Omega’s Gamble by Claire Cullen

Chapter Thirty-One

Raine retreatedinto his workshop once Fian left. He hadn’t been gone long before Darien arrived. The alpha’s eyes lit up when he caught sight of Raine.

“Hey. I’m glad I caught you. Are you busy?”

Raine gestured to a book open in front of him.

“I was just about to get stuck into some reading of advanced alchemy. I’m still trying to work out the power distribution problem.”

“Leave it. There’s something I need to show you.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

Raine straightened, butterflies in his stomach. This was a little too close to what Fian had said was going to happen. Speaking of the omega…

“I saw Fian in the castle.”

Darien’s expression darkened

“So did I. He came to see me this morning.”

Raine was relieved that the alpha hadn’t lied to him.

“Why is he back?”

“His father talked my father into letting him return for the midwinter festival. Fian is a professional hassler—for most people, it’s just easier to give in.”

“What did he want with you?”

“Sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong, as usual. Come on, we have a ways to go, and I’d like to get back in time for us to have lunch together. Grab your cloak.”

Raine got all dressed up to go outside and was surprised when instead Darien led him to his father’s study, his cloak and outer layers waiting there for him.

“We’re going underground again?”

“We are. The last time, I didn’t show you everything. In fact, I’d say I left the most important thing for last.”

“Why?” Once again, Fian’s predictions were coming true. Raine didn’t like this one bit.

“We didn’t want to pressure you.”

Raine didn’t know what to say to that, following Darien into the tunnels. They walked a long way, exploring further than they had the previous time. Narrow passageways widened into bigger chambers before narrowing again, and paths diverged off into dark caves in a random pattern. It grew progressively colder, and Raine was grateful for his cloak, hat, and gloves.

“Where are we? I mean, relative to the surface.”

Darien answered readily. “We’re moving toward the center of the island. It’s about half an hour’s walk.”

“You didn’t happen to bring a snack, did you?” He’d been too anxious to eat any of the food the kitchen had given him, but his stomach had finally overcome his nerves.

Darien laughed but obligingly stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a cloth napkin. He unfolded it to reveal crackers and offered them to Raine. “Baked fresh this morning.”

Raine took one, broke it in half, and munched on it as they walked.

The tunnel they were in had something the others hadn’t—thick rivets ran through the rock, of shining silvery-blue. It wasn’t celestial silver. Not pure silver, anyway, but it might have been an alloy. Now and then, there were sigils of some sort—runic symbols engraved into the walls at regular intervals. He didn’t recognize the symbols and couldn’t tell if there was a pattern to them.

“What are these seams? And those symbols?”

“They’re part of the shield.”

“Shield?”

“Yes. Stormshield. It’s more than just a name, Raine.”

“This speaking in riddles thing…”

“It’s not a riddle. Just be patient, please. You’ll understand everything soon.”

Raine sighed and linked arms with Darien, leaning closer to steal the alpha’s warmth. “You never told me what happened with the last alchemist. Why did he leave?”

Darien obligingly put an arm around Raine, tucking him in close.

“He was power hungry. He wanted to be more than just the royal alchemist. He wanted his family, his descendants, to be royalty. My grandfather refused to betroth his youngest child to the alchemist’s son. He had bigger concerns, bigger alliances in mind. One of his nephews was offered instead. The alchemist took it as an insult. He left the kingdom to attend a congress of alchemists in the kingdom of the Blue Mountains. While he was there, he engaged in more than discussions about alchemy. It seemed the kingdom had plenty of princes to spare. They offered a marriage between our alchemist’s son and a young third prince, receiving them into their royal family. It was seen as a terrible betrayal, and relations between our two kingdoms have been strained ever since.”

It wasn’t the first bought marriage Raine had heard of. When he was younger, he’d often suspected that would be his fate. Married to secure some allegiance or hush up some alpha’s scandal. It would still have been better than his father’s plan to exile him to the priory.

“And I’m the first alchemist you’ve had here since?”

Darien shook his head. “We’ve auditioned several alchemists over the years. It’s hard to lure them here, given how little we appear to have to offer. None of them ever passed muster. Either too weak or unskilled, or just outright tricksters.”

“Tricksters?”

“If you know what you’re doing, it’s not that hard to fake the sort of magic expected from an alchemist. Low-level stuff, anyway.”

“Oh. That explains why you were so happy to have me, despite the whole omega thing.” But it was also another step toward proving Fian’s story true. Raine didn’t want to believe it.

“You know we don’t see omegas the way other kingdoms do.”

“You say that, but… fathers want their alpha sons married to omega princes. Not omega alchemists.”

“There’s nothing to stop you from being both. You’ll probably be happier having more to occupy your mind.”

