by Serena Nova
11
A knock sounded on the door, rousing me from my slumber. I stirred and turned onto my side, my eyes still closed. The knock sounded again. I wanted to yell at the bastard who stood there to go away. Until I remembered, Astra. I opened my eyes, finding her on her side. She faced towards me, still asleep, her breathing soft. I got out of the bed and walked to the bedroom door, luckily that one had still been open. Moving into the next room, I walked over towards that door and yanked it open.
“What?”
“Hello to you, too,” Rayan said, his ever-present smile on his face.
“Please stop smiling.” My head wasn’t working yet, I was talking to one of the Kings, and nobody spoke like that to the Kings.
His smile faltered for a second, then he kicked it into high gear.
“Why? Aren’t you happy to see me, Babe? I am,” he answered.
“You are happy to see yourself?” My mind wasn’t there yet. I didn’t blame her.
He laughed.
“Ssh, Astra is still asleep.” I shushed him and pushed him back into the hallway. “What do you want? I would love to get some more sleep,” I said to him, my arms crossed in front of my chest. It pushed my breasts up. His eyes flickered over them and then lowered to my stomach and pants. I kept myself breathing normally, willing away the blush that wanted to creep onto my face, and wiped the annoying look off my face.
I was used to walking around like that, I had trained in clothing like that at school. In front of people. They may have been only women and the occasional male teacher, but that was it. Not a handsome King who seemed to enjoy what he was seeing. I enjoyed the feeling it gave me, for two seconds. Maybe more.
“Are you done, Babe?” I mocked him while I arched an eyebrow and kept my arms crossed in front of me, he then winked at me. “What did you want, Rayan?” I asked him again.
“I came to get you, and Astra, for the tour of the castle.” He motioned around him.
And that was when my head started working. “Oh, pink pigs. Yeah, give us twenty minutes, and we will meet you here?” I asked him. He had said last night that he would take us for a tour through the castle.
I turned around towards the door, the knob in hand when I remembered something. “What time is it?”
“Almost eleven.”
“Oh.”
He chuckled and said, “We let you girls sleep, thought you both needed it. We will do a quick tour of the castle and then have lunch with the others.” He moved towards the door, the one I was holding. “I think I’ll wait in your room.” He placed his hand over mine. His warmth immediately seeped into my hand, radiating off of his body into mine as his magic wrapped around me. He smelled like a refreshing summer rain.
“Water,” I mumbled when I managed to push the door open.
“What did you say?” he asked me when we both moved into the room. We bumped once into each other as we moved through the door at the same time, giving me chills on my back; the good kind, the kind I wanted so much more of.
“Oh, your magic. Water, it is your preferred magic,” I told him. The Kings were strong in all four of the elements, but still they had a favourite. You couldn’t be strong in all of them equally. Except when you were a Full-Blood like me. We were balanced because of the Spirit we had. It took a lot of willpower and training to reach a master status with all four of the elements. You constantly had to balance yourself. If you didn’t, you became darkened.
“You can tell?” he asked, when he stepped away from me, towards one of the sofas. I missed his heat immediately, and my body took a step his way. I pulled myself to a stop and moved towards the bedroom door. It was still open. Astra still slept. That girl must have been exhausted. I placed a finger in front of my mouth and pointed towards to door, showing Astra and made sure he would be quiet.
He nodded, and I moved to the bedroom. Time to wake up Astra.
I moved to her side of the bed. “As, wake up, Babe.” I touched her shoulder lightly.
She mumbled.
“Come on, As. We have company.”
“Send them away,” she said, her voice croaking since she'd just woke up.
“I don’t think Rayan would like that.”
And with that, she sat upright in bed, her hair a bird’s nest on top of her head.
“King Rayan.” She had tried to whisper it. I laughed and pointed towards the door.
She looked and saw him sitting there. He waved. She squealed, pulled the covers towards her and looked at me. If looks could kill, I would have been dead.
“Why did you let him in here, let him see me like this?” she hissed.
I shrugged. “He walked in. And you were still sleeping.”
“I knocked,” he said loudly from the living room.
“Not helping,” Astra and I both answered back.
He chuckled, which made us laugh, too. I walked to the door and pushed it closed.
“Come on, let’s get dressed and ready for a late breakfast.” Astra nodded as I walked to the other door in the room. When I walked through it, I found myself in a big bathroom. A tub with cast-iron lion feet sat in the middle of the room. There was a shower in the left corner of the room, and around a small wall near the door was the toilet. On my other side, were a sink and a mirror. A chair stood at the head of the tub against the wall. Leaving room for you to walk around the tub. The floor was covered in dark-grey tiles, with dark-blue tiles on the walls. There were golden accents, like the faucets on the tub and the sink, shining in the sunlight that filtered through the window.
“As, did you see this?” I yelled back at her.
“No, what? And hurry, I need to shower, too,” she said as I heard her walking up beside me.
“Wow, did we die and go to bathroom heaven?” Her eyes were wide as she looked around.
“Not sure, but I don’t mind!” I said while I pushed her backwards a little.
“Hey!” she protested, and I gave her a shit-eating grin.
“I was here first.”
