by Jaymin Eve
“Saying that someone has violated the treaty by luring them to Astoria … and then kidnapping them. That whoever is involved better release them now or there will be consequences.”
I swallowed roughly. “How do they know they’re here? And why do they care about humans so much?” I whispered back.
He shrugged. “It’s not that they care so much, it’s more that the treaty is important to them. Kidnapping humans … huge violation. They will do everything to make sure this is rectified.”
Every world was built on politics, apparently.
I listened harder now, wanting to know what information was being released to the public, but it was impossible to follow the mixed language.
“…the fate of both worlds rests on this treaty,” the male voice said.
“…forestima judicia letins warnt death,” came from the more feminine tones.
Over and over they went on, apparently moving topics rapidly.
“You have one cycle of the moon-phase to release the Earthlings,” the male said in conclusion. “One more cycle before we enact a punishment of the highest order. Our secret keepers have been targeted, the four families who hold the key to the safety of the stone. This breach will not be tolerated.”
The audience seemed to hold their breath, an unnatural silence filling the land. Then noise exploded around us, along with a mild level of mayhem. Fighting, curses, threats. Lexen, who had been lingering near the middle of his platform, stepped forward until he was right on the edge of the Darken area. I was only getting a glimpse of his side profile from where I stood, but his face was fierce, eyes locked out in the crowd.
Jero and Marsil jumped up to join their brother, both of them apparently forgetting they were supposed to be keeping an eye on me. Which was a relief, because I could finally clutch my ribs again as I leaned into the platform. The hot throb of pain was not going anywhere, and pretending I was fine was taking a toll.
Distraction came from Lexen when he shot sparks of fire and ice high into the air above all the Daelighters. Whatever dragon power he possessed was enough to distract and calm the crowd somewhat. All of the other houses were also using their particular brand of power on the rowdy Daelighters. Royales sent out rain, because they could control water, apparently. Made sense. Roland, Lexen’s father, added his power to the Royale rainstorm, wind and lightning whipping from him and across the cloud land. Darkens must control weather to some degree. Imperials’ swirls of fire were so hot that even a few platforms across I could feel the hot gusts on my face. And the Leights, well … they had turned into trees.
Trees?
My brain continued trying to refute what my eyes were seeing, but there was no denying it. The Leights' bodies had changed from human-looking supermodels into literal trees with trunks and branches and arm-shrub things. They didn’t have branches out the top, with leaves, like a normal tree. Their heads were bald and barky, all that long hair turning to bark across the surface. Their bodies grew to six times their previous size, big and powerful, and much faster than I would have expected. I mean, I’d never actually imagined a redwood jogging along a path of course, but if I ever had I would have expected them to be kinda slow, cumbersome.
I swallowed a screech as a Leight got a little too close to some of the Imperials’ flames, his barky skin catching alight in a whoosh. Luckily the Royale overlord sent a huge splash of water into the crowd, dispersing the lethal flames.
Rather quickly, considering how loud and out of control the Daelighters had been only a moment ago, the leaders of the four houses calmed their people. Apparently, when they did work together, there was a special sort of magic between them.
Pressing myself back out of sight, I waited for everything to finish moving back to order.
Trying to breathe through my pain, I thought about all the questions still unanswered. One of the main was Laous … it felt important to know what plans he’d been trying to initiate since killing Daniel’s father. More specifically, why had he decided to push for all the overlords and admirals of the four houses to go to Astoria? This was a new order, and the reason Lexen had been so pissed on Earth: the first “forced compliance” of the treaty terms. There had to be a reason Laous decided to make it happen now. When did they first go there? Had Star said something about it being almost a year?
Which would make it just before Christmas and New Yea…
Everything inside of me froze and I struggled to suck air into my lungs. I recognized the panic attack I was having. It wasn’t the first, that was for sure, but I couldn’t recall any of my therapy techniques to calm myself.
Because I’d just had a realization.
My parents were killed eight months ago. The houses sent their royal leaders just before that. What if Laous somehow figured out a way to use these overlord minors to track down the secret keepers? What if the only ones who had a shot at finding us were ones who held the power of their houses? There was no way he could get the actual overlords to go, so he chose the next best thing.
My gaze locked on Lexen, grief tearing through me with enough force that it actually felt like my heart was being slashed by a blunt knife. He’d promised me he had nothing to do with the fire, and I’d believed him, but what if he’d helped without any knowledge, inadvertently killing the only two people I’d had in this world. My family.
A sob escaped before I could stop it. Followed by another.
I crumpled forward, the pain in my heart so much stronger than the pain in my ribs. Emotional pain eclipsed physical pain every time. I would take a million shattered bones over a broken heart, that was for sure.
Pushing through my pain, I worked hard to reassert my logic. It was wrong to blame Lexen. Whatever he had done had probably been outside of his control. I knew enough about him to know he would never deliberately hunt down and burn innocent humans to death. I had to keep my faith in him, because everyone deserved a chance to explain themselves.
