“Are you not coming with us?” Elisa asked. Markus turned his focus to her, and Aiden could see a mix of emotions on the man’s face that made him instantly more alert. He had no issues with Markus, but if he tried to take Elisa away from Wolf again, he would have.
“We will join you in a few days. I need to see to a few things here before we depart. I won’t be too far behind,” he said, keeping his focus solely on her. There was an awkward silence before Markus cleared his throat and wished them all good luck once more. Before he walked away, he strode over to Elisa, and carefully took her hand in his. Giving it a quick kiss, he smiled and said, “Be safe.” With that he was gone.
The group of them watched the leader of the Sun People walk back inside the palace; Aiden, Logan, Moose, and especially Wolf shootings daggers at his back.
“The leader of Nysa seems taken with your woman,” Stefan said, turning to look at Wolf. Then his gaze travelled to Elisa and back again. “She is yours, is she not?”
“Yes,” Wolf said, his voice dripping with possessiveness as he pulled her back against his chest.
“It is very awkward then,” Stefan commented, turning to look at the doors where Markus had entered.
Moose chuckled. “I like him!”
CHAPTER SIX
Jameson watched as the men from each army tried their best to ignore each other. Fires were lit, and tents were set-up in a clear division. The King’s army was on one side, the northern army on the other. How were they supposed to fight against a common enemy if the men couldn’t even get along with each other? He prayed that as their journey continued, tensions would cease.
A slim set of arms reached around his stomach as the body attached to them molded to his back. He had left said body sated and asleep in their tent only a short time ago.
“I thought you were resting,” he said, covering her hands with one of his.
“I was, but when I woke up you were gone so I came to find you,” Diana replied. “What are you thinking about that has you looking so worried?”
He chuckled tiredly. “Where do I start? I think there are about a million things worrying me right now.”
Diana sighed, and moved to stand in front of him. “I realize you are King, but that doesn’t mean you have to carry all this weight on your shoulders alone. What can I do to help?”
Jameson looked over her head at the camp. “Can you cast a spell to make everyone get along?” he asked hopefully.
Diana laughed, glancing over her shoulder. “That I cannot do, but I wouldn’t be worrying about the men. It will come in time. When you reach the east you will see them begin to come together. Fighting to save Eden will bring peace to your two armies.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I’m always right,” she said with a sly smile. He instantly smiled in return. It had only been a few days since Diana and he had reconciled after over a decade. Truthfully he didn’t actually think it would happen. Prayed for it, yes, but never actually believed. Every minute he got to spend with her was a blessing; one that he hoped to indulge in for the rest of his life.
Letting his fingers run through the golden silk of her hair, he decided despite everything that was happening politically in Eden, this was the happiest he had ever been personally. He had his woman and his family back. Things were almost perfect. Almost. All he needed to do was rid Eden of the plague that was Aziz.
At least they were on their way home to the Capital. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy Nysa in the south, but he missed his home. He couldn’t wait to move Diana into his rooms and out of her tiny cottage in the forest. Looking down into her concerned face, it dawned on him that he hadn’t actually discussed this plan. Now he worried what she would say. What if she didn’t want to move into the palace? What if she had no intention of making things permanent?
“You look like you’re going to be sick.” She laughed. “Whatever you’re thinking, it can’t be nearly that bad.”
“What are you going to do when we return?” he said. Her laughter quickly died.
“What do you mean?” she asked, her face suddenly growing pale.
“Will you move into the palace with me?”
She searched his face carefully. “Do you want me to?”
He balked. “Of course I do. Why else would I be asking?” She let out what seemed like a relieved sigh, and he realized she was worried he was asking because he didn’t want her with him. He quickly pulled her against him, kissing a line along her jaw. When he pulled back, her eyes were closed, and a small smile played on her lips. “I don’t want you far from my side – ever.”
“Good, because I don’t plan on it,” she said. “I will move my things in after a couple of days.”
His spine stiffened. “Why? I want you moved in immediately, just as soon as we return.”
She sighed, but with a smile still on her face. “I want the same, but I just thought you might want some time to break things to Melaine.”
The name of his, now former, lover left a cold feeling inside him. He had forgotten all about her. Gods, what did that say about him? She had been someone he had cared for, for years. Three days with Diana and it was like he had erased her from his mind. Suddenly he felt like the biggest arse alive. His face must have tipped Diana off as to what he was thinking, because she shook her head in disappointment at him.
“Have you even thought of what you will say to her? This will be a big blow.”
“Honestly, it’s hard to think of another woman when I’m with you,” he admitted.
A pleased look washed over her face. “Well I’m not complaining about that, but I still think you should start coming up with how to break the news to her. I can’t just move my things in and shove hers out. It wouldn’t be nice.”
“Will you let what others say affect us?” he asked. It was an extremely hard question for him, since she had ended things previously for exactly this reason. The Capital’s witch is not to marry. For whatever reason, that had always been the way. Diana was forced to choose between her magic and him when she was first going through the rights. When she made her decision it had broken his heart. Jameson didn’t think he could handle that again.
