Fated Hope

by Sariah Skye

  Panting, Gabriel let the sword fall to his side. Reaching out a hand for me, he asked, “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, placing my hand in his. “I’m fine.”

  “Holy…” Ben from nearby said lowly, almost under his breath.

  “Shit,” I said, turning to grin at them sheepishly. “Are you guys okay?”

  “I…” he stammered, peeling off his green baseball cap with one hand and raking his other hand through his sparse hair. He let out a nervous giggle. “How—what are you?” He asked, staring intently at my wings.

  I sighed, holding up my palms. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Guys! A little help!” Finnian called. I looked over my shoulder; Ceceline was still bound but a weak drone was giving them grief, as well as a handful of Shadow tendrils.

  Gabriel leaned over and whispered into my ear. “Do what you gotta do, Leo,” he said, with a pointed look. I lifted my brow, and nodded. “I’ll help them out.”

  “Okay.” Gabriel patted my shoulder and dashed off to help quell the remaining Shadows who were surprisingly a lot weaker than the ones we’d just faced.

  “Are you an angel?” Ben asked, his face a mix of curiosity and fear.

  “I’m serious, you wouldn’t believe me. I’m nothing but a figment of your imagination.” I willed my wings to disappear into my body, and my skin pulled and tingled as they dispersed.

  I stared deeply into his eyes. Nothing happened here. You don’t remember the past twenty minutes. I summoned my dragon mist and with a flick on my hands, blew it towards them. I looked in everyone’s eyes, and repeated that mantra.

  One of the women’s eyes rolled back into her head. She released her grip on the child in front of her and fell to the ground.

  “Shit. Gabriel!” I called over my shoulder for the sorcerer.

  “Sec!” he called back. I watched as everything around me suddenly stood still. Finnian stepped forward.

  “Let me help,” he said, leaving Gabriel and Braeden to wrap up the last of the Shadows that had seeped from the portal. His eyes flashed white, no colored irises, and he clapped his hands before opening them widely.

  Suddenly, all the humans slowly fell to the ground.

  “Your compulsion is good, but I have to scrub their memories. We cannot risk exposure,” he said, with a sigh.

  “Has the mytho world ever been exposed to humanity in modern times?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yes. But that’s when the Loremasters intervene and scrub their minds.”

  I sighed. “Seems sort of unfair, doesn’t it?”

  He shrugged. “Perhaps. But until mythos decide that that’s what they want: to be known, I can’t allow humanity any knowledge of them. Just the way it is. Wars have started over knowledge of mytho creatures.”

  “But, what if anyone else saw?” Dense trees surrounded the park, but there were houses nearby. If anyone had been outside at the right time, they would have heard something.

  “Well, I’ll keep my eyes on the news. Anyone that reports anything suspicious we’ll have to return and intervene. But aside from going door to door, there’s nothing we can do. Scrubbing memories of something that may not be there will result in brain damage to the human; I can’t risk it,” he said with a sigh.

  I nodded towards the humans, now peacefully sleeping on the hard ground. “What about them?”

  “Well, they’ll simply remember eating some bad barbecue. They felt ill and sat down for a minute to recover. The won’t remember you, me or anything about us,” he said.

  “Okay.” I heard a hiss from nearby, the last of the Shadows had been vanquished.

  “I can hold time for another few minutes, but we need to get out of here before the spell is up, and they wake,” Finnian said. “Let’s clean this mess up.” And by mess, I could tell by the red that now flashed in his eyes and the thin line of his mouth that he meant Ceceline. “I’ll be right there.” Finnian began touching the cheeks of the sleeping humans, erasing their memories I assumed.

  Ceceline was still suspended in the magic shield. I crossed the field, narrowing my eyes at her.

  “Why? I thought Castle Danger and everyone was your friends?” I demanded.

  “I tried to save them! But this is how it ended up!” Ceceline’s form flashed back to her human/Loremaster stern expression before going back to bleak, formless Shadow. “Please, end this.”

  “How did you intercept the portal?” Gabriel demanded, raising the sword above his head and glaring menacingly.

