Not a Dragon: Soulmarked: Kiara Ravenlocke Files 1

by Alexia Black

  “Then what?” I was still leaning over the table just like Daryl. Aiden and Travis shook their head at our antics, an utterly besotted smile on Travis’s face and the ghost of a smile on Aiden’s face. I wonder how he could express emotion now and not have it affect me. I didn’t feel any pain, so was it affecting someone else instead?

  “He strides into the meeting room, ready to face their wrath at the missed deadline, when all of a sudden, right there on the table, he sees his notebook.”

  “Don’t tell me he had already given them the songs?” I gasped.

  Daryl booped my nose, “Why did you guess the ending? You ruined my amazing story.”

  “Sorry, sorry,” I plastered on a smile. “You are a really good storyteller.”

  “At least someone appreciates my talents,” Daryl swooned onto Travis’s shoulder, his dreadlocks swaying with the movement.

  “You are such an adorable little human. Babe, can we keep her?” Daryl was a charmer through and through, wasn’t he?

  “Only if you promise to cook for me everyday,” I said sweetly.

  “Done,” Daryl extended his hand, like an offer for a temporary truce. I shook him on it.

  Lunch was long. Somehow even I was goaded into sharing my own stories, so I ended up making them up on the spot, which ended up becoming a competition between both of us with Travis and Aiden as the judges. Daryl and I couldn’t stop one upping each other. Our stories got more and more exaggerated. But, it was obvious I was going lose, the guy had hundreds of years of experience in telling tall tales. I hated losing.

  “Aiden back me up. I am losing here,” I tugged on Aiden’s sleeve. He looked at my face for a moment then turned towards Daryl with a calculative gleam in his eyes.

  “One time, he…”

  Turned out, Aiden had a lot of blackmail material on Daryl. Safe to say, we won by a landslide.

  “We win,” I whooped and high fived Aiden who managed to look amused without making any expression.

  “I didn’t know this was a competition,” Daryl said, an exaggerated pout on his face.

  “Aww, sucks for you then,” I grinned.

  “Kiara,” a voice suddenly broke through the conversation. Callum’s voice.

  Chapter 14

  You could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed.

  I ignored him and continued eating.

  He sounded sober now at least.

  “I don’t have any excuse for what I did. I am sorry.”

  I turned towards him. He was standing a few feet away from where I was sitting, looking miserable but I didn’t know if it was real or fake.

  He took out a small jewelry box from his jacket and extended it towards me. The box was iconic enough that I didn’t need to open it to know what was inside. Was he trying to buy my apology with diamonds?

  Travis and Daryl stared at him in shock, unable to process what was going on. And Aiden, I had no idea what Aiden was thinking. His face was blank but he was clenching his fist so hard, the knuckles had turned white. He looked like he was using every last bit of his will power to stay still.

  “You are right, you don’t have an excuse,” I said, not reaching for the box.

  “I understand,” he took the gift back, his eyes barely meeting mine.

  Callum just stood there. He didn’t force me to take the gift, but he didn’t move from his spot too. He just stood there for a whole minute like a statue, ignoring everyone else, just staring at the floor. Aiden shook him. Daryl and Travis were asking him questions. He didn’t say a word in return. I had met a lot of weird people in my line of job but Callum hands down had to be the weirdest one. I just sat there not knowing what else to do.

  My phone rang and I grabbed it for the lifeline it was. “I need to take this,” I said to no one in particular and pulled on Aiden’s wrist. He reluctantly followed me to the music room so I could take the call away from them. I hesitated at the doorway, the demon attack still fresh in my mind, but it was the only soundproof room in the house.

  I closed the door behind me. “Can you put on your headphones?” I didn’t want anyone recognizing Max’s voice through the phone. I knew he was more involved with the overseas operations of the company so he might not have met any of them but I’d rather he not get associated with me. That would give rise to a lot of questions I would struggle to answer. But, more than that, I didn’t want to hear them talking about what had happened a few hours back.

