by Emma Harley
“He won’t make a move you know,” Logan mumbled, nudging her, “he values your friendship too much. He won’t risk losing you. So as long as neither of you acknowledge it, he’ll probably just get over it.” Raina shrugged.
“Just stop talking about it Logan.”
Raubyn mumbled his apologies. Raina just nodded and watched as a red haired male came to join him.
“Princess Raina, I hope Raubyn isn’t being a bother to you,” he puffed, eyeing the flushing prince.
“Not at all,” she beamed, “he’s been quite friendly.” Raubyn gave her a grateful smile as the male extended a hand.
“I’m Prince Noxus, your father’s elder brother, and your uncle,” he smiled gripping her hand tightly.
“It’s nice to meet you,” she strained, remembering that earlier today she had his father pinned the wall with lightning and fire. He boomed a laugh.
“I heard you uncovered the old man’s plot to kill you and took him down yourself,” he grinned proudly, “would you believe that I’m envious of you?”
Raina cocked her head curiously. “How so?”
“I would sell my soul to be able to hit that beast of a male just once,” he murmured quietly to her. Raina chuckled.
“Well it feels wonderful if you must know. I see there’s no love lost between you.”
“Not at all,” he confirmed, “ghastly old brute he was. He’s where he deserves to be.”
“Father, be careful what you say,” Raubyn hissed, but his sire brushed him off. “Oh Raubyn don’t be such a fuss, you’ll be hard pushed to find anyone who liked that man.”
Raina was distracted from the squabbling duo when Lord Filo, the Fae male whose parent’s had offered him for marriage approached her gingerly.
“I’d like to apologise for my parents, Your Highness,” he mumbled sheepishly, bowing to her, “I don’t particularly feel like being married either.”
Raina bowed back awkwardly, “Don’t worry about it. I was warned in advance, I should have expected it.”
“Would you care to dance?” he asked, extending a hand. Raina’s eyes widened as she glanced at Logan.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to dance at all,” she blushed. The male smiled softly.
“It’s awful, don’t bother learning. But my parents insisted I ask you and I’m quite sure they’re listening from somewhere.” Raina chuckled awkwardly as Lord Filo bowed to her and left. Logan grumbled.
“You could just learn to dance and not turn everyone down,” he mumbled, his eyes roving over the sea of twirling figures and colourful skirts. Raina snorted in derision.
“I didn’t like dancing as a human, why would I like it now?” she shrugged, reaching past him to pick a decadent looking chocolate from the mound.
“You could just try, I mean you’re going to be here a while, it wouldn’t hurt,” he sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. Raina paused, swallowing hard before looking up at him.
“I’m not staying here Logan. The squad and I will be setting out for the shadow walker’s territory as soon as possible, I’m only here because Aija begged me to wait a while. Then we’re leaving,” she confirmed, grabbing a glass of wine from a passing server. Logan stared at her.
“I should come with you, I know the lands well enough,” he shrugged, pointedly ignoring the cluster of females that giggled and eyed him with hungry expressions. Raina’s chest flared and she gulped down the wine.
“It’s better if you stay here Logan. Elias would be better coming with us, you and I fight too much. And besides, you’ve been waiting to get back to your life for quite some time now. Maybe you should take the time to get in touch with your family and the fiancé you left behind,” Raina pointed out, pushing off the wall to leave. Logan grabbed her elbow.
“I don’t have a fiancé, you know that Raina. So that’s it? I get to wave goodbye and never see you again because you plan to take out a god and die in the process,” he hissed. Raina took a deep breath. This was neither the time nor the place for this conversation.
“You have let yourself get attached to me. You would interfere and get yourself killed. I don’t plan on allowing the squad to accompany me to the battle either, I’m going to have them held back at the shadow walker village so they can’t get involved either.”
Kalen joined them, a fake smile plastered on his face. “There are too many ears in here for you two to start scrapping again,” he hissed through gritted teeth, “Move it outside, now.” Raina rolled her eyes and flounced out after Kalen, Logan following close behind.