  “The mage. Now that he’s Shadowtouched, I can dreamwalk with him and see what he sees. I know Finnian’s tricks, and I know what was going on. With the link to Connor, I was able to link to Finnian,” she said, her voice quavering. She shivered violently. “I am sorry, I didn’t want it to come to this. I—”

  “But how? Do you have that kind of power?” I challenged.

  “No, setting up portals and mind links is an arcane power. You have to have two arcane users to do it,” Gabriel explained before shooting her a dire look. “Isn’t that right?”

  “It was the black dragon. He did it! Oh please, just kill me. I can’t live like this!” She sobbed, falling to her feet in the shield and crumbling into a ball. “The…the pain!”

  “You gave yourself over willingly, it shouldn’t hurt?” I looked at Gabriel questioningly.

  “It wasn’t exactly willingly, I went without protest but I didn’t truly want to!”

  “Wait—black dragon? Who? Nicodemus was killed!” Wasn’t he? I was pretty sure I remembered Maxxus driving his blade through the black Shadow dragon asshole’s heart.

  “I don’t know, but the only portal user I know of in Anarach is Nicodemus,” Ceceline said.

  My eyes widened. I stared at Gabriel, then my brother with a look of horror.

  Nicodemus is still alive? Could it be? My heart skipped a sickening beat, and my stomach felt as if it sunk to my knees.

  “Yes, only he’s not entirely with it…he’s like…a shell. He’s a conduit for Cyril’s powers.” Ceceline’s hands flew to her ears, and she shrieked in terror and pain.

  Finnian was standing behind me, hands outstretched. He chanted a mysterious language, and Ceceline screamed before falling listlessly to the bottom of the shield.

  “You can raise the shield,” Finnian spoke, tonelessly. “She is of no danger anymore.”

  I looked at him in horror. “What did you do?”

  “She is dead.”

  I gasped. Her body disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only a dim glow before that dissipated too and flew into the air.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Only a Loremaster can kill another Loremaster. I ended her suffering, and sent her to the afterlife. She’ll pay a penance for her deeds before being reborn, maybe as a human, or something else. But, it will be a long time before she takes corporeal form again.” Finnian’s tone was dark as he spoke, his eyes dull with sadness.

  I grasped his forearm and gave him a sympathetic look. “I’m so sorry, Finn.”

  He brushed my hand away, but offered a bleak smile. “At least she is no longer suffering.” He fixed his expression from sad to serious, and pulled out another potion. Now that the portal was no longer riddled with Shadows, it appeared normal. He tossed another vial into the portal and it cracked slightly before shimmering a deep purple. “Let’s get out of here.” Without another word, we followed him into the portal, and back to Anarach.

  Chapter 11

  For the first time in weeks, I was alone.

  We arrived back in Anarach, Maxxus was still off on his secret mission—whatever it was. Gabriel and Finnian headed back to Castle Danger. I joined Braeden quickly for a walkthrough of the refugee village, but most everyone was turned down for the evening. Really, I wanted to check on Prelate Yarrem, but he was sound asleep under the watchful eye of Evie. She said he had asked about me, and I told her to tell him that he’s welcome in the castle whenever he is up t
o it; we had much to discuss.

  Braeden and I flew back to the castle where he met up with Kiarra who was just bringing me my evening meal. We hugged briefly before she and Braeden went off to do their thing for the evening. Whatever that thing was, I didn’t want to know. At one point Kiarra was worried he wouldn’t forgive her for her deception (working with the Loremasters in attempt to befriend me), but based on the salacious looks they were giving each other, I figured that notion was long forgotten. I still didn’t want to know anything about my brother’s sex life, thank you very much.

  I knew others were in the castle: a handful of guards, a couple of Court members but in the queen—my chambers, I was alone.

  Someone had taken the liberty of setting up my computer desk, and desktop computer. I knew it probably wasn’t Maxxus, because he didn’t have much knowledge of anything technical. But whoever it was forgot my desk chair, so I yanked over the plush chaise—after nudging my cat off (who opted for the bed instead)—and decided to use that, for now.

  The delegates from The Northlands and Dreka weren’t scheduled to arrive until late tomorrow afternoon. I tried to text Maxxus but received only a “Be there shortly!” reply and that was it.

