“No,” MaLeila said. “I think they perfectly well understand the Russian’s fear. They just don’t want them to amass that kind of power. That’s why they were so willing to help Tsubame. They gain control of people by making them become indebted to them, under the guise of bringing peace and democracy. This is just one big excuse to have a war and decide who will dominate for good.”
“Looks like someone didn’t need my help figuring out the politics of this war after all,” Dominik said. “If you ask me, Tsubame not participating in the war is a wise move. By the time the dust settles, she’ll come out on top without even a morsel of debris on her.”
“It’s more than that,” MaLeila said. “It’s much more than that. Tsubame’s not a patient woman. She sped along a war that would have happened ten years from now if she had let everything take its natural course and didn’t care one bit about getting dirty in the process. Why would she all of a sudden want to slow down?”
“I think you’re putting too much thought into this,” Dominik said with a sigh.
Maybe she was. But Dominik didn’t know that Tsubame was already a queen in an alternate universe, so the question became why would she travel to another world to do what she already knew she could do? Tsubame’s plan hadn’t always been to recreate herself in MaLeila after all. And if the queen was doing it for the hell of it, why slow down? To draw out the game and get more enjoyment out of it? No. Tsubame wasn’t a sadist.
“It’s amazing though, isn’t it? Tsubame essentially told all of them that she plans to sit them down and rule in their stead, yet they still fight against each other anyways. Human nature is very peculiar. You can see yourself falling into a trap, see yourself doing the exact thing you were warned about, yet you can’t keep yourself from falling,” Dominik said leaning on the table next to MaLeila.
MaLeila didn’t miss the insinuation in Dominik’s statement and idly wondered for a few moments whether or not she should address it. Then, because she had never been one to shy away from addressing the elephant in the room, she said, “I have a feeling you’re not just talking about the Magic Council and the magic families knowingly falling into Tsubame’s trap.”
“Your feeling could be wrong.”
“My intuition is almost never wrong. And the times it was depended very much on your definition of wrong,” MaLeila pointed out.
“And do tell what your intuition’s telling you?” Dominik dared.
That despite the fact that she warned upfront about Tsubame’s intentions to have her seduce him, despite the fact that MaLeila warned him that she was supposed to use him for her own gain, despite giving him every reason not to trust her, he had decided to trust her anyway and keep falling for her. Though she hadn’t been trying to charm him on purpose and explicitly told him that it had been Tsubame’s plan from the beginning so that he wouldn’t charmed by her, it seemed her upfront attitude only further encouraged him. His glances at her as she worked on German didn’t escape her, or how the way she laughed could distract him from whatever he was doing, or how even though he managed to contain it she still got the impression of jealously from him when Marcel would sweep in and steal her away.
Finally MaLeila replied, “That despite the fact that I’ve given you all the reasons why you shouldn’t trust me, you’ve fallen for me despite it.”
Suddenly, MaLeila was very aware of Dominik’s presence as he leaned closer to her and said, “Or maybe because of it. Will that be a problem?”
If MaLeila were honest with herself, no it wasn’t. It was empowering to see this man fall for her still after she had warned him not to. If MaLeila continued to be honest with herself, she took pleasure in watching Dominik continue to knowingly fall for her and wondered just how far he would allow himself to go still knowing that even though she liked him well enough as a friend, she didn’t care for him romantically.
“No,” MaLeila said. “Not a problem at all.”
MaLeila wasn’t sure who closed the distance. Only that one moment she was keenly aware of his proximity and the next their lips were moving against each other’s. It was a slow kiss, a sensual kiss, nothing particularly explosive, yet MaLeila’s heart still raced in excitement. Not just sexual excitement, but in excitement at the forbiddenness of it all, the sense of wrongness, the sense that they might get caught, could likely get caught, but probably wouldn’t. MaLeila pulled away from him first, a saucy smile on her face as she sensed the desire for her had increased now that he had gotten a taste.
“Come on,” MaLeila said. “Let’s practice your magic.”
Dominik groaned, head falling back in annoyance as he said, “You make it look so easy.”
That’s because it was easy for MaLeila. She just hadn’t realized how uncommon it was for sorcerers, let alone a teenage one who one discovered magic when she was twelve, to be able to manipulate distance and space at all, let alone rearrange it in the manner necessary to create a magical loop or a portal. It was certainly cliché, but she hadn’t known how powerful she was until she had something to compare it to. People said it, and no one but her had been able to wield the strength of her staff without risking it draining their life force. But to Devdan and Bastet she was just the teenager they watched over in lieu of a dead mother. To Irvin, she had been the girl unworthy of the legacy Claude left behind and then later his friend. To the Magic Council and powerful influential magic family leaders, she had been someone to be conquered and controlled. But without even trying, by only being herself in the only way she knew to be, she had captivated Dominik because of the power she hadn’t realized she had.
“If I didn’t know any better,” Dominik added leaning towards her and pecking her on the lips, “I’d say you were showing off.”
“I’m not,” MaLeila insisted allowing him to keep his proximity but keeping him from getting another kiss from her. “Stop. We don’t have time for this.”
