by Elin Peer
To my surprise Randa Christine didn’t refuse. She hesitated, letting her eyes wander between me, Athena, and Tristan.
“There’s a school with children from the Motherlands, and Tristan could stay there with me and Athena. He would be surrounded by Motlanders and be completely safe,” I assured her.
“Mom, please, can I?” Tristan pleaded.
Her sigh was deep and pained. “All right, but only for a few days! And you’d better make sure to call me every day.”
CHAPTER 29
The Northlands
Athena
Finn flew Magni’s drone at high speed. Tristan was fascinated with the machine, and kept asking questions about it being a hybrid. All drones in the Motherlands were programmed to follow specific routes, and it was impossible for them to break any speed limits. Our drones were in no way as luxurious as this one. They didn’t have the functionality of the passenger’s being able to control them manually either.
Finn took it higher up than our drones normally flew. He said it was because he wanted to go as fast as possible. I suspected he didn’t want Tristan and me to see the destruction of our country.
We couldn’t avoid seeing the destruction by the border, though. The place was buzzing with little patrol drones that were flying around and from the air it was evident to see that although the wall still stood in most places, it had gaping holes in it.
“Look,” Tristan exclaimed and pointed down to where a large man in a leather jacket, lay still on the ground, with a drone hovering above him. “Do you think the drone killed him?”
“I hope not,” I whispered, but Finn didn’t seem interested in helping the man and instead he flew to the main gates.
“This is where I was when the earthquake happened,” he muttered and navigated the hybrid so far down that we were flying close to the ground and very slow.
Five patrol drones came from different directions and got in front of us, each flashing a red light.
“What do you think would happen if we just blasted through them?” Finn asked with a devious smile, although he was landing. “How would they stop a machine like this?”
“Let’s not find out,” I muttered and nodded to a Motlander guard who was approaching the hybrid. “It’s best if you let me do the talking.”
Finn shrugged and opened the door so we could talk to the border patrol.
The man looked troubled and stressed as he came closer, but as soon as he recognized my tattoos his expression changed.
“May peace surround you,” I said but stayed in my seat because of my leg.
The man stood in the door opening, his eyes scanning us three passengers. “The same to you,” he said with strained politeness.
“My name is Athena, and this is Finn and Tristan. Would you be so kind as to let us pass into the Northlands?”
The man’s vest gave a constant beeping sound, and twice he hit a button, but it kept going off. “It’s a nightmare with all the alarms going off all the time,” he mumbled. “I need to see your permission to cross the border.”
“That shouldn’t be necessary,” I said with confidence. “I’m a priestess, and you can trust me when I say that you won’t get in trouble for letting us across. You may recognize Finn as one of the five representatives that visited us these past ten days.”
“Hi there.” Finn smiled. “Sorry about the wall collapsing and all.”
The man kept getting alarms and his wristband was alerting him about unauthorized drones approaching.
“We are under orders to stop all Motlander women from crossing over to the Northlands.”
“I understand,” I said in a calm voice. “But I’m sure you would agree that a priestess is no ordinary woman.”
Again, his eyes ran over Tristan, Finn, and me, and he frowned. “I would still need to see a form of permission to let you through.”
Placing my hand on his arm, I looked into his eyes. “Much of our country is in rubble, and our doctors are scrambling to heal the wounded people. I too was injured today, and Finn, who is a doctor, has kindly offered to heal me, and bring me back when I’m better. You’re not going to deny me a chance to get medical treatment, are you?”
The guard’s eyes flew to Finn.
“Look, it seems you have enough to do with stopping drones from crossing from the other side,” Finn said pragmatically, and when the guard’s eyes rested on Tristan, Finn added a lie: “My son was part of the official Northland committee that participated at the ceremony earlier; maybe you saw him standing next to me?”
“I wasn’t here,” the guard said and looked over his shoulder to where a colleague was shouting for him. “I’m coming,” he shouted back and with frustration written on his face he swung back and locked eyes with me. “You are certain that you’re crossing the border of your own free will, and that I will not get in trouble for letting you through?”
“You have my word,” I said with a solemn expression on my face. With the promise of a priestess, we were allowed to pass into the Northlands.
I remained silent on the rest of the short flight – not least because my leg was starting to hurt again. A throbbing sensation made me afraid of moving it, and the wound itself burned.
Twenty minutes later Finn took the hybrid down and pointed to an island. “That’s Victoria’s island. It’s where the school is.”
“It looks so pretty,” Tristan commented, while I bit back groans of pain.
“Let’s hope that no one got hurt here,” Finn mumbled when the hybrid slowly lowered to the ground next to a large building.
“I see them!” Tristan exclaimed with excitement. “Look, they’re all coming out to greet us.”
He was right – children and adults were coming out to see who was arriving.
Tristan leaned forward in his seat. “I don’t see Magni.”
As soon as the hybrid was parked, Finn got out, and right away he was surrounded by a whole bunch of children that came to hug him. It was obvious that he was popular with them and when Tristan followed, questions rained down on them from all sides.
