Defy

by Raine Thomas

  “We understand, Malukali,” Gabriel said. “You don’t need to go into more detail.”

  She nodded and returned to her position beside archigos Knorbis. The Wymzesti elder put his arm around her and led her away from the gathering. Zachariah heard her begin sobbing when they entered the forest. He wasn’t sure what to think about that. So he turned his attention back to Tate’s family.

  Her mother was crying. So was one of Tate’s aunts…the one with light green eyes. He couldn’t recall which one that was. The golden-eyed one rubbed the arm of Tate’s mother.

  He turned to look at Tate for the first time since he interrupted the ceremony. Her face was also streaked with tears. She didn’t even bother trying to mop them as she stared back at him.

  “Why the hell are you crying?” he demanded, not liking the odd feeling that the sight of her tears caused him. “You were not the one who just had your bloody head examined.”

  She reached up to touch the side of his face. “Thank you for doing that, Sparky,” she said just loud enough for him to hear. Then she leaned up and kissed his cheek.

  “If I say you are welcome, will you stop bloody crying?”

  “No,” she said.

  Giving up, he ran a hand through his hair and turned back to her father. “Well?”

  Caleb stepped away from the others and approached. “I know you don’t want sympathy, so I won’t offer it. What I will offer you is the opportunity to try to pair with Tate if you’re interested and willing.”

  “I damn well did not go through all of that for nothing,” he said. Then, realizing he should probably say something more polite, he added, “I am interested and willing.”

  Turning to Tate, Caleb brushed a tear from her cheek. “I trust this makes you happy?”

  “Yes,” she said with a smile. “Thank you, Dad.”

  Nodding, Caleb looked again between the two of them before returning to his position by his wife’s side.

  Then Zachariah fully faced Tate. Now that this moment was actually here, he was left with the realistic fear that it wouldn’t work. What if all of his Gloresti abilities had been fully eradicated by the conversion? Would her parents still allow him to remain with her?

  Well, he told himself, the only way to know was to try.

  Chapter 42

  Tate would never forget what Sparky did to win the chance to try and pair with her.

  She hoped he wouldn’t remember whatever it was that Malukali channeled. The powerfully intuitive elder had been impassive at first as she sought the memories she needed. Once she found them…well, the sounds she made had everyone who witnessed the display cringing in shock and concern. Tate saw Knorbis shift agitatedly more than once, as though debating whether to end the connection to stop whatever his wife experienced along with Zachariah.

  Even that hadn’t been as difficult to endure as when Malukali started whispering, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” over and over again as she wept.

  Tate’s own tears had been unstoppable. She knew whatever terrible violation Sparky had endured was what had sent him into isolation for all this time. Yet, despite what he had gone through, he had resurfaced now.

  Returning his considering stare, she asked, “Why did you come, Sparky?”

  “You need protect—”

  “Lie.”

  “Damn it. Do not do that!”

  “Then answer me.”

  His eyes moved to the small crowd watching them. She knew he was trying to determine who could possibly hear them. Although they spoke in low voices, she imagined it wasn’t the most private conversation in the world. That wasn’t about to stop her.

  “Will it help if I tell you that I’m in love with you?”

  His gaze slowly shifted back to her. He opened his mouth as though he was going to speak, but she had apparently rendered him speechless.

  She had discussed the subject of love with him at length during her rambling confessions when he gave her the tea. She had talked about how much she loved her family and how her parents felt about each other, and how she really wanted to find a love like theirs.

  “You remember what you felt through me when I talked about love, Sparky?” she asked quietly. She caught him glancing at her parents and then back at her. “Well, what you felt then pales in comparison to what I’ve discovered that I feel for you.”

  They stared at each other. She waited for him to acknowledge her declaration or at least answer her question about why he was there. He seemed to be waiting for her to continue talking. It gradually occurred to her that she wasn’t going to get any confessions of love or even like from him. He didn’t know what love really was, and he wasn’t a male known for flowery speech or compliments of any kind. Why would she have expected anything from him, really?

  “In order to pair with her, you have to actually touch—” called out one of the Gloresti.

  “I bloody well know how to pair with someone,” Sparky snapped over his shoulder.

  Tate sighed when she realized they couldn’t put off the pairing ceremony any longer to discuss the matter of her heart. She didn’t argue when he took her right hand and held it palm-up. A thrill went through her at the contact, making her want to sigh again over her own foolishness. When he pressed his right hand on top of hers, he caught her gaze.

  Then he spoke the Gloresti vow. “I, Zachariah, vow to protect and defend you, Tate, to my death, or until such time as this bond is formally dissolved. Do you accept my vow?”

  She took a deep breath, then issued the response she had been coached to give. “I, Tate, accept the vow made by you, Zachariah, with sincerest gratitude.”

  He grasped her hand in his as though to hold her in place. Puzzled, she studied him to figure out what was going on. He seemed to be waiting for something. The longer they stood there, the darker his expression became.

  And then a searing pain flashed across her right bicep. She gasped and tensed and would have instinctively yanked her hand from his if he wasn’t holding her so tight. Then light flared on Sparky’s right bicep. She understood then that it had worked.

