Diadem

by Kate Kelley

  Geesh.

  “What did I do?” Lyra asked Alec as he approached her. He watched Freydis with a smirk. His blonde curly hair was shaggy around his ears. A thick beard hugged his jaw.

  “I think she thinks you can transport anywhere you want with the spectrolite,” he said, “She probably expected you to transport somewhere closer to the portal to earth.”

  “The valley isn’t close enough? A two day trek is a lot better than a two week trek,” Lyra grumbled, following along the river. Freydis stopped periodically, her arm outstretched toward the sky, her head tilted up. She muttered something, a flow of ghostly blue wisps of magic seeped out from her palms, riding into the sky and shimmering in a dome shape above them until disappearing. She was laying the glamour to hide them from magical creatures.

  “Iris and the Fae had a good relationship over the last ten years. They glamoured her house in exchange for services,” Alex explained, his glance sliding to Lyra as they walked. “She talks to animals. They found that useful.”

  Lyra blanched. “Iris? They can understand her?”

  Alec nodded. “It’s quite extraordinary.”

  “Alec. Do you know about us? Our mother?” She watched his expression turn soft.

  “She’s Fae. Was Fae. We’re half.”

  “What does it mean to be half-Fae?” Lyra asked, not expecting an answer.

  Freydis appeared next to them, out of thin air. Lyra jumped out of her skin. Alec narrowed eyes. She kept walking as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

  “It means you inherited some of our blood. You won’t be able to change form, or use glamours, or jump, but...you might have inherited cleverness or enhanced power in one way or another. On second thought, I don't think you did get the cleverness.”

  “It seems to have manifested as a more powerful aura than most mages. We aren’t really human mages, I suppose. It just appears that way at first glance,” Alec said, biting into an apple. Freydis eyed Lyra’s pendant.

  “You don’t know how to use that. You should have left it here, with the Fae.”

  “I am Fae,” Lyra said, notching her chin up in defiance.

  Freydis chuckled darkly. “You aren’t.” She disappeared and reappeared at the front of the group again, sliding into step easily.

  “She annoys me,” Lyra said flatly.

  Alec laughed. “I think she was one of the Fae who helped me open the portal when I fell through. Although her hair wasn’t cropped like a boy’s then.”

  “Fae opened the portal for you? How did they know you were there?”

  Iris’ voice sounded behind them. “I convinced the lot of them to try to open it when Alec began speaking to me telepathically.”

  They slowed so that she could catch up. There was an unmistakable womanly quality about Iris’ voice--low, husky, almost sultry. There was a cool confidence in the way she moved--sure and quick, like a warrior, but her hips still swayed with sensuality. Lyra caught Alec staring at her hips. Iris seemed oblivious, her eyes straight ahead.

  “How did you connect with Iris?” Lyra asked her brother.

  “I...read about her. Studied her portraits. Terrin told me stories about her. I held objects from her room--her favorite candle holder, books…” A blush crept up his neck. “Laid in her bed to find her scent.” Iris’ eyes showed no sign of surprise as she continued to stare straight ahead.

  “When I was sure I captured an essence of her--her face, her personality, her scent--then I tried to contact her in my mind. It took five years before she spoke back to me. When she finally did, it was very brief episodes, about twice a year. She explained where she was, who she was with. I suggested to her that the Fae help her open the portal. I didn’t know they were trying when I was on the precipice until I saw her face in the glowing portal. I jumped and slipped through. I don’t think I was supposed to be able to do that.”

  “You weren’t. According to Gaia, I was supposed to be the only one to open the portal,” Lyra said, confused.

  Alec shrugged. “The Fae are powerful folk. The portal only opened for a few seconds. We tried to reopen it but it wouldn’t budge.”

  “The gods don’t know everything,” Poppi’s small voice reached them. Oriel and her sidled up to them. Oriel slipped his hand into Lyra’s, catching her by surprise. Until then, she didn’t know her shoulders were bunched with tension. The tension left her as soon as his skin touched hers.

  Sooner or later we would have to talk about the bonding.

  She preferred if it was out of earshot of the others.

  “Let’s talk now.” Oriel’s rich baritone sounded in her head. Her eyes swung to his. A corner of his mouth lifted.

