“Opportunities like marrying your own cousin?” she spit. The thought of it made her ill. To her knowledge interfamily marriage was something that never occurred in Terra.
“She’s not my cousin,” he said in a hushed tone. Eva’s face fell as her thoughts receded from her mind. The King’s face was that of relief. He looked like a man who had finally let go of words he had been holding on to for far too long.
“I beg your pardon?” Clearly she had misunderstood him.
“I can’t explain now. You’ll know what I mean soon enough.”
Eva felt a stab of disappointment in her gut. He had been so forthcoming only to stop after revealing the most cryptic piece of information yet.
“In the meantime, I need to prepare you for what comes next.”
“What do you mean ‘what comes next’?” She could process everything she had already learned. She wasn’t sure she could handle anything else.
“As soon as you leave this room you need to take Zoe and head straight to Last City. You’ll find a gate in the City Center.”
“Wait a minute,” Eva interrupted. “They deactivated that gate. And besides, it was programmed for Gaia; you’re suggesting we go back to Earth?”
Owyn shook his head impatiently. “There should be a map among the scrolls Zoe found in her home on Earth. That map contains instructions on how to reactivate the gate for one specific location: Thea calls it the Forgotten Gardens.”
“Where do I know that from?” she wondered out loud, ignoring the question she wanted to ask about how he knew about the glass box Zoe found.
“Like I said, you’ll want to brush up on your royal history. The Forgotten Gardens is where Zoe needs to be to understand who she is, to remember her family’s history.”
“Why though? Wouldn’t it be easier for Thea to just explain it all to her?”
“The Queen will undoubtedly interrogate Thea and it won’t be long until she also knows about Zoe. I don’t think I have to explain what kind of threat they pose to each other. Until Zoe remembers who she is you need to keep her as far away from the Queen as possible.”
Eva drew in a long breath of air and expelled it quickly. “All right. What happens after Zoe is enlightened about her family’s history?”
The King hesitated, his mouth forming a hard line across his face as he considered his words. “She’ll know what to do.”
Eva’s jaw nearly unhinged from her head. “How? By divine intervention?”
He breathed deeply. “Something like that.” He was serious.
Eva circled around the room with her hands on her head, willing her mind to absorb every word the King had spoken, committing it all to memory.
“This is a girl who has spent countless years growing up in Gaia, who literally only just found out she’s from another universe, and you’re expecting her to magically download generations-worth of history in a mythical garden, with the hopes of doing what, exactly?”
“Claiming her birthright.”
“You mean starting a war against the Queen, just like the Stratons before her?”
Owyn gave a sober nod. “Yes.”
“And what about Thea? The Queen is going to sentence her to life imprisonment. Or worse.”
“We all have a part to play in this,” he asserted. “Thea knows what hers is, as do I.”
“And my brother? What is his role?”
The King’s eyes cast downward, a grave expression on his face. “The Queen trusts him.”
Eva shifted on her feet impatiently. “What does that mean?”
“It means that his part is to help you from beside her.”
“He has feelings for Zoe. Once he knows she’s here…”
“He can’t know,” Owyn interrupted. “At least not until Zoe is safe in the Forgotten Gardens. The Queen needs to believe he has nothing to do with Zoe whatsoever.”
Eva shook her hands nervously at her side, her feet pacing again around the room. She couldn’t willingly deceive her brother, could she? It was true that the Queen trusted him more than anyone else, but could he use that to keep both Zoe and her safe from the Queen? Was she really prepared to help ignite a civil war against Kyra Straton?
Chapter 16: A Brief Reunion
Zoe opened the door and peered out into the common room, her eyes sweeping the expanse for any sign of life. Eva had been gone a while and the room was otherwise quiet. She attempted to sleep but found the artificial air to be distracting. The room may have been a programmed recreation of a space she was very comfortable and familiar with, but she couldn’t allow herself to be relaxed in its artificiality.