He led them away from the noisy hub of the ballroom and into a perfectly manicured swirl of rosebushes in all shades of the rainbow. Kalen stopped at an iron bench and flopped down with a sigh. The cool evening air was more welcoming than Raina had predicted, the sweating heat of the ballroom had left a glistening film on her exposed chest. Kalen rubbed the sweat off his forehead and slumped back on the bench.
“You need to be careful where you talk Raina. The Fae can hone in on your conversation across a crowded room. And none of them will be too pleased to hear their princess is deciding to sacrifice herself to help a tribe that isn’t too popular around here,” he spoke quietly, focusing his attention on the sunset in the distance. Raina just nodded.
“I’ll be more careful then.”
As she turned to leave Logan stopped her again.
“I can’t let you go and sacrifice yourself Raina. I just can’t. And despite what the squad says, I don’t imagine any of them being okay with it either,” he huffed, his cloak flowing gently in the soft breeze. Raina shrugged.
“It doesn’t really matter Logan. I don’t intend to die, but if it happens it’s not a big deal. Even if my power is bound, I’m still a threat to those around me. But if I can break the curse I could go back home, never having to worry about my power running wild and exposing me. I could live and die as a human,” she sighed, plucking a sweet-smelling yellow rose from a nearby bush, “And should I die in the process, the curse will still be lifted. The king and queen will be able to have another heir, and nothing will be affected.”
“What about your team? The people you call your brothers? What about us? Do you really think our lives will be unaffected by your death? Do you think your parents are going to be able to replace you with another child after having you ripped away from them once again?” Logan snarled, brushing off Kalen’s warning to calm down.
“I’m not standing in the blast zone, but don’t blow up the garden please Raina,” Kalen sighed, “you two need to learn to talk things over without trying to kill each other.”
With that, Kalen strode off to the castle. Logan rubbed his face and groaned.
“I can’t keep doing this Raina. But I’m going to tell you plain and simple. You are being a selfish brat, having no consideration for anyone else in your life. You won’t take the memory potion to remember your parents, you want to sacrifice yourself to break a curse so you can go home and pretend to be a human without thinking anything through. You still won’t age. You’ll go back to that world and have to watch your friends grow old and die around you. And after about fifty years you’ll have to hide from the world, because they will notice you don’t grow older.” Raina paced around the bushes, wincing as a thorn pricked her palm.
“I can watch my friends live happy lives alongside me. And when they have passed, I can end my own life with them. I don’t want to live for hundreds of years without them and I have already lost my mother. Who would ever want to live for an eternity when they have no one to share it with?” she choked, pushing away the thoughts of losing her team. Logan cocked his head to the side.
“What if I told you that you don’t have to? This world is different. Even humans have a significantly longer lifespan than the ones in your world. Magic flows through everything, and humans here live for around two-hundred years. You could stay here, and spend more time with them,” he offered, perching himself on the cobblestone wall edging the rose
s. Raina paused, running her finger along a velvety petal.
“You never listen do you Logan,” she sighed, shivering lightly in the breeze, “I have no choice but to go and break this curse. You can’t come with me, and neither can the team. I have made it clear what my plans are, and despite that, you and my parents are trying to bond with me. All you’re going to do is cause yourselves pain when I leave. You can’t let yourself get attached to me.” Logan growled softly, a jarring sound compared to the stray notes of the band that floated on the breeze.
“Why do you do this Raina?” he sighed, unclipping his cloak. He stepped closer and wrapped it around her cold shoulders. “It’s no secret that I care about you. Despite how often we fight. Your team loves you. Your parents just got you back after having you taken from them. And you want to abandon everyone.”
Raina couldn’t help but breathe in the petrichor, his nostalgic scent seemed to relax her even when she was furious at him.
