by Narro, B. T.
Effie frowned. She’d always loved Steffen as a friend, but definitely never had the same feelings for him as her sister, Gabby. “Dare I say he’s developed feelings for me?”
“No, it’s not that,” Reela answered, just as confident as usual. Effie was relieved. She would be flattered, but it would only make their situation tricky. Reela leaned in closer. “But it’s something for sure.”
“Something is better than nothing. I can deal with something.” She noticed the familiar veil of alcohol pressing down on her. She reached for the jug to fill her glass again. “Is there something more we know about Cleve’s missing bow, or is that still nothing?”
Reela leaned back and pressed her lips together. “Just what I told you from when he brought Alex by and had me help force out the truth. The King’s Guard suspected Cleve had a bow. Alex’s brother had asked to be notified if Alex found out anything, but he hasn’t said anything and has no plans of talking. We still don’t know who took it or what they’re planning.”
“The possibility of war, Steffen keeping secrets, the missing bow, all this uncertainty, yet you don’t seem bothered?”
Reela grinned. It was the sly smile this time—the one that sometimes made Effie feel slightly uneasy. “If I was troubled, then who would everyone come to for help with their problems?”
Effie had to ponder that. Meanwhile, she whipped her glass back up to her mouth. Reela always had been there to talk about her problems, and there had never been a shortage. But when did they speak of Reela’s troubles? She couldn’t remember. “Everyone has issues, why not discuss your own?”
“While I’m helping others, I can’t possibly focus on my own. The more I hear of others’ issues, the more mine seem trivial. I like it this way.” Reela shrugged.
Suddenly Effie had the urge to stand and hug her friend. She did, wrapping her thin arms around Reela’s collar and pressing her head down onto her shoulder. Reela reached up to squeeze Effie’s arms.
“The next time something is bothering you,” Effie said, going back to her seat. “I want you to talk to me about it, no matter how little it might be.”
“You’re in luck,” Reela said as she pulled the glass of sakal back in front of her. “I do have something, and it’s pretty big. That’s why I brought out the sakal, to help the nerves.”
What could Reela possibly have that she’s nervous about telling me? They told each other everything, and Reela was never shy. Effie always figured there was nothing Reela could admit that would surprise her. At least, she used to believe that. She was getting the idea that was about to change. “Please, share it.”
Reela looked…nervous? Effie had to stare at her to tell she was really seeing her friend this way. Reela’s almond eyes and puffy lips held nervousness just like any other person, but Effie hadn’t seen it before on Reela’s face. It took her a few breaths before she concluded that—yes, Reela was indeed nervous. It made Effie nervous in return.
“I’ve been feeling something in the past week, and it took until today for me to finally realize what it is.” Reela blew out air. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this out loud.” She threw back the drink into her mouth and swallowed with a cringe. As she slammed down the glass, she started coughing uncontrollably.
Effie stood to pat her back. “Are you alright?”
“No, cough, something has been, cough, very wrong with me, cough, cough.”
“What can I do?” Effie began to pat harder.
“Nothing, cough. I’m locked on someone.”
Effie jumped back. A leg got caught on her empty chair, causing her to stumble. Her feet became crossed, and she fell on her rear. She pulled herself up onto the seat so fast she thought for a moment that Reela hadn’t even seen her fall until Reela started laughing between coughs.
“You what? You’re locked on someone? Are you sure about this?” Effie asked incredulously.
“Yes.” Reela looked toward the door, then her head shifted to hang over the table.
Have I ever been locked on a man? Effie nearly wondered aloud. No, this is Reela’s time. “Do I know him?” she asked instead.
“I think I need another drink before I can answer that.” Reela filled their glasses.
“I do know him!” she realized when Reela was too embarrassed to look up from the table. She gasped as she thought of the way she’d seen Reela behaving around him. “Cleve. It’s Cleve!”
