Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Page Nine. I write this final part to you. The deities are holy beings and they can be changed.
I dive straight to the left, barely missing Avaluna’s swift and unexpected lunge in my direction. “That was really impressive. You almost got me.”
She winks. “Calix is fantastic at training me.” I bet. I hold in my comment but not my smile, and she rolls her eyes at me. “I think I like training and fighting. Using my body, training like this—it makes you feel like you can fight anyone, right?”
“Yes,” I answer, knowing exactly what she means. In the early days of the mansion, I felt like training saved my mental health from plummeting more than necessary. I’ll never be able to escape the memories completely but, for the most part, I will be able to use training to fight the worst days away. When I’m training, I don’t have time to think of the past, to let my nightmares haunt me. An understanding passes between two people with the same horrors. I grin at her, and she grins right back before lunging at me again. I twist around her, knocking her back before swinging my leg out and kicking her straight out of the circle. She falls on her ass, her eyes wide. “Calix is good, but I was trained by the king.” I offer her my hand. “And I learned I don’t like to lose.”
She laughs, taking my hand, and we both head to the water jugs by the mat. The cold air whips around us, and I look around as I take a drink, missing the forest. Missing the colours of the sky, the colours of nature, which are lost here. This place is a cave of grey and nothing much else. The green farms do not make up for the lack of life in this place, and I’m so glad Ziven is back with a solution, because spending forever locked in here can’t be a long-term option like Daegan planned. The people here might be content, but they are trapped, and they have no idea what it is like out there.
Calix claps as he comes over to us, my rival on the edge of the mat wheezing. “Well done. I was impressed by that move, Story.” He winks at Avaluna when she huffs. “Want me to teach you how to block her next time? Ziven does the same twisting move, and I learnt a trick to block the bastard.”
“Yes, but in secret.” She laughs. “Then I can surprise Story.”
I smile at them both. I’ve also seen how Calix blocks Ziven in sparring, and I have a good chance of stopping her. Calix turns to me, and it’s like he has to physically drag his eyes from Avaluna. “Have you seen Ziven this morning? Only, there’s another meeting and King Daegan is calling for him. He didn’t attend the morning meeting. I was sent to find him, but I’m not brave enough to knock on your hut door when the ground is shaking and covered in shadows.” He arches an eyebrow. “Like it has been for weeks.”
My cheeks burn. I know exactly why he wasn’t attending this morning. It’s been two weeks since he turned up, and we’ve spent most of our time in the hut. Any other time, it’s meetings after meetings, and they can be quite strenuous as Daegan and him can’t seem to agree on anything other than they want the vampyres dead. Every other plan has gone up in flames, and anyone in the room is stuck in the middle of them both, along with me. “I haven’t seen him since he took off on his dragon.”
He sighs, pinching his nose. “Right. He seems to do that a lot. How’s Maeve doing?”
“I gather it’s them practicing flying together and securing the bond,” I add before answering him. “But Maeve is healing and sleeping most of the time to do that. She claims she’ll fly up to see me in a few days, as her wing is nearly there. Honestly, I miss riding her.” I touch my chest. “Being apart from your dragon is unnatural.”
“At least your dragon’s coming up and communicating with you. Mine is being strange,” Calix admits quietly. “Some dragons are not answering their riders. I think they are mad at us for losing the fight, and worse, they might not fight with us.”
“They will,” I firmly state. “I don’t think it’s that. I have a feeling it’s something else. Our dragons love us as much as we love them. You taught me that.”
I’ve asked Maeve about this subject, but she goes silent on me too.
He nods. “I know.” Straightening, he delivers more good news. “And you’re coming with me to the meeting if Ziven is still not here. Ziven told me not to punch Daegan, but if he keeps being a pissy little shit because Ziven is not turning up, I’m going to ignore my king’s orders.” I cough on thin air, and Calix pats my back. “Good, you agree. Let’s go.” He kisses Avaluna’s cheek. “See you soon. Watch Hettie until Dianyla’s, her new friend, mother comes and takes them both for lunch, okay?”
