by CY Jones
“I have to go,” I tell him reluctantly. After giving him another parting kiss, I quickly head back the way I came. Once I surface at the start of the passage, I find Zephyrus standing there, waiting for me.
“Can you get me to the shipping yard undetected?” I ask, not even bothered that he’s still here.
He doesn’t answer. He just holds his hand out and I take it. Using my other hand, I grip Orion's fur tightly before closing my eyes. When I open them, we’re standing in the shipping yard right in front of Skully’s ship.
“How did you know?” I ask, looking around wide eyed.
“The wind told me everything I needed to know,” he answers, shrugging.
Like that isn’t cryptic at all. Lucky for him I don’t have time to question him further. I need to get what I need done quickly before anyone notices I’m missing. I know that Hera has her own personal guard sneaking around, following me to report my every move back to her. Hopefully, they will stay in the dark about my field trip to the dungeon, and out of the palace. I might be confused about Zephyrus right now, but I am grateful for all his help. Without him, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this far in my plans.
With Orion in the lead, we board Skully’s ship. Just like last time, his crew is moving about cleaning and doing whatever jobs they have for the day. When they spot Orion they give him a wide berth, but this time when they see me, they bow in respect. A far different greeting from the last time we boarded the ship. Before, they were so scared of my familiars they wanted to kill them.
“Winter, so nice to see you again, and with another pretty mate trailing behind you. I’m starting to think you are The Fates favorite to be gifted with such beautiful men,” Skully says, strolling up to us.
“Can we talk?” I ask, ignoring his comment.
“Sure,” he replies, waving his hand towards his office.
I’m not surprised at the condition of his office. Just like before he has stuff everywhere, like a seventy year old hoarder who owns like a hundred cats. In fact, his office looks even worse than the last time I was here.
“You need a maid Skully,” I tell him, eyeing the crap he has everywhere. When my gaze runs across the handcuffs hanging from his bed, I blush remembering when Kaiden used them on me the last time I saw them. A time when things were good between us.
“What do I owe the pleasure of this little visit, my Queen?”
“I need a favor,” I answer.
“It must be the kind of favor that can get me killed, seeing as you are here with one of the wind brothers and not Kaiden.”
“Yes. It’s treason, but you are the only person I can trust with this,” I tell him honestly.
“I knew from the first time we met you would be my Queen, so ask away, and I will follow.”
I was going to ask if he was sure, but I can tell by the look in his eyes everything he just said is true. That he will follow my every command, even if it leads to death. As a ruler, I have to get used to people living and dying for me. I have to make sure I think through every command I give, no matter how small. That is what makes great rulers. Not selfish ones who treat people like pawns, like Kaiden’s mother.
“I need you to have the ship ready to set sail as soon as Tristan blinks himself here. Once he’s safely aboard, he will tell you where my father is being held, and I need you to sail there and bring him back to me.”
Skully lets out a loud whistle and for a second I think he’s going to turn me down. That this mission is too dangerous even for him, but to my utter shock he bows low and says, “I will not fail you, my Queen.”
“Thank you Skully. I know I’m asking a lot.”
“Is there a reason why Tristan isn’t with you now?” He questions.
“He’s been imprisoned, but he will be freed tomorrow night, the reason why I need you to be able to ship off without a moment's notice. I will send some soldiers here from House Morta to help you guys on your journey,” I answer.
“I will let my crew know to get the ship ready. Is there anything else you require?”
“No, just stay safe, and bring both pieces of my heart back to me safe,” I tell him.
“I will,” he replies, bowing again before he leaves out the door.
“Maybe you do have what it takes to be Queen,” Zephyrus says, breaking me from my thoughts. “At first I thought you were spoiled and weak. That you weren’t cunning enough to make it here among people who have been playing this game all their lives, but now I see that you might just be the one to win and break Hera’s tyrant rule.”
