A glinting light from his hand caught my attention. A golden band encircled his finger. I pointed at it and said, "Leigha?"
Gavin smiled huge and bright. "Yeah. Last winter."
Not that I was surprised. I offered congratulations, and then silence fell between us. I contemplated whether or not to talk to Gavin about the threat against Sunny, but he took the option out of my hands.
"Look, what are you really doing here, Leif?" he asked.
I shrugged and said, "Sunny invited me. Hunted me down and just about demanded I come. So I did. Why is it such a big deal?" That was the real question after all. Why was everyone all over me for being there?
His lips seamed into a harsh line. Then, as if coming to a decision said, "There's been a threat made against the Queen."
So they were aware of it after all. "What type of threat?" I asked. I only had a small glimmer of information. If Gavin could fill in some of the holes, all the better in figuring out where the threat lay.
"There's talk, or rumors of it. I think you know, after the war almost everyone that was left, on all sides, joined with Sunny. Everyone wanted a better life. We needed something stable to believe in and to work for. Sunny offered that and actually provided it. She works right alongside of us as we build and fix and plant."
I interrupted him, "Gavin, I know all that. I understand why everyone joined with her. I really do."
"Okay, well then, are you aware that a small handful of the rebels didn't? They stayed a few days, and then left in the night without telling anyone. Honestly, in the beginning it was so chaotic. We were trying to get housing for everyone and food enough to feed the crowd, that we were never actually sure when they left."
"So you think they want to kill Sunny? For what end? Who do they want in her place?" I asked.
"That's just it, we think they want you to replace her."
Silence landed all around us at his statement. Me? Why the hell would they think I wanted to be a king? Yes, there was one moment at my worst that I thought about the idea, but never seriously. Never to the point of planning it. Never with the intention of killing Sunny in order to do it. "But, I don't want to be a king," I finally said.
"Doesn't matter."
"Who are they?"
"We think it's a group of four. There's Ian, Gregor, Hayden…"
"And the last one?" I asked when Gavin hesitated. "You said there were four of them."
"We believe it's…Kat."
"My Kat?" I asked, stunned. My Kat? Why? What could she be thinking?
Gavin nodded his head affirming my fears.
"Kat went a little crazy there at the end," I said. Then added, "We all did."
"Yeah," Gavin agreed.
Gavin would know. He'd been there with me all the way till the very end. Both he and Leigha had stayed with me. Even though I knew they hadn't wanted to, they had. Loyal, that was the best word for Gavin and Leigha. I missed having Gavin on my side. I hadn't realized it until that moment with him standing right in front of me, just how much.
Then I thought of Kat. I hadn't missed her. A heavy dose of guilt hit me at my own realization. I hadn't given Kat one single thought since that day on the battlefield. My last sight was of her back as she charged into the fray.
The last month before the final battle had been hard on all of us that were left in the rebel camp. There had been so few of us remaining, and we knew we were going to lose. I knew we were going to lose, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't just give up and say I was a failure. I had found Sunny. She was supposed to be mine. I was supposed to be the savior of Acadia because I'd found her, trained her, brought her to Acadia. She was supposed to be my moment of greatness. Then, the battle came and… "Things didn't turn out the way we planned, did they?"
"No, they didn't," Gavin said.
I sighed. No one was going to trust me there. They only remembered that one moment in time, when I almost lost it all. It was that one moment, the simple slide of steel, and my life changed, and not for the good. That was what everyone remembered when they thought of me, or saw me.
Gavin proved my thinking correct when he said, "So, why are you here, really? The truth this time."
The truth? What was the truth? Did I even know it myself? Was I there to try to save the day or was I there just to be near her again? I missed Sunny, her contagious smile. Her determination. Her warm smell and feel.
Could I change my ways and be the man that could protect her or would my true colors come forward and ruin it all for everyone? Again. Better to find out before I said anything. "That is the truth, Gavin. Sunny sent that girl, Cinder, to hunt me down. She guilted me into coming. So, here I am."