“Make it quick, Isa, we have to have lunch or breakfast,” she said to the closed door.
A food heaven, that was my first best place on this world. My stomach agreed with that. We hadn’t eaten in a long time. So yeah, it was quick.
I stripped, showered, and dressed quickly. I had grabbed clean cargo pants, a black sports bra with green frogs printed on them, and a black tank top. Astra moved into the bathroom as soon as I got out.
“Do you have some clothing, As?” I asked her, as I remembered her suitcases were still missing somewhere.
“Yeah, someone brought some clothing in when you were in the shower.” I heard the tap being turned on. I walked over to the bed and pulled on my boots. I pulled my two swords out of my bag, placed two knives in each boot and one on my right hip. After that, I looked through the clothing for my leather jacket. Finding it, I pulled it on over my swords. It had a low hanging back, so the sword handles would stick out of it and move freely.
We'd had an amazing dressmaker at the school. He loved doing personalized stuff. And the jacket was one of his best works.
I opened the door to find Rayan still sitting there; I had totally forgotten about him.
“Hi,” I said when I walked over to him. I saw his eyes scanning me, over my boots, the knife at my hip and the two sword handles that stuck out over my shoulders. I cocked my head to the side and placed a hand on my hip, pushing that one out a little, too.
“Something wrong with what you see?” I asked him. I could swear he swallowed before he turned a little red.
“Eh, I was only wondering, why so many weapons?” He waved his hand over my body.
“Many weapons?” We heard behind me. Astra walked into the room, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Her blonde hair was loose and still a little wet. She looked perfect even in simple clothing. She was the kind of girl who had never needed much to look like a model. One of the Kings would have to fall for her. She chuckled when she said, “You think that is m
any? You haven’t seen her in full armour yet.”
I shrugged at the questioning look I got from Rayan. “I didn’t want to scare you guys,” I told him. That made them both laugh and had me looking dazed at them. “I mean it,” I grumbled as I walked towards the door. “Can we get something to eat?” I looked at Rayan. He promptly got up from the sofa.
“You don’t want to see the castle first?” he asked me.
“No, food is good,” I said and pushed open the door.
“If that is okay with you, your Highness, we would like to eat first. We haven’t eaten since yesterday morning,” Astra said to him, remembering all the right things you needed to say to the King. If he hadn't been there, I would have slapped my head, or not because then I wouldn’t even have talked to the King. That would be so much easier. I wouldn’t have had to remember what to say or not to if they weren't around.
“Are you coming, Isa?” I heard Astra and turned towards her. She was standing in front of the door that led towards the Kings’ Quarters, Rayan holding it open for her.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” I said. My mind had needed a second to come back from the thinking trip it had taken.
“Why are we going that way?” I asked them both when I moved towards them.
“We are having lunch with all of the Kings, they wanted to meet us, properly I think,” Astra answered while Rayan moved towards the stairs. I looked around when I walked through the door. To the left was another door, which went almost to the ceiling and also was made out of wood.
“They lead towards our corridor and our rooms,” Rayan said when he saw me looking.
“We’re sleeping next to you guys?” I asked, surprise in my voice. I hadn't wanted to be that close to them. I had assumed that behind that door would be another hallway and that they slept somewhere else. Like far, far away.
“Yes. And our private dining room is downstairs.” He walked down, so we both followed.
“And upstairs, behind the big doors are our rooms and a small library. We also have an office, but you have seen that one. It is in the back of the throne room. And this is where we come to relax and be at home,” he said as he pushed open the doors in front of us.
We entered a large room, there were high windows with their curtains drawn open, letting the sunlight in and giving an amazing view over the gardens that were placed between the wall and their living area. The room was spacious. To the left on a raised platform, was a dining table, where servants were currently placing plates and glasses. I had already smelt the food that some of them were walking in with.
I drifted towards the table without really noticing anything else.
“You want a napkin for that drool?” I heard. I looked to my right, finding Cian on one of the sofas that was placed around a glass coffee table. He looked at me with an eyebrow arched and a smirk on his face.
“Yes, please,” I told him and sauntered past him. I looked back over my shoulder and told him. “Don’t worry, I’ll leave some for you guys.” And with that, I grabbed a chair and sat at the table. The others were still looking at me, and I totally ignored them.
Food. Like a lot. Bread still steaming from the oven, baked chicken, and thinly sliced beef were the first types I noticed. Butter and other spreads were placed around the dishes. There were some salads, and more bowls filled with food. I was in heaven, that bathroom could suck it.
I had started filling my plate, with anything and everything, my eyes somehow even bigger than my stomach. And I was loving it. I heard the others pulling out chairs, and I continued to ignore them in favour of all the food. Then they walked in with pancakes.
“Ah, shit,” I mumbled. I looked to my left and saw an empty plate. I picked it up and placed some pancakes on that plate.
“What are you doing, sweetheart?” I heard from next to me.
I looked up at the person to find Averey sitting there.
“What does it look like? My plate is full,” I said and continued filling it with pancakes. When that was done, I placed it next to the other in front of me and started eating.
