by K. Lyn Hill
Woah that was deep for Eli this early in the morning. “Ok great wise one. Who would you match me up with? Nicolaus?” She joked. They both couldn’t stand Nicolaus. She called him that instead of Nick because he was a pompous asshole. Bullying everyone like he was paid to do it. The full name fit better.
She wrapped her arm around his back, so they weren’t doing an awkward waddle. No one even looked their way. People were used to their friendship and no longer questioned it.
“Eww no. Not that jerk wad. No one from around here. You need something bigger, more meaningful. Someone who challenges you and makes you face your issues.”
“I don’t have issues!” She practically yelled down the hallway. He sent her a pointed look that she could only huff to. She did have issues and they both knew it.
“Ok fine. You win. I have issues. Where did all this phycological bull crap come from?” She joked.
He blew on his nails and rubbed them down his shirt. “It comes naturally.”
She couldn’t help but snort. He shot her a look of pure evil before offering her a big smile and dropping his arm. “Here comes lover boy.”
Taking a quick glance around the hall, her eyes landed on a skinny blonde headed her way with a goofy grin plastered to his face. “Hey Eric.” She said as he approached.
“Hi.” He answered shyly.
Suddenly, she felt a warmth at her back, and she turned around in time to see Eli stepping in closer to her. Rolling her eyes, she took a step toward Eric. “Back up off dude.” She whispered behind her. A slight growl caught her by surprise, followed by the motion of him crossing his arms.
Eric looked confusingly at the two of them as if trying to decipher something important and then he seemed to give up and shoved it away. “So what are you doing over spring break?” He looked almost hopeful as he stared at her intensely.
Before she had a chance to answer, the big burly arm moved across her shoulders again. “She’s spending the weekend with me. We got a nice hotel room, didn’t we, snookums?” She knew Eli was trying to get her back for the herpes comment but that didn’t make her want to punch him in the throat any less. Eric wasn’t all that bad. At least he wasn’t a man whore. Good guys were in short supply these days. Still she felt no spark when she talked to him, just the sense that he would treat her right.
Rolling her eyes, she looked back at Eli and smiled. “Of course boo bear bunny. So that when I murder you, no one will hear you scream or find your body for days.”
Eric’s mouth dropped open, only reaffirming Eli’s opinion of him. Sadly, he really was a wuss. “Well you guys have fun with that.” Eric said as he began to turn around but smacked right into Nicolaus.
Oh goody.
“Hey prissy missy.” He said to Eric. The poor kids last name was Prismiss. Yeah everyone felt bad for him.
“Lay off Nicolaus.” She said with a slight growl to her voice.
“What you gonna do? Call your daddy to bust me?” Nicolaus snarled back.
He had hated her ever since her father had busted him with drugs his senior year in high school. He had just turned 18 and had to do some jail time. He acted as if she was personally responsible for his negligence and irresponsibility.
“Nope. You get his attention all on your own there, crack head.” She replied.
Eric took the distraction to tuck tail and run away down the hallway and Eli whispered “Told ya. Pansy.”
She laughed and began to steer Eli in the opposite direction. She couldn’t yell at him for saying it since she was just as mean to Nicolaus.
“One day you and your father are going to get what’s coming to you.” Nicolaus shouted behind them as she rolled her eyes and stuck up her middle finger in the air.
“Aww are you showing him your manicure?” Eli asked as he shook with laughter.
“Yeah I especially like the design on this nail.” She wiggled her guilty appendage in his direction, and he laughed harder.
There was no nail polish on her nails.
After a moment, she reared her fist back and slammed it into his stomach. Doubling over, he shot her a glare and wheezed. “Really?”
Pulling away from his arm, she put on a sweet southern accent and winked. “See you this weekend, darlin.” Eli looked mildly amused now that the pain in this stomach had almost fully dissipated. He shook his head right as she was turning around.
Before giving him her back she said, “I have a feeling it’s going to be a weekend to remember.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Eli
As soon as he finished in the bathroom, Eli put on a straight face. Up at the butt crack of dawn, they had helped all morning with chores in order to feel useful. By the time they were done, sweat and salt water seeped into their skin. All they wanted to do was get clean and dry so he and Aerity had raced towards the bathroom.
He won.
Now as he stepped out of the small washroom, he found himself waiting for an argument or maybe a punch to the gut, but he didn’t expect what he saw instead. Aerity sat on the bed with her arms wrapped around her legs, staring emptily out the small port hole window of their cabin. He had never seen her looking so drained.
When they had been showed to their cabin the night before, it became very apparent that there was only one very small bed in the narrow room. Aerity hadn’t even blinked before crawling into the bed, wiggling over to make room for him. He knew she was remembering when they were children and would have sleep overs together. But they were no longer children, and this might present a problem. He had eyed the bed nervously as she waited with the covers raised for him to join. After a minute of debating, she shot him a funny look before shrugging and laying down to go to sleep. It had only taken another minute for him to sigh and then move to lay down beside her. Being this close to her for an extended period of time wasn’t good for his heath. As far in as he already was, he was about to be tossed into the deep end of the ocean with no floaty, surrounded by sharks. But still, her warmth drew him in, happy as ever to be eaten to death in a slow and painful way. Because that was all that could ever come of this adventure with her. Pain.
