by Jaymin Eve
He was silent for a beat. I liked that he didn’t just rush in to offer me false platitudes. My situation was unique—well, not completely unique. All secret keepers were in the same position. It was okay for Emma, Maya, and Callie, though. They had their soulmates who would live forever as well.
But not for me.
In my panic, words tumbled out of my mouth. “I want a family. I want that sort of bond and life. In this regard, I’m much more human than Royale, because you said Royales don’t do that. I can’t be with a human because I can’t watch someone I love age and die.” One more thing occurred to me. “I suppose … I suppose I could try to find a partner in one of the other Houses.”
There was a long pause before he said, “Firstly, if you found a human that you wanted to marry, you could give them some of our food. This could extend their life many hundreds of years, if eaten regularly.”
Say what? That information should have made me feel a lot better, but it didn’t.
“And secondly, why are you stressing about this right now? You just told me you don’t want to settle down. You’re all in for this casual partnership.” Xander almost sounded like he was angry. “The physical without the emotional.”
“I am all in,” I said, trying not to get upset at his tone. I was sharing something real with him and he was acting like his old dickish self. “But I’m only eighteen. Eventually I’ll want more. I will want to have it all.”
I didn’t think he was going to answer, and I was about to push myself away from him when he spoke, resigned, “Humans aren’t your only option. Most Royales might not, in general, form long-term bonded relationships … but we are starting to change. So, never say never on that front. Or, as you said, there are the other houses. There’s usually no cross-mated relationships between the houses, but if that’s something you need to be happy, I will make sure no one questions you.”
He was the one to break away and rise to the surface, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why my chest hurt when he did. When I surfaced next to him, I spun so I could see his face. A neutral expression met mine.
“Sorry if I upset you,” I said slowly. “I shouldn’t have unloaded my personal stuff on you.”
He shook his head, water droplets flying off him. “It’s fine. It’s good to make sure we’re on the same page still. For now, you and I are doing this no-strings-attached thing. The only stipulation from me is that you’re not with any other Daelighters or humans while we’re together. Royales are possessive during the time we’re together.”
I nodded. “I can agree to that, as long as you also don’t stray.”
“Deal.” The heaviness of his expression lifted, and he drifted back to rest against the side of the massive bath. I followed, but instead of moving to sit right by him, like I might have when we first entered, I dropped back on the opposite side.
Xander looked amused. “They’re going to come looking for us soon,” he said. “This was a nice little interlude. I have a feeling life is going to get very hectic for the next few days.”
I nodded. “I’m thinking the same thing. I can feel this … energy almost, running along my skin. Something big is about to happen. It’s like being in the ocean just before the huge storms. I can feel the electricity in the air. I always know when the storm is coming.”
Xander nodded. “It’s one of the things I love the most about Hawaii, when the storm clouds roll across the sky. We don’t have clouds here. Our water is from beneath the land.”
“I’d miss never seeing a storm again,” I told him. “So maybe living under the water isn’t quite everything I want in life.”
Xander chuckled. “Sometimes the water isn’t greener on the other side. Earth has a lot of wonders that Daelighters dream of experiencing, but very few of us make it through the transporter. The ones that do, most of them return home.”
From what I’d seen, it seemed like there were tons of Daelighters moving between the two worlds, but in reality it was probably only a small percentage of their total numbers.
“Can anyone cross to Earth?” I asked, wondering if there were rules about it.
Xander shook his head as he leaned back further, his long arms resting across the top of the bath on either side of him. “No, you need to receive permission from your overlord. There are long wait lists, some longer than others depending if you want to go for a vacation or to live. We closely monitor all Daelighters on Earth, which is something your government insisted on. There’s also a limit to the numbers of us allowed to cross. Lots of rules and red tape involved.”
It made sense. If an alien race was trying to set up shop in my world, I’d want to know what they were up to as well. “I’m still surprised that my government is so compliant with you all crossing to Earth,” I said honestly. “The stone must be something seriously important to the human race.”
“It is,” he said. “Before the stone, you were heading for a cataclysmic event. Nature was set to wipe you out.”
Before the true horror of that could sink in, there was a loud knock on the bedroom door. Xander’s head fell back and he groaned. “For a moment there, reality was far away,” he murmured.
It didn’t sound like he was talking to me, so I didn’t reply. I stood, sending a silent goodbye to the water as it trailed down me. Xander’s head snapped forward again, his eyes locked on me. The blue darkened—a sign I already recognized.
“No time, Romeo,” I teased him, taking my time as I walked up the steps and out of the bath. I didn’t feel one ounce of unease at being naked in front of him like this, which was really unexpected. Maybe it was the simple fact that I didn’t have to try and impress him. We’d already established the rules of this relationship, and now we were just enjoying it.
As I reached for a neatly folded towel in a set of dark gray shelves near the entrance to the tiled bathroom, hands landed on my hips. I hadn’t even heard him move, but I sure as hell felt him when he spun me around, his lips capturing mine.