Gavin looked at me, tried to see into me. I could feel his doubt heavy on my shoulders. Not that I blamed him. I wouldn't believe me either.
"Okay."
"Okay?" I asked.
"Yeah. That's it. Good to have you around. Sunny really wanted you here. Said that it didn't feel right without you."
My heart skipped a beat at his words. She really did want me there. Someone actually wanted me. It was kind of sick to crave a girl that was about to marry someone else, but there I was. Craving.
I jerked my thoughts away from that subject for a moment and moved on to more pressing issues. Her safety. "So what are your plans in dealing with the threat? Does she even know there is one?"
"We, her main guards, decided not to tell her until after the wedding. She had so much on her mind and so much to worry about, that we didn't want to add to it."
I raised one eyebrow at him.
"Yeah, I already know that's a bad idea, and she would be so pissed if she realized we were hiding something from her, but that's our only option right now."
"No, it's not," I said. "The other option is to tell her what is going on, so that she can be prepared, aware. You remember how she is about keeping stuff from her. She is going to freak out when she finds out."
"If, she finds out," Gavin said.
I shook my head and said, "You know she will. One way or another, she's going to find out and be mad as hell."
"Well, then she can be mad. Our job is to keep her safe. That's what we're going to do. One way or another."
"Whatever, man, I was just warning you. You can do whatever you want. It's no business of mine anymore," I said, and it wasn't. Doesn't mean they weren't wrong. I'd been on the other side of that argument in the past with Sunny. She didn't take kindly to lying and that is how she would see hiding the threat against her life from her. Then another thought hit me.
"Does he know?" I asked, meaning Lucas.
"Yeah, he knows."
"And he's on board with keeping her in the dark? Brave man," I said.
"No. He's way not on board with the idea, but he is going along with it. It's only for two more days anyway. Then we'll tell her."
"Can I be there when you do?" I asked. I couldn't help it. The chance to watch someone else take the brunt of her anger was too good to pass up.
"Funny," Gavin said and punched me in the arm.
"Yeah, it will be," I said and returned the hit. "You maybe have forgotten how powerful she is and how it feels when its focused on you, but I sure haven't."
An unsettled looked crossed his face. Yeah, he remembered. I couldn't help myself. I laughed hard and long.
~ * ~
Gavin finally left and I was once again left to my own devices in my borrowed room. The walls were blue; not a striking blue, but a soft color. A color I was told was to ease a person's mind and make sleep more conducive. As if I was a toddler and color made any difference to my mood and sleep habits. If I was warm and fed, I could sleep just about anywhere.
That, however, brought about another dilemma. What was I supposed to sleep in? I hadn't exactly packed or thought out my trip to the castle. I decided instead of sleeping in the buff, I would just phase back over to my cave and get extra clothes.
I pulled into the shadows with ease. My body was quickly wrappe
d in their cool embrace. I pulled more shadows to me, and pushed to phase. My body jerked backward, but came up against a hard wall of nothingness that halted my jump to the Ice Realm.
"What the hell?" I said as I was dumped out of the shadows unexpectedly. My head felt heavy and clouded. I shook it to clear out the fog, but it didn't do me much good. I pulled back into the shadows to try it again. I wasn't sure what I had done wrong, but something wasn't right. I pulled forward the next level of shadows and again pushed to jump.
Once again, I slammed up against an unbreakable wall and fell out of the shadows in a heap on the cushy carpeted floor of the blue room. My head suddenly bloomed with pain. A harsh agony that thumped from the base of my head, all the way up and over my forehead. "Ow; Hell."
I covered my face with my hands and dropped into a sitting position on the bed at my side. There was a block against me. That was the only explanation I could come up with. They didn't trust me here. I was still just that criminal that had almost killed the Queen. Nothing I did or said would change that.
