She sniffles and tries to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand. Her lips curve into a hopeful smile. “Then why did you save me? If you didn’t have a fated mate, why would you risk your life for me?”
I feel a lump in the back of my throat. “I saved you because your smile brightens my day,” I say. I stop pacing and sit down next to her, putting my arm around her. “I saved you because of how you turn pink when you catch me appreciating your beauty. I saved you because you are a good person and so full of hope. I saved you because your existence makes this harsh world a better place.”
“I didn’t need to know that you were my fated mate to want to protect you,” I say. “It pains me immeasurably to say that I don’t have a fated mate. But you deserve better than a lie.”
“That’s why I didn’t fill your belly with my seed,” I say, my voice low. “A child born to a Tulani outside a fated pairing is doomed to a short, sickly life. You deserve better than that, and so does your would-be child.”
She looks at me with her glistening eyes. I don’t know what more I can say to make this all better.
She leans into me and presses her wet cheek against my shoulder. My chest begins to vibrate with a soft purr. “How do you know I’m not your fated mate if you don’t know your prophecy?” she asks.
It’s my turn to give her a quizzical look. “What do you mean?” I ask. “The Blind Witch weaves our fate and reveals it to us in a vision. I broke our traditions. How could I have a fated mate?”
She shakes her head. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she says. “That’s not how fate works in any of the stories I’ve read.”
“Stories?” I ask. “Like what?”
“Well, like in Lord of the Rings,” she says. She perks up and wipes the last of the tears from her eyes. “The prophets give you your fate, no matter what. You don’t have to hear the prophecy to be bound by it. And no matter what, your fate comes true. You can’t fight it.”
“That’s just a story,” I say. “And it’s a human story. I am Tulani.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But it doesn’t matter,” she says. She grins wickedly. “You aren’t getting rid of me that easily.”
“I would never try to get rid of you,” I say.
Rhea sits up on her knees and kisses my cheek. Her lips brush away a single tear I do not remember shedding. “I know, you big blue lug,” she says. “I was just joking. I figured it was a good change from yelling at each other.”
“What I’m trying to say is that there are all kinds of ways your fate could work,” she says. “And our fates are woven together. I know it. I knew it when you declared yourself my Champion. I knew it before then, too, I think. But I certainly knew it when we made love.”
I feel the heat rising in my cheeks. Am I really blushing?
She smiles at me and kisses me on the cheek. “So the Tulani can blush too?” she laughs. “I love it. We are definitely fated mates. You think I’d let anyone else put a cock that big into me if I didn’t know they were my fated mate?”
I feel a rush of jealousy at the mere thought of her with another man. I have to fight the urge to punch the ground to unleash some of my anger. Would I feel like this for someone who was not my fated mate? Could she truly be mine?
She picks a couple of green drops from the cave floor. “There’s an easy way for us to find out if I’m right,” she says with a proud smile.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“We climb this mountain and ask the Blind Witch,” she says. “Easy, right?”
I try to think of the old stories our elders would tell in the moonlight. But I don’t remember any stories like this. “But that’s impossible,” I say. “I broke with our traditions. I have lost my birthright. She would never see me.”
“You’re thinking about this the wrong way,” she says. “You are a renegade. You make your own rules. Demand your birthright. Hear your prophecy and I promise you, she will tell you I am your fated mate."
Her face is so full of hope. She makes me want to believe. Maybe it’s time I make my own moonlight story?
I dig my fingers into the ledge and pull us up onto the mountain shelf. Rhea climbs off my back and drops to the ground next to me. She’s gasping for air, trying to catch her breath. The air up here is too thin for her, and it takes much of her strength to hold on to me.
She tried to argue with me, demanding that I let her climb on her own, but she can’t see well at night and she can’t withstand the climb during the day. She wants so badly to prove her strength to me. Just as I want so badly for her to let me carry her when she needs it.
“Are we there yet?” she asks.
“Yes,” I say and point to the cave entrance. It is exactly as it was described to me in our ancient tales. A cave mouth carved in a perfect half circle. With carvings from the famed stores of the ancient Tulani.
I feel my heart pounding in my chest, not from the exertion, but from being so close to what I have avoided for so long. I look at the small, pale creature beside me. So beautiful even in her exhaustion. Filled with so much strength and so much hope, that she was able to convince me to continue the quest I abandoned so long ago.
“Ok,” she says, once she’s caught her breath. “Time to cross the Rubicon.”
“What?” I ask.
“Oh, never mind,” she says. “I hope you like to read, because you’re going to have a lot of reading ahead of you if you’re ever going to stop asking me ‘what.’”
I smile at her. “I’ve never been much of a reader,” I say. “But I’m willing to change for you.”
She sits up and smiles at me adoringly. “Time for your date with the Blind Witch,” she rephrases. “If she asks you why you stood her up, just tell her you got lost and were too stubborn to ask for directions. Works every time.”
I pull her into my embrace and we share a deep kiss. I want to taste her one last time. To feel the bliss of being with my fated mate. Even if the Blind Witch sends me away in shame for my failure to live up to my clan’s tradition.
