by Celeste Raye
He winced at the comment and turned from me, stepping into a stream of sunlight. He shook his head and scraped his fingers against the stubble that scattered across his cleft. “Why is she doing this?” he whispered. “Father will tire of her, that's... that's a given. Why not wait it out?”
“He already has,” I agreed. “But he loves her and wants to make her ruler.”
“I’ve heard she wouldn’t make a bad one,” he said with a small vein of humor running through his tone. He looked up at me seriously then. “What about my mother?”
“She’s already heard rumors that he plans to do away with her.”
“Idiots.” Tredorphen let out a full sigh and pinched the space between his brows. “You know… I was where you were once. Sent on a mission I didn’t agree with.”
The Vulcana massacre.
I knew exactly what he was talking about. We all heard about it.
“And what did you do?”
He shrugged. “What any warrior would do. I went through with it, and it was the worst decision I ever made.”
“Yeah, well,” I waved him off. “I don't have the luxury to—”
“Hold off for a few more days,” he insisted. “If you can promise me this then I can promise you a very different Dobromia.”
I couldn’t say I wasn’t intrigued by his offer. “Why should you care what happens to her?” I asked curiously.
He paused, and his eyes darted around the large courtyard like a true warrior, looking closely for the possibility of hidden enemies. He nodded toward me and lowered his voice as he answered, “Because I don’t like the way Dobromia runs, and this is at the root of it.”
“Sounds like you and Diana would have a lot in common then,” I laughed.
“Is that right?” he scoffed. “Then you can tell her that things are about to change.”
“Yes, yes, very cryptic,” I waved. “I need more information than that if I'm going to risk my life for some... human.”
The rose shifter walked up to me, towering over my stature as he was only inches from my face; his breath was ghosting over me like a hot fog. He studied my eyes for some time and then stepped back, seeming satisfied.
“You won't,” he smiled.
I laughed. “Oh?”
The powerful shifted shook his head and gave a knowing laugh. “No.”
“And why's that?”
But I already knew the answer.
Tredorphen looked at me with a smug grin, spreading his wings and preparing for flight. His feet were prepped to go skyward when he looked at me, pointing his index in my direction and shouting, “Because I know that look.”
And then he was gone.
Chapter 11:
Diana
“Hello, you,” I said brightly as Kavryiss flew up to the window leading into my person room in the D’Sharr’s quarters. He perched on the windowsill and took my face in his hands, kissing me gently.
There was a look about him that filled me with desire and then quickly evaporated into fear: the look in his eyes that screamed something was unmistakably wrong. I grabbed his hand and turned my head calmly.
“What is it?” I asked in a hush.
He stepped into the room and left his wings extended; he wasn’t staying. I watched his eyes rove about, wondering how much to tell me of whatever was on his mind.
“When is the last time you saw the D’Karr?”
I exhaled and waved him off, turning away from the window and walking back towards my research. “I’m not bothered to talk about this or about your alleged love for me right now, please.”
My stomach sank with my own words. If he didn’t tell me he loved me, I knew that my fire could fizzle out then and there. I turned back to him with apologetic eyes and pursed my lips, taking his hands into mine.
“What is it?” I repeated, softer this time.
He cleared his throat and pulled me close to him. “Do you trust me?”
“I don’t see why not,” I said, naïve as it was.
“Diana,” he said gravely.
“What's this about?” I demanded, growing frantic.
We heard a noise outside my door, and he slammed his hand over my mouth in a panic, his eyes wide.
He scraped his hand down the front of his face and huffed in a whisper, “Do you love me?”
I scratched my arm, hard, and shrugged helplessly. “I think… yes.”
His eyes filled with life and he inhaled sharply, satisfied and yet still terrified as his hands trembled against mine. “I want to be with you.”
“You’re looking for this?” I asked, setting his hand on my breasts and leaning up to kiss him.
He pulled away, and his eyes darted toward the door once more. “I’m looking for you,” he said, and I felt instantly comforted by his tone.
“Why though?” I said firmly.
He knew I loved him and I knew he loved me: this gravitational pull drawing us closer to one another each day. But I didn’t know why.
I knew he thought I was spoiled; I knew he questioned how a girl like me, who had just been given all the opportunities in the world to make a difference, could possibly want to give that up. Or, perhaps it was me who was questioning it. But I knew I did. I wanted to be with him. Just him. I was so tired of sharing someone; sharing an ideal of someone.
With Kavryiss, it was just real. Real from start to finish.
The purple shifter rolled his eyes and knelt down before me; his wings still spread in a grand gesture. My eyes went wide at the sight, and I ushered him back to his feet, but he pulled away, grabbing my hands.
“I can't believe I am doing this, but you’re forcing my hand. Here I am, Diana, begging.”
“Why do you need me; why do you love me?”
“You're kidding me,” he laughed. “You want flattery right now?”
“I’m not looking for flattery,” I said quickly. “I need to know. If we’re really doing this… You and me. If I’m going to give up everything then… I need to know why.”
“Because I believe in you. I...” The strong shifter’s face flushed hot with pinks and reds, and he grimaced. “I can't stand you, Diana. You are spoiled and difficult and stubborn... But I believe in you.”
