Aveena: The City of Gold (The Black Knight duology Book 1)

by Destiny Hawkins

Aveena’s eyes went back to Michael. He looked happier here than he had in the past few days, and she became slightly jealous. Of course he would be happier here. This was his home, and those people were the friends that he barely got to see anymore.

  Her mind jumped back to his lips, and her heart thudded against her chest. She shook the image out of her mind and bit her lower lip. Was she supposed to just walk in there? Most likely, once he saw that she was okay, he would take her back to the Palace, and he would have to leave all of this behind.

  “You’re welcome to go in there if you’d like.”

  Aveena jumped and snapped her head around. A woman with long black hair and bright green eyes stood behind her with a slight smile on her face. Aveena’s mouth slowly parted as she took in the woman’s beautiful features. The energy in her stomach started going crazy, making its way up to her chest, and she held her breath as if that would stop the throbbing pain.

  “I’m Tayen.” She looked down at Aveena’s chest, which flashed gold for a second, and then faded.

  Aveena took a deep breath. So, this is the woman that leads the organization? She didn’t look like a fighter at all, nor did she seem like the type that ordered young men to kill Princesses.

  Tayen cocked her head to the side. She could tell what Aveena was thinking. A chuckle escaped her lips and Aveena felt some of the tension fading. “You must be Aveena.”

  Aveena nodded.

  Tayen’s eyes went to Aveena’s staff, silently warning her to put it away. Aveena immediately complied and shifted the staff back into a ball, then slipped it into her pocket.

  “You must be hungry. Why don’t you follow me and I can get you a bowl of soup,” Tayen said walking passed Aveena. When Aveena didn’t follow, she turned around, “It’s okay. No one here is going to hurt you.”

  Aveena nodded and bit her bottom lip. When she stepped into the bar, everyone quieted and stared at her. They all continued to stare until she stepped up to the bar next to Michael, who was also staring.

  Tayen stepped behind the bar, facing everyone. “Yes, everyone! This is the Princess! You don’t have to look so hard.” Her eyes flickered a brighter green as if she were giving a warning, then everyone went back to their own business. “I’ll be right back with you,” she said to Aveena.

  Aveena nodded, and then looked up at Michael. His mind was obviously on another planet right now, because he still hadn’t spoken.

  “Hey Michael,” Clay leaned over Michael’s shoulder and smiled at Aveena. “The proper thing to do would be to ask her how she’s feeling.”

  Michael snapped out of his daze with wide surprised eyes. He must have been thinking about the last time that they’d spoken, because his expression was momentarily unhappy. “Ah right,” he chuckled. “How are you doing Princess?”

  Aveena licked her lower lip, “I’m fine.”

  “No pain?” Michael reached up and grazed his fingers over the spot where her gash had been. He then moved a few loose strands of hair behind her ear, but pulled away when he saw her eyes flash gold.

  “No. I don’t feel any pain,” Aveena said softly.

  “Good.”

  They both just stared at each other awkwardly. The two, obviously, had the other night on their minds. It was an exciting, and yet unhappy moment.

  “Michael, it’s not nice to stare,” Lennie laughed.

  Michael blinked a few times, then turned to Lennie. He had to stop being so damn emotional and go back to his goofy self. No more sad, heart aching, hormone blazing moments for now. At least not in front of his friends.

  “Here you go, sweetie.” Tayen slid a bowl of soup with meats and vegetables in front of Aveena. “Take a seat and fill up. I know you have to be hungry. You’ve been sleeping all day.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Here,” Michael hopped off of his stool. “Sit here.”

  “Finally, the gentleman is coming out of you,” Clay laughed.

  Aveena sat up on the stool and looked down into her bowl. She never had soup before, or not brown soup that she could barely see the contents in. It smelled delicious, but how did it taste? She looked up into Tayen’s kind eyes and knew that she had to eat it. She didn’t want to offend.

  “It’s not going to kill you Aveena,” Tayen laughed.

  “Oh, no, I didn’t think—It smells good. I just—”

  Michael held back a laugh, “You don’t want to offend Tayen here do you?”