  “Fine then.” I felt a bit uncomfortable in the large, cold room alone. Even though someone had lit a fire not long ago, it still felt chilly and empty without Maxxus. I sighed, tossing off my robes and rubbing at my upper arms with my hands crossed over my chest. I pressed the start button on the computer and decided that I was going to eat my dinner and watch a movie. I had dozens of them downloaded onto the hard drive.

  “I’m going to act like this is any other night,” I told myself factually. “This isn’t a castle… I’m not royal. Just a normal woman, on a normal night, doing normal things.” I searched the wooden armoire for a set of purple plaid pajama pants, a black tank top and zip-up gray hooded sweatshirt. I curled up onto the chaise and admired the tray of food that was left for me, uncovering the silver lid. My taste buds sang as I revealed a plate of steak fettuccine Alfredo, a large slice of garlic bread, white wine in a crystal goblet and a slice of chocolate cake.

  I was so glad right then that I wasn’t human. I had probably about a thousand calories sitting on my plate in the form of carbs, alcohol and cheese and I didn’t care.

  I selected a movie from my computer’s playlist; one of my favorite movies of the 1990’s, Clueless, and started to play it, while shoveling in the creamy pasta with a fork into my mouth.

  After about ten minutes of eating and watching I snorted, watching Alicia Silverstone ditz it up on the screen—my mother was right, I didn’t remember this movie at all. I was wondering now which other movies I didn’t recognize, when the chamber door opened and in entered a dirty, worn out looking Maxxus.

  “Where have you been?” I asked him, raising a brow. His hair was moist with sweat and slicked back, a lock of it escaping and falling over his forehead. A streak of black dirt—or soot? —grazed his cheek and his t-shirt was absolutely filthy. After a quick sniff—even from across the room—I could smell heady perspiration, wet earth, and smoke. It brought back a surge of memories and I remembered where I’d smelled that smell before.

  “You were forging, eh?” I asked, with a grin.

  He smiled back, taking the brown canvas sack he had slung over his shoulder off, and started to set it on the bed.

  “Ew, no!” I scolded. “It smells! I don’t want those sheets smelling like stinky dragon and sulfur!”

  Maxxus rolled his eyes. “Okay, your highness. I only oblige because you’re the queen, and you could behead me if you wanted,” he said, with a wink. He set the sack on the floor instead and lifted out a metal object.

  “What is it?” I said, narrowing my eyes. It appeared to be— “A tiara?”

  He nodded. “Exactly.” He held it out to me and I fingered it gently, after setting the plate of food down I realized I was still holding.

  It was a very simple, silver circlet meant to go around the head, with a slight point in the front. I tried to set it on my head and noticed that it was a bit small. “Well, this isn’t for me.”

  He snatched it out of my grip. “No, it’s not. It’s for that adorable little dragon—Daxie. I imbued it with my magic, and I was hoping that you could use yours and that it would help stave off the Shadow dreams. Like a protection amulet, just in crown form. I thought she’d like this better.”

  I placed my hand over my heart. “Aww…Maxx! That’s adorable! She will love it!” My lip quivered at the sentiment. “You spent all day making this for that cute little girl?”

  Maxxus’ cheeks flushed. “Well, sort of. The old shack was pretty nasty, I had to clean it up quite a bit. That’s what all this is,” he said, kicking at the bag on the floor. “Scraps and projects I started working on.”

  “Why bring it here, though?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Maybe I’ll have time to finish them up in between Court and whatnot.”

  I eyed the bag, raising a brow; curious to the other projects he’d been working on. “Like…what projects?”

  Maxxus gave me an impish grin. “Later, darling. You look fatigued, and I don’t want to wear you out. Yet. I have plans for you.” His lips turned up in a seductive smirk as he raised a thick brow.

  “Oh yeah?” I smiled. Maxxus closed the distance between us, and brushed my hair aside from my neck. Leaning over, he trailed a pattern of soft, warm kisses over the side of my neck and down to my collarbone; one of his free hands stroking the side of my arm teasingly.

