“He’s speaking for me.” Zayden said, pulling Aleksander back to the line.
The animal let out a grunt from the base of his chest and stepped towards Zayden. He was face to face with the creature and it took in a deep breath through its nose. “Ah, finally.” He backed up and sat down in front of him, still just as tall. “Someone at my level and this one is your hired voice?”
“Correct. He will be answering for me, more knowing the information you request.”
“The improbable King. Sons of peasants ruling my kingdom. It brings shame to me.”
“Nevertheless. He speaks truthfully in my stead.”
“These your men then?”
“They’re my royal guards.” Zayden confidently glanced to his right at us. “I don’t go anywhere without them.”
“And the females?”
“They serve under you, my lord.” Aleksander said, bowing his head.
The large animal huffed as he stood up and walked to them.
“They bear the mark of your allegiance, my lord.”
He saw the marks on Ruby’s hips and brought his nose up to her. She looked frightened and shot a worried sign towards Aleksander. He held out his hand and she let the beast get closer. He nudged his nose against her right hip and she did her best to keep her balance. The large animal seemed skeptical as he paused for a moment then licked her.
Ruby had a repulsive look on her face as she tried to hold as still as possible and not offend him while we had to try to keep from laughing.
“Hmm.” The beast said to himself as he backed off and started walking back to the center. “Exquisite. It’s precisely the way he’s described it.”
Adele and Jaylyn looked at Ruby standing in between them, trying to hide their smiles.
The beast only took another step before freezing and breathing through his nose a few times. When he paused from it, his head snatched towards Jaylyn and she was a little startled but stood completely still. “You.” The beast circled around her and pushed her forward with one of his wings.
“Jaylyn!” I took a step forward, ready to defend her.
“Be still!” Aleksander whispered. “Don’t make it worse!”
I stopped but was still worried.
The beast stepped to her and walked around so he could see her eyes but didn’t speak directly to her. “How is it that this one exists? Females are not worthy of this blood.”
“She’s special.” Aleksander explained. “She has a purpose.”
Jaylyn stayed completely still as she was looking into the yellow and black eyes of her brother’s curse.
“A special power I sense. You do not serve me, child. For you possess something much greater but I see you haven’t been told. What a shame. I should be asking you these questions.”
“She wouldn’t be the right one to answer them, my lord.” Aleksander said.
“Silence! I am quite aware of that and you will speak after I have asked said questions!”
“Of course.”
The beast looked at Jaylyn one more time and turned away from her. She stayed there for just a moment almost in shock and Adele and Ruby went to her, bringing her back to the line.
“Since it is obvious I can’t speak directly to whom I need, tell me why he hasn’t stepped forward? Tell me why he let you become King?”
“The times are different from when you ruled, my lord. The world has long been at war.”
“All the more reason he should take his place!”
“I understand that, my lord but we’ve journeyed to end it. In that case it wasn’t probable.”
“Insolent fool! Give me one good reason I don’t kill you where you stand!”
“We’re fulfilling an ancient prophecy set after your time, my lord. Only by uniting the six can we complete it.”
“And these are the six you speak of?” The beast wondered looking at us by his side.
“Indeed, my lord. Even through war, they find themselves perfectly matched to their other half.”
“I see. So I’m to let this slide? Have my heir lay low till this is settled?”
“He requests when he’s ready, my lord.”
The large winged lion paced back and forth in front of us, his giant reptilian wings twitching with concentration and his rising anger. “No! That is unacceptable!”
“My lord, please.” Aleksander tried to explain.
“No!” He pounced over and pinned him to the ground with one of his large wings. “He proceeds to his place or I take it for him!”
“Father!” Adele hollered. She was about to step towards him but the beast looked over at her and growled, stopping her in her tracks.
“I don’t think so.” Darius muttered. He walked up behind the lion and reached for his tail. “Bad kitty!” He grabbed a hold tightly and pulled the animal back, throwing him towards the trees. The beast roared in anger but he only saved himself by flying.
“No.” Aleksander said as Adele helped him to his feet. “Don’t fight him. We need him to phase back.”
“How?” Adele asked.
“We get him to submit.”
“Then we fight.” Darius said. He pulled out his sword and the winged lion landed in front of us.
“Fools! The death penalty proceeds.”
“No!” Aleksander shouted. “You kill him and Trever dies.”
Jaylyn gasped and covered her mouth.
“Ah, a weakness.” The beast snickered. “It’s in my favor then.”
“Don’t count on it.”
Darius charged at the lion and the beast lowered himself in a stalking position. “Good. Competition.”
“Darius, don’t!” Ruby shouted. He didn’t listen. He got ready to swing his sword when he got closer but the beast pounced and swung his large paw knocking Darius sideways to the ground.
He slid a good ten feet on his back, losing his sword. When he looked up, the lion pounced towards him. Darius immediately reached his hand up and grabbed the beast’s throat, keeping his massive jaws out of his reach with his strength. They struggled on the ground for a moment while we could only stand back and watch. None of us were strong enough to deal with this and I think Ruby would have been too afraid she might kill Trever.
