The Inner Self: The Prophecy

by Raqurra Ishmar

  “Yes,” he simply says. “She said to make ourselves at home. In Relvaria, that is meant literally.”

  That’s all I needed to hear. I grab a skewer from him and hold my meal close to the fire, only allowing the flames to barely lick the meat. I don’t want the outside charring and leaving the inside raw. That’ll hurt my feelings and my stomach. Zavid and Caylen whispers quietly behind us. I studiously ignore them both, not having the energy to play either of their games. I lean my shoulder against Titus, lazily watching the flames dance inside the fireplace.

  My eyelids begin to droop, and I find myself reaching out to Sheya.

  “How come you’ve been so silent?” I ask.

  “I’m trying to figure something out,” they quickly respond.

  “What is there to figure out?”

  “This… realm is trying to talk to me, I think.”

  “Talk to you? Like… using words?”

  “No, Dipshit. It’s more like a feeling. Something is going on here. More than what they are telling us. It’s taking all of my focus to try and decipher the feelings that I am getting. We can only hope that I don’t figure it out too late.”

  Ah, yes. I just love how ominous that sounds.

  Titus nudges me and I notice that my food is ready. I must have been turning my skewer the whole time I was talking to Sheya, because my meat is evenly cooked and it smells like heaven.

  “How do you know how heaven smells?”

  “It smells like this and freshly warmed Honey Buns.”

  “Noted.”

  I blow on my food before throwing caution to the wind. I take a huge bite and the savory flavors that explode on my tongue causes me to moan around my scorching hot food. I don’t even care that I’m burning my mouth, this food is so good.

  “Wow, Ren, if I would’ve known that eating meat would’ve caused such a strong reaction from you, I would’ve gotten the food for you myself,” Caylen says. I don’t even turn around to acknowledge him. My feelings are still sour from earlier. He needs to know that I’m not the one to toy with, and the only way that I can get that point across is to not pay him any mind until he stops.

  Titus and I quickly polish off our food, and I’m more than ready to lay out and give my body a rest. My stomach is full, I’m warm, and I at least have Titus on my side.

  “Ahem.”

  And Sheya.

  A large yawn overtakes me and Titus reaches over to take the skewer out of my hand. He swiftly stands up, offer me his hand, and pulls me up and towards the far left wall of the house. Caylen and Zavid takes our place in front of the fireplace with their own skewers full of meat. Titus drags another bean bag over to our little nook, placing it on top of the super thick rug. I wonder what kind of animal it came from?

  I take my shoes and my many hoodies off until I’m standing comfortably in my jeans and t-shirt. My socks are slightly soaked from traversing in the snow, so I take those off too. Keeping my eyes on the floor, I take my shoes and socks over to the fireplace and place them as close to fire as I dared. Blue orbs try to hold my gaze, but I quickly turn away and head back to where Titus is stretched out on the floor.

  He’s using the bean bag as a sort of pillow, with half of his body lying on top of it. His left arm is bent behind his head, propping it up. His position causes his shirt to rise up, showing off his smooth brown stomach that’s layered with defined abs. I can barely make out the deep v-cut near his groin in the dim light, but what I can see has my body heating up.

  I travel my gaze from his stomach, slowly allowing it to roam over his broad chest, before settling it on his full lips. Said lips begin to curve up into a one sided smirk, and I jerk my gaze up to meet molten steel. Titus looks at me as if I was as delicious as the meat that we just ate.

  With his free hand, he beckons me closer to him with just a single curl of his index finger. I try to swallow, but my mouth is suddenly extremely dry. Surely he wouldn’t try anything with his brothers right here and our beautiful host just upstairs?

  Not really caring if he would try something or not, I traipse my happy ass over to him and flop onto the rug. Without waiting for any more instructions, I curl myself against his chest and breathe his scent in. He smells like firewood and cooked meat, but there’s still that underlying masculine scent that’s all Titus. The rug is so thick and soft, I can almost pretend that we’re lying on a bed instead of a stone floor.