  “Yeah,” Clay sighed. “She hits pretty hard.”

  “Guys,” Tayen laughed. “Stop scaring her. Look, if you don’t want it I can find you something else.”

  “Oh, come on. She’s going to get special treatment just because she’s the Princess?” Michael asked. “Royals are so spoiled.”

  Aveena frowned, causing Michael’s smile to grow. She looked down at her soup and lifted a spoonful of it, then shoved it into her mouth and hoped that her taste buds would accept it. Thank Ralu, they did! The only problem was that it was way too hot. “Water!” She gurgled with a mouth full of soup.

  Michael slid his cup over to her while laughing. “So you need me to blow on it for you as well? I’ll add that to my list of things to do. Follow the Princess around, save the Princess from danger, and blow over her soup.”

  Aveena did her best to keep a straight face. She hoped that the cup blocked her smile as she gulped it down. Usually, she would get upset for being teased, but right now all she could do was fight her laughter.

  “So, what do you think?” Tayen asked. She had been carefully studying Aveena the entire time. She was puzzled as to why she was able to see through her so clearly. Usually, there was almost a grey cloud of smoke that she had to look through before she could see a person’s intentions and thoughts. Aveena was as clear as day, and what she saw was immense power and strong will.

  “It’s delicious,” Aveena smiled. She felt like some sort of weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

  “Good. I’m glad you like it. I’m going to tend to the customers, but I would like to speak with you and Michael later on. You two aren’t leaving anytime soon are you?”

  Michael and Aveena looked at each other. Neither of them wanted to leave yet.

  Michael sighed, “Well, I have to get her b—”

  “No,” Aveena cut him off. “I’d like to stay another night if you don’t mind.”

  “Of course not. It’d be nice for you and Michael to stay another night.”

  “Are you sure?” Michael asked Aveena.

  “Yes, I’ll just tell them that I ordered you to let me rest another day. I mean, I bumped my head pretty hard,” Aveena explained raising a brow.

  “Oh, Michael you take orders?” Lennie asked.

  “Quiet, Lennie,” Michael grumbled.

  “Then it’s settled. You two will be staying another night. I look forward to speaking with you later,” Tayen said.

  “As do I,” Aveena nodded.

  Tayen walked away and started tending to the other customers, and Aveena went back to eating her soup, then Michael turned to Clay and started talking about something that she couldn’t hear about.

  Once Aveena was finished eating, she pushed her bowl away and took a look around the room. Everywhere she turned there was someone laughing. The Ponz bar was radiating with happiness, which sent a calming sensation through her body. She didn’t feel like she had to be on constant alert. It was actually something that she was starting to get used to with Michael around.

  Ty’ere walked over to the bar and stood between Aveena and Michael, then ordered a drink from Tayen and began sipping on it. Aveena couldn’t help but stare at him. He was almost as beautiful as Tayen, and there was a clear resemblance between the two of them. The only difference was that she didn’t feel an energy surge run through her body at his closeness.

  He slowly cut his eyes over to her and gave a half grin, “It’s impolite to stare.”

  Lennie slid in on her other side and leaned on one elbow. “I think that
she fancies you Ty’ere.”

  Michael looked over his shoulder, “Then she should give it up. He’s not interested.”

  Aveena’s brow rose and she grinned at Ty’ere. “He wouldn’t?” She knew that she was beautiful, and she assumed that, how all men fell at her feet, so would this one.

  “Nope,” Michael turned all the way around. “There is nothing about you that he would like.”

  Ty’ere chuckled, “Well, I wouldn’t say all of that. I admire your beauty Princess, but I would be more interested in your brother.”

  Aveena’s eyes widened with shock and embarrassment, then Michael burst into laughter. She could feel the energy in her stomach swirling around and turned to Lennie.

  Lennie read her eyes and gave a mischievous grin. He stood up straight and threw his arm over her shoulders. “I find you interesting, my lady.”

  Aveena smiled, “I find you interesting as well. We should get to know each other.”