  “Hi,” I turned away from Aiden and pitched my voice low.

  “Why are you speaking like that? Is your boyfriend eavesdropping?” Max laughed. I rolled my eyes before I remembered that he couldn’t see me.

  “He is not my boyfriend,” I peeked at Aiden. He was bobbing his head to music. Phew, he couldn’t hear anything.

  “When were you going to tell me you were bonded to someone?”

  Oops.

  “I am surprised you took this long to know.” I truly was. The guy was an expert at sniffing out information. I always used to tell him he would know about any future coup that was going to happen before even the ones starting it knew.

  “Hey!” he said affronted. “I wasn’t in the state.” He paused dramatically, “I visited Sam.”

  “How the hell did you manage to get permission?”

  He just chuckled in response as if I was dumb to even ask that question. “I have given her a new phone, she broke her other one. She will call you tonight after her drills.”

  I gripped my phone tighter, my palms suddenly sweaty, “Hey, how is she?”

  “Sam is the strongest person I know. Nothing can beat her.”

  I knew Max. He was evading my question.

  “Max,” I growled.

  “Stop worrying so much. She will be fine. Don’t you think I would’ve kidnapped her out of there if it was that bad?”

  “I know, but…” It didn’t matter whether she could survive there or not. That wasn’t the point. She shouldn’t be forced to.

  “No buts. I will take care of her,” his voice was resolute. “I‘m getting a call. Talk to you later.” He hung up.

  I tapped Aiden’s shoulders to let him know the call was done. Aiden noticed my face but thankfully decided not to ask. I was grateful the fates hadn’t paired me with an asshole. It meant so much to me that he knew better than to question me or try to pull some macho bullshit whenever I requested privacy. He was trying his best to give me space of my own.

  I opened the door. I couldn’t see Callum and the others from here but I could hear their voices. I didn’t want to go back there, didn’t want to see Callum again.

  “Do you want to stay here?” Aiden asked, seeing me stare at the door and hesitating.

  “Yeah, if that’s not a problem for you.”

  “Yeah, I have a song to finish,” I knew he was itching to go back there and talk to Callum but I appreciated the little white lie.

  Grateful, I sat down on the couch, “Oh, on a deadline?”

  “Yeah. It’s been a while since we released a full album. I need to have a new song ready and approved within two days. If I can do that, they said they will consider giving me control over the full album.” He settled on the opposite side of the couch.

  “Are there other people going to write the songs too?”

  “Yep. They forwarded me a few songs, but it sounded like every other song from our last few albums. I didn’t want that,” he shook his head, wispy strands escaping his bun.

  “It must’ve been tough convincing them.” I didn’t know how the music industry worked behind the scenes, but if it was like other companies then Aiden must’ve had to fight tooth and nail against the upper management to convince them to go his way.

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “Usually they would just override my decision but the contract renewal is coming up in a few months. They don’t want to risk us not renewing. They know the others would quit with me if it came to that.”

  The company wouldn’t want to do that to such major mone
ymakers. “What do you want to do differently with this album?”

  “I wanted to have more ballads. I tried writing a few but they are all missing something. It all sounded soulless. But, I can’t figure out how to fix it.” His gaze was far off. This was the most I had heard him talk in one go, otherwise it was just one word answers. But when it came to the topic of music, he was like a completely different person.

  I felt bad for him, for someone who couldn’t let himself feel, he sure had taken on a big task. And with me stuck to him, it’s not like he could go rent a secluded cabin up on a mountain or something to avoid his powers from killing someone.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You were in an impossible situation, with all those attacks and constant monitoring under guards. Plus, I’m guessing you needed to have even more control on yourself since I was around.” He couldn’t let his guard slip around me. I could die easily. Maybe, that was why he was more relaxed around the others, because even if he slipped a little it would only drain some of their magic and not kill them. “Your brain just needed a break.”

