11. Ambriel
Chapter eleven
Trent’s eyes follow me as I move through the motions of preparing dinner. Lifting a woven basket from the ground and dumping the contents onto the wood counter top. I stop a potato from rolling off the counter and make eye contact with Trent as I do. He grins as his eyes trail my body, and I continue to sort the food for cooking. All the ingredients to make shepherd’s pie, already readied for me by Naza, no doubt.
Maki had called for us to join him in the formal dining room, but with everything that has been happening and now having the gods bless Trent and me with a bond… When Naza came to inform us, I let her know I felt like taking a night alone with my mate. Just the thought makes heat pool in my chest and lower.
“You know…” Trent comes around the counter, wraps his arms around my waist from behind, brings his mouth close to my ear, and whispers, “You don’t have to cook to feed me…” His teeth graze my earlobe, sending chills to skitter across my skin and my nipples to pebble. Instead of swatting him away, I lean back further into his body. The warmth of his chest at my back adds to the gooseflesh down my arms.
“As much as I love that idea, I know how you get if you don’t eat…” His fingers squeeze at my ribs, causing me to squeal and spin in his arms.
“Oh, but I would eat .” He nearly purrs the words, the vibration going straight through me, but his fingers squeeze at my ribs again, causing me to jump.
“Trent! Gods! Stop tickling me in this godsdamned kitchen!” My breath catches in my throat as he stops his games and cups my cheek with his hand. His eyes flick down to my parted lips as he searches my face, settling on my eyes that are pooling with unshed tears. A happiness that feels light and heavy at the same time.
“I’ve always wanted love like my parents had.” His voice is low, and he drops his head so that his lips hover over mine. My heart feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest as I’m engulfed in the scent of him. An earthy combination of the woods in the rain and fresh-cut pine, and the heat of his body wraps around me like the warmth of a lit hearth in the winter. He’s caging me in with his arms with the counter to my back, and when his tongue rolls out to wet his lips, it rolls over mine too. Butterflies take flight in my stomach and instinctively my eyes close as his lips press to mine.
The kiss is like none I’ve ever experienced. Not that I’ve experienced many. I don’t think a peck on the cheek from the boy I got to know when my father took me to town as a young teen counts. And even kissing Trent before, nothing has been like this . The slow, steady pace he keeps with his tongue and lips makes me melt into him. I never would have imagined Trent—the same man who I met laying on his back beat to hell and speaking nonsense about his dick twitching—could be this gentle. This… loving.
The tears fall over my lashes. The moment they do, he pulls back, but only far enough to look into my emotion-filled eyes. I smile, and even though his lips twitch up to meet mine, his brow furrows.
“You’re crying,” he says and wipes away my tears with the pads of his fingers, causing a laugh to bubble out of my chest.
“I guess I am.”
“Why?” He whispers before kissing the path my tears have taken. I’m so taken aback that I laugh again. The sound caught in my throat.
“I’m… I’m not sure. I guess this is happy. Sorry, I’m never this sappy.” My smile widens as I let myself just feel the overwhelming joy.
“Never apologize for your happiness, Ambriel. You look beautiful, and I hope to bring only happy tears to your face for as long as you’ll let me.”
“I knew I always wanted a man like you, Trent Fornax-Ravendene. You are strong and passionate. You make me laugh.” The words to describe my admiration begin to pour from me. His grin broadens as he pulls me in closer, squeezing my ribs just the slightest again and he makes me laugh once again. “Your heart is always willing to be kind, even when your temper wants to get the best of you, you always manage to find the ability to stay true to yourself; to be a man of honor.” I say softly as my eyes get lost in his.
“You have helped. If it had not been for you…” His brows furrow as he thinks silently for a long moment. “I would have killed him. Your presence, you brought me away from the edge more than once.” He steps back, his fingers tugging at the front of my tunic. My smile falters, my sight begins to go dark around the edges as I’m struck in the chest with intense magic. The air whooshes out of me and my world blurs as the vision takes over in flashes.
Dax is shouting. Chaos has engulfed me—blood and gore fill my vision. Raelle stands on the hillside with a man I don’t recognize at her side. Bitter resentment fills my heart as I frantically fight off a Raskin just as another moves into attack. Men in metal-clad armor and Raskins seem to work together, trying to take us on—only we are not alone. Men and women fight at our sides, all clad in armor bearing the royal crest.
“Get down! I hear a man shout. Following what he says, I drop low just as a sword whistles above my head. Dax’s shouts come again, and as I stand, turning toward his voice, I see the man before me drop to his knees. Blood sprays my face; he sucks in a ragged breath, coughing and staining his lips crimson. My throat rips with my screams, and I feel as though the ground is ripped out from under my feet when I fall with him.
I come out of the vision with a loud gasp. My eyes are wide looking into Trent’s as we stand in the kitchen. His eyes are searching mine, and I realize in that moment he was not touching my skin when I was pulled into the vision. Fate did not allow him to see what it was I was seeing, and while we are mates—fate plays at different rules.
Hot tears fill my eyes and run down my cheeks without permission, but this time it is not happiness that drives them. No, my heart is breaking for what fate has shown me. A cruel curse. In one breath—breathing life and happiness into me—in the next death.