I step out of the moonlight and into the unlit cave. I take each measured step warily, as a warrior in enemy territory. My eyes quickly adjust to the darkness, and I see that the path curves and drops into the mountain.
I hear a low voice humming a familiar tune. I know it, but I can’t place it in my memories. As I step closer, I can hear the crackling of a fire. A soft breeze flows from the cave entrance, deep into the bowels of the mountain.
The flowing air makes the hair on my arms stand on their ends and I stop and reach instinctively for my axe. I resist the urge to arm myself. I need to stop being a foolish child. There is no threat to me here but my own thoughts.
I force my legs to carry forward again, step by step. As I get closer, I recognize the tune. It’s the lullaby my mother sang to me when I was a small child. I am reminded of her beautiful face. So caring, so strong. I miss my mother, and I regret that I never cried to mourn her passing.
I round a wide curve in the tunnel and see the light from a fire around the bend. The fire throws the shadows of a hunched figure on the wall.
I breathe deeply and prepare myself for what’s to come and step forward into the light. She faces away from me, leaning close to the small fire. I see a wrinkled old hand, grayed with age, throw a dried dung pellet into the fire.
She stops humming the lullaby and says, “Come, my child. Sit and enjoy my fire.” Her voice is strong, and it doesn’t show her age.
I step around her and squat before her fire. I see her shriveled face in the fire light and gasp in disbelief at what my eyes perceive. “The legends are true,” I whisper to myself.
“Do I show my age so poorly, my child?” she laughs. “Come now. Sit. You need not be ready to spring to action. There is no danger for you here, Orion.”
My mouth gapes in awe. “You know my name?” I ask, as I move to the small pillow she gestures to and take a seat.
“Does a mother not know the name of her childre
n?” she asks. “Does she not recognize them by their mere footsteps?”
“I don’t understand,” I say.
“I know, my child,” she says. “That is why you are here. To understand your place in the world. To know your fate.”
I nod in agreement.
“Tell me, my child,” she says. “How many times have you been struck on your hard head that you come to me with the question on your tongue?”
“I don’t understand,” I say. Is she having fun with me?
“Yes, we have been over that,” she laughs, before it turns to a hacking cough. “You don’t understand. That is why you are here. You haven’t learned how to trust your feelings.”
I remain silent. I do not know what more to say. Did I just come here to be mocked before being sent on my way without any answers?
“Do not be angry, my child,” she says in a mother’s chiding but loving tone.
I try to interrupt her, to tell her I am not angry. But she raises a hand and interrupts me before I can speak. “It is natural to be angry,” she says. “You do not offend me. I know my people, and we are all quick to anger, are we not?”
I nod, struck dumb. Does she know my thoughts? None of the stories ever spoke of this.
She stares into my eyes with her milky yellow, blind ones. “I can see as well into your thoughts as I can see your beautiful body.”
I can’t help but laugh. I’m starting to like this crazy old lady.
“Tell me, child,” she says, and rubs her bony hands over the small fire. “How is it that you became such a fool that you need me to answer the question in your thoughts?”
“I don’t under….” she cuts me off before I can finish.
“Yes, yes,” she says, laughing. “A third time, we’ve been over this. You don’t understand. But that is not why you are a fool.”
“How is it that you can kiss your fated mate without knowing she is yours?” she asks. “How is it that you can make love to her without knowing you were fated to be together?”
“Have you taken to traveling in the day?” she asks. “Has the sun baked your good sense inside your thick skull?”
“Do you mean….” I start to say, but she cuts me off again.
“Do I mean that she is your fated mate?” she asks. “Do you still need to ask?”
She reaches for her walking stick and raps me on my head. I’ve not felt this foolish since I was a small child. Have I truly been this much of a dolt? Have I known all along?
Her wrinkled cheeks gain more wrinkles as she smiles widely. “Ah, there it is,” she says. “The dawning of understanding. That is good. One must know he is a fool before he can become wise, and you have just taken that first step.”
I sit there in silent awe, not knowing what to say.
“Rise my child, take your first steps as a man who will one day be a wise man,” she says. “Go to Rhea, your fated mate. Plant a deep kiss on her lips, and tell her I wish to meet her and speak her prophecy.”
I thought I was speechless a moment ago, but now I am struck dumb and without thoughts. The Blind Witch wants to speak a prophecy to Rhea? I have never heard of her giving prophecy to any outside the Tulani. Not even Queen Naruni.
I nod slowly. Not to signal my understanding, but to acknowledge that I will do as she wishes, and I think she knows that. I rise to my feet and head out to see my fated mate. My fated mate.
11
Rhea
I sit on the ground, impatiently waiting for Orion to return. How long has it been? I wish I had my comms, but of course Kole didn’t return that to me when he let me go. That horrid man didn’t even give us water. I can’t help but wonder how close his men are to finding us. I’m terrified of what Kole would do to me if he ever laid his hands on me again. But I know Orion will protect me. He won’t let anything happen to me.
I jump to my feet when I hear footstep from inside the cave. Orion steps out, wearing a confused expression on his face, but his eyes light up as soon as he sees me.
