by Lola Gabriel
“You’re the first person to take a genuine interest in it,” Eden said. “Most people’s eyes glaze over any time I mention it.”
“Because they have a hard time caring about anything that doesn’t affect them.” Levi polished off his beer, and then he curiously eyed Eden. “Do you wanna get out of here? Maybe go on a walk or something?”
She took a moment to think about it. In an instant, she seemed to be surprised by her own train of thought. “You know, I do actually.”
Levi dropped her hand long enough to stand up and looped an arm around her waist once she was by his side. Eden shot him a look as though she were about to tell him not to touch her, but then she gestured for him to lead the way. It was a relief to get away from the crowds of the pub, though Levi found himself already looking over his shoulder to make sure they weren’t spotted.
Eden leaned into his side. “You may not know this, but most dragons prefer to be at home at night. Get to stretch out their wings, all that.”
“Duly noted,” he murmured, still scanning about. When he was satisfied, his attention returned to her. “How often do you shift?”
“Not very often, actually. Probably the least out of everyone I know, besides my dad.”
“Because of the meditating?” Levi asked.
“Well, I suppose,” Eden answered. “Meditating and studying take up most of my time. Then there’s the simple fact that I don’t really have to shift all that much. In fact, I think that when I helped you, it was the first time I have shifted in nearly a year.”
“Wow,” he exhaled. He wasn’t sure why that was so shocking to him. Eden was a princess who, even in a snap, probably didn’t have to fight for herself. She was also a homebody, from what he had gathered, so shifting just for transportation didn’t apply to her. His fingers glided up her arm slowly as they walked. “What color are you?” He could feel her shiver at his touch, and he did his best not to smirk.
“Not quite silver, not quite purple,” Eden told him. Oh, that suited her so well. Levi found himself yearning to see her in her dragon state, but he knew that he would in time.
“Purple and green go rather well together,” he said with a wiggling of his brow.
“Is that your attempt at flirting? How childish.”
He shrugged. “It’s all I got.”
Eventually, they found themselves strolling through a nearby park, moving over the rolling hills of grass rather than taking the walking trails.
“You sure you’re okay with this? Don’t want you to break a heel,” Levi teased as he took notice of Eden’s foot attire.
“I could run circles around you in these,” she defended with a defiant lift of her chin.
“Yeah?” He grinned.
“Most definitely.”
Without another word, Levi took off down the hill. He heard her holler before bounding after him. He managed to make it all the way down the hill and around a tree before he felt two thin arms wrap around his neck as he was tackled to the ground. He gripped at the grass and tried to drag himself out from underneath Eden, laughing all the while. Eden managed to wiggle her hands down to his shoulders and flip him around. As Levi laid on his back, Eden hovered overhead, her auburn hair falling down like curtains. She kept her hands firmly on his shoulders, as though she really were holding him in place.
“Told you,” she bragged victoriously. In a single move, Levi flipped them around until Eden was the one pinned to the earth.
“You’re a quick little thing,” he complimented with a grin. “But you can’t outdo me, I assure you.”
“You’re going to get my clothes dirty,” Eden protested, beginning to squirm under his hold.
“No, your rolling around is going to get them dirty,” he chuckled. Levi lowered his head, brushing his nose against hers and watching her still completely before his hands viciously attacked her sides, tickling her. Eden howled in laughter and begged him to stop, and he tutted her, saying if she wanted him to stop, then she had to stop laughing.
As the tickling continued and Eden pressed herself into him in an attempt to get him to cease, tension rose between them. Her laughter stifled to an excitable giggle as Levi’s lips brushed against hers. When his hands stopped tickling and simply rested on her sides, Levi felt her soft hands graze up his arms. Never in his life had he wanted someone so badly, feeling as if he could combust if he didn’t have her touch. He went for it, leaning in to give her a kiss.
Eden turned her cheek to avoid the kiss. Levi backed up a bit and looked at her quizzically, trying to see if she had done it in playful jest. She hadn’t. The entire air around her was suddenly tense and unsettled. Eden slipped out from underneath him and sat in the grass next to him. Her hands busied themselves by picking through her hair, tossing away any pieces of debris she came across.
“Did I do something wrong?” Levi asked, his heart actually aching at the thought. He had just been playful—he hadn’t meant to upset her in the slightest.
“No, you didn’t,” Eden murmured, still not looking in his direction.
Levi plopped down, his brows drawn together. “Then… what’s the matter?”
Even though Eden was turned away from him, he could still see a sliver of her face. She was biting her lip nervously, and Levi found himself longing to reach over and pull the skin beneath her lip with his thumb to make her stop. There was no reason for her to be nervous around him.
A gentle hand rested on the center of Eden’s back, grabbing her attention enough to where she peered back at him for a moment before turning away again.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” Levi pleaded. Eden was quiet for a few minutes longer. She would suck in a breath as if she were about to start, but then she would deflate. Resting her head in her hands for a while, she seemed to gather her thoughts. When she sprung back up, she finally turned her full body toward him.