“I’m done living my life as others see fit,” she said, reaching up to caress his face. “I’m not leaving again, Jameson. I promise.”
“Good,” he said gruffly. He knew what people would say. It wasn’t what they would perceive as normal for the High King to be romantically linked to the Capital’s witch. He didn’t care. He was High King now, and he would make his own decisions, despite what others might think.
Riding in silence was nice, unless your thoughts were moving a mile a minute and all you wanted was a distraction. Making their way back toward the Capital was certainly less stressful than when they had been heading in the opposite direction. What was harder this time for Aiden was the loss of a very important person. The longer they rode in silence, the heavier her absence weighed on him. The spot in front of him was too empty. There was too much room atop Ty.
No one was talking to the animals, or running off into the forest, only to return hours later like nothing had happened. No one was like Lily. It hurt. There was no other way for Aiden to describe what her being gone felt like. An empty place in his chest had developed the second she was carried away, and the longer it took to get her back, the bigger it got. All he wanted to do was gallop away from the army that felt like they were holding him back. He knew better. There was nothing he could do at this point and it was so utterly frustrating.
Even when he tried to think of something, anything, besides Lily, his thoughts would just drift to other disconcerting things. Like his uncanny ability to move faster than he could even register. This was an occurrence that had happened more than once, and one that he was carefully avoiding thinking about until now. Or about the freak wind storm that happened while his thoughts were of pure rage. These were the things he’d rather escape. But when riding in complete silence, nothing t
o do but be alone with your own thoughts, it was pretty difficult to ignore.
What was going on with him? When he had arrived in the West, his return to Eden after his first visit, he knew that things were different. It wasn’t just being in a different part of Eden, or that he had felt right away the powers that brought him back to the other world weren’t right. No, it was more than both those things. He had felt different. It was something he couldn’t even wrap his mind around, and so he had ignored it. The Shaman had seemed to know something, and even Lily looked at him as though there was something she wasn’t saying, but neither ever said a thing.
He found, the longer he seemed to be in Eden, the more he – changed, as odd as it sounded. It was like his body itself was different. His abilities were greater than they were before. His senses were heightened, especially when he had adrenaline pumping through his veins during a battle. He could see better, hear better, move faster. These things were not normal. The incident in the office was just the icing on the cake. There was no way he could ignore the facts right in front of him. Maybe he was wrong and he didn’t cause sudden winds to come whipping through the room. He highly doubted it though. Somehow he had felt connected to it, and as soon as he forced himself to calm down so had the wind.
Who could he go to now? Lily might have known what was going on. He doubted she would be surprised if he told her all the things that had been happening to him. Quite a few times he had caught her giving him assessing looks. She’d been reluctant to say anything for some reason. To be fair, so had he. Too many things were taking place to not sit down and really figure the situation out.
His eyes slowly sought out the tiny person riding up in the front line. Diana rode beside Jameson. The two of them looked so relaxed and content, it made Aiden actually feel happy, in spite of everything else. Seeing Diana with the man she loved was comforting to him. He had a strange protective feeling toward her. Diana had been the one to bring Aiden through the realms the first time. She had been the first person to tell him he was a prophesized warrior, meant to save them. Surely, if there was something strange going on with Aiden she’d know. He was just a normal boy from Canada. What did he know of magic? A witch would be able to explain the odd things happening to him.
When they stopped in the afternoon for a quick lunch, Aiden took the opportunity to find Diana. The others were sitting around a tree, like they had on their journey down. Except this time Elisa was positioned snugly between Wolf’s legs, her head resting just under his chin. Last time she had been with Markus, much to everyone’s dismay. There was also that one missing person, which made it difficult for Aiden to sit and relax. Instead he told the others he needed to talk to Diana, and left.
She was sitting on a log when he found her. The fresh air brought a nice rose to her normally pale cheeks. The white gold of her hair, which was normally sleek and fine, was windswept and draped over her shoulder. When she noticed him approached her lips lifted into a sweet smile.
“Aiden,” she greeted warmly, patting the spot beside her. She moved over a bit more to make enough room. As Aiden sat down, he took a quick look around for Jameson.
“Where is the King?” he asked, not seeing him.
“Talking with Turk. I think they want to send someone west to the Riders. He’s hoping Hawk will accept the way things turned out, and come back to help us against Aziz,” she explained.
“Do you think he will?” Hawk had left right before the High King and Callum fought one-on-one. The winner would have automatically been High King, and both armies were instructed to follow the winner, regardless of who it would be. Anyone who didn’t agree would have been committing treason. Hawk, the leader of the Riders, didn’t know if he could blindly follow Callum, should he have been the winner, so he’d left. Moose and Wolf were the only Riders that had stayed. Wolf, because he was technically a member of the King’s army, and Moose because, Aiden assumed, he wanted to see this through.
