Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Isat up the next morning, waiting for my head to hurt, or at least my body to ache or something.
Nothing. I felt no different.
I recalled Shad’s memory in my dream, and I smiled.
He had only ever wanted me. He had loved me even before he had met me, and as insane as it sounded, it made my soul sing with joy.
I looked to the left side of my bed and saw Ryker sleeping among the white, cream, and pink blankets and pillows, his blond curls covering his eyelids.
His hair was getting long. I had never seen it so long before.
I watched him for a time as he slept. He was a very cute boy.
He wasn’t dark and handsome like Shad, but he was good looking.
I leaned against the headboard and stared at him, watched as the morning light peeked through an opening in my curtains and rested upon his chest. He looked so peaceful.
I couldn't remember him looking that peaceful in such a long time.
I wondered if I was, or had always been, a job to him, but he had never treated me like work. I felt it from the top of my head to the tips of my toes that he cared about me, truly cared about me and my family.
But– I thought. Is that only because he is a knight? Is that what he is supposed to feel? Does the ancient magic inside of him cause him to feel that way?
“How long exactly do you plan on staring at me there, birthday girl?” His eyes were still closed, and I folded my arms across my chest, trying to maintain the happy feelings from my dream of Shad, and not on unpleasant birthday things.
“I don't know. How long are you going to be laying there in my pink sheets with the worst bedhead?” I asked, trying not to laugh. He opened his eyes and then looked down.
“Pink is a manly color, I will have you know, Em.”
“Oh, is that so?” I asked, laughing at him. It felt good to laugh.
“‘Only real men wear pink.’ I know you have heard that saying before.”
“Maybe, but still, I gotta say, it's not your color.” I was lying, of course, because, hello, he could wear any color and pull it off.
“I take offence to that, Princess.” He sat up and moved the pink blanket off from on top of him.
“Good, now you should probably go so that Mary doesn’t freak out.”
“Why would Mary freak out?” he asked as he walked over to the edge of the bed, picking up his shoes.
“Um, you are a guy–in my bed. Hello? I am sure she wouldn't be happy with you sleeping in here the last little while,” I said, raising my hands.
“Oh, that's cute. Really, you think I’m like an Earthling. No, Emma, she will not care in the slightest. I am not a teenager. I do not have the same, shall we say, urges or desires that drive them?” He tied his shoes while sitting on the edge of my bed, and I shoved his back.
He didn't budge. Of course, he didn't budge.
“Don't call me, ‘cute,’ like I am some little girl, and stop talking about stuff like that. It's weird.”
“You know, technically, I am a lot older than you.”
“I don't think I need reminding about our age difference. I get it. Terrans live long, long lives, and they age slowly. So how old are you, like five-hundred?” He stood and smoothed his pants as he looked at me, shaking one of his legs to get the pant leg to cover his laces.
“Not sure,” he shrugged
“Don't buy it.”
“I mean, I am not sure in Earth years. I will have to calculate it and get back to you on that one.”
“Okay, grandpa,” I teased. It was just too easy.
“Do I look like a grandpa to you, Em?”
I froze. Words very similar had been spoken to me before.
I had a conversation like this, only a short while ago, with a dark-haired boy with golden eyes on my front porch.
I heard the words echo inside of me, the words he had said, and I remembered the smile on his face, the look in his eyes as he said: “Do I look like an old man to you, Emma?”
Shad had asked me that same question on the day he told me everything.
“Em, you okay?” I felt hands on my shoulders, warmth spilling from them, and I looked up into a pair of blue eyes. I felt horrible for wishing that they were golden instead.
“Yeah, sorry.” I shook my head and climbed off of the bed, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I am fine.”
He gave me a look, which I knew meant that he didn't believe me, and, of course, I was not going to tell him anything about it.
I got the feeling Ryker would consider me more than just a friend.
As in, he liked me, like he wanted to date me, or so he made it appear that way in the hospital, and ever since being back.
Maybe, if Shad had never existed, I would have pulled Ryker to me and would have kissed his face off.
Heck, I wanted that when I was a little girl, but I knew that my heart was Shad’s from the moment I first felt his soul’s melody.
