Tie It With a Ribbon

The blood rushed from my face, and I looked to Zanzibar. He only shrugged.

“This does not help. Who did Alexandros poison?”

“Reginald’s wife,” I breathed, my lip trembling. “All along, we have been searching for a hybrid… And she has been dead! And her husband has been within arm’s reach at every given moment!”

“Who wrote this, Alena? Who knows besides Reginald, Liana, and us? Who?”

“Alexandros knew…but he is dead, and he would not help us. Did my mother know?” I shook my head. “But she is dead! Everyone we need is dead, Zanzibar! Who else could know?”

“That doesn’t matter right now, Alena. We have to see Reginald,” he whispered, looking around as if paranoid—as if the souls of those who knew every dark secret were surrounding us at that very second. “We’ve wasted enough time.”

I had to agree with him, and we were soon running through the forest, having forgotten entirely of the peace we had felt only moments before.

But that seemed to be the way our lives had been ever since the coronations…

Three loud raps on wood pulled me from my thoughts, and I realized, in a bit of a daze, that we had already reached the Nest. Zanzibar was knocking loudly and impatiently, demanding entrance into the soldiers’ quarters.

“Oh, it is you,” a soldier greeted him with a polite bow. “My King, might you state your business here?”

“Yes, I should like to,” Zanzibar told him, his entire body tense. “I need to speak with Reginald. Now.”

The growl in his voice caused the young man to turn quickly, obviously shaken by the slits that had become of my husband’s eyes.

“Milady Alena and Zanzibar… Might I ask why I am being ushered out here by a frightened boy?”

“Reginald, I know this might hurt…” I whispered, careful to keep this between us as I handed him the letter. “…but we found this in the forest.”

His light disposition vanished as his eyes skimmed over the letter, his grip tightening as he surely read his wife’s name.

“My sweet Liana…” he breathed, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he was void of any emotion. “We cannot talk here. Come.”

We followed him to his respectable home, though no one spoke a single word during the short trip. He allowed us to enter, closing the door firmly behind him.

“Who wrote this?” he demanded, shaking the letter in sudden outrage. “Who is slandering my Liana’s good name?”

“We do not know,” I admitted apologetically, shaking my head. “We just found it.”

He shook his head, falling into a nearby chair. “I didn’t want anyone to know… Liana didn’t want anyone to know.” He slammed his eyes shut, tears brimming. “I love her so much, is that so strange?” His eyes opened suddenly, and the paper fluttered uselessly to the floor. “Why couldn’t they just leave us alone?”

“So you knew?” Zanzibar asked, guiding me to the sofa.

“Of course I knew. She had been but this empty shell of a girl when I met her, and she insisted that she did not talk to me—or anyone, for that matter. She just wanted to live in isolation, because she thought she was a hopeless freak; after all, her own mother told her so.

“But there was something about her, something I could not get out of my head. I refused to just let her suffer alone, and we became friends after much reluctance… When I asked to court her, that’s when she broke down and cried.

“She was the child of two different races, but that did not matter to me. It mattered so much to her, because it had caused undeniable damage. It was for that reason that she insisted that if we did get married, we would not have children. She said she did not want them to go through what she did, and she did not want anyone else to know of her heritage or to slander me for marrying her.

“You couldn’t tell what she was just by looking at her, but she had a certain grace to her, one that an Aquilan woman would not even wish to possess. She was an amazing artist, but she had refused to set herself apart from those around us… But I suppose that did not work.

“You know that Alexandros poisoned her, but you do not know what led to the events. Alexandros was a very personal friend of mine, but Liana had never been at ease around him. She said that she could feel this evil emanating from him, but I dismissed it. When I left, I begged Alexandros to watch over her and to ensure her happiness. She was my best friend as well as my wife, after all, and all I wanted was her happiness.

“When I returned home… I returned to a quiet home, and I was surprised that she did not embrace me the moment I had walked through that door. I soon found out… Things fell into place when I saw such a pale corpse lying on the floor. That was not my Liana, I knew, because her eyes were dull, and yet there was something disturbing about her.

“A drop of the liquid remained on her lips, and I could smell the toxicity. There was also a note under her hand, a hand that was missing my ring. In the note, which I had not known to be from Alexandros, it said that she had been a disgusting, vile creature—a creature I ought not have come to love. It said that she had died staring him down with hatred, refusing to have anything to do with him. He had forced the poison into her system, and she had died screaming for me…”

Reginald sobbed suddenly, throwing his face into his hands.

“I wasn’t there for her, and may the gods damn me if I cannot protect you, Alena,” he promised, his voice muffled by his shaking hands. He looked up at me, his eyes already bloodshot. “She was killed because he was afraid of the idea of unity, because he was a racist… I will not sit by and watch as another is killed simply because they do not understand!”

“Oh, Reginald,” I whispered, placing my hand on his shoulder.

“I shied away from your touch, because you reminded me so much of her,” he admitted, smiling painfully. “Now I know that this nostalgia should be cherished, not suffocated with ignorance like a child’s fear of monsters.”

I glanced to Zanzibar, who was smiling almost imperceptibly. “I am sure that Liana was just as in love with you as you so clearly are with her.”

He shook his head, sighing as he stood. “Love never dies, my King… I only hope you never have to learn that.”

I shuddered against the sudden chill that cut into my very core, and we thanked Reginald for his kind words.

“We now know for certain that this is possible,” I whispered, looking to my stomach.

“I will protect those children with my life,” Reginald swore, and I gasped. “Alena, you forget that I was married to someone just like you. I know that she had a twin brother, and I know that you surely will have more than one. But I will not speak a word. I know that you will do what is best.”

“What happened to her brother?”

His eyes clouded over, and he looked down. “He was placed on the front lines as a soldier...because they knew what he was.”