  “Can you hear me?” Lyra asked Oriel in her mind. He nodded.

  “Gods, this is weird as shyte.”

  Oriel chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Poppi asked behind them. Her eyes darted between the two, an odd expression on her face. Lyra fixed her eyes ahead and pulled her grasp from Oriel’s.

  “Doesn’t Poppi know?” Lyra asked Oriel with her mind.

  “No. Iris pulled her away before I attempted the bonding.”

  “What does bonding mean, exactly?”

  “I gave you part of my soul. You’ll feel drawn to me, and I to you. It builds off of natural feelings. If we hated each other, the bonding wouldn’t work at all.”

  “Is part of my soul in you? Terrin said the bonding wasn’t finished.”

  “No. It’s not finished. That means we won’t have the full experience of a bonded couple. You won’t sense my nearness as I sense yours. We won’t...have all the needs that bonded couples have. Won’t be able to touch each other with our thoughts. We will be able to speak to each other through our minds and aura shielding won’t work between us.”

  Lyra jumped over a decaying log, landing on the wet sand with a thump. “What needs to bonded couples have?”

  “They...feel a constant need to touch, to be near, to...share their bed.”

  Lyra smiled nervously.

  “The touching part may still apply to us. I certainly feel drawn to you on another level than before.”

  She glanced at Oriel, noticing his expression was guarded. “What did you feel before?” Lyra asked, thinking it was easier to be bold when speaking in one's head.

  He paused. “I thought I could see myself with you. I was attracted to you. I am still, and since you woke up, it’s nearly all I’ve been able to think about. I know the lust is the bonding, but...” He let out a shaky breath and looked at her from behind dark lashes.

  A shock went through Lyra at the heat in his voice and gaze. He grabbed her hand again and she let him. They interlaced their fingers.

  Oriel’s voice filled her head again. “But...I saw what you felt for Terrin and I didn’t want--”

  “There’s nothing going on between Terrin and I.”

  “People who kiss like you and Terrin kiss don’t feel nothing for each other.” A glint sparked in his eye but his mouth remained a tight line.

  Lyra smirked. “Are you jealous?”

  “I wasn’t then. I got over it. But now, I can’t think about it or I want to strangle him. Literally. And I can’t do that, he’s my King.”

  “Iris is Queen now.”

  “True.” Oriel said it out loud, turning Lyra’s head.

  “What’s true?” Poppi asked, her face one of guarded confusion. Her eyes flicked to Lyra and Oriel’s conjoined hands, her nostrils flaring slightly before she looked away. Lyra untangled her hand from Oriel’s, much to his chagrin. The annoyance flickered out of his aura. He looked back at Poppi, his eyes taking on a hard glint again. Poppi flinched, then sped up, bounding in front of them to catch up with Alec and Iris. Oriel let out a slow breath, watching Poppi, his mouth the same tight line.

  This should be fun.

  If Oriel heard her thought, he didn’t show it.

  A loud crack broke through the dome above their heads, and they looked up to see the d
ome glimmer, like a lightning-shaped vein of iridescence snaking along the film of a bubble. The lightning vein spread like a drop of rain on glass, splitting the dome in half. A giant boom followed, and everyone hit the ground.

  “Fuck!” Freydis’ muffled voice rose over the snaps of leftover static raining from the dome in sparks. She pulled her twin blades from their sheaths, spinning slowly in her spot, looking for an enemy. “Get ready for something nasty, folks!”

  Chapter Three

  Terrin was suddenly before Lyra, his blade at his side. He pulled a short knife out and extended the hilt to Lyra. She looked down at it.

  “What’s this?” she asked, a crease between her brows.

  “What does it look like? You need a weapon.”

  Oriel hovered beside her, his hand at her lower back. Terrin shot him a look. “Go see to Poppi.”

  Oriel hesitated, peering into Lyra’s eyes.

  “Go,” she told him in her head. He nodded and left. Terrin flashed his eyes at him as he walked by, then returned them to Lyra.

  “Take it,” he demanded.

  She frowned at it. “I don’t know how to use it.”

  “Stick the pointy end in the bad guy.”

