He closed his eyes, and this time Naveenah rushed to his side, but he pushed her gently back.
“I only ask…that you try.”
He drew two short breaths, then fell to the floor unconscious.
“Antares!” Naveenah feel to her knees beside him.
Violet shrieked and turned her head away.
Nikolai rushed over, falling to the floor beside Naveenah. She patted Antares’s cheeks and called his name, but nothing. She saw his chest rise and fall, but her heart seized in terror nonetheless when she heard Rosalind shriek, “Oh my God, he’s bleeding!”
She looked over her shoulder at Rosalind, then moved her gaze to where she was pointing. She didn’t know how she could have missed it before. Though his long coat was made of a rather vibrant pattern, there was a dark wet patch growing as she looked at it.
“Help me get this off him!”
Rosalind and Violet helped her pull his coat off as Nikolai pulled the table linens from the table and folded them, pressing them down on the spot in Antares’s side where the blood seemed to be coming from. He took Naveenah’s hand and placed it atop.
“Hold this. I am getting help. It will take time. Will you be all right?”
“It’s dark. It’s not safe.”
“He is my brother and I do not care about the dark.”
He began to stand, but Naveenah grabbed him with one hand. She stared up into his eyes, begging him not to go. Selfishly she thought to herself that she could not bear to lose them both.
“Sienta, I will take men with me. I will be careful, and I will return with help.” He squeezed her hand lightly. “Hold that down. Talk to him. I will be back.”
She nodded agreement and let him leave, then readjusted her position on the floor so she could better apply pressure to the wound.
“Rosalind, help me for a moment.” She allowed Rosalind to hold the linen in place while she maneuvered herself on the floor so his head would rest in her lap. Then she took back the job of applying pressure while she stroked her fingers through his hair. “Thanks.”
Even Beatrix and Violet looked contrite as they stood huddled together looking down at her. “What can we do, Naveenah?”
She honestly didn’t know. “I’m so scared, Beatrix.”
“You’ve really come to care about him, haven’t you?”
Tears began to form in her eyes as she looked up at Violet, not caring anymore what the girls thought of her. “I love him.”
“I will admit, he’s much more passionate and charming than I ever would have given him credit for.”
Violet came down on her knees beside them and lightly brushed his hair before withdrawing her hand quickly as if she’d been bitten. Naveenah sent up a silent prayer to a God she knew on Earth, or thought perhaps she had. She didn’t care right now. She’d take any help she could get.
Please save him.
The silence in the room was too thick. She asked the musicians if they would continue to play, and they did so immediately. Naveenah knew she had to take charge of the situation, and rather than sit and worry herself senseless, she would continue with the girls where Antares had left off.
“Look, girls, we’re in the situation we’re in for whatever reasons. Maybe it was fate or destiny or a higher power righting something that had been set wrong. Maybe it was just a fluke or a bad chunk of luck, but why not just make the best of it? We’ve spent four years as prisoners. I know you all want to go home, but why? I think I just wanted to go home because it would be like righting the wrong done to us in some way. I felt like Antares sending me home was the only way to make what he did right, but now, now I’m not as sure. We can’t ever get back the time we lost and I can see what he wants to do here. It’s such a good thing. I know I didn’t have much of a life back home, if I’m truthful, and here, well I feel needed and valued in a way I never have in my life before. I’m not sure I want to leave that.”
She brushed her fingers through his hair and checked to make certain she was still holding the wound properly.
“I didn’t want to make anyone angry,” Rosalind put in shyly, “but I find the idea of reforming and repopulating a planet incredibly exciting! Humanity suffers without purpose, and there is no purpose for me back on Earth. I think I’d quite like to be a part of Antares’s vision.”
“Have you girls lost your minds?” Beatrix put her fisted hands on her hips. “They kidnapped us! That makes them kidnappers! And just like that, you want to forgive and forget and trust them at their word? If we were smart, we’d finish him off while he can’t fight back, then find the ships they brought us here in and escape!”
“Because you suddenly know how to fly a spaceship, B?”
“Violet! I thought you were on my side.”
“I’m not, not on your side. I’m just saying your plan is flawed. Plus, you could really commit cold-blooded murder?”
Naveenah held her breath, realizing Antares wasn’t taking any more breaths of his own. Panic tried to force its way in, but she held it back.
“You may not have to commit murder. He isn’t breathing anymore.”
Chapter Sixteen
“You ask too much, Nikolai.”
“He is my brother, Llil.”
Nikolai knew his plea would not fall on sympathetic ears, but he had hoped they would see the sentimentality of it and—quite frankly—that they would reward his years of serving the council by honoring this one request. Llil turned from him. She looked the part of a villain—black hair nearly to her ankles in sharp contrast to the deep red dress she wore—but he knew her kindness firsthand. He prayed she would not refuse him now when he needed her most.
“He is son of Morgof.”
“I am son of Morgof!”
“You are son of Valeer.”
Nikolai growled. Her argument made no sense. Although he had inherited the powers of the nay-chi from his mother and Antares had not, their parentage was identical.
