by A. K. Koonce
“You’ll do fine,” he whispers for only me to hear.
There’s something about the way he kissed me. Something sweet and earnest.
I almost believe him.
I’m still standing and watching the door close after him when the sound of chairs dragging across the floor pulls at my attention. Slowly I lower myself into the chair closest to the entrance. The room, much like the rest of the house, is petite. The kitchen spans the far wall and leads right into the warm living room where a few chairs and a couch face a small fire place. On a table in front of the furniture, a little fish bowl with my favorite Tumid fish inside sits at the center there. A dark hall leads down to two bed rooms and a small bathroom.
It's … quaint.
And I haven’t really been able to linger here that much over the last few days. Myla was quiet at first. Watchful and observing of my relationship with her son and his friends as well as my own friend. Sinister fit right in with her from the very start. But I never did.
Not yet.
“Where did you say your parents are from, Arlow?” She passes Sinister the pan of scrambled eggs and he passes it right on over to me. Letting his plate remain clean.
It’s sweet of him to go through the motions of mortal life. I asked him to eat for me once when we first met. Just once. He shrugged like it was an odd request. The mint leaf he placed on his tongue singed and burnt to a crisp on impact.
For a long time, I wondered if that would happen to me if we kissed. I remember the tingling sting of his tongue sliding against mine. But it never hurt.
Sometimes that’s all I can think about.
“Warf. Just a few day’s hike from here.” I take a small spoon full of the eggs and a little bowl of cheese is passed to me as well.
“Is it nice there?”
My brows raise as I realize she’s never been there. Kain and the other two shifters like to travel but Myla hasn’t been to the neighboring city?
“Yeah, it’s really pretty. It’s a nice and calming place, I guess.” If you’re not a mage in hiding. It’s great.
“Do you miss it?” Her questions come easily but continuously as she takes small bites of her food in between each one.
“I miss the ocean.” I pause as memories of my childhood, of my mother and father swirl through my mind. “I miss my parents.”
I don’t miss that mob of questioning villagers that always shadowed over my existence.
The smallest amount of silence passes before she slices through it with another question.
A pointed question.
“Will you go back?”
Will I go back? Am I just a phase? Is my attraction to Kain just a fleeting moment before I leave?
“Eventually. In a few weeks maybe. I want to see everything first. I want to see where Kain grew up.” I blink at her with honesty tinging my tone. Seconds pass while we stare at one another, trying to understand each other.
“The eggs smell really good. They taste good, yeah?” Sinister’s question, which I know he cares nothing about, breaks the testing quiet. He buried his brother three days ago but you’d never guess it. Maybe he’s good at masking his sadness. Or maybe he doesn’t feel any at all for Kreedence.
His sweet words put a smile right on Myla’s face.
“They are good. Thank you, Sinister.”
The easy compliment is just enough to soften the tension. The rapid questions turn into small talk about the cold weather, the neighborhood, and the Autumn Fire Festival.
“When I was a girl, it was just the Autumn Festival: a formal occasion with food and drinks and dancing.” The smile on her face lines her cheeks with happiness that puts me at ease. “But then the more male shifters that outnumbered the females turned it into a man’s event. Goddess knows you can’t have a nice party without fire.”
The way she rolls her eyes at the end has us both laughing until my stomach hurts. Sinister’s gaze trails my features and his lips tilt just slightly at the corner. To be honest, I don’t think he’s listening at all any more.
But the way he’s smiling at me makes me wonder what he’s thinking.
A gust of cold air pulls at my hair and big hands push down the sides of my arms a moment later.
“Is that mocking laughter?” Kain looks from me to his mother and a sigh of shaking amusement still lingers between us.
“Definitely, mocking laughter.” Chaos takes the seat between myself and Myla and starts to fill Kain’s plate with several layers of eggs.
Rime leans near the window. Sunlight highlights his body, shadowing the edge of his sharp features as he looks from Kain’s mother to me. While Kain looks down on me with the most genuine smile. His fingers stroke back and forth slowly against my skin. There’s a pull between us just from his closeness. I’ve missed his closeness over the past few days.
“I’m going to go wash off.” The line of black soot that’s drawn across his face almost touches his lower lip, and I stare up at that line as he speaks.
His fingers slip away from me and when his footsteps drift away I finally look up to find his mother watching me. Her gaze searches my features closely. That simple connection we shared just a moment ago is gone, replaced with uncertain scrutiny.
“I’m going to go for a walk.” I breath out a smile and still she just observes me. “Breakfast was really good.” I stand slowly with all eyes on me.
“I’m happy you joined us.”
Us. Her and her BFF Sinister. I look to the demon who’s already clearing away my dirty plate.
Is that what I’m supposed to do? Should I be clearing away plates? I try to think back to when my mother served dinner. But there were never any guests. Just myself and my father. No one to impress. With Agatha, I just cooked for her and cleaned up after the two of us because it felt like the normal thing to do. Now that I think of it, I’ve never really been in this sort of position at all.