“Always.” She blushes under his intense stare. They smell like each other, I notice. I’m not sure what is going on with them, but something is. I glance over at Hettie, and she’s reading in the corner, chatting with one of the fae children that made it here from the mansion. A lot of her other new friends didn’t, and I can barely accept knowing that they’re gone. They were children. Calix and I wind through the busy town, and several people stop us to bow their heads or offer up prayers to the deities in the royals’ names. When it’s quieter, I lower my voice. “I’m not sure I’m used to the attention here from them. I’m not even the queen yet or his mate yet.”
“You are, pretty much in everything other than officially titled as one,” he points out. “And for the record, you’ve always been my queen. I knew it from the second you punched Ziven in the face after the Decidere. It was love.” I wince, remembering that moment, but Calix is laughing. “Talking of which, when is the wedding going to be? I don’t have a suit, which is a shame because I look good in one.”
“No idea, because we’re in a war and there’s a lot going on. A wedding seems, well, not the first thing on our minds,” I answer as we wind around a hut.
“Because there’s everything going on…a wedding should be the first thing on your mind,” he counters. “Say the word, and I will plan with Luna the most amazing wedding ever—even in this place.”
I shake my head. “I think that’s up to Ziven, don’t you?” But the truth is, no matter where we are or what it is like, I’d marry him in a heartbeat. A part of me wants us to have that ultimate connection before we go into a war where we might not survive it. If I face death, I want him as my king, my mate, and simply mine in every part of my soul.
We get up to the building where all the meetings are held, and I can hear the shouting from outside. I wince. Calix stops at the door with a pretend serious face. “I sense extreme danger out here. It’s a prerogative that I guard the door.” He winks at me. “Good luck!”
“Jackass,” I mutter under my breath, reaching for the door handle.
“Very unladylike for a queen to be.” Calix is barely holding in a laugh as I whack his arm before going into the meeting room. “Oh, and I saw the last volunteer rushing away in the opposite direction on our walk over here. Looks like you’re stuck with the kings who hate each other all on your own this time.”
Deities be with me.
Daegan is pacing by the door, throwing his arms in the air. “You can’t just walk in here and demand everything your own way! You’re not the only king in existence—you know that, right?”
Ziven’s eyes are drawn to mine, and they soften in a way they only do when he looks at me. He is sitting on the biggest chair in the room, at the head of the table with his legs spread as he leans back. Comfortable. Relaxed. Cocky. He drags his eyes to Daegan. “While sitting around here, doing nothing, was probably the best plan, right?” He narrows his gaze. “What was your plan? Stay here, make pretty babies, and help the clueless rule and manage to take over at some point? Yes, let me listen to your plan again. It was epic.”
I cringe at the sarcasm dragging in Ziven’s tone. “That was not the plan, and if you?—”
Ziven smoothly interrupts. “Well, it was a shit plan, and it wasn’t going to work. This place might be hidden and protected for now, but the vampyre king will find a way in eventually. We need riders and quick. I have dragons. You have fae. Together, we stand one single fucking chance of winning this. Don’t let our past shade the alliance we can make for a future.” His reason is surprising, and seriously hot.
They both hold each other’s gaze, and I move around Daegan, straight to the seat in the middle of them. The sound of the chair scratching the floor as I tug it out is awkward, and I’m relieved when I can finally sit down. At some point, Daegan gives in. “Fine.” He blows out a breath. “I’m well aware I’ve not been stable as a king or made the right choices.” He glances at me for a second too long.
Ziven growls low. “For the record, she is mine. Don’t look at her like that again, or I will tear your heart out and see if it burns in the moonlight.” The threat echoes.
Daegan looks right at Ziven and nods. “Understood.”
The silence drags on, even as Daegan takes a seat at the table on the opposite side of Ziven. I really hate being in the middle of this. I glance at Ziven. “The shadow dragons will take riders like yours did?”
He inclines his head. “They state only the worthy can ride for the war.”
“Worthy,” Daegan muses. “Then anyone who signs up has to volunteer. The dragons are temperamental.”
“Something we finally agree on.” Ziven taps his fingers on the armrest. “Can we agree on the flight plans next?”
“If I have more riders and more information on the city, then yes.” Daegan crosses his arms. “If Story and Maeve flew with us?—”
“No.” Ziven’s tone is final.
I glare at him. “You can’t make that choice. Daegan has a point. I have a massive dragon, and it makes sense to send our two biggest dragons to different cities at the same time. All that matters is that we win.”
