Chapter Six

 

Isa had never been shy. Growing up as a princess had required her to frequently stand in front of large crowds, and she had mastered the art of looking calm and confident no matter how many people were staring at her. But she’d never had so many people staring at her with such animosity, and she found herself involuntarily shrinking back from the angry faces at the bar.

Leo wouldn’t let her step back completely though. He held her hand firmly, and in a loud strong voice he explained why Isa had come, carefully emphasizing how she had broken him out of the cages for this task. As he spoke, the anger in the faces all around her slowly began to fade.  By the end of Leo’s explanation, a few people were even clapping. Isa had never seen a crowd’s emotions turn so quickly, but it was clear that the people here loved Leo and trusted him.

“Well, then!” a loud voice from behind the bar called out. “I think this calls for two beers for Leo and Princess Isadora. On the house.”

“I won’t say no to a beer, Axel,” Leo said with a wink at the loud man. “And I’ll take some food, too, if you’ve got any to spare. Gilt Hollow has been trying to starve us all out.”

“Please, everyone, just call me Isa,” Isa said as the volume in the room started to rise again. She wasn’t sure if anyone had heard her, but at least she’d tried. Leo started walking toward the bar, still holding her hand. She went with him, nervously glancing around at the faces of people who less than ten minutes ago had looked like they wanted to murder her. Now, everyone was smiling, and Isa relaxed.

“Vinny!” Leo shouted over the crowd, never slowing his pace as he walked. “Come on over. I’ve got a job for you.”

Vinny turned out to be the man in Bear Hollow who knew a thing or two about explosives. Leo asked him if he could make something strong enough to destroy at least a good portion of the Emperor’s palace, and Vinny nodded enthusiastically.

“I can do that for sure. Yessir. But I’ll need a few hours. Can you two wait a few hours before heading back through the tunnel?”

Leo exchanged a glance with Isa. Isa shrugged.

“We’ll wait as long as we have to. We’re in too deep to back out now.”

Vinny nodded, his head bobbing up and down wildly with excitement. “Good, good! I’ll get to work on it right away then. You two sit and eat. Take your time, and then come by my house in about, say, three hours. Hopefully I’ll be done by then.”

“Alright, Vinny. Thanks a million. We owe you.” Leo pulled him into a big bear hug and gave him a couple hearty slaps on the back for good measure.

“Just doing my part for the revolution,” Vinny said, giving them a small salute before disappearing in the direction of the exit door.

“What do you think?” Isa asked when the man was gone. “Can he really do it?”

“Vinny doesn’t pull any punches. If he says he can, then he can. For now, let’s try to relax a bit. Have you ever had beer?”

Isa wrinkled her nose. “No. We don’t drink beer in Gilt Hollow, and everyone has always told me that it’s disgusting.”

“I know it’s not common in Gilt Hollow, but how have you never tried it? It’s not disgusting at all. Try it.” Leo pushed the full mug of beer that Axel had poured for Isa closer to her. She didn’t really want to try it, but she didn’t want to be rude, either. So she took one small tentative sip.

“Hey, that’s not so bad,” she admitted.

“Told you!” Leo grinned and dug into a pile of mashed potatoes on his plate. Axel had brought out two plates piled high with mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, and deer meat sausages. Isa wasn’t hungry, since she’d had a huge dinner before coming to break Leo out of the cages, so she gave her plate of food to Leo. He had already wolfed down his plate and was working on hers now.

Poor guy. I can’t believe they’ve been starving him like this. Isa thought of all the other shifters still caged up and starving back in Bear Hollow, and she felt anger boiling up within her. In that moment, she made a decision that she knew could cost her everything. But she didn’t care. She couldn’t bear the thought of sending Leo back to a cage. She knew he was planning to go back, so that she would be protected and wouldn’t get in trouble for the fact that he was missing. But she didn’t care anymore if she got in trouble. She didn’t care what her dad did to her. She wasn’t sending Leo back to that cage. It wasn’t right.

