Chander threw himself down across the mattress to get the damn bedding in the right spot and wondered why the hell he was bothering. All he wanted to do was curl up into a ball and sleep for a week. On a normal day that feeling would present itself, and he would push it back to work or plow through spellbooks. But there were times when even he was pushed so far to the brink he had no choice and had to recharge his batteries.
And this hadn’t been a normal week. The elders were all giving him evil looks now that they knew about Alaric, and the press was splashing it all over. Poor Evergreen had spent most of his time on the phone with reporters or well-wishers. It was unfair that Chander had to deal with this on his own while Alaric hid at the compound.
He yawned again and this time it was so wide his jaw cracked. Once he had everything in order, he climbed in and all but melted onto his pillow. Snuggling in, Chander thought about the conversation he’d just had with his sentinels. He was surprised Alaric had agreed to have a matebond ceremony. The man clearly wasn’t interested in being together but perhaps like Chander, he was unwilling to flaunt in the face of Fate’s decision to match them.
Baxter and Benton wanted to share their ceremony, and Chander was humbled they wished to include him in something so sacred. He was thrilled the pair seemed to get along well and continued to show no anger toward him for keeping them apart for so many centuries. It was a stark reminder of how lucky he was to have them in his life. They were the first people he’d ever allowed himself to drop all barriers with, and it was a decision he had never regretted.
He hadn’t wanted to hitch his own bloodbinding to theirs, but he knew them both well enough to know once they had an idea in their head, they were unlikely to let it go. So, he’d acquiesced even if his brain was screaming at him to let them have their day and to stay the hell out of it. Chander wasn’t crazy about traveling to the Draconis Court of D’Vaire to see the deed done either.
He’d purposely stayed away, and now he was being drawn back. It would be good to see all the wonderful people there, but he still believed he was treading in a place he didn’t belong anymore. They were connected to the Reverent Knights, and Chander had done enough to hurt them. Chander didn’t even ask if they would be attending the ceremonies; he didn’t want to know.
Besides, as much as Baxter and Benton might want Drystan and Conley there, he couldn’t imagine the duo would agree to come. He hoped his sentinels didn’t take it personally if they had already declined the invitation. It wasn’t their fault, and he’d remind them of that if he had to. He’d found their request to use the daggers he’d designed so fallen knights could exchange blood a strange one.
They had beautiful weapons with their names engraved into the blades; he didn’t understand why they wouldn’t use those. But then again, they were still competitive. Perhaps they had been unable to come to an agreement as to whose blades would be used to cut them. With yet another yawn, Chander rubbed his hand over the black skull that had been on his chest since birth. He wondered why the hell he continued to have pain under it. Hopefully after a weekend of resting and getting in a few extra meals it would go away, because it was damn annoying. He was too young to suffer from any of the maladies sorcerers could suffer from and even if he was ancient like the necromancers on his elder council, his magic pool was so vast he was immortal. Pain shouldn’t be a concern for him at all, so why was he suffering from it more and more?
At least he’d been smart enough to keep it to himself. If his sentinels knew he’d been having chest pains on and off for the last couple of—shit, was it months or years now?—they’d drag him to a doctor and insist they get to the bottom of it. Then they’d do a bunch of tests and tell him what he already knew. He didn’t take care of himself and he had too much work and stress on his plate.
Too tired to continue worrying about something so silly, Chander reached up and snapped off the lamp on his bedside table. Before laying his head down on the pillow, he summoned Benton home from the compound. Then he burrowed into his blankets, shut his eyes, and sleep crept over him like a welcome fog.
* * *
Alaric lifted his pen and began the painstaking task of writing down the names of each sentinel. It was an exercise he’d begun long before he could remember, and it had an important purpose. The Lich Sentinel did not want to forget any sentinel and this, he hoped, ensured he would never do so. Still, there were times on certain letters he would pause and a word would hover just beyond his reach. But his mind was often conflicted between what he wanted to think and what he was forced to focus on, so he had no idea if he was searching for someone or if it was just his brain playing tricks on him.
“Alaric,” Benton said as he entered his office and lowered his hood to his shoulders.
“Benton, how are you?”
“I’m well, Alaric.”
“Has the Council approved the petition for the sentinels to join?”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that fast,” Benton explained. “It begins with a review process. A group of administrative and legal experts will look over it to make sure the bylaws you’ve provided them fall within the laws of the Council itself. I’m told they may come back with questions or changes that need to be made for it to eventually be approved.”
“Have you heard from these experts yet?”
“We have not,” Benton revealed. “Considering the length of the bylaws and the petition, I’m guessing it could be a couple of weeks before we hear anything. Maybe longer.”
“It wouldn’t be beneficial to their Council to rush a petition. But I’m sure they’ll recognize how eager the sentinels are to join and not wish to deprive my men of the opportunity to better themselves.”
“Sure, Alaric.”
“Is that all the news you have for me?” Alaric asked. “I do have a great deal to do.”
“I realize that, but no. I have another topic to discuss with you,” Benton said. “Baxter and I have scheduled our mating ceremony. Chand has agreed to have yours on the same day and time.”
