by Sofia Vargas
“Good to have you back,” Viper said, sitting next to me. “You gave all of us quite a scare.”
“So I hear,” I said. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s all right,” he smiled. “Just, please don’t disappear like that again.”
“Mm,” I nodded and yawned. “I’ll try not to.”
“I’m serious, Emma,” he said, his smile fading from his face. “We were worried sick not knowing where you’d gone or if something had happened to you—”
“I realize that,” I said, “and as much as I appreciate the concern you don’t have to worry about me too much. Besides,” I said and noticed Arie peeking at us from the other side of the tent, “there are other people you should be more concerned about.”
Viper’s head turned to her. She looked back down at what she was reading.
“Look, Emma, I know I probably hurt you by not telling you about us. For that I’m very sorry.”
“You don’t need to be,” I said. “I was angry at first but I’m not anymore.”
I thought about Dresden healing in the hospital under Dr. Zaira’s care. The bright side of it was that he was safely away from the war for a little longer.
“I’ve actually wanted to talk to you about that,” Viper said. “I’m going to call off the engagement.”
My mind snapped from Dresden back to the present. “What? Why? What are you talking about?”
“Emma,” he said, taken aback by my reaction. “I was so worried about you while you were gone. I had trouble sleeping and eating knowing that your life could have been in danger.”
“Okay, so you were worried about me,” I said, lowering my voice so no one would overhear us. “That doesn’t mean you have to go break Arie’s heart.”
“It does,” he said, lowering his voice, too. “Emma, it made me sick knowing you could have been in danger and I wasn’t there to help you. You are the one I should be with.”
I looked in his eyes. There had been a time when those words were what I most wanted to hear from him. That time now felt ages ago.
“No,” I said. “Viper, you’re meant to be with Arie. You guys have been engaged forever. Everyone knows it’s you two that belong together.”
He looked over to her and I saw something flicker in his eye. “I always thought we’d be together, too. But you were the one worrying me.” He looked back at me. “It’s your side I was aching to be by.”
I smiled at him. “Which I really appreciate.”
I put my hand on his and saw Arie’s back straighten.
“That just means that you and I have a strong connection.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but I continued.
“It makes me so happy that you were worried about me and I know I’d feel the same way if it were you. But that doesn’t mean that we’re the ones that should end up together.”
“How does it not mean that?”
“Because I still don’t believe that I’m the one you truly love.”
His blue eyes pierced mine. Then he looked at Arie. She lowered her head to her reading material again. I noticed his eyes linger on her for a second longer than they had on me. I smiled when he looked back at me.
“How can you know for sure?” he said. “Are you saying these things as an easier way of telling me that you don’t love me?”
“Can you honestly say that you love me?” I said.
“Yes,” he said a little too quickly. “Yes, I can.”
“And I can honestly say that I love you.”
He smiled and opened his mouth, but I put my hand up to stop him.
“I can’t, however, say that I’m in love with you.”
“Wh—what if I’m in love with you?” he said.
“I really don’t think you are,” I said. His eyes kept darting back over to Arie. “And I refuse … to fall in love with someone that I’ll never be sure loves me the most.”
In my head I tried to figure out how I felt about Viper. I thought back to the way I felt when we weren’t in Aetheria. I thought about how much I loved being with him and talking to him. The feelings were very different from what I felt when I was with Dresden. In our short time together Viper had become my best friend, but I knew that he was not the person my heart longed for. Just as I was not the person his heart belonged to.
“There’s someone else isn’t there?” he said.
I looked back at him. He was watching me. I smiled at him.
“Viper, I love you so much. And I know that my life would never be the same if I ever lost you. You’re my soulmate.”
“Aren’t soulmates supposed to be made for each other and spend the rest of their lives together?”
I laughed. “Ideally, I guess that’s what should happen. But not when both of them are in love with other people.”
He looked over at Arie. Our conversation seemed to be making her more nervous with every passing minute. She jumped when he turned his head to her and spilled her cup on what she was reading. The drink dripped into her lap and she leaped out of her chair. Viper and I looked back at each other and couldn’t help but laugh.
“I am in love with her,” he said, more to himself than to me. “I’ve been so scared of our future, with her being queen and all. I guess I wanted to believe it was you I was supposed to spend forever with instead.”
“Believe me,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder, “you will. There’s no way you’re shaking me out of your life.”
The sides of his lips turned up and he hugged me. Arie forgot about the spill and glared at us.
“Good,” he said. “I don’t want to imagine what life would be like without you.”
He let go and got out of his chair. Mom came back with a teapot and some cups.
“Care to join us, Viper?”
“No, thank you, Ms. Larnex,” he said and walked to Arie.
“She doesn’t look very happy,” Mom said, putting the tea and cups on the table.
I smiled knowing that at that very moment she wasn’t. “I’m sure everything will be just fine.”
