Alexander threw her forward, and she read his mind, mostly by habit. She placed her hand on his bicep, and Peter's eyes flew open.
“No!” he managed to yell as Alexander grabbed his other side, and Ariel gritted her teeth.
“Could you not?” she said. “Two princes in one go is a bit hard.”
“Peter, you have to stay with me,” Alexander begged his brother, lifting his hands. “Please, please stay. Don't go again.”
Peter's eyes rolled towards his brother, and they were locked in a silent war. Ariel pushed harder, trying to force the black magic out of him.
“Please,” Alexander said. “Please. Don't leave me here to do this. I can't do this.”
Ariel pushed again, and it was enough. Peter grunted, rolling over and he half barked at her.
“Stop, you devil woman!” he bellowed at her. She raised her hands in the air as Cole and Nicholas rushed in.
“Hey, look, I don't care if you vanish forever,” she said. “It would benefit me if you just headed back where you came from. But Alexander has problems with that, so–”
“And you do his bidding, because you are his obedient wife.”
Ariel paled.
“I'm not–”
“Don't lie to me,” he said, with a sneer. “One of the benefits of the Other is that you can see the world you left behind, watch over your loved ones. And I saw my brother marry you, for reasons I cannot comprehend.”
Ariel was now stunned into silence. She looked up to Alexander, who looked equally shocked at the admission.
“I'm sorry?” Nicholas asked, taking a step forward. “Did I hear that right?”
“Oh, my apologies,” Peter said, although it was clear that he wasn't. “Did you want to keep that a secret? Why, exactly? Are you embarrassed by her? Or you didn't want her to know that by law, she would own half this kingdom if I didn't return?”
“What?” This was a shock to Ariel.
“That's the rights of the queen,” Peter replied. “Most queens are compliant and pass the whole kingdom to their children. But a carapace queen? She might want to take it over.”
“You're married?” Cole was quick to speak up. “We're siblings?”
“I own half the kingdom?” She turned to Alexander, shocked.
“As the highest-ranking female, you do, yes,” he admitted.
“Oh,” she said. They held each other’s gaze in silence. Her hands were off Peter, but she was quick enough to feel the magic swirl around him again. “Oh, no you don't.”
“Why don't you mind your own business?” Peter snarled at her, but she was not easily frightened.
“Apparently, it is my business, since I own half the kingdom, along with you,” she said, staring him down. “Quit it, or I'll remove your magic forever.”
“You can't do that!” he spat at her.
“Can’t I?” she raised an eyebrow. “I'm the most powerful carapace you've ever met, and I know that. Want to take your chances? You'll never even attempt to make it to the Other again.”
Peter eventually fell quiet, and Alexander removed her hands.
“He'll try again,” she said. “I've seen suicidal before. If he's determined, he'll find a way.”
Alexander sighed, turning to Nicholas. Nicholas was normally his muscle, his body guard, and the one that would wrestle out someone who wasn’t compliant. But this was their brother, and their king.
“The prison walls will block it out,” Nicholas said, softly. “Will you go willingly, Peter?”
Peter looked up, and he looked absolutely defeated.
“Alexander….”
“Please,” Alexander replied. “Please, do not leave me so soon.”
The two brothers spent a moment facing off. But eventually, Peter sighed.
“Fine,” he replied. Nicholas moved forward to escort him, but Peter shook him off.
“Cole,” Alexander said, “go with him.”
“But,” Cole grinned, “I want to know all about my new sister-in-law.”
“Go,” Alexander repeated, and Cole slunk off.
Once they were alone in the room, Ariel sighed.
“Why wouldn't you tell me?”
“Honestly?” he said. “Because I didn't think that you would care. I know you, Ariel, and you put on such a tough front. But inside, you're a good person. You aren't with me because you care about your share of this kingdom.”
“What happens if we divorce?” she asked.
“I would not be allowed to marry again, nor shift that power elsewhere. Any power of a queen would have to wait until I died.”
“Even in Peter got married? Or if Cole and Enya took the throne?”
“Correct” he said and she sighed, rubbing her face.
“God damn it, Alexander, why did you marry me then? Was it just your addiction to feeling human?”
“To not feeling alone,” he said, and she sank onto the bed. “There are no ramifications to you. You can still go.”
“I'm not feeling wronged,” she answered. “It just changes things. Especially if your brother is king, not you. He's about to go off the deep end, so technically, I am the sane voice of this kingdom, aren't I?”
“Yes,” he answered. “We have always recognized our female monarchs.”
“I wish you didn't,” she said. “It just makes the whole world a thousand times worse. Why can't you be a patriarchal society like everyone else?”
He smirked.
“You don't like our...what do they call it on Earth?”
“Feminism,” she said. “Which normally, I subscribe to. But in this case, I really wish that you were more archaic.”
“This is a mess,” he said, covering his face. “I spent so long wishing he was back. But now that I see how unhappy he is, I'm not sure that my needs outweigh his.”
“Also not the way you deal with it on Earth,” Ariel said. “If someone is suicidal, you get them proper help. I mean, throwing them in lock down, that's temporary but–”
“Wait,” he said. “What do you do on Earth?”