  My eyes shut involuntarily, as my eyes rolled back. I let out a slow sigh as his kisses trailed lower, across my collarbone, and to the top of my cleavage.

  “Keep going,” I moaned, arching my back slightly to give him freer access to my breasts that were tingling in anticipation.

  He laughed playfully, pulling away. “Soon, darling. I really should wash up though, and you should finish your meal,” he said, nodding at the half-eaten plate of pasta I set in front of me.

  I frowned, feeling slightly breathless, my meal forgotten. “Oh, now you care that you smell.”

  He snickered. “You don’t want the bed smelling like forge, right?” He said with a wink, quickly reaching for one of my boobs and giving it a quick squeeze.

  I pretended to glare. “Don’t start what you can’t stop!”

  He winked at me. “Oh, I will start. Just give me ten minutes?” He blew me a kiss and headed for the washroom, shutting the door behind him. “And finish your dinner!”

  I scowled to myself. “Fine then.” I suddenly felt guilty, diving into my tasty meal when I realized I didn’t have anything for Maxxus. Even though my stomach growled, I set it aside, saving the rest for him. “Dammit. The things I do for the people I love.”

  “What’s that, highness?” He called from the other side of the closed door, as I heard the spray from the shower turn on.

  “Did you eat?” I called to him. “I can share!”

  “And how would it look taking my mate’s food?” he replied. “No, I’m fine, I had about five sandwiches and I know where to find more! Just eat!”

  “Fine then,” I mumbled yet again, grinning as I scooped up another mouthful of meat and pasta. I continued to watch the now unfamiliar movie and frowned. “Just not getting into this,” I said to myself, clicking the movie closed with the mouse, and sighing. Maxxus emerged from the shower, a large blue towel wrapped around his lower body.

  I raised a brow. “Why so modest?” I said with a snort. “The other day you were insistent I take a look at your dangly bits.”

  “Dangly bits?” He repeated, making a face. “I don’t think I like that terminology. And, I’m being a tease.”

  “A tease? You’re teasing me by wearing a towel?” I rolled my eyes. “You’re going to have to work on your stripping technique here. One motion and that thing is off.”

  “Well, truthfully I didn’t want to drip all over the floor again. Your cat is still glaring a
t me from the last time I took a shower and I got water all over. She went skidding across the floor. Now every time she sees me, she glares,” Maxxus said, with a laugh.

  “She glares?” I craned my head around in search of the calico cat. She had been sleeping soundly on my bed pillow, but when Maxxus emerged from the washroom, her eyes flew open; her ears slightly angled back. “Oh, yeah, she’s definitely glaring.”

  “I don’t want your cat to hate me. She doesn’t hate the sorcerer.” Maxxus was practically pouting at the mention of him.

  “She’s just wary around dragons. Can you blame her?”

  “No, I guess not,” he said with a chuckle. He closed the distance between us and reached out his hand, gently caressing the side of my lips with his thumb. “Got a little…right there.”

  “Sauce?” I lifted my hand to wipe it off, but he pushed it away. Leaning over, he lightly licked the splash of Alfredo off. Once the offending sauce was gone, he replaced it with his mouth.

  I sighed happily, letting my eyes slowly close as he pressed his lips against mine in a tender kiss. I slowly slid out of the chair to stand, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I pressed myself against his damp body. He instantly responded, by becoming rather solid below the waist. “Take me to bed,” I whispered, my eyes heavy with desire.

  “Whatever you wish, your highness.” He scooped me up in one swift motion and carried me to bed. Sona quickly darted off for the chaise in front of the desk, letting out a disgruntled meow as she ran.

  “This is sort of becoming a habit. Do you find me incapable of getting myself into bed?” I retorted as he stood beside me, carefully unwrapping the towel and allowing it to fall to the floor.

  “I think you’re capable of anything, but I like caring for you. You don’t allow anyone to do much for you without protest, but this you’ll allow. So, I’ll happily oblige,” he said, his face blushing with heat. I could hear his heart quicken as he leaned himself over me. I couldn’t help my hands as they involuntarily wandered over his chest, brushing away water droplets and replacing them with my heated touch.