  “Ah, well. Let me introduce myself since Michael failed to do so. I’m Lennie, and that guy over there is Ty’ere. You already know Clay, and who cares about Michael? So, me and you?” Lennie chuckled.

  Clay elbowed Michael with a grin.

  Michael’s grin slightly faded, but he tried to keep the peace. At least in his mind he did. “There will be no you and Aveena. You aren’t even her type.”

  “Really?” Aveena asked. “And what is my type?”

  “The Devlin kind.”

  Aveena’s brows furrowed with an overdramatic gasp, “You’re right.” She turned to Lennie, “But my standards change from time to time.” She reached up and ran the back of her hand on Lennie’s cheek.

  “Then if they change for him, you’re lowering them,” Michael leaned on his elbows over the counter. “Lennie’s a bit slow.”

  Lennie snapped his eyes to Michael, “Oh, and you’re faster? Race me now.”

  The four of them stared at Lennie, then burst out laughing when Aveena stepped away from him.

  “What’s so funny?” Lennie asked. He was confused again, as always. If it didn’t deal with fighting, then he had no idea what was going on.

  A sudden fight broke out right behind Aveena. Something that commonly happened in the bar. It was between two large bearded men that stood taller than Michael, and they were going wild.

  Aveena stood from her stool and turned around. The fight just so happened to be dangerously close to her, and she was almost bumped into by one of the large men. Almost. Michael grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way. She spun into him and slammed against his hard chest. Luckily, he had his shirt on this time or else she would have ended up running her fingers over him again.

  Time stopped for a moment. Aveena stared at the crystal hanging from Michael’s neck. Her hand rested on his chest to push herself back, but she was frozen when their eyes met. She looked down at his parted lips and imagined what it would be like to kiss them.

  The bearded man slammed against the bar counter, then slipped onto the floor. Michael grabbed Aveena by her elbow and pulled her back with him. She turned around to see the large man on the floor blocking his face as punches were crazily being thrown down at him. The crowd cheered as they egged on for the fight to continue.

  Clay leaned over Michael’s shoulder to whisper in his ear, “Take her outside while no one’s paying attention.”

  Michael complied. He didn’t know why he was listening to Clay, of all people, but it seemed like a great idea at the moment. He tugged on Aveena’s arm and then motioned for her to follow him out when he got her attention.

  The two of them stepped out of the bar laughing. Apparently, the men fighting were drunk and were barely able to land any punches when they stood up. They missed each other’s faces and ended up falling again with a loud crash.

  Aveena wiped a tear from her eye, “Is it always like that in there?”

  “Almost every night. You’d be surprised that some of those guys are the strongest fighters in the Kingdom,” Michael laughed.

  “Really?” Aveena was shocked. “I mean, they look big, but the strongest?”

  “I know, I asked the same thing when I got here.”

  Their laughing died down and they were quiet now. Through the silence, the other night’s memories flooded back into their minds and the tension came back between the two.

  Michael wanted to speak. To tell her that everything would be okay, and that she had nothing to worry about, but no words came out. Not until they decided to speak at the same time.

  “You first,” Aveena said.

  They stood facing away from the bar and stared out at the road ahead of them. Neither of them made eye contact.

  Michael sighed. He didn’t know how to begin. He pushed his hands into his pockets and dropped his shoulders, “I’m sorry.”

  Aveena drew her brows together, clearly confused.

  “I just left you. Crying. I was—”

  “You were in shock. I shouldn’t have told you like that,” Aveena said in a low voice. A dreadful feeling filled her. Michael was going to die. It was a thought that she tried to fight against in her head, and she was losing.

  “Let’s go for a walk.” Michael reached down and took her hand. He was relieved that she didn’t pull away.

  The roads were cleared as usual at this time. As soon as the sun went down, people just found a place to go.

  Michael rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I was shocked. You have premonitions, and I’m not in any of them.”

  “You are. I dream about you almost every night,” Aveena blurted. She’d dreamed about their kisses. His lips. His hands. His body.

