by H. D. Gordon
“Are you going to give her the map?” she asked, her eyes squinting as she looked up at me.
With a sigh, I took a place in the sand beside her and stretched out, lying back and propping my hands behind my head. “I gave her my word,” I said.
Asha snorted. “So, yes?”
I shrugged. “We don’t have anymore use for it.”
Her huge puff of curly hair blotted out the sun as she looked over at me. “There’s always use for an object like that, Rukiya dearest,” she said, and stretched out beside me.
I didn’t disagree with her, and for once, the pet name that she’d stolen from Adriel didn’t bother me, either.
“We wouldn’t have gotten this far without the captain,” I said. “I think I owe it to her.”
We sat in silence after that, and eventually, even Vega wandered over. The Valac warrior removed some of his heaviest armor, including that awful mask, and sat down in the sand to wait with us.
When he laid down in the same manner as Asha and me, I almost couldn’t believe how much we’d been through together in such a short amount of time.
Asha looked over at the enormous, silent male. “What about you, big guy?” she said. “You ready to go back to your queen?”
Vega was silent for long enough that I didn’t think he would answer. When he spoke, it was in that deep monotone that no longer made me uneasy. “I swore an oath to the queen,” he said at last. “It cannot be broken, and so I will always return to her.”
For whatever reason, these words felt heavy, full of some buried secrets that I could not begin to guess at. I realized just then that while I felt closer to both the Demon and the Valac, I still knew so little about them. How Vega came to be bound by oath to the Erl Queen. How Asha had met Adriel, and why she was so protective over him.
What shocked me even more than this was the realization that I wanted to know. Other than Goldie, I’d never really had any friends in my life, and I wondered if this was what that felt like.
“What were you before?” Asha asked, still looking at Vega, proving I was not alone in my curiosity. “Before you became one of the Valac?”
“I was nothing,” he answered.
Asha turned her head and glanced over at me. I only raised my shoulders in a shrug.
“Well,” she said, “I know the first thing I’m going to do when we get back to Mina.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What’s that?”
“Jump into one of the hot springs and wash my body until it no longer smells like total ass,” she said.
I laughed, though it hurt to do so with all the injuries I’d sustained. “You’re going to need to bathe for a really long time, then,” I replied.
When Asha laughed instead of lashing out with words, I thought that at some point along the way, I’d stopped hating her, and she seemed to have stopped hating me.
“The first thing I will do is tell the Queen every detail about our journey,” Vega said, surprising us both as he pulled himself to a sitting position. The sun was beginning to sink lower in the sky, and the way the golden light danced along his pretty face was captivating.
“That’s very honest of you,” Asha replied.
Vega continued to stare at the sea, his golden hair blowing slightly in the breeze. “She will want to know immediately,” he added, almost as if to himself. “I don’t think she expected us to survive.”
I sat up, ignoring the groaning of my body, my eyes fixed on the warrior. “Why did she want us to go on this mission in the first place?” I asked. “What does she hope to accomplish?”
Vega looked at me, his piercing blue gaze on me for the first time I could remember. “I don’t know,” he answered. “And if I did, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”
I continued staring at the male, wishing I’d spent more of this journey gathering bits of information from him about his Queen. I was just getting ready to ask more questions when Vega nodded toward the water, and I followed his gaze.
“Looks like the shell worked,” he said as a familiar ship appeared in the distance, and for whatever reason, the way the words were spoken tugged at my heart.
I got the feeling that the Valac warrior was not eager to return to his queen, that while Asha and I were going home, he might very well be returning to hell.
30
“You’re alive,” the pirate captain said, clapping me on the shoulder.
I winced, the spots where the Firedrake had dug into my shoulders with its claws aching.
“Barely,” I replied through gritted teeth.
Reaching into my pocket, I removed the map that had led us here, and watched as the Amadika’s dark eyes filled with anticipation. “Don’t suppose we can get a ride home?” I asked before handing it over.
Amadika glanced over at the edge of the Danoki Desert not too far in the distance. “What, you don’t want to pass through the desert again?” she asked, gold teeth flashing in her mouth as she grinned slyly.
“We almost got eaten by giant scorpions,” Asha said, already lugging her stuff toward the ship.
Captain Amadika laughed boisterously at this, and I couldn’t help a small grin and shake of my head.
“For the map and an account of your journey,” she told me. “I’ll sail you back home, or as close to it as the sea allows.”
I held out my hand, and the pirate shook it. “It’s a deal,” I said, and then handed over the map as well.
The way her face fell in relief for a flash of a moment before she reclaimed her devil-may-care expression told me that the map meant more to the pirate captain than I was aware of, and I wondered what lost thing she was in such a desperate search of, why she needed the map so badly.
“Thank you,” she said, tucking the map into her own jacket. “In all honesty, I wasn’t sure you’d keep your word.”
One side of my mouth pulled up in a smirk, and I waved a hand toward her waiting ship. “We needed a ride home,” I said.