And just like that, Dominik went from playful and flirty to serious and solemn as he said, “You’re right. We don’t.”
MaLeila raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t expected him to agree so quickly. She thought she’d have to allow him a few more kisses before he backed down, thus it didn’t take her long to deduce that he wasn’t talking about kissing.
He continued, “Look how long it’s taken me to even see the magical seams that keep distance and space together. It’ll be months before I can grasp at them or even undo and redo them.”
MaLeila paused, eyes narrowed. “So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that instead of me learning to summon and control the undead army, I’ll teach you how Marie does it.”
14
“I still don’t see why you’re so insistent on trying to get Mekonnen on our side. He’s proven that he’s not interested,” Anya said to Devdan a little over a week after they had arrived after having not seen Mekonnen since they first arrived. “We shouldn’t waste our time here any longer.”
“For a diplomat who is used to making negotiations with people that could take weeks, even months, you’re sure in a rush to leave here,” Devdan pointed out to the woman when she called him to her room to talk.
“It’s one thing when the other side is actually making the effort to talk to you. But Mekonnen’s completely ignoring us. He obviously has no intention of assisting us.”
Devdan understood the woman’s frustrations, though he’d never admit it to her. Mekonnen had been suspiciously absent taking care of whatever business he had with another magic family. Since all Ethiopian sorcerers were part of the same magic family, Devdan figured the man must have left the country making him wonder why the man had allowed them to come at all if he knew he wasn’t going to be there to discuss the terms of working with the Magic Council and give Devdan the chance to earn his trust like he agreed the first and only time they had spoken.
“We’ll give him a few more days,” Devdan said dismissively.
“Are you giving him a few more days or do you want to s
pend more time with Adina,” Anya asked.
Devdan knew this was an attempt on Anya’s part to see him falter, yet he couldn’t help but wonder if he had been that indiscreet about his inexplicable attraction to the young sorceress—an attraction that only worsened the more he spent time with her. Rather than dwell on it and give Anya that satisfaction that Adina was part of the reason he insisted on staying he locked eyes with her, unwilling to back down.
The woman continued, “We could try the Moroccan Clan. Or the South African Clan.”
Both families of whom would kiss the ass of Magic Council to be in their good graces. There was a reason that Bastet told him to go to Ethiopia. Not only was it because of the family’s persevering magic history, but also because they were the most stable and respected magic family amongst the African Clans, most of whom were embroiled in tribal war, almost extinct, or lying in bed with Magic Council already.
“We’re trying to get all the African Clans on our side and Mekonnen is the most respected of them all. If we can get him on our side, the rest will follow.”
“Well haven’t you done your research,” Anya said.
“Shocked?” Devdan asked. He decided not to let Anya inevitably insult him in response and continued, “I may be better at using magic and my fists to get my point across but I’m no fucking idiot.”
“If you’re no fucking idiot, then you also know that Mekonnen’s not the only person all the magic families in Africa respect enough to listen to.”
Devdan knew perfectly well that Anya was talking about the proud Algerian Clan in West Africa but he still took a moment to respond because he couldn’t quite get over the arrogance of the Magic Council, how they simply expected bygones to be bygones after all the atrocities they’d committed and allowed to happen in their bid for power. Did it ever even cross the woman’s mind that after suffering over a century of illegal French occupation that the Magic Council turned a blind eye to and the bloody war for the country’s independence that the Algerian Clan wouldn’t even be willing to talk to them on behalf of the Magic Council, let alone be willing to convince others to help?
Finally Devdan said, “The only reason you’re here is that the Magic Council doesn’t trust me. But even still this is my mission and I’m calling the shots. I’m staying here. But go ahead. Try to talk to the Algerian Clan yourself and then when you fail explain to the Magic Council why you left me here unsupervised and risk that seat of yours.”
That said, Devdan left the room. It had been risky to challenge because Anya was nothing if not proud, but the Dominican Republican woman and her blind devotion was infuriating.
“Devdan, are you alright?”
Devdan bit back a curse upon seeing Adina, her black eyes locking with his and not for the first time did he feel the strange compulsion to kiss her. More than kiss her. To take her as his own. And it was making Devdan feel like he was a teenager who could hardly control his hormones again.
“Yeah. Fine,” he replied.
“I hope you aren’t trying to make any plans with Devdan, Adina,” Ezra said coming from the kitchen. “Devdan promised we would spar and I feel he has put it off long enough.”
“So you can embarrass him,” Adina said with a scowl.
“No. It’s fine,” Devdan cut in.
He needed something to take out his aggression and pent up energy on. In the past when he got restless like this, he usually found a reason to mess with MaLeila, mostly because she was the reason he was so restless to begin with. He’d get her worked up into an argument until his heart raced with anger and his blood filled with heat as he got off on the way he could make her react to him until neither he nor her could remember how they had gotten so angry at each other in the first place. Sometimes that didn’t work and he’d leave to find a girl to fuck or he’d go visit the fighting gym he had started and passed along to one of the guys who would also come there and assist with demonstrations to knock a few arrogant students down a few pegs. Since fucking Adina definitely wasn’t an option no matter how much they liked each other, Devdan would do with the sparring.