Darius kicked the underbelly of the lion, sending him soaring behind him then rolled up to his feet, grabbing his sword but the beast saved himself again by flying up into the sky. “I’m getting sick of that already.”
The lion circled around and swoop down towards him. Darius rolled out of the way and swung his sword at the same time. He rolled back to his feet and saw black blood running down the blade and smiled, looking back up into the sky.
The beast was wounded. He landed a ways from Darius and looked down at the blood running down his right foreleg. “Fool.”
The beast scraped the dirt underneath his feet as Darius put away his sword and got ready to run. The beast folded his wings back and got down into his stalking position.
Darius smiled, just waiting for him to make the next move. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”
“I’ll make you regret those words.”
“Well, I’m waiting.”
The beast let out a loud roar and started charging towards Darius and he sprinted towards him. Darius dodged out of the way from a paw and swung himself up onto the lion’s back, taking out a dagger at the same time.
“My turn.” He stabbed one of the reptilian wings and ripped it all the way to the end as he jumped off. The lion let out a roar and tried to take off into the sky but couldn’t. His wing was too badly torn. He got angry and quickly spun around, swinging his other wing towards Darius.
“No!” Ruby shouted.
Darius turned and looked just as the wing collided with his body and sent him flying into the trees. He hit one and knocked it over while cascading to the ground.
Ruby’s eyes welt up. “Zayden.”
He nodded and used his speed to go after him.
Chapter 37
Ruby
The minutes the winged-lion fought with Darius had finally paid off. He lowered to the ground and looked just plain weak and drained. “All right. You win this time. I’ll give him the time he requests but if I have to come back, it will be for the last time.”
“Agreed, my lord.” Aleksander said as he bowed his head.
The beast let out a growl for the last time and his large wings formed a cocoon around his body. I watched as it simply curled up and there was movement going on inside. The wings melted, disintegrating into the ground and Trever was laying there with a wound on his right shoulder.
“Trever!” Jaylyn immediately went over to him. “Are you all right?”
“Except for this, I’m fine.” He tried to look at the wound but couldn’t at the angle.
“Let me.” Jaylyn put her hand on it and her eyes started to glow.
“What happened?”
“You really don’t know what happens when he takes over?” Troy asked.
“Not a clue which makes it all the more awful for me.”
“Well, everything is settled.” Aleksander said. “He shouldn’t be back.”
“Yeah, you’re lucky.” I said. “Darius is really the one that—” I paused like I had forgotten all about him and looked to the trees where I watched him fall. “Darius.” I headed in that direction and didn’t care if they were following. My goal was just to get to him.
I found Zayden among all the fallen branches and noticed he was knelt down on the ground.
“Zayden?”
He looked up with his brow tense and his jaw clenched like he was trying to hold back some emotion and then just lowered his head again.
I was worried now but I got closer and saw Darius on the ground next to him. He wasn’t moving. He remained as still as the tree that fell with him. “No.”
“There was nothing I could do.” Zayden muttered, his voice straining with regret that even he wasn’t fast enough.
“No!” I shouted it a little louder and got down next to Zayden, leaning over Darius’s body. “No. No. No. No.” My shaking hand touched his still face, feeling the blood that set around his temple.
“I’m sorry, Ruby.”
I started breathing heavily, my eyes jumped to red in an instant and the wind started picking up around me hard.
“Ruby?” Jaylyn wondered.
“This. Is. All. Your. Fault!” I looked up at Trever, casting all of my anger and hate towards him.
“Ruby, no!” Adele pushed me into a tree and tied me to it with vines. “What are you doing?”
“He killed him!” I cried, my sadness starting to overcome my anger. “This is his fault!”
“And killing him will redeem that?”
“It’s a start.” My voice was calmer but still angry and I killed the very vines holding me so they became brittle.
“Ruby, wait!” Adele tied me to the tree again. “You know that’s not true!”
“He’s dead and it’s your fault! You wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for him!”
“What do you mean?” Trever asked.
“You’re lucky he hated you as much as he did because if he didn’t he wouldn’t have fought with that thing, saving your life!”
“He saved my life?”
“And now he’s dead because of you!”
“Now hang on a second.”
Trever approached Darius’s body and I tensed even more. “What are you doing? Get away from him!”
“Relax, Red and stop crying. He saved my life.”
“Your life isn’t the one I care about right now!” I was still restrained to the tree and too upset this time to even try to free myself again.
“Look, in all decree of ancient law, he saved my life and now I’m in debt to him until that it’s repaid by saving his.”
“Trever! He’s already dead!”
He sighed but kept his eyes on mine through the pause. The longer he looked at me, the more shocked he became because he was reading my thoughts. “Oh, Red. You didn’t.”
“Don’t say a thing.”
“You didn’t tell him?!”
“I planned to. It’s none of your business when but now I can’t!”
