What Love Demands

Sir Edmund called my name three times before I managed to make a sound.

“I’m here,” I said.

The door opened slowly, and several Valemont Knights stood beyond it, their armour blackened by smoke and blood. Sir Edmund was at the front with his sword drawn and a cut across one cheek.

Relief crossed his face when he saw me, then vanished when his eyes found Elara. Something in him hardened, but he did not ask what had happened.

“Your parents are waiting for you.”

That was enough to make my body move again.

I tried to stand too quickly and almost fell. Sir Edmund caught me beneath one arm and held me upright as my legs continued to shake.

“Take me to them.”

“We will.”

I stepped into the corridor and nearly looked down at Elara, but caught myself and kept my eyes fixed on Sir Edmund instead.

Two knights moved ahead of us while the others guarded from behind.

The manor had stopped resembling a place people lived in; broken furniture and fallen beams covered the floor, while fire and smoke turned distant doorways into charcoal.

There were bodies between the wreckage.

I learned very quickly not to look at their faces.

A servant’s buckle, a familiar sleeve, the sword one of Father’s guards always wore too high on his belt—my mind supplied names even when I refused to look properly.

Each name brought back Elara.

“Keep looking forward,” Sir Edmund ordered.

“Why are Imperial Knights here?”

“I don’t know enough to answer.”

“But they were looking for me. The man who killed Elara asked where I was.”

Sir Edmund’s grip tightened around his sword until the leather creaked.

He gave me no answer.

Tonight, silence from an adult seemed to mean that the answer was something far worse than anything they wanted me to hear.

We were almost at Father’s study when footsteps sounded behind us.

Every Valemont Knight stopped at once.

Figures emerged through the smoke, and firelight caught the imperial crest across their armour.

Our knights formed a line.

“Captain.”

“We need to get him inside,” Sir Edmund directed, glancing towards the study.

Two knights stayed with us while the others turned towards the Imperial Knights already charging through the smoke.

The corridor erupted behind me.

Steel struck steel, somebody shouted, and the sound of a body hitting the floor followed us as Sir Edmund pushed me forward.

“Keep moving!”

I wanted to look back, but knowing why those men had stayed behind made turning around feel unbearable.

Eventually we reached the study.

The two knights with us stopped outside and raised their swords.

“Nobody gets through,” Sir Edmund instructed.

They nodded once before the doors closed behind us.

Mother was standing beside the fireplace, and everything else disappeared as I ran to her.

She dropped to her knees before I reached her, and then my face was pressed into her shoulder with both her arms around me. I could smell smoke in her hair and feel one hand trembling against the back of my head.

“You’re alright,” she whispered.

I wanted to tell her I wasn’t, but all I could do was hug her tighter.

“I thought—”

My voice stopped.

“I know,” she said.

Father lowered the wooden bar across the doors, then came towards us.

Soot covered his face, and blood ran along one sleeve. I stared at the stain because I needed to know whether it belonged to him, but he caught me looking and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine.”

The answer came automatically, but Father did not correct me.

For once, I wanted him to.

“Why are they doing this?”

Neither of them answered.

“Why are Imperial Knights killing everyone? One of them was looking for me. Elara—”

Her name caught inside my throat, and Mother closed her eyes while she and Father exchanged a heavy look over my head.

“Why aren’t you telling me anything?!”

“There isn’t enough time.”

“Then tell me quickly!”

Under any other circumstances, Father might have questioned my tone. Instead, he walked over to the fireplace and reached towards a small stone wolf sitting among the ornaments on the mantel. His thumb pressed beneath its base, and something clicked inside the wall.

Stone shifted backwards behind the fireplace, opening onto a narrow passage filled with darkness.

“You have a secret passage?”

“We have several things you were not supposed to discover at eight.”

Normally, that answer would have produced a dozen questions.

Only one mattered now.

“Where does it go?”

“Beyond the eastern grounds, near the forest.”

Hope struck so suddenly that my chest hurt.

“Then we can all go.”

“No.”

The hope vanished just as quickly.

“Why not?”

“That control opens and closes the entrance. The other control is hidden beneath my desk. It releases reinforced barriers through the passage so anyone who finds this room cannot simply follow you.”

A blow struck the study doors hard enough to shake dust from their frame.

My mind started moving before I could stop it.

Someone had to stay.

Father could do it. Then Mother could come with me, except the doors were already breaking, and he would be alone when they came through. Mother could stay instead—the thought made my stomach twist so sharply that I pushed it away before I could finish it.

Sir Edmund could stay. He was a knight, and he had a sword. That was what knights were supposed to do when people needed protecting. Except the moment I pictured him turning around while I kept running, I hated that answer too.