“He’s dying, Llil. I do not have time for this! We may already be too late to make it back to the city in time. I need you.”
He glanced around at the rest of the council, sitting quietly around a long table. They at least looked as though they were thinking about his plea. Although he knew he would find no help from them if Llil did not give her blessing.
“You come here, smelling of johoree, expecting me to…”
Nikolai’s rage was swift and great. “She is not johoree!” He growled menacingly, warning her to shut the hell up. He had no time to challenge her on this, but he would not stand by and allow Naveenah to be degraded in that way and do nothing. Llil stalked across the cold and dark room. She swiveled her head to look back at him, her eyes questioning. Everything else about her had gone still.
“Oh? What is she then? Is she rianu?”
Her voice was soft and questioning, and Nikolai began to sweat. Rianu, life mate, was a very serious claim to make in the nay-chi, most of his kind never mated and never in their history had anyone made the claim about anyone not nay-chi and had it stand. It was a commitment unlike anything in their world and something he did not think he could do without having told Naveenah everything. When he had tried before, it had not gone well and he had to take her memories from her. He hated it and prayed he would never be forced into that position again with her.
“She is rianu?”
Llil’s voice grew in strength and anger as she turned back to him, preparing her challenge. Nikolai could fight her, surrender Naveenah, or let his brother die. He did not like his choices. He needed to defuse the situation, but there was only a yes or no answer to that question. As nay-chi, it was not a matter of waiting to see. When a nay-chi met his rianu, he knew instantly, or so the legend spoke. The day he touched her in the encampment, the shiver had traveled up his spine and fused itself to his heart. Yes, he had known then that she was his, but it had been a long journey to complete acceptance.
Llil caught him off guard and in a heartbeat had a dagger pointe
d at his throat. Her anger was so ferocious it was like an entity itself alive in the room with them.
“You are in line to lead our people, Nikolai. Your rianu should be one of us.” Her tone was dark and menacing and by one of us, he knew she meant her.
Quickly, he disarmed and off–balanced her. Pinning her arm behind her back, he pulled her tight against him.
He snarled against her ear, “We are not rianu and you bloody well know it, Llil. I didn’t decide that. The gods did. Don’t you dare take it out on my brother!”
He released her, shamed but unharmed. He watched as she eyed the council. He had tried to contain the situation. His was a people of deep spirituality, but also of great honor. If she felt dishonored by his move, there would have to be a contest held, and he did not have the luxury of time for that either. This whole debacle was not going well at all. He had tried to go the proper channels, and now he was wondering if he’d been mistaken in that decision.
He stepped up to the table, doing an end run around Llil, which was all but forbidden, but with Antares bleeding to death on his own damn floor, Nikolai was done trying to appease these people.
“Council…” He released a breath and decided to drop all formality for the moment. “Boaz, Hrife, Juelle, Cecil. We are long friends. You each have been more to me than council. You, Boaz, and Juelle have helped to raise me. You have taught me of our ancient ways. Helped direct my abilities. You protected me when I was too young to protect myself and never treated me as second class, despite my status as only half nay-chi. Since I returned to Vaturia, I believe I have served you all well. I have been loyal to you above all else through the wars, protecting our race and our secrets while I straddled both worlds, and not once have I complained. I realize what I ask is not our custom, but he is my brother. He is the leader of the people of Vaturia. They need him.” He felt emotion well in his chest, and his voice broke as he added, “I need him.”
Truly, he could not imagine his life without Antares. They had not grown up together, had lived very divergent paths, and though he wasn’t always good at showing it, he loved Antares to the depth of his soul, as much as it was possible for one brother to love another, and he would not simply stand by and let him die while he knew he had the power to save him.
“Perhaps today is the day our people come out of hiding and we begin a new Vaturia with peace between our peoples. We can stop living in shadow, pretending we are not what we are. I will intercede on our behalf. I know I can make Antares understand.”
He had feared this day, hoped it would never come. The day when he had to choose between his brother and himself, choose between the wanderlust so deep in his spirit and setting down roots. The nay-chi were expecting him to do so, but he was prepared to turn his back on them. For his brother’s life, however, he would willingly give up himself and the life he dreamed of and tie himself to this planet for all time. He loved Antares that much. How could he do any less?
“Nikolai, you make a pretty speech.” Juelle spoke with love towards him. “I even understand the great love you have for your brother. As I helped raise you, you helped raise him. It is understandable you would not want him to die, but to have our people step in, you are endangering our very lives. You know that since leaving the realm of Chibelle, we are no longer immortal. You know what happened to our people at the hand of your father. Yet you want us to trust his son.”
Nikolai’s skin grew cold thinking of the legends. He had been too small at the time of the chasse aux sorcières to know firsthand, but he’d been taught the truth of it intimately. He remembered the night his mother had come to him. Though he had been very young then, he would never forget the terror in her eyes. She wrapped him in warm clothing and handed him over to Boaz and Juelle. He never saw her again. He’d been told, however, that once his father had discovered what she was, he had her murdered, leaving an infant Antares motherless.