“Will you if I change that?”
I would have agreed to do anything for him to come back. I knew Trever could do many things but I did not know that this was one of them.
“Then get ready to witness a miracle.”
“You’re going to bring him back?” Troy asked.
“Not in the way that you think. This will be real.”
“You can do that?” Jaylyn asked, fueling my wonder.
“As long as we don’t tell him how I did it.”
“Why?” Zayden asked.
“Because he won’t like it.” Trever took out a dagger and cut the front of Darius’s shirt so it would reveal his bare chest. “Now, don’t say another word.”
He took off his own shirt and put his hand on his chest. I listened to whispers coming from the forest and my hope for this success only increased. A mist started to roll towards us while the whispers got closer and I was lost in wonderment.
It surrounded Darius’s body and Zayden quickly backed up, standing at Adele’s side. They looked at each other and Adele took his hand.
Trever slowly pulled his hand away from his chest and a white glow came with it as if he pulled some spirit from his body. It rested in his hand and slowly started to bring it towards Darius’s chest.
Everyone leaned in a little closer and his palm came in contact with his skin. Darius’s chest pumped up and all the muscles in his body became tense while Trever tried to keep his hand steady. The whispers started to speed up and the mist shot up into the sky. Trever lifted his chin with the wind and his eyes too were glowing white.
The miracles in our world seemed to have yet be fully discovered and no one could seem to pull their eyes away from the beauty this brought. The light of life.
The whispers started to fade and the wind calmed as Trever’s eyes dimmed and turned back to their normal vibrant green. The brightness around him fell down to the ground like it were raining light and disappeared before touching it.
I was still in amazement from seeing it and Trever turned his eyes back down on Darius. His hand was a little shaky as he took it off Darius’s chest and a light glow of his hand print was left behind. It started to fade away as if it was being absorbed by his skin and everyone leaned in closer with their eyes down on Darius.
“Get me down.” Adele took down the vines still holding me and I dropped to the ground, immediately going over to Darius. “Did it work?”
Trever got a smirk on his face as he leaned over Darius, tapping the sides of his face. He started breathing and started to respond to the movement. “Morning sunshine. You took quite a spill, I hear. How are you feeling?”
Darius’s eyes popped open and they were as bright and fire orange as ever. The hate was still there when he saw Trever leaned over him and he reacted quickly by grabbing his throat and throwing him down to the ground.
“Much like yourself, I see.”
“What did you do?” Darius was angry and still had a tight grip around Trever’s throat, his eyes fixed on his but I had other things in mind.
“Darius!”
Chapter 38
Jaylyn
Ruby threw her arms around his neck in a death grip while her tears fell.
Darius almost seemed unsure of why. “Ruby?”
He tried pulling her back but she wouldn’t loosen her hold on him. “No. Don’t. I’m not letting go. Ever.”
He looked up and it was clear he didn’t know.
“You were dead.” Zayden said. “He just saved your life.”
Darius’s head jerked back in Trever’s direction and they started both getting to their feet. “Why? Why would you care?” Darius was holding Ruby on the front of him the entire time like a child as she had her head tucked into the side of his neck.
“Who said I
cared? It may not have been your intent but you’re the one that saved me first. I was merely repaying you.”
“It’s true.” Aleksander said. “After you defied orders to—”
“I am not under your rule!”
“Fair enough but it was your hate for him that saved us all. We all owe you our lives.”
“Well, save it.” Darius started walking back to the house with Ruby and zero tolerance for this conversation. “You owe me nothing.”
“At least I don’t.” Trever muttered as we started to follow.
“Wait.” Adele whispered, pulling Trever back lightly so Darius kept walking ahead with Ruby. “What’s that on your back?”
I turned my eyes to it and saw lion heads on his shoulders and a diamond pattern like Kole’s down his spine. It made me miss him.
“You can’t guess? I wanted to remember him.”
“Can we please not?” I didn’t want to cry just from hearing talk of it. I was trying to get over it in my own way.
“Sorry.” Adele said, refocusing on Trever. “Then what hasn’t she told him?”
“Who told what?”
“Earlier. You mentioned something about Ruby not telling Darius something.”
All eyes were on him but he just smiled. “Sorry. I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not my secret to tell.” He left it at that as he always shorts out on a real answer and we went back inside, sitting around on the couches.
Rift came right out of some hiding place and pranced around Zayden before he could sit. “It’s all right. We took care of it.”
It was cute and he laid at Zayden’s feet but I had my own worries. Some things were still said today that I wanted answers for.
“Okay. We’re going to talk about it now.” I said. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Trever merely turned his head for a moment and examined my face like he were reading my thoughts to the true details of my question. “Would you have believed me?”
“Maybe but there’s just one thing I don’t get.”
“What?”
“When you were gone and that thing had replaced you, he said that I wasn’t supposed to exist, that I didn’t deserve this blood because I’m female. What’s with that?”
Raining Light (Fate's Intent Book 5) Page 21