“Leo, I want you to stay here when I go back to Gilt Hollow.”

Leo paused with a bite of mashed potatoes in mid air. “Huh?”

“Stay here. Don’t go back to that cage and starvation.”

“But…your father. The guards will tell him and then…”

“And then what? My father will be angry with me? He’ll disown me? He’ll throw me in a cage? I don’t know what he’ll do, and frankly I don’t care anymore. After I blow up half the palace, what am I supposed to do anyway? Go back to living as a Gilt Hollow princess? Even if they don’t find out it was me…it would be weird.”

Leo gave her a long hard look, as though it had never occurred to him that she wouldn’t continue being a Gilt Hollow princess when all of this was said and done. “So where will you go?”

Isa looked down at her hands, not sure how to answer. Originally she’d thought she would go away to another human city—any city that was far, far away from here. But she was suddenly having a hard time with the idea of leaving Leo behind. What had his kiss meant? Was he just feeling overly friendly because he was grateful for her help with the revolution? Had he gotten a little carried away with the emotions of the day?

No. It was more than that and she knew it. There was some sort of spark between them. A spark that she’d felt from the first moment her eyes met his back in the room of cages. A spark that was slowly turning into a flame.

“I thought I might stay in Bear Hollow,” she said. Then quickly added, “That is, if you think your people would let me.”

Leo’s jaw dropped. “I think you’ll find them pretty accepting of you if you really do manage to blow up the palace. But Isa, you realize that living here would be completely different from living in Gilt Hollow, right? We shifters have next-to-nothing.”

“You have each other. And really, I don’t care about all the stuff that we have in Gilt Hollow. The clothes, the jewelry, the food…all of it is over the top. I’m so tired of that life.”

Leo sat back and stared at Isa with those intense, green eyes that seemed to see right through her. “You’re serious, huh?”

“Dead serious.”

He groaned. “Please don’t use the word dead. Not with all the risks we’re taking tonight.”

She shrugged. “I’ve lived my whole life playing by the rules. It’s time to take risks. It’s time to do what’s right. I’m only sorry I didn’t stand up to my father sooner.”

Leo nodded. “Well, now is as good a time as any to start standing up to the Emperor. And I’m glad you’re helping us. But I’m not going to stay here in Bear Hollow while the other shifters are still starving to death in those cages.”

Isa felt fear gripping her heart. “Don’t go back in the cage! What are you proving by going back to starvation? Stay free. You could do so much more good that way.”

Leo grinned at her. “Oh, I’m not going back in the cage. If you don’t mind getting in trouble for the fact that I’m missing, I think I’ll just go back and make sure that everyone is missing.”

A slow smile started to spread across Isa’s face. “You’ll set the others free, too? But will you be able to get past the guards?”

“I’ll get past them alright. Those guards are slow and bumbling, and if I take them by surprise, which shouldn’t be hard to do, I’ll be able to easily get by.”

“And what will you do when all the shifters are free?”

Leo shrugged. “Depends on Otto. I’ll let him make that call. Maybe come here. Maybe fight in Gilt Hollow. I’ll make sure no one hurts you, though.”

Isa smiled sadly. “That’s nice. Too bad you can’t protect me from my father.”

A strange, angry look came over Leo’s face. “I’ll give my life to protect you, Isa. I swear it. I don’t know how much I can do against the Emperor, but whatever I can do, I’ll do.”

The intensity in his eyes and voice made it hard for Isa to breathe. She’d never had a man look at her that way, and she didn’t know how to respond. Her whole body filled with an unmistakable heat, and she wished he would kiss her again. Not just a quick kiss on the lips but a real, deep kiss.

What was wrong with her? She was wishing for something she had no right to wish for. Her people had oppressed Leo and his people for centuries. She couldn’t expect him to truly care for her. Sure, he was probably grateful for her help in taking down the Gilt Hollow Empire, but those feelings wouldn’t last forever. Eventually this war was going to be over, one way or another, and those feelings were going to fade.