“No, all that matters to me is that you are alive at the end of this war,” he counters with no apology in his tone. “And when we fly to war, it will be together.”
I sigh, leaning back. Being romantic is always his way of winning, and I’ll bring this argument up later when we are alone. Ziven rises from his seat, coming to the back of my seat and leaning down to press a kiss to my cheek. “I’m afraid I can’t join you for the afternoon like we planned. I will find you in a few hours.” Straightening, he calls out, “Calix!”
Calix comes in, followed by Avaluna. “Yes, my king.” It’s strange to hear him so formal, and I know it’s only because he is around Daegan.
Ziven’s hand strokes a strand of hair, tucking it behind my ear. “Our queen is leaving. Defend her for me, and I will catch you up soon.”
Daegan doesn’t say anything, but I suppose there’s surprise in his eyes for a second. Maybe even pain. He doesn’t deserve to be hurt over my happiness.
Avaluna glances at me. “Why don’t we go into the town, get a drink and lunch with some of the locals? It’d be good to socialise with them more, and we would be perfectly safe,” she suggests. “And we don’t need guards.”
Oh, I love her. I rise to my feet and Ziven arches a dark eyebrow. “Sending a guard with me is insulting, Ziv. I might be your queen soon, but you trained me not to be helpless.”
“You do need a guard.” Ziven wraps an arm around my waist and tugs me against his own chest. “Only to drag out the bodies of anyone who dared to touch you when you’re done with them.”
Using my tiptoes, I lean up to brush my lips across his. “Find me soon and don’t spend too long arguing.”
Avaluna opens the door for me, and Calix gives me a pleading look to save him, which I ignore as he threw me to the wolves alone earlier, and we head straight into the town. It’s quite busy, and both of us decide to put our hoods up and keep to ourselves. My red hair already attracts enough attention, and I haven’t seen anyone else with red hair at all.
“I heard that you’re sleeping in Calix’s hut.” I keep my voice low. “Hettie mentioned it.”
“Listen, I’m going to need alcohol for us to have this discussion,” Luna replies with burning red cheeks, barely hidden under her dark hair. “But for now…he is my entwined mate, too.”
My eyes widen. I barely hold in a cheer, but my smile hides nothing. “Congratulations on the gift. I knew you two were something special.”
“Thank you. We haven’t…” She looks away and clears her throat. “I’m not ready for that yet. I don’t need to ask whether you and Ziven are sleeping in the same hut, because everyone hears the floor shaking multiple times a day—and night, I might add.”
My cheeks burn. “We need alcohol—definitely for this.”
She laughs, resting her head on my shoulder. I’m hit with a longing for Catherine, and every day, I think about her and just wonder. Is she dead? Is her dragon? I’m missing Ruelle, too. I still can’t believe she’s gone. When Ziven told us, we all gathered together to mourn. Hettie burst into tears, and I was barely able to hold back my own, even though I wasn’t as close to her as Hettie was.
I held her all night as she wept as she lay in bed between me and Ziven until she fell asleep sobbing. She’s still quite upset, and I don’t know how anyone will fill the void in her life that Ruelle left. We’ll have a funeral for her when the war is over, along with the funerals for all the dead fae that we have lost. Mazzis. I miss him and I can’t think of him dying with the books I loved so much, too. There aren’t many books in this place, and the twenty-odd Ziven found are about nothing that interesting. I’ve read three of them so far, and Hettie is reading them straight after me. Twenty books…I took the library for granted.
We head into the only bar in the entire town. It’s a huge room that’s slightly below ground, filled with small tables and stools pressed against them. It’s packed full of people and it smells like them too, mixed with the heavy stink of spilled drinks, which has made the floor sticky in places.
It takes us a while to get through the fae to the bar, where we order two drinks. Their idea of alcohol is some green floaty liquid that’s very strong. “Calix warned me this stuff could get you drunk in a matter of three drinks, which he thought was impressive. The stuff they had in the mansion required at least three bottles to make him tipsy.”
I nod, barely hearing Avaluna over the noise of this place. We take our drinks, go back, and start looking around for a table at the edges of the room where it is quieter. We find one, but it’s already occupied by someone in a green cloak, her slender hands wrapped around a pen as she scribbles in a notebook.