“I haven’t been completely honest with you. Well, I haven’t lied, exactly, but I have lied through omittance. I… I…” She let out a frustrated sigh. “My father has arranged a marriage for me. He’s been trying to force this on me for the past two hundred years, but I’ve managed to put it off. This past week, he finally got very serious about it, and… Well, in a few months, I’m supposed to marry Darian.”
Levi’s entire face scrunched up at the name. He couldn’t remember his face right now, but he knew that name. Back before Levi had left the Kingdom, Darian was a warrior who had desperately wanted Carlyle’s approval. It had been sickening.
Levi shook his head, not wanting to get hung up on that. “He can’t seriously expect you to marry someone if you’ve found your mate, right?”
“If my mate were another dragon or a wealthy human, sure. For a rogue that he has it out for…” Eden’s voice trailed off as her lips fell into a frown.
Levi stood up, scratching the back of his head as he did his best to remain calm. How could this be real? Their situation was already complicated enough without the threat of some warrior wanting Eden’s hand in marriage. There had to be something they could do… There had to be.
Eden’s hands rested on his forearms, and Levi pulled back, still struggling to regain his composure. When he was ready, he turned to her and pulled her into his chest. Eden was silent, looking up at him with wide eyes.
“I don’t know how we’re going to work this out,” he said, “but I promise you, I’m going to do everything in my power to make this work. For us to work. You know as well as I do that that we’re destined for one another. I can’t remember a time where I had such an easy time talking to another person, and something tells me you feel the same way. All I ask of you is for you not to give up on me, okay? Don’t lose hope about this.”
“Levi…”
His grip tightened on her. “Promise me you won’t give up on me.”
Eden averted her eyes from him, and his heart dropped. “I… I can’t promise anything, I’m sorry.” She then peeled back from him, and Levi didn’t fight her. “It’s ge
tting late. I should… I should go. Goodbye, Levi.”
Levi didn’t say a word, but his eyes remained on Eden as she walked away from him. He could feel her sadness, even if she might have been trying to deny it herself. How had this happened? They had been having a great time…
Because it was a daydream to her, he thought. Exploring their bond was a vacation from reality for Eden. The further away she walked from him, the more it settled into Levi that she had all intentions to marry Darian because of her father.
Well, it just meant Levi had a deadline to make her see that what they had was worth the possible backlash.
8
Three Days Later
Eden had fallen into a daze, merely going through the motions of her day. She couldn’t focus on her grandmother’s journals and didn’t seem to have it in her to make the walk down to the lake to even attempt to meditate. Mostly, she stayed in her room, lounging about and staring into space as her mind played her date with Levi on repeat. As if things couldn’t have gotten worse.
When her cousins came to her room, for just a split second, she felt relieved to have a distraction. The relief instantly flushed from her body upon hearing what the activity was. They were going into the city to meet with a wedding planner. If Eden hadn’t been as mature as she was, they would have had to drag her out of her room. However, she obediently stood, dressed for the outing—not caring enough to take notice of what she picked to wear—and tied her hair up in a bun.
Ivy, Fiona, and Jeanette chatted excitedly as they walked through the estate and to the driveway. When a door was held open for Eden to get in, she put a hand up. “While I appreciate it, I think I’ll just follow in my car.”
The three cousins, who looked remarkably alike, exchanged concerned looks before nodding and getting into their car. They knew better than to fight with Eden. What mattered was that she was agreeing to go on the absurd outing, and that would keep them out of trouble with Carlyle.
Eden sauntered over to the garage and pressed the button to open the wide, automatic doors. It was the family car collection; the only people who had rights to their personal cars were the Tallants themselves. Plucking her keys off the rack, Eden strolled over to her white BMW and climbed inside. She inhaled the scent of the luxurious leather and fresh linen air freshener. It had been a while since she had gone for a drive, and she was looking forward to it.
Revving the engine, Eden followed behind her cousins at a leisurely pace. She yearned to drive around them and speed off into the distance, but she knew she would be followed and dragged back into their plans. It was better to simply play along and get it over with. She rolled the windows down, closing her eyes for just a moment to enjoy the feeling of the breeze. She also turned up the radio. She hadn’t kept up with music since the Jazz era, but she didn’t care. She liked the way the stereo blared out her relentless thoughts. For the first time in a long time, she was in the moment, not constantly weighed down by the future.
It was thirty minutes of tranquility. When she put the car in park outside of the wedding planner’s office, Eden sank into her seat. Closing her eyes, she took in deep breaths and told herself to just go through the motions. She had to, and there was no point of pitching a fit over it, though she was sure that there would be a couple of instances where her mouth would get the best of her. Her cousins would act like Disney characters and almost faint from her saying something out of line. The women of the Kingdom were held to a different standard than the men, especially the royal women.
Before she thought too much about it, Eden forced herself out of the car. Her three cousins swarmed her like gnats, gabbing excitedly about the day to come. Eden brought a chill into the room with her, forcing herself into a state of nothing more than existing. She sat properly: legs crossed at the ankles, face forward, and eyes focused on a spot in space.
