by Jack Whitney
A deep inhale left her body as she stared at the box. “Okay.”
She allowed him to do the burial in silence. The ashes were spread into Duarb’s roots at his base. She felt the tears coming down her face as she watched him work. He ripped a piece of his shirt and gave it to her to wipe them from her cheeks.
Once they were scattered, he lit a match against a rock and tossed it into the roots. Fire blazed in her watery vision.
“Where is the fabric I gave you?” he asked.
She frowned, but held out the fabric in her clenched fist nonetheless.
“Draven, what—”
“Trust me,” he asked sincerely of her.
Her jaw clenched, but she nodded nonetheless. He tossed the fabric in the flames, and then he pulled something from the bag he’d had on his shoulder.
The phoenix skull.
He sat it down at the edge of the roots and then stepped back to her side. The flames flickered in her eyes, and she buried herself in his chest as the smell of it filled her nostrils. His lips pressed to her forehead, and he hugged her against him.
But then something reached out for her core, and she bolted back away from him at an instant, her eyes unable to leave the fire.
“What—”
Nausea swept over her, and she felt a cold chill take over her body. Her knees hit the dirt. A radiating flame started in her toes and vibrated through each muscle, an inch at a time, until it rose into her chest.
The greatest gasp she’d ever taken filled her lungs, and she was thrown onto her back.
What threw her the most though, was the not surprised or concerned look Draven had on his face. He crouched beside her and held out a hand. Her gaze narrowed at him, unsure of what was happening.
A screech so high-pitched her ears rang sounded in the air.
The flames at the base of the tree burst upwards. Wind brushed through and extinguished the fire at the roots, but one remained in the air, as though a fireball had been launched into the darkness.
Something tugged at her core, filling the emptiness she’d felt since the absence of her raven. It was familiar, yet something completely different from what she’d felt before.
The burst of fire turned to black in the silhouette of the moons above the, and her heart throbbed at the sudden realization of what had soared upwards from the flames.
“A phoenix?” she breathed.
Draven’s hands wrapped under her arms, and he pulled her to her feet. She was stiff, frozen as the black flames of it suddenly disappeared again into the darkness of the forest. But she could feel its core as it dove down to the earth before her.
The ground shook. It landed in front of her in the moons light, and her stomach knotted as its neck rose high, head only a few inches above hers. The whisp of its tail feathers wrapped around her feet. Its great black horns glistened in the moons light.
The amber of its eyes stared at her down its great long beak.
She reached out hesitantly. What is your name? she asked it.
It is not the time for you to learn it.
Her brows began to narrow, but when the phoenix’s nose nudged her hand, her heart skipped, and then she nearly collapsed at the rate in which her head melted against its head.
Her core sighed into the comfort of its warm black flames, the whisps of its energy filling her chest. A tear streaked down her face as she settled into it, allowing it to complete her core once more, to bond with her as she’d bonded with her raven. After a moment, she took two steps back, and she gave the creature a bow.
Take your flight.
The phoenix burst into shadow and dove into the air.
Aydra watched it soar, collecting its first flight above her head in the silence of the moons. A joy filled her chest that made her emotions edge, and she felt her hands trembling.
The sight of Draven caught the corner of her eye as the phoenix left her sightline. He was standing off to the side of Duarb’s tree, his body reflecting back in the light, hands shoved in his pockets as he simply watched the bird soar with a small smile on his face.
“How did you know?” she asked breathlessly.
His gaze flickered to meet hers, and he didn’t say anything as he raised an expectant brow.
A wash of understanding came over her. “The Honest Scrolls,” she realized.
He nodded slowly and started to walk towards her. “If more people read them, they might uncover the true magic of this land. This world is more than our minuscule squabbles and fights. Living here in the Forest, you learn to appreciate everything Haerland did before vanishing. The phoenix represents not just the Venari. She is the corp—”
Aydra cut him off with a hard press of her lips to his, nearly jumping into his arms as he stepped before her. His startled figure relaxed after only a moment, and then he pulled her flush against him. Her chest swelled with all the things she had no idea how to put into words, and when she finally pulled back, she pressed her hand to his cheek.
“Thank you,” she managed.
He took her palm off his cheek and kissed it, closing his eyes just for a moment. His weight shifted, and he held her hand in his. “I know you need time,” he started. “I know this is all new, and you’re possibly overwhelmed with all that’s happened, but—”
“Draven, I love you,” she blurted.
His words stopped at an instant, and he swallowed hard as his weight shifted again, a great inhale filling his lungs, the same look on his face that he’d had in the castle when she told him spreading across his features. His jaw tightened, and she watched the glisten take over his eyes.
She squeezed his hands before he could speak. “I love you,” she repeated. “I’ve known it for a while now, and I should have told you so many times before, but… I didn’t want it to come across as my saying it out of a darkness I knew my core had settled into. I wanted it to be when I knew it would mean more than just the words. I had to be sure you didn’t just love me for the reasons I’d said before. After these last few weeks, after… everything… I realize I was wrong. It wasn’t just circumstance. It’s real. More real than I truly think I understand.”
