Mikayla
“It’s bad… it’s bad. I feel it in my gut!” I grip my stomach, and try as I might, I’m unable to stop the tears from falling.
“The spirits wanted you to always know who loved you. But you asked them to take away everything, Mikayla. Baby, that was a very bad thing to ask.”
I’m drowning in sorrow as I nod. “I wish I could recollect my mother’s hugs, her voice, her face. I have one image. I just got that image when I visited the palace, MamLalumi. I have wished so many times for a single memory with my father. Just one time where he encourages me when I was a baby. But, I gave it up.”
“You have.” My old caregiver nods.
“You need to take your strength back, Princess Mikayla,” Chumi speaks up.
I can finally glance at him without glaring. It’s probably because my eyes are blurred with tears. “How?”
“Oh, you don’t know?” MamLalumi gives a lighthearted chuckle. “They have asked you on many occasions. Each time it takes the breath from my lungs and stops my heart from beating for a while. I will spend days in bed. In fact, Mikayla, I sent word with Kmota. I was stuck in bed, beginning the afternoon the very night you told everyone in Nivean to kiss your behind, girl.”
I think back to waking up to Kmota. I had a dream that I couldn’t remember prior to her arrival. MamLalumi squeezes my hands.
She shakes her head. “Can I get a moment's rest with you?”
I nod through an even greater onslaught of tears.
“Mikayla, you will remember everything. The good. The bad. It hurts me to my soul each time you have denied your ancestors. But I will understand if you rather not. Though you should know, your parents need justice and you need to remember the wisdom bestowed on you during the few years your dear parents were able to care for you.”
“I am ready.”
And just like that every memory comes flooding back.
Thump. Thump. Thump….
Before Qaaim taps my nose and says he loves me that tragic night disappears. It’s daytime. I’m stroking the trunk of my elephant, Abayomi, when I hear a voice that brings tears of happiness to my eyes and calms my heart.
“You are a Mthembu. You will be Queen of Nivean one day, and we will always look down on you.”
I turn around, and my father is there. His arm is around my mother. They’re the age they were the last time I saw them. An ethereal glow surrounds them.
My mom says, “There hasn’t been a moment where we have guided you. Now that you can finally stand to listen…”
***
I awake on the floor, in Jagger’s arms.
“What’s wrong with her?” He’s growling at someone, while I’m suffocating from how hard he’s holding me.
“She’s not shaking anymore,” the voice belongs to MamLalumi.
I groan, recalling the other men as Zane Solarin and Chumi. The sincere concern in his eyes forces my mind to quickly sort through the last couple of moments and recall that he’s not on Qaaim’s side.
“You’re okay,” Jagger cradles my face and brushed his lips on my forehead, before lifting me up off the ground. He sits me down at the table. MamLalumi rubs a hand over mine as Jagger grabs another fancy chair, places it behind and to the left side of me.
“You are in love with her,” Zane says. “Young woman, before your head had the chance to hit the ground, Jagger had you in his lap. You had some sort of seizure.”
Like my own watchdog, Jagger quietly sits. He doesn’t reply to Zane’s simple statement. So I speak up. “I’ve never had a seizure before,” I reply with a shrug.
Chumi, who is interested in exploring Zane’s revelation cushions his interjection with a smile. “You are very strong, Mikayla. For years the spirits have wanted to comfort you. Now, you are becoming a pure one. But what is this between you and he?”
I start to smile. Ready to tell Chumi and every single one of them that we–
Jagger speaks, “I was unknowingly hired, by Qaaim Mthembu, to return the princess.”
The disappointment that sparked in Chumi’s gaze the night I shunned my throne has reared itself, once more. How I had assumed he was disgusted in me.
Chumi begins making clicks, in rapid succession, in our native tongue. Jagger clutches a hand around me as if I belong to him.
Yet… I understand every word. Have the spirits unlocked my ability to remember the language?
“Elder Chumi, I apologize!” Jagger shouts.
The elder is surprised he is aware of the language. “Oh, me and my old age. Your parents, they not only stole our people, they taught you our language, and now you continue to steal–”
“It would be in your best interest not mention my parents!” Jagger’s Magnum is slammed onto the table. “Contrary to everyone’s beliefs, I am not as they were. You’d be well to understand that they had religion and gave a damn about greater humanity. I do not.” He growls. “For Mikayla’s sake, I gave my apologies for abducting your future queen, and I killed Abayomi in self-defense. He was shooting at us—most likely at me.”
“I don’t believe Abayomi would shoot toward the–”
“You stole Mikayla?” Zane rubs his chin.
I start with, “Elder Chumi, what Jagger says is true, but...”
“Where did you come from Mikayla?” Zane leans forward. “Chumi, MamLalumi, forgive me but I am a government official. Princess, your accent is westernized, and I mean that with no offense, but depending on whose aware that you’re gone…we might have a problem.”
“Wait,” I hold up a hand. I turn to Jagger. He’s no longer holding me like we’re one. “We need to talk.”
“Not now.” Jagger hardly addresses me. “Solarin, the Feds are searching for her. An agent by the name of Cartwright is on the case. A few of her friends died in the process of her abduction, it had to be done.”
“What about us, Jagger?” Forgive me, I’m not being a weakling, needing to talk romance while there’s more important stuff looming around. An imaginary wall resurrecting itself between him and I.
Again Jagger ignored me, “Solarin, they aren’t aware of what I look like.”
“Tsk. If this were a week back, I’d call the proper authorities myself and be the first to agree that you should be extradited for all charges but–”
“He has returned our princess,” Chumi says reluctantly.
“Jagger,” I try to move my hand into his, beneath the table, yet he’s stiff as a board. MamLalumi gives my other hand a squeeze before letting me go. The same squeeze she’d give me while I argued with Abayomi when we were children. I’d tell him that he was too skinny to keep me safe, for some reason he’d frown and she’d have the same response to get me to stop laughing at my own joke.
“Jagger, I love you,” I find myself saying aloud.