He steps up to me, pulls me into his embrace by my hip, holds the back of my neck, and gives me a long, deep kiss. I want to keep kissing him when he pulls away from me. His confused look has been replaced with the happiest look I’ve ever seen him have.
My heart beats rapidly in my chest. Like this is the moment I have been living for my whole life. “What did she say?” I ask breathlessly, wrapping my arms around him.
His smile grows even wider, his sharp teeth glistening in the moonlight. I hear a soft purr from his chest.
He squeezes me tightly against him and plants a kiss on top of my head. “She told me I was a fool,” he says. I hear the trembling of deep emotion in his voice. “She asked me how it was that I could not know you were my fated mate when we first kissed.”
I sag in his arms, and he holds me tightly against him. I press my face into his chest and let my tears of joy drip onto his chest. I want this moment to last forever. I lean my head back and look into his beautiful golden eyes. He leans down and our lips touch again.
I dig my nails into his back and nip at his lips. I want him to take me right here, under the moonlight. I want to remember this moment forever.
He reluctantly pulls away from our kiss. “What is it?” I ask.
He hesitates for a moment before speaking, an unreadable expression now defining his features. “She wants to see you,” he says.
“What does she want from me?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he says. “She told me to go, kiss you deeply, and tell you that she wants to give you a prophecy.”
My mind reels as I stand there, blinking. What prophecy could a Tulani seer have for me?
“I think I had that same look on my face when she told me,” he says with a grin.
I laugh and shove his chest, but I don’t even budge him. “It’s not every day someone offers to show you your future,” I say. “Do you think I should go?”
“The choice is yours,” he says with a shrug. “I am not the best person to ask when it comes to seeing the Blind Witch. What I do know is that you would be the first outside our clan to see the Blind Witch. Ever.”
“Okay. I was planning on going, but that seals the deal.” Finally, I’m going to have something I can put over on Astrid. She may have been the first human to see an alien, sleep with an alien, and bear a child with an alien. But I’ll be the first to see the Blind Witch. That’s something!
I squeeze my fated mate one more time and brush his lips with mine. “Don’t you go anywhere.”
We unwrap from each other and he grabs my hand, squeezing it one last time before letting me plunge into the dark cave.
As I walk past the last remnants of the moonlight, I take the green drops into the palm of my hand and use them to light my way. Their green light is weak and doesn’t travel far, but it’s enough to guide my way until I see the light of the Blind Witch’s fire.
I turn the bend and hear her call out to me in a strong voice. “Come my child. Join me by my fire.”
I walk around her and take my seat on a small pillow opposite her. It is embroidered with a name written in Tulani script: Celeste. What a beautiful name. I could see myself naming my daughter that if I could ever have one.
“Tell me, my child,” she says with a wide, wrinkled smile. “Is Orion as beautiful as I imagine?”
I feel myself blushing. I feel bad for her, but I’m glad she can’t see me right now. “Yes,” I whisper. “More beautiful than you would believe.”
She chuckles. “I can smell the green drops you brought with you,” she says.
“Oh, yeah.” I hold them out to her.
“They are not for me,” she says. “Take one. And only one. You may leave the rest with me.”
I put all but one of the drops onto the cave floor next to the Blind Witch. I squeeze the remaining one between my thumb and fingers. It feels soft like a mushroom, but with a liquid pocket in its center.
I bring it up to my mouth and hesitate for a m
oment. What if this thing hurts me? I see the Blind Witch leaning forward slightly, watching me with her blind eyes. Astrid wouldn’t hesitate. Do what she would do: dive in with reckless abandon.
I open my mouth and pop the green drop into it. It tastes like bittersweet dirt on my tongue. I bite into it slowly and feel the liquid sack burst in my mouth, spilling a sticky, sweet syrup on my tongue.
I see a grin forming on the Witch’s face as I swallow the fungus and its milk. I wish I had some water to wash this down and, as if she could read my thoughts, the Witch passes me a full skin of water. “Keep it, for the trip back down the mountain.”
I nod my thanks, my mouth too sticky for talking, and take a long sip of water from the skin. As I drink, I feel my stomach churning and the urge to throw up. Even though I’ve hardly eaten.
My head feels lighter, and my vision begins to sharpen. I see every miniscule detail in the cave around me. Walls of intricate carvings, telling the stories of the Tulani. Stories from the distant past and stories of the distant future.
A section of the carvings glows brightly, lifting me up and drawing me in. I feel myself being lifted into the air and carried towards it. I see an image of myself holding a child in my arms. I know her name: Celeste. I see another image. A wedding. A wedding that unites not just a man and a woman, but a House and a Clan. I see another image: a war raging across many systems. I see bloodshed and entire planets consumed by an all-consuming Void. I try desperately to look past it. To see how it ends. But I feel myself being pulled back before I can see the end.
I find myself back on the pillow embroidered with my child’s name. I feel tears falling down my face. Tears of joy from seeing my child. I will have a child! And tears of sadness from endless war. And profound terror of the Void.
My mind becomes heavy. My vision clears. I see the Blind Witch again, sitting before me. She wears an understanding look on her face.
Renegade Orion: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Shifter Kings of Kartak Book 2) Page 7