While Finn was distracted, the pain in my leg intensified. I stood in the doorway of the drone, afraid to take the big step down. I tried supporting myself on my other leg. Cold sweat sprang from my forehead as I suppressed the urge to scream.
A woman with black curly hair stepped forward and with a voice full of concern she nodded her head to me. “Welcome, priestess, we are honored to have you with us.”
Finn turned around. “Athena, this is Kya, the teacher who runs this school with her husband Archer.”
My fingers clung to the side of the door to hold myself upright and Finn’s smile vanished as he stepped closer. “Are you okay?”
Not one to make a fuss, I nodded and gave Kya a weak smile, “May peace surrou–” I was falling before I even realized it. The last thing I heard before I passed out was Finn cursing.
Drifting back to the surface, I heard the clear sound of a child’s voice singing to me.
It sounded angelic in its softness and when I opened my eyes, I found not one but two children sitting next to my bed staring at me. They were complete opposites in appearance with one being a blonde with blue eyes, and the other a cute girl with mocha colored skin, and the most fantastic curly black hair.
“Told you she was waking up,” the girl with brown eyes said to her friend.
I gave them a weak smile. “May peace surround you.”
“You don’t have to say that here,” the brown girl said. “You’re in the Northlands now, and they don’t care much about being polite.” She pointed to her friend. “That’s Mila, she’s the one who sang to you. My name is Raven, and I’m not very good at singing, but I’m good at pretty much anything else, especially fighting and climbing trees.”
“Are you two students here at the school?”
Mila nodded with a shy smile, while Raven bombarded me with information. “We’re both students at the school. There’re ten boys from the
Northlands and most of them are really annoying. No, I take that back, they’re all really annoying. And then there’s ten of us from the Motherlands, or maybe I should say eleven since a boy named Tristan just joined us, but I guess you know him since he came with you.”
“Yes, I know Tristan, and he’s only here for a few days,” I pointed out in a soft voice.
“That’s disappointing,” Raven said and wrinkled her nose. “Because I really like him.”
“Do you know where Finn is?
“Oh, that’s right.” Raven jerked back and got up from her chair. “We were supposed to get him as soon as you woke up.” With quick instructions for her friend to watch me, Raven sprinted out the door.
“You’re very pretty,” Mila whispered. “I’ve been looking at your tattoos.”
“You’re very pretty too, and you have a beautiful voice,” I reciprocated.
Her smile grew a little and revealed the most adorable dimples.
“My father has tattoos too.”
“He does?” I was surprised because not many Motlander men had tattoos.
She nodded. “He has a big one on his neck, and several on his chest and arms. But I like yours better than Magni’s.”
Pushing myself up on my elbows, I frowned. “I’m sorry, I think I heard you wrong. Did you just call Magni your father?”
“Uh-huh.” She straightened up, looking proud. “He’s not my real dad, it’s just something we pretend.”
The contradiction between this angelic child and the beast of a man who had kidnapped me and almost frightened me to death was mind-boggling.
“You’re not afraid of him?”
Mila smiled. “No, but some of the other children are. He can be a bit grumpy sometimes.”
Describing Magni as grumpy was about as misleading as describing the earthquake we had just experienced as a small shiver. The young girl clearly cared about Magni, so I chose to nod my head without going into further details.
A minute later, Finn walked into the room, telling Mila that she had been very helpful and that she could return to her friends now.
“You should’ve told me that you weren’t feeling well,” he said with a worried look and sat down on the side of the bed. “You were lucky that I caught you before you hit the ground, or you could have added a concussion on top of the leg injury.”
“Thank you for catching me,” I said.
“You’re welcome.” He smiled. “I’ve cleaned the wound and you slept for four hours.”
“Four hours?” I said in a high-pitched tone.
Leaning in, Finn caressed my face. “Your body needed it. It’s got a lot of healing to do.”
“I feel a lot better now.” While I was saying the words, my hands snaked around his neck. I only had to look at his lips for him to kiss me.
“Mmm, you don’t know how good that feels,” Finn muttered in a hoarse voice. “If your leg was better I wouldn’t let you out of this room before I had made love to you again.”
Our kiss deepened. I poured all my emotions into it. The regret that had filled me when he left my house with pain written on his face. The sadness in my chest when I missed him. The horror when I was bleeding to death on my floor thinking that I would never see him again. And my gratitude to him for coming back and saving my life.
“I love you,” I whispered.
Finn pulled back a little, looking at me with narrowed eyes. “Last time you said those words, they didn’t seem to mean a lot to you. That last morning, after we had made love, you couldn’t wait for me to go.”
“That’s not true,” I said and fisted my hands in his hair. “I just didn’t see a way for us to be together.”
“I offered to stay with you.”
“The Council will never let you,” I objected. “And I couldn’t imagine leaving the Motherlands.”
Finn pulled my hands out of his hair and interlaced our fingers. “Athena, I don’t know how we’re going to make this work practically. I just know that we have to. There’s no way you’re convincing me to walk away from you again.”