There was some laughter around me, and the others sat down, too. I noticed that Astra had taken the seat in front of me and next to me sat Cian. Astra had Flynn and Rayan next to her, they all started putting food on their plates. Even Averey did the same once he got a new one from the servants.
We ate in silence, and it was heavenly. The beef was cooked to perfection, and the salads were richly filled. The pancakes, oh those pancakes, there was a hint of vanilla in them, the light and fluffy bite to them made me moan. If I could have an orgasm from eating pancakes, I would have from those.
When I finished my second plate, I looked up. Flynn was watching me, and I gave him a smile. Still, I remembered what he had said in the car. I had talked to his little sister, his dead little sister.
With him seated this close to me, I could see the pain in his eyes, the sadness that stayed there. It must have been a painful moment or memory to have it still lingering in his eyes like that.
I saw his mouth twitching to one side and fist bumped inside my head for getting a small smile on his face. That was one good thing today.
Astra was in a conversation with Rayan, so I looked around the room. I found a fireplace and above it, a TV. My eyes lingered on it. They had a TV. We'd had one in the school, but that one was for movie night once a month. And even then, you had to watch with a lot of other people. Not a great thing. I needed to figure out a way to get back here and plan a movie night.
The sofas looked comfortable, there were some paintings on the wall and two chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Behind me was a balcony, which showed doors. That must be the rooms Rayan talked about. There were four doors facing me and one at the end of the hallway. That probably led towards another hall and stairs. That door looked more elaborately decorated than the others, more important. Before I could ask what was in that room, Averey interrupted my inspection of their living area.
“We wanted to talk to you two about what happened yesterday.”
I turned fully towards him, looked that gorgeous male in the eyes, then told him what had been brewing inside me from the moment the Selection had began.
12
“First of all, you flying potatoes, I’m angry with you guys. You almost killed a lot of Witches yesterday. They could have died. I’m not even sure why you guys agreed to use Ilunias in the Selection test–” I started. Before I could go on Averey interrupted me.
“What did you say?”
“Are you deaf, mister? Listen good.” I pushed my chair back a little, so I was looking at them better. “Three weeks before the Selection, the school got the message that you guys changed the test. Not the standard, touch the stone test or whatever it is you guys normally do. No, you guys wanted to know who was strong and smart and wanted to test the Witches in a fight. Against Ilunias. You know, dark-world creatures?” I waved my hands in the air, putting some power behind my words. All four of them were looking at me like I had lost my mind. Astra looked at her plate, she had almost been killed in that fight. It cooled down my temper a little. Made me realize that it would be a terrible memory for her.
“They were stronger than the Witches, which is something everyone could have told you. They stop learning how to fight when they reach the fourth year in the school, or something.” I waved that away. “We Protectors had to stand watch, keep an eye out if something went wrong. And we could solely interfere if one of the Selection council would sign our instructor Lavina.”
“We stood there, watching that fight go bad really quickly. And when the three Ilunias decided they had played enough, they blew up the inner shields the Selection held.” I looked at Averey; my look must have been murderous from the way he flinched a little.
“They had one sort of protection, when they were knocked out or injured, and they were placed under a shield and pulled into a big shield under the box where the Selection and the teachers were sitting. It was the only thing th
at kept them safe for so long.”
“Nuh-uh.” I held my hand up towards Cian when I saw him opening his mouth. This got a chuckle from Flynn. I looked over at him, eyebrows raised. He quickly shut up. Good.
“The Ilunias were done playing your game, so they shattered the shields. That is,” I swallowed, “That is when they attacked Astra.” I looked over to the blonde figure in front of me, her eyes on me. And her blue eyes were filled with tears, ones she didn’t want to shed, just couldn’t stop.
“And if it wasn’t for Isadora, I would be dead, with probably almost every Witch and Protector there. She saved me,” Astra said softly
I was relieved that she had kept how I had done it out of it. They would probably find out soon enough. Still, it was not something they needed to know at that time.
“How did you save her?” Rayan asked me, keeping his own voice low.
“I killed the Ilunias.”
“You did what?” Averey asked, shock sounded in his voice. And I knew for sure that if I had looked at him, his eyes would have been wide.
“I killed them, cut off their heads.” I was still looking at Astra when I said that.
“All three of them,” she said while a lone tear fell down, splattering on her empty plate.
“It’s okay,” Rayan said noticing the tear. He moved a hand to brush the next one away and gave her a napkin to wipe the rest.
“No, it is not okay, you guys wanted the strongest Witch.” I pointed towards Astra. “And she sits there. She fought them the longest before they gave her a flying lesson.”
I shook my head, removing the memory that had invaded my mind, her falling, screaming.
“But you killed them,” Flynn said, it was the first time he had said something.
“Yes, I did what I had to do. If I could have spared them, I would have.”
“Why didn’t you?” Cian asked from next to me, his hand rubbing over his chin, and his eyes narrowed at me.
I swallowed and answered honestly. “Because if I did, they would have been used. Experimented on, used for another test that would probably kill someone. And it showed that the Selection couldn’t handle them. They were better off dead.” I looked at my hands in my lap. I was twisting them; shame had filled me for what I had done. Would there have been a better way?