What am I supposed to do in this type of setting? I’m quickly realizing normal life is not for me. Not at all.
“I like to cook.” I blurt the statement out like a life raft looking for survivors in a heap of wreckage. A smile tenses against her lips. “Could I help you with dinner tonight?”
“Of course. I’d love to make something elaborate for everyone if you’d want to help.”
A small nod jars through me as my smile widens. I’m making progress. This is progress.
I said the right thing.
For once.
Fuck, why is the right thing so damn hard for me?
Four
Their Past
Houses of all shapes line the wide dirt road. Plenty of space separates between them and Helen even has a large community herb garden that can be spotted just behind her home. Boys run and play, zipping between the homes and jumping over steps to chase one another. A few of them have inky hair and bright eyes, and I just know they’re related to Chaos. He has so much family here. But there really is an imbalance in the ratio of men to women. No wonder Chaos jumped on the sharing train like it was an everyday occurrence. The women here must have dozens of husbands to fill every one of their needs.
The lucky bitches.
A few yards away beneath the dry drifting limbs of a weeping willow, sits Agatha. A thick gray shawl lies over her small shoulders as her hands wave wildly in a sort of spastic dance. I take a few steps closer to her to find her shaking her favorite skull to the tune of unheard music.
“Aggie, are you all right?”
“Oh, it’s just you.” Her shoulders relax and she halts the wild waving of her arms immediately. White eyes look blindly up at me as if she might really see my features.
“What are you doing?” My arms fold across my chest, and I wish I’d had the brains to bring a wool shawl out myself.
“The people here. They’re too nice. I can’t find a moment of silence to myself without someone trying to offer me tea or those damn walnut figs. No one wants a walnut fig. No one.”
My lips raise wit
h a small smile.
“So why were you dancing like that?”
“No one fucks with the local crazy woman. They leave me in peace to ward off the lingering spirits.”
My brows tense.
“Do you know how to ward off lingering spirits, Aggie?”
“Not a fucking clue. I used to specialize in Sight Seeing; the paths of our future. The future is easy to see, the afterlife, not so much. But I’m blind. And I’m a mage. They assume I’m getting the job done. Therefore I am.”
I nod at that. She does look like she’s doing it right, I guess.
“The harping girl across the street keeps asking if I need scents of cotton and orchard to assist me in my warding.” She points to the house two houses down from Helen’s. “Several times a day she offers me these pink—sorry—fuchsia candles. I put a stop to that real quick.”
I look up, past the thin vines of branches to find a pretty blonde woman watching the two of us.
“How’d you keep her off your back?”
Aggie winks at me with a smile.
Abruptly her hands fly up, reaching high to the sky with uncontrollable shakes wracking her body.
“Do with me what you will, Spirit of Ocknala. Save those around me. Take me for yourself but save them all.” Her voice is hoarse as she calls out to an unseen presence.
I bite the inside of my cheek as my brow arches at the woman’s flailing antics.
She’s good. I’ll give her that.
“I’ll leave you to your warding then.” I push back the vines just as Aggie peeks one eye open.
“Bye, Low.” A smile lines her face before the seriousness settles back in and more chanting is sent out to the Spirit of Ocknala.
I’ve barely made it a few feet when the woman scurries over to me. A younger girl with mouse brown hair trails after her.
“Can you see her too?” the blonde asks.
I blink at the woman’s wide blue eyes. Fear and bubbling curiosity are in her pretty gaze. The young girl at her side holds more fear than curiosity in her eyes.
“Ocknala? No, Ocknala only reveals herself to those worthy enough.”
Like Aggie and her crazy mind.
Her full lips make an O as she nods to me.
“I offered her scents of Passion Fuchsia to help, but she said Ocknala prefers gifts of chocolate chip cookies and gin.”
Chocolate chip cookies and gin. Seriously, Aggie?
I peer back at the jarring dancing the old mage is now doing as she hums a song that I can’t quite hear. An older gentleman pauses in front of Agatha and I almost can’t tear my gaze away from him when he says something to her. A charming smile graces his lips, and I swear a blush warms my friend’s cheeks.
Oh, my goddess. He’s hitting on her. My head angles to get a better view but then the blonde shoves her face right back into my personal space.
My eyes narrow on her.
“Are you two shifters?” I try to imagine the beautiful woman ripping scales all over her petite body, but I just can’t picture it.
“No, shifting is rare in women. My father, Lord Carlin is a shifter. A great and honorable man here in Valencia.”
Is he their leader?
For some reason, I can’t imagine another alpha alongside Kain. I wonder how that works for them. My mind drifts for a second. Are his horns bigger? Horns are important to shifters. Is that what determines his leadership?
I make a mental note to ask Kain later.
“I’m Brylee. And this is my assistant Natalie.” Her hand is small and she extends it to me with a sweet smile that shines in the beaming sunlight.
I shake hers and then Natalie’s hand.
“Arlow,” I say hesitantly.
“I know,” Brylee says in a confident tone.
She feels … off. I can’t explain it. Is too nice a thing? Can someone be too nice?