She reached up to his face, and his weight shifted again. “Draven you… you see me. The real me. Crown or no crown. Queen or civilian. You see me for who I am, not who I am supposed to be. You fill me with a strength and trust I’m not used to.”
He kissed her hands, allowing his lips to linger against her skin. “So, to be clear, you love me because I’m everything Magnice isn’t.”
Her heart sank, and she felt the color drain from her face. “What? No—I mean—what? Draven, I love you because… because you don’t treat me as though I’m some child. You never have—”
“So you’ve loved me since we were kids?”
Her eyes narrowed, and her core froze. “I just told you I love you, and you’re asking for reasons? Why— I told you. You actually see me—”
“Yes, you’re standing right here,” he mocked.
“I mean—you know what I mean! And when we’re together, you… I feel safe with you—”
“So I’m just another safety precaution for you?”
“What—no—Draven!” she practically stamped her foot in frustration at the questions he was drilling her with. She did a circle, staring at the moons with words stuck in her throat. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I love you. You… you challenge me, you trust me, you don’t try and change me, you know when I need time to get myself together, you… you make me laugh, which is actually quite a feet if I am honest, I—” she did a double-take at him standing there with his hand clapped over his mouth “—is this funny to you?!”
The amused glint in his eyes make her fume. She smacked his arm hard, causing his hand to fall from his mouth, revealing the broad smile on his face. Laughter spewed from his lips, and she hated him for it.
“I hate you,” she muttered as he cackled in front of her.
“Oh—Oh, I’m sorry, Aydra,” he sai
d through his laughter. “I’m sorry, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up—”
She hit his shoulder again, nearly pushing him backwards this time.
“You are such an ass, Draven Greenwood,” she mutter as she pushed him back again.
He caught her hands in his and pulled her flush against him, his laughter still radiating through his core as he wrapped his arms around her. Her frustrations waned with the press of his lips to hers, and when he pulled back, she avoided his eyes and bit back the smile threatening her lips. He pushed her hair back, tilting her chin up to meet his eyes. The smile in his gaze made her stomach flutter.
“You’ll be the death of me,” she muttered.
“We’ve been planning how to kill each other since we were eight. Of course I’ll be the death of you,” he grinned.
She laughed under her breath and then sighed into his embrace. For a few moments, she simply hugged him into her, closing her eyes and relishing the feeling of his body against hers, the lift of the weight on her shoulders now gone.
“What do you say we go back? The boys were working on a feast when I left,” he whispered in her hair.
She pulled back and looked up at him. The noise of the phoenix sounded in her ears. It sent a shiver down her spine. “Anywhere with you.”
Dinner was potatoes with rosemary and freshly caught rabbit. Aydra wasn’t keen on the rabbit. She quite enjoyed the potatoes, but mostly… it was the laughter and stories filling the table that she craved.
Draven pulled her a chair up beside him at the table. But by the end of the meal, her head was lying in his shoulder, and he had an arm pushed around her. The smell of black herb filled the air as they passed pipes between them. They all relaxed as Draven did at banquets: legs thrown over the sides of the armchairs, relaxing with their hair down, slumped into the backs of the seats.
Aydra inhaled the herb from Draven’s pipe and let her eyes close at the swim of it. His hair fell over her face each time he would look down at her, nudging her cheek with his nose when he would laugh, entwining their hands together as their eyes dazed and the voices around them became distant echoes. It was some time later that she found herself lying beneath the stars on his chest, the warmth of the fire at their feet, cool of the dirt on their backs.
“They dance,” she whispered as the herb went to her head.
He chuckled under his breath, his fingers delicately drawing circles on her hip. “Occasionally,” he replied.
“How do you think the Architects choose who to place in the stars?” she asked him.
Draven sighed, silence encompassing the moment as he contemplated his answer. “Perhaps Haerland presents them with those she chooses to be worthy.”
“No Lesser being has ever been chosen,” she noted.
“Name one that’s ever earned such,” he bantered.
She smiled despite herself and shook her head. Draven brought her hand up on his chest, and she felt him looking down at her.
“You will be,” he told her.
Aydra frowned and sat up slightly on her elbow. “Me? The runaway Queen? Traitor to her people, lover of her enemy?”
“The first true Queen of Haerland,” he corrected.
Her hand softened against his, and his fingers squeezed her hip just so. “Then you’ll be beside me,” she whispered. “The true King.”
A deep exhale left him, and his eyes darted over her face. “Burning traitorous kingdoms, breaking curses, crushing the Chronicles, and shifting the cosmos… what else can we do together?”
The smile slipped full on her face, and her heart swelled with him in her arms. “Everything.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
A FULL MOON and a crescent met Aydra’s eyes as she allowed herself the silence of the balcony. She’d been in the forest two weeks, and it was the most freeing two weeks she’d ever felt.