Aiden wondered if Hawk would forgive everything Brutus and Callum had done. Especially considering his daughter Rain had betrayed everyone to join forces with them. Well, not with them specifically, but with Aziz who had been Callum’s ally. He hoped he would. Hawk had become a father figure to Aiden while he had been in the west. He and his wife, Sunny, had let Aiden stay with them, and treated him as though he was one of the family. Having the Riders join forces with them would definitely help.
“I’m not sure what Hawk will do,” she answered honestly. “I’m sure there are a lot of things he needs to do back home, especially after Brutus’ attack. This battle with Aziz though will affect us all. I don’t see how he would be able to just sit by and let us fight him alone.”
“He won’t,” Aiden said, feeling the rightness of his words. “Hawk isn’t the type just to sit by.”
“He did the first battle,” Diana pointed out.
“That was before the Riders had been touched by the war. It’s personal now. I can’t see him not getting involved.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said. “We need all the help we can get against someone like Aziz.”
Aiden nodded in agreement. His eyes scanned their newly combined army. There were many of them now. It was actually quite an impressive army. To think that with hundreds of men, it still might not be enough. It was sad. No one should be able to wield the power Aziz did.
“How are you holding up?” Diana asked, interrupting his thoughts. He looked over with what he knew was a weak smile. As much as he wanted to, he just couldn’t muster up the energy it took to put on a convincing one.
“Patience is not one of my virtues right now,” Aiden said.
“I can only imagine how hard this is for you. We’re moving as fast as we can, considering how many people we have now,” she said. Aiden understood this, even if it still irritated him.
“Diana, do you know why I was chosen to come here?” he asked, turning to watch her reaction.
“Why you specifically?” she questioned.
He nodded.
“No. I just know it had to be you. You are the one the prophecy is referring to.”
“But why?” he said, frustrated. “It doesn’t make sense. Out of everyone it could possibly be, why me?”
“If not you, why someone else?” she countered. “Anyone would ask the same question, and either way it would be unanswerable. I’m sure there is something that makes you special, but unfortunately I don’t have that answer for you.”
“Things are just…weird,” he confessed.
She tilted her head to the side, regarding him, her eyebrows puckered in confusion. “Weird in what way?”
Aiden sighed, looking up into the clear sky. Did he really want to talk about this now that he started to? Would talking about it make it more real? Indecision warred inside his head as Diana waited patiently for him to answer. She reached over and placed her hand comfortingly over his.
“Aiden, you can talk to me about anything, you know that don’t you?” she said.
He nodded, avoiding eye contact.
“Whatever is going on, you can tell me. But you don’t have to. I know I’m the one that brought you here, but the truth is I don’t know how to explain all the who, what, and why’s you’re looking for. Only the person who wrote the prophecy that spoke of you would know these things.”
Aiden turned to look at her, surprised. Everyone had always talked about this “prophecy” but Aiden hadn’t given it much thought until now. It was actually a thing that was written? For some reason that seemed strange to him. Someone just wrote that he’d come to this world and fight for them? How odd was that? He was having a hard time wrapping his head around what she had just brought to his attention. How long ago did someone write about him? He asked her this.
“It wasn’t written that long ago,” she told him. “I remember it coming out in the Capital. None of us knew what it could be referring to. There wasn’t any need for a warrior at that time. Elrond was still alive and healthy. After his
death and Callum’s betrayal, I remember my thoughts went immediately to that prophecy.”
“I need to speak to whoever wrote it and find out what they know,” he said, more to himself than to her, but he had spoken it out loud.
“I’m sure he’ll speak to you when we get back to the Capital,” she assured him.
“You know who it was?” he asked, surprised. Weren’t prophecies made by secret spiritual people? Or some old man who sees visions?
“Of course I do,” she said, looking at him like he was crazy. “Don’t you know? It was Alistair.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was the third day since Elex had left again, and it was driving Rain crazy. She hated that she wanted to see him so badly, but the truth was she did. There was no one she relied on, except herself, and yet she could feel the bond between them grow to something that was slowly becoming essential. What bothered her most was she kept asking herself if he was missing her as much as she was him. There was a feeling of insecurity there and she really didn’t like it.
After sleeping in her bed the entire night after they made love, Rain had woken to Elex’s warm kisses along her shoulder and neck. The softness of his wings under her was like silk against her naked skin. She couldn’t remember ever being so comfortable and cozy. He radiated a heat that enveloped her against the normal chill in the air. His bare chest against her back was delicious. She had looked up at him, as he’d trailed his fingertips along her stomach.
“I have to go,” he’d said softly.
“Why?” A feeling of dread had spread through her. Oh Goddess, she had thought, panicked. Had he just slept with her for just that reason, and now was going to leave? Had it been a one-time thing? She knew boys did that sort of horrible thing. Her friends back in Avalon had cried over it many times. Rain always thought they were idiots. As if they didn’t already know giving their bodies so freely wouldn’t end in heartache? What boy their age was ready to settle down? It was exactly the reason she hadn’t taken that step with anyone. Until now – and now look at her.
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