Trent has gone rigid in front of me. He knows I had a vision and can sense it was bad, but he has no idea that the future I was told could be the very end to the beginning we were just given. Pulling steel into my spine, I grip his tunic and pull him into me. My lips crash to his. The tears continue to fall, and while I kiss him without restraint, I curse the gods and fate for giving us this blessing of a mate bond only to curse me with the vision of his death.
I only bring my lips away from his when the door to the kitchen is pushed open with too much force; it hits the wall, sending cookware to topple and crash to the floor. Trent and I both turn red-faced to the man darkening the doorway, looking far worse for wear than the last time I saw him.
“Sister, I need—” He looks at Trent, breathing deep, “our king and queen need our help.” Seven words—it’s all it takes to send my already imploding world spiraling.
“What’s happened?” Trent says through a clenched jaw. Alaric steps inside, dripping wet from the rainy night, and shuts the door as lightning strikes and thunder rolls through the castle.
“ Soren Croix —He’s taken the queen and cursed the king to live suspended in shadows and his body to lay in a magically sealed tomb.” He says as he drops the hood of this cloak. His eyes jump from me to Trent, then back to me again. “I think I know how to save them, but I need your help.”
“Alaric,” Trent’s voice comes from behind me. A plea and demand with just one word.
“I’m so sorry. I failed everyone, but I came here to tell you what I know…” He lifts his chin as though it will help him stand straighter.
“What do you know? What do you mean? Are you ok? Soren took Dax and Raelle? Where is Kait?” I ask the series of questions with no breaths between them. My heart is pounding in my chest and as I step forward, taking my brother’s hand, his eyes meet mine…and I finally see him.
The dark circles under his eyes tell me enough to know his worry, and I nod my head. His barriers drop, and the brush of his magic washes over me like a familiar breeze, but before I accept what he’s trying to give me, I turn to look at Trent.
“Take my hand. I’m not sure this will work, but I want to try.” Trent looks down at my outstretched hand, confused; his brow dropped impossibly low, but he only hesitates a moment before wrapping his hand around mine. When I turn back to my brother, his bottom lip quivers just enough for me to notice. It breaks my heart to see him like this.
“Whatever it is, Ric, we are in this together.” I reach out with my other hand, and he looks down at it. He takes a deep breath before removing his glove and placing his calloused hand in mine. The magic takes hold of me instantly.
Flames billow out around me as dragon fire burns the trees and brush off the cliffside. It’s chaos. I can feel the confusion and turmoil within my brother as I live his memory. Ashes and smoke clog my throat, and the heat of the flames singe my nostrils as I take deep, wracking breaths. Raelle is in the distance looking out toward the sea, seemingly in a standoff with someone unseen.
My head whips in the other direction where Raskins surround Kait. The fissure in my—Alaric’s need is clear. Save one, or the other, not both. “FUCK!” he curses before his teeth grind and he begins running in Kait’s direction with the assumption that Raelle is strong enough to fight on her own. At least until he can secure Kait’s safety.
He and Kait fight a long battle with the Raskins and defeat them all, but when the gold dust settles… they are surrounded.
“Get on your knees!” A guard from the center shouts. The other ten or more guards all have arrows aimed to kill if they don’t obey. Kait looks to Alaric with thankful eyes but does as she is told. Alaric rolls his shoulders, keeping eye contact with Kait. “Don’t relent! Go! Warn the others. Find Raelle! Protect Dax.”
“I’m not leaving you.” Alaric says stoically and shakes his head, ignoring the warnings being shouted from all directions.
“Leave. You should have left me! You are sworn to the Queen! Go! I…I’ll be fine. I am a warrior.” She raises her chin high, and while Alaric still shakes his head, he does look around frantic for another way. There is none. Through shared eyes, we lock our gaze with Kait.
“I will be back for you, little creature. There is no way I can live without your brand of venom in my veins.”
“You are insufferable! This is not the time, nor the place,” Kait exclaims, Time seems to slow in these moments, and as the soldiers begin to get closer, Kait’s eyes narrow at them. He laughs dryly, looking back out toward the men who surround them with his molars grinding into dust. “I will be back for you.” He says before he launches into the sky. Arrows are let loose the moment he does, many of them narrowly missing him as they whistle by.
When the iron shackles click on Kait’s wrists, the vision and his sight on Kait are gone. Clouded with smoke, the magic ripples.
We stand watching as Alaric approaches a fountain, then a black feather floats down into the water, but as the ripples appear, a searing pain explodes in my mind—my hand comes up, cupping my forehead, trying to staunch the pain.
The magic ripples and sputters out, Alaric sways on his feet, and just before he falls, he looks to my left, where Trent stands frozen.
“I’m sorry—I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought—I was wrong.” The last part comes out in a whisper as he collapses. I throw my air element out to catch him before he falls, and lower him to the ground as I close the distance between us and drop to his side.
“Oh, gods,” I beg, looking up to meet Trent’s eyes. My voice breaks as a sob breaks free. “Alaric? Alaric!”