  The marks had been made. The vows were sealed.

  It wasn’t quite the romantic moment she had dreamed of. Still, she gave him a smile. “You’re stuck with me now, Sparky. For a while, anyway.”

  Everyone moved closer to congratulate them. Tate was busy looking at the image on her bicep—two deep blue-green arrows crossed over each other—when she felt herself jerked by her left arm and pulled. She gasped as Sparky dragged her toward the forest.

  “Sparky, you can’t—”

  “I bloody well can.”

  She glanced over her shoulder and was surprised to see no one was coming after them. They all watched her departure with expressions ranging from curiosity to deep humor, but none of them appeared concerned. Her mother actually gave her a thumbs up and mouthed, “Wow!”

  When they had walked for several minutes in silence, he stopped. The forest seemed much quieter than usual as the noise of their footfalls abruptly silenced. She understood why he had chosen this spot when she saw Nyx in the shadows just a few feet away. Uncertain, she stood with her hands clasped and looked up at him. He just stared at her for a long time.

  At last, he spoke.

  “I cannot stand the sight of you,” he said, making her blink in surprise and confusion. “I find you stupid and weak and a selfish coward. You are so hideous to look upon that it hurts the eyes. There is no one I think less of than you.”

  The words sat between them, hard and awkward, as she processed them. And then her heart flooded with love and joy. A wide smile spread across her face.

  Every word he said had been a lie.

  Seeing she understood, he reached out and cupped the side of her face. “Listen up, Beautiful, because you will probably never hear me say things like this again. Why did I come? I came because you make me remember what I used to be. You see me in a way I will never see myself again. I have spent the past two weeks try
ing to forget you, but I came to realize that I do not want to. Why would I want to forget the best thing to have ever entered my life?”

  She parted her lips to reply, but her words were cut off with a kiss.

  This kiss was everything their first dream kiss hadn’t been. This kiss was slow and tender and drugging. It was caressing and tingling and soft sighs of pleasure. It was the melding of hearts and the merging of purpose.

  It was the sealing of another vow altogether.

  “Did we really just pair our firstborn daughter with a Mercesti?” Caleb asked Skye as they waited for Zachariah to tell Tate whatever it was he hadn’t wanted to confess with an audience.

  “Yep,” she said cheerfully. “A very hot one, I might add.”

  He glared at her in warning, which merely made her laugh. Shaking his head at her, he looked at Gabriel and James. “How do you think he got through the protections?”

  Everyone else moved closer at the question. Gabriel said, “I have no idea. Especially due to his Mercesti nature, he shouldn’t have been able to get through.”

  “Do you think Eirik somehow used the scroll piece to gain power?” Clara Kate asked. “If he did, could it have affected the abilities of the entire class?”

  “That would definitely not be possible with only one piece,” Ini-herit replied.

  Although they hadn’t yet found Eirik, the elders were more concerned about finding the remaining two pieces of the scroll than they were in finding the Mercesti. Once Ariana was more recovered from her ordeal, they intended to approach her about assisting them in the search.

  “The protections are largely based on the power of illusion, right?” Sophia asked. “They compel beings outside the enchanted area to not detect our homes, no matter how close they are to them. And the moment a being steps out of the protected area, he or she immediately forgets where he or she just was.”

  “Unless a mind inside the protections lets him through,” James concluded. He gave Sophia’s head an affectionate rub. She grinned at him.

  “That is true,” Jabari answered. “Do we think that Tate allowed Zachariah through? Could she somehow allow other Mercesti through, as well?”

  “Not consciously,” Gabriel said. “None of our children can grant access. But she’s still bonded to Zachariah from their exchange of bodily fluids. That bond always exists, no matter how faint. If the being on the other end of the connection is in danger, it can resurge.”

  “Tate said that when she left the protected area to follow Sophia and Quincy, she didn’t experience the usual sense of leaving a place and not knowing where she was or where she had just come from,” Tiege said, causing heads to swivel in his direction.

  “Her ability to see through any lie allows her free access through the protections,” Skye said, her brow furrowed. “But because we designed the protections with her and the other children in mind and accounted for her second power, she can’t dispel the protections altogether.”

  “Zachariah must have somehow funneled Tate's ability to get to her,” Amber said.

  Conversation ceased as the pair in question emerged from the forest. The kragen, Nyx, trailed behind them, but stopped before completely leaving the cover of the trees. Caleb realized that Tate looked happier than he had seen her in a long time, an observation that warmed his heart. Whatever her Mercesti guardian had told her seemed to have been the right thing. Regardless of his paternal concerns, the fact that she was so content was enough to satisfy him for the moment.

  Still, when he watched his wife hurry up to Tate and oh-so-casually fix a hairpin that was sliding precariously from Tate’s mussed hair, he frowned and gave Zachariah a deadly glare.

  “Congratulations, sweetie!” Skye said, tossing him a warning look over her shoulder. “I can’t wait to enjoy your party.”

  “Party?” Zachariah echoed.

