Peter was right, although he could barely bring himself to admit it. If it weren't for Ariel, he wasn't sure that he would have made it through. It had been a hard few years, that was for sure. Her calming touch. Her relaxing gaze. If she wanted to be out of his life, he wasn't sure what he would do. He needed her; he wanted her. It sure sounded like being in love when he thought about it. But love was for the stupid; love was for fools, for those who were weak. Nobles married for status, for advantage, and she was his social climb, at least in his head.
But perhaps, it was more than that.
CHAPTER 7
Ariel had chosen to go for a walk. She didn't know the area well, but she had been here before, so she knew it well enough to head towards downtown. They were only a few streets away, and she wanted to at least find a Starbucks. Although she liked to party, she didn't usually do it on show nights. She wasn't old by the world's standards, but her age was coming into question among other dancers. Dancers had a very short career lifespan, and she had no doubt that she would eventually have to find another career.
She had thought that the other part of her life was going to end in luxury, being queen. But now, she had no idea.
Ordering the largest, most complicated drink that she could, she handed over an obscene amount of money for it. She didn't really care if they charged her a thousand dollars at this point. She just wanted caffeine and sugar and her world to stop spinning. She was looking forward to sitting at the table and losing herself in mindless phone reading for awhile.
So, she wasn't too happy when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
“Excuse me, Miss?”
“I'm not signing autographs right now,” she didn't even look up. This sometimes happened when she wasn't far from the theater. People who had just seen the show often thought that they could interrupt what she was doing.
“Not even for very special friends?”
“Not for anyone,” she was one step away from yelling. She desperately wanted to watch some mindless YouTube videos, perhaps something about people running into tables or chairs – something to make her laugh.
“Not even for family?”
“What the actual fuck,” she looked up and her heart nearly stopped. Standing across from her was a boy about her age, with strikingly similar features to her. There was the flaming red hair and piercing green eyes that she saw strain back at her in the mirror every day. Even the build was the same: tall and slim, with a few freckles across the nose.
“Are you sure?” the boy quirked a smile, and she saw the same twist of the smile that she had.
“Who the hell are you?” she asked, tensing.
“I'm your cousin,” he replied.
She grabbed her stuff, jumping up.
“Get the hell away from me,” she said. Her hand was clenched her coffee tightly, and she grabbed her purse, heading back to the sidewalk. To her dismay, the boy followed her. “Are you deaf or something? Get away from me.”
“So quick to distrust,” he said. “Your eyes don't deceive you though.”
“So, we look similar. That doesn't mean anything,” she said.
He smirked. “You want to go find a dragon, and I'll show you that we can do the same thing?”
“All the carapaces are dead,” Ariel replied, “as I just found out.”
“That part is true,” the boy said. “Officially, most of them are dead. But there are a few, like you, who survived for various reasons.”
“I survived because I'm strong,” Ariel said. “The carapaces abandoned me. I don't know why the hell they did, but they did. And I'm alive now because it was the dragons – not the carapaces – who looked out for me.”
“Is that what you think?” the boy said. “You didn't stop to consider that the carapaces saved you by hiding you away?”
“Hiding me? Abandoning me on a door step, you mean?”
“Oh, no,” the boy said. “You, Ariel, you were special. You were hidden away because you were our last and best hope. The rest of us ran. We hid. Some of us survived. But we had to make sure the dragons didn't know anything about your survival, because you would be the greatest threat in the world to them.”
“News flash: the dragons know about me,” she said. “And they are reasonably fond of me. Most days.”
“But they don't know who you are,” he said. Ariel growled, stepping towards the boy.
“Talk fast,” she said. “Otherwise, don't think the dragons haven't taught me to break your neck.”
“Whoa,” he put up his hands. “You really don't know how to deal with family, do you?”
“I don't like liars,” she said. “And I don't like people who ambush me. So, you better have an amazing reason for interrupting me. I don't care that my family ditched me, and I don't care whether they lived or died,” she said. “What is this secret that you can't help but tell me? And how do you know I won't run right back and tell Alexander?”
“You mean your husband?” he asked. “The man who basically handed you the keys to the kingdom? I can't wait for you to tell him.”
This boy knew everything, and it was scaring her. There were things that she had kept secret from his own brothers, like their marriage, and yet suddenly, this boy who looked like her knew things that he shouldn't.
“Tell him what?” she asked. “Talk fast, because I promise you he will come looking for me if I'm gone too long.”
“Protective much?” he asked.
“With everything going on, there's nothing weird about it,” she said. “He's here, and we're together, Talk fast or you'll probably get your face broken in.”
“Feisty,” he grinned. “It must be the red hair. You're a very special carapace. One would say you’re a crossbreed.”
“Of what?”
“Of two of the most powerful carapace families,” he replied. “The Campbells and the Reignas.”
“Carapaces don't intermarry between family lines,” she said. “I may not know much about them, but I know that. The families hate each other. It's why they never got anything done, even though they had the great power to do so.”