This resolve calmed me. I managed to stand straight again and turn my attention back to the crowds. The inter-house fighting had fully abated. I felt eyes on me and somehow knew it was Lexen, but I couldn’t bring myself to look in his direction, afraid I would break down again. The last thing I needed was him noticing I was upset and coming to ask me about it. I wanted to talk to him when I was calm and collected, not when I’d just had a terrible revelation and was processing. Right now I was likely to start screaming accusations at him, and that was unfair.
His gaze continued burning a hole in the side of my head, so I took a few steps back, and then a few more, hopefully slow enough to not look suspicious. The council had just started to speak again, and I used the distraction to hurry to the back of the Darken platform, out of their line of sight.
I was done with all Daelighters. Part of me was desperate to get back to Earth, back to what was familiar. But that wasn’t going to happen until someone returned the Finnegans to me. No way was I going home without them.
“Are you okay?”
The soft words took me by surprise. I swung around to find Lexen standing at my side. His arms hung loosely and he looked relaxed – well, as relaxed as Lexen ever looked. The darkness of his eyes captured me as always, my fascination with those depthless pools growing every time I stared into them.
“I’m fine,” I choked out. “Just … this is a lot, you know.”
His face was a hard cut of lines; his jaw looked clenched. “The council is going to find your guardians. They have assured us that this is the number one priority for them.”
“When did you first arrive in Astoria?” The words burst from me before I could stop them. Damn it. So much for waiting until I was calmer.
If Lexen was surprised by my sudden change of topic, he didn’t show it. “We started at the beginning of junior year.”
“So you started August last year,” I said slowly. “And my parents were killed in December.” My voice broke as I tried to figure out how to phrase my next question. I needed to know, though, which is wh
y I couldn’t stop from asking.
His chest rumbled. “I didn’t have anything directly to do with their deaths, Emma. I swear this to you.”
Clearly my thoughts had been written all over my face.
“The timing was suspicious, I’ll give you that,” he continued. “But I believe everything which hurt you, the loss of your parents and missing guardians, it’s to do with House of Imperial. With Laous.”
“Daniel?” I asked tentatively. I wasn’t sure of his position.
Lexen was already shaking his head. “No, it’s not Daniel. I trust him with my life.”
For some reason I believed him. Daniel seemed like someone who was reliable and fair, if not a little scary in a bad boy way.
“Emma…” That husky murmur of my name caught my attention. “You can trust me. I might have acted like an asshole when we first met – I will own that – but I had my reasons.”
I didn’t think he was going to tell me those reason, because he was usually reticent with information. So when he did, I ended up gaping like a freak at him.
“From the first moment you stumbled into my world, all fiery and beautiful and innocent, soaking wet but still defiant … facing things which should have made you question your sanity, you never crumbled. You were so determined to save your family.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Shit, I had to do something to try and deter you. To make sure you weren’t dragged into the mess of my world. A human cannot fight a Daelighter, and there are too many politics at play, especially when you get involved with the overlord’s family.”
Beautiful? He’d called me beautiful, which was probably the least important thing he’d said. Still, it had my heart and stomach turning twirls.
“Turns out I’m already involved in your world,” I managed to get out. “So there was no chance of protecting me from it.”
His smile almost killed me. The rapid beating of my heart seemed to be increasing the pain in my ribs, but I didn’t even care. Lexen leaned in closer. I wanted him to kiss me so badly I could barely stand it. I had no idea what had brought on this emotional side of him, but I had no defense against it. Against him. The kindness Jero, Marsil, and Star had shown me … Lexen held equal amounts within himself. Tempered by dragon flame, of course.
A warm hand pressed into my side, and then a blast of cool air shot straight into my ribs. Relief from the pain was instant, like the area was numb now. “That will speed up the healing,” he murmured, lowering his head so that his face was close to mine.
“How did you know I was in pain?” I asked, tilting my head back to stare directly into his eyes.
Lexen tensed, the masculine lines of his face deepening. “The heat from your injury,” he finally said, dragging his fingers across my side. “It’s inflamed. And you’re also moving gingerly. I noticed it as you tried to escape back here.”
Well, no doubt he could now sense the heat in my cheeks.
“Didn’t realize anyone was watching me so closely,” I choked out, half lying, because I had felt his eyes on me and I had been trying to escape him. “Sorry for suspecting you again,” I added in a rush. “The timing of my parents’ deaths and your arrival on Earth, it all just hit me. I knew it would not have been anything you did deliberately. I just wondered if it wasn’t some sort of combination of all four overlord minors being in Astoria. Being on Earth.”
Lexen stilled, his eyes locked on mine, his teeth partly bared as a fury stronger than I’d ever seen descended across his face. “Fuck,” he bit out. “There’s a way he might have used us. It’s difficult but possible.” He spun, his expression fierce. “Wait here. I have an overlord to kill.”
He prowled away with a scary amount of speed. Okay, then, he was pissed. That made two of us.
“Lex—” I got partway through shouting out for him when a hand wrapped around my face and I was roughly yanked backwards. His name turned into a scream as agony crashed into my side, the numbness gone in a flash of twisting bodies and wrenched ribs.