No.

I don’t want any of them to stay.

There had to be another answer, one that didn’t begin by deciding which person I could bear to lose. Maybe we could run faster, or Father knew another passage, or the knights outside could hold them long enough. Maybe Cedric would—

“Leon.”

Father’s voice cut through everything, and I looked at him.

For once, his expression held no lesson, and he didn’t expect me to understand something simply because he had explained it.

He crossed the room, knelt in front of me and pulled me into his arms.

Father had never held me like that.

His affection usually arrived disguised as advice, a hand on my shoulder or one of those rare smiles he gave me; now both arms closed around me tightly enough that I could feel his heartbeat through his clothes.

“You don’t have to choose,” he whispered. “That’s our responsibility, not yours.”

My throat closed.

“I don’t want anyone to stay.”

“I know.”

“You always find another way.”

His arms tightened around me.

“I’m sorry, I can’t find one tonight.”

He drew back just far enough to look at me.

“Whatever happens, I want you to know that I love you, Leon.”

He—

What?

Mother came closer, and that was when I noticed the way she moved.

One hand had been pressed against the side of her dress, beneath the folds. When she lifted it to touch my face, the fabric underneath was dark and wet, and suddenly I understood why she had barely moved.

I stared at the stain.

“M-Mother?”

“It looks worse than it is.”

She smiled when she said it, but I knew she was lying.

She knelt beside Father and wrapped her arms around both of us. I buried my face between them because I suddenly couldn’t look at either one, and for a few seconds the study disappeared beneath the smell of smoke, Mother’s shaking breath and Father’s hand against my back.

“Y-you told me to enjoy being eight… You said I had time!”

“I know, sweetheart.”

I pressed my face into her shoulder, wiping my eyes against her dress.

“You said there was loads of it.”

“I thought there was.”

The study doors shook again, but neither of them let go immediately.

I wanted to stay like this forever.

A warm bubble seemed to surround us. Father. Mother. Me. For a brief moment, it felt as though only the three of us existed, as though everything else in the entire world had just vanished.

Unfortunately, tonight had taught me that the world didn’t work that way.

Father drew back.

“Listen to me, Leon. There are things I should have told you, and I thought I would have years to do so, but I was wrong.”

Mother removed a silver pendant from beneath her collar. The familiar symbol of House Valemont rested against her palm before she closed my fingers around it.

“Keep this.”

“I don’t want it.”

“I know.”

“Put it back!”

Her fingers remained around mine.

“I can get another one tomorrow.”

Neither of them answered.

Tomorrow had always been something that arrived whether I wanted it to or not. Tonight, everyone spoke as though I had to survive long enough to reach it.

“I love you more than anything in the world,” Mother whispered.

“I l-love you too.”

“Whatever happens after tonight, remember that.”

“I’ll come back. I’ll find Cedric and tell the Emperor. He’ll stop them, and then—”

Father placed his hand over mine and pressed the pendant further into my palm.

“You must hide your name and where you came from. Until you know who did this, do not assume that anyone is safe.”

“But the Imperial Knights—”

“Especially because they’re Imperial Knights.”

I remembered the palace: polished armour beneath red-and-gold banners, guards beside enormous gates and a servant bowing because the Emperor was waiting for Father. Those men had been part of the world that kept people safe. If they were the ones inside our home, then I didn’t know where safe was anymore.

“And above everything else, survive.”

“What about you?”

“Leon.”

“What about you?!”

“Leon!”

Another impact shook the room, followed by the sound of wood splitting.

Father looked towards the doors before turning back to me.

“We don’t have time to argue.”

Sir Edmund took my arm.

“No!”

I twisted against his grip as he pulled me towards the passage.

“Mother! Father!”

Mother was already moving towards the fireplace, one hand pressed to her injured side. Father stepped between her and the study doors while Sir Edmund dragged me backwards into the darkness.

“You gave us more happiness than you’ll ever know.”

She reached beneath the small stone wolf and pressed the button.

The entrance began to close, stone moving between us while Mother remained beside the fireplace.

“We love you so much.”

I tried to answer, but nothing came out.

The gap narrowed, and my whole world seemed to be closing with it.

At the same moment, the study doors burst inward.

Imperial Knights poured through the opening, and Father met them before they could reach Mother. A man in a black cloak entered behind them without hurrying, as though the study already belonged to him.

The silver brooch near his collar glinted as his hood turned towards the narrowing gap. Firelight caught in his eyes, turning them red as they met mine.

For one impossible moment, neither of us looked away.

Then everything I knew vanished.