The Relentless Warrior

by Rachel Higginson

  I heard the sounds of her shoes slipping off and her jeans being tugged up, but I waited patiently for her to join me without turning around. I didn’t want to give her the attention I seemed to be paying her subconsciously. She wasn’t part of my world, no matter what happened to her.

  She stood next to me, enjoying the hot water and the bubbling relaxation that came with it.

  “Magic isn’t all bad,” she admitted in an awed voice. “Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

  I raised one hand and the snow around us became a swirling cyclone of white. I wrapped us up in it so that we were in the center as it spun and moved around us. She watched with an awed smile and then slipped her hand into mine. She laid her head on my shoulder and we just stood there in silence, enjoying the phenomenon.

  Finally I released the tornado of snow and let it fall around us in soft flakes- like a shaken up snow globe. They landed all over us, dotting our heads and catching on her eyelashes. She looked up at me and this time she looked hungry.

  “Magic isn’t all bad,” I finally echoed.

  “Tell me something about yourself, Jericho. Something I don’t know. Something about your life before I crashed it.” She was still holding my hand, but I didn’t think she realized it anymore.

  “I’m important,” I confessed, surprising even myself. I hadn’t exactly intended for the conversation to go this way. And I wasn’t sure what made me say that. But here we were. I’d said about the dumbest thing I could and now I needed to explain. “And I don’t want to be.”

  “More words,” she growled adorably.

  “A few years ago, we had this thing. A rebellion, an overthrown government, a changing of the crowns or whatever. The bad king died, so a good king could live. I was on the rebellion side, second in command I guess. Since then, the Kingdom, the King, the Queen…. The other King, they’ve all looked to me as a leader. I’ve been put in charge of a lot. The Kingdom respects me and expects a lot from me. I’m important.” I shrugged and tried to look away from her ice blue eyes but couldn’t.

  “But you don’t want to be?” She prompted.

  “It’s not the responsibility or the sacrifice,” I assured her quickly. “I’m fine with the long hours and spontaneous travel. In some ways I feel born and bred for these tasks that I do. It’s mostly, I’m bored. I was better when we were at war. I was better when there was something to do. I’m good at playing the diplomat but I was better at being the warrior.”

  “Well, aren’t you getting to be the warrior now? Aren’t you guys kind of at war again or whatever?” Olivia turned to face me completely. Her eyes bore into mine and I knew this wouldn’t make sense to her. It wasn’t like the human world was without war or conflict, but Olivia was. From the first moment I picked her up off the ground in the ruins of Machu Picchu, it was obvious she wasn’t a warrior. A fighter, yes, that girl could survive anything, but she wasn’t a trained soldier.

  “Yes, there are people at war,” I answered vaguely.

  “But you personally are not at war,” she concluded.

  “The reasons I’m here are very important,” I argued, more with myself than anyone. “And my duty to the crown is bigger than my personal aspirations. This isn’t about you or O, though. This is more than that, bigger picture kind of stuff. This is about me and what my life will be like after this conflict is over. Terletov is a terrible Immortal and he will pay for his crimes. Avalon, Kiran, any of my friends will ensure that happens. So what happens after he’s gone? It’s like I’m restless for a fight. And I can’t imagine living agitated and bored for the rest of…. however long I live.”

  “O and I are the reasons you’ve stayed back?” Olivia whispered and I wondered if she heard anything else I said. Her eyes were big with surprise and her expression was so confused I wanted to rub my thumb in between her eyebrows and soothe out her adorable wrinkles.

  “Liv, don’t look so surprised,” I laughed. “You have to know I stayed back for you.”

  “I never thought about it,” she shrugged, shaking herself out of her stupor. “I just assumed it was your job to help us.”

  “It is,” I answered quickly.

  “No it’s not; your job is to fight.” Her eyes were glinting with resolve now.

  “And I will fight,” I promised her. “As soon as my king gets back, I’m planning to go. I need to be part of this.”