I try not to be insulted. I learned quickly Zephyrus isn’t the type to sugar coat anything. He hardly speaks, but when he does, it’s usually something everyone else is too nice to tell you. He’s nothing but unfiltered truth.
“You just want Hera out the way so you can marry Willow.”
“Willow and my brothers tolerate me. It’s hard not to witness their love and not want the same thing.”
“Yes, but that kind of love they share, you will never have, because Willow isn’t yours to have it with. Don’t get me wrong. I already have my hands full with my four other mates, adding you will only be a complication, but I know what true love is, what it feels like, and I can’t help but to want that for you. I want you to be happy, so if Willow does that for you then I’m happy for you both.”
“Four mates? Who’s the fourth one?” He asks frowning.
“It doesn’t matter. Come on, we need to get back before someone notices I’m missing.”
I can tell Zephyrus doesn’t like being left in the dark, but I feel like telling him about Asterial is too personal, and he’s already said more than once he doesn’t want to be with me. I meant what I said. No matter what he chooses, as long as he’s happy, then I am too. Sighing, he takes my hand, and just like before I grip my hand deep in Orion's fur. When we get back to the palace, I send a message with Zephyrus for Lucifer to meet me in my suite. He will be the one best suited to figure out which soldiers to send with Tristan.
As soon as Lucifer leaves my room, I take a deep breath. With all the scheming and sneaking about taken care of, I find myself extremely tired. I don’t know how Hera can keep this shit up all day, everyday. After only a couple hours, I’m completely wrecked. Crawling into my bed, I sink into the mattress, and before I know it, I’m out like a light.
“Wake up, beautiful,” a voice says, ripping me from my dream.
“Umm,” I groan, swatting at whatever is tickling my skin.
“Come on, Winter, you need to wake up,” the voice continues.
“Go away, Cali. Can’t you see I’m sleeping,” I grumble as I turn over on my side.
Icy cold water assaults my skin, soaking me to the core, and I shriek, jumping in the air, and falling off my bed, landing hard on my ass.
“What the hell?” I yell, staring over at Chaos’ amused face with murder in my eyes.
“Are you usually this hard to wake up?” He asks, not at all bothered that I wanted to kill him right now.
“Do you always throw cold water on people to wake them up?” I counter.
“Only the ones who sleep like the dead, forgetting they have an epic deathmatch in a little over an hour.”
“What the hell? I still have ti..,” I cut off when I look over at the clock on my nightstand. Shit, I’ve been sleep for over five freaking hours.
“Exactly,” he says, reading the surprised look on my face. “We need to hurry to get you ready.”
“What’s that?” I ask, eyeing the white bundle in his arms.
“Your fighting outfit. It took me all morning to track down a spider weaver, and all after noon for them to make it.”
“What’s a spider weaver?” I ask, frowning.
“We don’t have time for twenty questions, princess. Go take a shower, and I will get your things ready.”
Huffing, I get up off the floor, narrowing my eyes at him the whole time. He’s being super bossy right now, and I do not like it one bit,
but I immediately soften when I see through the bossy facade and see that he’s worried. He’s spent his whole day making sure I’m ready, and here I am biting his head off because I was the one who overslept. Doing as he says, I take a quick shower, and when I resurface wrapped in nothing but a towel, I stare in awe at the beautiful outfit laying on my bed. At first glance, I thought it was all white, but on close inspection I can see that it changes colors in the light from white, silver, and a bunch of different color blues, just like a reptile skin would change in the sunlight.
“It’s made from dragon scales. The strongest armor in the world, impenetrable to any weapon. These scales in particular came from an ice dragon. More suited for you and your winter powers,” Chaos whispers.
“It’s beautiful,” I tell him with a voice thick with emotion.
Carefully, I trail my fingers over each piece. The corset that Chaos helps me put on ends right at the top of my belly button. Attached to it is some raised elaborate piece that fans behind my neck like an old Japanese hand fan. It kind of reminded me of the ones Elizabeth I would wear in the Tudor period of the Golden Age. The pants were like a second skin and hugged my legs and ass. The boots he supplied strung up all the way to my knees, and also fit like a glove hugging my skin.