“Besides,” Devdan said, flashing Adina a smile that caused her to suddenly avert her gaze from him, “Who says he’s going to embarrass me?”
“We will see,” Ezra promised.
They did after dinner, in a room attached to the house filled with mats and an assortment of traditional fighting weapons that Devdan had never seen. Adina sat off to the side, a keen expression on her face as she said, “I’d prefer if you didn’t kill each other.”
“A fight isn’t over until the one who threatens your life is dead or permanently down for the count,” Devdan said.
“There’s a difference between the two?” Adina asked.
“Sometimes,” Ezra said before proceeding to determine the rules.
Hand to hand combat. Anything goes. Loss was determined by the first person to surrender.
Just as Devdan hoped the exercise might, the sparring matches helped take the edge off his restlessness. It turned out that Devdan was the better fighter, something that was proven not just from one sparring match, but multiple matches well into the late evening until finally Ezra gave up trying to defeat him and that was only when Adina insisted that it was getting late and that if they sparred anymore, they would kill themselves.
“I have to ask, what is your secret?” Ezra asked wiping the sweat off him with a towel.
Having something to fight for, Devdan thought to himself instantly. Ezra may have trained more often than Devdan had a chance to and was more stylistically trained, but that was only a small part of winning the fight. Most of winning a fight, of making the body do things that it normally wouldn’t be able to do and exceed physical limitations was sheer will; telling yourself, convincing yourself that you were going to make your body do the impossible. In a way, it was its own magic, which was why even when Devdan wasn’t trying to use his magic in a fight, he naturally tapped into it anyway. But doing the impossible was much easier when who you were protecting was in danger and their life depended on it.
“There is no secret,” Devdan said. “Just do or don’t. Kill or be killed.”
“Most people would take issue with that philosophy.”
“Most people are idiots. Besides, who’s the one who just won all of our sparring matches,” Devdan said bluntly.
Not too keen on getting into detail about the matter, Devdan headed back to his room before Ezra could ask him anything else. When he got there, he fell into bed without showering, getting what must have been the easiest sleep he’d had in a while. And unlike the last few mornings, the call of the adhan from the nearby mosques didn’t awaken him. He didn’t bother checking the time when he finally did decide to get out of bed, only glanced out the window to know that it was well past sunrise and went to take a shower.
It only after he took a shower, after the heat of the water had loosened up muscles tight with soreness that tightened back up again once he was out the shower, did Devdan realize how stiff his body was and that he had injuries that he’d been too numb from exhaustion the previous night to notice. In particular there was a tender spot on the back of his shoulder that was interfering with the range of motion of his right arm. There was a knock on his door and he gritted through his teeth for whoever it was to come in as he tried to work out the soreness. He could resort to using magic to assist with the injury instead, but he’d already overdone it with Ezra yesterday. Devdan didn’t think he’d wake up for the next day with all the energy using magic to heal took.
“Are you alright?”
Adina’s voice distracted him so that he moved his arm too far back, sending a sharp shooting pain from the back of his shoulder down to his elbow.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“You’re injured,” Adina said and then left the room.
She came back with incense and oil. First she lit the incense. Then she sat the oil on the nightstand next to his bed and beckoned him to have a seat i
n front of her.
Devdan hesitated. Adina noticed.
“What? You’re injured aren’t you?”
“Yes. But I’ve suffered worse. I can deal with a little soreness,” Devdan said carefully.
“You probably can. Doesn’t mean you have to. Come here.”
As always when Adina was involved, he felt compelled to do as she said, so he sat in front of her, back to her. She lifted his shirt off and then tucked his hair out the way, the brushing of her fingers against his skin sending jolts through his body. He couldn’t fully allow himself to enjoy the sensation though, not when he was fully aware of how improper this was. Back home, even in Europe, it wasn’t wrong to have such intimacy with the opposite sex, even encouraged. Even as prudish as the European families were about who married who, they didn’t care about who had sex with who and when so long as the wrong people didn’t make the marriage tie. Adina’s family was different. Everyone was in everyone’s business and if you were interested in a girl you talked to her father or her brother, not the girl; let alone got into intimate situations with said girl. But her father wasn’t here and her brother was probably in his room trying to recover from their sparring match just like Devdan was.
Adina’s warm oily hands on his sore right shoulder snapped Devdan out his thoughts. She rubbed the oil onto his shoulder first before massaging it into his skin, working out the soreness in his shoulder first before moving her hand slightly up his neck. With the soreness on his right side slowly being worked out by Adina’s ministrations, the soreness on his left side seemed to increase and as though she had read his mind, Adina switched sides. She tossed his hair to his other side and Devdan mentally noted that he really needed to cut it or else it would get as long as he used to let it get back when Claude owned him. The long thick wavy locks made him popular with the opposite sex back then, both black and white even though the white girls who admired him never would have admitted it if their lives had depended on it. Nowadays people assumed he had Native American or Indian blood which he supposed was better than people assuming he was a mulatto.
The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension Page 14