by Stock, L. J.
“Acantha, did you want to do this?” I asked.
She inclined her head and stepped forward so she was next to me. I took her hand in mine and waited with baited breath as she started talking. She went through the same explanation she'd given us about the Order of the Chalice and her involvement with King Layland and his mother. Most of the reactions were wide eyes and whispers as she spoke, but when she got to the prophecy that had been hidden all this time, there was a collective gasp and grumble of what I could only describe as shock. I squeezed her hand because we both knew what was coming.
“Acantha,” the king said, stepping forward. “Are you saying you knew she would be taken?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“She's your granddaughter!” he roared, silencing the room. No one dared say a thing in the face of his fury. Acantha was the only one who held her position and posture, while the rest of the room felt as though it had taken a step back. “How dare you gamble with my daughter’s life in such a way?”
“Dad, please don't talk to her like that,” I said, placing my free hand over the one that was holding Acantha's. “She never would have allowed it if she’d had an inkling of doubt. She knew I was the woman in the prophecy. For her, there was no risk. She knew I would come out of it alive. More importantly, you should all know that Grigori was a part of this unheard prophecy, too. He was always meant to free me. Don't you see, my trusting him has reached beyond what I'd originally thought.”
“If Cass trusts him, so do I,” Damon commented, stepping up so he was stood beside me. “I was wrong, and I can admit it. He is here not because he asked. He was willing to give his life for our princess. She was the one who chose to save him when he would have sacrificed himself.”
I mouthed thank you to Damon and looked out over the other guard. I knew they believed I was taking an unnecessary risk, but I believed in the prophecy. I believed in my friendship with Grigori. I believed that if he agreed to help teach the Regius Custos magic, we could all benefit from knowing what Thánatos believed was exclusive to him and his people. Before I could do that, I needed them to see what I saw.
Aiolos was the first to step forward. He bent on his knee in front of me, his eyes full of reverence as he looked at me. Within a second, the rest of the group had taken a knee with him.
“Princess, we are but your humble servants. Your word is good enough for me. If you say this man is worthy of your trust then he shall have ours as well.”
“Thank you, Aiolos. Thanks all of you for believing in me. I would not ask this of you unless I was completely sure about Grigori and the situation we’re in.”
They all bowed their heads, and I was left wondering what my family were thinking. Unfortunately, they still seemed to be hung up on this newly revealed prophecy.
“Cass, you know I trust your judgment without question,” my father said, his eyes flicking to Acantha. “I'm now curious as to whether we have any more surprises to be wary of.”
“You know everything I know,” Acantha answered. “This is the moment all of the secrets were being held for. We had to be sure. We couldn’t risk Thánatos discovering any of this. This is the moment when the power changes hands and gives us the skill we need to win this. All we have is the original prophecy now. There are only a few prophetic nymphs left and they have gone into hiding since the attack.”
“Very well, but if you endanger my daughter’s life again, there will be discord between us. I have always respected you, but if anything worse had happened to Cassandra, I never would have forgiven you.”
“Believe me, sire, I would not have forgiven myself. I only allowed it to happen because I knew she was our hope.”
I looked around the room, letting my eyes linger on Damon who was still stood next to me. All of my love and hope for the future rested on him. I understood that I was the woman in the prophecy, but he was the only one who would be by my side. He was the one who would have to risk everything alongside me. It was our child we would be protecting. When his eyes met mine, I knew he was thinking the same thing.
Once again our hearts and souls were aligned because of a future we would both have to live.
Chapter Seventeen
It was about a week after the meeting in the king's study when I finally got a grip on how to heal others. Acantha had been a patient teacher. Every failure had garnered encouragement, and she'd frequently told me that I was doing well, that I was getting close, when we both knew the bruise I had been working on was just as green as it had been when I'd started.
She'd healed me with an ease I envied. It had been a teaching moment for her. She’d told me to close my eyes and feel the magic and how it worked. It was weird considering I could actually feel it working through my body. It was only a gentle tingling, but it soothed the aches and absorbed the trauma. With the basics in hand, it was all about trying to heal, and poor Rasmus was my guinea pig. He'd been so patient over the week that I was always apologetic when I hadn't managed to help him at all. Almost eight days later, and I'd finally managed to send a healing wave through him. I believed it was powered by my utter frustration. Acantha said I was getting a better grip on the magic that was burning within me. I wasn’t convinced.
When I’d said as much, she had me heal Grigori as well. His eyes grew wide as I laid my hands on his ribs, which seemed to be the epicenter of his pain. The medicus had explained he had at least four broken ribs, which had made Damon feel guilty as hell and actually had him coming in to meet Grigori under better circumstances. Grigori had been stood in front of me as the bruises and pain had spread through my fingertips and turned into heat while I pulled it from him. I could physically see his breaths becoming easier, and when I was finished, he raised his hands over his head and reached for the sky like a massive wall of muscle in front of me.