  “I know you do,” she whispered.

  There was a moment of utter stillness between us, where neither of us moved or spoke. I wasn’t sure we even breathed. She looked into my eyes, or through them or beyond them into a place so deep and hidden inside of me I felt torn open and exposed before her. She unsettled me with her perceptive intelligence and intuitive thoughts. She was different than any girl I’d ever met or known- she was something more than every girl before her.

  And I realized I had a little infatuation with her.

  Hungry. The word echoed in my head.

  There it was; I could admit that she was right. So much strength, tenacity and beauty wrapped up into her tiny, heart-stopping package. How could I not crush on this girl? How could I not think about her as more than a friend? Or at least an object of desire?

  “Tell me something about you, Liv,” I echoed her earlier words. “Something I don’t know.”

  She hesitated for a few seconds, as if deciding which secret to share. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh and said, “O and I took that trip to find ourselves. She was deciding what school she wanted to go to and I was…. I don’t know what I was doing. But I needed a break.”

  “From what?” I was suddenly desperate to know everything about this girl. She was answering questions that had been bothering me since I found her; the few short facts and vague answers she did share seemed to be accidental and followed with regret. I forced myself to wait patiently for the explanations I’d been dying to hear.

  “School,” she shrugged. “Where I go… it’s intense. There’s a lot of competition and I’m an underdog just for being a girl. The guys I go to school with can be huge pricks. The very thought of a girl accomplishing more than them is like incomprehensible. And I just want to be good at what I do. You know? I just want to erase all that competition and do what’s best for me. But it’s constant. It’s so bad I’ve thought about quitting and just walking away; but that’s not me. I don’t give up; I don’t walk away. But here I am… Or there I was in Peru. Except I had decided to tough it out. I only have two semesters left anyway. But it was almost the exact moment I decided I could handle everything, those guys kidnapped us. I have to wonder if that was some kind of sign. Right?”

  I didn’t want to answer that question. The idea of her returning to humanity with all this untapped, unpracticed Magic seemed too dangerous to consider. But I wanted to root for her at the same time; I wanted her to succeed, to show those idiots how incredible she really was.

  “What were you in school for?” Deflection. Nice.

  “To be a chef. I was in culinary school,” she answered like a prayer. It was obvious how passionate she was about this just by the reverence in which she intoned the words. She felt like this was her calling and threw the entire force of her dedication and loyalty into it.

  I smiled down at her, “I love to cook.”

  Her forehead creased in confusion and I watched a hundred different responses flitter through her eyes. “Like macaroni and cheese from a box?”

  “Like more than macaroni and cheese from a box,” I leaned forward as if telling her a secret. “But I’m pretty good at that too.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Then I’ll have to show you.”

  “You’re not making me feel better.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. She was adorable and feisty and so much more when I got beyond the attractive surface. This girl had layers upon layers. And the more I fought my way through them, the more lost in them I became. Suddenly the water felt higher than my shins, higher than my head. I was drow
ning in something and I couldn’t even begin to describe what it was. The only thing I knew though was that I could still breathe. Even under all this water, my lungs moved in and out easier than they had in years.

  Now it was my turn to feel hundreds of thoughts spin through my head. I wanted so many things in that moment… to pull her into me, to kiss her senseless, to prove to her I knew how to cook, to turn her around and send her back to wherever she came from, out of my life and out of my thoughts forever.

  Instead I took a small step forward and tucked some loose hair behind her ear. My finger trailed down the line of her jaw, along the slender curve of her throat. I was pretty sure I knew which thought I decided on.

  “I’m making you feel just a little bit better,” I coaxed.

  Her breathing picked up and her Magic faltered a little bit before she recovered like it tripped into mine, accidentally, clumsily and unsurely. “Not at all,” she shrugged.

  “More than a little.”

  She shook her head and I leaned forward. I would kiss her this time… I would. Nothing could stop me. Then I would get her out of my system and move the hell on.