The words hung in the air like a palpable object, taunting me with their honesty. With a heavy breath, he said, “I love you because you're incredibly smart. I love your determination. I love the way you brush your hair back. I love the way you say things as they are.”
I scoffed arrogantly, raising my brows at him. “You have nothing to offer me.”
“And that kills you,” he snapped. “But it doesn't mean you don't love me.”
I stared at him and then met him on the floor, kneeling in front of him. “I don’t want to.”
“Because it ruins your grand plan, right? I don’t care, Diana. When I’m without you, I feel a pull.”
I laughed. “That’s called your insanity.”
“I want to be with you. I want to spend forever only with you—for whatever it means. I want to spend those eighty years with you. When you're with Boradrith, I feel sick. When he touches you, I doubt that he could possibly feel about you the way that I do, and when I think of all the time I've known you and never—”
“Alright, alright!” I laughed. “I love you, okay! I love you,” I said, sweeter then, and I smiled bashfully at him. “You win.”
He smiled, and it filled me. I did. I loved him.
“All I’ve ever wanted was the D’Karr to take me as his wife and rule over Dobromia. Now I can only think of one thing strong enough to change my mind. You. It’s been you this whole time.”
I leaned in to catch his lips with mine. He kissed me in a way he never had before; something more was behind it. Something more than love.
“Then we need to leave.”
I paled. “... Sorry? Isn't this the part where we make love and then argue over how annoying we find one another while secretly hoping the other reads through the lines ab
out all the ooey-gooey love we feel?”
Realizing the severity of his visit my heart suddenly dropped, and I said, “Kavryiss, what's going on? You’re really freaking me out right now.”
My new love set his jaw and looked down to the floor; his eyes now lost to mine even as I tugged at his hand, begging for his contact again.
His words were crisp. “Sillevia wants you dead.”
I watched his expression grow grim, and I took my time with my words, testing them out in my mind before I finally asked, “How do you know?”
“Because,” he said and then held his breath. “Because I’m supposed to do it.”
I swallowed hard. “I take it from your big speech just now that you’re not following through very well?”
He simpered. “I couldn’t do it.”
“Then that’s a real problem for you,” I teased, despite myself. My whole body wracked with fear suddenly; as though anyone could be behind me at any moment.
“We need to get out of here,” he said with all the strength and determination in the world. “Tredorphen and I ha—”
I cut him off. “I need to tell Boradrith.”
Maybe he slept with other women, but I knew his love for me was real. I could feel it. He didn’t give up everything just to toss me aside. If the threat was real, then he would want to deal with it first-hand. Boradrith wanted me safe.
“Diana,” Kavryiss seethed, “You can’t do that.”
“Do you want me to die?” I snapped. “Because if you don’t follow through, then someone else will take your place. I’m not going to wait around hoping it doesn’t happen! Let me tell Boradrith, and he’ll get rid of her, and we can just be done with it!”
“I have a feeling... that things are about to go very wrong,” he said forcefully. “Don’t do that.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Because I know what she's like, and if this...if it doesn't get done then...Diana listen—”
“No, you listen! Just trust me for once. Just let me tell him, and he'll throw her in the tower!”
“And then what about me?” he simpered as though suddenly wondering if our love was quick and ill-fated the minute we were up against the wall. “She’ll tell him I was the one to kill you and he’ll tear me apart.”
“Then we'll...” I blanched, a cold spire drilling up through my whole body. “Then you'll run.”
He blinked. “What about us?”
“I don't know what you want me to say, Kavryiss! You're telling me you were supposed to kill me and now you want me to feel sorry for you!?”
He stood from our kneeling and threw his hands into the air. “I want you to think about someone other than yourself for one minute!”
I watched him walk and swallowed. My expression closed up and my stomach twisted in knots as I exhaled over and over. “Then what?” I demanded sharply. “What’s the plan?”
“I'm leaving,” he agonized. “I'm going back with Tredorphen and Marina. You can come or not.”
“For the record,” I said, brooding, “I don't like ultimatums.”
He shrugged. “That's not my problem.”
“So you’ll do just like Tredorphen did? You’ll abandon Dobromia? You’ll abandon me?”
“It’s either I do that, or I stay here and die,” he argued. “And frankly, it’s the same fate for you.”
My face turned downcast, and I waved him off. “Go away,” I said quietly.
“Diana,” he said quickly and studied my face carefully. “Don’t try and figure this out for yourself when I’m right here with you. Please stop pushing me away.”
“I said go.”
With drawn-out hesitation, Kavryiss hovered in my window for moments and moments, waiting for me to say something to keep him with me, but I felt like I’d said it all.
His wings were strong as they took him away from me, fiercely fluttering against the heat until I couldn’t even hear a hint of him anymore.
I loved him, and I wanted to be with him. But I didn’t want to leave Dobromia. My life was here, and my heart was here. Not with Boradrith but here with these people. They may have hated me, but I loved them as well as I ever did the Earth. Maybe more.