“Well, they can now,” the boy said. “You were hidden because you were a love child of the heirs to the Campbell and Regina lines. They knew that it would make you incredibly powerful, and that the dragons would want you dead. But they didn't know that the dragons would want them all dead. And there's something odd about a slaughter like that that brings people together.”
“It's been thirty years!” Ariel protested.
“The numbers were few,” he said. “But now they are many. And so, it's time.”
“Time for what?”
“We've brought down the Other,” he said. “And so now we have back carapaces who had been gone quite awhile. Imagine what we can do next. We can bring down the whole kingdom. We can bring down the dragons.”
“You can't get up there without a dragon!” she said. “We don't have magic of our own.”
“But you have a dragon.” He raised his eyebrows. “You have a dragon who will do your bidding anytime. In fact, I do believe the word addicted is used to describe his relationship with you.”
Ariel moved forward, slamming her hand into his nose. She was fast, and he wasn't expecting it. He hollered out, his hands going to cover his face.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked. “We're family.”
“You're not my family,” she said. “Don't you dare come near me again.”
“Really?” he said. “You don't want to know your parents? Your parents who gave up everything to take care of you? You want to have no idea?”
She didn't answer, turning on her heel and storming away. Her mind was spinning. She couldn't think; she could barely breathe.
This was too much. In one evening, she had gone from not caring about her family to finding out they were dead, and then finding out they were alive and cared about her.
She couldn't even begin to think about what all of this meant. It felt like everyone in her
life the past week had been lying to her. No one had been telling her the truth, for various reasons. She didn't know who to trust. She didn't know herself; she didn't know where she stood in the world right now.
Her cell phone rang, and she saw that it was Alexander, but she didn't answer it. She didn't know what to say to him. She didn't even know if she could go back and face him tonight.
She circled around the block and stopped short of standing in front of the Starbucks. To her surprise, the boy was still there. She had broken his nose, and he had gone in to get some napkins. He was standing outside of Starbucks, finishing a phone call. She ducked behind the wall, waiting until he hung up the phone. He began walking down the sidewalk with a sense of purpose, heading somewhere.
She only took half a moment to decide to follow him. Whether he was telling the truth or not was a question in her mind; although he did seem to know an awful lot.
He went down the sidewalk in the opposite direction from there, and she was careful to hide in doorways and be absorbed in her phone so he didn't look back and see her.
She wasn't sure how far they walked. It wasn't too far, but she was wearing impractical high heels and her feet soon ached as they made their way into a park.
Her high heels sunk into the grass, and she hissed in annoyance, thinking about how much they had cost.
Eventually, he stopped. It almost appeared like he stopped in a clearing in the middle of nowhere, randomly, because he seemed to wander around for a bit before standing in between two trees. She ducked behind a bigger cluster of trees as he looked up at the moon.
And then she heard a crunch of leaves, and a voice addressed him.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Ariel has an arm on her,” he said, his voice sounding slightly nasally. She couldn't help but smirk a little bit in pride. Alexander had taught her how to defend herself early on, and his skills had paid off. “She seemed a little shocked, to say the least.”
“She would be,” the voice said. “The dragons lied to her for years to keep her all to themselves. If they had their way, she would probably never know the truth.”
“But now she knows,” he said. “And she's made it clear it was only a marriage of convenience, so who knows whether she's willing to take that convenience a little bit further?”
“Maybe,” said the voice. Ariel recognized it as male now that it was a bit louder. “Give her time. No Regina makes decisions quickly.”
“She's half Campbell, too,” the boy said, proudly. Ariel wondered how old he was. – 18 or 19, maybe, too young to be tied up in all this. If he hadn't said the words to her that he did, she would think him just some schoolboy, wandering through town. “Don't forget.”
“I have never forgotten what she is,” the male voice said proudly. “She's my daughter.”
Ariel gasped, covering her mouth quickly. But it was inefficient, for at the same moment, her cell phone went off. She cursed, trying to silence it. But it was far too late.
Both of them approached her, and she decided it would be an idiot move to run. They could probably grab her faster than she could pull her heels out of the mud.
A tiny part of her, though, wanted to see her father's face – a face she had wondered about her whole life.
CHAPTER 8
Perhaps it was because he looked exactly how she had imagined him to look. Perhaps it was because she was so curious or so confused. Either way, she stayed grounded while he looked upon her.
“Hello, daughter,” he said. “We meet at last.”
He was tall and strong, with hair that might once have been red. Now, it was a silvery grey. He had lines around his eyes, and she saw the same sparkle in his eyes that she sometimes got when she was incredibly happy. He had probably been imagining this moment for years.
“How do I know you're telling the truth?” Ariel asked. She was already planning her escape, although it wasn't a very good one. She planned to dart passed them in the dark and assumed that the forest would cover her. She just needed to get her shoes off, which she was trying to do subtly. “How do I know that any of you are telling the truth?”