“It will be good for the sentinels that their leader has bound his blood to the Arch Lich.”
“Absolutely,” Benton responded. “The plan is to have it at Court D’Vaire. That was the place you first visited.”
“The home of King Aleksander and the Grand Warlock.” Alaric was thrilled he not only recalled their names but their faces as well.
“Yeah, Chand says he doesn’t want rings like the shifters use but the D’Vaires have a metalsmith, so if you wanted to exchange them you should probably decide that soon. The ceremony is a week from tomorrow. It takes time to make rings.”
“Why would I wish to wear a ring shifters use?”
“Well, not only shifters wear them. Baxter and I are going to. Gavrael and Gedeon have bands too. Maybe we could make it a sentinel tradition.”
“It would be an interesting tradition for sentinels, but we don’t know if there will be more mated couples. I do not know if this is a worthwhile pursuit.”
“I think you could talk Chand into it if you thought it was good to begin a new tradition for sentinels,” Benton suggested. “You’d be the only mated sentinel without one. That might be weird.”
“I do not wish to stand apart from other sentinels. My duty is to see to your care.”
“Talk to Chand.”
Alaric stood. Benton had made it sound like this would be good for their people. This gave him yet another opportunity to see Chander. He slipped on his cloak and asked, “Where is he?”
“Oh, you mean right now?” Benton asked, foolishly in Alaric’s opinion. Obviously, he meant now. “He’s at home but—” Before he could get another word out, he shimmered out of the room. It seemed Chander had summoned him back to their home.
Deciding to follow, Alaric teleported back to the dirty living room and as he lowered his hood, he saw Baxter jump to his feet while a bowl of orange puffy things went flying.
“Where is the Arch Lich?”
; Benton yanked his cloak off. “He’s in his room but—”
Alaric strode down the hall until he came to a closed door. He swung it open and from the light flowing in from behind him saw Chander sound asleep in his bed. Then Baxter came tearing into the room and flipped a switch which illuminated the space.
“Chand,” the sentinel yelled. “Alaric is here.”
The Arch Lich woke with a start and sat straight up in bed. His unfocused eyes were wide and Alaric could do nothing but enjoy the view of Chander’s naked chest. The man was more skin and bone than muscle but Alaric didn’t care. He liked the fact that Chander lacked body hair and was intrigued by the jet-black skull which sat between his lightly defined pecs. It looked carved into the skin, gleamed in an almost metallic way, and was remarkably intricate. Alaric recognized it as the mark Fate had given him to show he was meant to rule the necromancers.
“What the fuck?” Chander blurted out. Alaric looked up to see his pewter eyes were annoyed and his hair was a disaster of wiry curls standing in every direction on one side and flattened like a pancake on the other.
“Benton thought we should discuss beginning a new tradition for sentinels,” Alaric said while he mentally screamed at himself. He wanted to tell Chander he wished he could stay and keep watch over him while he slept. That he was glad he’d agreed to a matebond ceremony and that he was sorry he could not be a better mate.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Chander shouted as he threw back the covers and got out of bed. Chander wasn’t wearing anything but a pair of dark gray plaid boxers. Alaric wanted to cover him up so Baxter and Benton wouldn’t see him—and feast on his flesh with his own lucky gaze. “I’m tired. You three need to get the fuck out of my room.”
“We need to discuss this matter. It affects sentinels.”
“Get out,” Chander bit out through clenched teeth.
“We should go,” Baxter suggested as he began easing out of the room.
“I cannot return to debate this issue,” Alaric said. “It must be taken care of now.”
“Fine,” Chander roared. “No fucking rings. Now get the fuck out.” The air below his small feet began to turn black.
“Okay, no sentinel tradition,” Benton announced as he followed Baxter out. “It’s a shifter tradition anyway. You guys don’t need it.”
“You’re the one who said it would be good to begin a sentinel tradition.” Alaric pulled his hood up. Chander slammed his bedroom door and Alaric was close enough to the wood that he felt the whoosh of air escaping the room.
“I guess I was wrong,” Benton replied. “I’ll see you next week.”
Alaric teleported back to the compound and was more than a little annoyed at the Arch Lich’s sentinels. He had done a horrible job of being a mate, and they had helped further that cause. It was not something he would thank them for. Baxter and Benton should be glad he was their leader and unable to do anything but see to their care and comfort. Otherwise he might have been tempted to exact revenge for this evening.
Chapter 14
Chander was still fuming over the trio of sentinels who had crashed his sleep a few nights earlier when he sat down at his desk to start sifting through the mounds of paperwork that seemed to grow whenever he blinked. Baxter and Benton were on their best behavior and dutifully keeping silent at their desks. He’d given them plenty to keep busy.
“Hey Chand,” Evergreen greeted from the doorway of his office.
“Yes?”
“I’ve got the Reverent Knight on the phone,” his assistant told him. “He’d like to know if he could have a few minutes of your time this afternoon.”
“Which Reverent Knight?” Benton asked.
“RK Conley,” Evergreen replied.
“Tell him I’d be happy to speak with him. Just work him into my schedule wherever he has a free slot,” Chander said.
“Sure, also I had a question.”
“Yes?”