* * *
Every time I walked by Oak’s meal station, for a brief second I hoped that I would see him standing there smiling at me. It had been so long since I had been taken away from the cabin and I hadn’t been able to say goodbye to him. It wasn’t the same seeing a different cook there.
The morning after I got back I had sat at the stand and tried to introduce myself to him. He had given me a strange look. Now I went to the main tent and had breakfast like I was supposed to.
That morning my father called a meeting with the highest ranking military personnel to explain his new plan of action. It didn’t go over well when he said that he wanted to meet with the Southern leaders and try to talk things out. Everyone looked at me when they heard the word “compromise,” knowing I was the one behind the change in strategy. Compromise was not the way they wanted to go. They knew that things would have to be sacrificed in order to be gained. My father, however, stood by me and his new decision so everyone agreed to the meeting.
I was shocked when Arie started talking to me. I could only assume that her warming up to me was due to Viper. I was happy to gain her as a friend. It would have been difficult with Viper if she had continued with the cold shoulder. Viper said the talk we had made her nervous, but that she was grateful for the things I had said. She was starting to become a friend I hadn’t realized I needed.
I kept asking if I could go see Dresden. Not knowing how he was doing or how soon he would be released made me anxious. The trips were of course denied. A teleporter was sent every few days instead to check on him and return with news of his progress. I was shocked to find out what a teleporter was. Everyone was kind enough not to mention the fact that my week-long, cross-country journey could have been cut down to a few short seconds if I had given someone the chance to tell me about them.
We still didn’t know how the Southerners were going to react to the request sent to them for a mee
ting, so my father thought it best we stay close to camp. He thought the request might be looked at in a way that said we were looking for an easy way out. That perhaps we weren’t fit to continue the war in the manner that it was being fought. I knew that such a request would be hard to comply with or trust coming from my father or any of his officers so I asked that he tell them I was the one who called for it. If Oak was still a part of the Council and things hadn’t changed too much I knew he would convince them to accept. Having Oak on the other end made me sure that this meeting would be carried out no matter what.
Mom looked particularly worn out one afternoon while we sat in the meal tent drinking tea with Viper and Arie.
“Mom?” I said. “How are you holding up?”
She took a second to think about her answer. “Do you remember, years ago, when everyone went through that sexy vampire phase?”
I wasn’t sure why she had asked the question, but I nodded my head anyway. “When vampires turned from scary to sexy all of a sudden? I don’t remember it too well. I was kind of young when it happened, but I remember some of it.”
“Do you remember what came after that?”
I was sure they could see the horror that took over my face.
I nodded again. “The sexy zombies…”
I remember the phase that ended the era of sexy vampires much better than its predecessor.
“Yes, I remember,” I said. “It was awful.”
Mom nodded her head. “But knowing what came after made you put things into perspective, right? It made you wish you could go back to the way things were.”
I smiled and put my hand on top of hers. Without her having to say more, I understood what she was getting at. She feared that the life we had on earth was the sexy vampires and that the life we now had in Aetheria would become the sexy zombies.
“Things will go back to normal one of these days,” I said to her.
It was a promise that I would do everything in my power to make sure I kept.
One of the guards from the front gate walked into the tent and up to where my father sat with a few of his generals. I watched him tell my father something and all three of them rose and walked to the entrance of the tent with the guard.
“Emmeline,” he said to me as they passed by. “We’ve gotten word that our answer is going to be teleported to the front gate in a few moments.”
I sprang out of my chair, gave Mom’s hand one last squeeze, and followed them out of the tent.
“If they say no that will be all we can do,” my father said to me.
I was sure the hope gleaming from my eyes was evident.
“We can’t force them to meet and negotiate with us so please don’t let too much ride on this.”
“They won’t say no,” I said to him. “There’s no way they’re going to pass up this opportunity.”
He sighed and turned his attention back to the gate’s entrance. “Open the gates,” he said.
The guards looked at him. “Sire, don’t you think if there were a crucial time to follow protocol this would be it?”
“I do not,” he said. “Please open the gates.”
The guards nodded and did as he asked. I smiled at him, knowing that he was putting his trust in me as I was putting my trust in them. They propped the doors open and we waited. Moments later there was a whirling noise and a flash of light. Two figures appeared outside of the gate. The figures regained their bearings from the teleportation and looked at us. My heart skipped a beat when Dresden spotted me and smiled.
“General Stone,” my father said, stretching his hand toward him. “It’s good to have you home.”
“Thank you,” said Dresden. “It’s good to be home, Sire.”
He shook his hand and pulled a letter out of his jacket pocket.
It still hurt to look at him. Although he wasn’t anywhere near the state he had been in before, I could still see what his body had been through. His right leg was still in a splint and his skin was still discolored and splotchy. If anything, I was happy to see him just conscious again. It was hard to tear my eyes away from him while everyone waited for my father to read the reply.
