CHAPTER 20 #2
Yet, as I gaze at the night sky, a parade of shimmering, silver dragons dances across the starry sky, weaving around through the chilly air like a play for the laughing children below.
The children run around, jumping up in the air as if the dragons are just out of their reach.
Their laughs echo with the breeze that dances around with the music.
A group of women with long, silver-braided hair, their pointed ears adorned with flowers cuffing around them and their emerald gowns with high slits, weave their hands through the starlit air and with the mere flick of their fingers, paint the night sky with beautiful images.
Magic. Right before my eyes, yet, I still don’t believe it. How is this real?
The music drifts through my ears, the beat of drums and harmonicas perfectly in rhythm.
Tall trees soar above us with milky-white leaves that sparkle like stars.
Golden lights are wrapped around their trunks and weave into the air to meet a branch of another, wrapping around in a circle for those to dance underneath.
I wasn’t expecting so many people to be here, the night before some souls will be taken.
And yet, those who live here in the Realms celebrate.
Tons of women dance with their partners, gowns in different colors bellowing out as they spin, while men fill up their steins by the enormous wooden barrels.
As I glance around, the shade of the moon casts a soft, indigo hue to the dance floor.
I look up, tilting my head as I glare out to the unknown.
Their world is much different than mine, their sky is much different than mine, and their people… are much different than mine.
The sky is out of the ordinary tonight. The moon's outer edge is a deep shade of rust, almost melting into the light tone of the ocean blue, which is the color it is every night. Remembering Koen’s words takes my breath away, and goosebumps prick along my skin as I recall him saying, “and if you are ever near me on the night where the azure moon turns to blood… you run.” What the hell does it mean when the moon turns to blood?
But as fear creeps through me, I catch sight of Queen Antivianna and Skie.
I suck in air, holding it deep inside so I won’t make a sound.
They cannot see me. I scurry backward, tripping over branches and running into people, apologizing with my hands as they look bothered by my appearance.
They all know I am the first woman to compete and for some reason, hate me for it.
It's written all over their faces, nose squinted as if I smell, lips curled as if I am some wicked person.
And the worst of it all, if I accidentally bump into them, they wipe the spot as if I've infected them.
I do not belong here. This could never be my home.
I wonder what lies the Queen has spread about me. Let them talk, let them judge me, and let them watch me fight in these games.
My back slams into a tree and I move around it, letting my back slide against the ridges of the bark. I don’t care if it pulls against my hair and suit, as long as I am out of sight.
I exhale, letting my head hit against the massive trunk. “That was close.” My eyes close and my hand covers my heart. I never want to find out what the Queen or Skie would do to me if they caught Koen and I escaping for the night.
“The party is over there?” A soft voice startles me and I flinch, eyes widening as I stare at the woman before me.
Her golden dress ombres down to an indigo hue at the bottom with a high slit up toward her hip.
Seashells in a golden chain wrap around her thighs, and tiny bones hang down along the chain as well.
Her eyes widen, showing the shades of an ocean blue mixed with a light autumn hue that sparkle against her raven skin.
Around her petite neck, more shells wrapped in golden chains rest perfectly against her chest, showing her collarbones that are marked with what appear like micro pearls against her skin.
“Do you speak?” She crosses her arms, letting her braids fall over her shoulder. Her crown is detailed with waves and shells, chains falling from it as one wraps across her face over her nose with delicate crystals dangling off of it.
“Yes,” I stutter. “I’m sorry, it’s been an exhausting week.” I let out a nervous laugh, clearing my throat as I know she is from the Realm of the Sea and I am unsure if I can trust her. I’m unsure if I should even be in her presence.
“I can’t believe the Queen threw you in the games.” Her eyes trace every curve of my body in the most pitiful way. “Has my brother given you any problems?”
Brother? Well, here goes the only chance of finding any answers to save Tilly. If Dryden is her brother, I am screwed.
“Dryden?” I dare to ask, even though I know it’s him.
“So you have met him?”
I gently hit my head against the trunk before pushing away. “I have, yes.”
“I know how he is with the ways of the written rules of the Realms, so has he hurt you?” Her worried brows pull together, and her eyes soften.