  Granted I knew nothing about how people in the creative field worked. I wasn’t really passionate about anything. My mind was too focused on survival to develop any other interests.

  “It’s been this way for a while,” he said, his voice was resigned. “Usually, I go away for a few days and it helps, but I had tried it a few weeks ago. It didn’t work.”

  “Maybe you need to have new experiences. If you need company to jump out of an airplane, let me know.”

  “Thanks. If I ever go for skydiving, I will know exactly who to sign up with.”

  “You know where to find me,” I grinned.

  His eyes twitched in an attempt to not roll. Being the gentleman that he was, he just shot me an unimpressed look at my attempt at humor. But when he walked towards his work desk, the corner of his lips was curved up.

  His dark magic pulled at me, painful but not blindingly so. It disappeared as soon as it came. I had made him feel for a moment. Feel enough, for the power to leak through the iron gates of his resolve. That was bad news for me.

  Four hours and fifty pages later, the only thing I knew for certain was that if it wasn’t for the stupidity of the dragons themselves, the Fae would have never gotten the upper hand in the war. They wouldn’t have reached the top of the food chain if they hadn’t won that war. I mean, who kills off their strongest clans during an interspecies war. Couldn’t the other dragon clans have waited till the war was over to take over the sub clans? I pinched the bridge of my nose; every single war had been caused by egos, the need to show the superiority of their species, real and imagined slights, and the craving for power. The peaceful times never lasted long till someone else came up who wanted the whole world to bow at their feet.

  I was about to close the book and give my eyes a break when the next section caught my eyes. It took me a while to read it. Most of the words used didn’t have good counterparts in English. The section described the power that specific sub-species had in a way I couldn’t wrap my brain around. These were rarely used words; words I was sure only the most literary ones in their time would know the meanings off.

  I would brag that I was the best at reading Agneya, and not just in my generation, due to the decade of constant practice and research I had dedicated to mastering it. But this was beyond me. I checked my peripheral view to make sure Aiden was fully focused on his music before I struggled through the rest of the pages. The bits and pieces I understood cemented the nascent hunch I had when the section had caught my eye.

  I shot a glance at Aiden. Unwanted fear spiked through me. Turns out the magic draining power of his wasn’t the only scary thing about him. I gulped. Logically I knew he wouldn’t intentionally hurt me. But unintentionally…

  The Fates had chained me to the most insane being in the world.

  Chapter 15

  I stared at the ceiling unable to make myself read any further. To be honest, I regretted reading that. Knowledge was power but it brought so much fear with it too.

  I took my phone hoping to distract myself. I plugged in my earphones and started watching random videos, not even focusing on them, but instead scrolling through the comments. Half an hour later, I couldn’t even remember what I had watched. I opened my chat with Sam. She probably wouldn’t see it now but I wanted to send her a text before I had to make myself research again.

  Yo fairyshit, u okay?

  To my surprise, my message was read immediately. But, no reply came back. I texted again immediately, this time the message was left unread. Did she go offline after the first message? Her drill master or someone must’ve organized a surprise practice for them or maybe a teacher had called for her. That must be why she couldn’t reply, right?

  I pulled my knees to my chest and pressed my forehead against it, hard. The logical part of my brain told me to shut up but the louder part of me insisted she was also abandoning me. I didn’t cry, unwilling to lose myself to despair. But, like an ominous omen, I couldn’t shake the chill I felt in my bones that this time it wasn’t just me overthinking.

  “Kiara?”

  I didn’t bother looking up. “Yeah?” I muttered.

  He hesitated and it was that hesitation that made me look up. “Do you want to listen to my song?”

  Huh?

  “Sure,” a distraction was a distraction, and I needed one desperately now.

  “I haven’t shown this to anyone yet, but it’s my favorite among the songs I’ve ever written,” Aiden scrolled through his phone. “Close your eyes,” he pressed play.

  Lost, oh so lost

  In the sea of my sins

  Voices screaming in my head that I should never dream

  Burning to the ashes in the flames of my rage

  Cracked heart and Jagged scars

  I wish I could be the person that I used to be.

