by Genna Love
And until she made it safely outside of Penrith, she would have two alluring men to watch over her.
Kalias
Kailas followed his Brothers through the crowd, all dressed in their finest navy dress robes. He was there for a special occasion, only he wasn’t sure why.
Which was very strange. He couldn’t remember how he got there or where he’d been before.
Taban stood in front of him as he always did, holding his stomach as he stared up at something.
When Kailas followed Taban’s gaze, his vision clouded.
None of his brothers spoke. In fact, despite the large gathering of people, there was no sound at all.
The gears of his mind shifted, grinding together as he tried to make sense of the situation. As he pondered what in the Divine’s name was happening, he heard her voice.
“I have to see them, if only for a moment.” The woman’s voice was desperate, and he followed the sound until he saw her.
Two men guarded her, one on each side, eyeing the area around them. Their bodies tilted protectively in her direction as she stared ahead.
When Kailas followed her gaze to what held her attention, everything blurred again. He squinted, worried something had happened to his vision, but when he looked back at her, everything was clear again.
Finally, the pieces snapped together, and he realized that he was dreaming.
No, not just dreaming. But having a premonition.
It had been so long since his last one, he had almost forgotten the peculiar way reality bent in his mind. Not only did they hold the obscurity of a regular dream, but the psychic visions directed his focus where it needed to be.
Clearly, he was meant to see this woman.
“No!” the woman screamed as she fell to her knees. The two men with her dropped down and lifted her by the arms. The taller of the two held her close as the other said something Kailas couldn’t hear.
Pain dug its nails into his bones, but he knew it wasn’t his own. It was the woman’s.
Kailas didn’t know what caused her agony or why she was there in that gathering. All he knew was that she needed to get out of there. That he needed to get her out.
Kailas sprung up in bed, his heart thumping wildly in his chest as he adjusted to the darkness of his room. The sun had not risen, which meant he had at least another hour before he needed to be in the temple for the morning prayer.
Sweat slickened his skin, a usual side effect of a psychic dream. Or in this case, nightmare.
Never before had he felt someone’s emotion in his dreamscape.
With too much adrenaline coursing through him, Kailas gave up on sleeping anymore. Instead, he got dressed and headed to the temple’s gardens.
It was a place of silent worship, with absolutely no talking allowed, giving him the perfect spot to converse only with his thoughts. Not that anyone else was awake at this hour.
Only yesterday, he’d hoped the magic in him had been purged from him. But not only could he still access the gift of commanding the air, but he just had his strongest vision he’d ever had. That had to mean something. But what?
Hoping to distract himself, Kailas pulled up a bucket of water from the well in the center of the garden and poured it onto some rose bushes. He repeated this five times before sitting on a bench and meditating until the morning bell rang, calling all the Monks to the worship room.
Normally, he found freeing his mind from disobedient thoughts an easy task. After eight years at the temple, he’d meditated countless hours, earning him strong discipline of his mind. But today he couldn’t keep out images from the premonition. The pain that twisted on the woman’s face was unlike anything he’d seen. What could have brought on such agony? And who was she? He was certain if he’d met her before, he would have remembered her. As a Monk, he wasn’t around many women, especially ones who held her beauty.
When the first bell of the morning chimed, he headed in for the morning prayer, where he found Taban kneeling in his usual spot.
“Where were you this morning?” Taban asked as Kailas bent down next to him. “I stopped by your room and saw it was empty.”
“I couldn’t sleep.” Kailas adjusted his knees on his prayer cushion.
A minute later, the lead Monk called everyone’s attention and began the devotion, followed by ten minutes of silence dedicated to the Divine.
As hard as Kailas tried, he still couldn’t keep his mind still. Flashes of the woman’s face kept appearing, forcing him to recall her pain as if it were his own.
He couldn’t resist a shocked breath when everything clicked. He might not have met her yet, but she was crucial to the destiny his mother had predicted.
He remembered his mother’s words. “For peace to come to this kingdom, you must find her. Without your help, she will die.”
The woman in his dream must have been the very woman his mother had had a premonition about. It was why he’d shared such a strong connection to her.
As the lead Monk called the moment of silence to a close, Kailas rose with his brothers and followed them all to breakfast. He scooped himself a bowl of porridge and sat next to Taban.
“Did you hear?” Taban asked, mouth full of food. He swallowed before continuing. “There’s going to be a royal wedding in two weeks. We’ve been asked directly by the crown to attend and pray for the Divine’s blessing during the ceremony.
“A wedding? Where at?” Kailas stirred his food.
“There will be a ceremony on the balcony of the cathedral, for all of Penrith to witness.”
Which would mean a large gathering of people. Could that be where he was meant to find the woman?
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Taban asked.
“Oh, right.” Kailas scooped porridge onto his spoon. He was too preoccupied to be hungry, but he didn’t want his friend to worry about him.
When he’d finished half his bowl, he pushed the rest to Taban. “I’m too full to eat another bite.”
He shrugged and started eating the rest of the porridge.
