On a chair in the corner, another long dress was laid out. As I walked over, I took the measure of the new outfit and determined that it was actually a nightgown. I slipped the white, cottony material over my head and pulled on a robe, securing a tie at my waist.
The room was small but cozy, with a bed and two wooden side tables beside it. Each table held an unlit candle. The light in the room actually came from a set of large lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Across the room by the doorway was a wardrobe, and a washstand stood in the corner. The bed looked rather lumpy, but it called to me, nonetheless.
I heard male voices in the other room, and decided to lie down. I simply couldn’t keep my eyes open much longer. Loud noises outside the house startled me as I was settling myself into the bed. The sound of a few men laughing carried through the thin walls.
I had to remind myself again that this wasn’t like the modern convenience of a home in the 2013’s. This was like living in a third world country. I had to admit, it was quite a culture shock.
I knew that I should probably blow out the lanterns to save the candles, but I had no idea how to do that. I laughed at myself as I thought about the fact that even when you didn’t have electricity, you still worried about being wasteful. I laid my head down on the pillow and sighed at the sheer comfort of a bed after the two days I’d had.
My thoughts turned to the dreams I had experienced with Griffin. When Xander had awakened me, Griffin had just told me that ‘things weren’t what they seemed’. Riddles. Since I’d been pulled into the story of Tyalbrook, I felt like all I ever got were riddles. No one ever gave you a straight answer! Griffin had pushed me to reconsider my memory loss, and had questioned why I’d never been found by Rioden or Selene.
Doubt was starting to creep into my head like poison that ran slowly through your veins. I felt itchy. I wanted to get to the truth of everything, and I wanted it NOW.
After a few minutes of contemplation, the deep, hushed voices in the other room began to cause my eyes to droop. The warm bath water, the long journey and the pressing questions on my mind all combined to lull me to sleep.
I was awakened by the creaking of the front door as it opened and shut. For a moment, panic entered my mind when I heard the floor creak in the other room, until I recalled my location. Recognizing the sound as someone walking around, I stared at the doorway and debated on calling out, but then decided against it.
After another tense moment of silence, the floor creaked again and then I saw Xander as he opened the door and peered into the room.
“You need anything?” he asked quietly; standing there with one hand running through his hair and the other behind his back.
I leaned up on my elbow and looked at his face across the room. He looked just as exhausted as I felt, and remorse flowed through me for being so rude earlier. I noticed his tense features, and I could see that he was fighting the same feelings I was. It killed me to admit that he was right to fight them. We needed to play this right. He needed to be my Guardian - only my Guardian.
“Could you blow out those lanterns for me?” I asked, as I untangled my legs from the robe I had slipped on. I pulled it off and tossed it to the foot of the bed, as I watched Xander.
He stepped inside the room and walked over to the wall where the lanterns were tied to a hook. His hair looked damp and he was wearing clean clothes. He must have bathed in another home while I had been cleaning up. He unwrapped the rope that held the lanterns in place. He lowered one lantern at a time and blew out the bank of candles in them. When he blew out the second one, we were left in almost complete darkness.
The mellow glow from the fireplace in the other room was the only light around, and he stood in the dark for a moment before turning back to leave the room. When he was but a silhouette in the opening, I called out.
“Xander, I’m sorry about before. It wasn’t necessary.”
“It’s okay, Skye. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
Wishing I could see his beautiful face, I kept talking. I didn’t want him to leave me alone.
“Where are you sleeping? Where are Cillian and Selene?”
I didn’t really care about either of them, but I had to cover the obviousness of my question.
“Selene and Cillian are next door. Apparently this house is Rioden’s. He had it built, knowing that we were going to need it someday. Cillian lives next door, and he offered up his room for Selene.” He tapped the wall and added, “I’ll be on a pallet in there if you need me. Good night.”
Before he could take two steps, I begged for him to return. “No, don’t sleep on the floor. Stay with me, Xander.”
“Skye, that’s really not the best idea. We need to uphold…”
I sat up all the way, interrupting him. “I know! We need to portray me as the virtuous Princess, and you as my loyal Guardian. I’m not talking about sex, Xander! I just want you to sleep beside me. I want to feel the safety of your arms. No one will even know! You can be out of the bed before anyone comes over in the morning. Please?”
I heard my racing heart counting down the seconds as Xander deliberated on my request. How had this man come to mean everything to me? When did breathing without him by my side become so difficult?
Since when did I let others tell me what I was going to do? My heart was yelling at me to just throw myself at him and beg him to stand up with me and refuse to let the others decide our fate. To hell with the prophecy! I could save the Kingdom and have my man too, right?
Somewhere deep inside me, the selfishness of my wants hit me like a cold bucket of water, but I stuffed the guilt deep within me. I deserved a little happiness after the years of torment I’d had to live with.
