“Will she die when the power of the Red is all in you?” I asked Sera.
She thought she had snuck up into the tree with me, but I knew she was there. My current spot wasn’t just my own favorite spot.
“I hope not,” Sera replied, taking my hand in hers. “I don’t think I can do this thing alone.”
I smiled at her as she moved next to me instead of being on the branch overhead.
“You could do it with your eyes closed. Elder isn’t going to know what hit them when you are in charge.”
She blushed.
“Is that why you don’t want to go down there and see who came all this way to talk to you?”
I shrugged. It was only one of many reasons.
“Because you know she’s not going to let you sit up here all day. Eventually, she’ll drag you down there and probably embarrass you as much as she can. She’s still the Red and your mother.”
That sounded like something Red would do. Sera would probably offer to help.
“You both know I can just turn into a bird and fly away. I’m not the poor defenseless human that you two can boss around anymore. I have magic.” I snapped my fingers like something would happen. I was certain nothing would, but it would have made a great effect if it had.
“No one has ever been able to boss you around, Castiel.”
I laughed at that. She was right. I hated bossy people and often times did the opposite to spite them. Except with Sera. I knew when to do what she said because she was trying to trick me into something. She never caught on, but when she was lying to me, she’d raise her left eyebrow just a little bit.
“Let’s go see who these people are,” Sera suggested; at least, I was going to call it “suggested” because if she was bossing me, I’d have to sit still.
I gave her my are you serious look, and she laughed, tugging on my hand to come down from the tree with her.
Sera walked into the office without knocking. It was her office, too, after all. I followed behind as Sera went and sat down at her desk by Red. I moved off to the side of Red’s desk and leaned against the wall. I crossed my legs at my ankles and looked over the guests.
The first impression told me they weren’t from Elder. When the one closest to me turned to me, I tried my best to hide my shock. Golden-ringed eyes peered at me. She eyed me up from head to toe and the back to my matching eyes.
“Triplets?” she whispered.
I had no idea what she was talking about. The other one, who had been in conversation with Red, didn’t turn to me but finished what she was saying.
“If you can just show me where I can post a letter. You know how parents can be,” the red-haired girl told Red.
I had to keep from laughing. Red had no idea of how caring parents could be. Hers had a baby to replace her once she became Red, but I doubt that ever made it into any of the papers. Red just nodded to her.
I wasn’t sure where they were from, but they weren’t from Elder. I could detect a slight accent on the girl, and I wasn’t sure where to place her. I tried to remember all the places I had visited with Red.
“This is my son, Castiel, whom you have been asking about,” Red said, turning to me. Her voice was neutral, but her eyes were watching the girl like a hawk. “Castiel, this is Princess Azia from Draconis and Princess Blaise from Atlantice.”
I nodded my hellos but still had no idea why two princesses from other lands would want to see me. And their eyes were a bit disconcerting. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at them. Season after season with my mother was paying off. I didn’t need to make the first move.
Princess Blaise covered her laugh with a cough like she felt the uncomfortableness in the room but didn’t have a response.
I stared longer at the two girls and had more questions than anything. They didn’t look anything alike. One was a dark blonde, and the other was a redhead, their faces held different angles, and their height had to be off by more than a hand’s width. But those eyes. Their eyes were just like mine.
“We will take our leave,” Red said as she stood and looked at Sera.
I shook my head to my mother.
“I need to pack. I’ll take them back to my place to talk. Did you find a guest house for them to stay before they leave?”
Red nodded to me as Princess Azia spoke.
“We don’t need lodging. We plan to leave after speaking with you.”
I nodded to her before walking over to my mother. She raised an eyebrow at me as she heard exactly what I had said. Sera had her impartial mask on like my mother taught her, but I could tell she was happy at what I said. That was one thing I’d always like about Sera. She wasn’t afraid for me to go off in the world. In fact, she encouraged it.
Leaning down, I hugged Red, and her mask slipped for a moment. My mother was looking back at me with her smiling eyes before she went back into the role of being the Red.
“How long do you plan to be gone?” she asked, as an interested leader would be in the case of a citizen going abroad, not as a mother looking after her child.
“I’m not sure. I need to meet with Prince Fallon and see if he has any information. It shouldn’t take me more than a day or so to get to him.” I wasn’t sure what to say in front of the princesses, but I wasn’t about to tell them that I could transform into animals. “I’ll come right back no matter the information to discuss with both of you, of course. If he doesn’t have what I need, we’ll have to come up with more leads.”
“You might need more than a day or two,” Sera added. “He might need a little convincing to talk to you.”
I nodded. That, I could agree with. Prince Fallon did not seem to be the kind that would want to deal with a guy from Elder. I had nothing to offer him.
Red nodded to me as I turned to leave. I opened the door to the office and motioned for the two princesses to follow me. As I turned to close the door, Sera stopped me.
“Stay safe,” she said quietly, looking up at me with much sadder eyes like she just understood what it meant that I was leaving.
“I’ll be home before you notice,” I replied. I planned to fly to Prince Fallon. I knew it wouldn’t take too long to go across Elder and Arboria. Sera nodded.