It was a weird sensation. All of the pains and aches had been consumed by the combination of fire and water in my body. There'd only been a ghost of it, and though I felt it, I didn't suffer from it. I just seemed to intrinsically understand what it was. It took up so much of my energy that I'd felt exhausted after the fact. Grigori had worried, but after a candy bar from Acantha, and a ten-minute stint of laziness, I was back to normal.
With everyone healed, things slowly began to fall back into a normality I could deal with. The nightmares slowly began to recede into the shadows of my mind, and they became tamer. I didn't think I would ever get used to some of the looks I still got from the people who knew about the sword, or the fact that I had brought a veneficus amongst them. Most who knew me well trusted my judgment. It was mostly those soldiers who had filled the spots from both the battle of my accession and the battle of Dullhurt who couldn't seem to understand why I was so ready to put my life a veneficus’ hands.
When the time had come, Shannon and I had been the ones to talk to Grigori about training the Regius Custos and some of the vis liberi to use magic. He'd agreed without question and almost seemed proud to have been asked, but had one request in return. He wanted to be my other guard alongside Rasmus. It was a request I was more than eager to fulfill, but I knew I was the only one who could go to my father with it. I was the only one who could persuade him to do the right thing and give Gori the trust he deserved. When I'd finally built the nerve to talk to him, I 'd been surprised by his swift and vehement agreement. When I'd questioned him, he'd explained that I trusted my life to Grigori, so therefore, he too was willing to trust him without question. So with the order in place, Grigori was to be placed as my guard as soon as he taught magic to the others. At least so they could teach others.
Days slowly turned into weeks, and weeks turned into a month. I resumed much of my schedule, but the one thing kept from my reach was the village improvement project that had taken me to my captors to begin with. I didn’t mind the free time. I knew exactly where I needed to be.
I spent as much time as I could with Damon. It was easier to do when Grigori was training the other guard, because I wasn't
plagued with the guilt from knowing how he felt about me. Of course, Damon had to be there for these lessons occasionally, and that was when I spent some well-needed girl time with Shannon, Alexa and Melody. The four of us had become a force to be reckoned with. They were my best friends, my confidantes, and some days, the only ones who kept me sane.
Shannon, completely open and unabashed, teased me about my chastity predicament every chance she got. She would offer me tactics to seduce Damon in a way he couldn't deny, and I imagined she was right, but as much as I would have loved to use them, I knew better. I couldn't ever put Damon in that situation. I could just imagine the verbal warning that would follow the situation and it was enough of a deterrent for now.
I loved seeing Rasmus and Shannon together. With their senses of humor combined, they were dangerous, and when they thought no one was looking, they were loving and tender to one another. It was easy to see just how they felt. Even Melody watched them with envy when she caught them fawning over one another, their smiles infectious. They had a magnetic draw to one another that was undeniable.
As things slowly fell into place, the security was raised enough that I was back into my daily routine, which started with my daily run. I couldn't have been happier about that little detail. Those days I'd been in the cell, I’d longed for the freedom to take off and pound the dirt with my feet, but when I'd returned home, security was too tight and I'd felt trapped by the new confinement to the palace. Now with clearance to roam the palace lands, I ran.
Letting my legs stretch as I passed over the terrain those first couple of days had been glorious. With my ankle healed, it had been easier to push myself hard, and my strength returned gradually over the weeks. I also worked more and more with the magic I'd discovered.
None of it was as easy as it had been in those moments of desperation. It took me weeks to even get a small twinge of magic to reveal itself. I had to push myself mentally and physically, and these runs were the only things that helped me center myself, although my entourage had grown a bit.
Rasmus was still running behind me, but either side of him were Shannon and Grigori. Both had complained the first time they'd joined us, but Rasmus had told them in no uncertain terms that this was how it was going to be. The dips and inclines pushed me further onward. Banking through the forest and lines of trees was becoming easier again, and having Damon waiting by the door only made me speed up over the flats of the meadows to reach him.
“Cass, I love you. You know I love you, but how the hell do you keep getting faster? Every time I feel like I'm finally finding my pace, you push harder.” Shannon pouted from behind me as we took one of the turns in the forest.
“You've got this, Shannon,” I called out between puffs of air. “You'll thank me one day. Especially seeing as Ras is giving you combat training, too. It gives you more endurance.”
That was when I heard her complaining of a cramp. Her voice rose a little and it was followed by the uneven tread of her footing on the forest floor. This wasn't the first time she'd had one.
“Gori, stop. Help me.”
“But, Cass...”
“Rasmus is with her. Plemyannik, please,” She whined, slowing to a walk with her hands on her hips.
I heard his sigh and laughed quietly to myself as I hopped over a fallen trunk. I could hear Ras losing speed behind me but I didn't stop—not until I heard the voice of Damon in my head as the breeze washed over me. I’d missed hearing him there when I’d been confined to the cell.
“Cass, stop where you are. Don't move.” There was no urgency to his voice. As always it was as filled with intimacy as his embrace would have been. I was just finding my stride, but I did as he asked, realizing that Ras had stopped further back, concealed by the trees. I jogged on the spot and shook out my hands a little as I waited. “Close your eyes.”
“What?” I asked out loud, knowing he would hear me.