  “Yep,” Tate said, giving him a dimpled grin. “You now get the pleasure of attending a dinner party to celebrate our pairing, during which time my family will make you feel incredibly awkward as they ply you with questions and tell you all kinds of things about themselves that you don’t want to know.”

  He eyed her as if trying to determine whether she was serious. “Is that why your hair looks so ridiculous?” he asked.

  She gasped and smacked him on the arm. Then she burst out laughing. “You know what I love about you, Sparky? You always know the perfect thing to say.”

  Epilogue

  Eirik held the scroll as he paced. Once again, he reviewed the words etched there, though he had memorized them by now.

  “Should time and Fate both dictate

  That nine Elders become eight

  Let not their power and sway

  Fade like the light of the day.

  ~ - ~

  By this scroll may power flow

  So another’s skill may grow

  And from eight will one become

  Mightier than anyone.”

  “It is incomplete,” said the being seated in a nearby chair. “If it was not, you would even now have assumed the powers of an elder.”

  “I was never told it had been altered from its original form,” Eirik said, waving the piece of parchment in an angry gesture. “How can you be sure we just do not know how to imbue it properly to make it work?” He shifted to pace in the opposite direction and snapped, “Would you make that thing shut up?”

  Deimos growled and hissed in the room next door. The second being issued an impatient sigh, then spoke a few words. There was a pause in the noise.

  “About the scroll,” the second being continued, “it was torn at the bottom by some very powerful energy. If you had not been so angered by the way things turned out as you were recovering it, you would have surely realized that yourself.”

  Stopping his pacing, Eirik again looked at the parchment. All of the edges were a bit ragged. Still, when he tossed up a ball of light and gave it a more careful study, he saw what the other being meant. He was frustrated that he hadn’t noticed it himself…but then, that was why he had come here in the first place. To get some answers.

  And some aid.

  “If I am to find the missing piece—” he began.

  “Or pieces.”

  The interruption as well as the thought further irritated him, but he knew to pick his battles. “Very well,” he ground out. “If I am to find the missing pieces, I must get Ariana back.”

  “That will be rather difficult with her under the protection of the elders. I imagine she will be assisting them by now. Perhaps they already have the rest of the scroll. They might have even destroyed it.”

  Eirik clenched his hand into a tight fist and forced himself not to rip out the other being’s throat. “If they have, I will kill every last one of them, no matter how many centuries it takes.”

  Raising an eyebrow, his companion said, “I suppose it is possible that it cannot be destroyed. There must be a reason why the thing still exists, after all.”

  That logic calmed Eirik down. “Yes. That is correct. They would have destroyed it already if they could.” Resuming his pacing, he said, “Back to the Lekwuesti. Even if she has helped them find the other piece—or pieces,” he tacked on when he sensed the other being about to speak, “that means the pieces exist and are out on the plane somewhere I can access them. Ariana is still the one being who can find the scroll.”

  “What if the rest of the scroll has been hidden at their base? And what if the Lekwuesti is being housed there, as would make the most sense for her protection?”

  Eirik waved that away. “I have connections in that regard. If that turns out to be the case, I will have either the scroll or Ariana brought to me.”

  There was a pause.

  “And what if the scroll is protected by the powerful illusion that thwarted you this last time?”

  That had Eirik frowning. It was a likely possibility. “I shall have to find the Kynzesti who shattered the illusion.” He thought about this some more. “Actuall
y, she said at one point that I was lying during my conversation with Zachariah. She knew I was lying.”

  “She can see the truth.”

  “Yes.” Deimos’ sounds resumed, but Eirik just ignored them. “I will likely need the Kynzesti female, as well, to finish this.”

  “She is very heavily protected.”

  Once again, Eirik stopped pacing. When he caught the gaze of his companion, his eyes flashed. “I know. That is where you come in.”

  “Happy birthday, honey.”

  Tate glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “You’ve said that about five times today, Mom.”

  “I know,” her mother said as she walked up and linked arms with her. She winked. “I’m sure I’ll say it about fifty more. You’re my firstborn child. You deserve lots of birthday wishes!”

  Glancing back down the slope leading to the training paddock, she returned her attention to Sparky. He leaned against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest, observing as Tiege worked with Ariana on a training exercise. The Lekwuesti female had agreed to aid the elders in finding the scroll pieces, but she insisted on being more prepared to protect herself first. Her experience with Eirik and Deimos had been very difficult for her. Fortunately, she seemed to be a quick and eager learner.

  She seemed especially eager to train when Tiege was her instructor.

  “Uh-oh,” her mother said. “Emma.”

  Tate followed her mother’s gaze and spotted her impulsive youngest sister, Emma, running straight for the training paddock. Before either of them moved to chase after the toddler to keep her away from the sparring match, Sparky reached down and snatched the little girl up by the back of her gown.

  He held her up at eye level as if trying to determine what she was. She dangled in front of him for a moment, not looking away from his gaze. Then she erupted in a fit of giggles. Tate grinned as Sparky’s eyebrows drew together. She knew he was trying to figure out all of the emotions flowing so freely around him. Although he had been around before the separation of the planes and had once experienced human emotions, that was many centuries ago.