Banba had found him wandering alone in the desert, all traces of his kingdom gone from this world. His people along with it. “It was buried long ago.”

“Buried it may be. But it is still living,” said Kai, looking between them. “And we need your help.”

The silence swelled. Rose felt like her heart was swelling, too. It didn’t sound like a lie, but then, how could such a thing be true? She looked at Shen. His hands were slack at his sides, his breath punching out of him in sharp bursts.

“I looked for it,” he said, more to himself than to Kai. “I’ve been searching for the Sunkissed Kingdom for eighteen years. It’s gone.”

“Things are changing,” said Kai evenly. “The desert is stirring again.”

Rose recalled then what the messenger from Gallanth had told her about the roiling desert. She had passed on his message to Shen, too, both of them wondering what on earth it could mean. If it meant anything at all. But never in their wildest imaginings, could they have guessed at this.

“Is it possible, Shen?” she whispered. “Is your home still out there somewhere?”

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