Warrior's Rise

by Brieanna Robertson

  “Willow, I think I’m gonna be sick,” Logan muttered, sitting up and clutching at his stomach.

  She grabbed the trash can by the side of her bed and handed it to him just as he threw up violently. She put her hand on his shoulder in consolation, but withdrew it immediately. His skin was so hot! Waves of heat emanated off of his body. She ran into the bathroom and got a washcloth, dousing it in cold water. Great. Darien had attempted to heal him by saying the poison needed to get out of his system. The body rid toxins in two ways. By throwing up and sweating it out. So Darien had tried to cure his poisoning with a high grade fever. Fry his brain instead. That just made everything so much better.

  She flew into the bedroom and placed the cold cloth to Logan’s forehead as he flopped back against the pillows with a groan. He was shivering so badly that his teeth were chattering.

  “I’m freezing,” he whispered, trying to tug the covers up around him.

  “You have a really bad fever, Logan,” she said. “We have to get it down.” She flipped the washcloth over and went to apply it again, but he lunged out of bed and grabbed the trashcan as he got sick for the second time. She went into the bathroom, wet the washcloth again and applied it to the back of his neck as he hung his head over the waste basket.

  This routine repeated about five times until he had absolutely nothing left to throw up unless his stomach and intestines decided they wanted to come out as well. He collapsed against the bed, exhausted and still shaking and sweating, but his skin no longer felt like it was on fire.

  Willow cleaned up and put the washcloth in the bathroom, then returned to the bedroom and pulled the covers over him.

  He winced. “I’m so cold,” he whispered.

  She looked down at him and her heart ached at seeing him so helpless and miserable. Without thinking, she flung the covers aside and crawled into bed beside him, pulling him into her arms. This was her fault. This had happened to him because she’d left him alone, unsuspecting, having no idea of what he was or what he was up against. The least she could do was offer him some kind of comfort. “Is that better?” she asked.

  He snuggled against her and nodded, even though he still shivered. “Willow,” he rasped, “I don’t want to die.”

  “You’re not going to die,” she murmured. “I won’t let you.”

  “I’m scared,” he admitted. “Don’t leave.”

  A lump clogged her throat and she closed her eyes, tightening her arms around him. This man was the most arrogant, self absorbed person she’d ever met in her life. He was strong, masculine, athletic and alpha in the worst way…And here he was, trembling in her arms and admitting he was scared like a little boy. It broke her heart in about ten different ways. “I won’t go anywhere,” she promised.

  He slipped an arm around her waist and let out a dry, weak laugh. “Are you going to kiss me now?”

  She smirked. “You wish,” she teased.

  “Come on, it could be my last request.”

  “Not a chance.” She tangled her fingers in his hair. “How about this, if you make it through this, I’ll owe you one.”

  He croaked another chuckle. “Now, that’s my kind of incentive.”

  She smiled and absently ran her hand across his back in lazy patterns. “Close your eyes, Logan,” she soothed. “You need to get some rest.”

  “Don’t leave.” He tightened his hold on her as if to keep her pinned there.

  “I won’t.” She pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Please sleep.” She had never been more relieved than when she felt his body relax against hers, stop trembling, and she heard him breathing deep and rhythmic. It was only then that she lost it and cried.

  * * * *

  You’re next, dragon warrior… Logan awoke with a start, his heart beating madly in his chest and his breath coming in short gasps. It took him a moment to realize that he was lying in bed, in Willow’s room…and his body felt like he’d been run over by a steam roller and then used as a punching bag. He groaned and turned over, then blinked in surprise. Willow was lying next to him, asleep.

  The whole previous day flooded back to him in painful clarity. He’d been poisoned. That woman had tried to poison him. It was the only thing that made any kind of sense… That excruciating pain… Then he’d gotten really sick. Willow had stayed with him; she’d taken care of him… He let his gaze roam over her beautiful face. Even in her sleep she looked worried and drawn. Worried…about him. He reached out to tuck back a strand of her fiery hair.

  His brain felt sluggish and foggy. He couldn’t put the pieces of what had happened together. Who had that woman been? Willow had said she didn’t have a sister. Who was she then? And why had she been looking for Willow? Something strange was going on and he had to get to the bottom of it… Right after he took a shower.

  With another groan, he forced himself to sit up, then forced himself to stand and stagger into the bathroom. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him. Maybe the hot water would help.

  His clothing was gross. He’d soaked them with his sweat the night before. He had no desire to put them on again so, after rummaging around in the hall closet, he managed to find a towel that was big enough to wrap around his waist. He did his best to be quiet, not wanting to wake Willow up, and slipped into the shower.

  The hot water eased his sore muscles, but he still felt like someone had taken a crowbar to his body. He relished the feel of the water sliding over him, let it invigorate and refresh him as much as it could, and tried to ignore that same nagging restless feeling in his chest. Too bad he hadn’t managed to purge that from his body while he’d been purging everything else that wasn’t attached to some vital organ.

