by E. M. Moore
His eyebrows pulled in, and he stared. The long silence, along with the knowledge of what was going on outside was almost deafening. “Of course he will fight. He wanted it like this from the beginning. A true battle, an honorable one, in his mind. He believes he has the best warriors, and that there’s no way he can lose.” He ran a hand through his dark hair, his gaze almost tripping over me as if he didn’t really want to look, but was being drawn to me all the same. “And honestly I’m not sure he doesn’t have it right, Ariana. I said you were correct when you guessed he had an army. They are filled with warriors, their strength undeniable, and I’m not sure if you have the soldiers to match theirs.” He examined my figure, and I drew into myself. “I’m worried for you.”
Not wanting to think too much about what he’d just said, I waved him away. “What I meant to ask is, he’s agreed to let us all go if he wins. He’s agreed to not punish us if he takes over. Knowing what I know of him, I find this impossible, but I thought you would know better. Will he? Will he let us go free afterward?”
Soren stood, his hands tightening and then clasping behind his back. “You already think you’ll lose?”
My mouth went dry. I closed my eyes to look inside myself. I’d prided myself not only on my skills, but of those of the guards around me. I loved this world, I loved these people in it. I wanted nothing more than to rid our world of Dumont and have Gregor take his rightful place as leader again, but… I shook my head. Was it wrong to wonder what might happen if things didn’t go our way? Where would the princes and I go, assuming I was still alive? What if Dumont didn’t keep his word and made the Ravanas pay for Gregor’s supposed sins?
“I don’t know how you think I can help you if you believe you’ve already lost.”
I turned my head at his terse words. Wasn’t he just the one saying he was worried for me? Was it wrong to be worried for myself? “I hope we win.”
“Hope means nothing.”
I shook my head. He was wrong. “Hope means everything.”
“That’s your youth talking. You have no idea what you’re in for. None. They will send the best warriors that you’ve ever seen into that arena.” Soren stalked closer, leaned over me, and looked outside. “They will be faster, stronger, and smarter than you. They have been bred for this very day. You’ll be lucky if you last five seconds. If I were you, I’d pray you weren’t chosen, then you could run away with your prince and be done with it.”
Heat gathered in my cheeks and forehead. Anger swept through me hot and fast. Indignation. Pride. The ferocity I’d cultivated inside of me reared its ugly head. “I don’t run away. If I’m chosen, I will win, or die trying.” I clenched my hands to fists at my side. “Every single other warrior I know would do the same because it’s not just skills you need to overcome a tyrant, it’s heart.”
Soren stepped away from the window and faced me. His eyes were old, carrying the depths of the troubles and pain and hate he’d lived with all his life. He was the exact type of person we needed on our side. The kind of person who could tell us what Dumont would do. The type of person who’d seen it all and then some.
“I told you you would be set free, and I still mean it. I just want to know if Dumont will stay true to his word, too. If we do lose, if we are beaten like he believes, will Gregor’s family be let go? You know him better than anyone. Will he, Soren? I have to know.”
Soren stared out the window again, his eyes glazing over as if memories clouded reality. Finally, he spoke. “He will. As I told you before, he wants followers. If he promised he would let the Ravana Clan go, then he will. It would be better for him anyway. What kind of new leader wants the last regime around as a memory of what it had been like? It would be a constant reminder, a promise of sorts, of another mutiny. When he says to go, do it. Take that prince of yours and run away.”
I shook my head and sat back down on the window bench. Singing sprang up from one of the groups below. A battle hymn, possibly. One I didn’t recognize and I felt my newness in this world again like a smack to the face. If I wasn’t chosen, I’d have to believe it was because of that. How could I fight for us when I didn’t even really know us. I knew an outline of an outline of our history, but it wasn’t as familiar to me as the world I’d grown up in. How did the vampires fare in World War II? How did they survive the Civil War? What about 9/11? Were any of them there? Which side did they choose? Or did they just stay out of the world that didn’t know anything about them? Why fight for something you weren’t invested in?
Well, that was nothing like me, was it? I was one-hundred percent invested. I’d found my life here, my world.
“It won’t just be me and Nicolai leaving together,” I said, looking up at Soren. “It’ll be me and all the princes. It’ll be me, and Nicolai Ravana, and Christian Ravana, and Stephan Ravana, and Connor Ravana. All with me. Together.”
Confusion refracted his gaze for a moment. “All of them?”
“All of them.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time, he merely stood staring at me. I wasn’t sure what he saw there, and I wasn’t sure I even cared all that much either. I wasn’t going to be sorry for my love for the princes, or ashamed, or be made to felt wrong for my feelings for them. I was done hiding. With everything on the line, doing so just felt ridiculously stupid. There were much more pressing matter of concerns for everyone. Why would anyone care about me and my princes at this stage in the game?
“If I could give you one word of advice. Don’t hesitate,” Soren said, his voice dropping. “Leave as soon as it is done. If things shouldn’t go your way, grab your loved ones and leave. Don’t wait to see how it plays out. It’s the advice I wish someone had given me all those years ago. In fact, I’d tell you to leave now if I thought you would listen. You’re a lot like me though. You have faith in those above you. In yourself, in those you love. I wish I’d been a little more skeptical of myself back then. Maybe I would’ve made the right decision, but for you—for you—Ariana, it might just work out.”