“Just do it!” He laughed.
I closed my eyes and listened to the forest surrounding me. The chirps of the birds were high above in the canopy and I could feel the small points of sunlight that managed to filter through the heavy cover falling on my face. When the rustling of the leaves surrounding me became louder and louder, I waited with anticipation for the wind to find me again. It came on suddenly, pushing the strands of my hair over my shoulder as it caressed the exposed skin of my arms. My skin pebbled with the coolness of its touch as it seemed to cradle and wrap around me, the gust strengthening.
“You've been practicing.” I smiled as Damon's familiar smell assaulted me as it mingled with the breeze. He'd been trying to create his own wind for weeks, and the gusts got a little stronger every day. He had a little more difficulty in the palace surrounded by the thick stone, but out here in the open, he'd become a master.
“I have,” he whispered. Covering my eyes with his hand, he took a deep breath. “Don't open them yet. There's something I want to say first.”
“Okay,” I said, elongating the word while my lips curled into a smile. I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was nervous. The usually smooth tenor had an uneven edge to it. It still made my knees weak and my heart skip a beat, but today that excitement was joined by curiosity.
“Cass, I love you.”
“And you have to tell me that while I have my eyes closed? You’re doing it wrong,” I teased, pushing against his hand playfully. His thumb brushed against my forehead affectionately and I restrained the sigh that built up inside of me.
“Will you just let me talk?” He laughed.
“Sorry.” I grinned, licking the part of his hand that was partially covering my mouth. He muttered under his breath in good humor. I could hear the smile in his voice now. He seemed to have relaxed a little bit.
“Cassandra, when I thought I'd lost you, my world felt empty and pointless. I have loved you from the moment I met you. You were always something just out of reach for me, and even when you were thrown into your role here, I didn't dare wish that you felt the same way about me. When you did and we believed we could never be together, I was just thankful you were in my life at all. You're so strong and beautiful, just watching you gave me more happiness than you could ever know.
“Being the person meant for you has made me the happiest man alive. Every moment I spend with you brings me joy. When I touch you, I feel whole. When I kiss you, I feel more alive than I knew I could. When I hold you, nothing else in the world matters. I am enamored and completely content, but there's one more thing you can do for me that would make me eternally happy.”
He pulled his hand away from my eyes, but I kept them closed as my stomach flipped uncontrollably. I knew what these words meant. I knew what he was asking. It was equally exciting and terrifying, and I wasn't sure what to do. Feeling the lighter breeze wash around me, I tried to catch my breath as my heart began galloping ahead of me. I was so concentrated on him, where he was and how close he was, I found my chest rising and falling with the effort of my small inhales. I was so afraid I was going to miss the question that I stopped breathing altogether.
“Cassandra Regius, would you be willing to spend an eternity with me as my wife?”
I swayed on my feet as I opened my eyes. Light seemed to filter through the canopy of trees overhead, sending the jade light between us. As I looked down at him on his one knee, his hazel eyes looked greener than they ever had before, and as they met mine, I fell to my knees in front of him, my smile wide and uncontrollable.
Reaching out with the sting of tears in my eyes, I ran a finger along his jaw, feeling the day's growth there. I was making sure he was real, that it wasn't just a dream I'd come up with. It was all too perfect—the moment, him, the place, and those words. I laughed tearfully and held his gaze with mine, my thumbs making the stubble bristle as I stroked reverently. A lifetime with the man I loved seemed like too much of a gift, even when it had been an inevitability.
“Damon, nothing would make me happier.”
He lunged fo
rward, his body folding around mine as his lips took possession of mine and he pulled me tightly against his chest. We tangled together like vines of ivy, indistinguishable as to where one started and the other ended. The kiss held every ounce of love and need we felt for one another, as our hands ran over the other, needing to feel the reality of this moment happening.
Happiness radiated from me, pebbling my skin as I smiled around the intricate dance of our lips and tangled limbs. There would never be anyone who knew me like he did. There would never be a soul that would fit mine with such perfection that I finally felt complete.
“Is that a yes?” he whispered genially, as we finally broke apart with panting breaths. His hands brushed the escaped and unruly strands down the side of my face, while his thumbs brushed over the apples of my cheeks, his face lighting up in happiness.
“You bet your ass it is.” I giggled, almost pouncing on him again.
“Then do you think you could wear a ring to prove it?”
“You got me a ring as well? You were prepared.” I grinned as my eyes stung with happy tears. He rocked back to sit on his feet as he gripped my left hand in his and slid the beautiful ring onto my finger before leaning down to drop his lips against it reverently.
“I love you, Cass,” he announced, brushing away my escaped tear with his thumb as he cupped my cheek. “I always have and I always will.”
This time, I did launch myself at him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him tightly against me until all I could feel was his body heat. I had a feeling that words just wouldn't ever capture the enormity of the way I felt about him. He was everything to me. Whether we were fighting or bickering or contently wrapped in one another's arms, I knew he would be the only thing I would ever want in my life. He knew me. He understood me, and he always had the right thing to say when I wasn't ready to face the future.