Reela stood and cupped a hand over Effie’s mouth. Reela was as red as the enormous pillar over Redfield—its color could be seen from anywhere on campus. Effie figured it could have been from the coughing, or the sakal, but she liked to think instead that she was seeing her childhood friend humiliated for the first time.
“I don’t think the teachers heard in their faculty houses. Perhaps you want to shout it even louder?” Reela quipped, slowly removing her hand.
“I’m sorry, it just came out.”
Reela nodded forgivingly. She looked absolutely adorable, nervously fidgeting back into her seat. “What confuses me is that he seems more scared of me than of his missing bow. I can’t figure out why.”
Effie finished the drink Reela had poured for her. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing!” Reela slapped Effie’s arm lightly. “He’s terrified. I’m not sure it’s even me that he’s scared of, but I do seem to be the cause of it. Every time we talk he gets this panic about him. The drinks helped, that first night, but even then everything about him was bottled up inside, guarded with a thick layer of fear. He never talks about himself, have you noticed?”
Ignoring Reela’s question, Effie had a far more important one. “What do you think he would do if you kissed him?” She giggled at the thought of it.
Reela gave a soft chuckle of her own. “I haven’t the faintest idea, maybe push me away and then run like a little boy. I wouldn’t anyway. I think it’s best not to act on my feelings. We are living together, after all.”
For a moment, Effie wondered what she would do if Brady, who she’d kissed in the bar back home, lived in their house. Probably ignore him best I could, she figured. She shook her head before the embarrassment could fully come back to her, focusing instead on Reela, who looked ready to pout. Effie rested her hand on Reela’s. “This seems so unlike you.”
“It is.” Reela took her other hand and put it on top of Effie’s. “In fact,” Reela continued, “this is the first time I’ve felt this way, and it took me a lot of thought to figure out what it was. When I first met Cleve, I looked deeply within him—I was skeptical about living with a warrior after your stories from the bar, especially one who brought a bow. I expected to find the qualities of other warriors within him: inflated sense of worth and purpose, twisted visions of reality, no regard for other classes, no interest in the needs of others, especially women. But instead, I found something I’d never seen before in a man, especially a warrior of his size. He was scared, and under that fear was a blank canvas. It was like looking into the mind of an innocent child, yet with a tenacious strength buried so deep I don’t think he’s even aware of it.”
“He seems pretty aware of his strength to me.”
Reela politely shook her head, her light-brown hair shimmering as it waved. “This isn’t physical strength I’m talking about but mental, like that of a master mage or psychic—something I’ve never see in warriors.” She sighed as if frustrated.
Effie let her eyes rest on the table. Something seemed off about this conversation. She tried to figure out what it was. Then she realized it was Reela’s tone. “You’re talking about being locked on to Cleve as if it’s a dilemma.”
Reela let out a smile that a parent might show to a child who’d misbehaved but hadn’t known any better. “That’s because it is.”
“Well, can’t you just stop liking him then?” Effie figured if anyone could fight an attraction successfully, it would be Reela.
Reela stared at her as if waiting for a punch line. “Are you serious?”
/> Effie’s hand slipped from between Reela’s so she could open her palms and shrug. “I don’t know everything you can do. I thought you could control your emotions pretty well. You’ve always seemed to in the past.”
“This isn’t just some emotion. It’s like he has a grip on my heart so that every time it beats, my blood runs through his fingers like a filter, filling the rest of me with this new life force that’s tainted by his touch.” Reela grabbed Effie’s hands somewhat forcefully. Immediately, Effie felt flushed. “This burning blood brings life to my limbs and mind, but with new purpose, with new desire.” Effie could feel what Reela was describing, at least it seemed that way. Her blood was burning hot. “All my old problems cycle through his filter until they dissipate and are forgotten, leaving only this new blood—pure of everything except his touch. All that’s left is him.”
Effie’s heart beat with wild enthusiasm. It was craving something, some kind of relief. The hot feeling swarmed through her body, completely taking over and making her head light. “It feels like I need him,” Reela continued softly. “It really does.” With her last words, she gave half a whimper, half a laugh, and released Effie’s hands.