No one had ever cared much about his happiness before.

“You’re almost too good to be true.” And that was the problem, wasn’t it?

“Only almost, huh?”

Raine didn’t know how to explain how much Darien’s words meant to him. How much Darien meant to him. And how much he feared that Fian’s lies weren’t lies. Before he could even try to broach the subject, Darien grabbed his hand.

“We’re here.”

‘Here’ was a door made of stone, blocking the passageway ahead of them. Darien pressed his hand to a spot on the wall, and the door creaked as it swung open.

“This is the central chamber.”

They stepped through into a circular room carved into the rock, with many doors evenly spaced along the walls. The walls glimmered faintly, a sign of more celestial silver worked into the rock alongside the blue alloy from before. It appeared to pulse with energy, giving Raine the sense that it was alive somehow. More interesting than the walls of the chamber was its center. He circled the room slowly, his eyes taking in everything. It was some sort of… machine? More intricate and complicated than anything he’d ever set eyes on. There were many different parts to it, silver gleaming in the torchlight. He could see levers and hinges, runic symbols dotted here and there. Above the circular machine was an upside-down dome of frosted glass.

“Darien, what is that?”

He had to know. He’d never seen anything like it. Not in the alchemist’s workshop in Ludinia, not in the books from the library. This was something bigger, something more.

“This is the machine that powers the shield from which Stormshield takes its name.”

“Shield? What… what kind of shield?”

“The kind that, for hundreds of years, protected us against our enemies. We survived countless wars, endless attacks, until treaties were signed and alliances formed. Over time, the source of our conflict was forgotten. Things became calmer for a while. We didn’t need the shield anymore. But that time has passed, Raine. Our enemies are amassing, and their patience grows thin. Our island needs protection once again. We need the shield.”

There was only one reason Darien would be telling him this.

“You need me to work it.”

“We need you to fix it. It hasn’t been used in more than a century, but we were maintaining it right up until we lost our last alchemist and scribe. We’re not sure it works any longer. The alchemist, on his departure, may have done some damage.”

Raine took another long look at the machine, his heart sinking. Fian had been right. And if he’d been telling the truth about this, then what about the rest?

His words, when they came, sounded bitter to his own ears.

“So this is why.”

“Hmm?”

“Why you went from being ready to hand me back to my father to not wanting to let me out of your sight.”

Darien spun around. “What are you talking about?”

“You married me because you thought it would give you leverage over my father. When that didn’t work, you were going to hand me back to appease him and buy yourselves more time. Then you learned I was an alchemist. And that changed everything.”

He turned away from the alpha, staring at the shield machine as the truth became all too clear.

“Of course it didn’t matter that I was an omega—your need was too great to care about little things like that. You went from not caring about me to being so invested in my well-being. I should have seen through it. I was so stupid—I really thought you cared about me.”

“I do care about you, Raine.”

“No, you need me. Your kingdom needs me. So you’re doing your duty by them. It’s all you know how to do.”

“That’s not true.”

“Then why hide this?” He gestured to the machine. “Why keep it from me? Either you weren’t sure you could trust me, or you needed to sweeten me up a little more to be sure I wouldn’t refuse when you asked me to fix it.”

“Raine…”

The alpha took a step toward him, his hand outstretched, but Raine moved out of reach, toward the wall of the cave.

“Don’t. I’m not doing this. Stop pretending this is more than it is.”

“Pretending?” Darien said. “You think I’m the one pretending? I thought you were settling down here, starting to consider Stormshield your home. I’ve been doing everything I can to make you feel welcome, to feel like you’re part of the family, and all that time you’ve been planning to run.”

“What?” Raine stared at Darien, his anger dulled by shock.

“Are you denying it? That you asked your friend Milo to help you escape this island and our marriage? That you were going to leave without a word, without giving me a chance to fix anything.”

“I—”

“Tell me it isn’t true, Raine.”

But he couldn’t. Because Milo had offered to help and he hadn’t said no. Even when things had gotten better between him and Darien, he’d never told Milo to call off the plan. A part of him had wanted the security of knowing he had a way out if things didn’t turn out the way he’d hoped.

“I just wanted…”

“Then I guess we’ve both been keeping secrets,” Darien said heavily. “If you don’t want to stay, if you don’t want to be a part of this kingdom, if you won’t help defend us… then go.”

Raine had thought he was signing up for a marriage to Darien. A partnership. He didn’t want to be chained to a machine, working himself to the bone to protect Darien’s kingdom while the alpha sailed off into the sunset with Fian. It was just another kind of prison, like the priory would have been. He’d married to get his freedom, not another set of chains.

He turned away from Darien’s stony face and walked toward the cavern door, back the way they’d come. It would be a long walk home to the castle.