11. Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
“Where are we going?” I asked, accompanying Dey through the castle. He still hadn’t answered my question about having magical powers. He just grabbed my hand, tugged me out of the Sylvarium, and took off down a labyrinth of hallways.
When I was about to ask if maybe he had gotten lost, he halted abruptly in front of a wooden door. I followed him through, and the blinding sunlight on the other side caused me to miss the first step down. I let out a surprised squawk as gravity flung me unceremoniously into Dey and knocked us both to the ground, his body twisting to cushion my fall as I landed on top of him.
He burst out laughing, and I couldn't help but join him for a second, pulled in by the sweetly innocent sound of his unfiltered joy.
When his laughter subsided, I waited for him to shift me off his chest, but his arms only wrapped around me tighter. His heart beat out a brisk tempo under my ear, my own speeding up to match.
I pulled back far enough to see that the amusement in his eyes had changed into something more serious and heated. Brushing a lock of hair from his face, I felt him harden underneath me. My own body melted in response to his obvious arousal, but the sane part of me recognized that sex was a complication I didn’t need.
I extricated myself from his arms and rolled off his chest.
“You could have stayed where you were,” he offered tenderly.
I climbed to my feet and assessed my body for new bruises. “I was crushing you. I’m not exactly petite.”
“You are to me,” he pointed out. “And I was not complaining.”
He didn’t move from the spot where we landed, looking at me with something like wishful dreaming. I hated to see that light in his eyes go out when all I did was put out a hand to help him up.
“Where are we?” I asked. We had entered a courtyard similar to the one at the front of the castle but much smaller with only one fountain and thankfully no diamond veins in the stone walls.
Dey led me over to the sculpture that continually tossed a fine mist into the air, and we sat on the bench beneath it.
“This is King Verren’s private courtyard. The Sylvarium is lovely, but the crescia would have made conversation a challenge.”
“Why?” I asked, tilting my head slightly. “I liked their soft, gentle coos.”
“Yes, they are charming creatures, but I was worried they might become a distraction since they are drawn to the potential power inside you.”
“Inside me ?” I asked, glancing down at my arms as if I might see some crackling energy leaking out.
“Yes, Princess. I am bonded to Thorell and the king’s crescia died many years ago so we are less appealing. You, however, are unbonded, and they can sense the rising power within you.”
“Yeah, about that…” I shoved a few loose strands of hair behind my ear and shifted on the bench to face him fully. “Can we talk about this whole magic thing? Because I’m pretty sure I would know if I had powers. It’s not like walking around all day with a coffee stain and wondering why people are snickering.”
Dey chuckled. “You would not have abilities in the Other Realm,” he explained, placing his hands on the bench behind him and settling back. “Your world is a place void of all magic. It was a very disconcerting feeling in truth as our power is tied to the Source. When I stepped through the portal, I could feel my magic being ripped from my body as it refused to leave this world. Now that you are here, we have no idea how long it will take before your abilities emerge.”
“What does that mean exactly?” I asked, exasperation filling my voice. “You all seem to have different powers.”
“Yes, that is accurate,” he agreed. “There are four types of magic. Our native healing magic is the most common as our bodies naturally are drawn to it. Mental magic is what you felt when I soothed your emotions, and it can manifest in many different ways. Elemental magic is, of course, the ability to manipulate an element such as water or air.”
“Okay,” I said, digesting his words. “And the fourth type?”
“Not much is known about creation magic. Most likely because they used to execute those who exhibited the ability.”
“What?” I gasped. “They murdered innocent children?”
He sat forward and took my hands in his. “Not children, Princess. Abilities do not manifest until adulthood. You must understand that in the early days, people still feared the return of overwhelming magic, and creation wielders are dangerous. Their magic allows the caster to bring forth something from nothing. There is no telling what someone could create with that ability. Thankfully there has not been an emergence of creation magic in many years.”
It horrified me that people were killed for something they couldn’t control, but I’d never been an idealist. I knew what people were capable of, and it would be ignorant to think Vitaeans would be any better. Still, there had to have been a better option than murder.
It was all too much to process, and the pressure in my throat grew tighter. “I need to get away from these walls so I can breathe. Is it okay if I go for a walk?”
“Of course,” Dey said, beaming at me as he stood. “I would be happy to escort you anywhere.”
“Ummm…” I shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, jamming my hands into the pockets of my shorts. “I was kind of hoping to go alone.”
Dey’s face fell so fast you would think I kicked him in the balls. I knew then that there could never be anything between us beyond friendship. I knew his kind. He was the type that got too attached. The type that wanted things I couldn't give.
And despite the fact that he technically abducted me here, I didn't want to break his heart when I left.
Tumultuous thoughts bounced around in my head as my feet took me out of the castle, past the rose garden, and down to the copse of trees. When I got closer I could see that they weren’t actually oak trees. The leaves were the wrong shape, and fruit that looked like pudgy, pink bananas hung from their limbs.
I was seconds away from snatching the fruit and shoving it into my mouth when another smell hit me. I sniffed deeply and let out a near-sexual groan as the smell of cooked meat wafted over on the breeze. Moving deeper into the woods, I headed in the direction of the small houses I'd seen earlier.
Boisterous male laughter reached my ears, and I followed it to a small cottage that couldn’t be much larger than my apartment back in Jersey. A stone pathway cut through the grass and ended at a set of stairs leading up to a spacious front porch. Blue shingles and white shutters added adorable accents to the sun bleached wooden walls, one of which was mostly covered in untamed ivy.
Smoke wafted up from the back of the home, and I made my way toward it, determined to convince them to share their food despite the language barrier.