Effie gasped loudly, her heart still thumping hard. Did Reela mean to just do that? Her friend showed no signs of it on her face. Instead she was looking at the door again.
Effie had been told by some men that they needed her, but that was different. She was lost on this subject and had little to offer. Being compelled to speak, but not knowing what to say, she asked, “So, you must be attracted to him.”
“Didn’t I say that yet?” Reela laughed to herself. “Absolutely. The way his hair is never the same, molding to every touch it takes, the way his mouth and eyes can give him fifty different expressions just by the difference of a centimeter here and there, how his muscles bulge beneath his skin. You don’t think he’s sweet on the eyes?”
“If you don’t mind being crushed into the bed by twice your weight of man-flesh, then I guess so.”
“I don’t.” Reela had a sneaky grin.
“Reela, I had no idea!” Effie slapped the table in excitement. “That explains why you’ve never showed interest in guys before—you were waiting for someone who could physically crush you, yet is terrified of you.”
“Oh, be quiet.”
Effie’s laughter was interrupted by the sound of the door being unlatched. Cleve stomped in, stopping abruptly at the sight of them. “Hello,” he said with his usual feigned indifference.
“We weren’t talking about you,” Effie uttered. I must be drunk, she thought, realizing she didn’t even have to say something. Cleve wouldn’t have asked.
Confused, Cleve held out his palms and said, “Good?” His tone was as if he was just hoping to give them the answer they wanted so he could get out of there. Effie couldn’t think of what else to say, and soon he marched to his room.
“Why?” Reela mouthed with a shrug.
“It just came out,” she whispered.
“Make sure that’s the last thing to just come out.” Reela placed a finger across Effie’s lips, which Effie playfully kissed. Reela smiled, and they stood to clear the table.
Effie hadn’t even seen Reela kiss a man, so the mention of these deep affections gave her an awkward feeling in her stomach, like she’d swallowed something still squirming. To make it even stranger, she couldn’t imagine Cleve with any woman. If he had any emotions for women at all, then he hid them well.
She tried thinking of the two housemates being intimate with each other. The first image that came was utterly ridiculous. It was of them standing, facing one another in Reela’s bedroom, Cleve gawking with an open mouth at Reela undressing herself. His messy dark hair was strewn across his forehead. His light-brown eyes were wide, pushed open from the spell cast upon him by Reela’s large breasts spilling out from her undergarment. She held a hand forward and demanded he disrobe. His tongue dropped from his mouth as he hurried to remove his pants. Effie nearly laughed aloud at the absurdity of it.
She tried to think of a more realistic setting, and to her surprise it came easily. She pictured Cleve and Reela sharing a sheet as they spooned after a fiercely passionate tumble of enjoying the pleasures of each other’s body. His arm encircled her like a child tightly holding his blanket in fear of it slipping away. They whispered secrets to each other with their bodies intertwined, and a layer keeping their heart protected was peeled away gently. More layers peeled away the more secrets they shared.
Soon there were no layers left—nothing to hide behind. As they clung tightly to each other, they shared their deepest secrets of all, as if it was the only chance they would ever have. When they finally left the bed to dress, all the layers returned, including a new one—containing the love they shared. It was stronger than all the other layers combined and squeezed so tightly around their hearts it would be impossible to remove without ripping it apart.
I’ve never been locked on to a man, Effie realized then.
A knock at the door disrupted her image like a stone being dropped into a serene lake. She gave Reela a curious glance.
“Not someone I know well enough to recognize,” the psychic answered.
Effie went to the door as Cleve came out of his room and watched with folded arms from the hall.
A man dressed in dark gray with a low-slung hat was standing there patiently when she opened the door. “I’m Javy Rayvender of the King’s Council,” he said. Three guards stood behind him, each with steel battle armor and swords ready at the hip. Effie saw his eyes go over her shoulder and tighten. “Cleve, come with us please,” he said.