Chapter 12:
Kavryiss
I went from Diana’s quarters up to T’nemtar in haste. She was lucky I didn’t drag her out with me. I had every intention of stealing her away and making a life with her, but as usual, she would let her stubbornness rule.
For now, I had business with the sun and its raging heat. I met Tredorphen in the fields, and we set up the machinery, hot on our hands as the sun had all the opportunity to blaze its heat and ashes down upon it.
“Here he comes!” Marina yelled, setting a hand over her eyes to see me properly in the sky.
I flew down before them and felt my feet graze the soil below with immeasurable, intense fire.
“Right on time,” I said to the blonde as we approached her husband. She gave me a pointed, menacing look and then whipped her face away from me, walking quickly toward Tredorphen.
“Really?” I looked at the rose gold shifter derisively and accused, “You told her?”
Tredorphen let out a bellowed laugh and slapped his palm against his leg before taking Marina’s hand in his. “Are we ready to go?” he asked.
“For the record, I think you’re disgusting,” Marina warned with a downcast gaze in my direction.
“I told her,” I admitted flatly, spreading my palms before the couple that had somehow become the very people I wanted to emulate.
Marina looked at me, perplexed, and then looked to Tredorphen for an unspoken answer.
“Told her that he loves her,” he clarified.
“Alright, alright,” I hushed, waving them off. “I told her I loved her,” I repeated quickly. “But I told her everything else, as well. I asked her to come back with me… With you both, to Earth. If you’ll have us.”
“That was a dangerous move,” Marina laughed unsurely and looked back to Tredorphen. The two exchanged a look that could only be deciphered by two people who shared a love together and finally, Tredorphen nodded.
“Of course,” he said firmly. “You’ll come with us.”
Aurlauc slouched up to the group of us, carrying some of the burning metal with him. “Sure would be more convenient to be able to fly it up there,” he said, looking down to the massive laser cannon we were reassembling.
Tredorphen laughed. “Humans don't make artillery that convenient.”
I looked around at the four of us, together, and suddenly it seemed that even amidst the immense humidity, everything was as it should have been, if only for a minute. Tredorphen back on Dobromia, his beautiful wife…
And then just a minute later, it was all ruined as I caught sight of Vaikrand flying up to us. I had always gotten along with the shifter, ever since he returned to the D’Karr’s favor, but I knew he and Tredorphen were great enemies.
Tredorphen and Vaikrand used to serve as warriors together, until Vaikrand was found to be stealing food from the empire for his own family. Tredorphen was the one who sold him out and had him banished.
When Vaikrand was allowed to come back to the D’Karr’s good graces, he had to attend a proving and fight our leaders chosen warrior, Khrelan, to the death to prove his worthiness. Khrelan had once been a close friend of Tredorphen.
The detailed explanations from both sides made my head spin. I didn’t care for their rivalry. I had enough on my mind to worry about without readying myself for a battle between two rivals.
Upon seeing the yellow shifter approach, Tredorphen spread his wings in a show of dominance and curved his neck so that he stood with his chin raised.
Vaikrand looked at me and then back to Tredorphen with a roguish smile. “It's like that, is it?”
“Isn't that why you called us here, Vaikrand?” Tredorphen spat, lunging forward at him before Marina pulled his arm back.
“Actually, it was Athena who called you here
to fix what you abandoned,” the yellow shifter snapped.
Aurlauc offered wide eyes to me at the drama unfolding and let out a long sigh. “This is fantastically good fun, and as much as I would love to see Vaikrand's throat ripped out, now isn't the time.”
I took the last piece of artillery from Aurlauc and set it into place. Sweat dripped down in beads along my forehead as I set the coordinates to destroy the sun that I was beginning to hate.
I aimed the vessel and felt a tug at my arm.
“I need to talk to you,” Vaikrand said urgently.
I raised my brows and disregarded him quickly, mumbling “I’m kind of busy.”
“It's important,” Vaikrand sing-songed and ignored the stares and glares of the D’Karr’s son.
“You’re going to want to hear it,” he insisted, and I waved him away. I looked through the sight as the most terrifying ball of fiery heat I had ever seen.
Without another word, I pulled the trigger and watched as the massive blue laser shot forth from the cannon and went careening toward the sun: bursting it into billions of shards that rained down a storm of fire upon us all. The humans had set up a protective netting, but I could still feel the heat billowing down on the crowd of onlookers.
There was an immediate reprieve from the heat, even as the remnants of the oversized star hailed down to the ground. I could see lakes of lava forming in the distance as chunks of the star found its way to our empty lakes.
We were all stuck in time, frozen in the sudden knowledge that for once… we had won. A massive cry echoed throughout the field, dragons celebrating and screaming their cries of relief out in intense roars. A communal shout of thanks.
Maybe now there was hope. Maybe this would be enough to save a lost race; to start over and utilize our resources the way we should have been doing this whole time. Maybe my soul was still with Dobromia more than I suspected before.
If anyone could make me believe in Dobromia again, it was Diana. Not only did she believe in bettering my home, but she believed in me. I had never met anyone before who didn’t just see me as a means to an end; a killer; a warrior. She saw me as someone worthy and capable of doing something great—and perhaps, I just did.