  He brings his arm from behind his head and wrap it around me, holding me tighter against him. I drape my arm over his body and hook my leg over his legs. I snuggle down into his side, finding contentment and happiness in our current position. I never really knew that I needed someone to hold me like this, but as he holds me tighter to him, I can’t help but feel like this is right. And that feeling scares me.

  “Hell, it scares me too. This shit ain’t normal.”

  “We’re in another realm, sleeping on the floor, talking to each other in my mind. Tell me, when have we ever been normal?” I countered.

  “You have a point.”

  “I know I do,” I smugly say.

  “Get some rest, Renee. We probably only have a few hours before we’re awaken to partake in the Winter Festival,” Titus murmurs. The feel of his deep voice vibrating against my ear warms me in ways that the fire never could. Quickly, before I second guess my actions, I lean my head back so that I could reach for his lips. He meets me halfway, pressing his full lips against mine before murmuring “sleep”. With my lips still pressed to his, I crack my eyes open to see him already looking at me. I smile against his mouth, pressing one last kiss to his lips before pulling back and snuggling back against his chest.

  I don’t have many hobbies that I’m obsessed with, besides reading and eating Honey Buns, but kissing Titus might just become my favorite past time.

  23

  Caylen

  Yeah, ok, maybe I fucked up. But who could blame me? I thought that Ren was trying to make me jealous with Titus, but maybe I misread the entire thing, But now she’s pissed off at me and I don’t know how to fix this. I thought it was cute when she snapped at me earlier, her jealousy as clear as day, but now she’s not even bothering with responding to me and that’s not something I anticipated.

  Now here I am, sitting at the fire with my asshole of a brother, while I watch Titus cuddle with her as if he’s done it all of his life. The way that he’s so comfortable with her causes my stomach to tighten with envy. It’s not that I mind seeing her with my brother, that honestly makes me happy; it’s the fact that she hasn’t kissed me, cuddled with me, nothing. Is she waiting on me to make the first move? Am I not being aggressive enough for her? Maybe I haven’t made my intentions clear to her.

  And what exactly are my intentions? What can I possibly expect to get from her when I’m planning on handing her over to the man that killed her so many centuries ago? Shouldn’t I be happy that she’s not getting cozy with me? I mean, it’s gonna suck when we do hand her over, but it’s going to suck even more for Titus. I’ve never seen him form a bond with someone so fast, and I definitely never seen him be so gentle with someone.

  Does he know what he’s doing? Is he going to go against Zavid and stop him from saving Dad? Would I stop him? Now that we’re here in Relvaria, everything is becoming a lot more real. Back on Earth, the thought of bringing her here soured my stomach and caused me to actually argue with Zavid. But now that we’re here, it feels right. Like we’re all where we should belong.

  But not like this.

  Not with Ren falling for my brother without knowing the real reason that we’re here. Not while her eyes light up when she learns something new about this world, only for it to all come crashing down on her in three days. Not while she doesn’t know that she was the murdered almost Priestess Ren’s reincarnation.

  I stare at her while she peacefully sleeps cocooned in the embrace of my brother, a peacefulness radiating from them both. Her black hair spills over his arm, her hand splayed out on his chest
as if she’s trying to touch as much of him as she could. Her perfect lips are slightly parted as she breathes him in, and I can’t help but smile because I know that she’s going to leave a drool mark on him. Her long, jean clad leg is hooked over his hip, and I’m jealous.

  “Your food is burning,” Zavid gruffly says. I quickly turn back to my meat, spinning it so that the other side can cook. I glance back to where the couple is lying and I’m met with my brothers knowing look. We’ve already talked and agreed that we don’t mind sharing her, if that’s what she wants. I know that he didn’t appreciate my antics earlier, but he’ll get over it. He’s not the one sitting next to a surly Zavid. I am. “I hope you two know what you’re doing.” I snap my gaze back to Zavid, pulling my food away from the fire as I do.