  Lyra scoffed as she grabbed it, then sheathed it awkwardly at her belt. Terrin scanned their surroundings, peering into the forest.

  Gods, how naked he must feel without his magic.

  A thought struck her. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? She reached behind her neck and unclasped her pendant, then grabbed Terrin’s hand. His head whipped to her, his eyes rapt. She opened his palm and settled the pendant into it. He looked down dumbly at it.

  “Returning the favor,” she said.

  The group had begun to walk again, Freydis deciding to move on since the danger had not shown itself. Freydis and Alec walked with tense shoulders and long strides. Iris walked on calmly. Poppi was returned to her favored spot on Oriel’s back. A stab of jealousy hit Lyra.

  Ah, hell, I have to get rid of this bonding shyte.

  “It doesn’t work for me,” Terrin said flatly, and dropped the pendant back into Lyra’s hand.

  “You tried it for your normal magic, or just the bonding?”

  A muscle in Terrin’s jaw bunched. “Just the bonding.”

  “Try it for your magic.”

  Terrin turned to leave but Lyra grabbed his arm. His muscles tensed under her hand. A shot of something familiar stirred inside her.

  “If it didn’t work for the bonding, it won’t work for my magic.” His voice was steel. He stepped in closer to her as if to threaten her, but she couldn’t fathom why. She stared into his stormy eyes.

  He sneered. “You think I can’t fight without my magic?”

  Ah, this was about weakness. Men.

  ‘I think you can, but I’d feel better if you were on equal ground with other magical folk.” Terrin’s jaw slacked for a moment before he recovered. He eyed the pendant.

  “Turn around,” she commanded. He swore and relented. Lyra wrapped her arms around his front, her arms brushing his chest as she brought the chain together in the back. She had to crane her neck to see what she was doing.

  “There,” Lyra said with a tight smile. It was hard to see the pendant being worn by someone else. It called to her, told her it was hers, like it was her child, or something of her blood.

  Terrin closed his eyes for a moment, his dark lashes trembling. A red light promptly erupted from his palm, encompassing his hand in a gentle glow. He raised it toward the ground and blasted for a second. A two foot wide hole opened up in the dry dirt under the attack.

  “It’s not quite the same, but it will do,” Terrin murmured. They began walking again to catch up with the rest of the group, who were much farther away from them than they had realized.

  Lyra licked her dry lips. “The bonding--”

  “I’d rather not discuss it,” Terrin clipped.

  Whoa.

  “You have a self-confidence issue. It’s normal to fail sometimes--”

  “I didn’t fail. I don’t fail. The pendant works to revive my magic and it would have worked for the bonding. The only reason a bonding fails is because the people hate each other--they’re not compatible.”

  Lyra felt like she had been slapped.

  Oriel had said the same thing…

  “I was trying to save your life, nothing more. Oriel got the job done.”

  Lyra was quiet a moment before speaking again. “There’s another possible reason it didn’t work.”

  Terrin grunted and picked up his pace. Lyra caught up with him, her boots thudding through hardened mud. “Gaia didn’t want you to bond with anyone. She told me not to bond you. It’s possible she prevented you from doing it.”

  “The gods don’t concern themselves with matters so insignificant as that. They don’t interfere in people’s lives in that way.” His voice was smooth, as if reading from a book.

  “She seemed awfully concerned. She said you have work to do and not to attempt bonding with you in the future--not that I would--but. That’s why she sent me back. She didn’t want you to bond me.”

  Terrin said nothing.

  “There’s another thing you need to know--”

  Terrin whipped around and Lyra bumped into his steel frame. “Not another word about the bonding.” There wasn’t a lenient bone in his body.

  Lyra narrowed her eyes at him. “It wasn’t about that, your Highness,” she hissed.

  “I’m not your King any longer,” he said, shadows creeping around the corners of his eyes, despite the daylight.

  “Yes, because I opened the portal. Me. You’d think you would be a little more grateful.”

  Terrin smirked. “You wouldn’t have gotten here without me. You would have run back to Edwin the first chance you got.”

  Lyra flinched. “Why are you so angry with me?” It wasn’t much of a comeback, but Lyra’s frustration was beginning to peak.

