by L. P. Dover
I am brushing my teeth when Merrick knocks on my door.
I mumble loudly, “Come in.” In reality, it sounds nothing like that.
He opens the door to peer in and says, “Excuse me, but was that English?” He smiles.
I laugh and wave him in with my hand. Toothpaste dribbles down my chin so I run to the bathroom to wipe it off.
“Now that’s sexy, Princess,” he teases.
Since I can’t talk, I do it silently so he can hear me in his mind.
“I know, right?”
I walk back out of the bathroom to look at him. He’s dressed in a pair of black running shorts, a blue t-shirt and sneakers. He looks so normal when he’s not wearing his warrior gear. I smile really big so that more toothpaste foams out of my mouth. I’m trying to keep the mood light so maybe it’ll keep his mind off of last night.
He shakes his head.
“That is so nasty.” He looks down at his watch and motions for me to hurry.
“You need to hurry up so we can finish training and get back in time for the meeting.”
I run to my bathroom, spit the toothpaste out and wipe my mouth.
I yell from the bathroom, “I am hurrying. I had a late start this morning because Elvena came by to chit chat.” It was part way the truth, but I’m not going to tell him that.
He nods his head in understanding and opens the door for me.
“After you, Princess, it’s time to go kick some ass.” I playfully elbow him in the side.
“Your ass, if I’m not mistaken,” I tease.
His face falls and I silently curse myself. I didn’t mean to say it to throw it in his face, but he actually does deserve an ass kicking.
“I know, Calista. I do deserve it.”
Damn it, I didn’t mean for him to hear that. I really need to remember to shield. We leave my room and head through the palace. I see Warren, Ryder’s friend, leaving the council room looking a little strange. Why would he be in there and who would he have talked to? He doesn’t seem like he would be a friendly guy and it makes me wonder how Ryder could ever be friends with him. When he sees me looking at him, he winks at me and gives me a bone chilling smile as he continues down the hall. The laugh I hear echoing off the walls makes the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. It is a sound of pure evil.
We walk outside to head toward the path to the lake and I blush when we walk past the willow tree. Thinking about what happened there last night sends my heart racing. I can’t wait to talk to Ryder today. My kelpies are nowhere in sight, so we continue on. He carries the swords that we train with and I am carrying the daggers. I’m a skilled dagger thrower and I can hit my mark with my eyes closed. I always offer to help carry the long swords, but Merrick never lets me. He says he would hate it if I tripped and fell on one. He’s the one who would be most likely to fall on one. I wouldn’t die if I got stabbed, but it sure would hurt like hell. If it was an iron blade, I’d be wounded, but just your typical sword wouldn’t do enough damage, unless it was my head that got cut off. We reach our designated spot and I begin to stretch.
I look to Merrick and silently think, “Let the ass kicking begin.”
Chapter 14
Ryder
Watching Calista float up to her window was amazing. I could tell she was showing off and I found it absolutely sexy. I waved her goodbye and headed into the palace to my room. There are still a couple of hours before Calista meets Merrick for their training. I think it will be the perfect time to teach him a lesson. I enter my room and take a look around. The walls are painted yellow, just like the Great Room, and the bed has red, satin sheets and an abundance of pillows. Calista would make a nice addition to the bed. I can just imagine her long, blonde hair fanned out across the pillows and the feel of her body as we make love. Soon.
Once I leave tomorrow and handle my affairs in the Winter Court, I’ll be back to make her officially mine. I am sure Merrick will be a problem, but I will make Calista my wife one way or another. I haven’t told her I loved her yet because it felt like she was holding back. I’m not going to wait any longer. I plan to talk to her first to see what she says about it, but if she says yes, I will ask her father’s permission in the meeting today in front of everyone. This news will definitely spread fast throughout the kingdoms.
I change out of my clothes and head for the bathroom. The walls of the bathroom are golden and all of the fixtures are made out of gold. The entire bathroom has to be worth several million dollars in the mortal world. It is amazing, but too lavish for me. I enjoy the finer things in life, but this goes way beyond that.
I take a shower and shave. It’s going to take some time to get accustomed to my newly changed body. The magic it took to change things this drastically had to be phenomenal and the changes are not over yet. I can’t wait to see what my brother has to say about all of it. I am not looking forward to seeing Warren. With the way he has been acting, the minute he hears about my marriage proposal there’s no telling what he’s going to do. I regret bringing him here in the first place.
I finish washing up and get out of the shower. I change into a black t-shirt and some running shorts. I need to be comfortable when I show off my warrior skills to Merrick. A knock at the door stops me. I wonder who it is since I am not expecting anyone. I open the door to see Elvena holding a covered tray.
“I brought you some breakfast, Prince Ryder.” She looks me up and down and smiles. “I see you and the princess must have had some interesting times last night.”
She tries to hold in the laugh as she sets the tray on the small table by the bed. The food smells wonderful.
I look at her and say, “It was definitely life-altering.”
She reaches over to touch my hand and lingers for a second.
“Yes, I can tell. You do look and feel like a new man.” She laughs again and let go of my hand. I can’t help but laugh, too. She has a way of making things humorous in a tough situation.