Two dark-skinned males roughly my age sat on the back porch steps, laughing and drinking from glasses filled with amber liquid. My eyes barely skittered over them before landing on what I truly sought. A few feet from the house, in a section cleared of trees and grass, a hunk of meat rotated on a spit above a low fire.
I took a few steps closer and cleared my throat loudly. Two heads shot over to my position. Twins, I realized. They were identical in every way that I could see with matching mops of short dreadlocks, wide naturally upturned smiles with gleaming white teeth, and swirling tattoos along their arms that stopped short of their necks.
They both stood as I took a step forward. “Hi, um, I know you probably don’t understand me, but I was hoping to have some of your food?” I pointed at the meat, then back to myself, my hands making the motion of putting something in my mouth. “Meat,” I said louder, as if volume was the problem. “Can I have your meat?” I opened and closed my mouth, miming chewing an invisible burger.
To my surprise, both males burst into laughter, collapsing against each other as if they heard the best joke of their life.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded.
“You are, Princess,” the one on the right said.
“What the hell?” I blurted out, enraged not only that they spoke English, but that they were clearly laughing at me.
“We are sorry,” the one on the left said, “but we do not think it is a good idea for you to… eat our meat.”
That set them both off again, and they collapsed to the porch steps in a fit of laughter. I glared at them, trying to mask my embarrassment with anger, but the bright red of my burning cheeks was probably giving me away.
I stomped over and kicked the boot of the one on the left. “Hey, care to explain who you are and how you know English? I thought I met everyone who knew my language. And don’t call me princess. My name is Rain.”
Their laughter died off, but the amused grins wouldn’t leave their faces.
“Sorry, Princess,” the right one said, ignoring my request to be called Rain. “We are two members of the team that has been searching for you over the years. Dey told us this morning that you had arrived at the palace. We meant to introduce ourselves but…”
“We wanted to enjoy our time off more,” the other twin finished unabashedly, taking a hefty swig from his glass. On the porch behind them I saw a jug of the liquid that was nearly half empty.
“Are you drunk?” I asked incredulously, eyeing their glasses with a not small amount of envy.
“Just a little,” the right brother said.
“Quite a bit,” the left brother added.
I couldn’t help it; I grinned, my anger over their earlier teasing ebbing. These were the first people I’d met in this realm who weren’t taking everything so damned seriously. The pressure of supposedly being the chosen savior of an entire realm was just too much. I needed a break, if only for a few hours.
“So I'm your princess, yeah?”
They both nodded.
“Awesome. Well in that case consider my first royal decree that I need a drink and some food. Whatever you’re cooking smells insanely good.”
The brothers glanced at each other, a wordless conversation passing between them. The one on the left jumped up to offer me his seat on the porch while grabbing a discarded plate, and the other refilled his glass then handed it to me. I didn’t even bother to ask what it was before I downed half the liquid in two gulps. All I cared about was that it tasted delicious, like a rum and coke with honey.
I took another sip, and my eyes drifted down to the dying fire that flared back to life of its own accord when the spit started to rotate once more. I blinked a couple times. What the hell was in my drink?
“Am I hallucinating or is there no wood in that fire?” I asked the brother beside me who was lazily spinning his hand through the air. “Also, how is it turning?” The spit was nothing more than a metal rod set onto a few pieces of wood, yet it rotated in a smooth regular rhythm.
One brother laughed while the other brought me a plate of meat and said, “We are elemental casters. I am an igniservian so I’m holding the fire in place, and he is an aeriservian so he funnels the air that allows it to rotate.”
“Dang,” I said, starting to understand the appeal of magic in this world. “That’s badass.”
I tore into the food he handed me, devouring it in minutes, then tossed back more of the honey-booze, enjoying the feeling of relaxation that had started to wend its way through me. “So who are you guys, anyway?”
“My name is Camden, but you may call me Cam,” the one beside me said.
“And I am Ramset,” the one by the railing said. “But call me Ram.”
My eyes darted back and forth between them. “You go by Cam and Ram?” I tried not to laugh, but a small giggle snuck out anyway.
Crap. That couldn’t be good. I only giggled when I was drunk.
“I like you guys,” I said, laying my head back on the porch and staring up at the blue sky. I had a belly full of food and a pleasant buzz in my brain. Maybe I could get through these next few weeks.
“You are definitely not what we expected from our conversation with Dey,” Cam said. Or maybe it was Ram. I already forgot which was which.
“God, I can only imagine what he said about me. Wait, when did you talk to him?”
“This morning,” Cam or Ram said.
I remembered my morning encounter with Dey, and my cheeks flushed. “Do not believe a thing he said. He was the naked one and I swear I didn’t touch anything. I mean, yeah I peeked, but who wouldn’t…” My words trailed off when I caught both brothers grinning at me mischievously. “He didn’t say anything, did he?”
“Only that you had arrived, but please continue. Naked, you say?” He waggled his eyebrows at me, and I smacked him on the arm. The cottage tilted beneath me, rocking gently like calm ocean waves.
“It wasn’t like that,” I said, yawning. “Or it kind of was, but nothing happened. And nothing is gonna happen. Dey and me is not a good idea for a lot of reasons.”
“Such as…?” the brother below me asked.
“Oh, you know,” I waved my hand around loosely in the air, fighting to keep my eyes open. “Sex complicates things, and right now my life is complicated enough. Better if I don’t go down that road.” My eyes drifted shut, and I didn't try to open them. I would sit up when the world stopped spinning.
“Now you sound like Sin.”
“What’s a Sin?” I slurred, trying and failing to fight off the strong tug of exhaustion.
I didn’t hear their answer. The warm blanket of sleep had become too enticing to resist.