I placed a kiss on the back of his hand, and looked into his eyes. “I’m not asking you to walk away from me.”
Finn exhaled in relief. “Good! We have a lot to talk about.”
Loud voices from outside the cabin made me look up and ask, “Where’s Tristan? Is he all right?”
“Yes.” A smile spread on Finn’s lips. “The children had heard about Tristan from Magni, and since he’s the oldest, they’re all interested in him.”
“But why are they shouting? It sounds very hostile.”
“Oh, that’s nothing.” Finn said nonchalantly. “It’s just some of the Nboys and Tristan fighting. They’ve been at it on and off for hours.”
I pushed at him to get up. “If they hurt Tristan, Randa Christine will never forgive me.”
Finn supported me to the door with a small chuckle. “Don’t worry, they’re just teaching Tristan some techniques. I know Magni would’ve done it himself, but right now everything is pretty chaotic at the border and he’s too busy to be here.”
When Finn opened the door, it was dark outside. “What time is it?” I asked.
“Half past eight, I think.”
“Tristan,” I called out and the noise quieted down as a group of four boys turned to look at me.
“Athena, how are you feeling?” Tristan exclaimed and came running to me with red cheeks and his breath showing in the night air. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
“I’m fine.” My eyes moved past him to the other three boys, who were taking me in with curiosity. “Would you introduce me to your new friends?” I asked, softening my voice.
Tristan bowed his head to me, before he turned and swung his hand towards the boys. “This is Solo, Storm, and Hunter.”
With Finn by my side, I moved out of the cabin and down from the porch to meet the Nboys. It surprised me how handsome they were.
“How old are you three?” I asked because they looked more like masculine young men than boys.
Tristan grinned. ““I’m the oldest. I’m even older than Solo.” He pointed to the tallest of the three boys, who was the same height as Finn.
“My name is Storm, and I’m thirteen years old.” The boy in the middle raised his hand in a wave.
“I’m Hunter and I’m twelve,” the next boy informed me. “My twin sister is here too; her name is Willow.”
“Fascinating.” I gave him a smile. “Did you know her before you came here?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “I didn’t even know I had a sister.”
“What went through your mind when they told you she was your sister?”
Even from this distance I could tell his cheeks blushed a little. Hunter looked down and kicked at some gravel. “I probably shouldn’t say that in front of Solo.”
Solo whipped his head in Hunter’s direction. “Why not?”
Hunter lifted his gaze and looked straight at Solo. “Because you wouldn’t like it.”
Solo crossed his arms and furrowed his eyebrows. “Did you have a crush on Willow or something?”
“Of course he did,” Storm said and snickered. “We all did. But now we’re happy she chose you, because none of us wants that awful haircut of yours.”
Solo’s hands flew up to his hair, which was cut close to his scalp. He wasn’t as muscled or broad-shouldered as Finn or the other fully grown Nmen that I had seen, but he was getting there.
“Magni found Solo and Willow kissing a few weeks ago and he went ballistic,” Finn explained to me.
“That’s an understatement,” Hunter said. “The man shat a sheep, and we all thought he was going to kill Solo for real.”
“That’s horrible,” I exclaimed, hoping that the boys were exaggerating.
“Magni had every right to be angry,” Finn defended his friend. “Men in this country have been killed for less, and for good reason. With ten thousand men to one female, rigid laws are the only way w
e can protect our women, and just for the record…” Finn said and lowered his voice into a threatening growl, “Athena is mine.”
I gaped at him. “Was that necessary? They are merely boys.”
Finn lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t care. You might see them as boys, but each one of them has the strength to force himself on you. You’re a beautiful woman, and I know how horny boys can get.”
Tristan looked dumbfounded. I just shook my head and apologized to the boys on Finn’s behalf.
“No, it’s all right,” Solo assured me. “We would expect nothing less from a husband.”
“Finn isn’t my husband,” I hurried to say.
“I’m as good as her husband,” Finn claimed. “The rest is technicalities.” Tightening his grip around my waist, he looked down at me and smiled. “Come on, beautiful, there’s food to eat, and more people to meet.”
CHAPTER 30
War
Finn
Everyone wanted to meet Athena, and hear about her role as a priestess. Some of the youngest children asked if they could touch her tattoos. It was easy to see that Athena was comfortable with children and used to being around them.
Kya was excited to have the company, and kept bringing her more food and drinks.
“Christina was here earlier, hoping to meet you,” she said. “But you were sleeping for so long. Now that she’s pregnant she gets so tired at night. She’ll be back tomorrow though.”
“Finn.” Kya pinned me with a worried glance. “How long can you stay? We only have a minimum of damage, but the roof is leaking and I was hoping that you, Archer, and Marco could repair it tomorrow morning.” She looked up at the ceiling. “I would’ve asked Alexander, but Khan called him and Magni to the Gray Mansion.”
“I know, he called for me too.”
Athena’s glass of water stalled midair when she froze, and asked me, “You’re not leaving us here, are you?”
I looked in the direction of Tristan, who was glowing with excitement and speaking with new friends.