He held his hand out to me, and I gave him mine. He squeezed my knuckles, his fingers only lightly pressing into mine. He hesitated, unsure, before bringing my hand to his face and kissing it. “You’ve never given me reason to doubt you, and I’m not going to start now.”
A small smile crinkled my lips. “Same here, Soren.” I brought my hand back down to my side, realizing I’d grown fond of the thin, desperate vampire in front of me. “I hope you don’t mind me asking one more favor of you.”
“How can I resist the request of a princess?”
My face blazed red and I looked at the rich carpet at my feet. Connor was the only one who called me that. It seemed so much like a nickname I hardly even gave it a second thought, but coming from Soren, it meant something entirely different. It was a barely kept promise of the future I was supposed to have. A future that was rapidly crumbling before me. Steeling my spine, I looked up at him. “Will you help us? You know the warriors you spoke of. You know which ones Dumont will send to fight with ours. If you could help in any small way, the Ravana Clan would be immensely grateful to you.”
Soren bowed his head. “I haven’t come this far to give up on you yet. And you should feel the same.”
2
The door opened and Soren and I both turned at the intrusion. A blond head peeked in, his face sullen, somber. I quickly walked up to Connor, and threw my hands around his neck. His arms came around my middle and squeezed, lifting me temporarily off my toes. It wasn’t like Connor to be so serious, then again, to be his funny self during this time, would’ve been seen as unusual. He cleared his throat and stepped away, or maybe it was Soren who’d cleared his throat, but either way, I stepped back to face the vampire in front of us with Connor’s hand firmly in mine.
Connor looked curiously at me, and I shrugged. “I thought Soren could help.”
“Nicolai doesn’t like him much.”
“Nicolai doesn’t like anyone very much.”
&nb
sp; “True.” Connor shrugged. He led me to the bed and we both sat, facing Soren who had half his face turned toward the window and the other half trying not to stare at us. “We got word back from the scouts…”
My pulse rang in my ears. We’d wondered where Dumont would go. We’d known he wouldn’t give up this chance to take the Ravanas over, but we also didn’t think he’d live in the forest while we fought over leadership. “And?”
“The house just down the street, they’ve taken it over. Slaughtered the family that lived there.” Connor eyed Soren warily, and Soren shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably.
Bile rose in my throat. “Sick…”
“Hopefully that’s the only innocent blood loss around here.”
A cruel smile curved Soren’s lips. “The warriors will have to be fed. The warriors Dumont chooses will live like kings until the day of their fight. They will be given as many humans as they want. The clan will go to great lengths to give them the exact humans they want. We all have different…likes, tastes. Lean, or meaty. Hair color. Eye color. Bloodletting or no.”
I raised a hand up to stop his long list. “Okay, I get it.” Just another reason to make sure they didn’t come out of these fights the victors. To use those weaker than you for your own desires, it made my skin crawl. “We should make sure the guards stay indoors as much as possible,” I said to Connor, squeezing his hand once.
Connor slipped his phone out of his pocket. “Sending a note to Lex now.”
“Speaking of…” Soren said. “Who might the four lucky Ravana warriors be?”
He kept his voice steady, a sardonic smile hiding any other emotion, but when he said it, he glanced at me. My stomach tightened again. That ever present knot a reminder of what choice lay ahead, whether for me or not, we all had to deal with the circumstances.
Connor’s fingers flew across the on-screen keyboard and then his cell phone was once again out of sight, most likely back in his pocket. “T.J. Carson will be our first.”
No matter how much I expected his name, I couldn’t help the twinge in my gut. T.J. was as fierce as they came. I had the privilege of fighting side-by-side with him before. He was strong, and powerful, and smart. Of that, I had no doubt. My only concern was of the opponents we were being paired up with. If they were being treated as Soren said, bred for this, honored like kings, did he even have a chance? For myself, there was a lot riding on this first battle. We would see how the soldiers attacked, how ours fared against theirs. There was much to learn.
“And the others?” Soren said, barely skipping a beat.
Connor tensed beside me. He peeked at me from the corner of his eye, his irises the color of a stormy sea. “We haven’t picked the others. It’s up to Lex and Samuel, really, but there are some differing opinions on who should be sent out there. The only real conclusion we came to was that T.J. was a definite, and that he should go first.”
“Did they tell him already?” I asked, my voice only a soft whisper.
“Lex was sent to tell him. She left when I came to see you. I assume he knows by now. Probably already did know.”
I stood, dropping Connor’s hand and meeting Soren face-to-face. “Will you help him?”
“T.J. doesn’t like me either.”
A rumble started in the pit of my stomach and came out of my throat like a growl.
Soren nearly smiled at me. “Young One, I was only stating a fact. You know he doesn’t like me, but I will do what you ask. Who am I to deny a request from royalty?”