“For depression?” She asked. “Proper drugs, therapy, and getting them away from the thing that bothers them.”
“The thing that causes the depression?” he asked, and she shrugged.
“Sure, you could put it that way.”
“Such as this palace. The magic. These memories. Being a dragon.”
“Sure,” she said hesitantly, not liking where he was going with this.
“You have to be back on Wednesday, right?” he asked.
“Oh, my God, Alexander,” she buried her face in her hands. “We are not bringing Peter with us to Earth. No. No way.”
“What if I went with you?” he asked.
“How would that make it better?” she asked. “We certainly wouldn't live the wild life we normally do if he was with us.”
“But we would get to live a normal life,” he said. “Which you talk about from time to time. How can we know if this marriage works? We're never together to just be.”
“I can't believe you,” she said. “What do you mean, ‘works?’ We weren't married for love, Alexander!”
“Please,” he said. “If for no other reason than to save my brother.”
He looked so dejected, so exhausted, and her heart went out to him. He was right. She wasn't a bad person, and she did care about him. They had been together most of her adult life; she didn't know a life without him in the background, and she didn't have any reason to want him to suffer.
“What's your plan?” she asked. “I don't even have an apartment, Alexander. I've been living out of hotels when we're on tour.”
“I assume said hotel has more than one room to be rented?” he said. “Or perhaps a suite where Peter will not be alone?”
“He'll stick out like a sore thumb,” she said “He doesn't speak any English.”
“We can work around that,” Alexander said, and she si
ghed.
“Fine. He can't access much magic on Earth, and I can take care of the rest. But he's not to interfere with my performance. I'm not going to lose my job on top of the kingdom.”
“Why would you lose the…right,” he said, standing up. “Thank you, Ariel. You must think me a weak-hearted fool.”
“I don't think you're weak,” she said, giving him a hug. She was surprised to find that he was trembling under her grasp. “I don't judge you. Remember that,” she said, looking into his eyes. “It’s time to get some food soon, hmm?”
“When this is over,” he said, leaning his head against her shoulder for a moment. “I'm going to go talk to him.”
“I'll be in our room,” she said. “It's not as if I can leave on my own.”
“No,” he said. “But you might want to explain to your brothers-in-law that you'll love them all the same, no matter what happens.”
“Them,” Ariel gave him a grin. “I will always love. They're my family. You're my family, too, Alexander. Even if–”
“I know,” he squeezed her hand once more before leaving. His head was spinning, and his heart felt heavy. Heavy lies the head that wears the crown, his thoughts screamed at him. The person who wrote that quote had no idea how hard it really was.
Chapter 5
“Go where?” Peter looked up at his brother in confusion. They were still standing outside of the cells. It turned out that Alexander could not take the sight of Peter standing there, looking at him as if he was a criminal.
“We're going with Ariel to Earth for a while. This is not the environment you need to ease your way back into the world.”
“Am I your prisoner, then?” Peter asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“No, of course not,” Alexander said. “Give us two weeks. If you are still unhappy with the world, then I will let you do as you wish.”
“You'll let me return to the Other?” Peter asked.
“If that's what you want,” Alexander replied. “But, Brother, you returned. It couldn't have been because you didn't want to. Something in you kept you alive enough to return.”
Peter had no answer to that, but he didn't disagree.
“Good,” Alexander said. “Ariel needs to return soon anyways, so we were thinking of leaving as soon as you were ready.”
“No time like the present,” Peter said, although he said it without enthusiasm. “What about the issues here at the palace that should be dealt with?”
“Nicholas has been in charge before while I've been away. It will be nothing new. Earth will be calm, relaxing, and you can focus on yourself.”
“Exciting,” Peter said, without much enthusiasm “I also know I won't be able to use magic there.”
“No,” Alexander admitted, “you won't. But I will be there for you, Brother, until you make a choice.”
“If this is what it takes,” Peter replied, “for you to let me be free, then so be it.”
“Thank you,” Alexander said. “Earth will be relaxing and boring. You'll have plenty of time to regain what was lost.”
Ariel leaned on the doorway, watching them. Frankly, she wasn't one for emotional family reunions. But she had also never seen Alexander so emotional, so torn down. She didn't realize this would affect him so much.
“Let's hurry up before I'm late,” she said, clearing her throat. “You know I hate rushing into the theater.”
“How do we do this?” Peter asked. Alexander led them just outside of the prison where the magic wasn't blocked. “I've never taken the magic to Earth. Not even when we were boys.”
“I can do it,” Alexander reached his hand out. Ariel took one, and Peter the other.
“Can you do this with all three of us?” Ariel raised an eyebrow at him, and he met her eyes.
“Are you challenging me?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Look, if you could convince them not to dock me for not showing up, the two of you can go by yourselves,” she teased. She said it in English, not because she was afraid of Peter's opinion, but because she didn't want him to worry about anything else. She felt sorry for him, even if she was angry about him for abandoning Alexander.
“Perhaps a show would do him good,” Alexander said, as the magic began to swirl.