I forgot everything in that moment. I’d always thought it was a cliché when chicks in books and movies said that, but Xander literally had the ability to wipe everything from my mind. I became nothing more than reaction and need.
I’d had sex more times in the past few hours than I had in the past year, and yet I wanted him again. A loud noise echoed at the edge of my brain, but I managed to ignore it.
“Xander, are you in there?”
The shout had him pulling back, and as he did I managed to regain some clarity.
He turned away slightly. “Hang on, we’ll be right out. Avalon was sleeping.”
I snorted, pressing my face into his right bicep. I hadn’t slept for a second, and now I was going to have to pretend to be well rested. I was well satisfied though, which was close enough.
“You have five minutes,” the male voice at the door said, before footsteps echoed away.
“Come on, we’d better get dressed,” Xander said, reaching for the towel and wrapping it around me. He must have used his power as well, because by the time I rubbed it across my body and hair, I was dry.
Xander’s hand landed firmly on my ass, just short of a slap. I narrowed my eyes on him playfully and he laughed. “Put some damn clothes on,” he finally muttered. “Or they will have to break the door down.”
With a shake of my head, I hurried across to the clothes Star had gathered for me. The underwear fit, which was almost unbelievable. How the hell had Star guessed my sizes? I was going to call that Daelighter magic. The rest fit as well: a simple white shirt, tan cotton shorts, and Converse in the exact right size.
“Where do all of these clothes come from?” I asked Xander when we were both dressed.
He shrugged. “Star has always dressed us. She loves it. Lexen said she makes some of the clothing herself.”
That would be a very useful skill indeed.
I started running my fingers through my long hair, silky and untangled from whatever Xander did to remove the wate
r. That and the natural magic of my Royale hair. “Do you use toothbrushes here?” I asked.
“Yep, there’s a spare in the top drawer,” he said, pointing toward the bathroom.
I hurried, deliberately not looking at the huge, steaming bath. Water was almost as enticing as naked Xander, and I had no time for either right now.
There were a ton of spare toiletry items in that drawer, so I grabbed the few things I needed. Within two minutes I had my teeth brushed and my hair pulled back into a loose braid.
“You ready?” Xander said, appearing in the doorway.
“Yep.” I smiled, snapping the band around the ends. “I’m ready to go.”
We didn’t touch as we walked toward the bedroom door, but there was so much energy between us it almost felt like we were. Or maybe that was my nerves. For some stupid reason, I could be naked as the day I was born around him and not feel any unease, but now that our clothes were back on….
I had no idea where we stood when we weren’t sexing.
Before I had time for an existential crisis, Xander opened the door and we were out in the hallway. A group was standing near the end—our friends. As we got closer, I tried really hard to keep my expression neutral. “Sorry,” I blurted out, not sure where to look. “I must have been more tired than I thought. I really crashed after Xander let me use his amazing bath.”
There, that was normal, right? No one would be suspicious.
“No problem!” Maya said, smiling. “Chase had to drag me away from my family. It was so hard leaving them again, especially knowing that this part of our journey might be the most dangerous of all.”
That sobered everyone up.
I took a step closer to Callie. “You look great,” I said. “Are you feeling much better?”
She nodded. “Yep. So much better. Dan got me back in time, thankfully. I had to sleep for a few hours, but now I’m ready to go.”
She looked amazing, her skin golden and flushed with health. She wore all black, with a silver-studded belt holding her boyfriend jeans up. She ran her eyes across me. “I see Star put you in the secret keepers uniform.”
I chuckled because I’d thought the same thing. “It suits me perfectly. I prefer clothes that are lightweight and easy to remove for swimming. Shorts and T-shirt dresses are my favs.”
Maya’s eyes got really wide as she clapped her hands. “One day we’re all going shopping together. I love my casual clothes, don’t get me wrong, but I also love dressing up. Girls’ night!”
Callie grimaced, but she didn’t say anything. Something told me she wasn’t that big a fan of shopping.
“Are Emma and Lexen not back yet?” I heard Xander ask Daniel and Chase. His question drew our attention back to the boys.
Daniel shook his head. “No, but Lexen sent word that they were going to meet us in about ten minutes. So we should start moving.”
Everyone began to walk then, and I waited to fall in at the back of the group. Xander paused, settling in at my side. I didn’t miss the knowing looks Maya and Callie shot us. Xander was right, matchmaking was totally on their agenda, but they were fighting a losing battle. Xander was a Royale, and even though he said the overlord family had a stable family to ensure their bloodline remained clearly identified, he’d also told me on more than one occasion that that was not the future for us.
No long-term commitment.
We ended up back in the room with the huge dining table. It was empty when we arrived, so everyone took a seat to wait. “So, the next step of the plan is to go to House of Royale?” Callie asked, holding one finger up like she was counting down. “Figure out the map?” A second finger came up. “Then go and get the stone before Laous tracks us down?”
The guys all nodded. I started to feel really nervous that I was going to let them all down. That maybe the map wasn’t on my body like they hoped.
“I’ve never seen anything on my skin which could be used as a map or coordinates,” I told them. My eyes flashed to Xander’s for a split second and he gave a minute head shake. He hadn’t seen anything either, and he probably knew some parts of my body better than me at this point.