“I’m not asking you as that, I’m asking you as a friend. I’m asking you as someone who I thought understood that what Dumont is doing is wrong. I’m asking you as someone who would fight against injustice alongside me, not behind me. I thought you wanted a better world as much as I did. This is how we do it, with individual fights, and individual warriors.” I stared at him, trying to convey everything I felt into one look. “You can tell T.J. of his opponents.”
“I don’t know which one Dumont will send.”
“But you know the ones he could send. You could tell him about each of them. You could tell him what weapons each of them prefer. You could tell them what their weaknesses are. You’ve trained with these warriors. You were one yourself. You know them.”
“It isn’t their fault…” Soren said, his voice barely above a whisper.
For the first time, I noticed the strain in his usually calm demeanor. The truth in his words hit me like a right cross. Of course he knew these people. He had even been friends with these soldiers. I was asking him to betray them. To help us and send his friends to their deaths. This wasn’t just a battle to blood first spilled, it was a battle to the death, or concession. Gregor might let his fighters concede, but Dumont wouldn’t. They were going into that arena, and if they left alive, that meant our warrior was dead. No matter how much I tried to spin it in my head, none of this worked out for Soren. Either his friends died, and he helped kill them, or our people died, and he knew we were on the right side.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice coming out rushed and breathless. The truth was, I hadn’t seen things from his point of view before. I’d only seen them through mine.
He shook his head. His hands tightened and trembled at his side. I watched as he stared out the window, looking down at the mess of people below. He recognized one side, and the other, they were just strangers. Warring voices sprang up, each singing the songs of their people. Songs that used to belong to both sides, but now divided because of one person. And that’s what I had to remind myself of. This was all Dumont’s fault. I felt bad for his warriors, but if we won, if we did what we set out to do, no others would have to die unnecessarily.
Soren shut his eyes. “I’ll do it. I’ll talk to the Ravanas’ chosen warriors. I have no doubt who Dumont will choose. I know them well.” He turned away from the window and stared at Connor. “I’ll help you.”
My gut twisted, and a new appreciation for Soren washed over me. In that moment, he had more strength than any person I’d ever met. To go against everything, everyone you knew and to fight for what you thought was right, that took more honor and guts than I could’ve ever imagined.
“We’ll win this,” I promised him, knowing full well that if we didn’t, Soren would probably be the first to die. Of course Dumont would have his traitor killed. He would not give any such reprieve to Soren that he pledged to give to us. But I had to do everything in my power to save him anyway. I promised him I would, and he’d given us everything I asked for and then some. Soren was one of the good ones in all this. Above all, he deserved to live out the rest of his life in peace like he wanted.
“You just keep yourself safe, Young One,” he said.
I nodded and then turned to Connor. “I’d like Soren given a proper room at the estate. If he’s going to help us, he doesn’t need to be spending the night in the cells. He needs blood and rest, and time with our soldiers.”
Connor nodded and slipped outside the room with his cell phone already to his ear.
Soren watched him walk away, and then looked at me. “I think I like him better than the other one, the dark one.”
I couldn’t help the smile his admission brought to my face. Nicolai was a particular brand of vampire that not everyone enjoyed. I would never pick favorites though. To me, they were all perfect in their own ways. “Connor has a way with people,” I said, looking at the closed door, already wishing he was again by my side. Who knew how much time we had left with one another?
“I see why you fight now. I see why you have the determination in your eyes. I often wondered how someone like you could come from the outside world and fit in as you did. I get it now.”
Love, I told myself, just as Soren said the same thing aloud. I nodded, agreeing with him. “People are willing to do a lot for love.”
“Will you fight if asked?”
“Of course,” I said, not even bothering to think about it.
He shrugged. “It’s sad. Like you�
��re caught between two things. You’d want to do it for love, but also, think what would happen if you don’t win? That love would destroy you. The reason why you wanted to go out there is the same reason why you lose…”
“I don’t think of it like that,” I told him honestly. “If chosen, I know the consequences. But to me, I’d die trying to fight for what I love, not dying because of it.”
“Semantics.”
I shrugged. “No. That’s just the thought process of someone…” I blew out a breath.
“Someone worth following,” he said, his lips turning up.
The door opened and Connor came strolling back in. “It’s all set. T.J.’s in the training room. I’ll take you down now if you want,” Connor said, looking at Soren.
Soren nodded and walked past me. Before leaving, he turned around. “Goodbye, Princess. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon.”
Connor darted back into the room, his gaze narrowed, but a smirk quickly following. “I’m not sure how I feel about you using that name.”
I shooed them both out, laughing silently to myself as I launched back onto the bed. Outside the window, I could still hear the sounds of impending battle. I picked myself up, walked toward the glass, and shut the curtains before laying back down again. For right now, things were falling into place. I could relax, a little. Maybe. If my body would let me. There was much to do, to prepare for, but even more to be thankful for, and to remind myself what we were fighting for.
I sent Connor a quick text. I hope you plan on coming back after you show Soren where the training room is…
I put the phone down and turned it to silent, knowing full well he’d be back as soon as he could.
3
Connor walked in. I wouldn’t have heard him except I heard the click of the lock falling into place. The room was silent until his knee depressed the bed and his arms folded around me as if they were always meant to be there. We laid silent and still for a long while, just soaking up the others’ warmth.