by T J Kelly
“Hi, there, Sleeping Beauty. Ready for our picnic?”
“Wow, I had no idea I was still tired.” I smiled up at Chas as I stood, stretching and groaning.
“You’ve been working non-stop for three months. A morning nap seems perfectly reasonable to me.”
“This is why I like you,” I said. “You understand naps.”
“Why, thank you, madam. Shall we depart?” Chas held out his hand for me in a gentlemanly fashion, and I cheerfully slid my arm around his. He escorted me outside in fine style.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“A little ways into the forest. There’s a clearing that’s private, but also not anywhere near the castle borders.”
I laughed. “Yeah, the last thing I want to do is have some kind of battle on my perfect day.”
“Today is a perfect day?”
“Well, it is now that you’re here.”
Chas winked and then stopped near the castle door. A basket of food and a couple of blankets for ground cover waited for us. He rolled the blankets into a large bundle and tied them to the top of the basket before hefting it onto his back like a backpack.
It was beautiful outside. In fact, it couldn’t be a prettier day if I had ordered it. A stray thought popped into my head. I smiled to myself, thinking that if I wanted to, I actually could ask for a lovely day. Armageddon was certainly capable of managing that for me.
After about fifteen minutes, we came to a lovely clearing that was mostly flat and covered with patches of spring grass and dried leaves from the season before. It was close to noon, but the trees leaned close enough together to filter the harshest rays, casting dappled shadows onto the plaid blanket that Chas had thrown on the ground.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Not quite yet. Do you mind if we wait a little while?”
“Not at all. Come on, sit with me.”
I lowered myself onto the blanket next to Chas. We both laid back and stared up at the canopy of trees overhead, kicking off our shoes. Chas tugged on my hand, leaning my arm against his stomach while he fiddled with my fingers. I closed my eyes, enjoying the moment. The mere touch of his hand on mine felt right. Like it belonged. I didn’t want it to end.
“You look so beautiful. Like a fairy princess who fell asleep in the woods.”
A giggle escaped my mouth. I was giddy and couldn’t help it. “A fairy princess in jeans and sneakers?” I asked.
“Oh, definitely. Royalty needs to relax every once in a while, too. Besides, it isn’t the clothes that make you a princess. It’s your heart.”
I opened my eyes and turned my face towards Chas. He looked bemused.
“That’s sweet, but I can assure you that there isn’t anything noble or royal about my heart. You remember yesterday when I yelled at you? Yeah. I’m certain a princess wouldn’t have done that.”
“My princess would have.”
A tiny bubble of light formed in my chest. “I see. Well then, what else would your princess do?”
Chas rolled onto his side, closer to me yet not quite touching. He smoothed my hair back, fanning it out on the blanket.
“Let’s see. My princess would know how to shatter a fireball if somebody was foolish enough to throw one at her.”
I grinned. “Sounds like a handy thing for royalty to know, considering how the media treats famous people.”
Chas chuckled. “My princess is funny. She’s clever and kind and makes everyone around her laugh.”
The bubble of light expanded and was joined by a tiny lump in my throat. Chas leaned closer to me so he could look into my face. He slid his arm under my neck, his body leaning against mine in an embrace.
“My princess sees clearly. She looks into the heart of a man and knows he can be good.”
Chas kissed me. I slid my arms around him, loving how it felt to have his chest pressing down onto mine. I couldn’t think. I just felt, and it was wonderful.
His lips slid off of mine and kissed my neck near the base of my ear. “My princess is open and honest. And best of all, she wants me as I am. I don’t have much to offer somebody like her, but she doesn’t seem to care.”
“Chas, don’t talk like that. Any woman would be lucky to have a man like you. You’re so brave and smart and kind, and your voice is amazing and magical,” I said, rushing to assure him. I was going to say more, but he interrupted me by placing a finger on my lips.
“We aren’t talking about me right now, sweet. We’re talking about you.” He buried his face in my neck. “My princess also smells like strawberries, which makes my mouth water.”
I was glad he liked the scent. And since it encouraged him to move closer to me, I found another reason to love my bubble bath.
“You’re so beautiful, Lia.” Chas kissed me again. I sighed against his mouth, feeling so connected to him. I shifted my body, so I was pressed against him, one of my legs tangled up with one of his.
“I wrote a song for you,” he said. “I think you might like it.”
“You did?” I tried to lift my head, but he tightened his arms and wouldn’t let me.
“Yes, of course. I can’t stop thinking about you, you know. You’ve wriggled your way into my mind and my heart. There’s only one way for me to express something like that.”
I knew he could feel me smiling because my lips were so closely pressed against his chest.
“You like that, do you?” he asked. A chuckle rumbled in his chest. “I’m caught up in your spell, my love, and I can’t help it. I think about you all the time. You make music stir inside of me, a melody I obsess over when I’m alone at night, staring at the ceiling of my bedroom. I sing it to myself when I’m in the shower and when I’m driving. I fall asleep with it humming in my ears.”
