A million questions ran through my mind when I glanced back at Serah. The girl beside her, Sam apparently, had long blonde hair. She was pretty, but I didn’t trust her. Her blue eyes flashed protectively every time that Perryn helped Serah, or even spoke to her.

I frowned at her slightly when her glare on Perryn intensified as he and Serah began whispering, their heads close together.

“You okay?” Rachel’s voice broke me out of my thoughts and I turned to her.

“Uh, yeah. Of course. Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been sending death glares over to Sam.” Rachel smirked.

“I don’t trust her.” I replied, “But Serah treats her like an old friend, and even Elizabeth seems to trust her. And despite her facade, it takes a lot to earn Elizabeth’s trust.” I scowled back at Sam again, “And she also seems to think that Serah is hers. And no one else can talk to her.”

“Jealous?” Rachel asked.

“No! Just…miffed.”

“Miffed?”

“Yeah! She irritates me.”

“Everyone irritates you, Tanner. You hated us when we first came.”

I sighed quietly, “She’s different. She feels like she has power.”

“What?” Rachel demanded, “Do we royals seem powerless to you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way…but yes.”

“And since Sam actually has a threatening vibe around her, which by the way, feels a lot like your own vibe, and Serah’s, you don’t trust her?”

“I think Serah has too much trust in her.” I replied, “And I’m not threatening.”

On the other side of Rachel, listening in, Leo had been walking. He barked a laugh at my last comment, “Tanner! You look like you’ll kill at least one of us every day. You’ve got a permanent glare.”

“I do not!”

“Yes, you do. And nothing you say is going to change that.”

Rachel brushed him off, “I have a question.”

“What?” I asked grumpily.

“Why does the surname Sherbourne hold so much importance to you? When the sorceress said it, you went pale. You also haven’t said a word to Serah since she transformed, even though you were the most worried out of anybody else.”

I stared at her incredulously, “You don’t know the Sherbournes?”

Rachel frowned and shook her head.

“I’d expect you to know the history of your own kind.” I growled.

“My own kind?” Rachel demanded, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Meaning, the Sherbournes are a royal family that lived in some land that I can’t remember the name of. There were two princesses, a king and his queen. But then the queen died a tragic death at a young age, leaving the princesses motherless and the kingdom queenless. But the king didn’t want to raise his daughters without a mother, so he remarried. No one’s really sure what happened next. The new queen had five kids: Two spoiled brats as daughters and three more spoiled brats as sons. So either the new queen killed the two princesses so that her own children could get the throne, or the princesses hated the queen and ran away.”

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Rachel nodded, “So you think that Serah might be one of these princesses?”

I didn’t answer, but then quietly nodded, “But it doesn’t make sense!” I protested, “Serah despises royals.” I sent her a sidelong glance when she sighed, “No offense. But anyway, I don’t get why she wouldn’t tell any of us.”

“Actually…” From my left, Lydia appeared. Robin walked beside her, but backed away slightly when our eyes met.

“Actually, what?” Rachel asked.

“Serah did tell me…”

“Wait.” I said, “So, she is the princess?”

Lydia turned away slightly, “She promised me she’d tell you all the truth only a day before she was kidnapped. She’ll get there. Just don’t…” She hesitated before meeting my eyes, “…freak out on her…it intimidates her. Believe me, I freaked out and she did not like it.”

I sucked in a deep breath, then sighed in defeat.

“When do we…” Rachel started, “…go home?”

Lydia stiffened slightly. The question had been directed at me, but I pretended to be deep in thought and she took over, “As soon as we get back to port. We’ll load ship and take you home.” Her voice had a cold edge to it, and Rachel blinked at her in surprise.

“I don’t mean to sound-“

“It doesn’t matter.” Lydia scowled, her scowl matched my mood, “That was the original plan. Did you think we’d change it?”

Rachel seemed surprised by the mood change and slowly backed away from us both, going to walk beside Amber instead.

We walked the rest of the path to the horses in silence. When we got there, the sorceress had vanished, but the horses remained. We mounted up and started off again, with Serah in the lead. I broke into a trot to catch up with her, and Henry and Lydia quietly followed.

“Serah?” I asked.

She blinked at me, “Hey, stranger.”

She seemed peppy, unlike her usual, cold mood. I hated to ruin her mood.

“Can I ask you something?”

Instantly, her face fell, “The Sherbourne thing?” She asked, her eyes dropped to her hands at the reins.

Elizabeth rode up on the other side of her, listening in.

I nodded, “Are you related?”

After a moment of silence, she steeled herself and looked straight ahead into the open field that we had broken out of. Respecting our privacy, the royals remained a few yards behind us, talking amongst themselves. Right between our groups, Sam quietly trotted between us.

Serah nodded, “You didn’t get the hint from my name? Serafina is the craziest name around.”

“I thought you were a runaway slave form Arabia.” Henry asked.

“Where did you hear that?”

Henry shrugged sheepishly, “When you’re a thirteen year old kid who’s fighting alongside some mysterious cold-hearted girl who won’t share her past, you tend to get creative.”

Elizabeth outright laughed, “I thought you were born into a band of thieving rogues who raised you until your band was killed and you ran away by yourself.”

“You said that your mom died and you were wanting to find out who murdered her.” Lydia frowned at Serah, who swallowed, “That part’s true.”

“I liked my idea better.” Henry said, frowning at Elizabeth distastefully. Elizabeth merely shook her head, smirking.

“You’re not mad?” I demanded, scowling at them both.

“You are?” Serah asked, peeking at me between her locks of blonde hair that fell across her face.

“Yes! I am!” I snapped at her, sounding more ferocious than I had meant. She flinched against my reply, “First, you told my sister before me. I thought we were a crew, we never keep secrets! Don’t you trust us enough to tell us about your background?”

“It just…never came up! None of you ever asked what happened to me as a kid, you just went along with it. So it’s not completely my fault!” Serah protested, straightening up. The scared puppy look from earlier was replaced by her cold facade.

“Then tell us what happened, now.” Elizabeth said quietly.

“Okay, I ran away as a kid with Sam and Colten—“

“-Colten, too!?” I interrupted, “And Sam is this random girl?”

“She’s my sister.” Serah snapped, “Shut up, you want me to tell you so just listen ’til the end.”

I went silent as she continued.

“Sam is my sister. Colten was the stable boy for the castle. When my mom was killed, my father remarried a bratty woman. So Sam, Colt and I just…ran away. One day, I wake up and…Sam’s gone. The one person in my life who ever really cared about me. She basically raised me. Turns out, the sorceress cursed her. She didn’t abandon me, like I thought, she just…couldn’t find me. So Colt and I jumped on a ship. When the captain found us as stowaways, he dumped us here, on the Forgotten Isle. We found the Predator, worked up in our positions until the crew trusted us. Then you guys came along and we took over.”

“When’d you run away?” Elizabeth asked, “How old were you?”

“…I was twelve. Sam was fifteen.”

“So your dad is a king…you’re a princess?”

“…Aye.”