Leo had finished his second plate of food now, and in his happy, full state he seemed oblivious to the internal war going on in Isa’s heart. He looked over at her, grinned, and asked, “Do you want to go see my house?”

“You have a house here? I thought you were only fifteen when you left?”

“I was. But a few years ago I decided to pay some shifters to build a house for me here. It was a gesture of faith that I would be moving back here one day, and it looks like that faith might finally be paying off. In the next few days I’m either going to die fighting this revolution, or escape to Bear Hollow.”

Isa blinked a few times. She hated it when he talked about dying, but she didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t sound childish. He was risking his life, and there was a good possibility he would lose it. Gilt Hollow had been weakened by the poisoning of its army, but the city still had massive resources. It was still going to be hard to bring the regime down.

“So…is that a yes?” Leo asked, tilting his head to one side. Isa realized she was losing herself in her thoughts, and snapped back to reality.

“Yes. Yes, of course.”

“Good. I’d like to go look at the place anyway. Just in case I do die and this is my last time in Bear Hollow. I’d like to see it one last time.”

Isa groaned. “I wish you’d stop talking about dying.”

“Well, it’s hard not to think about the possibility. But come on. We still have a little while before Vinny will be ready for us, and this bar is gonna be closing soon anyway.”

Isa looked around, surprised to see how much the crowd had dwindled. Leo followed her gaze as he stood and offered her a hand to help her off the barstool.

“Yeah, it’s clearing out. You should see this place on a Friday or Saturday night, though. It’s packed almost until dawn. Oskar and Zora would have been here if it was a weekend. I’m actually kind of surprised they weren’t here even though it’s a weekday. They’re here quite a bit.”

Isa shrugged. She was secretly glad that Oskar and Zora weren’t here. This place was overwhelming enough as it was without having to see people who used to be part of her life back in Gilt Hollow. Zora was so much stronger than Isa had ever been, and Isa was nervous to see how strong Zora would be now that she lived in Bear Hollow. Zora would probably judge Isa for not doing enough to stop the bloodshed going on between the shifters and full humans.

I’m doing something now, though. Isa chided herself not to be too hard on herself. What she was about to do, if it worked out, was a pretty big thing. Making the palace explode would make a big difference.

“Come on,” Leo said, leading her toward the exit. Several shifters waved goodbye to them as they left, but nobody said much. After Leo had convinced everyone that Isa wasn’t a threat and had come to help, people had gone back to their own conversations. As princess, Isa was rarely in a room where she didn’t feel like she was being constantly watched. Whether people liked her or hated her, she was always the center of attention. It was nice to not be seen as so important, for a change.

Leo weaved his way through the dirt roads of Bear Hollow until they were nearly at the opposite edge of town from the bar. He stopped in front of a hut that was significantly larger than the rest, then made an overly-dramatic, sweeping gesture with his hand. “Well, this is it. My own little palace. Please don’t blow this one up.”

He laughed at his awful joke, and Isa rolled her eyes at him. “It’s so big compared to most of the other houses we’ve seen.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I figured it would be nice to have a family one day. If I was dreaming about coming back to Bear Hollow one day, I might as well dream about having a family, too, eh? And that family would need a bit of space. Since I was making a pretty decent salary working for the Seversons, I could afford to build a bigger house than most of the shifters here. And a house seemed like as good a way as any to spend my money.”

Isa stepped toward the front door and ran her fingers over the thick wood. This place was rustic compared to anything in Gilt Hollow, but the workmanship and materials were good. Leo had made sure his house was the best Bear Hollow had to offer, and Isa’s heart ached for him as she looked it over. Would he ever have a chance to live here?

“Do you still want a family?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. But in the stillness of the night, he heard her loud and clear.