Brylee is too nice.
“I hear you’re a mage.” Natalie’s voice is little smaller than Brylee’s. More genuine and a little awestruck.
“I am.” It’s odd for me to admit that after hiding it all my life. Kain told me from day one not to hide it. That we don’t hide from one another here.
And so, I’m not. I’m trying not to.
“Come, let me give you some passion fuchsia since Natalie and I made too much for the Autumn Fire Festival. My father said we don’t need a thousand when there’s not that many attending. But there’s no such thing as too much fuchsia, right?” The outraged happiness in her features is alarming, and I’m not sure how to respond immediately.
“Definitely,” I mumble.
I trail after the two of them, sending a look over my shoulder to Aggie and her new male friend as I consider breaking out in sacrificial dance as well just to avoid some damn fuchsia scented candles.
Brylee leads me to the house that Agatha pointed out as the annoying blonde girl’s. The size of it surprises me as the balconies reach up several stories with shades of deep pink tinting the shutters around each and every window. My eyes narrow on the pink door with the heart shaped knocker.
It’s like love threw up all over this house.
She steps inside, barely opening the door as she grabs something off a table just inside.
A fist full of swirling pink and white candles are held out to me.
“Thank you.” I fumble with them as I take them with both hands. I hold them awkwardly to my chest. There are at least a dozen candle sticks filling my nose with a floral scent. I’m in fuchsia hell right now. “This is nice. Thanks.”
And then we stand there uncomfortably on the enormous wooden porch. A weird look of sudden sadness falls over her perfect features.
Her attention shifts over every part of my face, and I try once more to shove a smile there.
Fuck, why am I so bad at being polite? I should crawl back into hiding right now and put myself out of my terrible socializing misery.
“He loves you.”
At the sound of her statement, my brows lower. It’s odd how many men drift through my mind when she says that.
“Who?”
I try to pry into her line of sight as her gaze slips to something behind me. That appearance of vulnerable sorrow vanishes in an instant. Pure, glaring hate snaps across her features.
“Rime.” Her lips purse when she says his name.
I’ve never heard someone say his name colder than he himself could have.
“Brylee.” Cruel sarcasm bites Rime’s tone as a gleam of satisfaction shines in his pale eyes.
“I’ll see you at the festival, Arlow. It was nice meeting you.” With a dramatic toss of her long blonde hair, the woman strides inside and slams the door behind her. The younger girl, Natalie, shifts on her feet. A tense smile that mirrors my own fills her features before she quickly races after her friend. A dramatic clicking sound of a lock tells me Brylee is completely done with this conversation.
Wow. And here I thought Aggie was the best performer in the village.
Slowly I walk down the steps toward the ice dragon.
“That woman is a lot to take in.”
A humming sound is his only reply.
Awkwardly I fumble to set the handful of candle sticks down on the last step and trail after the quick pace of the shifter. I look over at him as we walk down the smooth dirt road. He keeps his gaze on the distance, his silence held in place between us.
He’s thinking but not speaking. I should be used to it by now.
But I can’t help but wonder about the excessive coldness between him and the woman.
Did they—
“Did you guys fuck?”
I’m incredibly good at phrasing the hard questions, as you can see.
A conflicting smile carves his lips, interrupting the anger in his eyes and he stops in his tracks to give me every ounce of his attention. His fingers run down the side of my arm, back and forth without intention of ever holding my hand. It’s like he just needs to touch me.
“The op
posite actually.” His low voice holds quiet aggression that only makes me more confused. His frost kissed eyes meet mine.
I hang on the tense quiet sound that slips over his lips just before he speaks.
“She was Kain’s mate.”
Anger slashes through my chest, but my lips only tighten into a straight line.
When I get back we’re going to have a serious discussion about the laws of mates. How does it work? Why was this woman here before I was? Why?
There’s this irrational, petty anger in me just thinking that some other woman was in their lives before me.
My jaw clenches.
“Calm down, My Tamer.”
“I am calm.” The words snap out and he stares at me intently for a few moments.
“This is calm.” He breathes out the whisper just before pressing his lips firmly to mine. His fingers wrap loosely around my wrist as he pulls me hard against his chest. His tongue slips against mine for one gasping second before his teeth rake over my bottom lip just enough to make me gasp.
And then he pulls away.
His tongue swipes over his lips. Hooded eyes shift over my features slowly.
“Better?” His low timber has me nodding to him as my heart rate tries to find a steady beat once again. “Good.” His lips press to my jaw before he puts a small amount of space between us.
“I said she was. She’s nothing now.”
Is that possible? They were mates. And now they’re not. Can it be that simple?
I never really put much thought into Kain’s history. It was his history. And now that history is here, bouncing around with perfect hair and big boobs and why the fuck is she so pretty?
“Calm down, Tamer.” His voice cuts into my thoughts once more.
“What happened? I thought mating was for life. I thought it was a binding, unending love.”
“It is.”
Those two words wrap my stomach tightly around itself.