“I can’t keep losing people Logan,” she sighed, “my mother kept us running. Every year it was a new school, new house and new friends. I had no stability. Every time I felt safe and got close to people they were ripped away. I rarely ever got to see Thea and my cousins. The only person left in my life was my mother and she was taken from me. I’ve lost friends in war, lost contact with anyone I ever cared about, so now I stop caring. I don’t allow myself to get close, because I can’t cope with losing everyone. The squad creeped up on me, I didn’t mean to get so close to them all.”
Logan’s face was bitter with sympathy.
“What about me?” Raina’s chest tightened as she plucked the petals off the rose and let them float to the ground.
“I told you not to get close to me. I tried pushing you away but you don’t seem to get the message,” she bristled, trying to ignore the intoxicating scent that enveloped his cloak. Logan snorted derisively, suddenly very interested in the skyline.
“No you didn’t. You got close to me and pushed away, over and over again. You’re stuck between wanting to be close to me and being afraid of getting hurt again. It’s hard to fight your feeling for someone isn’t it princess?” Raina whipped her head around angrily.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t have feelings for you,” she snapped, incensed further by his maddening smirk. Logan held up a finger. “The day you went into protective custody, you didn’t stop me from kissing you. You kissed me back.” Raina scowled.
“I was upset Logan I wasn’t thinking straight.” He held up another finger.
“I saw the messages you sent to your friends about me, and you got embarrassed when I found out about it. And finally,” he held a third finger up and tapped her nose with it, “when you don’t get into your own head, you flirt with me and act normal. Not like a general, or a military leader ready for war. You act like a normal girl when you forget your fears for a moment.”
Raina was speechless, unable to decide if she was angry or surprised. Logan cupped her cheek and brought his lips to hers, sending a shiver of goosebumps down her skin despite the thick cloak wrapped around her. Raina wanted to melt into his arms and forget about everything else around her, but she pulled away.
“Don’t do this Logan. This isn’t going to end well for us,” Raina whispered, choking slightly on her words.
“You’re getting in your head again princess.”
Raina pushed him back gently, steeling her face into neutrality. “You won’t change my mind Logan. I’m going to try and break this curse, and there is a chance I will die in the process. Do yourself a favour and move on before that happens.”
Raina brushed past him, leaving him standing among the rose bushes as she made her way back to the ballroom. Kalen caught her eye as she tried to slip back in unnoticed, his face turning to concern as he noted the redness that gave away the exchange in the garden. Alicia flounced over to her, her cheeks tinged pink from alcohol and laughter.
“Where did you and Logan disappear to?” she giggled, winking teasingly. JJ and Nick joined them, the former gripping Alicia discreetly to stop her wobbling.
“Logan seems to think that I’ve changed my mind about breaking the curse, and he wasn’t too happy when I told him nothing had changed.” Davin had appeared behind her, flanked by the drunken duo of Elias and Izak. Alicia’s face fell.
“But you’re having your first big feast, you’re wearing a tiara. I thought you were bonding with your parents,” she stammered, her voice rising to a shriek. Raina’s hand absent-mindedly wandered to the emerald tiara on her head.
“So what? I told them I would give them a few days. And I wasn’t the one wanted to come to this thing. If they want to get attached knowing that I’m leaving, that’s their own fault.” Alicia shook her head in disgust and stormed off to grab another glass of wine. Nick patted JJ and followed after her, not before his face betrayed pure sorrow and disappointment. Raina sank a glass and picked up another, but JJ lifted it out of her hand.
“We need to talk Phoenix.”
“I’m not in the mood to talk JJ.” Davin blocked her path as she turned to leave.
“We don’t care, we need to talk now.” Raina rolled her eyes and slipped off to the side. Before she could even speak, JJ lit up.
“Do you realise how hard this is for us, especially Alicia?” Raina looked confused, glancing behind him to the defeated figure of her friend.