“I’d love a family. But I have to survive this revolution before I can think about things like that. Having a family requires finding a woman to love, and that’s been hard to do while locked in a cage, or while being forced to serve as a guard for the Severson family. It’s been a slow couple of decades for me on the romance front.”

You could love me. The thought crossed Isa’s mind without warning, and she felt herself blushing as deeply as though she had said the words aloud. What was wrong with her? She and Leo were from two different worlds, worlds that were at complete odds with each other. He might feel something for her, yes. He’d kissed her and held her hand after all. But Isa knew better than to read too much into his actions. He was caught up in the adrenaline of the night, and if this war did end, he was going to want to settle down with a nice shifter girl from his clan. He wasn’t going to be interested in a washed up princess from the city all the shifters hated.

So Isa bit her tongue and didn’t say anything. She could not ignore how attracted she felt to him, or how her heart beat faster every single time he stepped closer to her. But she could not imagine that he felt as strongly for her as she did for him. Besides, even if he did, what future could they have together? Their worlds were so different, and everything was so uncertain right now.

“I’d love to see the inside,” Isa said with a bright smile, trying to cover over the turmoil of emotions swirling within her.

Leo grinned. “Come on. I’ll give you the grand tour.”

He pushed the door open and stepped inside, flipping a light switch and pausing to wait. A couple of long seconds passed by before a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room reluctantly flickered to life.

“Woohoo, the electricity’s working tonight,” Leo exclaimed. “I’d say about fifty percent of the time when I turn that switch on, nothing happens.”

Isa shook her head in wonder. She couldn’t imagine living somewhere with unreliable electricity, but perhaps she should start imagining it. Gilt Hollow was going to be facing a breakdown of its infrastructure if Bear Hollow had its way. And the way things were going, it looked like Bear Hollow might just have its way.

Isa looked around the small house with wonder. The front door opened into a large main room that served as the kitchen, living room, and dining room. A rope ladder led to a loft, and then one door led to what must have been a bedroom.

Leo watched Isa gazing around and began to explain. “The loft is usually used as a sleeping area for children. Right now, it’s pretty empty. The door goes to a bedroom. Here, I’ll show you. I have the finest pine straw mattress you can get in Bear Hollow, but I’ve never slept on it.”

Leo pushed the door to the bedroom open, revealing a room with nothing more than a large mattress inside. Huge windows faced out toward the woods, and Isa imagined this room must have quite a view during daylight hours. Right now, though, all she could see was the faint, shadowy outlines of trees.

“It’s a nice place,” she said sincerely.

Leo let out a long sigh. “Yeah. But sometimes I wonder if building it was a good idea. Perhaps I was too ambitious, thinking I’d ever get to spend time here.” He stepped into the room and flopped backwards onto the bed. Isa could hear the pain in his voice, even though he did his best to hide it. And suddenly, anger rose within her. Anger at her father, and at all the nobles in Gilt Hollow who had forced the shifters to live such poverty-stricken, uncertain lives. Leo’s one bedroom hut, with its single light bulb, was a mansion by Bear Hollow standards. But in comparison to what most in Gilt Hollow had, this house wasn’t good for much more than perhaps a doghouse.

Gingerly, Isa came to sit on the edge of the bed. She wanted to feel what a pine straw mattress felt like. She’d never heard of such a thing. In fact, she was learning so much tonight about shifters and how they lived. She had always had a sense that the shifters lived very differently from her, but seeing in person how different things were was a bit of a shock.

To her surprise, the pine mattress was surprisingly soft. She bounced a few times as she sat on it.

“It’s not half bad,” she mused.

Leo chuckled. “Of course it’s not. Pine straw makes a great bed. The only problem is the pine straw itself can be kind of scratchy. If you put good blankets over it, like I have, that solves the problem. Of course, not a lot of people in Bear Hollow have good blankets. Blankets are expensive, so most buy cheaper ones to save money. I’ve always had plenty of money, since I was forced to work as a guard in Gilt Hollow. But it didn’t matter, did it? I have all this nice stuff and I can’t ever use it. I’ve never slept in this bed for more than a quick nap.”