I knew she was in her Red mode along with my mother since we had guests, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t the carefully controlled ruler-to-be of Elder. I was and always would be just myself. And with that thought, I wrapped my arms around Sera and dipped her back as my lips met hers. She grinned as I set her back up on her feet.
“Castiel,” she said my name as she had many times before, and I finally understood her tone. She wasn’t mad at me; she was exasperated with me, in a good way. I grinned as I looked past her into the office.
“I’ll come back soon, Mom. Don’t worry. I’ll find an answer, and if it isn’t there, I’ll keep looking.”
Red sighed and shook her head. She wasn’t mad at me either. They both knew that I wasn’t going to change.
The two princesses were watching silently, but I didn’t care. They came here for something. I’d hear them out and send them on their way.
The walk back to my place was like going as a snail. It was slow. I missed running with Sera already. I had to wonder how long the princesses had been traveling. At this pace, they had to have been in Elder alone for days, maybe a moon cycle. They were that slow.
They talked quietly behind me, but I didn’t particularly listen. I was using my better senses to look around my forest. I hoped my travels to Arboria would only take a couple of days, but I had a feeling the prince was going to be hard to deal with as Sera expected. Men like him always were.
My house looked just as I had left it. It wasn’t anything you’d bring a princess to, but they came to me, so they’d have to suck it up and deal with it. I really didn’t have time to deal with princesses. I needed to find my answers and keep looking for the cure.
I opened the door and held it back for them to enter. The dark blonde one stopped bef
ore going into the house and looked up into the tree my house was built against. A small purple dragon swooped down and landed on her shoulder before she entered the house.
A dragon. A real-life dragon. I had never seen a dragon before, and now, I kind of wanted to try being one for a little bit. I could fly to Arboria as a dragon, but that would probably get me attacked on sight because dragons weren’t local to Elder or Arboria.
The princesses looked around my meager place and decided to sit together on the couch. The red-haired one...Blaise... openly gaped at the room.
“Is this really where you live?”
I ignored her tone and went about deciding what to bring.
“What? It’s a fair question,” she continued in her accent that screamed, not from Elder.
“While it isn’t as impressive as the tree village, I built this place completely on my own over three winters ago. Everything from the walls to the couch you are sitting on, I built. So, sorry, princess, if it offends you.”
I went back to looking around but soon decided I didn’t need to take anything with me. I planned to travel as an eagle to fly there quickly, so it wasn’t like I could carry much anyway.
Grabbing a chair from the table, I pulled it over to sit facing the two girls.
“We didn’t mean to offend you,” Azia told me.
I shrugged, neither agreeing or disagreeing with her. I was used to the other kingdoms talking about us. We didn’t use the latest technology, but that didn’t mean we were backward. The people of Elder chose to live this way. I was beyond certain neither girl had lived a moon cycle in the woods alone, yet almost every citizen of Elder could do that without breaking a sweat. Different kingdoms valued different things. It didn’t make one wrong or right, but just different.
Red was born for her job with dealing with other kingdoms. I could barely stand others and their judgment of us. The people of Elder were happy with their lives, so why did it matter to anyone else?
“Let’s get on with it. Why are you here?” I would have rather kept waiting and let them talk, but I didn’t have time. I needed to talk with Prince Fallon and find out where he came from. He was the best lead I had, and I was going to act on it once I got these girls on their way.
“How much does Red tell you about the other kingdoms?” Blaise asked. “Since you aren’t her successor. That was the girl there, Sera, correct?”
“I mainly keep out of it as much as I can, but I have met some of the official leaders and know the basics. It isn’t much interest to me. As you said, I’m not ruling the kingdom, ever.”
The princess nodded.
“Three months ago, things started to change in Draconis. Azia said.
The weather was strange, people were fighting, the dragons...well the dragons felt a shift in energy. Then my mother went back to sleep. We haven’t been able to wake her. I decided to head to Urbis, but—”
“She found me first because we started to have problems too. My mother turned back into a mermaid,” Blaise interjected.
“Before we could go to Urbis, we heard there were changes here, and we came to see if it was all related,” Azia continued.
“And it seems we are. I didn’t imagine having a sister but a brother too. It’s amazing,” Blaise added in apparent delight.
“Brother?” I asked. What in the world were they talking about?
“Our eyes. Don’t you see that you are just like us?”
Okay, they were right about that, but it didn’t make me their brother. And how were they sisters? They looked nothing alike.
“I thought twins, but now I see it’s triplets.”
I was getting dizzy looking between the two as they kept throwing information at me that made no sense.
“We don’t have triplets in Elder. Twins occasionally, but anything more than that doesn’t happen unless it’s in animals,” I replied. I really didn’t know what they were talking about.
“So, you were born here?”
I bit my lip. These two girls were strangers and princesses at that. They knew nothing of me or our ways. I wasn’t really sure I should be giving them any information. The blonde seemed to understand my hesitation.