Transporting himself and Ariel was hard enough, but pulling his brother along was a little more difficult. Still, as crown prince, he should have been able to do it, even if he used up his store of magic for the week.
When they got to Earth, however, Alexander dropped to his knees, panting as the color left his face. Before Ariel could get to him, Peter placed a hand on his shoulder, crouching down. He said a few words, low enough that Ariel couldn't understand. What she did see, though, was an older brother comforting a younger brother.
She was used to Alexander being drained, and it was only a few moments before he rose. She recognized that he had taken her to the back alley beside the hotel they were staying at, so nobody noticed. His distressed brother, however, distracted him from the roar of the city.
She gave them a moment, and eventually, he recovered his strength, rising. He brushed past Ariel without saying a word. Peter was behind her, and she turned to him, keeping her voice low.
“That's normal,” she said to him quietly. “Especially if he hasn't eaten.”
“Still?” Peter asked, and she raised an eyebrow.
“Has he always had problems with control?”
“Since we were children,” Peter answered curtly.
“Oh,” Ariel said, as they caught up to Alexander. “Just goes to show you that you never really know who you married.”
The check-in to the hotel was easy. Her colleagues that were out and about greeted her like she had been on a weekend trip and not on another planet. She held her head high as they checked into their suite where her bags had been transferred to.
“So, this is it?” Ariel said to Alexander. “Your brother works through his depression, and you and I figure out whether we can take being married?”
He gave her a soft smile, closing the door behind him as he took her in his arms. Kissing her delicately, he sent the familiar shivers down her spine.
“And relax,” he said. “Recover.”
“Recover,” she said, giving him another quick kiss. “Means eating something. It's Wednesday, so you need to find something to feed on. Getting away from me is a start so that your dragon hunger can take over.”
“I'll take Peter with me then,” Alexander said. “You can get ready for the show.”
“And everything will be fine,” Ariel assured him. “You want comp tickets for the show?”
“Ah, leave them at the desk,” he said. “I don't know if we'll use them, but–”
“The best kind of audience,” she smirked at him. “The kind that doesn't show up.”
He kissed her again, and then left her to get ready. Ariel always enjoyed the downtime before a show. She was rarely quiet and alone, but this was her time to shift her mind into the proper state. She stretched, arching her hips and reaching her leg up to the ceiling. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror with red hair and green eyes, she wondered if her parents had a sense of humor in naming her Ariel.
She rarely wondered about them, but occasionally a thought popped into her mind. She hated them for abandoning her, for dropping her on the doorstep of a foster agency like she was a sack of bread. Why did they do it? Did she do something so terrible in her childhood? Were they just irresponsible people?
Eventually, she shook the thoughts out of her head, showered, and then headed to the theater next door.
She paused in the lobby to check on whether she could have room service delivered by the time she got back. She thought Alexander would need some relaxing, and strawberries and champagne seemed like a good idea.
While she was waiting for the ridiculously slow clerk, she took a glance around the lobby. It was a beautiful place–high class, with crown molding and
gilded leaves on the wall. It was nice, and it was a nice place for Peter to relax.
There was an attractive man standing near the restaurant, and her eyes drifted over to him. Tall and lean, he reminded her a bit of Alexander with his well-sculpted cheekbones and dark colored hair. They had an open marriage; she wasn't above looking at or even approaching other men.
The closer she looked though, the more she thought he looked like a dragon. There was just something about the way he was standing; the way his eyes were downcast, and the way his arms were folded. Even when they were in their human form, dragons just looked a certain way. She had been around them long enough to know when they were simply standing there.
“It's all set, Miss,” said the clerk, and Ariel turned back for a moment, smiling.
“Thank you,” she said, and turned to the dragon. But the man was gone.
Her brow furrowed as she searched the lobby. But there was no sign of him anywhere. Dragons couldn't vanish into a puff of smoke; they had to go somewhere. But the spot where he was standing was empty, and the lobby wasn't crowded. Wherever he went, it had to have been fast.
She shook her head, wondering if she had been imagining things. After all, it was just hours ago that she had been in the palace, surrounded by dragons. They hadn't exactly had a relaxing time since she had left. Perhaps her eyes were just playing tricks on her.
As she walked to the theater though, she realized that it was more than just her eyes that were playing tricks on her. She could feel magic everywhere, only it felt odd. It was tainted by the Other. She was sure of it. After all, she had spent so much time absorbing it from Peter, she couldn't miss it.
Normally, when Ariel was on Earth, she didn't feel magic too often. Occasionally, here or there, she would absorb something normally left over. Dragons and other shifters didn't come too often. There was magic everywhere though–in the air, in the trees, and from the sky. It wasn't enough to turn her head or even make her raise an eyebrow.
Something was certainty going on.
The show wasn't something that she had to put a lot of brain power into. Frankly, she was thinking that musical theater wasn't for her. It wasn't as artistic or as beautiful as the ballet she normally performed, and she was used to being the star of the show. Today, however, she was glad that she wasn't in charge of leading the show. She kept thinking that she saw a flash of yellow eyes in the audience, in the lobby, in the dressing room.
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