“I’m sorry,” Isa said. The words felt hollow and empty, but what else could she say?

“It’s not your fault. Here, see how comfortable it is when you’re actually lying down.” Leo pulled her backward so that she was now lying on her back across the bed instead of sitting on the edge of it. She had to admit that it was much softer than she would have expected.

“Wow, not half bad.”

“Right?” Leo said, pride filling his voice.

She looked over at him, startled to realize that his face was only about a foot from her own. They were lying side by side on the bed, so close that he could have easily reached out and put his arms around her. The moment felt very intimate, even though they weren’t actually touching. Isa could feel herself starting to blush again, and she was glad for the relative darkness of the room. The air between them crackled, and Isa wondered whether he felt the same pounding excitement in his chest as she did in hers. Even in the darkness, she could see how serious his eyes had become.

“This is crazy,” he said in a low, husky voice. The tone of it sent shivers of delight up and down Isa’s spine.

“What’s crazy?” She had a good idea what he was going to say, but she was too nervous to let herself believe it.

“It’s crazy that I’m lying here in my Bear Hollow house with the Gilt Hollow Princess. Who would have ever thought that Princess Isadora would ever come to Bear Hollow, let alone to my house? And more than that, who would have thought I’d be so happy about it. You’re supposed to be the enemy, you know? But you’re not. You want to help the shifters. And that boggles my mind. Princess Isadora wants to help the shifters!”

Isa shrugged, slightly raising the one shoulder that wasn’t pressed against the bed. “I don’t want to be Princess Isadora. I just want to be Isa. Honestly, there’s a big part of me that wants to just stay here, hiding in this house forever so that I never have to go back to Gilt Hollow.”

“Life here is tough,” Leo warned. “Tougher than you can realize from spending a few hours at the bar and at my posh house. I know this house probably doesn’t seem posh to you, but for Bear Hollow standards, it is.”

“I don’t care about big houses or lots of stuff. I’ve had all of the material things I could possibly want for my entire life, and none of it has ever made me happy. I’ve always been lonely and felt like an outsider. People were friends with me, sure. But only because I was the princess. No one ever cared about me for me. And I always felt uncomfortable with the way shifters were being treated but I was never brave enough to do anything about it, which left me feeling even more like an outcast.”

“You’re doing something now.”

“Yeah. Hopefully. I hope this plan actually accomplishes something.”

“It will. If nothing else, it’s given you a chance to finally be true to yourself. And that’s important. Take it from someone who has had to spend the last two decades pretending to care about the well-being of the Severson nobles, when all I really wanted was to come back to Bear Hollow. It’s hard to live every day of your life as someone you’re not.”

Isa considered his words. He was right. Even though she was nervous that she was going to get caught fighting against her father, she felt happier now than she had in a long time. A lot of it had to do with the fact that everyone in Bear Hollow had accepted her so readily. People here seemed to care about your actions, not your wealth or title. And she loved that.

And then there was Leo. She’d be lying if she said that the happy feeling she had right now wasn’t at least partially related to him. She realized that she barely knew him, and yet she felt that she knew him better than many people whom she’d known for years. Perhaps it was because she’d shown him her true self, something she wasn’t sure she’d ever shown to any man before.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He tilted his head slightly sideways. “For what?”

“For letting me be me. For seeing me as Isa, and not just as the evil Emperor’s daughter.”

A smile spread across his face. “I was never a big fan of Princess Isadora, but I have to say I like Isa quite a bit.”

Isa felt a little thrill of happiness go through her. “Oh yeah? How much do you like Isa?”

“This much.”

He leaned toward her and kissed her again. This time it was much more than a quick peck on the lips. He pressed his lips hungrily against hers, and then, when she moaned slightly in happiness, he pushed his tongue into her mouth.

Yes, Isa thought. I definitely like being Isa better than being Princess Isadora.