“You look fierce and hot, just like you did when you first walked through the throne room,” he whispers close to my ear and I shiver.
“Thank you. I love it,” I finally respond when I get my hormones under control. We don’t have time for a quickie, and I need all the energy I can get. Since Kaiden and I aren’t speaking, Chaos had to tutor me on Raven’s power as best as he could. She likes to keep her talents secret, which is why Kaiden would have been the more ideal teacher. She’s a descendant of the Greek Goddess Artemis, and is deadly as fuck with a bow and arrow. She can’t blink, but she is extremely fast, and has a light affinity to wind powers, whatever the hell that means. While I was with Zephyrus today I should have asked him, but it’s too late now.
Thinking about what he just said, I close my eyes and re-do my makeup like I did that day, but this time I line my eyes darker and add a swirling design around my eyes. Lastly, my lips are painted a blue so dark, it could almost be considered black. This time, I glamour my hair in a braided crown around my head to make sure my long hair doesn’t get in the way, and on top of my head, I wear a silver crown of spikes expanding like the rays of the sun, dipped in poison. One prick will kill you faster than you can say I’m dead. Delicate lace fingerless gloves adorn, and my sword strapped to my back is the last thing I put on before looking at myself in the mirror. I look like a warrior, fierce and deadly. The color red is represented no where on my body, which was my way of saying ‘fuck you’. I’m doing this for myself. Not Kaiden, and damn sure not his mother, and I wanted them both to know it.
“Wow,” Chaos mumbles. “If we didn’t have to go, I would fuck you hard against the wall with you looking just like that.”
“Promises, promises,” I tease, taking in his heated look. Pursing my lips together, I give a shrill whistle, and Nala and Orion appear immediately at my side.
“You know while you’re inside the fighting arena, they will not be able to help you.”
“I know. I want them close, and I know they will worry if I don’t take them with me, knowing I’m fighting and putting my life in danger,” I reply.
“Are you ready?" He asks with a serious look on his handsome face..
Am I ready? In reply, I take his hand and squeeze tightly. I’m as ready as I’m going to get. I’ve trained the best I can. Hopefully it will be enough, because I will not die today. I am Winter DelaCorte and I am strong.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Winter
Chaos blinks us outside the arena, which to me looks just like an exact replica of the Colosseum in Rome, except this one is perfectly in tacked. It’s huge. Easily able to fit over 80,000 spectators. The white stone gleamed in the moonlight, and already I can hear the loud roar of the crowd inside. So many people here to either see a blood thirsty fight, or curious to see the lost lightning heir. Who knows? All I know is that this place is definitely big enough to house them all.
As we walk towards the building, I stop. For whatever reason, I do not want to walk in the front doors with the rest of the crowd. These are my people, and I need to win their favor. History has proven more than once that popular monarchs stay in power longer. If I want to shift the power balance between Hera and myself, I need to put on a show. One that not only shows that I’m in fact the lost lightning heir, but also that I’m more powerful than the current ruling house.
“What’s wrong?” Chaos asks, looking around for a threat.
“I can’t go in that way,” I answer, looking over the massive structure. I want to make an entrance they will never forget, but how? And then I see it. Pulling on Chaos’s hand, I ask, “can you blink us up there?”
Looking up he takes in the stone pillars on the very top, and gives me a grin of mischief and promise. “I can, but your familiars will have to wait here, and I’ll come back for them. There is no way they’ll be able to fit up there.”
After giving both Nala and Orian a soft kiss on their furry heads and a good scratch behind their ears, I command them to stay so Chaos can blink us away. Once up there, I balance myself on the stone pillar and stare down at the crowds seated below, too concerned with themselves and what’s going on in the arena to look up.