“Where are you taking him?” Reela put herself between Cleve and the door, folding her arms to match Cleve behind her.
“It’s best we discuss that with Cleve in private,” Javy answered with a look that showed he would say no more. His hands rested comfortably in the long pockets of his trench coat. If there was a hurry somewhere, it didn’t concern him.
Cleve put a hand on Reela’s back as he stepped around her. “It’s all right.” Reela’s arms sank back to her sides.
Effie noticed then that rain had started, bouncing melodically off the steel on the guards behind Javy. Cleve hunched into a long coat and walked outside. He closed the door behind him, but not before a last glance at Reela.
Chapter 29: Walls
CLEVE
Many times Cleve had imagined being caught. It would be someone passing through Raywhite Forest while he was training who saw him and then told a guard. He would hide the bow and deny the accusation until it went away. But when hiding the bow failed, he would imagine this moment—being escorted to the castle by armored guards.
In his mind, he would be chained like other prisoners he’d seen. The heavy metal connecting his ankles would clink shamefully with each step. But he was fortunate because Javy Rayvender decided the restraints wouldn’t be necessary.
“You should know why we’re here,” Javy had told him as they left the walls of the Academy. “This is because of your bow.”
At least I know who has it, Cleve thought, although I still don’t know why the King’s men waited so long to come and get me.
Except for the sound of raindrops splattering against them and the wind whistling by, the walk from the Academy to Kyrro City was three long hours of silence. It gave Cleve time to ponder his options besides cooperating; there was only one really, and it was quite terrible—to run. The penalty for resisting detainment was death in most circumstances. With that settled, his thoughts went over a conversation with Alex and Reela earlier in the week. He wanted to see if he could remember anything Alex had said that might give him some sort of clue as what to expect when he reached the castle.
Reela had been at the kitchen table when Cleve had stepped inside with Alex. She was writing in the journal he’d seen in her room when he went snooping.
“Have a seat,” Cleve had told Alex as he stretched out his hand toward a chair. It felt a little
forced, more so than he’d meant it to, anyway.
“You make it sound like I’m on trial,” Alex said and forced a smile, but there was some sincerity to his words.
Reela set down her pen. “Hi, Alex, Cleve. Need me to move?”
“No, stay,” Cleve replied quickly, again more forced than he intended. “Please,” he added. It was his missing bow making him tense, he knew. “You can help us.” You can help me find the truth, he really meant. He could see she understood by the nod she gave back.
Alex found Effie’s sakal as they were settling into their seats. Without asking, he took three glasses from the counter and carried them to the table. “I think some of us could use this,” he said, glancing at Cleve.
After each had a drink, Alex began without preamble. “My brother told me to keep an eye out for Dex Polken’s son, Cleve Polken.” There was a noticeable change as he spoke. His voice was low and serious. His warm friendliness dissolved. “He said they believe you have a bow in your possession.”
An uncomfortable silence followed.
“Did you know our house would be empty during your party?” Reela wisely asked. She stared closely at Alex whenever asking a question or listening to him speak, but in between she stole glances at Cleve. In the fleeting moments when their eyes locked, it gave his heart a squeeze.
“No. I didn’t even know Cleve lived with all of you when we met,” Alex replied. “If it was the King’s Guard that took it, they must’ve had eyes on the house to know it was empty.”
“Cleve, think about who could have known that you had it.” Reela spoke with such intent it seemed she cared about finding out who took the bow just as much as he did.
“Terren, you, Alex, Effie, and Steffen, that’s it.” As Cleve glanced at Alex, he let his judgment show.
“I had no idea you actually had one until you told me,” Alex replied with his hands up, as if to block Cleve’s stare.
“I believe him,” Reela said. Cleve knew that meant, “I know he’s telling the truth.” Even clearer than her words, he remembered the wry smiles she would show when telling him something. Sometimes, the faces she made were so cute it annoyed him to realize he was having trouble looking away.
