by Serena Nova
“Hi there,” I looked up from the floor and stared at Cian. He sat at a big table filled with books around him.
“Oh, um, hi,” I said and moved towards the table. I looked at the books that were displayed. All of them were about the history of the World, the Queens that had ruled the world and had lived in the Castle. I felt all the blood drain from my face when I saw what he was reading.
Seraphina Savill Royal. My Great-Grandmother.
“Oh, shit,” I mumbled, and started moving towards the door again.
“Don’t go, Isadora,” Cian said, and I looked at him. I expected to see hatred in his eyes, I merely found compassion. His hand was in the air as if he had wanted to stop me that way.
“Why?” I asked.
He looked at the book in front of him and closed it. He swallowed before he answered, almost as if he had been nervous. “Because I like your company.” He stared at me, his eyes focused on mine. I gave him a small nod and moved towards the table again, taking the seat across from him.
We sat there, watching each other for a few minutes before he spoke. I expected him to say something about my family. I needed to see where this would lead. I knew that he knew who I was the same way that I was sure Averey and Flynn knew. My nerves had kicked in, and worry filled me. I wondered why they still hadn’t reacted to it, why they still hadn’t killed me or banned me.
“What is your favourite food?” he asked me, and my mouth fell open.
“Sorry?” I asked him. He chuckled, knowing full well that I hadn't expected that question.
“Your favourite food. What is it?” he asked again, and I picked up my jaw from the table and answered.
“I like almost everything, but you can wake me for pancakes, pie, steak, pasta, chicken soup, ice cream, cookies, chocolate, don’t forget that one–” I had wanted to go on, but I was interrupted by Cian.
“Okay, I believe you when you said ‘everything,’” he said whilst laughing softly.
“Oh, I totally forgot the bacon, on bread with an avocado smash.” I had almost drooled with the idea.
“Okay, I get it, you like food.” He chuckled. I relaxed a little in the chair, still not totally comfortable. There were still books about my ancestors on the table, I kept glancing at them, and he noticed.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” he asked, his hand moving towards the cover of the book he had been reading. In golden letters was written, Royal.
“So, you guys could kill me?” I asked him. He sucked in a breath through his teeth.
“We would never,” he answered before he pressed his lips together, almost as if he had remembered that he couldn’t say more.
“No, that is what my great-Grandmother thought when she was murdered, here in this castle. She was betrayed by her own people, her own High Houses.” I looked at him. “By your families.”
He shook his head. “No, not all our families. We aren’t all from the original High House. Only Flynn and Averey,” he told me. I cocked my head to the side and looked him over.
“What do you mean?”
“Only Flynn Nox and Averey Thorne are from two of the High Houses who killed the Queen.”
“Still, you sit here on this throne, you are the King of this World.” I waved my hand out, indicating everything around us.
“It wasn’t by choice,” he said, while he folded his hands on his lap and leaned back into his chair. His voice was low and soft, and what he said had caught my attention.
“How do you mean, not your choice? You fought for it, you made the decision to enter the competition.” My voice held an edge of anger.
“No, Love.” He shook his head; a smile ghosted his lips when he said the last words. My body had reacted to it, heated up, and I felt my face flush. I mentally punched it down, didn’t want it, didn't need it. I’d just had an amazing shower, didn’t need another so soon.
I kept waiting for him to tell me why. “We were forced into it, we all were. When they found out we were strong, they pushed us harder, trained us harder. The schools are brutal for the Elementals. And for ones as strong as us, our families solely saw the power they would gain.”
“And now that you have it, now that they have it. Everything is better,” I said to him, disgusted at what their families did. There was still the anger I held towards them, the anger I didn’t want to recognize and didn’t want to feel, either. Only, it was hard to ignore it when you were in the house where you should have grown up; where your mother should have had a happy life. Where she would have been Queen.
“We cut them off,” he answered.
That had me silent for a moment. “You cut them off?”
He leaned forward, almost if he would be telling a secret.
“Yeah, we did. They expected us to be puppets for them, that they could rule through us. Instead they forgot one thing.” He paused for a moment, and I was totally hanging onto every word that spilled from his lips.
“We bonded in school, we became friends, brothers, and we decided that we needed to rule because we needed to help the world get rid of people like our families.” He leaned back. “And that is what we do now, what we are looking for. A solution to the problem they helped create.”
“Okay, but why are you looking up my family?” I asked him.
“Because Averey and Flynn found out who you were. And they told me that I needed to figure it out by myself.”
My breath hitched a little with the confirmation that they also knew who I was.
“And now, that you know it?” My voice was low and soft, almost a whisper.
“Now we plan ahead,” he answered me, I stared at him.
“Why would you? And what has that got to do with me?”
He shrugged. “No idea, except Averey has a plan.” With that my stomach had twisted a little. I wasn’t happy with the idea someone had a plan, and I didn’t know that plan.
“And what is that plan?”
“I have no idea. He just told me to find out who you were,” Cian said.
“Am I safe here?” I asked him, while I looked him in the eyes, his green eyes which were vibrant in the soft light of the library.