Raging flames filled me, an intense heat that was impossible to fight against. No matter how much I struggled against the hands, the burning continued to grow. Right when I felt like my head was going to explode, the pressure and pain became too much, and everything went dark.
16
The dryness in my mouth woke me. I choked and it felt like I almost swallowed my tongue – an impossible feat – as I tried to find moisture.
What was going on?
My head pounded as I attempted to piece together my last memories. Why was my mouth as dry as a freaking desert right now? Had I gotten wasted with the Darkens? That didn’t feel quite right.
I squinted as best I could, allowing small slivers of light to enter; while still struggling on the smooth, stone-like ground.
After a few minutes of flopping around like a fish, I managed to pry my lids all the way up, swaying as I pulled myself into a sitting position … only to fall forward again. My brain was fried; this was definitely no hang-over. Or none like I’d ever experienced the entire two times I’d been drunk before.
Eventually I got my shaky hands down, using them as leverage. My eyes still didn’t seem to be focusing, because there was no color around me at all. Everything was white, the floor, the walls, even the ceiling, so starkly white it was like being in a world without any pigment.
Memories of an intense heat slammed into me and I lurched to my feet. I waited for the burst of pain in my ribs, but only a dull tightness lingered there now. Had someone healed me? Or had I been here for a long time? That would explain the dying-of-thirst thing I seemed to be doing.
On wobbly legs I crossed to the closest wall. Shit. Everything was literally glowing white, but at least my eyes were fine. I pressed my hand up to touch the semi-transparent thin and flexible plastic that made up the wall. Almost like someone had used white wrap to cover this place.
Before my hand could make contact with the wall, it flexed out, swelling away from my touch. I took another step closer to it, and the same thing happened. What in the actual fu—?
“Hello!” I screamed. Or attempted to. My voice was a rasp, and no amount of throat clearing was going to help.
Again I attempted to slam my hands into the side – the wall swelled outwards. I tried a few more times; it continued to move, avoiding me, even when I pressed closer. The view I saw through the murky plastic never changed. My prison was not moving. Outside was a ton more egg-shaped structures, and within them were shadows. Other prisoners?
Was this some sort of egg prison?
Great. Unless they had the word Easter in front of them, I wasn’t a fan of eggs. I started to pace back and forth, trying to work through my thoughts. My brain was coming back online slowly; clearly it had been fried by that burst of heat. I could remember talking with Lexen, discussing the possibilities that the overlord minors going to Earth might have had something to do with my parents’ deaths. That was the last thing I remembered before the darkness.
I panicked at the thought that something might have happened to the Darkens, to a family I had grown quite fond of. All of them were kind, caring, never once making me feel like I didn’t belong or was a burden to them.
And Lexen … the most infuriating, frustrating, intriguing guy in two worlds. He had comforted me through more breakdowns than almost anyone else in the past eight months. He had kept me safe despite not wanting to involve me in his world, because I knew he trusted no one else to do it. A burst of clarity was enough for me to acknowledge that he had protected me fiercely from almost the first moment we met.
It was also clear that I was a complete idiot.
My breathing grew ragged as my mind filled with worries. Had I put the Darkens in danger? Lexen would be the biggest of all targets, especially since he’d never back away from an attack. He’d also been hell bent on “killing an overlord.”
The sides of my egg prison swelled then; air whooshed past me. Every one of my muscles tensed as I waited to see what was happening.
I hadn’t moved, and nothing was touching the walls, but they kept on expanding out. Then, with a pop that left my ears ringing, my egg prison shattered.
I wasted no time in trying to escape, but before I could make it more than two steps, a line of men stepped into view, blocking my path. I didn’t recognize any of them, but they had the same sort of look as Daniel: shaved heads, ink across their necks and arms – none on their heads.
House of Imperial.
Wait, the one in the center, who looked to be in his early thirties, had symbols across his head.
Laous. The overlord.
His eyes were small and mean, and they narrowed even further as he glared at me. He was around six foot tall, with a wide chest and skinny arms. Not to mention this dude had definitely skipped leg day. Bad move, barrel man. No one wants to look like a keg with spindly arms and legs.
“You were a hard one to get hold of, Earthling.”
My insane mental blather died off.
“I’m the overlord of House of Imperial. You can call me Overlord,” he said.
I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to stay calm.
Something twitched in Laous’ jaw as he stared me down, but I had grown quite adept at dealing with Daelighter animosity, so I kept my cool.
“Do you know why you’re here?” Laous broke the silence, and I gave myself a mental tick for winning that round.
“I have no idea. There’s nothing I have that you could possibly want,” I said evenly, clenching my fists, which were tucked under my armpits to hide their shaking. This bastard had already taken everything from me – meeting him more than cemented my belief that he was behind my parents’ deaths – so what the hell did he want now?
His chuckle startled me. “Actually, that’s quite far from the truth.” He started to pace, his men remaining in a stoic line behind him. “It took me longer than I’d like to admit to figure it all out. How the secret keeping worked. The “information” which is scattered between all four members…”
He turned and took a step closer to me. Then another. I barely held my ground, wanting to turn and run, but as there was nowhere to go, I forced myself to remain calm.