CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After four days, they began leaving their rooms from time to time.
They went to the dining hall for most meals, joining Naveen, Soryan, and the little group they seemed to have acquired during Taveris's absence. It was good, it was normal—something both him and Caleen really needed right now. And he got to see his bonded joking and even laughing here and there, which was refreshing after so much darkness they'd had to deal with.
Taveris kept quiet at first, mostly observing the guys he knew very little or not at all, as was the case with Daryan and Valyn. The latter had apparently come out publicly when their cause needed more voices out there, and by doing so, earned himself a life-long friend in the future king. He also seemed particularly charmed by Caleen, which Taveris could very much understand.
What did surprise him, though, was the fact that Aderys was dating Daryan. Sleeping around with other dragons in the Academy was as old as the school itself, but Taveris could count on one hand relationships between two dragons that really went anywhere. He wished them well, nonetheless.
Hanging out with friends and going out to fly every day were the fun parts to get back to, but Caleen and Taveris were also staying busy with what was happening outside of the Academy. The hunt for Master Oriyan was still ongoing, leaving them with no answers and mounting frustration. The social and political repercussions of the royal council's announcement on the marriage issue were providing a solid distraction, though.
Thankfully, there had only been a few voices like that reporter from The Terapress who suggested Taveris's disappearance was a part of the masterplan Caleen had come up with to push his agenda. Most people seemed to be genuinely happy for Taveris and even more so for their prince heir who got his partner back. One newspaper even ran with the story about their future wedding and suggested that maybe it should be the first one under the new law.
"It's not a new law," Caleen muttered as he read the news one morning in bed. "That's the whole point."
"It doesn't matter what they call it." Taveris kissed his temple and rolled out of the bed. "As long as they allow it."
"Oh, they do," Caleen assured him. "And we're not going to be the first ones, anyway. A few couples have already announced their engagements and made it clear they were going to be short ones. You won't believe who is on that list, by the way, I would've never guessed—"
"You can tell me later," Taveris cut in as he headed towards the bathroom backwards, still keeping his gaze on his bonded who was now looking him up and down in obvious appreciation and sending Taveris's blood towards his groin. "Right now, you could join me in the shower instead."
Caleen grinned and tossed the paper aside. "You're on."
Oh, yeah. Those were still the best parts of their days.
* * *
Unfortunately, trying to get their normalcy back also meant the inevitable trip to the royal palace for the annual festival thrown in honor of the Queen's birthday. It was one of the few events throughout the year that Caleen was required to make an appearance at, but it was especially important this year, since the public needed reassurance that all was well among the royal family.
Naveen and Soryan were accompanying them this time around, which should help balance out the dreadful company upon arrival. Naveen was invaluable when it came to redirecting Caleen's attention, and Soryan would hopefully help Taveris work out any frustrations at the royal training field, now that he was allowed to practice again.
His memories from the day of the kidnapping still hadn't returned, aside from some bits and pieces, but the healers had all said it was normal. The rest might come back to him, or it might not, only time would tell. But physically, everything seemed to be fine, so Master Caderyan had finally given him permission to get back to his regular routine. And while Caleen refused to do any fight training for now, Soryan was happy to spar with Taveris, so they might as well get some practice while their companions were occupied with the politics side of things. The festival brought in guests from all over the kingdom, so there was always a lot of talks, meetings, and deals going on inside the palace, while the public enjoyed the entertainment part of the celebrations, helmed, as always, by the Queen herself.
Hook, Taveris was not looking forward to seeing the royal couple again. He was afraid that this time could be the one when he finally snapped and offered them some harsh truths about their parenting shortcomings.
What was probably more surprising, Caleen also seemed like he'd prefer to be going anywhere else. Taveris suspected it might have something to do with the recent uptick of tension between Caleen and his father, but he had no chance to ask, since Naveen and Soryan were riding with them in the automobile.
Once they arrived at the palace and suffered through the awkward formal greetings with the royal couple, both Caleen and Naveen were quickly pulled into various social engagements, none of which their companions were required to attend.
"Looks like the winds may favor us today," Soryan muttered to Taveris as they were following the princes to their rooms.
"Indeed." He chose to pretend that the palace was fine with Caleen and Naveen's solo appearances for no ulterior motives, since it suited him just fine. While he and Caleen still struggled with prolonged time apart, this was the safest place for Caleen to be outside of the Academy—at least in the physical sense. The guards were everywhere. "Sparring, then? In an hour or so?"
"Fine by me. I promise not to go easy on you," Soryan said with a smirk and Taveris snorted.
"You do that."