  I just needed to taste her, just once. I just needed to break the spell of misplaced fascination.

  Her hands reached forward and I felt her fingers slide along my waist. She wasn’t fighting it this time. She was pulling me closer.

  And I had to view this as an opportunity.

  I dipped my head, and wrapped my hand gently around her throat, tilting her chin up with the pad of my thumb. Digging the fingers of my other hand into the inviting curve of her hip, I tugged her closer to me with enough force that her feet splashed in the hot water.

  “Olivia,” I whispered worshipfully just before the logical part of my brain kicked in. I detoured to her nose and lamely planted a weak kiss on just the tip. “We should get back.”

  She blinked up at me, confused and a little dazed. “What?” Her tone was as dry and brittle as anything I’d ever heard.

  “We should get back,” I repeated. I held back the wince that ripped at my throat. God, this was stupid. And embarrassing.

  At least Sebastian wasn’t watching this time from the doorway.

  Olivia’s forehead dropped to my chest with a guttural growl of frustration. My fingers slid into the back of her luscious hair before I could stop them and I had to count back from one hundred just to keep my resolve strong.

  However, my desire ebbed the minute she flung me backwards with the surprising force of newly-born Magic. Her hands were like missiles on my chest and I didn’t have the presence of mind to catch myself. I crashed through the icy surface of the lake that had been made weak by the trick I’d been showing off with. Freezing-cold water swallowed me whole and my breath stopped in my lungs and I made an embarrassingly high-pitched gasping sound.

  We were still in the shallows, so my ass landed in murky mud and my knees poked out of the sharp edges of a body-sized hole.

  “I swear, Jericho!” Olivia growled. “Stop trying to kiss me!”

  And then she stomped out of the water and swooped down to grab her shoes and socks. She didn’t even bother to put them on, she just kept marching back to the Citadel while I stared after her.

  I scrambled to standing and let my body heat and dry. I watched her go, the ground steaming under each of her barefoot steps while she used her new Magic to stay warm.

  She would have to wait for me by the back gate; otherwise I would have run after her.

  But right now I needed some space between us. This was twice now my idiot advances had pissed her off. Obviously she wasn’t interested in me. And I should be happy to know that.

  Except for some reason, the urge to kiss her was even stronger now.

  And there was that small, evil voice that whispered she wanted to kiss me too. For at least five seconds she had been as wrapped up in the moment as I was.

  She might be pissed at me now, but I could get her back to that place.

  If I wanted to.

  That was the most important question. Did I want to?

  Chapter Eight

  Olivia

  What an idiot! What an annoying, pushy, demanding, stupidly attractive idiot!

  And I was no better.

  I couldn’t believe this had happened. Twice! Why did he keep trying to kiss me?

  More importantly, why did he chicken out this time?

  Was it me? Did I have bad breath or something? Or food in my teeth?

  I showered last night, so I knew I didn’t smell. Or at least… I didn’t think I smelled.

  Shoot. Did I smell?

  No, none of that mattered. I didn’t want to kiss Jericho. I didn’t want him to keep trying to kiss me.

  And I would have remembered that if he hadn’t forced me into that winter wonderland perfection with big, fluffy snowflakes drifting all around us and that picturesque lake that belonged in a Thomas Kinkade portrait stretched out at our feet. It was like we walked into a snow globe and we were playing parts from an old school Christmas musical.

  The whole scene was obnoxiously romantic and I had been charmed by the ambiance he’d created and not by his personal questions or inquisitive eyes.

  Yeah, sure, Livie, you were seduced by frozen water….

  Plus, he’d done the whole vulnerable-open-up-his-soul thing to me and I was a sucker for tough guys with insecurities.

  Damn it.

  Damn him!

  I made it back to the wall we’d walked through earlier and realized too late it was still locked. I pushed and tugged on the handle, but nothing happened.

  I groaned, knowing I would have to wait for Jericho to let me back in.