It was either she would find someone else and he would have to watch her with another for all of time. Or she could choose to just be with him but not with him all the way. As much as he wanted a third option, he knew that it would never happen. She would never see him as more than a friend and for that he couldn’t tell which one of the scenarios would be more agonizing.
Shutting down that part of his mind, he focused on the girl who appeared so small and bunched up when normally she was larger than life and an imposing presence in the room. She put on a good face, but he could tell that their current situation was eating away at her. It was hard not to. Despite the fact they had lost their lives back home, they had just lost the only stability they had remaining, but she had lost so much more. First Serenity, then Siel.
He didn’t envy the war that was probably raging silently between her ears.
Moving beside her, he bumped her with his hip. A hint of a smile appeared on her face, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Hey, what’s up with you?”
She kept staring straight ahead, the light streaming in through the window, dancing in her reflection. “Do you remember when things used to be so simple? Where our biggest worry was getting to class on time?”
He took a seat next to her causing the bed to dip under his weight. Running the towel through his hair one last time, he threw it on the desk. “Or whether or not you went around telling hot girls I had herpes?”
Her smile did exactly what he had hoped it would, it grew. “Let’s be fair. I was saving you from yourself.” Now that he couldn’t deny. Back then he went through girls like they were candy. Who would have thought he would change to only wanting one? Well, not only wanting, but needing. His life without Aerity would be
incomplete. Maybe it took the time she was missing to finally see it but now it was all but punching him in the face. He
r smiles. Her laughs. He found himself wanting them all and it was a very precarious position to find himself in.
He wrapped his arm around her back like he always used to do, pulling her towards him, although now it felt different than before. She didn’t resist him as she rubbed her face against his chest with her fingers curled on his stomach, making his chest flutter. No, this was definitely different than before.
He felt her exhale heavily. “So, we are on a boat. That’s pretty cool.”
He chuckled. “You’re so observant.”
There was silence for a moment and then she spoke again making his heart constrict. “We will make a life here. You and me. We got this. I can’t imagine doing this without you. As long as we have each other, everything will be okay.”
He leaned down and kissed her head as a knock sounded on the door. “Don’t worry. You’re never getting rid of me.”
Regretfully, he dropped his arm and headed toward the door. The shipmate in the hallway stared a little too intently at something behind him. No doubt it was at the perfect girl that he had just held in his arms. Most people couldn’t take their eyes off her once she sunk her claws into them and Eli was quite aware of the scraping of them against every heart string he possessed.
“Lunch is served on the top deck.” The man eyeing them said.
“Thank you. We will be right up.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Damien
His body moved in a motion that would put dancers to shame. Shifting, twisting, turning, sweat poured out of his body as he fought with an invisible opponent. Everything felt out of control. He was losing his grip on reality. Sleep denied him the pleasure of shutting down his mind and the world felt like it was teetering on a very thin pin head, just waiting to tip over. He had no idea what the princess had meant by her words but he knew that it couldn’t be anything good. He wished for the time that all he had to worry about was a stubborn bride. Now it was so much worse.
Thinking of Aerity made him smile and the swing of his arms became empowered.
The sound of the door opening vaguely registered in his mind. Through his whole workout, servants had come and gone, dropping off cloth and water while he trained. He kept pushing and hitting the air until he noticed the figure that had walked in still hadn’t left. The muscles of his body tightened and tensed. Damien hadn’t spoken to his brother in days and their relationship strained and pulled until it was resting upon a rubber band about to lose its shape. One more pull and it would snap in half.
Ever since that night in his office, Siel had avoided him at all cost. The night he denied loving Aerity and claimed to have been using her like a toy. Something that weeks ago, Damien would have laughed at his antics, but not now. Not after knowing who Aerity was and the sacrifice she took on for him. Now Damien would defend her to her dying day. Not that he would ever wish her harm but she had earned his loyalty and it was there to stay. She had given him so many reasons to doubt her and yet it had all been misunderstandings and miscommunications. He had hoped that was the same case with Siel. But one could never be too sure. Siel had always been his little brother. Damien would always protect him no matter what. But then again, Damien had always recognized his little brother even when Siel didn’t think he did. Damien knew he harbored guilt for their mother’s death. Damien would have never blamed him for it but he could see it eating Siel alive. If memory served him correctly, they had lost their mother long before Siel was born. Their father wasn’t long to follow.
The air in the room thickened and took on a grainy quality that hadn’t been there before.
“I figured I would find you here.” Siel stepped up closer to him and stopped, waiting for Damien to acknowledge his presence.
“And here I am. Did you get the desire to lose in a match again, brother?” He joked but his words were still terse and balled. Something had changed in his brother since that day in his office and Damien was afraid to find out just what that thing was. He would never believe that Siel would betray him or the kingdom. But he also hadn’t thought that he would have betrayed Aerity so badly either.