“We were both adopted. I might be Queen Briar Rose’s daughter, but she didn’t give birth to me. Blaise is also adopted. One night over eighteen years ago, we were given to our mothers. We know nothing more. Are you eighteen years old also?”
“Yes, I’m eighteen winters.”
“Which would make us triplets,” Blaise added excitedly. “I can’t believe we found another golden-eyed person here in Elder of all places.”
“Or I could be your cousin for all you know,” I added, but in reality, any relation was more than I could have ever expected to find. And they were right about the eyes. I had never seen my eye color before, except on the two of them.
“We need to head to Urbis together and see if we can find out what is happening,” Azia explained.
I shook my head no to that.
“But we need to stop at Floris first. If this is going on all over, we have to check on Princess Lilian. I need to be sure she’s okay.”
“Floris first,” Azia relented.
I shook my head as the pair of them bickered.
“I’m not part of your little adventure, no matter what my eyes look like. I mean, come on. I look nothing like either of you two in any other aspect.”
Azia was tall for a woman, but not huge. She was willowy, and despite the purple hooded jacket she wore and the sword at her side, not to mention the dragon she carried around with her like a designer purse, she still looked like a princess. The shorter one, Blaise, was worse. Her red hair didn’t look anything like Azia’s and her wide eyes even less. Blaise also had more curves. Side by side, they were nothing alike beyond the color of their eyes. My black hair and olive skin tone was a stark contrast to the fair-skinned princesses. I saw nothing of me in them.
While it would have been a great dream to find family, I didn’t think I was theirs. It was impossible. We lived in different kingdoms. And while the two of them were neighbors, I was far from it. Who would have three babies, drop two off together, and then take the third halfway across the world?
Princess Azia cocked her head to the side as she studied me. She had that look like Red that I recognized all too well. She was thinking. I didn’t need to be analyzed by a princess. I was pretty sure Urbis had nothing to offer me. I needed a cure for the curse the werewolves had, not for sleeping like Queen Briar Rose.
“What would convince you to come with us? I’m more than certain you are meant to be with us. I can’t give you an argument why, I just know it,” Azia finally told me.
“The people of Elder are my home, and I need to help them. I understand wanting to help your mothers. I need to help my wolves. But I don’t think we’re going in the same direction unless you can tell me where you came from before you were adopted.” That was what I needed to know; what I needed to ask Prince Fallon.
“We don’t know, but we think Urbis,” Azia replied. “That’s why I want to go there, among other reasons.”
“But we are going to visit Princess Lillian in Floris first to make sure she is ok. Blaise added, shooting a look at Azia. “I know Lillian isn’t related to us, but she is a friend of mine. I need to know she is alright.”
I think I caught a hint of a sign from Azia
“I’m sorry that you’ve come so far for nothing, ladies, but I have my own trip to deal with. Before you came, I was just about to head out to Arboria to see Prince Fallon.
“Why would you want to see Prince Fallon?” Azia eyed me curiously.
“I want to find out about...”
“Your birth?” she answered before I could finish the sentence. “That’s pretty much what we are doing too. What if I told you that after we check on Princess Lilian, we could go to Prince Fallon and get the information you need?” Azia suggested. “Then, it would be worthwhile for you to come with us.”
That was a bit enticing. I could look along the way for more answers, and fresh ideas wouldn’t hurt anything. But as I looked at the two disheveled princesses, I wasn’t sure how many moon cycles that would take. It wasn’t like my friends would get better while I was gone. The moon would still call to them. Worse even, it meant I would be traveling between kingdoms at a slow pace and protecting the princesses. They probably just needed me as a bodyguard.
“As enticing as it is to be your male escort through the villages, I still have to decline. How long has it been since you left home? One, two, six moon cycles? I can’t be away from Elder for seasons. And I don’t have time to travel around protecting two princesses, no offense.”
Azia smiled at me—like genuinely smiled.
“None taken. Let’s make a wager.”
“A deal?”
“Yes, how about we have a little sword fight competition. If I win, you join us going to Floris and then Arboria, and Urbis. That should take three months maximum. If you win, then we leave and let you go on your way.”
Was she serious? She was thin and a princess, how was she going to fight me equally? Was she setting herself up to fail? Or was she? I knew very little about the next generation of the monarchies of the kingdoms because they were all within a few season cycles of my own age. From what I heard of Prince Fallon, he did nothing but party and lived lavishly. While a bit dirty, I could tell the princesses both lived fancy lives also.
“Okay, deal.”
Azia went outside, and I followed behind. Blaise stood in the doorway to my place, and the dragon landed on the ground beside her. I really wanted to try being a dragon. Was flying as one different than a bird?
“You like her?” Azia asked.
“I’ve never seen one before,” I replied honestly.
I wasn’t about to tell her I was going to transform into one as soon as I could get away from them just for a little bit, see if my magic extended into animals that came from other places
“She won’t stop our fight if I get the upper hand?”
Azia smiled. “No, she’ll stay out of it.”
“Good.” I knew perfectly well my wolf friend would jump in a dual. It was the nature of being a wolf. We watched each other’s backs.
God of Shifters Page 8