The wedding planner came out into the spacious office and splayed binders full of different venues and styles for décor. All of the women around her discussed each with enthusiasm and interest, and Eden imagined herself in the water of the lake. When it came to finally asking questions, her cousins and the wedding planner had to call out to her multiple times. Eden remained beneath the surface of the water, only bringing herself out of the trance enough to hear and reply blankly.
Sadly, with her lack of sleep, her trick didn’t work for very long. Soon, their incessant chatter was full volume and at the forefront of Eden’s mind. She groaned inwardly, knowing that she was screwed when it came to escaping the day in her own capacity. She was then barraged with question after question. Playing her part, she kept her composure and bottled up every ounce of frustration that coursed through her veins.
At a certain point, Eden tried to participate in the conversation, but found herself irritated by the immense and unnecessary details that went into planning “the wedding of the millennia.” The colors of a royal wedding were traditionally blood red and ivory. Do you want roses or red orchids? How about jasmines or peonies? How do you feel about lilies? Should the centerpieces be lush and full, or minimalistic? You know, minimalism is very “in” right now.
Eden desperately wanted to pull her hair out and viciously scrape the flesh from her porcelain face every time her senseless cousins giggled girlishly over some insignificant aspect of the event to come. The ceremony could be held in an alleyway next to a dumpster, for all Eden cared. In fact, she may have taken more interest in the occasion if that were the case. She would have scouted dutifully for the alleyway that best matched her dismay. That was where her focus went to get herself through the hellish day, teeth clenched and all. She thought hard about what the perfect alleyway would be like. Probably dimly lit, but just enough to make out the piles of garbage and stains on the brick walls from how frequently drunken men had urinated on them. Perhaps some grotesque and raunchy graffiti, and an overflowing dumpster that had the horrendous bouquet of rotten and fermented food.
Next on the agenda was shopping for a dress. Her cousins and the wedding planner assured Eden that picking out the perfect dress would get her in the mood for the day, that all women loved trying on wedding dresses. The only problem was that Eden wasn’t all women, and she certainly wasn’t in the same circumstances as any client the wedding planner had handled before.
Then they tried to talk her into riding with them to the dress shop; they had champagne, and she could have a couple of flutes to calm her nerves. Eden wasn’t nervous, she was outraged. She supposed her cousins couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that she didn’t want Darian. Every soulmate-less woman in the Kingdom would have died to be in her position. Eden had an extreme amount of privilege, but the one that she did not have was the freedom to choose her own destiny. It was something that her cousins would never understand.
Eden declined the ride and didn’t bother to give an excuse or explanation. She simply walked to her car, climbed in, and sank deep into the leather seat. Even though she had never been a smoker, she felt the urge to suck down an entire pack of cigarettes. Instead, she focused on her breathing and tried to find her long-lost center.
An impatient car horn sounded from somewhere in front of Eden, and her eyes opened in icy slivers. Fiona and Jeanette were waving at her excitedly to follow them. Silently, Eden wondered if they had always been so clueless or if her father had instructed them to act this chipper, no matter what Eden’s disposition was. Either was just as likely as the other.
Begrudgingly, Eden turned her car on and pressed her lips into a forced smile to show them that she understood. The car pulled away, and Eden followed behind it. During the ride, she began to prepare herself for what was to come: sitting with her airheaded cousins as employees of the shop brought out dress after dress, all of which Eden was certain to say no to. Then, once the employees began to grow fatigued, the wedding planner and her cousins would urge her to try on a few of them, just to see how different styles looked on her slender frame. Eden would then be swarmed, undressed, and shoved int
o dress after dress until she agreed on one just to get it all over with.
After a couple of stoplights, Eden purposefully allowed other cars to pass her and guided her car into the other lane. Her cousins would love if she got lost for a little while. Just long enough to get rid of the fiery ball of anger that was ready to explode in her chest.
As she took a few random turns and happened to pass her cousins’ car, Eden suddenly had the urge to cry. No, sob. Never in her life had she felt so helpless. Nobody from the royal staff, nor her brothers, nor anyone else who tended to her demands and needs could get her out of this. Neither could Levi.
The thought pierced her like a cold, unforgiving sword, and hot tears began to pour down her smooth cheeks. The lights and cars were all a blur due to the severity of her weeping, but she managed to navigate the roads safely. Why did life have to be so cruel? Eden was frustrated with herself. She was so exhausted of having emotions. She yearned to have the ability to reach inside herself and excavate them. She so wished she could be compliant and obedient, to feel nothing at all and simply go through the motions, to play the perfect daughter. And yet, she couldn’t. Every fiber of her body and soul screamed at her to resist, to keep fighting to end the arrangement. How could she, though? She saw absolutely no way around it.
At a stoplight, Eden lay her forehead on the steering wheel and let herself cry it out; she knew that impatient cars behind her would let her know when it was her turn to move in traffic. Her shoulders and hands shook with the force of her weeping. Eden was a woman out of control, and she was ready to shatter into a million little pieces.
The sound of her passenger door opening jolted her from her position. In the split second it took Eden to look up, she had been expecting it to be one of her cousins, asking why she had taken off like that. It wasn’t. Her heart leaped into her throat, and she stared wide-eyed as Levi buckled into the seat next to her.