Throughout the rest of the day, Kailas’s mind kept wandering to the dream. The more he considered it, the more likely it was that this was the woman his mother predicted.
As he scrubbed the temple floor by hand, his chore for the week, he pondered what it all meant.
Without your help, she will die. The stakes were high, pressure weighing on Kailas like a stone. He didn’t want anyone to die if he could help it, but something about the woman made the mere thought of harm coming to her way too much for him to bear.
It wasn’t a logical reaction. As Monks, they were taught to detach themselves from death. But his emotion pulsed stronger than they had since losing his mother so many years ago.
After so many years of praying away his destiny, had the time finally come that he must choose his path?
Because in all his years of premonitions, he learned life was constantly changing. Nothing in the future was ever set. But he didn’t doubt the strong possibility that if he chose to ignore his destiny, what his mother said would come to pass.
There in the temple, he'd done everything he could to escape the magic within. He’d been taught that powers like his were nothing but evil. If he followed the vision and saved the woman, he’d be turning his back on everything the Brotherhood stood for.
But if he didn’t, he’d have to live with the knowledge that he’d let the woman in his dreams die.
How could he, in good conscience, do that?
Yet, he feared that, in order to save her, the course he’d been on would irreversibly change.
And he wasn’t sure where the new one would go.
Zarah
Zarah and Taariq returned to the sitting room, both quiet as they lost themselves in thought as they waited for Eli’s return. It had been quite the day already, and it wasn’t even noon yet. She did her best to ignore her hunger pangs as her stomach grumbled every few seconds, reminding her she hadn’t eaten since the night before.
An hour after he’d left, Eli returned with three bags full of an assortment of fruits, vegetables, breads, and meats, as well as a growler of mead. He cooked up some stew and the three of them all sat at the large, wooden table off of the kitchen to eat.
The dining area was simpler than the sitting room. There was a fireplace on the far wall, but no pictures on the wall. The only artistic feature was a carving of a ship setting on the hearth.
Eli set a plate full of food in front of Zarah, the thick aroma of rosemary filling her nostrils.
Despite the pleasant scent, the first bite surprised Zarah. She’d been expecting something filling but plain, but the soup was stocked with flavor. “This is delicious.”
Eli smirked from across the table. “You sound so amazed.”
She took three more bites. “I hadn’t expected it to be so zesty.” She glanced to Taariq, who sat in the seat to her left. He didn’t offer any compliments, but the way he was devouring the stew said enough.
“My mother taught me to cook when I was a child,” Eli said. “The key is to add in sufficient herbs. Meat and vegetables alone can be quite bland.”
Zarah did her best to eat slowly and savor each bite, but it was proving itself difficult. The food was too tasty and she was so hungry. As tempted as she was to bring the bowl right to her mouth and drink it down, she paced herself the best she could.
“Where are your parents now?” Zarah asked in between spoonfuls.
“My mother lives on the Jade Isles. That’s where she and my father met. He runs his own ship company. I inherited Trinity when I turned twenty and started my trading business right away.”
“Trinity?”
“My ship.” Eli took a drink of his mead. “She’s taken me all over the sea.”
Zarah couldn’t imagine how free it would feel to be on the open ocean, surrounded by nothing but water. “Is your mother or father the mage?” From what she’d read, magic was hereditary. Which meant one of each of their parents had to have the gift of magic. Or, at least, that’s what the books had said. She was pretty certain neither of her parents had any sort of powers.
“My mother. She’d hid it from my father until after I was born. They raised me in this house until my powers set in when I was eleven. Then Mother and I returned to her hometown in the Jade Isles where magic isn’t forbidden, and my father visited whenever he could get away from his business affairs here in Lyria.”
Zarah finished her bowl of stew and moved on to her mead. The first sip was sweeter than she expected. “This is amazing too.”
“It’s a strawberry mead I found at a brewery not far from here,” Eli said, raising his glass.
Zarah returned the gesture, but Taariq left his glass sitting on the table.
She shook her head and laughed. He was just as stubborn as her older brother Leo. He was two years older than Zarah, and she had never met anyone as good at holding their ground when he made up his mind. Until now.
“How old were you when your magic appeared?” she asked Taariq, who had been silent the whole meal.
“I was ten.” He pushed his empty bowl toward the center of the table. “Both of my parents were mages.” He lifted his glass of mead and chugged.
She didn’t miss the past tense of his statement. Not wanting to pry, she let the conversation die as she enjoyed the rest of her drink.
When everyone was finished, Eli stacked the bowls and carried them into the kitchen. Zarah followed behind him with the now-empty glasses of mead, her head buzzing slightly from the liquor.
“You’ve been so kind to allow us into your home,” she said as she set the glasses down. “A kindness I’m not sure I deserve.”
Anyone caught helping her would die, so she knew his graciousness came at a great risk.
He peered down at her, with something in his stare she couldn’t quite read. “Whatever you did to the Cardasian Prince, he deserved. I’ve seen how their soldiers treat the villages they pass through up in the fertile lands. I can only imagine what their royals are like.”