  “What do you mean?” I ask, even though I know exactly what he’s talking about.

  “You’re both playing a dangerous game. We have one goal and one goal only. And, if you forgot, that goal isn’t to get cozy with Renee,” he whispers, he voice barely carrying to me over the crackle of the flames.

  “I haven’t forgotten,” I sullenly say before I bite into the meat. Mmm, Dee must have seasoned this with many spices before she hung it up. The taste is so amazing, I don’t even care about Zavid and what he’s saying.

  Ok, I lied. I may still care, but not as much.

  “But maybe you’ve forgotten who she is and what she could do for this realm,” I continue.

  He turns his hard gaze towards me, eyes narrowing over dark eyes. The flames dance in the depths of his eyes and it’s almost as if his anger is being brought to life with the fire. “No,” he bites out. “I have not forgotten who she could potentially be. But maybe you’ve forgotten who Dad is and what he’s already done for you. For all of us.”

  I hold his gaze as guilt licks up my insides. No, I haven’t forgotten what Dad has done for us, but I know it with everything in me that he wouldn’t want us to do this. Dad has always taught us to do what’s right for the whole, instead of the few. He never held any hatred in his heart for how the Unblessed was treated. He believed in the Prophecy, and he knew that the imbalance would be righted and everything would go back to how it was before the King killed Ren.

  But Zavid doesn’t see it like that. We all still see our parents from time to time. How can we not? Just because they disowned us, doesn’t mean that they packed up and left from Kor. They live closer to the inner ring, with us further out, so it’s been years since I’ve seen mine. But we run into Zavid’s family more than mine or Titus. His family isn’t considered really strong, so they are closer to the outer ring; closer to us.

  They still look at us with disdain, and I hurt for my brother every time he has to see that look from his own mother and father. It sucks even more when he sees his younger siblings with them. To be the oldest and not be able to watch his little brother and sister grow up must eat away at him more than he lets on, but the way that the numbers are dropping for the Blessed, they’ll be joining him on the outside sooner rather than later.

  “Dad wouldn’t want this,” I whisper.

  “Dad isn’t here.”

  I finish off my food and stand. I kick off my shoes and find a spot near Titus and Renee. Dragging my own bag onto the rug, I stretch out and get comfortable. Things are about to get messy, that I know. Zavid is barely holding himself together, Titus is creating a bond with Ren even though he knows we have a mission to complete, Sheya is getting stronger the longer we stay in this realm, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to go through with this.

  Ren is prophesied to save this entire realm. And Zavid wants to give her up for one man? Yes, he’s our father, but it’ll be going against everything that he taught us. Everything that he stood for.

  It was rumored that the day of their ceremony, Ren had prayed to the Ancestors to Bless her two favorite cousins, who were said to have been Unblessed. But because Ren fervently prayed as they were in the water, the Ancestors heard her prayer and granted them an Inner Self. Her cousins are still alive to this day, happily telling the tale of the whispered words of the Ancestors.

  If an untrained, naive Ren did that, what could a trained Renee do? She could end the drought of Unblessed, stop the famish that’s taking over the mountains of Drof.

  She could give us an Inner Self.

  And even if she couldn’t, if it’s too late, she could make sure that any children that me and my brothers could have would be Blessed. They wouldn’t have to live their life wondering why they weren’t good enough. They’ll always have someone to watch their backs and they’ll be able to live for hundreds of years longer than we will. Renee could change everything. So why is my brother so blinded by his need to save Dad, that he’s ok with damning Renee? Damning this realm?

  There’s more to this than Zavid is telling us. There’s no way he’d be okay with what we’re doing, as he claims.

  Right?

  24

  Renee

  The feeling of warm lips against my forehead brings me back from the land of dreams. When I didn’t wake up quick enough, a large hand begins to shake my shoulder.