“We could just ask her for the other two seats?” I suggest, not being able to tug my eyes from the woman at the table. There is something about her that feels familiar. She lifts her head and my drink slips out of my hand, smashing to the floor.
Maeve is in my mind instantly. “Are you well?”
I don’t notice the people looking at the drink on the floor. I don’t feel Luna touching my arm or hear her asking what is wrong. I don’t hear anyone as my mother’s forest green eyes find mine, and we both just stare at each other. She pushes her hood down, her dark red braid falling over her shoulder, and I can’t breathe as she stands up, comes around the stools, and slowly walks up to me.
She peels my hood back and tucks my hair behind my ears the way she always has, touching the black tips, and a sob echoes out of her throat. “Story,” she whispers. “My Story.”
The second time she says my name, it feels like it belongs to her in a way only a mother can claim her child. “Mum,” I whisper back before throwing myself at her, and she catches me as I breathe in her scent, as I take in the fact my mother is alive. I haven’t seen her since I was fourteen years old, when she fought tooth and nail to make sure I had a good vampyre master. This is my mother, who brought me up like we didn’t live in a breeder’s camp, like we weren’t lessborn, and she tried everything to make sure I had a good life. She holds me, tightening her grip, and it’s as if there haven’t been years between us. I cry, holding her as tightly as I possibly can as she cries too.
I don’t know how long it is before she pulls back, looking into my eyes. “Story. How…how are you here?” She cups my cheek. “You’ve grown up so much and you’re so, so beautiful. Deities above, you look like your father. I see him now.” She raises her other hand to my other cheek. “Am I dead? Is this a gift from the deities?”
“We aren’t dead, mum.” My voice is trembling. “But deities have blessed us.” Her smile is so big and I don’t think I’ve seen her smile like this before. I realise I’ve never seen her free, either. Avaluna is awkwardly standing at my side as my mum lowers her hands, but she stands close still. “This is my close friend, Avaluna.”
“A pleasure.” She nods to her. “How are you here, Story?”
“I could ask you the same. I honestly assumed you were dead, mum,” I admit. Her eyes are on my hands, on the dragon markings she can see there.
“I thought I was too. Come, come and sit with me,” she asks, pointing to the table. “And explain to me how you became a dragon rider.”
Maeve. I send an apology to her for scaring her with my feelings, but she only sends warmth back, and a hint of sadness. She lost all of her family, and this joy must be difficult for her. “By fighting for her, by being the daughter you raised.”
“I’ll go and get us another drink,” Avaluna suggests, putting her drink down on the table, her eyes wide as she meets mine.
“Thank you.” I nod to her.
I step over the broken glass, wincing at the mess. I can’t clean that up right now before I sit down, and mum holds my hands across the table.
“You tell me what happened to you,” she demands and somehow makes me feel like I’m ten years old again. “You were given to a kind vampyre friend, but then his house was burnt down. Everyone assumed you were dead. I assumed you’d died, but in my heart…” She pauses, searching for the words. “I felt like you were alive. I tried searching for you. I made deals with every vampyre I could to try to find you, but no one had heard anything. No one knew. I had to accept that you were probably dead. But I couldn’t do it—couldn’t believe it was true.”
“Keep telling me everything,” I ask, because the moment I tell her mine, things are going to change. I can see it in her eyes. She’s full of hope, love, and laughter right now—everything she always tried to be around me. She never let the harsh world touch me when I was a kid. I owe her so much for that. Parts of my childhood—the memories of her—are the only things that kept me alive for so long. She kept me alive.
“I got attacked by a vampyre royal guard when I was with Blaire,” she begins, her voice trembling. “He killed her, drained me and threw my body into the river. I don’t know how or why, but I was found by some people by the coast. One of them was a healer. They were escaping the city, and they took me with them. They said they felt this calling here, and we just followed tunnels. Endless tunnels. Until we found ourselves here.”
Blaire is gone? Kyrell would have been devastated to know that, but in a way, I’m happy they are together now.