Using his finger, Chaos tilts my chin until I’m gazing deep into his eyes. “You will fight and you will win, and then you will come back to me,” he says roughly, before kissing me hard on the lips. His kiss is filled with promise, and so much passion and intensity. I’m sure if he wasn’t currently holding onto me I would have fallen. “I love you,” he says, pulling back, and that is all I needed to hear to do what I need to do.
When he blinks away, I take another minute to myself before stepping off the pillar, and dropping down to the area just like Selene in Underworld.
Kaiden
“Where is she?” Mother grumbles in the seat beside me. We’re both traditionally dressed in our royal robes and seated on the throne chairs in the royal box.
“I don’t know, mother,” I sneer. "She hasn’t spoken to me since your little prison stunt with Tristan.”
Turning, she gives me a look that says ‘I don’t like your attitude’, and I give her one back that says ‘I don’t give a fuck’. I had just patched things up with Winter, and she ruined all that progress with one stupid move. Did I not warn her that she cannot control Winter? No one said to take that shit as a challenge. Now who knows what Winter will do. She’s an enigma, unpredictable, and can not be controlled. You push her, and she’ll push back ten times harder, and she does not deal with threats well. For all we know, she’s probably broken Tristan out the prison, and is long gone by now, leaving me behind, and somewhere deep down I wish she does. The darkness in me, the side that comes out and takes control of me from time to time, always seem to hurt her. I should have fought with her and Tristan, not against them.
Turning away from my mother, I watch Raven as she boasts herself around the arena. I heard from my spies Winter was nice enough to make sure she and Tristan were treated well while imprisoned, not like Raven appreciated it. Her stint behind bars only seemed to fuel her anger towards Winter even more, plus me turning her down yet again when she was released did not help any either. I laughed in her face about me being the first person she came to see once released and sent her on her way. My beast glowed with her embarrassment and reveled in her pain. Now she’s back to her regular cocky self, strutting around the area like she’s already won. Making herself out like a pure God, smearing Winter’s name, and the crowd is eating it up. Winter being late, and possibly a no-show, is just adding fuel to an already out of control fire.
“I don’t think imprisoning Raven or Tristan were wise moves, mother. With Tristan, it comes out as desperate to control the uncontrollable, and with R
aven, well you see what it’s done to her,” I tell her, waving my hand at the scene in front of us.
“I was tired of hearing her and her mother’s mouths. They both needed a reminder of who’s in charge here,” she replies nonchalantly.
“And Tristan?” I question, raising my brow.
“I admit that may have been a mistake, but I did get results.”
“What results? Winter isn’t even here,” I state the obvious, but quickly close my mouth when I see Chaos walk in with both of Winter’s familiars by his side. As Winter’s betrothed, he has every right to sit in the royal box with us, but he’s set on standing by the warrior’s entrance. The entrance where all the fighters use to come in and out of the arena. Somewhere I should be as well, but I know Winter doesn’t want me there.
“I’d say I got the exact response I wanted,” mom says smugly, eyeing Chaos with a heated look. A look I do not want to decipher further, because I do not think I will like the answers that come from it.
When I look back over at Chaos, I notice he is not looking at Raven or the crowds, but up. Curious, I look up as well, just catching Winter taking a step off one of the top stone pillars, and plummeting swiftly to the ground. Her fall is graceful and regal. When she lands, she hits the ground just as elegantly, before straightening her body and taking a graceful step forward. In her warrior outfit she looks like a Queen that will rival the Gods themselves, and at her spectacular entrance the crowd goes wild. No more are they singing Raven’s praises. Everyone's attention in this arena is riveted on Winter, and with the smug smile planted on her lips, I know this is just the response she wanted. A King or Queen waits on no one, but we waited on her. A thought that is confirmed when I see the look of pure fury upon my mother’s face.
Chuckling I give my mother a wicked smile of my own. “I told you, mother. Winter cannot be controlled.”