  Willow was still asleep when he emerged from the shower and he left her alone, going into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee for her. He sure as heck didn’t want any, but she would probably welcome a fresh cup. He waited until it was done brewing, then poured a mug full and went back into the bedroom, where he sat down on the edge of the bed and set the coffee on the nightstand. He studied her for a second and smiled to himself, a calm, serene kind of warmth filling him as he stared down at her.

  He’d thought of Willow as an ice queen with no heart. She’d had his number from the minute he’d walked in the door. At first, he’d been offended at her coldness and harsh words, but he saw now that she’d only been speaking the truth. He’d needed a serious reality check. Nothing like getting whacked in the head, shot in the arm, socked in the stomach, told what-for by a teenage girl and poisoned by a stranger to make you get a clue.

  But Willow, under all her frigidness, had taken care of him. She’d let him sleep in her house when his cabin flooded. She’d stayed with him through the night, slept next to him and held him because he—big, bad Logan Savage—had begged her to like a child. Because he’d been terrified of dying. He’d never been that close to death before. He’d felt it like a presence, lurking, waiting. It had been horrifying. It made him realize he still had way too much life to live, and he didn’t want to waste any more of it on being stupid and selfish.

  He reached out and cupped Willow’s cheek in his palm, liking how her skin felt against his hand. Soft and supple, satiny, like it looked. She unconsciously leaned into his touch and her eyes fluttered open. She blinked a few times before her gaze settled on him and she sat up with a gasp.

  “Logan!”

  The concern in her voice, as well as the breathy way in which she spoke his name, tugged at his heart. He smiled. “Good morning.”

  She looked him over and glanced up at him in surprise at seeing that he was sitting there, showered and in a towel. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”

  He gave a lazy shrug with one shoulder. “I feel terrible… But I’m alive. Can’t complain. Here, I made you a cup of coffee.” He indicated the mug on the nightstand, but was taken aback by her flinging her arms around him and sobbing. His arms instantly came up to hold her and he blinked in confusion.

  “Thank
goodness you’re all right!” she cried. “I was so scared! I thought I’d killed you! It was all my fault!”

  He frowned. “Your fault?” He took her gently by the shoulders and held her out so he could look at her. “Why would it be your fault?”

  She sniffed and shook her head. “I was careless. I thought—I underestimated her. Logan, she tried to assassinate you.”

  He stared vacantly as his mind tried to wrap around that one. To his credit, he was a decently smart man, but his brain absolutely could not handle any more surprises. They were getting harder and harder to compute. “Wait a second, did you just say assassinate?” He stood and looked down at her. “Okay, I’ve about had it with this. I need to know what’s going on right now, Willow.”

  She met his eyes with uncertainty. “Not yet. You’ve been sick. You almost died—”

  “Exactly!” he exclaimed. “Willow, you just said someone tried to assassinate me. Not murder, assassinate! Normal people like me do not get assassinated! They get attacked, sure, killed, fine, but only really important people get assassinated! Last time I checked I wasn’t a world leader, or a controversial political figure! I deserve to know what’s going on! I almost died! Some freaky woman tried to kill me with a kiss! What kind of sick person does that to a man?” He started to pace, a habit he was quickly coming to realize was one of the only things that made him feel any better at all.

  She stood and held her hands out to him to stop his pacing. “Okay, okay, you’re right. You do deserve to know what’s going on, but you’re going to think it’s crazy.”

  He snorted. “Crazier than anything else that’s happened to me thus far?”

  She reached out and took his hands in hers. “Logan, this is important. I need to know that I can trust you.”

  He looked down into her eyes and some of his frustration morphed into concern and anxiety. Something huge was going on. Something huge was about to happen. He could feel it. It was like his whole existence was balancing on the edge of a knife. For a second, he seriously thought about telling her that he didn’t want to know… And then he would book it very fast.

  But he couldn’t. Something inside of him had to know. It was screaming to know. He let his shoulders slump and he sighed. He squeezed her hands and locked eyes with her. “Willow, you can trust me. I promise you can. Please tell me what’s going on.”

  She heaved a sigh and closed her eyes. Whatever she had to say was obviously very difficult. “I’m a fairy queen,” she said softly.

  He blinked, then blinked again before he let go of her hands and took a few steps backwards. “Y-You’re a gay cross dresser?” No way. Not Willow. Come on, she was a hottie!

  She looked up at him and frowned. “N-Not that kind of fairy queen, Logan.” She rolled her eyes.

  He breathed a sigh of relief, but then instantly got confused again. He frowned. “Then what are you talking about?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “Look, I know you don’t believe in anything mystical. You believe that if you can see it and you can touch it, it’s real, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Then go get Darien and come back here. I’ll show you.”

  “Show me what?”

  “My world. The Avari fairies, the Alveda d’Kai legend. It’s all real.”

  He stared at her in bafflement. What kind of jacked up place had he been sent to? These people really were nut jobs. Every last one of them. He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to protest, but her hands on his chest stopped him.

  “Logan, please. You asked for answers. I’m going to give them to you, but you have to trust me also. Please, just go get Darien and meet me back here.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “What does Darien have to do with anything?”

  She huffed. “Please, just do it! Trust me!”

  He sighed. “Fine, but I need to go back to my cabin and get some pants. Unless you want me walking around naked all day.”