“As much as it may appear that way, I didn’t come here to fight.” Siel added.
Damien bent to grab a cloth off the nearby chair and wiped off the excess sweat from his face. Wrapping the cloth around his neck, he turned back around to find Siel staring at where his back just was.
“What are you looking at?” Damien asked, glancing down to figure it out himself.
“I always wondered why yours looks so much different than mine.” He said softly. It took Damien a moment to realize what he was saying but then he remembered the mark on his spine. As children him and Siel would always compare their royal birth marks. Where Damien’s had been natural and smooth, Siel’s had been ridged and
bumpy. Almost as if it were a raised scar. Damien had always told him that it just was unique to his body, but the truth was, he had always questioned it himself. Even his father’s mark looked the way Damien’s did. All royal’s marks did until they were woman married and took on their husband’s mark after the wedding. But the men, never. Except Siel. One more reason, Siel always felt like an outcast.
Now that they were older, Damien didn’t feel like using the same old lie on his brother. It didn’t do him any favors. “I couldn’t tell you why either.”
“Aerity doesn’t have one.” Siel said absentmindedly as his lips parted. Damien could almost imagine him adding ‘My Aerity’ to the end of it but then Siel closed his mouth, his lips moving into a thin line.
Damien thought about Siel having seen Aerity’s shoulder and a streak of envy shot through him but then he shot it down. He didn’t want to go back to that place. Not now. Not ever. She deserved his trust. Even when they were no longer engaged and she expected nothing of him and he her. But he wouldn’t sully her good name anymore. He promised to see her and now things were crystal clear.
“Are you referring to the princess?” He asked casually, stretching a shirt over his head.
Siel glared and shot back, “How would I have seen the princess’s shoulder?”
“Well you seem to care so little about Aerity, it wouldn’t be surprising if you went for her twin next.” Damien’s words came out with no emotion. No anger. No frustration. Just cold. Indifferent. He had no qualms about Siel using the princess as a toy. Only issue was how badly it would hurt Aerity if she found out. What she must be thinking now.
She must be missing Siel.
Thinking about their kiss.
Something flipped in his stomach but he shoved it down. This was of his own making and he should be more concerned with her safety rather than if she was dreaming about Siel or not.
Hurt flashed over his brother’s face while it turned bright red. Hurt that Damien didn’t understand. Was he missing something? Or simply reading into more than what was there? Siel looked about ready to argue but then he stopped himself, clenching his jaw.
“No, I wouldn’t want to get in the way of your wedding a second time. I’ll keep to the castle workers. They are much less messy and attached.” Siel said as he turned around to walk back out the way he came. All the while Damien watched, he wondered why Siel had originally come to find him.
∞∞∞
Siel
He wasn’t really sure why he went to seek his brother out. Maybe it was his own guilt eating away at him. He had seen how cruel the princess could be. Did he really want to resign Damien to that fate? Damien was a good man who would do what had to be done. What if Siel just told him about all that hung on the line? The deal that he had made with the princess? But then he had seen the look on his brother’s face when Damien had mentioned him going for Aerity’s twin and all that guilt disappeared.
Reasoning ran and hid.
It was as if someone had given him his own gut wound. For someone to question his love for Aerity. For his brother to think so ill of him…Just another person who didn’t understand who he was. He knew it was his fault
for Damien believing the lie but did his brother truly not know him better than that? That he would use a person in such a way and then toss them around?
Of course, he had taken many women in the past, but he had never strung them along. Never promised them more than he was able to give. They knew it was always a one-night ordeal and most respected that. No one wanted to know more about him, only take all that he was able to offer as a prince. They didn’t care.
But Aerity was different.
She was the only person who ever saw him. Looked past. Peered deeper. The only one who made him feel like he belonged. Like he could do and be better than he was. That he could be more than the unwanted child who killed his mother.
Now Aerity was in trouble and the only way to save her was to do what the princess demanded.
Did he want Damien to have to marry someone so manipulative and cold? No. But would he sacrifice anything for Aerity’s safety? Yes. There was no hesitation. No question about it. He would do what he needed to do to make sure that she was okay. Wherever she was. No matter what happened to him. She needed to be okay. There was no other option that would be acceptable to him. Ever.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aerity
Aerity walked up on deck and rounded the corner but paused when she heard Eli’s voice. It was a part of their free time after all the work and chores were done. She wondered where he had run off to.
“And that my friend is how it’s done.”
When she peeked her head around to see what he was doing, she stifled a laugh.
Malachi stared up at him with his mouth dropped open and his eyes wide in awe. “Where did it go?” He asked breathlessly.
From the spot she was standing, she could see the coin hidden behind Eli’s back. But to the little boy, it was a world of magic extraordinaire. Eli worked in a technical institute that fixed peoples electronic devices. Meaning, Eli could fix the problem in about two seconds and spend the rest of his time twiddling his thumbs. After so many weeks of being bored, he started looking up you tube videos to entertain himself and to gather little tid bits that he could share with the world. One of his many newly acquired skills was magic tricks. Except her dear friend was far from perfecting them.