I felt that familiar heat of rage start to spark within my belly. I pushed back the pain in my head and heaved myself to my feet. With a bit more effort than I would admit to anyone, I forced myself to stomp over to the door and jerk it open.
I was taken a bit by surprise upon seeing the two sentries standing guard right outside my door. Another shot of rage went through me. The spark was now a fire of emotion and it burned within my veins. I could feel it pumping through me with every beat of my heart. I snarled at the guards, "Why are you here?"
I knew the answer to my question, but I wanted them to say it. I wanted to hear them tell me to my face that I was trash. That I was bad. That I was a threat. I wanted to hear them say it.
"We were ordered to stand guard here, Mr. Leif."
That was from the smaller of the two. I didn't know him. He was young, maybe twenty years old. Not really much younger than me in years, but I could see by his innocent face that it was mountains of time in experience and life.
"Am…I…a prisoner here," I said through gritted teeth.
"No, sir," he said and shook his head furiously back and forth.
I made to walk past the two guards, but they jumped in front of me. Another flare of rage joined the others. My skin felt hot against my bones. "What do you think you are doing?"
"No one is allowed to wander the halls at night, sir. No one."
I tried to breathe away some of my anger, but it stayed firm and strong within my body. Feeding upon itself to grow in power, even though I tried to soothe it.
"I want to see Sunny. Now," I seethed.
"I'm sorry, those are the rules. No one out and about after dark. It's too dangerous right now."
They were in danger all right, but not from where they thought. The danger stood just a short two feet before them, within my own body. I was about to flip out and they were going to be the ones sorry for it. I took another long and deep breath and tried to gain control of my anger. It wasn't a valiant effort. There was a small part of me that wanted to go off on the guards. Who did they think they were, acting as jailers to me. Me! Did they know who I was? Well, I was about to show them.
I took a step toward them, when a soft voice interrupted my plans. "Leif," Cinder whispered from almost right behind me.
Her breath brushed over my ear and chilled my skin. A wave of goose bumps danced down my arms. I stepped back a pace and turned to face her. Her soft pink-skinned face was less than an inch from mine.
"What are you doing?" she whispered for my ears only.
"I want to see Sunny. Now," I said. I had lowered my voice, but not to the soft tone of hers.
"Why?" she said. Her eyes were laughing at me. I pulled back a scant few inches, just so I could get a good look at her face. Her cheeks were high and full. Her lush lips spread into a smile as I looked at her.
I felt my face fall from a mask of rage to what I would describe as annoyance. "You know very well why, don't you?"
She smiled more fully at my words, but her eyes slanted into a sly arch. "Leaving so soon?"
The rage that had been smoldering within me during our short exchange sparked again at her words and her mockery, but I held tight to my emotions for once. "No. I'm not, but I would have liked to get some clothes for myself."
I turned and walked back into my room. Cinder followed behind me, as I expected she would. She said a quiet, "Thanks, guys, I got it from here," to the boys outside the door and then she closed it behind her.
"But," I continued and pulled off my shirt and tossed it into a corner, "since I can't leave, I guess I will just have to go commando. I toed off my shoes and kicked them one by one into the corner with my shirt.
"You don't bother me. I have brothers, remember?" Cinder said. I would have believed her, as her voice was cool and firm without a bit of nervousness. I said I would have believed her, but there was a deeper pink of a blush that stole over her cheeks and nose as I unbuttoned the top button of my jeans. "Oh, really?" I said and popped another button open.
She cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest as she watched me. I had to decide if I was brave enough to go through with my taunt. Which one of us would blink first? I put my hands on the waistband of my jeans at the sides and watched her carefully. She didn't move. I smiled really big at her, showing her a full set of teeth, shrugged one shoulder as if I didn't care, and then said, "Okay then." I pushed my jeans over my hips and down to my ankles.
I heard her instantaneous intake of breath. I smiled to myself. Got'cha. I heard her hurried steps as she crossed the room and then her feet were right under my nose.