  She shook her head. “Wait until I get out of the shower. I changed my mind. I’m going with you. I don’t want anything else to happen to you.” She started towards her bathroom.

  He caught her arm with a frown. “Hey…” He swallowed. “This is really serious, isn’t it? Whatever it is?”

  She nodded. “Yes, it is. Please stay here. Promise.”

  His heart melted despite his lurking terror at the complete unknown. He reached out and stroked her hair. “You stayed with me when I asked. I’ll do the same for you.”

  She smiled and went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’m so happy you’re all right,” she murmured. “This is all about to get really bizarre for you. Just please trust me. Trust me the way I’m trusting you.”

  He wasn’t sure what she meant exactly, but he wasn’t going to say anything about it. He was sure he’d find out soon enough. He looked down at her and nodded, then sat down and waited for her to get out of the shower, dreading every second that ticked by and brought him closer to the moment he knew would alter his entire life.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Logan frowned as Willow guided her car through the Oregon Vortex parking lot. He glanced at Darien, who seemed relatively unabashed. He’d been sitting quietly for most of the drive, just taking things in. He didn’t ask questions, which Logan couldn’t understand for the life of him. His mind was buzzing with questions. How could Darien just placidly go along with everything?

  “The Oregon Vortex?” Logan grumbled as he got out of the car. “Come on, Willow. What are we doing here?”

  She heaved a sigh and shut her door, coming around to face Logan and Darien. “Look,” she said, “this is all going to sound insane, but just deal with it.” She glanced from Logan to Darien and back again. “The Avari fairy legend is real. The mythical dragon warriors, the Alveda d’Kai, they were real.”

  Logan rolled his eyes. Darien arched an eyebrow.

  Willow shook her head. “I know it sounds crazy, but listen to me. I am the queen of the Avari fairies. My name is Willow Avaris. That is the name of the royal family. I have been hiding in the human realm since I took the throne, traveling back and forth between my world and this one.”

  Darien blinked. “Hiding? From what?”

  Logan frowned and looked down at Darien. He was actually indulging her in this ridiculous story?

  “From the queen of the Supporo race. Her name is Cyrcinus and she has been trying to track down my people for years.”

  Logan’s heart made a strange jolt. “Wait… Her name is what?”

  She met his eyes. “Cyrcinus. You would know her as Circe, or the freaky woman in your dream that wanted to kill you. The one with the black hair and the amber eyes. She altered her appearance when she came into the camp so that you wouldn’t recognize her.”

  Logan swallowed, his throat feeling dry.

  Darien’s eyes widened. “A psycho fairy queen wanted to kill Logan?”

  “Tried to kill him, actually. Logan didn’t have an allergic reaction to anything, Darien. He was poisoned.”

  Darien looked up at Logan in alarm, then back to Willow. “Why?”

  She sighed. “This will all be explained to you once we get to the Avari village. My brother can tell you better than I can. I don’t want to end up forgetting something and giving you half-truths. Let’s just suffice it to say right now that both of you are half Alveda d’Kai.”

  Darien took a step backward in surprise and Logan actually laughed. “Oh, this is getting more and more ridiculous as the minutes go by.” He rubbed at a spot between his eyes that was starting to hurt.

  Willow let out a frustrated growling sound. “I’m serious!”

  “You’re trying to tell me that you brought us to a tourist attraction just to tell us that we’re mythical dragon warriors who are extinct? Last time I checked, I was a human being! And so was he!” He stabbed his finger at Darien.

  “This isn’t just a tourist attraction!” Willow exclaimed. “It’s a portal! All vortexes are! There are vortexes a
ll over the country, tons of them in Arizona! They aren’t just unexplained areas of energy. They’re portals to other worlds, other dimensions. This portal is one of the gateways into my world! It’s staffed entirely by Avari fairies!”

  Logan groaned. “This is unbelievable.”

  “And you aren’t ordinary humans, either one of you!” she continued. “Logan, you are half human, half Alveda d’Kai. Darien, you aren’t human at all! You are half Alveda d’Kai, half Avari!”

  Darien looked like someone had just slapped him very hard. “I-I’m what?” he stammered.

  Logan snorted.

  Willow fixed him with a dark glower. “Listen, buster. You wanted answers. I’m giving them to you. You were on your deathbed yesterday. You probably would have died if it hadn’t been for Darien.”

  Darien paled. “Me?”

  She looked over at him. “Yes, you. You reached full power yesterday, Darien.”

  “Full power?” He frowned. “What is this, a video game? What the heck are you talking about?”

  “Your Alveda d’Kai powers came fully to you yesterday. You are an amazing warrior, a skilled fighter, a natural leader, and you have healing powers. You didn’t see it yesterday, but when you touched Logan’s hand and wished he would get well, his skin glowed. You healed him.”

  Logan frowned. “Healed me? I wasn’t healed! I got violently ill!”

  “Because the poison was being pushed out of your system.” She looked back to Darien. “Lift up your shirt.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Huh?”

  “Lift up your shirt! Your lower back, Darien! You said it was bothering you. Just do it, would you?”