  “It’s time to wake up, Renee,” Titus says. His deep voice resonates through me, and I finally find the will to open my eyes. I’m practically lying on top of him at this point, and I can’t help but snuggle deeper into his embrace. The moment was perfect, until I realized that I drooled all over his shirt. I try to wipe my mouth as inconspicuously as possible, but a deep chuckle by my feet tells me that someone took notice.

  I glance down Titus’ body until my eyes land on a sprawled out Caylen. His eyes sparkle in the waning fire light and the way that he’s laying seems so open and inviting. Even though his chuckle brought my attention to him, his face is void of any amusement as we continue to stare at each other. His eyes roam over me while I’m still in Titus’ arms, and I don’t know what exactly is going through his head. His jaw clenches and unclenches before he inclines his head and looks away.

  Ok?

  I have no idea what that was about, but the sound of someone climbing down a ladder doesn’t give me the option of asking Caylen what’s going on with him. I unfold myself from Titus’ arms, popping a quick kiss on his lips before standing up. I reach out a hand to help him up, and he gifts me with a sarcastic smirk before taking it. He practically dislocates my shoulder as he actually uses my hand for assistance. I smack him on the chest with the back of my hand and he gives me a full fledged smile that takes my breath away. It was almost like the sun breaking through storm clouds.

  “I am glad that you are all up,” Dee says from by the ladder. She takes stock of me standing close to Titus and the distance between Caylen and I. A satisfied look flashes on her face before she replaces it with a neutral look. I hope Caylen knows what he’s doing by flirting with her. Clearly she’s interested in him. And maybe he’s actually interested in her. She’s beautiful, strong, and she can relate to him in ways that I can’t. They were both born here and both are Unblessed.

  “Jesus… what does it matter? You barely know him and he clearly barely knows her! If you just focus on this realm instead of your unhealthy obsession with these men, I wouldn’t feel like I’m doing all of this alone.”

  “What am I supposed to be looking for?” I snap.

  “Don’t look for something, feel the fucking energy. Focus on it. You have senses that are innately yours, use them. I may not always be there to help you.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I don’t know,” they admit. “I just have a bad feeling,”

  A pinch to the back of my arm brings me back to the room, only for me to see Dee’s narrowed gaze focused on me.

  “Sorry, I zoned out for a little bit. I guess I needed a little more time to sleep,” I say sheepishly to the room. I lean against Titus as I finish speaking, trying to drive home the point that I’m still exhausted. Which isn’t a complete lie. We couldn’t have been asleep for longer than two hours. Titus threads his
hand through mine, lending me a little support.

  “That’s unfortunate,” Dee says. She looks at me as if it’s not really unfortunate. Her gaze bounces between me and Titus before landing on Zavid. “The festival is well underway. I waited as long as I could before waking you all up. The festival lasts well into the night and into the early morning, but you are more than welcome to leave at any point to come back here to rest. I understand that you have to get on your way come morning.”

  “Thank you,” Zavid says from his spot right by the door. From the rigid way he stands and the tension in his shoulders, I can tell that he hasn’t gotten a second of sleep. Did he feel as if he couldn’t trust Dee and needed to watch our back as we rested? That doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to not rest, especially when we have a long and arduous journey to Kor.

  “Well, let us leave,” Dee announces. I release Titus’ hand so that I can walk over to the fireplace to retrieve my dried socks and shoes. After slipping them on, I stand and head over to the door where everyone is waiting. Titus silently inclines his head over to my hoodies, but I feel like Dee would look at me strangely if I layer up with those hoodies while the boys have on just a t-shirt and she has on a freaking dress. I shake my head minutely, hoping that he gets the message. His eyebrows furrow over his grey eyes and I know that he’s a few seconds from arguing with me. “Here,” Dee says, startling me out of my silent battle with Titus. I look over to her and she’s holding out a long, woolen sarape. I gratefully grab it and pull my head through the hole. There are no sleeves, it simply falls over my shoulders. The front and back of the serape falls into a point that stops at the front and back on my knees.