It was like I was changed from it, never to be the same person again.
I was only one-half of a person before meeting him, and only together did we create something beautiful and complete.
Okay, I understand how that sounds, I argued with myself.
I knew that saying things like ‘Shad is my other half,’ made it seem like I believed that I am not a complete person without him.
But, I was starting to see that when people used that term, ‘my other half,’ they may have had a different meaning altogether.
Because, yes, I was my own person. Here I was, after all, standing in front of a worried Ryker.
I had a body; I had a soul, and because I was a Magical princess, I also had a melody.
They were all mine. Sure, I was an entire human being without any man.
Sure—go women's movement—but, with Shad, when his melody was singing along with mine, when his hand held mine, it somehow made me more brave, and when his lips were against my lips—heck, even his person in close proximity to me, it somehow made me more than what I could have ever been on my own.
He filled the gaps within the whole me. After I came to understand what I could have, I didn't want anything less than that.
I looked at Ryker. He was such an incredible person.
He deserved so much more than what I could offer him.
Even if Shad left and made his way to the Ancient Lands, I would still be his; I couldn't help it.
I also wasn't going to be one of those girls, or okay, one of those people who ran at the first sign of trouble.
Shad had no soul, and that's a big deal. It was stolen by his stalker brother who, let’s be honest, I wasn't sure if he even was a complete person.
He has one too many screws loose—if you know what I am saying.
I take offence to that.
Of course he did; I shoved Cade’s voice away.
“Mary is coming. Ten bucks says that she doesn't care one bit that I slept in your bed last night.”
Pulled out of my musings by Ryker’s statement, I placed my hands on my hips.
Oh, it was so on. There was no way Mary was going to be okay with a boy sleeping in my bed.
To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure that I was okay with it, myself.
“Make it twenty, and you have a deal.” I reached my hand out to shake his. He smirked as he took it and shook.
“Ah, good. There you are, Ryker. Happy birthday, Emma,” Mary said as she entered the room.
She looked at me, and then at Ryker who had in the split second after we shook hands, dove back onto the bed.
She looked back at me and then reached for me, pulling me into a hug.
“I am so glad that you two have each other.”
I pulled away from her, my mouth open in shock.
“Mary, he slept in here last night,” I said as she smiled warmly up at me.
“Oh, good, Ryker. You should just do that every night, especially now that Cade is around.” I turned to look at a way-to-happy, smirking Ryker, who nodded.
“Uh, Mary—”
“Okay, I just needed to tell you that I am leaving early this morning, and I know you didn't want anything for your birthday, but we are going to have cake tonight.” She kissed my cheek and ran out the door with a, “Have a good day!” before I could object.
I turned to look at Ryker who was laughing so hard.
“What the heck was that?” I said, throwing a pillow at his smug face.
“What? I told you—or wait. Is this about the cake?” He caught the pillow, and I frowned.
“No, why doesn't she care that you have been sleeping in here?”
“Because, Emma, I am your knight, and I cannot ever do anything to hurt you. It is against my whole being.”
“Yeah, but you guys don’t even kiss more than one person on Terra, and you are saying sleeping in the same bedroom isn't a big deal?”
“If I had been anyone else, I would be dead right now.”
“Huh—” I said, sinking to the chair at my desk. There was so much about guardian knights that I didn't understand.
“I am going to go home and change; then I will come back to pick you up for school, but I have to take Shad, too.”
“For the millionth time, Ry, I really don't mind walking.”
“Are you sure? Even on your birthday?”
“Yes, positive, actually, and please stop it with the birthday stuff.” Although I loved Shad, I didn't like seeing him as a soulless, and I tried to avoid him as much as humanly possible. Yes, maybe that was a jerk move, but so be it. I watched Ryker’s feet as he headed for the door.
He stood in front of it and paused, and my gaze traveled to his face.
“Oh, and I will get the twenty dollars you owe me later.” He winked at me, and I threw a pencil at him, and he caught it, which made me stomp my foot as the door closed. “I am a knight, Emma. I have awesome reflexes, and many other amiable qualities,” he called through the door.
“Amiable?”
“Yes.”