Not only because she could be with Draven, but because she felt… free. Welcome. Wanted. The Venari people didn’t treat her as though she were fragile, as though she would break or snap at them if they said something out of turn. She appreciated the equal respect they treated her with, that they would poke fun at her expense once in a while.
She’d filled some of her time reading some of the stories from the Honest Scrolls books and drawings Draven had piled into crooked shelves behind his desk, other times walking the forest or chatting with Balandria and the rest of Draven’s people. She felt more at home within their darkened kingdom than she’d ever felt in her own.
There had been word of more ships on the horizon, and so Draven would pour himself to look at the maps he had, determining where they could be coming from, where they would decide to dock. They spoke of it together, him trusting her with ideas and plans she had never been trusted with before. He would stress over whether the youngers in the Venari company were ready for such a war. Aydra had seen the younger members of his legion fight, and she assured him they were.
Draven made time to spend with her away from the pressures of his kingdom when he could, even if it was only their sneaking away at night to sit at the river’s edge. The phoenix would follow in the shadows, only appearing out when she would speak to it. Draven knew everything about his forest. Every tree, every flower, every creature. He would pick some of them, showing her medicinal properties and even telling high stories of sorcery he swore to her that some possessed.
It amazed her how much she didn’t know about the land.
At night, they would occasionally sleep on the high roof, Aydra desperate to see the stars she knew her youngers would also be looking at. She missed them. She wondered how Dorian had done with the Bryn and Blackhand Elders, whether he’d helped them actually vanquish the Infi in their streets or if he’d made it back to Magnice in one piece.
As happy as she was, she couldn’t get the thought of Nyssa being back at Magnice alone out of her head, wondering if she and Dorian were okay, wondering if Lex was okay… Aydra had sent the Orel out with a letter to the castle that morning, but had heard nothing back yet.
Aydra’s hands wrapped around the banister of the roof as she stared at the moons above her on that night, and she felt a tear trickle down her cheek.
“—finishing up dinner if you’re hungry—whoa.” Draven slowed as he reached the top of the steps, and he crossed to her quickly. “What’s wrong? Did Bael say something out of turn?”
She almost laughed, and she shook her head. “No. Nothing like that,” she promised.
His weight shifted, and he swallowed hard. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she whispered, reaching out to place her hand over his on the banister. “Overwhelmingly perfect.”
He eyed her. “And that made you cry?”
The comical confusion on his face made her sink into his arms, and she sighed heavily as she laid her head against his shoulder. “I cannot express how grateful I am for you. For your people… they’ve treated me as nothing less than their equal. I wish my youngers could feel such an equality and love.”
His lips pressed to her forehead, and he squeezed her against him. “We can bring them with us after the meeting in a few weeks,” he insisted. “Have them stay for a time. They deserve the travel.”
She pulled back and looked at him, her chest once more filling with the look he gazed at her with. “Have I told you how fucking much I love you today?” she managed, leaning closer.
His brows raised, and his hands curled around her waist. His eyes darted from her eyes to her mouth, and she watched as the smoldering smile rose on his lips.
“You haven’t,” he rasped, nudging her nose with his.
An urgent hunger filled her from her stomach up and into her extremities, She curled her hands in his hair, gently tugging on the roots of it. A deep groan vibrated his throat, their lips grazing, but not touching. His nose traced her jaw, and she felt his tongue on her skin.
“I have a request,” she breathed.
He pulled back slightly, head tilti
ng at her. “Demanding, but go on,” he replied with a raised brow.
She grasped his hair between her fingers, standing up taller to move her head beside his ear. “Put on the skull,” she requested.
She felt the goosebumps rise on his flesh, the shudder wash over his body. She pulled back just as a low growl emitted from his throat. His fingers dug into her hips as he looked down at her with dilated eyes that made her thighs squeeze.
“You don’t know what you ask for with that,” he told her.
“I know I want you to fuck me without this restraint you’ve been putting on the last two weeks.”
His brows narrowed just slightly. “I told you restraint lives poorly in my core.”
“And you’re a liar,” she accused.
The smirk that rose in his eyes made her weight shift. They danced with sadistic delight that she melted for.
“You think I’ve been treating you as fragile?” he asked.
“I think you didn’t want to scare me.”
The smirk met his lips then, and the darkening of his gaze caused a chill run down her spine. “Careful what you wish for, my Queen,” he growled against her cheek.
She leaned in, her lips barely a breath from his. “Put on the skull… my King.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
“NADIR WILL BE here in an hour,” Draven told her the following morning.
Aydra paused in sharpening her sword, and she frowned up at him. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“He says you agreed to help him with the water serpent,” he replied. “And… another ship came in, further west this time, not by the reef. He wants a second opinion on what we should do.”
She could see the nervousness in his eyes, and she sat her sword on the ground, standing up level with him. Her hand reached up to his cheek, and he covered it with his own, kissing her palm.
“They’re ready,” she told him.
“We’re not fighting this time, remember?” he said with a raised brow.