“Yes, you are and always will be. To be honest, this is your house more than ours.”
I nodded at that.
“I have a question for you,” he said while he got up and picked up the book that was in front of him.
“Why haven’t you told us that you were the last Full-Blood Witch alive, that you were the last Savill Royal?”
I swallowed. “Because I promised Gran.”
He nodded at that, accepting what I had said. He laid down the book in front of me and opened it to the family tree of my line. It was a long list of names; most of them I had never heard of, all of them were related to me. He pointed towards the bottom of the list, my Great-Grandmother’s name.
Seraphina Savill Royal.
Under that was my Grandmother’s name. Lina Savill Royal, but beneath that, it was empty. My mother’s name should have been there. Isla Seraphina Savill Royal.
I swallowed tears I didn’t know had threatened to fall. “Love, your name should be in here.” He picked up a pen and handed it to me.
“No, not only my name. My mom’s, too.” I took hold of the pen and wrote down her name. The name of the mother that I had never known, just heard of. My mother had left me with Gran the moment I was born, she just left me. I wrote down her name, my hand shaking a little from the emotions I had always kept at bay. From the anger, the hate, and the hurt that had ran through me in full force. That now came rushing out, at seeing my Gran’s name and hers under it. I may hate her for leaving me, but she was family.
“It’s okay, Love.” Cian placed his hand over mine and stroked slowly with his thumb. With that, the tears flowed. “Let it out, my Love. It is fine. You are safe.”
And I cried. I poured out all the hate, the pain and everything else out of me. At some point, Cian had sat next to me in the chair, and he pulled me onto his
lap, close to his strong body, holding me tight and letting me cry. I had never cried this much in my life. This place and them, they brought so many emotions up to the surface; the ones I had stuffed away throughout the years.
His hands slowly moved up and down my back, soothing me with the easy rhythm he had created. I moved away from him, wiping at my tear-streaked face. I moved further away. I had wanted to get out of his lap, only for him to hold me tighter.
“I–” I started.
“No Love.” His chest rumbled against my hands. “You don’t have to go away.” His voice was soft, and his eyes pierced mine. The meaning was clear. I didn’t have to go, not from his lap or from here.
“Why?” I asked him. I wanted to know why they had wanted me to stay, was it because of the pull I had felt towards them?
“Just stay.” He almost begged. I could feel he was hiding something, and for a second, it had made me want to leave even more. He must have seen the panic that was setting in because he leaned forward and kissed me. His soft lips touched mine, hesitantly at first, until he noticed I hadn't pulled away. I wanted to, I wanted to move away and not start that. It had felt so right, his lips on mine. I slowly relaxed, and he pressed harder, kissing me harder. I sighed and gave in.
He nibbled on my lip, softly biting and kissing. Then pushed a little with his tongue, and I opened my mouth a little for him, letting him in. His tongue danced around mine. His hands roamed over my body, slowly moving from my back to my ribcage and finally to my ass. His hands kneaded my ass, and I sat up a little with the movement. I felt his hard erection in his pants, and I moaned when I pushed down a little. The friction was amazing against my core. He sighed into my mouth when I did the movement again. And that was when someone stormed into the library.
“We have a problem.”
I jumped up to see Averey looking at us, an amused smile on his face.
“You know?” he asked Cian, who nodded.
“Good,” Averey said. I looked from him to Cian, embarrassed by him finding me like that on Cian. And a little flustered at the idea that he had seen us.
“What is this problem?” Cian now asked. And I knew what he was talking about the moment I looked at Averey again. I groaned and waited for him to speak.
20
I had braced myself for the yelling and cursing that I assumed would come.
“You attacked another Witch in our house?” he asked. His voice was low and it held an edge of something, almost as if he had wanted to laugh. Pride? Was that what I had heard?
It confused me, so I said, “Yes.” There was no point in denying it.
“Do you know what kind of trouble you've placed yourself in?” he asked, while he moved closer, he was focused on me.
“No,” I answered him. Cian was still sitting in the chair, looking at me and then back at Averey. He didn’t say anything.
“No. Are you that stupid?” His voice had really turned low, and anger filled it, I didn’t know why he would be angry at me. He flexed his fist and clenched his jaw, before he spoke again. “You just attacked another Witch.”
“Yeah?” I shrugged, that was something I had already knew, I was there, I had done it.
“You attacked Thalia Ranteau. She is the daughter of the family who started all this.” He moved his arms in the air, swinging wildly. “She is the daughter of the most devious man in the world, the family who opened the Gate. The ones who killed the Queen,” he said, almost frantic.
“Wait, what the actual fuck?” My heartbeat picked up, and I look at Averey and then back at Cian.
“Yes,” he answered simply.
“What do you mean with ‘yes?’” I needed to hear him say it.
“The Ranteau was the strongest family in the last reign of Queen Seraphina. They came close to the Savill family. Only, they never matched what the Queen had. They wanted more power and started the uprising. They opened the Gate, to have access to creatures for their army against the Queen. They murdered her.”
I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, my fists trembled at my side.