“Every single one of us has lost our parents one way or another. That’s why we’re in this team. Alicia has never known hers, and all that girl has ever wanted is a damn family. Now she is sitting back watching you completely discard your own. We said we would follow you, but we’re not letting you make stupid decisions. Grow up and stop acting like a child,” JJ snapped, earning quite a few looks from the curious Fae around them. Raina glared at him, staring him down.
“I’ve just had to explain this to Logan, now I’ll tell you. I don’t know how this... adventure is going to go, so why the hell would I go out of my way to bond with people?” JJ rolled his eyes as Nick and Izak joined them again.
“Guys maybe here isn’t the best place to talk,” Nick winced, but he was steamrolled by JJ.
“None of us are going to let you die Phoenix. We have your back you know,” he mumbled, his tone slightly softer. Raina pushed down the pain in her chest and blinked back the threatening tears.
“No you won’t. Because none of you will be on this mission. From this point forward I’m handing leadership of the squad to Davin and removing myself from the ranks. You all deserve a good life here, Logan told me humans live longer in this world because of the magic. You can all live happy lives, away from battle and war. If my plan is stupid, then I’ll be the only one to die for a stupid cause.”
The men stared at each other gobsmacked, unable to even find the words to speak as Raina made her way up to the doors, brushing past a solemn faced Logan without even glancing in his direction.
Raina made her way back down to the suite where her bags were, stripping off the dress and tossing the tiara onto the bed. Her breathing was ragged and her eyes pricked with tears as she slid into her black gear, stuffing as many weapons as she could find into her backpack. She reached under the bed, grabbing the atlas she had swiped from the memorial bedrooms Aija had shown her before. Raina knew the longer she stayed the more it would hurt to leave.
The queen was already bonding with her, and Logan couldn’t move on while she was still around him. She shoved away a stray thought, keeping herself in strict denial. They were becoming complacent with her presence. Assuming she was staying to fulfil her role of the long-lost daughter and princess simply because she donned a dress. The monarchs were strangers to her, but Thea had explained the love and sisterhood between Eliza and Aija. Her mother would be furious with her for hurting the queen.
The squad would follow her to face a god. Just as they followed her into a strange world. She couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t get killed in the process, and if she walked away from that ba
ttle without every one of them alive beside her, she would die inside. Living with the guilt wasn’t something she planned to do.
Raina tossed her backpack over her shoulder and glanced below the balcony. Easy landing for a Fae. She dropped silently to the grassy plot and sped to the wall, leaping over it with superhuman ease.
The only sounds around the city was the bustling of traffic and what sounded like rowdy patrons at the bars. She slipped down a row of houses, before stopping at an unlit corner. Raina closed her eyes and found the dark thread in her mind and willed it through her body as she melted into the shadows, hidden from even the keenest of eyes.
This was like ecstasy, Raina found herself speeding through the darkness like she was fluid, weaving and flowing through obstacles like they were merely illusions. Unable to laugh, she chuckled in her own mind, admiring the feeling of almost flying. Raina materialised once more when she reached the edge of a wooded area, almost losing her balance as she slumped down against a thick tree, pulling out the atlas from her bag. If she could make it to the docks, she could get on a boat heading across the vast lake, instead of trying to make her way around it.
The shadow walker territory was marked in purple, with a large black line running from top to bottom of the page close beside it. Assuming it was a misprint, Raina flicked at other pages only to see the same line in varying shades of thickness, until one page had it labelled. Barrier to the Demon Lands. Raina recalled the rude general talking about it earlier that day.
“This is a far way from home Your Highness.”
The voice made Raina’s heart jump from her chest and she had her gun in her hand before her eyes even adjusted to the figure. General Taranis leaned against a tree silently observing her, his face mockingly smug as he beheld the gun.
“Put that away, it’s no use to you here.” Raina returned the cocky smirk.
“Let’s call this a special gun, perfect for killing Fae.” His smile died slightly and his eyes narrowed before peeking at the atlas.