The captain laughed again. “I like you, Rukiya Moonborn. Even if you are a scary ass Wolf half the time.”
“Thanks?” I replied, and she chuckled again.
We boarded the ship, and I watched as her crew worked, readying the vessel to return to the open sea.
Anticipating the seasickness, I shifted into my Wolf form and went below deck, finding Asha and Vega sitting on the same two crates they’d occupied the last time we’d been here.
When I approached, settling down beside them on my belly and resting my head between my paws, Asha reached over absent-mindedly and ran her fingers through the fur behind my ears.
My eyes slipped closed and the rocking of the vessel soothed me into a rest that was as deep as the dead. My body would heal much faster in this form, and I wouldn’t object to sleeping the entire trip away if it meant I would wake and see Adriel and Mina, Goldie and Amara and Freya.
Home.
I’d never had one, and for the first time in my life, I thought I actually understood the concept.
The place and people you returned to, the place where you belonged.
Just before sleep claimed me, Asha leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Rest now, Rukiya dearest,” the Demon crooned. “You done good. You done damn good.”
The words were gentle, kind even, and I wanted to believe them, but the memory of similar words filled my head as the diamond-shaped eyes of a Firedrake flashed through my mind.
You have no idea what you have done.
That might be true, but it was done now.
I didn’t sleep the whole trip, as it would take us five whole days to get back to the fishing town where we’d first met Amadika and her crew.
Instead, I kept my promise to the captain by telling her of the various dangers we’d faced along the way, and she laughed and slapped at her knees as I did so, as if almost dying several times were the most hilarious thing in the world.
Again, I wondered just what experiences had shaped such a dark sense of humor, but didn’t feel l
ike it was my place to ask.
Once I had shared a meal with her, and told her all there was to tell, I returned to the lower decks with my companions, grabbing a crate and settling in beside them.
“The captain seems to like you,” Asha commented, not looking up from the game of cards she and Vega had going.
“She’s not so bad,” I replied.
Asha’s gaze flicked to me, and back to the deck. “You might be glad to know I’ve decided the same about you.”
“Is that so?”
She nodded. “It is. You’re braver than I gave you credit for, and you’re only a fucking idiot half as much as I originally thought.”
I sputtered a laugh at this. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Yes, well, I no longer hate you.”
Shaking my head, I said, “I didn’t understand why you hated me in the first place.”
Asha was silent for a moment, placing down a card and flashing a look at me again.
“I didn’t trust you, and I didn’t think you were good enough for him,” she replied.
“And now?”
“And, now, I’ve seen you fight pirates and scorpions, and outrun Firedrakes… And risk your life to come back and save me.” She shrugged. “I guess I see why he loves you.”
I swallowed hard. Of all the words she’d just said, those last three caught me.
“He loves me?” I asked, though the words were more to myself than to her.
Asha looked at me for a long moment. “Yes, he does. Which is why I had to make sure you were worthy. People like Adriel are rare… He’s the best person I know, and I didn’t want to see you break his heart.”
“Why did you think I would?”
“Because broken hearts tend to be contagious,” she said, and glanced down at my chest as though she could see right through me. “Those who are afflicted with them often only spread the disease.”
“You say that like someone who knows from personal experience.”
Asha placed another card down and flashed that wicked grin. “Not at all, Rukiya dearest, because in order to have your heart broken, you have to have a heart in the first place.”
“And you were born without one?”
“All Demons are,” Vega answered for her.
My brows shot up. This was not something I’d known.
“But you love,” I said. When her face turned toward me, I added, “You love Adriel, and the others. I’ve seen it. You’d die for them.”
Asha pointed a finger at my head. “That’s because love forms here,” she said, and then pointed to my chest. “Not here. We’re all just products of our consciousness.”
“Hmm,” I said.
“What?” Asha asked.
I waved a hand, leaning back against the wooden side of the ship as I watched them play. “I was just thinking that you’re only a fucking idiot half as much as I thought, too.”
Silence hung for a heartbeat, and then all three of us broke out into laughter.
After this, the banter flowed easily, and I wondered at how such a mismatch group of people could have ended up together here, at what lay ahead now that our journey was almost complete.
As we approached our destination, a bit of heaviness began to weigh on my heart that made no sense to me in the slightest. When Captain Amadika came down to tell us we’d made it at last, we’d all been sleeping in a pile in the corner, me in my Wolf form, and both the Demon and the Valac warrior draped over my furry back.
“Rise and shine, supes,” the Captain said, and waved a hand toward the stairs. “We’ve just pulled into port.”
We roused, climbing to the upper deck to see the fishing town from where we’d departed almost two weeks ago, though it seemed now like it had been months. Everything felt different, somehow changed.
I shifted back into my mortal form to thank Captain Amadika, who surprised me by pulling me into a fierce hug.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Rukiya Moonborn,” she said, and patted the place under her coat where I knew the map was kept. “I can’t tell you what this means to me.”