“Xander, the only time I feel at ease is when you’re by my side. You chase all of my nightmares away. Please stay with me.”
I saw the outline of his shadow as he pulled off his shirt. He walked across the room and I felt the bed give under his weight.
“I just can’t say no to you,” he whispered; his voice hoarse.
He laid down and pulled me into his arms, and then I rested my head on his bare chest. The beating of his heart pulsed on my cheek and I smiled.
Listening to Xander’s breath flow in and out, I allowed the feeling of safety and comfort to flow through me. The heat that radiated off of his bare chest seared through the thin cotton gown I wore. He’d definitely had a bath while I was sleeping. I could smell a fresh, almost woodsy scent on his chest.
My knee brushed his leg and I could tell that he was still wearing pants, but they felt like soft cotton instead of the thicker material that I’d seen the other men wearing. I stretched my arm out and wrapped it around his waist. My fingers skimmed his waistband, and his muscles flexed and leapt at the slight touch.
Xander’s hand grasped mine and he wove our fingers together as he tucked my hand up to his chest.
“Get some sleep, Skye. I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot to plan tomorrow.” His voice was still hoarse.
“Why? What did you and Cillian talk about tonight?”
I could feel his free hand tangling in my hair. His fingers were combing through the still-damp locks and twisting stands around his fingers before untangling them again. The feeling of intimacy slowly relaxed my entire body.
“We’re waiting for Rioden before we make any major plans. He should arrive in a few days, at the most. We’re sending a team up to the mountains tomorrow to keep an eye out for him.”
The thought of the others knowing about the location of the portal back to my dimension crossed my mind. Wouldn’t that be a problem? I asked Xander about it.
“No, I told Cillian where to camp in the general vicinity, but didn’t tell him where the portal was. They just want to be there so they can get Rioden back here as fast as they can, once he makes it through.”
“So, is Rioden considered the leader of the Guardians, then?”
“I don’t really know. Cillian is the leader here, but
Rioden is the only Guardian left who was present at the castle when your parents disappeared.”
“Xander, are they dead?”
I let the word ‘dead’ slide through my lips as if I were talking about my next meal. So far, I’d been able to keep my emotions in check when it came to my “real” parents.
“I mean, you’ve never said they died…does anyone know what happened to them?”
Xander sighed loudly and then sat up and pulled me up with him; turning me towards him. Cradling my face in his soft palms, he moved his face inches from my own. The room still held a soft glow from the fire in the other room, but I could barely see him. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough so that I could make out the whites of his eyes.
“Look at me, Skye,” he lightly demanded, his grip on my face holding my head in place. “It’s been fifteen years since they were last seen. I would love to hold out hope that they’re still alive, but where would they be?”
I grasped his wrists with my hands and spoke just as urgently, “Maybe they went through another portal to safety!” Even as I said the words, I realized it could actually be true. “Xander, Selene’s mom could have sent them somewhere.”
“No way. Why wouldn’t they have just left with you?”
“Well maybe they tried to get to me, but they got sent went to the wrong place. Maybe they…”
“Skye…”
“Maybe they’ve been searching for me all this time somewhere back home!”
“Skye?”
“You never know! What if they were waiting for me to come back, for my eighteenth birthday…?” I trailed off lamely.
“Skye,” Xander pleaded with me, his voice achingly sweet as he kissed the tip of my nose. “They would have found you if they’d had Selene’s mom with them, and Rioden said they did when he last saw them.”
My shoulders shrank in defeat. “I know.”
“Their plan was to stay here and fight for your Kingdom. Someone had knowledge from the inside, Skye. They should have been safe. There was no way they would have run, or would’ve disappeared as quickly as they had, unless it was an inside job.”
My fingers tightened around his wrists even more as I absorbed what he had just told me.
“You need to know what we - Rioden and I - think. We don’t know who to trust here, because the truth is, someone turned on the King and Queen. Someone betrayed your family’s trust.”
“Trust no men,” I mumbled, recalling the warning Griffin had given me in my dream.
“What?”
What to do, what to do? My brain began to think in double time. Should I tell him about Griffin? Did I trust Xander? Yes, I did.
Should I tell him about Griffin? No, not yet.
“Okay, Xander. We trust nobody. It’s just you and me, until Rioden gets here. Deal?” I played off my comment and pulled his hands from my face. Shoving him back down to the bed, I wiggled into place next to him and let him wrap his arms around me from behind.
“I can live with that, Princess,” he teased, before poking my side and causing me to giggle.
I shrieked when he poked me again, and then arched back as I tried to wriggle free from his grip. My ribs were madly ticklish, and apparently he had just figured that out.