My head slightly shakes. “No, he hasn’t.”
Her hands lift to her lips. “Good. I am glad to hear this.” She sighs. “He has a good heart, but he has been trained to never show the good, so I apologize if he ever gives you a reason to kill him.”
I choke on air, trying to find words to say, but I’m startled. Her calm presence is much different than his and I cannot believe she just apologized to me if I must kill him. If it ever comes down to that.
“Let's hope that never happens.” I force my lips to tug into a smile, trying to be as sincere as I can be, but all I want to do is find Florian, find Koen, and run like hell to the archives.
“Lykia?” A man's voice whispers from behind me, but I don’t have to look, I know that voice. Koen.
My stomach tightens as I notice her eyes glint with weariness as she places her hand over her chest. Koen walks around the tree, clearing his throat once he sees me, letting his hand rub against his forehead with a troubled edge. He avoids looking my way.
“Koen,” her voice aches. “Where have you been?”
My eyes flicker anxiously between the two of them, my chest constricting with an unfamiliar, almost suffocating sensation.
What the hell is this feeling? A knot forms in my stomach, twisting and coiling like a damn snake ready to strike, leaving me with a nauseating sense that I might vomit at any moment.
But I swallow it down, forcing it further inside me, and let my fingers dig into my palms as I watch the two of them crave each other with their eyes.
I want out of here. I need away from this.
I cannot be here to witness whatever love reunion this is.
It's burning a hole through my heart, and I cannot stop it. No matter how much I want it to stop. I don’t want to feel this.
If there is any curse in these Realms to never desire, to never want these men here, I would beg the Gods to curse me with it.
Koen is not mine. He will never be mine, I will make sure of that.
Maybe I am foolish, reckless, for allowing him to make me feel things I have never felt before.
No matter how the way his eyes linger on me makes my insides feel, down in the bottom pit of my stomach.
Burning. Aching. I have to stay on the true mission of my arrival here, Tilly.
“I was thrown into the games.” He scratches his brow, glancing my way for a mere second, and my stomach clenches.
Stop looking at me! I scream inside. I beg you to stop looking at me.
“I meant before that!” She strides forward. The tail of her dress gets caught in a branch, and she yanks it out without hesitation. “Where the hell have you been?”
“I can go—” I turn to slide out from their heated conversation.
“Absolutely not.” Koen interrupts me, halting me with his hand.
His palm rests against my stomach, and my eyes glance up towards him.
His eyes darken, staring at me with such intensity I forget how to breathe.
I’m suffocating. The way he is looking at me now reminds me of the way Florian has looked at me.
I need him to stop. I need them both to stop.
They are digging a grave for me… I can feel it.
“You know her?” Lykia's voice is laced with sadness as she asks this question and I begin to wonder, what the hell are they to each other?
“Yes. She is helping me.” He moves his hand away from my stomach, crossing his arms to face her way. “We are leaving to the archives, and you know I need to go.”
“Koen…” She drops to a low whisper, glancing around the forest trees to make sure no one is listening. “She will kill you, and you know that. I won’t be able to help this time.”
“I have to,” he growls, taking a step back away from her.
“Let me go with you.” Lykia reaches out to touch his arm, but he pulls back. I glance away, rubbing my lips together to avoid this uncomfortable position I have found myself in.
“Serene is coming with me, and we’ll be fine.”
“Oh, so now I am tossed aside for some…” Her eyes fall to my boots, glaring up at my body as her nostrils flare with a rage that I can feel burning inside her from where I stand. “Traitor to the Queen? A nobody?”
She did not just call me that.
I take a fierce stride towards her, my skin prickling with a rage that is impossible to hide by my nostrils flaring. “What did you just say?” I hiss, my voice dropping to a deep growl as my brows pull tightly in.
Koen steps in, halting me again with his hand. “It’s not worth it, Serene.” His eyes flicker between mine.
“Just remember Koen, my father will find you for what you did.” Lykia yanks her dress up, the bones and shells hitting against each other as she aggressively walks past us.
She takes a slight pause once she reaches Koen.
“You vowed to me that night under the blood moon that I was the sole woman to ever capture your heart, and that your heart would remain mine forever.”