  Terrin marched through the sand, his back rigid. Lyra stared a hole into the back of his head.

  Fine. If he doesn’t wish to talk to me, then he doesn’t get to know about the Gods’ meeting over his involvement in Techni’s death. Obstinate prick.

  The sun was heavy, the direct heat coming down in waves of increasing intensity as the day wore on. A layer of perspiration coated Lyra’s body, leaving her thoroughly slick and sticky. Her hair was drenched at the nape of her neck. She wiped beads of sweat out of her eyes.

  Freydis set up a new glamour a couple hours later when her magic returned. She insisted they keep a steady, quick pace, which was easy for her to say. Her nubile body was like a spring--full of boundless energy, bouncing back quickly after being knocked down. The river had narrowed considerably but the water beckoned Lyra like an oasis in a desert. They reached a heavily shaded area, thick in the woods. The wood was alive. Insects added their shrill songs to the incessant chatter of bird calls. Lyra removed her vest in one tug and held it limp in one hand as she trudged on. It did little to cool her down.

  Poppi was on Alec’s back now, who seemed hardly to realize it. Oriel glanced back at her and winked.

  The men had all long since removed their shirts, their backs gleaming with sweat. She noticed Terrin’s back was the broadest, his muscles the most defined. She tore her eyes away from him. Her leather pants slid mercilessly along her sweat drenched thighs. A fly buzzed close to Lyra’s ear and she swatted wildly at it. It came back, attacking her head.

  “Get off of my head, you damned bug!” Her guttural voice rang out. Heads turned back to shoot a look at her. Freydis snorted out a laugh.

  “We should take a break,” Lyra called. She glanced at the beckoning river. Freydis shook her head without turning around.

  “Not until nightfall.”

  Lyra stopped. Hell no.

  She waited for the group to continue walking before plopping on the ground and tugging off her boots and socks. Sweet air cooled her feet, wicking the moisture away. She glanced at
the group before dipping behind a thick tree trunk jutting diagonally toward the river from the bank. It hid her as she wrenched her pants down her legs. The pants stuck to her, not wanting to leave her skin. They painstakingly peeled away. Her underwear were quite damp, but those could stay. She pulled her top off, exposing her sweat-drenched chemise.

  Ah, what the hell. This will be quick.

  She pulled that off too, exposing her torso to the air, and jumped into the shallow, clear water. Heat leached out of her body as her feet and calves soaked in the blessedly cool water. Her toes dug into river silt, and she waded farther in so that the water level reached her hips. This was as deep as it got. Lyra scooped up some water and splashed it over her face, her arms, under her arms, on her chest and stomach, over her shoulders and back.

  Thank the gods for water.

  She lowered to her knees and arched her neck back to dip her hair, swaying her head gently so that water could thoroughly wet her thick hair and cool her scalp. Satisfied, she stood and smoothed back her hair, the water sloshing down her body in rivulets.

  Much better. Just a moment more…

  A splash had her turning abruptly. Oriel stood watching her, unabashed awe and desire in his gaze and bursting from his aura. His warm eyes trailed her face, back and lower to what was below the surface. His eyes widened and a wicked grin sharpened his face. Lyra blushed madly and felt behind her under the water.

  Shyte!

  Her underwear must have fallen off in the river. She searched through the blurry depths of the water, but didn’t see them. Crossing her arms, she turned to see Oriel’s naked chest inches from hers. Her heart leapt into her throat as she looked up into his eyes.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, her heart pounding.

  “I felt your emotions. Pure pleasure. It’s amazing how completely you soak in every moment.” His voice was a purr, his eyes taking on a glazed sheen as he stepped closer. He cupped her cheek and his eyes trailed her partially hidden chest. His strong jaw, straight nose, full lips and warm eyes made up a beautiful face. His hair had grown since being in Gem. Dark brown spiral curls whipped along his forehead and around his ears. His irresistible personality completed him. He was a beautiful man, inside and out. She looked down and realized he was completely naked as well. Lyra’s heart beat erratically as Oriel slowly tried to pull one of her arms from her chest. She resisted, blinking rapidly to clear her head.