"What are you doing?" she all but shrieked at me in the space of the small blue room.
I kicked off my jeans the rest of the way and stood before her in nothing, except my boxers. "What? You said it was no big deal. You had brothers, remember?"
She closed her eyes and took in a long breath and slowly let it out. When she opened her eyes back up and stared at me, I couldn't help but see the warm chocolate color of her eyes twinkling in the light of the room. "Why are you testing me, Leif?"
"I don't know. You make it easy to do," I said. Part of it was stubbornness and part of it was the fun of teasing her. I don't know why I did it really. Something about that girl brought out an ornery side of myself. I didn't even know I had one until her. Maybe it was the fact that she was so intense all the time. I was well aware that the world was a serious and dangerous place and that meant that I had to be serious with it. I'd always been focused and intent on my goals. Cinder was different, though. Something about her made me want to poke her out of her intensity.
"I do not," she argued right back at me, a full harsh frown on her face.
"Don't you ever smile?" I asked.
"Yes."
"When?"
"When I want to."
The frown, if possible, set even deeper. Those full lips were pursed together and lines like parentheses curved around her mouth. Her eyes, though tilted in disdain, still sparkled with life. It dawned on me that she enjoyed the fight. Frown or not, she was having fun. With me.
My eyes were again drawn to her lips. I suddenly wanted to taste them and I licked my own in anticipation. I stepped through the meager few inches that separated our bodies. Heat radiated off her in waves. My skin soaked up the warmth and asked for more.
Very slowly, I wrapped one arm around her waist and even slower, lowered my lips to hers. She didn't flinch away. She didn't recoil at all. She raised her lips to mine defiantly, almost as a dare.
I closed the last breath of space between our lips and tasted her. She was sweet, she was soft, and she was staring at me the whole time. I stared right back at her and allowed myself to get lost in her eyes as well as her mouth.
I watched her intently as I ran my tongue over the seam of her lips. Her eyelids lowered to half-mast, and then the most wonderful thing happened. She opened to me. What started out as a dare tur
ned into something more.
Her eyes drifted closed, and her arms wrapped around my neck. I pulled her up off the ground and firm against my body. I took her warmth and returned to her my own. Our hearts beat against each other, mine hard and firm, hers soft but fast. Then I stopped thinking all together. I thrust my tongue inside her mouth; she met me halfway, and reciprocated.
Small sparks of electricity coursed through me. I took and took from Cinder, and she gave with as much intensity as I did. I was falling into her. I didn't want to let her go. I didn't want the kiss to end. I didn't want to let her body go, and leave the touch of mine. She felt so wonderful pressed up against me.
Then, there was a knock on my door. She jerked back, almost guiltily. My soaring heart hit the ground at her reaction. A small pang of hurt whipped through my body. Her arms didn't just fall away from me. They pushed against my chest for release.
I pulled myself back together in the space of a moment and put on my mask of indifference. I let go of her.
Her feet had barely touched the ground and she was already several feet away from where we had just stood within the space of each other's arms. Shame showed evident on her face.
Anger sprang to mine. Without taking my eyes from her guilty face, I barked, "Come in!"
Sunny, on a wave of fresh air, bounced happily into the room, "Hey! What do you think of your room?" she asked.
"It's fine," I snapped.
"Oh," she said and looked at Cinder and then to me. A confused expression on her face, she continued, "Well, I was told you wanted to see me? Um…where are your clothes?"
I ignored her question about my clothes and went directly to my own. "Why can't I jump from here?" I finally looked away from Cinder and focused on Sunny instead.
She let out a nervous breath and said, "Oh. Is that all? I was worried it was something important."
"It is important, Sunny. Am I a prisoner here?" I said.
She had the nerve to laugh. "Of course not. No one can phase from within the castle. It's a safety feature. Not even me."
"Then what about Tweedle Dee and Dum out there?" I said and indicated the guys standing outside the door.
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