“That stupid cunt! Her whole family is the reason why I never knew my mother, or my Great-Grandmother. Why I never had a normal youth.”
“Yes,” Averey answered.
“That is true. But–” Cian started.
“No not ‘but.’ She got what was coming to her, and knowing this . . .” I moved forward, going to hunt down that stupid Witch and make sure that her family knew how it felt to lose something close to their hearts. A pair of strong hands grabbed me, I was pulled against a solid chest, and the smell of a thunderstorm hit me. I tried to get free, tried to escape him.
“Isa, sweetheart. You can’t go after her. They have a lot of influence right now. And the chances are, they know who you are just by looking at you. We didn’t know, I figured it out when I saw you train with Flynn. Cian.” He turned me around, so I was looking at the man he spoke of. I could still feel the anger in the way he held me. However now, I wasn’t sure if it was truly anger. The way he held me was almost if he was protecting me.
“Our scholar, found out when I directed him towards the books.”
“How?” I asked him, not wanting to know how he knew, what had triggered it for him. I had wanted to know why only her family knew who I was just by looking at me.
“Because they were close to the Queen. Being the second most powerful family in this world, she kept them close. They hated her for her whole life, and while most of the old High Houses died out in the battle that followed her death, they kept to themselves and saved most of their own.”
“That doesn’t explain why they know who I am when they see me, merely that they are cowards. Wanting power and not fighting for it, lazy turdfuckers,” I sneered at them, my anger still fuelled my body.
“One of the first four Kings was from their family. He passed information down to the other Kings, and then that information came to us. They always knew that the daughter of the Queen escaped. They never found her, and we never looked. We didn’t expect her to be alive now, or to have a grandchild.” Cian looked me over, indicating he meant me, I was the grandchild.
“She’s dead,” I told them, I felt Averey freeze behind me. The anger drained out of me at the memory of feeling my Grandmother die, I had woken up that night. I had felt her go. That was why I had known my parents were still alive, because I hadn't felt them go. And Gran would have told me.
“Who?” Cian asked. For a scholar he was really slow that day.
“My Grandmother.”
“Oh,” he answered. I felt Averey’s hands moving over my arms, sliding up and down soothing me.
“When?” he asked me.
“A few years back, almost five now,” I told them. They both looked at each other.
“Five years?” Cian asked, while he got up from his chair.
“Yes,” I answered, I followed him with my eyes. “Why?” I asked when I didn’t get any more reaction.
“Because something changed five years ago,” Averey said, his breath hot in my ear.
I shuddered a little, with the feel of his breath stroking my ear. His warm body was behind me, and his hands still stroked my arms. I leaned back a little, my back against his chest. Cian walked back towards us, a few books in his hands. My eyes caught on a small black one. He saw us standing like that, and a small chuckle escaped him. I started to move away, suddenly fully aware I had just kissed him, and I was almost rubbing up against Averey, however for him to pull me back and move us both towards the chair Cian and I had sat in. He sat down and pulled me on his lap.
For a second, I froze. What was he doing? But then his hands moved over the sides of my legs, comforting and soft. I breathed out a soft moan and leaned back into him. Those men were driving me crazy, and secretly, I liked it. I would not be admitting it to them, though.
Averey
The way her soft moan came out of her mouth, almost if she had wanted to keep it inside but couldn’t, made me sti
r, but I willed it down. I didn’t want to scare her. I wanted her relaxed. We still needed to talk about what she did to Thalia. Even if it was funny, and I was proud of her.
But first, Isa. I kept moving my fingers over the sides of her legs, I wanted to keep touching her, needed to. It felt too good to stop. Cian had sat down in the chair in front of us, his eyes moving over her body, to end on my hands on her thighs. I saw the hunger in his eyes. We were used to sharing women, had done it before. And my brothers, they weren’t bad to look at, either. He looked at me then, and I knew he had read the heat in my eyes, because he moved in his chair. Getting more comfortable since his cock was probably straining against his pants. He liked what he was seeing. Maybe, hopefully, next time, because now wasn’t the right time to do this.
“When the first Kings died, they made sure that the strongest Elementals would be the next Kings. They started the Competition. When an Elemental wants to become King, they need to show that they are the strongest. Because . . .” Cian looked at Isa, his green eyes focused on her.
“Because they knew that they weren’t strong enough to close the Gates, they managed to close it partially.” Cian told her.
“That is why there are still creatures coming through,” she said.
“Yes. And that is why we need strong Witches at our side. The last four Kings married the strongest, and it made a little more difference.” He stopped talking when he pulled out a book.
“It didn’t close the Gate, right?” she asked softly.
“No, they weren’t strong enough. From the moment we won the Competition, we searched for a solution to close the Gate, to make this world safe again.” He picked up another book, looked it over and placed it back. Isadora was looking at the books on the table as her magic moved around us slowly. I closed my eyes for a second, feeling her magic around me. She reminded me of an easy summer’s day at the beach. The warm sand between your toes, the soft sounds of the ocean, and the breeze that let you cool down. There was also something else. Her magic held an edge, something raw and powerful. Almost as if you could fall into it and keep falling, an endless well of magic.