“Alright, you have a right to doubt,” he said. “After all, we weren't sure it was you for many years. Here,” he put his hand on a tree, “there's magic in trees, right? Nature has magic?”
“A little bit,” she said. “But not enough to do any damage to anything.”
“I don't want to do any damage,” the man said. “I just want to prove my point. Here, put your hand on the tree, but don't suck anything out.”
“Mmm,” she winced. “It's not easy to contain.”
“You can do it,” he smiled. “I believe in you. Place your hand on the tree.”
She obliged only because it put her in a better position to take off her shoes. She leaned forward, subtly slipping off her left heel. She felt the magic in her palms, and then she felt it slink away. She looked up to him, in shock.
“That's how fast you can do it when you are trained,” he said. “We can teach you how to hone your skills.”
“I know how to use my skills,” she said, but he raised an eyebrow.
“But you are three times more powerful than I am, and you cannot do that as fast,” he said. “And I'm sure it would be of your benefit to learn how to work faster, wouldn't it?”
“No,” she said dully.
“Really? When your brother-in-law was cursed last year, you wouldn't have given anything to suck that painful magic out of him a bit faster?”
Ariel's eyes darted upwards. “How did you know about that?”
“I have my ways,” he said. “And my spies.”
“But you couldn't have gotten into the kingdom.”
“No,” he nodded. “You're right. But you and Alexander are quite free with your speech when you are here.”
“Argh,” she growled. Her hands trembled, and she wanted to smash both their faces against the tree. “What do you want from me?”
“Nothing right now,” he said. “Just think about it, Ariel. Nothing more.”
“Think about what?”
“Joining us,” he said. “Joining your family. Specifically, in going against those who did us wrong.”
“I will never abandon…” she started but he raised an eyebrow.
“Are you sure?” he answered. “Because I know you've been wanting to make a break for them for a long time. You don't like being married, is that true?” she didn't answer, and he continued to look down upon her. “Although I wish I could have been there at your wedding, under different circumstances, of course. Perhaps not to a dragon lord.”
“My wedding?” she asked, in shock.
“To give you away,” he said. “A privilege I've been denied.”
“You were denied everything when you abandoned me!” she cried.
“For your own safety,” he said. “I assure you.”
“Safety?” She laughed. “Do you think it was safe that I grew up in foster homes with nine other kids in two bed rooms? With foster parents who only wanted the money the agency gave? With foster mothers who kicked me out for the simple reason that I was beautiful? You don't know what safety is. I was left to starve, to freeze, and to die. I lived on the streets. I lived in hostels until I found dance. And when the dance world threatened to abandon me, too, it was dragons who saved me.”
“And yet they control you,” he said. “They keep you in a cage, and you do not like cages, do you? No, your mother didn't like cages either.”
She froze.
“Where's my mother?”
Even though she never knew her mother, she had always wondered who she was and what she was like. She wished that the wondering had gone away as a teenager or as an adult, but a girl never stops wanting her mother.
His face softened.
“She has not returned to us yet.”
“From the Other?” Ariel asked.
“Yes. But we have faith that she will. She will find a different world
– a united world. One where she and I will not be apart.”
“I want to leave,” Ariel said, and to her surprise, he stepped aside, waving his arms.
“By all means. We will never keep you prisoner nor tie you down. You are free to come and go; there are no conditions on our offer, Ariel. Or our love.”
She turned and ran as fast as she could. The forest was dark, and she wasn't sure which direction she had come from. They weren't following her, however, and her phone's GPS eventually got her back onto the sidewalk. Bending over, she tried to catch her breath.
It would have been better if she knew he was lying. If he had been nasty or hurtful, she could have dismissed this experience and never thought about it again.
But he had been kind and caring, with a smile on his face. That was what made it worse. And he was speaking with grief over her mother, which was something she had never expected.
But then again, she wasn't quite sure what to expect because she hadn't exactly pictured this moment. Any time she had pictured her parents, she had seen them in a normal situation – a Christmas morning or a birthday party, or a big breakfast.
This was life changing, and she didn't do well with total chaos. Her life had been the same in a lot of ways since she was a child: alone, fending for herself, no one looking out for her needs except her. The fact that this kind man was telling her these things made her brain flip on edge. She didn't really know what to make of it.
She eventually found her way back to the hotel, her lips firmly shut as she got into the elevator. Her mind was spinning too fast to speak, and she was grateful to find the hotel room mostly empty as she walked in.
She thought that perhaps Alexander had gone out with Peter to eat or to clear their heads. If Peter was anything like the others, it wouldn't be out of character for them to get a drink in the bar.
She was ready to sink on the bed, hoping to lose herself in mindless TV. But then she heard a noise of distress from the bathroom and remained on her feet, her legs stopping her mid fall.
Aris: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Stratham Dragons Book 1) Page 23