“Once here, I realised I couldn’t leave. No matter how many tries—so many tries—it was pointless. It was like the magic didn’t want me to go, and I made a life here instead. A life where I didn’t have to be a breeder. I could just exist. I was never fully happy, though. I looked at every person who turned up, every day, asking them about you. But no one ever knew. Until somebody arrived about four weeks ago.” She pauses, her hands tightening around mine. “They said they’d heard of a woman called Story Dehana, whose very name began rebellions in the cities. She was the prince’s blood slave who escaped. Please tell me that the second part of that wasn’t true. That you were his blood slave?”
Avaluna comes back to the table and sits down. My heart aches as I begin to tell my mum everything. I tell her everything that had happened in the past. How I became the prince’s blood slave. About Kyrell, leaving out his second death because that should stay between Ziven and me and my friends who saw how Kyrell was at the end. I tell her instead about how he saved me and got me free. How I found the mansion—a mansion full of dragon riders and people like me. How I fought in the Decidere to become a rider. “Yes, it’s complicated, but…I found happiness there. I found Ziven, who is my entwined mate, and we are going to be married.”
“Who is Ziven?” she asks, her voice laced with curiosity and confusion.
“He’s the Moon Dynasty king and the King of the Dragons,” I explain softly, and her eyes widen. “He’s my king, my lover, my best friend and rival all in one. I love him with every bit of my soul.”
“And I love her back.” Ziven wraps his arm around my waist from behind. “And you are?”
I lift my head to Ziven and smile. “This is my mum.” His returning smile is pure light, direct from the moon in the night sky. “Mum, this is Ziven with a bunch of titles, if you want to hear them all.”
“The most important title of mine is being hers.” He offers my mum a bow of his head. “Thank you for creating my mate.”
My mum’s expression softens as she says, “I’ve not just been blessed with the return of my daughter, but soon a son, too.”
I almost feel how Ziven reacts to that. After losing so much of his family, it means everything she has accepted him. I love her more for it.
“I never thought I’d see you again,” I admit.
“Neither did I,” she returns with a soft smile. She hasn’t aged much since I last saw her, but there is a lightness to her features now that brightens the room. Ziven joins us at the table after grabbing us another bunch of drinks as the hours pass. We drink until we were all tipsy and laughing at the stories my mum tells Ziven about me as a child. The hours seem like minutes before leaving the tavern as it is closing and emptying out.
Calix is waiting for Avaluna, and he wraps my mum up in a bear hug when I tell him who she is. She only laughs and tells me she is happy I have friends. We walk my mum back to her hut, and she hugs me so tightly outside the door as Ziven gives us some space.
“I am proud of the brilliant, fantastic woman you have become. Deities hear me…this gift is a miracle.” She leans back. “And I know war is coming for us soon. I want you to keep fighting with every bit of your soul. I know you left out what it was like for you as a blood slave to that monster, but you survived it. You are a survivor, Story Dehana. You’re a warrior. Your father would be so, so proud, and I know this because I am too.”
I might be tipsy, but her words linger in my mind. I thought I was broken when I was doing nothing but surviving, but I was training the broken pieces of my soul and knitting them back together. For moments like this. For a future I couldn’t even imagine anymore. “I’ll come over tomorrow and bring Hettie. You will love her.”
“I cannot wait to meet your ward,” she replies, kissing my cheek. “Now go with your mate. He is waiting.”
I almost can’t leave my mum as she goes back into her hut, feeling like she might disappear again. “Today was real, right? I’m not dreaming?”
“Not dreaming,” Ziven confirms as we walk back. We are on the other side of the town, and it takes us a while to walk through it, but I don’t mind; in fact, I enjoy the quiet walk with Ziven. “You’re even more beautiful when you’re happy, Storm.” He cups the back of my neck, stopping us. “Smile at me, take my breath away. I need to remember this moment forever.”
“As cute as this moment is,” Etena’s cold, chipped voice cuts through, “we have a problem.” The effects of the alcohol seem to fade instantly at the tone of her voice. “King Daegan sent me to inform you of the news. A fae woman has turned up as a refugee with unsettling news.”
“What did she claim?” Ziven questions.
I almost wish Etena waited till morning to speak, to darken this night. “The king and prince are burning fae in each of the cities every single day—thousands of them. It’s a calling to us, letting us know that the days we spend here are costing lives. It’s a warning that if we wait too long to act, there will be no people left to go to war for.”