“They have agreed to the meeting,” he said when he was done reading. “They want to meet us in two days at a location in the mountains.”
He handed a portion of a map that was included with the reply around to the group. I knew that it had to be the cabin where Oak had taken me.
“The location isn’t very far away,” he said. “They said we are free to bring however many soldiers we’d like for good measure, but they would have to be left outside the valley. Only those vital to the meeting will be allowed to enter the location.”
“How do we know they can be trusted?” said one of the officers. “How do we know they aren’t planning on ambushing us once we enter the location without our guard? We should take all our troops and demand that they be let into the location as well. We don’t know what else they have organized or how many troops they’re planning to bring with them.”
“We can’t be absolutely sure of their trustworthiness,” my father said. “However, I refuse to do anything that will cause them to question ours. We will take only a minimal number of reinforcements with us so as not to cause retaliation or suspicion.”
I was pleased with this decision. There were some murmurs among the officers when everyone turned back to the camp.
“Tensions are certainly running high around here,” Dresden said when the grumbling had faded away.
I smiled. “Can’t make everyone happy all the time.”
“I guess you’re right about that.”
He moved his splinted leg forward and stepped through the camp’s gates. My eyes teared up when I remembered the way he looked the last time I had seen him.
“Did you do any healing at all?” I couldn’t help but ask.
He laughed. “Quite a bit of it, actually. From what I hear I was in pretty bad shape.”
“Bad shape would be an understatement,” I said.
“There were some amazing stories about what you did to get me to the hospital,” he said, taking the last two steps toward me.
He pulled me into a hug once I was within arm’s reach.
“Thank you.”
I placed my hands on his shoulders where I hoped they would cause him the least pain. “Well, you know I couldn’t leave you out there by yourself.”
“You see,” he said, straightening back up and taking my hand. “You very well could have. I’m sure someone would have come across me at some point and have seen that I desperately needed medical attention.”
I frowned. “Desperately didn’t even begin to describe how badly you needed to get to a hospital.”
“Yes, but they wouldn’t have had to tear down a building to get me to one.”
“I didn’t tear it down,” I said. “I simply used certain aspects of its foundations.”
“Rumor is that your use of its foundations has left it in complete disrepair. Not to mention a carriage was pretty much reduced to rubble due to your takeoff.”
“Ah, well that was somewhat of an accident,” I said. “It was a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time on their part.”
“Well, the next time you get your friend’s promise to bust us out of prison, tell them to give me a bit more notice so I can duck for cover.”
“I’ll make sure to do that,” I said, lifting onto my toes and kissing the underside of his jaw.
* * *
“Isn’t he a bit … old for you?” my father asked over dinner that night.
I smiled, watching Dresden enter the tent. He hobbled his way to the table.
“Perhaps,” I said. “But he doesn’t look it, so can we please drop it?”
“For now,” he said.
Dresden reached the table and sat next to me.
Mom eyed him as much as my father did. I gave them a look and they stopped.
We planned to head out to the mountains the n
ext morning.
“So Dresden, are you sure you’re fit to join us tomorrow?” Father said. “It looks like you’re still having trouble getting around.”
I glared at him but he ignored me.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, Sire,” Dresden said. “The splint will be ready to come off by the time we get to the mountains.”
“Fine, fine,” my father said. “We just don’t want to hold up the healing process.”
“The process is about done. I’ll be good as new in no time. Plus, as your highest ranking officer I really think I should be present for the meeting.”
“Of course,” my father said.
We packed what we thought we might need for the trip and met at the front gates early the next morning. I, my father, Dresden, the two next highest ranking officers, Generals Xaden and Rade, and Arie headed out to the cabin. Father believed it was important for the next monarch in line to be present, for that would undoubtedly be an important time in history. We also brought a group of Molders with us making the number of people in our group an even twelve.
I looked at the Molders and noticed it was one of the groups I had seen when I had first come to Aetheria. Specifically, the one with the member that looked different from the rest of his group. He still looked the way I remembered him, but something had changed. He seemed more comfortable and confident. He caught sight of me and smiled. I smiled back and wondered if it were gratitude that I saw in his eyes.
“Emmeline,” my father said, walking with me to my horse, “are you going to be all right riding a horse? Do you know how?”
I thought about all the times I had cut class to go hang out at the horse stables back home.
“I’ll be fine,” I said.
“All right then, we’re all packed,” he said. “Let’s start moving out.”
Everyone nodded and finished mounting their luggage onto their horses.
Dresden helped me onto my horse and we exited the campsite. We stayed on the road so I assumed we were going a different way from how I was taken the first time. I looked over at Dresden and saw him taking deep breaths while we rode down the tree lined road. I remembered him telling me that he had forgotten what the trees smelled like.