“I plan to ask King Oberon for his permission to marry Calista,” I blurt out.
Elvena asks, “So you finally figured out the role you play in the prophecy?”
“I am not doing this because of the prophecy. I am doing it because I love her,” I say whole-heartedly.
She smiles and by the look on her face I would say she was testing me to see what I would say. It looks like I passed. Prophecy or no prophecy, I still love Calista and want to be with her more than anything. We just need to figure out where we belong now.
“Good answer, child. On that note, I will take my leave. I need to speak to Calista before she goes to training.”
She turns to leave but I stop her before she reaches the door.
“Do you mind telling me where Calista and Merrick train?” I really hope she tells me so I don’t have to go sneaking around.
She shakes her head and wags her finger at me.
“Don’t you dare tell the princess I told you. She will be so mad at me if she finds out.” She pauses and it looks like she’s not going to tell me, but then she lets out a deep breath and continues.
“They train about a half mile past the lake. I’m sure you remember where the lake is?” She turns her head and snickers. I just smile at her and shake my head. She sure does love to joke.
I laugh and say, “Yes, of course I remember where the lake is and thank you for telling me.”
As Elvena is leaving, Kalen walks through the door. He looks at me and does a double take.
“Do I have the right room?” He says looking back and forth from Elvena to me.
He gives me a knowing smirk, then looks at Elvena and asks, “I am looking for my brother, have you seen him? He’s tall with long, spiky brown hair and pale skin.”
His chest is bouncing up and down with the laughter I know is waiting to come out. He is being such a smartass. I flip him off with my finger and the laughter finally bursts out of him. He laughs so loud he’ll probably wake everyone in the palace. Elvena waves goodbye and wal
ks out the door. She will be headed to Calista’s room.
Kalen walks over to inspect my newly changed body.
“Ryder, why do you look like that?” He asks as he points up and down my body. “Did you go to the mortal realm and lay in a tanning bed?”
Kalen loves to joke around, but I shake my head no at his ridiculous question.
“Tanning beds do not work on us. Remember when Sorcha tried that last year?”
“Yeah, that was funny,” Kalen says as he laughs.
My younger sister, Sorcha, went to the mortal realm and discovered tanning beds. She looked like a lobster for a week and then her skin went right back to being pale. We heal very quickly, but for some reason the tanning bed really messed up her skin during that time. She never did it again.
I sit down at the table where Elvena left my breakfast. Kalen joins me and steals a piece of apple bread from my plate.
While chewing his bread, Kalen opens his mouth to speak and sprays crumbs on arm when he asks, “Seriously, Ryder, what happened?”
I stare at him with an exasperated look while wiping the crumbs off my arm. He seems oblivious to his atrocious manners.
“Apparently, Calista and I are bound to help save the kingdoms and this is just the beginning,” I say.
I take a break from talking to eat the rest of my apple bread before my brother steals it all. I had spent all night watching Calista instead of eating at the ceremony. I didn’t realize how hungry I had gotten. I look up at my brother and he’s staring at me dumbfounded. I guess it’s a shock to see me like this and it must be dawning on him that this is actually a serious situation.
I wave my hands in front of his face to get his attention and say, “Calista has changed, too. It wasn’t just me, and what’s weird is this.” I reach over to touch his hand and he gasps with surprise.
“Oh, wow. This is some crazy shit. Where do you go from here?” He exclaims.
I rub my hands through my hair and down my face. I look at him in all seriousness.
“I don’t know, but I plan to ask Calista to marry me.”
He whistles, clearly astonished that I would take this step.
“Wow, Ryder, you have it bad and you haven’t even slept with her yet.” He creases his eyebrow. “Or have you?”
“No, we haven’t slept together yet, but we probably would have if we weren’t distracted by our bodies doing this.” I hold up my hands to clarify what I mean.
“I’m in love with her, Kalen, and it kills me that I have to leave today because she’ll be alone with her guardian,” I say, worried.
“She is always going to be alone with her guardian. That is just something you are going to have to get used to and get over,” he says.
“He pushed her to kiss him last night and he wouldn’t let her go. I saw it through her window last night.” Kalen gives me an exasperated look.
“And before you say anything, I was not snooping. I happened to be walking by and saw the whole thing. I was so angry I started a blizzard out there where I was standing. Elvena stopped me before I was able to charge through Calista’s window and beat the shit out of him.”
Kalen says in a worried tone, “I am glad she did. Can you imagine the uproar that would have caused if you attacked a Summer Court fae in their own court?”
I would never be allowed back in the Summer Court if I did that, even if Merrick did deserve it.
“I wouldn’t attack him unprovoked. I know of the repercussions I would face. When we get home I need to tell mom and dad of my plans to marry Calista. I also need to get Warren back to see Heyflred because he’s not acting normal, and I’m hoping Heyflred can use his magic to tell me what is wrong with him.”
“Speaking of Warren, he wasn’t in his room this morning. I have no idea where he would have gone so early,” Kalen replies.
This is not good. If he is unstable, there is no telling what he will do, especially since he has become more violent. I need to find him before he does something stupid.