“It is true Antares was raised by our greatest enemy, that he believes the lies he was told. He fears us, but he loves me.”
“And you think your father did not love your mother? They were rianu.”
The statement infuriated him. He slammed his palms down on the wooden table, raising his voice, needing to be heard on this of all things. “The Vaturian do not have rianu. My mother was mistaken if she thought…”
“Yet you think your Vaturian johoree is rianu?”
He turned to Llil. It infuriated him for her to call Naveenah that word. Back against the wall, he was about to complicate matters and make everything worse, but he was in this up to his neck. For better or worse, he would put all his cards out on the table.
“She is not of Vaturia, she is of Earth. She is human.” He stalked closer, making certain he had her full attention, then purposefully answered, “And, yes, she is rianu.”
After a shocked gasp, the room fell silent. Something happened to Nikolai in that moment that was practically indescribable, a sense of fulfillment, of destiny. He closed his eyes while a wave of heat washed over him. He heard another gasp and a small commotion that sounded like the council had stood, but whatever it was that had taken him, it would not allow him to look. He spread his arms wide and released himself to the energy coursing through his body.
There was mumbling around him, but in his mind, he had left the hidden fortress all together. He stood in an empty room flooded with light. Something told him to kneel, and he did so, bowing his head the way he had to Antares so many times now.
“I am Taryn. Arise, good Nikolai.”
He stood to view the most beautiful female he’d ever seen in his life. Long waves of dusty-blonde hair spattered with pale lavender blossoms flowed to her waist. Her body appeared naked but brushed with crushed diamonds. Being in her serene presence made him forget nearly everything he ever thought mattered.
“I am one of the four sisters of Jaquar. Together we are a force in the universe, most often as caretakers. I am responsible for this planet’s well-being.”
He knew of the legendary sisters that were to keep the galaxy safe from the hands of the dark collective, but here on Vaturia he’d say she had failed miserably. He tried to get angry at her, demand she answer for her caretaking when the Vraigor occupied them and for his mother’s death, but it was impossible as all his emotions were deeply suppressed.
“I will not give you the answers you seek, Nikolai. I am here only to anoint you.” She approached him, then closed her eyes and began to pray in a language he did not understand. As her prayer continued, she brushed her hands over his head, starting in the middle, sliding to the right, then back to the middle and finally to the left.
When she finished, she stepped back and smiled. “You have come to meet your destiny, Nikolai. You must bring peace to your planet and fulfillment to the prophecy of the two brothers.”
Nikolai remembered that story from when he was young, a picture book Juelle had read him. The brothers were lion and jaguar and had been born of the humanoid parents. The village these brothers lived in feared them and the deep magic they represented. There was a lot of imagery in that story that had stuck with him all these years, but in the end, lion and jaguar came together to save the village from a darkness so thick it was suffocating every last thing that took breath.
“It will not be easy, Nikolai, but we know what you are capable of. Vaturia needs a rebirth, not only of her customs and her bounty, but of her heart and spirit. Work together with your brother and the reformation will be successful, but more, the nay-chi have lost their way. They have turned from the lore and the legends. You are to find the guardian council, rebirth your race and their purpose.”
She stepped back, but before this ended he had need of one answer to a question he could not let go. “What of Naveenah?”
Taryn spoke, her voice soft and sure, even as she faded from his view. “She will be the bond between you. All things work together for the good of he who created all.”
The light inside his mind became so blindingly b
right, then nothing but darkness encompassed him. Suffocating darkness like that the villagers must have experienced. Unable to breathe, he fell to the cold, muddied ground.
* * * *
The morning sunlight was starting to break into the darkness, and Nikolai had never returned. Naveenah tried to remain calm, but didn’t think she was doing a very good job of it. Nothing in her life had prepared her for any of this. She sat in a chair beside Antares’s bed, an enormous carved wooden frame with four posts reaching toward the ceiling while layers of fabrics in shades of blue and textures of velvet and silk draped its sides—a bed befitting a king, to be sure. She took the cloth and placed it back into the cold water and rinsed it before wiping down his face and neck again. He hadn’t regained consciousness yet, but the bleeding had stopped. That had to be a good sign.
She would never understand what had happened. If that wasn’t a miracle, then they didn’t exist. The girls were near hysterical, she herself devastated. He was dead. He hadn’t taken a breath for more than an hour, and his body had turned cold. She felt so damn helpless since all she knew to do was wait for Nikolai to return while her heart ruptured.
At one point her grief became too great and she fell over his body, not wanting to ever let go, thinking Nikolai would have to pry her off. She prayed to any entity that would listen to her, declaring her love for him—bold and unashamed, even if a bit hysterical. A heat began to radiate from his otherwise cold body that caused her to sit back on her knees. The room became still, the girls now silent, and she watched a white light flow over his body.
The light moved from his head to his booted toes, hovering over the wound only for a millisecond. The next thing she knew, he drew a breath. She clapped her hand over her mouth, not sure if she were dreaming, or if it were real, afraid to breathe herself lest the sight of him breathing again would dissipate like fog in the sunlight.
To Love a King [The Reformation 1] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour) Page 16