I gave her hand a final shake, nodding. “I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”
The pirate captain glanced out over the sea, where the night was just giving way to the sun, and the world stretched on and on forever. “Me too,” she said, but it was spoken in a whisper, like a private prayer mumbled aloud.
“I almost forgot,” I said, reaching into my pack and holding out the conch shell.
Amadika was silent a moment. Then, she said, “Keep it. Perhaps you’ll need to call on me someday.”
Surprised, I nodded and tucked the shell away again, thanking her a final time.
With this, Asha, Vega, and I climbed off the Mighty Maiden, and began heading toward the mountain range in the distance. The mountain that was the only thing left standing between us and home.
“Let’s hope we don’t run into that serpent again,” Asha said. “Something tells me it won’t be happy to see us.”
We did not run into the snake, and for whatever reason, we made good time on the trek up the mountain.
When we reached the top, where the air was thinner and cooler, and the clouds hung in white puffs around us, I paused at the beauty I beheld.
Down below, set in a valley, with arched roofs and a canal with stone bridges, cradled by the emerald trees of the forest, was Mina. The sight took my breath away, or rather, I felt like I could breathe again after not being able to for so many days. From this height, I could see the natural hot springs tucked into the forest, and the various people who worked in the town going about their days.
The peacefulness and happiness of the place was palpable, and I knew Asha felt it too when I heard her sigh behind me.
“Home,” she said.
“Home,” I agreed, and took the first step on the trek down.
“This is where I will part ways,” Vega said, making me stop and turn back toward him. He was also staring at the landscape below, his mask hanging in his hand at his side, and his blue eyes fixed on a shadowy portion of the vast forest, a place where the light never quite reached.
When his gaze wandered over to Mina, where Wolf pups were running through blooming gardens, and couples were floating on flat boats down the canal, and friends were having meals atop blankets in the parks, I felt heaviness in my heart all over again.
“Do you have to?” I asked, knowing the answer as well as they did, but feeling compelled to say the words anyway. “Everyone is welcome in Mina.”
“I swore an oath,” the warrior said. “I am bound by magic and blood.”
Asha and I exchanged glances, and I saw that heartless or not, she also felt bad for the male. Something told me that the Erl Queen was not an easy one to serve.
“Best of luck,” Vega said, and began the slow trek down the mountain in the opposite direction.
“Wait a minute,” I said.
Vega paused and turned back, and I ran over to him, coming to a stop in front of him. “Thank you,” I said. “I’m not sure we would have made it without you.”
When he only nodded, his face as stoic as the mask still dangling from his fingers, I pulled him into a hug that was awkward, but still felt right.
Before he could turn to go, Asha mumbled What the hell, and also came limping over. To my utter shock, instead of a hug or a handshake, she grabbed the handsome male on either side of his face and planted a passionate kiss on his lips.
I stood there uncomfortably, stifling a small laugh. Vega did not resist Asha, only kissed her back, and when the Demon pulled away, he blinked several times as if in a daze.
“What was that for?” he asked.
Asha shrugged. “I don’t know. You looked like you needed it.”
Then, I stood there awkwardly again as he grabbed her face and returned the favor. I looked elsewhere while they kissed, feeling like the third wheel of a wagon.
Asha laughed
when they broke apart, and without another word, the Valac warrior slid his fearsome mask over his face, and headed on his way.
As we watched him go, I turned toward Asha, a questioning look on my face. I knew that she preferred females.
“I don’t know,” Asha said in answer to my silent inquiry. Her dark gaze was fixed on the Valac warrior’s receding back. “Something about him just hurts my heart, ya know?”
I nodded, sighing through my nose. “Yes,” I said. “I think I do.”
31
Despite Asha’s still healing leg and my own various injuries, we made it down the mountain without any fuss. I thanked the Gods for this small favor when my feet finally hit the flat ground of the valley in which Mina sat, and the familiar scents of the gardens filled my nose.
“Damn,” Asha said, letting out a heavy breath. “It’s good to be back.”
I nodded, but winced a little when I thought of something. “You think he’ll be pissed that we left without telling him where we went?”
Asha smirked. “At you? No. At me? Most certainly yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he won’t like that I put you in a little danger.”
I laughed. “A little danger? That’s what you call a little danger?”
Asha shrugged, grinning. “We’re alive, aren’t we? And on top of that, we now have what we need to free the Dogs.”
We began walking down one of Mina’s streets, passing by a garden, where a couple people waved in greeting. A pretty Fae female in a white dress saw Asha and lit up, and Asha smiled wickedly.
“I’ll catch up with you later, dearest,” she said, already heading toward the female. “I got some business to attend to… and just a heads up, unless you’re looking for a show, I’d avoid the hot spring near Bear Rock for a few hours.”
With this, she strolled off as coolly as one could with a limp. I watched as she and the Fae female shared a kiss that was almost as passionate as the one she’d given the Valac warrior back on the mountain. I had to admit, I admired the way Asha seemed to love so freely and frequently.