“Hmmm, something biting you there,” he joked, swinging his leg over my waist and straddling me.
“No!!! Get OFF!” I gasped, as he started to attack me in earnest, causing fits of laughter. I tried to thrash him off but he was too strong. And centered. He might have been a cowboy on a bucking bronco, because he was going nowhere.
I reared up and bucked him forward, which caused him to crash down fully atop me. I punched at him in an effort to counter his attack, but his face plant onto the pillow next to my face caused us both to collapse in laughter.
I found myself laughing so hard I could barely breathe. Xander grumbled and righted himself back on top of me, but instead of sitting up he leaned down; his arms trapping mine on either side of my head on the pillow.
“Truce?” he asked as he leaned closer into me and placed his lips on my forehead. The laughter faded from my lips as he tenderly kissed my forehead; then as he ran his mouth across to my temple, he lightly kissed there.
He released my arms and I brought them up, skimming along his rib cage and delighting in the feel of the muscles leaping in reflex to my touch. I ran my hands up his sides and over his wide shoulders as he lightly trailed kisses down my cheek and across my jaw line.
Xander nudged my chin up with his nose and his lips caressed my neck. His soft tongue drew light circles there and down onto my collar bone.
I heard a low moan come from my throat and felt Xander’s lips smile on my skin, as they traveled back the way they came and found my mouth. I opened my lips, expecting him to deepen his kisses, but instead he ran his tongue over my bottom lip and nibbled at it.
“Xander…” I blurted out, my desire-thickened voice sounding strange even to my own ears.
“Hmmm?” he murmured, tracing my top lip with his tongue and chuckling low in his throat when my hands tightened their grip on his biceps.
“What are we going to do?”
He pulled himself up and released a large breath.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to stop,” I stammered, immediately realizing what a mood killer I’d just been. I could feel his desire for me pressing into my stomach. I could feel my own desire for him making my toes curl. Now wasn’t the best time for heavy conversations. Except that it was.
I squeaked out, “Are you mad?” as he pulled up and off of me and sat on the edge of the bed.
“What? Nooo. Skye, of course not. I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t have let myself get so carried away. It’s just that I can’t…”
He abruptly stopped, and I pulled myself behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist; propping my chin onto his shoulder. “Go on,” I prompted.
“Hang on.” He popped up and I saw him move into the other room. Sitting cross legged on the bed, I sat in bewilderment for a moment, wondering what he was doing. After a moment he came back with a lit candle in a holder.
The candle lit up a small radius of the room and I tried to contain a smile at being able to really see Xander’s muscular chest and abs. He was gorgeous! I could make out the tattoo I had seen once before, although barely. It was a faded shape of swirls and lines that had a strange transparency to them. I could see it, but yet it almost seemed strangely – not there. The golden lines sort of shimmered and the whole thing almost reminded me of when I first saw the Semvon, how they had shimmered between human and demon form.
How strange! Just when I thought to ask him about it he coughed and pulled my gaze away from his body.
Placing the candle on a small table by the bed, he sat back down across from me and sighed as he took my hands. I watched in fascination as he lightly rubbed and played with my fingers. His face, which had become so dear to me, was filled with something I couldn’t make out. Nervousness? Guilt?
“I need to tell you something,” he offered after a moment, looking up at me finally. I nodded and waited.
“First, I want you to know what it was I was about to say. Skye…” He said my name in such a way that I could never have imagined it would ever be said. He said it as if it was a precious china dish that could break if he wasn’t careful enough with it. I felt my skin break out into goose bumps.
“I can’t stop myself when I’m with you because I want you so badly. I want to fulfill your desires and make you cry out my name. I want to make you mine for…for the rest of our lives.”
At that moment, I felt like the world must have stopped spinning. Knowing that if I’d had a mirror, I would most likely see my jaw unhinged and hanging to the ground, I tried to straighten myself up and maintain a calm face. Xander squeezed my hands and kept speaking.
“I love you, Skye. You know this; I’ve said it a million times already. I know you can’t really understand the depth of it, since i
n your mind we just met, but…but I’d marry you if you would let me. I’d marry you right now.”
“Holy ssshh…”
“Well that’s not what I was expecting,” he confessed, laughing at my outburst.
“I…I just don’t even know what to say. Xander, I don’t want to lose you. I just found you!”
“I’m not asking you to say anything, Skye. I wanted you to know my intentions…if I were actually allowed to convey them to you, that is.”
“Okay, so your intentions are what, then?” I asked, trying to understand what was happening between us.
“Clearly, I’m telling you that I want to marry you someday. If there is any way, and I do mean any, that we can fulfill the prophecy and still allow me to have you forever, then I will find that way.”
Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook) Page 23