“I think about you all the time, too,” I murmured. Chas had just called me his love. I wanted to hear that again. I wanted to tell him I felt the same but shyness crept over me, snapping my mouth shut on the words.
“Good. I’d hate to think I was the only one. Here, sit up. I want to show you something.” Chas shifted himself until he was sitting with his legs crossed in front of him. He wrapped his hand around my arm and pulled me to him, settling my body against his until I was sitting sideways on his lap with my cheek resting against his shoulder.
I loved being able to feel the rise and fall of his chest against me while he breathed.
Chas cleared his throat and hummed. I could feel the rumble of music in his chest. Then he began to sing out loud. There were no words that I could understand, just sounds to vocalize the melody. The song was bright and lovely, soothing and full of life. Tears filled my eyes when I realized that was how he saw me.
I gasped in awe when the breeze picked up, carrying with it flower petals and dandelion fluff, filling the air with what looked like fairy snow and flowers. A shadow grew thick above our heads, floating and rotating, then splitting into butterflies, hundreds of them, surrounding us, floating with the fairy snow. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
His song stopped on a surge of power and joy. The petals and tufts of white fell softly to the ground as the butterflies flew away. I opened my mouth to tell Chas how beautiful I thought it was when he once again placed his finger on my mouth to stop me.
“That’s what I see when I look at you. All that beauty and the simple joy of being in the moment, transcending the ordinary and lifting me higher. You made the world magical for me, even before you ascended.” Chas hesitated. “I love you, Lia. I don’t know how it happened so fast, but I do, and I’d do anything for you.”
Chas kissed me as the bubble of light inside of me burst, filling my entire being with happiness. I felt like I could float away myself, another little butterfly on the wind.
I lifted my hand to his chest and pushed back, breaking our kiss. Chas looked down at me with concern. Then I said, “I love you, too.”
A triumphant smile broke across Chas’s face. “Good.”
&nb
sp; Then he pushed me backward, gently, until I was on my back, looking up at him. I was startled by how quickly he had shifted our positions. Before I could move, before I could respond, Chas tangled his fingers in my hair and lowered his face to mine. I reveled in the feel of his lips against mine as my eyes fluttered closed.
TWENTY-FOUR
Weakness
It was tea time when we finally ate. I was thrilled the picnic basket was packed with a ton of different options. Chas let me build him one of my masterpiece sandwiches. I had wanted to avoid the topic of the trials for a while longer, but it was time for reality, and we talked about the impending competition while we ate.
“I want to tell you about my family,” Chas said. “Ged has good intel on the other competitors, but the Taines keep their secrets well.” Chas spoke as if he wasn’t a part of the Taine clan anymore. I was glad to hear it since I knew there were times that he still felt conflicted.
“I’d be glad to hear anything you’re willing to share.” I didn’t want him to feel pressured to give anything away, but I desperately wanted to know what he had to say. It might mean the difference between life and death, considering the absolute anarchy in the second round of the trials. Not that I would blame him if he kept quiet. My family kept its secrets so well that even my uncle didn’t know they existed.
Chas popped a cherry tomato into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “My father doesn’t have the necessary magic to create the Rector Cornucopia or power grids. Actually, he can’t do any of the tasks in the first round. He has three brothers, and as a team, they can do most of what’s required. My two oldest brothers can round out the necessary skills. I’m willing to bet my father will bring in the other two so through his sons, his side of the family will hold more shares. This means there will be eight Taines on the team.”
I already knew the kind of odds I faced. A lot of competitors would stand against me in the ring. Knowing the Taines, they would take out the other large teams and leave me for last. The other clans would seem like the bigger threat since Oberon thought I was nearly helpless. That worked in my favor.
Mort and Armageddon had convinced me during our many tactical discussions that the first thing I should do in round two was run and hide. It sounded cowardly, but the best way for me to survive would be to avoid the fighting until there was only one group left to battle.
The three of us discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each of my rivals. Armageddon emphasized that the most significant threat was the Taine family. We had developed a plan for each family should they be the one I had to fight at the end. Mort said it was essential to cover all options, but we didn’t work as hard on the others as we did on the plan for the Taines. No one believed that they would be eliminated early.
“I guess I can handle eight,” I said. Unfortunately, I didn’t sound as confident as I had hoped.
“They’re wicked, Lia. Nobody has ever stood against them and won. I’m worried about you.”
“I understand.” I didn’t want to argue with his assessment just to make myself feel better by voicing false hopes. I was scared inside, but I was used that. I had been feeling that way for months. Years, even.
“Are you sure you don’t want to take Armageddon with you? I asked him. He said he would resign his government post in an instant if you wanted him there. I think you should.”
“I can’t, Chas. Running the Irregulars is more than a job, and you know it. He keeps people from being assassinated. Every one of us is too powerful to live without my uncle standing between the Council and us.”
“Somebody else can run the Irregulars.”
“Oh, please. Nobody else can do what he can,” I scoffed. “Besides, it would be stretching the rules to the breaking point. Uncle Ged isn’t in the same magical line as my father, and there’s never been a business overlap between the two families. That may not matter for anyone else’s team, but I’m already skating on thin ice as it is. Adding him now might cause an uproar and you know I can’t risk it. I need the popular support.”