  I briefly entertained the idea of walking around the enormous wall that gated in the castle. Stupid idea, but at this point I was willing to try anything to avoid Jericho. However, there would be no guarantee any other door would be open and I didn’t know how big this place truly was. I’d seen glimpses of a town that stretched out on the other side of the castle, but I’d been so contained to O’s room that I only vaguely remembered antiquated buildings. Who knew what the people were like down there? Would they be warm and inviting? Or ready to burn me at the human-stake.

  But I wasn’t really human anymore….

  The thought both depressed and excited me. While I was more angry than upset about the intrusion into my blood stream, I was also quickly learning how useful Magic could be.

  I aimed my hand down at the locked handle before me and let lose a stream of my newly acquired Magic.

  And then I shot back into a pile of snow when the Magic bounced off and hit me in the chest instead. The air rushed out of my lungs along with a string of curse words. I rubbed at my chest and dropped my head back into the soft snow, defeated, depressed and oddly feeling harshly rejected.

  “Olivia?” I heard Jericho call faintly from over the ridge.

  “Ugh,” I groaned when I grasped that he would be coming to my rescue again.

  I had just decided to take my chances with the Great Wall of Weirdville when the stone door swung open and a tall, tattooed guy with longish hair and a crown poked his head out. He looked up the incline and then back down to me with the most confused expression on his face. His golden crown tilted sideways on his head and he rubbed a finger under his earlobe with a look of pure consternation mingled with mild amusement.

  “Are you trying to break in?” he demanded in perfect English.

  I didn’t know why I expected an accent or a different language, but whatever the reason, I definitely didn’t expect him to be an American.

  “Break in?” I laughed. “More like break out!”

  His eyebrows furrowed and he stared down at me, waiting for more. I hauled myself into standing and brushed the snow off my legs and frozen butt.

  “I’m not breaking in; I’m just trying to get back in. My sister’s in there. I need to go see if she’s alright.”

  “Your sister?” Crowned guy glanced back at the
gardens behind him and then to my face again.

  “Ophelia Taylor,” I explained with forced patience. “The human.”

  “She’s not your sister.” He shook his head, sounding adamant.

  “Pretty sure she’s my sister,” I huffed and took a few steps toward the door.

  “But she’s human,” the guy answered obstinately.

  “I just told you that!”

  He shook his head slowly and then said, “But you’re not human.”

  “Oh geez.” I looked around for Jericho but he hadn’t appeared yet. “Who are you?”

  “You first,” he demanded.

  I dropped my head into my hands and shouted out a muffled, “Jericho!”

  “Jericho?” crowned guy said. “You’re Olivia!” He snapped his fingers together and a slow, mischievous grin tilted his lips.

  He looked completely different now. Where one might have found him intimidating before, or at the very least, surly, now he was ridiculously handsome. He had bright green eyes, perfectly olive-toned skin and dark, black hair. He was well built, but overly casual. Even the maintenance guys in the ballroom had been dressed nicer than him. The crown on his head hinted that he was possibly the other King Jericho had briefly mentioned, but something about this guy made the idea of him ruling a kingdom sound like a corny joke.

  He also reminded me of someone… but at the moment I couldn’t remember who.

  “I’m Olivia,” I confirmed with a tight-lipped smile. “Now can I please go inside?”

  “Is that Jericho chasing you?” the guy gestured with his chin over the rise of the hill.

  “Yep.”

  “And he pissed you off in some way?”

  “You’re very perceptive.” I intoned dryly.

  His roguish smile grew and something wicked glinted in his eyes. “And you’re welcome to enter now.” He stepped out of the way and made a sweeping grand gesture with his arm.

  “Uh, thanks.” I stepped past him and jumped when the door slammed shut behind me. I shot him a look over my shoulder, but he was concentrated on the lock. “Jericho was right behind me.”

  “Sure, sure,” he finished whatever he was doing with the lock and looked up at me.