“Do you think Duke Dravyn D’Vairedraconis would be willing to give me a couple of clippings of some of his flowers?” Evergreen asked. “I’m thinking maybe some of these plants are not growing because they aren’t getting the right amount of sunlight. Maybe if I had some different ones, I could keep them from dying.”
Chander sincerely doubted Evergreen could get anything to grow, but he liked him a great deal and would never hurt his feelings. He knew Dravyn would be more than happy to let Evergreen take cuttings from his expansive garden. “Sure, Evergreen, I bet he’ll be thrilled to help.”
“Great,” Evergreen said. “One more question. Trystan is a necro hybrid like me and lacked the power to summon his sentinel. The Grand Warlock helped him out—do you think he’d do the same for me?”
“I can do that for you,” Chander offered. “You should know that. Why didn’t you ask me to help you out sooner?”
Evergreen grimaced and his cheeks went pink. “My mother is terrified of sentinels. Now that I have my own place, I can have my sentinel live with me the way yours do.”
“We’ll take care of it later after work today if you’d like.”
“Fantastic,” Evergreen exclaimed before heading back out to his desk.
Chander opened the inbox to his email and nearly groaned at the number of new messages. Before he could select one, there was a knock on his open door.
“Hey, Evergreen said I could come on back,” Reverent Knight Conley stated.
“Of course,” Chander replied. “Have a seat, Reverent Knight. What can I do for you?”
“Let’s start by calling me Conley,” he suggested. “You gave me the name—you should get to use it.”
“I didn’t give you the name. Your parents did. I simply gave it back to you when you were resurrected. You would have remembered who you were as soon as you had your mating ceremony with Drystan,” Chander said.
“We can argue semantics if you want,” Conley began as he sat down in one of the guest chairs in Chander’s messy office, “but the truth is you didn’t know if we would get our memories back for sure or not. So, I can certainly say you gave me the name.”
“What can I do for you, Conley?”
“First, I want to say congratulations on meeting Alaric and for your upcoming mating ceremony,” Conley offered. He looked at Baxter and Benton who were quiet as mice. “Congrats to you guys too, a double ceremony is awesome.”
“Thanks,” the sentinels said in unison before grinning at one another.
“Thank you, Conley.”
“An unnamed source told me your ceremony is going to be at D’Vaire this weekend,” Conley revealed.
“And by unnamed you mean Drystan’s son,” Chander countered.
“Well, yeah.”
“I hope you and Drystan aren’t upset by my being there this weekend,” Chander responded. “If the two of you already had plans to be there perhaps Baxter and Benton could have their ceremony, and I could have mine at another time somewhere else.”
“What, you wouldn’t come to our ceremony?” Baxter demanded.
“I didn’t say that. I could come and then leave right after.”
“Okay, you guys don’t need to argue about this,” Conley insisted. “King Aleksander gets to decide who is allowed at D’Vaire. He’s fine with it and so are Drystan and I.”
Chander found that hard to believe, but he wasn’t going to argue the point. He remembered very well the last time he was at Court D’Vaire when Drystan had yelled at him. Not that he didn’t have good reason to but it wasn’t an experience he wished to repeat if he could help it.
“Right, so the schedule stays as it is,” Benton stated with a narrow-eyed glance at Chander.
“I heard you guys have quite the guest list,” Conley said.
Having no interest in the details of the ceremony, Chander had no idea who was even on the guest list so he remained silent.
“We’ve tried to keep it low-key, but we had to invite the Emperor and the Prism Wizard. Idris has been given the weekend
off from school. Evergreen is joining us too. We would have gone bigger, but we don’t want the elder council to get wind of it and demand to get to attend,” Benton explained.
“Do you have room for a couple of fallen knights?” Conley asked.
Chander’s face scrunched up. “Which fallen knights?”
“Drystan and I would like to attend. And, of course when Vann and Roman heard us talking about it, they begged to get consideration as well.”
“I’m sorry but why would Drystan want to be there?” Chander asked. “He hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you,” Conley countered with a grimace. “He’s been upset with you. There’s an enormous difference.”
“He’s entitled to his anger,” Chander responded. “I lied to him and kept him from you. I doubt I would be able to forgive me if I were in his shoes.”
“Well, if he wasn’t acting like an overly dramatic teenager about it, you guys would already be past this. And now he keeps saying you guys can’t talk about it until after your ceremony because you don’t need drama right before your big day.”
Chander knew Conley was likely oversimplifying Drystan’s rage and resentment over everything that had happened, but he wasn’t going to provoke him by pointing it out. He was grateful Conley wasn’t in his office screaming at him about it because he had the same right as Drystan to be infuriated at Chander. “He’s welcome to discuss anything he wishes to with me whenever he’s ready.”
Conley looked hopeful. “Does that mean we can come?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, our parents wanted to come too.”
“King Aeron and Queen Helen are welcome to join us at D’Vaire this weekend,” Chander responded. Drystan’s biological parents and Conley’s parents of the heart, the Beradraconises had made it clear to Chander they held nothing against him for his decisions, and he’d been moved by their ability to forgive.
Rise of the Lich Sentinel Page 10