The Council was run by men and women who loved power and would do anything to maintain it. My uncle had convinced them that he was loyal only to them and that he would be able to keep us all under control, too. It had to be magic. Some spell that Armageddon used that nobody else could. He made the Council members change their minds when they became murderous.
“There are other charming people in the world,” Chas said. “Let one of them convince the Council to leave the Irregulars alone.”
“What would happen to the agents under his command if he stepped down so he could join me in the ring? And what would happen to the kids orphaned like Peter? The Makennas were too powerful to contain. The Council would never have let Peter live if my uncle hadn’t taken him in. I can’t deprive the rest of the world of that protection, regardless of my circumstances. Nobody besides him is powerful enough to make the Council think they have us under control.”
“Lia, if there were ever a time to be selfish, now would be it. Please. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for me. I’m begging you. I want you to live. I love you, and I want you to come home to me.”
I didn’t want to fight. Not on my perfect day. But I wasn’t going to budge.
Instead, I lied. “I’ll talk to Armageddon about it when I get home, okay?”
Chas nodded. He relaxed. “My father seems to be calm and collected, but he’ll be frustrated that he needed to include my uncles in the ring. He wouldn’t even have my brothers if there was a way to keep everything all to himself.”
“But he’ll still win the company if they win the trials,” I said. Oberon always irritated me.
“Yeah, but now instead of being in charge, he’ll be equal partners with seven other people that he knows he can’t control. You can’t use his relationship with his family to manipulate him. In fact, my father would probably thank you for eliminating some of his team since isn’t required to bring all of them out of the ring with him after round two. He can run the company without them. My father would never put himself in harm’s way to protect anyone else, either. Watch your back and if you find a moment to strike, go for it.”
“He won’t try to protect his brothers? Or sons?” I was shocked. Oberon Taine may be under the dark, but other dark magicians protected their own. No wonder Oberon was considered to be one of the most ruthless magicians in the world.
Chas snorted. “He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. If any of us died, he’d say we were weak and deserved it. He’d think of it as culling out the runts from his bloodline.”
I shivered. What a cold, heartless man. I couldn’t believe that somebody as warm and loving as Chas came from a family like that.
“I’m not killing anyone,” I said quietly. “I’m not that way. They’re a strong family. I’ll just have to rely on other teams to take one or two of them out for me, and yes, we know that isn’t likely.”
The rules stated that if a competitor were rendered unconscious, they would be removed from the ring and considered vanquished for the purposes of the competition. Technically, I could vanquish them for real, but that took time and careful planning because removing somebody’s powers permanently was complicated and didn’t always work. The thought of trying to do that to Oberon Taine while surrounded by his family was ridiculous. I wouldn’t even try.
Trial rules also allowed competitors to kill their rivals. I already knew I wouldn’t, though. Even if that meant that I’d die myself. I just didn’t have it in me. I couldn’t even handle killing those birds. It was scary knowing that about myself, though. If the battle came down to deciding between them or me, I wasn’t capable of choosing me.
“There’s a secret that can help you. Nobody outside of the family knows about it, and neither do some of the minor cousins. But I’ll tell you. At least it will give me a chance to do something for you that you can’t do for yourself.”
My heart sped up. Revealing a family secret like that went against ever
ything a magician believed in. Blood protected blood, and family loyalty was practically a part of our DNA. Accidental revelations were usually impossible due to powerful spells. To reveal a secret purposefully was dangerous, especially when a dark magician used even stricter prohibitive spells. Chas was brave to try.
“Don’t tell me if it means you’ll get hurt,” I blurted.
Chas laughed, but it sounded bitter. “There are spells against me telling you, Lia, but they were broken when I was banished. I think my father would have killed me if he had realized it. I’m the first Taine ever to be banished, so he didn’t know.”
If there was no banishment, that meant whenever a Taine betrayed their family, they were killed. No wonder Chas was so grateful to my uncle for saving him.
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I remained silent.
“Lia, I know you can feel how mixed my magic is. My balance is both light and dark.”
I nodded. “Mine is, too. It doesn’t matter. Things don’t always work the same way for everybody. And you are still more on the side of light.”
Chas shook his head bitterly. “Oh, I know it. But what you don’t know, is that the Taines are connected to light magic. We’re ruled by it. That’s why we’re so good at tricking people into believing us. We take a lie and wrap it in Light to disguise it.”
I gasped. No wonder my father had never been able to win. Oberon Taine’s connection to Light enhanced by his strength made him impossible to beat.
But it made sense. I learned a lot about magical patterns and balance over the past few months. The Rectors were deeply connected to Dark. Why wouldn’t our greatest enemies be connected to Light?
The Taines choosing darkness was utterly horrifying. They took the same inner strength my family used to conquer the dark and twisted it to overcome the light.
“Lia, the easiest way to break through their shields, to defeat them, is to surround your spells with Dark.”