* * *
Despite Soryan's words, when they got to the fighting grounds, they started slow, exchanging attacks and blocks at an easier pace than usual. But after a while, they picked up the pace and as his heartbeat went up from the extortion, his grin grew.
He'd missed this.
When he'd hidden away with Caleen in their rooms, nothing else mattered outside of the two of them. But they both wanted more things, needed more things, and this was one of them, for Taveris. And the fact that he could do it again, even here at the royal palace, was also a sign of things coming back to normal, as Caleen and Taveris had never been a couple to hold each other back. Quite the contrary.
Well, there had been times when Taveris wished he could hold Caleen back, when he thought his bonded was in danger, but that was another story.
"Hey," Soryan said after his attack almost made Taveris drop the sword. "Focus."
That brought him back to the present. Soryan was one of the best fighters Taveris had ever faced, so he also needed to do his best.
They fought until they were both dripping with sweat. They were evenly matched in most things, but there were moves that one of them had perfected that the other always struggled with. One of them was Taveris's attack from the left flank, sidestepping into the opponent's blind spot and pointing the blow to the opponent's back. Soryan had fallen for it nearly every time in the past, but now, almost faster than Taveris could see, he pirouetted on the spot and closed his arm around Taveris's neck, blocking his airway, and pointed the edge of his sword at Taveris's thigh.
Taveris froze. He knew that move.
Suddenly, he wasn't at the royal fighting grounds anymore and it wasn't Soryan at his back.
His stomach twisted and his vision swayed. He was walking through the entrance of the Academy's main building, heading back from the armory. The hall was empty and he quickened his pace, eager to get back to Caleen. He'd left him earlier at the door of the guest room that the royal couple occupied, since Master Dorrat insisted Taveris needed to file some reports he'd fallen behind on. Apparently, it absolutely had to be done before tomorrow's ceremony.
Excuse me for being too busy to write, now that we're preparing for a revolution, he thought to himself. He would never say it to Master Dorrat's face, of course, but he could do whatever he wanted in his own head. Sometimes, it kept him from starting a fight that would only hurt Caleen, who always ended up in the middle.
Then he heard more than just an echo of his steps and he turned to see Master Oriyan.
"Taveris." The healer nodded in greetings and Taveris responded in kind, pausing in his step. He didn't think he'd ever talked with the man before, but if Master Oriyan not only nodded, but also spoke to him, Taveris had to stop.
He heard the movement behind him a second too late, but he still tried to pull away when someone's arm came around his neck and a needle pierced his skin. Taveris fought to break free, but then an edge of a sword was pointed at his thigh. One bad move and he would bleed out.
He inhaled sharply, smelling something familiar, but he couldn't remember it in the moment.
The last thing he saw was Master Oriyan in front of him, not doing anything to help.
"Taveris!" Someone shook his shoulder and Taveris sprung up, closing his hand around the wrist of the— Soryan. Not the attacker. Soryan. "Hey, hey, it's me. It's okay."
Taveris couldn't speak for a few second. The images were there now, in his head.
It wasn't a dream, it wasn't a hallucination.
It was a memory.
Aware of the small crowd that had gathered as the two of them practiced, Taveris fought to get a grip and focus. He couldn't make a spectacle out of himself, of them, especially not here.
Soryan was frowning at him, obviously worried.
Taveris knew, deep down in his bones, that Soryan wasn't the man from the memory. He might not trust many people, but he trusted Soryan—with his life, with Caleen's life. It wasn't him.
Who was it, then?
"Who taught you that?" he asked, clasping his fingers hard over Soryan's forearm.
Their eyes locked and Soryan could see he was dead serious.
"It's a new thing I learned from Master Dorrat a few months back. I had never seen him do that before, but I came close to disarming him, so—"
Master Dorrat.
Hook it all to the last grain of sand. Taveris wanted to throw up.
"Who else learned this move, do you know?" he asked, no, demanded, as he tried to push the nausea back.
They had all wanted answers, but not this one.
Not this one.
"He told me he'd never showed it to anybody," Soryan said, stripping Taveris of the last remains of denial.
He should be shocked. He was shocked. Master Dorrat had tricked them all, for wind only knew how long. And despite the fact that Taveris didn't much like the man, he had still considered him an honest—sometimes too honest—man.
But now that he knew the truth, he found that some things suddenly made a twisted kind of sense.
He rubbed his neck and resisted a shiver, but Soryan stepping closer pulled him back to the present.
"You okay?" Soryan asked in low voice. "You just went really pale. Should we get a healer?"
Taveris shook his head.
As if there was any healer who could fix this. As if there was anything that would make it right, make it hurt less.
Hook.
He needed to find his bonded.