  Michael’s furowed his brows, “But you said that-”

  “I don’t see you in the future. I saw Clay in a new Kingdom,” her voice shook. “But not…I saw you…”

  Michael stopped and turned to her. He lifted her chin with his knuckle to peer into her, now glowing, eyes. “Don’t worry about me.”

  “But I can’t help it,” her lip trembled and her voice cracked.

  Michael felt like he was punched in the gut by Tayen. “I mean it,” he gave a reassuring smile. “You were given a gift to see the future. However I’m supposed to die, you can change it now. I’m not worried. You shouldn’t be worried either. I mean, look at me,” he chuckled. “There is no way the god of Raluza is going to let this magnificent man go to waste.”

  Aveena smiled with tears in her eyes. She never thought about it that way. Michael had a way of making her see the bigger picture of things. Like how her seal was actually helping her control her powers instead of hindering her.

  “So stop worrying, and stop pushing me away,” his eyes were serious. “I know we haven’t spent the most time together, but maybe we can? I don’t like feeling pushed away. I’m your personal Knight, Aveena. You can tell me anything.”

  Aveena’s heart rammed against her chest. She confused the pain with her powers getting riled up, and felt like at any moment, they would explode from her body.

  Michael stared down at her lips. Here came the hormones again, and he had to stop himself. If he didn’t, he was going to kiss her without her consent. He had to stop. Control. Ugh! His lips almost pressed into her’s when he stopped and grinned, “So, you said you dream about me every night?”

  Aveena stepped back. She didn’t understand why he retreated, but whatever. Now she was just embarrassed. “Umm…”

  “Come on, spill it. You dream about me Princess?” He chuckled. “What are they about?”

  His lips. His hands. His body. The taste of his tongue.

  Aveena’s face grew hot. She had to think of something quick. “Just how you run incredibly slow for a man.”

  Michael laughed, “Nice save, but I’m not buying it.”

  “Well, aren’t you a confident one?”

  “I am indeed.”

  “Hey Michael!” Clay peeked his head out of the door. “Tayen wants to speak with you two. Go in through the back!”
r />   Michael sighed, “Looks like we’ve been interrupted.”

  “He wasn’t really interrupting anything,” Aveena mumbled.

  Michael led Aveena to the back door, and then down the stairs. They took the back since the bar was full, and Tayen didn’t want everyone to be in their business.

  Once they were in the basement, Aveena wrapped her arms around Michael’s bicept. There was only one light on in the middle of the room and Tayen, who didn’t look as kind as she did earlier, stood under it. She was all business now.

  Joctus, Ty’ere, and Yasmine stood behind her. They each looked Aveena and Michael over, and when Aveena realized how helpless she seemed, she pushed away from him and stood upright.

  “So, this is the Princess?” Yasmine asked. She cocked her head to the side, “She doesn’t look all mighty and powerful to me.”

  Aveena could see Michael’s lip curl into a slight smile. Yasmine looked like a strong fighter compared to her feminine build, but the woman was clearly mistaken on who was strongest between the two.

  “Well I am,” Aveena’s voice hardened. She wasn’t one to brag about her powers, but she also didn’t like being underestimated.

  Yasmine grinned, “Can you even control them?”

  Aveena sneered, “Would you like to find—”

  Tayen interrupted, “That’s why I called you down here. I wanted to talk about your powers Aveena.” Her voice wasn’t even soft anymore. It was stern.

  Aveena snapped her attention to Tayen. “Is it about the seal?”

  Tayen slowly walked up to Aveena, “It is.”

  Yasmine looked at Michael, who was wide eyed, and laughed. Aveena just frowned, and tried to ignore how her powers were going berserk under her skin.

  “So…” Sweat beads formed on the side of Aveena’s head.

  Tayen could see the golden energy inside Aveena swirl around and beat against the inside of her body. It was trying to get out, but couldn’t find an exit. It only worsened as she neared the girl, and she pondered the idea that she had something to do with it.

  “So, you need to break it,” Tayen stopped in front of Aveena with a blank expression, making herself unreadable. “I’m sure you would prefer Michael to do it, but if not, you could use someone else.”