“She doesn’t even have any freckles,” Maya added.
I literally didn’t have a single freckle. The only marks that marred my skin were a few faded stretch marks on my thighs—thank you, puberty—and the scars on my hand.
Chase replied immediately. “I think it’s going to have something to do with the legreto you were born in, Ava. Likely you have to go back there again.”
Daniel nodded. “That would be the place the map was first placed on Ava, so it makes sense.”
Xander straightened, his eyes going faraway for a moment. I was about to ask him what was wrong when he said, “Lexen is almost back. He found out something about the Draygo.”
We all turned toward the main door, waiting for them to enter. But, instead of the two familiar faces we were expecting, a silver-haired woman burst through the door.
Daniel shot to his feet. “Colita! What are you doing here?”
I blinked as the woman—Colita, apparently—hurried forward, her long dress trailing after her. She wore something that looked like a combination of a summer dress and robes, layers of wispy material fluttering around her as she moved.
“I had a vision,” she cried, and collapsed.
Chapter 14
Xander caught Colita just before she hit the table, lowering her down into the chair he had just vacated. Her eyes were half rolled back in her head, and I found myself rushing to her side. I lifted her hand and felt for a pulse, relief hitting me when there was a strong buzz under my fingers. It seemed a little fast, but for all I knew that was the normal speed here.
It was beating at least, and that was the most important part.
“Who is she?” I whispered to Xander. “Is this the Draygo?”
She didn’t look the same as Lexen, all of that scary energy. But maybe the females were different.
He shook his head, face drawn with worry. “No, Colita is a normal Daelighter. Kind of. She’s a seer, able to discern future events through dreams and visions.”
“She’s also my drenita,” Lexen rumbled as he hurried into the room.
Emma was right behind him and she caught my confused look. “His godmother,” she murmured, giving my arm a quick squeeze when she reached my side.
Xander moved back to allow Lexen to stand at his drenita’s side. The Darken overlord reached out and grasped Colita’s hand. Realizing I was still holding her other one, I gently set it down.
Lexen’s eyes shot to me, and I quickly mumbled, “Just feeling for a pulse—it’s strong but fast.”
Something white flitted across the dark of his eyes and I swallowed roughly. It disappeared just as quickly though, and most of the tension left the room when he gave me a slow head dip. “Thank you,” he said, voice octaves lower than normal.
He turned back to Colita. Her eyes were open and focused again. She sat up slowly, shaking her head. It took her only a moment to notice the multiple sets of eyes locked on her. She stumbled to her feet.
“Lexen,” she cried as he steadied her. “I saw Laous. In a dream. He is amassing an army. Astoria is filling with Gonzo and Daelighters as we speak.”
Xander slammed his fist against the table, and when he pulled his hand away I could have sworn there was an indent in the thick wood. “He’s smart. He knows he can wait us out. Eventually we’ll have to return to Earth, especially if we’re trying to find the stone.”
“What if we never did?” Callie suggested, crossing her arms over her chest. “He could wait there for hundreds of years. If we stay here, then no one will touch the stone and everything can go back to the way it was.”
Colita shook her head violently. “No! No, he won’t wait. He has taken the town hostage, all of the humans outside of those safe in Daelight Crescent right now. He’s trying to draw you out, and if you don’t come back soon, he’s going to start killing the humans.
By the end of my vision, Astoria was awash in blood.”
Emma’s eyes immediately filled with tears. “No,” she whispered, her hand pressing to her chest. “All of those innocent people. We can’t let him do this.”
“What else did you see?” Lexen pressed Colita. “You don’t normally dream your visions … how did that happen?”
Her face crumbled as she released Lexen to massage her temples. “I … I don’t actually know. But … you’re right, I don’t usually dream my visions in this manner. It also went on for much longer than I can generally hold a vision. If I had to guess, I’d say that someone was helping me see.”
Daniel drew our attention. “Rao is a dream seer. Could it be him?”
Colita looked confused for a beat, until recognition cleared that expression. “Rao … your brother who went missing? Your father declared him dead. I remember the farewell ceremony.”
Daniel nodded stiffly. “Yes, apparently he didn’t die. He was taken by Laous—he’s been using him in his cause ever since.”
“But we think he might have switched sides,” Callie added. “He has helped more than one of us.”
Colita nodded a few times, her eyes misty. “There was a man in my dream. He kept his face in the shadows, so I couldn’t see him clearly, but he was very big, with a dark aura.”
“That could be him,” Daniel said shortly. “He’s even bigger than me, and his face is burned. He was caught in the fires of the justices, and Laous was the one to find him, faking his death so that we would stop looking for him.”
There was an extended silence; I didn’t know most of the people they were talking about, but I could sense how serious this information was.
“How long do we have?” Callie asked, her voice devoid of emotion.
Colita squeezed her eyes closed tightly. “I can’t tell,” she said with a wavering voice. “The vision is not clear. It’s not … it’s not giving me enough information!”