  Then I remember, it’s not over

  In the darkest corner of a heart so broken

  There’s still that tiny ember in my soul

  A siren song of better tomorrows

  Aiden’s soulful voice crooned. Bit by bit, I lost myself to the music, let the words heal me, fill me with hope.

  Let the scars bleed, you are more than your scars

  Let yourself dream bright, the boogyman is but a spectre who can’t bear to see the light

  Let yourself breathe, my darling

  For you’ve been alone long enough.

  The world didn’t seem so bleak anymore. I opened my eyes to see Aiden staring back, a gleam of worry flashed across his eyes. Epiphany hit me. He hadn’t randomly asked me to listen to his song. He had seen me upset and he was trying to cheer me up in his own way, through music.

  “Thank you,” I softly whispered.

  He nodded and went back but didn’t take his phone back. I looped the song back and listened to it, feeling a lightness in my heart I hadn’t felt in years. It was hard to reconcile what the ancient text had said about people like him, with the person he was in front of me. I didn’t know if what the book said would come true in the future, whether he would become the nightmare they painted his species to be. But, to me, right now, he was just Aiden.

  I continued playing the song on repeat till Travis came to call us for dinner. We ended up being late because Aiden, kept saying ten more minutes till more than half an hour had passed and Daryl had to come threaten him with bodily harm to get him to stop working. Callum was absent.

  “Did Cal eat?” Aiden asked in between dinner, looking like he didn’t want to know the answer to that.

  “In his room. Blackout drunk,” Travis’ voice was severe.

  “Again?” Aiden said.

  “We picked him from outside that club he always goes to,” Daryl said, anger sharpening his words like knife. “His girlfriend had called. When we reached there, that bitch was nowhere in sight. She just left him on the sidewalk! Again, I don’t know why he hasn’t broken up with her yet.” Daryl stabb
ed a piece of chicken. He really liked stabbing food, didn’t he?

  I didn’t comment and just continued eating, doing what I did best; being invisible.

  After dinner, Aiden and I washed and dried the dishes. “Going back to work?” I asked, smothering a yawn. Today had been exhausting.

  “No. Let’s sleep. You look tired,” Aiden said, drying off the last dish. He didn’t look sleepy in the least.

  I nodded, not bothering to hide how tired I was. Aiden might be a workaholic who could work for three nights straight but I couldn’t. I was already asleep on my feet.

  “We can share the bed today. It’s big enough. You don’t need to sleep on the chair,” I said.

  “I don’t mind.”

  “I do.”

  He sighed, as if I was making him sleep on the floor instead of the bed, “Fine.”

  We took turns to shower. I slipped into an oversized t-shirt and pajama shorts and got into bed. I kept all my weapons on the bedside table and switched on the bedside lamp. I would rather have all the lights on but I doubt he would be able to sleep like that. Yawning, I forced myself to lie on the edge of the bed and not sprawl like I usually did. I missed my teddy bear so bad. Before Aiden was even done showering, I was out like a light.

  * * *

  I woke up to drool drying on my pillow. I sniffled and tried to roll over to the other side. But I couldn’t move my pillow. Half-awake, I kept tugging on it, when my finger pressed against cool skin.

  I snapped awake.

  Since when did my pillow have abs?

  Chapter 16

  Aiden was lying on his back, the locks of hair which had escaped his bun, lying haphazardly across his face. I was lying on top of him, my face on the crook of his shoulder and one hand inside his t-shirt, curved around his hip. One of his hands rested on my back, pinning me to him.

  I tried to extract myself as carefully as possible, not wanting him to wake up with me wrapped around him like this. I twisted in his hold, loosening his grip. Before I could mentally shout a hurray, Aiden mumbled something which only made sense to his sleep-addled brain and rolled over, pinning me under him. His face rested under my chin. Goosebumps erupted where his soft breaths tickled my skin.