Zarah had heard rumors of their army’s brutality, and Eli was right, Prince Marius was wicked. How could she expect his soldiers to be anything different? But still. Her recklessness of leaving the castle catapulted all the events that ensued. If she’d just have stayed home that night, she wouldn’t have brought Taariq or Eli into danger, and she’d still be waiting to wed Marius and bring peace to her kingdom.
Knowing that she’d jeopardized the treaty her father had worked so hard to cultivate tore her apart. The people of Lyria had been at war with the Cardasians for far too long. How many people had lost their lives in the never-ending fight? And for what? A piece of land that could so easily be shared? Her father was the first king willing to set aside his pride to give a better life to his kingdom, and Zarah’s brash decision might have ruined it all.
Lyria had always won more battles than it lost, and when her father was crowned king, it had a firm hold on the fertile lands. Historically, Lyria allowed Cardasia use of the fruitful soil it had won through battle long ago, but it came at a cost. The Cardasians were required to give a part of their crop to the Lyrian crown. Zarah’s grandfather had raised the requirement from a quarter to a third of all their yield, intensifying the animosity between the kingdoms.
With her marriage to Prince Marius, the two monarchies were to finally cease their hostility. But now that she’d burned the prince, surely the alliance would unravel.
Eli brought a hand to her shoulder, never breaking their locked gaze. “I will find a way to get you out of here safely. Until then, just stay here and you will be protected.”
She wasn’t sure if it was his words or his touch, but the uncertainty that had been rattling inside her dulled.
He continued, “I have to return to my ship to check on my crew. Please, make yourselves at home, and I will see you later this evening.”
She nodded, and when he pulled away, her anxiety returned.
After Eli had gone, Zarah found Taariq out in the garden.
“Everything okay?” she asked as she approached him.
He was facing a large water feature she hadn’t noticed from the second story.
A circular stone pool set in between two tall willow trees. The back of the feature was made of stacked stones, water rushing down them like a small waterfall.
“I know you think we can trust him.” Taariq turned toward her, pushing his hair out of his face. “But I don’t like him.”
She continued to him and took his hand. “Is it because you’re worried he’s going to bring the guards here to arrest us, or because he’s wealthy?” Her question came out bolder than she’d meant, but she wasn’t sure Taariq actually distrusted Eli more than he envied him.
Taariq pursed his lips then his mouth shifted into a lazy grin. “I guess my motivations for disliking the rich bastard might not be as pure as I thought.” He reached out and pulled a leaf from her hair. “How is that you already know me so well?”
He tugged her close and brought his free hand to her hip. Her dress bunched under his fingers.
“I’ve read a lot of books.” Zarah looked up into his playful stare. “Men are easy to figure out.”
“Is that so?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he moved his hand from her hip to her backside and lifted her into his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“Keeping you guessing.” He twirled her around three times before setting her down. “I’m not as predictable as you think.”
She couldn’t argue. She hadn’t seen that coming. But she could be just as spontaneous.
Before she could second-guess her plan, she pushed herself up onto her tippy-toes and pecked his lips. “Neither am I.” She pulled back, a smile spreading across her face.
The thrill of excitement surged through her. The quick kiss hadn’t been enough. She wanted more. Warmth flooded through her, and she couldn’t help but wonder what a longer kiss might bring. But right th
en, another idea captured her mind.
“Now, since we have time to spend, teach me how to do magic.” Thanks to the tall trees framing the yard, the garden was hidden from the view of the houses next door, which Zarah guessed was not an accident.
“Yes, Your Highness.” He bowed mockingly, then walked around her, taking a long look at her backside.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Patience, Princess.” His fingers started on top of hers then grazed the skin from hand up to her elbow. “Close your eyes.”
She glanced at him and was met with a stern look.
“Trust me,” he said.
With a deep breath, she followed his command. With darkness the only thing in her sight, everything else was heightened. At first, she thought he was going to seduce her.
“Mages possess an extra sense. Our magic is just as innate to us as sight, sound, or touch.” His finger continued up her arm, passing over the material of her dress at her shoulder, then finding the sensitive spot of her collar bone.
A tingle spread under her skin.
“Fire is the most explosive element, fueled by passion and rage,” he whispered into her ear. “You must pull from these parts of yourself to bring your magic forward.”
Her heart fluttered in her chest as the desire in her rose.
Taariq reached around and cupped her upturned hand in his. His body pressed into her, and the urge to grind into him was nearly too strong for her to resist.
“Search within yourself, and bring the fire forward,” he instructed.
She inhaled a long breath and thought of his body so close to hers. How his warmth wrapped around her like a blanket. Somewhere, she had that same energy.
If she’d harnessed fire before, she could do it again. This time, on purpose.
As she exhaled, she took it a step further. She remembered waking up to his naked body standing a mere few feet away. The ripples of his abdomen and the curves of his chest flashed in her mind, sending heat to her folds.
Taariq leaned his head over her shoulder. “Open your eyes.”