I say assuredly, “I will take a look around and find him.”
I get up from the table and brush the crumbs off my shorts. Kalen takes a look at me again.
“Can I ask why you are dressed like that? You don’t plan on going to the meeting looking like that, do you?” No, but I don’t want to tell him what I’m hoping is going to happen. A little training won’t hurt anyone…much.
My brother is dressed in a nice blue, short-sleeve button down shirt and khaki pants. This was the first time I have ever seen him try to dress nice. He always wears nice things to the winter balls and other festivities, but I wonder why he would try so hard here. Who was he trying to impress?
I put on my sneakers and tie them up.
“I plan on doing a little hard core training with a live mannequin,” I tease and wink at him. “But the real question here is: why are you dressed like that?” I point at his ensemble.
“I just wanted to look nice for the ladies.” He straightens his shirt and gives me a look indicating I better not say anything else. I know he really liked talking to Calista’s sister last night. I decide not to say anything more about it.
I look at the clock and see it is time for me to go. I don’t want to arrive early for Calista’s training, I want to hang back and see how she fights.
“Do us all a favor, Ryder, and don’t hurt her guardian too much. He is the one that is supposed to protect her and he can’t do that with a broken neck,” Kalen teases.
“I’ll try, Kalen. He deserves a lot worse than a broken neck,” I say, frustrated. Thinking of what I saw last night just gets me so angry.
I head for the door and he follows.
“Have fun, brother.”
The anticipation of a fight has me all worked up. My muscles are tense and ready for action.
I give my brother a wolfish grin and say, “Oh, I plan to.”
I clap him on the back one good time and we head our separate ways. Now it is time to find Warren and then head to the field where Calista and Merrick will be training.
Before Training- Ryder
At the grand staircase I see many of the servants milling about getting things ready for the day. The meeting will be held in the Great Room where the ceremony was held last night. I look in the Great Room and it has completely changed, there is now a huge rectangular table in the middle of the room. Now that parts of the prophecy are coming true, I know the danger of the evil will be coming soon so we need to be ready when it does. Meeting with everyone from the different kingdoms will help us strategize how to keep everyone safe.
I turn around and Warren is standing right behind me.
“Good morning, Ryder.”
“Good morning, Warren. What have you been doing this morning? Kalen went to check on you earlier and you weren’t in your room.” I look down and notice some red, splotchy stains on his pants. It looks like blood so I lift my eyes to his questioningly and he averts his gaze and tries to cover the area with his hand.
An evil glint is in his eye when he speaks.
“I was out and about this morning taking a look around. I even saw the princess this morning, leaving with Merrick.” I flinch at the thought of them together, but I know they are on their way to the training ground.
“He is her guardian, they are always going to be around each other. They are just friends, nothing more,” I hiss.
Warren shrugs and says in a sing song voice, “That is not the way it looked to me. They looked awfully comfortable with each other. I would say they had a pretty good night last night.”
If I didn’t know any better I would say he’s trying to goad me into something. He doesn’t want me with Calista, but I wonder what he has to gain by it. I also can’t help but wonder if he speaks the truth. Calista did tell me that she didn’t completely turn him down last night. She just said she didn’t love him in that way, but that she does love him. Surely she is not going to give him a chance, especially not after what we shared last night.
>
“Ryder, you are being completely naïve if you think you can compete with their bond. He feels her every emotion and he can get inside her head. He will always know what she wants and when she wants it.” I turn my head away and I really wish he would just shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear this shit. He continues.
“It’s every guy’s dream to be able to know what their woman wants and be able to please them. You don’t stand a chance with her, not completely. They have known each other for years and you have only known her for one day.” He pauses and the evil gleam is back when he says, “I also saw them kissing and all over each other. He had his hands in some pretty interesting places from what I could see. I don’t think there’s anything ‘just friendly’ about that.”
That got my attention so I twist my head to look at him. His expression is blank so I can’t tell if he is telling the truth or not. My heart is pounding and my head is spinning. The air around me is starting to change, which means I am about to lose control. I turn away from Warren to head outside and gather my thoughts. If I see Calista and Merrick right now there is no telling what I will do. Please don’t let Warren be right about what he said he saw.
I walk to the willow tree to gather my thoughts. The colored leaves are still on the ground where Calista and I were last night. I take a seat on the leaves and watch the kelpies swimming in the lake. I don’t mind fighting for Calista because I love her, but if she does have feelings for Merrick I am not going to sit by and watch. I refuse to share the woman I love.
The anger is not going to dissipate so I might as well keep going and interrupt the training. I walk the half mile to the field and I sit, watching silently. Calista’s moves are amazing and graceful. Even though I’m pissed, watching her stretch and move her body in that limber way is turning me on. I can only imagine how much Merrick enjoys this time with her. He better keep his hands to himself. I notice him checking out her body while she bends down to grab the daggers. He’s going to have two huge black eyes for that, once when I’m finished with him. I can’t hear what is being said, but she is pointing a dagger at him and motioning like she is going to use it. I wish she would. If what Warren says is true, then maybe I can find proof, so I’m just going to sit here and watch.