Chapter 18
MORRIGAN
Azrael laughed from the balcony of my mother’s room as I sat with Tristan in the garden.
Instead of having him just enter my mind immediately, he decided to implement a “meditation time” to practice building my mental walls first. He insinuated that the more I understood myself, the more control I would have.
So, we sat across from each other, quiet and calm, with our eyes closed. Well, with my eyes closed.
I didn’t know how he expected me to actually focus when I could feel his eyes from a mile away.
Even without being able to see him, I sensed him.
First, my nose would get the slightest tingle.
Then, the tiny hairs on the back of my neck would begin to rise.
It was similar to the feeling I would get when he’d talk to me through my mind.
But today, I was able to distract myself with the sound of Azrael’s voice—the happiest I had ever heard it.
I think it made my mother happy as well, being able to take care of a young child again.
I didn’t know what I would have done without her this whole time.
I had never taken care of anyone but myself, and now I was suddenly responsible for another person’s life. If anything happened to him…
“You’re not focusing,” Tristan drawled, chastising me.
I opened one eye to glare at him before shutting it again and straightening my back. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t help when you keep staring at me.”
“Do you not like being looked at?” he asked, half of him seemingly curious, the other obviously teasing me.
“Not particularly.”
Do I make you nervous?
I jumped and opened my eyes from hearing his voice without him actually speaking. “Tristan! You said you wouldn’t—”
My words paused when I looked at him—lips parted wide in a smile. Seeing him laugh wasn’t what stopped me, but it was the boyish glint in his eyes that made him look so…. human. This man—who had been ripped from his family, his world, raised in a land filled with rot and death— was also just a boy.
“Tristan,” I said, tilting my head to the side as the thought formed. “If Rosina never came back, who took care of you? You were just a baby. Someone had to have—”
“I did,” a strong, feminine voice called out nearby.
When I turned, I noticed a girl close to my height approaching. She wore an old-fashioned gown, one from a different style than I had ever seen. Long black hair had been braided, and it lay over her shoulder. The closer she got, the stranger I felt.
Trying not to forget my manners, I quickly stood to greet her, but a chill ran down my spine once I finally got a good look at her face.
“Wow,” she said, though the uninterest in her voice didn’t escape me as she turned to Tristan. “You weren’t wrong. It is eerie.”
It was like a mirror had been placed in front of me, and I was seeing a slightly older version of myself. Sure, there were slight differences—a freckle here, a smile line there, but from her blue eyes to her black hair, Gods, she could have passed as my sister.
“Who… Who are you?” I asked, and the warm air seemed to have been chased away by a sudden crispness.
“Mara.”
Neither of us reached a hand for the other, but instead, Mara plucked a curl that hung over my chest and examined me in a way that made me feel a little less human. “They really outdid themselves, didn’t they?”
“I’m sorry?” I responded, not understanding what she meant.
When she laughed, it left a bitter taste in my mouth that made me more uncomfortable than I wanted to admit.
“I wish I could have seen his face.” These words came out as more of a whisper, and she wasn’t even looking at me as she spoke.
“Mara,” Tristan warned.
I was getting slightly more irritated by the second. Why did this woman look like me? Why was she speaking as if she knew me? And who was she even talking about?
A sound caused the bushes to rustle near the tree line. Instinctively, I pulled Mara behind me and stretched out a hand, feeling the flame ignite faster than it ever had before. “What was that?” I asked, my eyes glowing so brightly that it illuminated the space around.
A deep, reverberating snarl echoed from the darkness, a sound I had heard when Azrael and I ran into that creature in the woods. And, as I had suspected, two large paws peeked through the shadows, stepping into my light, and a large beast entered the garden.
I instantly recognized its pale, grey eyes as they stared into mine, a challenge playing on its bloodied lips.
“Would you tell him to stop?” Mara said behind me, yanking away from my hand like it offended her. “He’s going to scare the poor—”
Before she could finish her words, the beast lunged, jumping in the air so high I had to crane my neck back.
I shoved Mara to the side before lifting my hands to try and block his attack.
But just as a scream tore from my throat, I felt a woosh of air over my head, and something fell to the ground behind me. Then, laughter.
When I turned, a man lay on the ground, clutching his stomach as his body practically convulsed from laughing so hard.
My chest rose and fell in panting heaves, and the power still buzzed in my hands as I gaped at him.
He had white, messy hair with dirt clung to its locks.
His skin was paler than anyone I had ever seen before, and as I looked down at his body…
“Gods!” I yelled, quickly turning away and clamping my hands over my eyes. “He’s… He’s… Why is there a naked man on the ground?!
This caused Tristan to chuckle a little as I listened to feet shuffling behind me. “Would you put some clothes on, Mal?” Tristan said to him.
Mal?
“I got her good, didn’t I?” The man continued his laughter, almost maniacally. “For a second, I thought she was actually going to kill me!”
“You’re so damned childish, Malakai,” Mara groaned. “You can turn around. The shirt is covering his… least favorable parts now.”
“I’ll have you know, most women consider them my best parts,” he—Malakai responded.
Nervously, I turned my head over my shoulder and peeked through my fingers. The shirt came down enough to cover him, and I let out a breath of relief.
“Did that scare you?” he asked, his smile somehow brighter than his hair. “That glow in your eyes? He let out a groan as his eyelashes fluttered. “That was exciting. I mean, if you want to see proof—”
“We’re leaving,” Mara suddenly announced, digging her fingers into his ear as she began to drag him away.
Malakai yelped like a wounded animal, but followed closely behind her. “You make pain not fun, you know that?”
The entire interaction between the both of them happened so fast, I felt like I was experiencing whiplash. It took me a couple of seconds to recover before moving from where I stood. Eventually, I turned to Tristan. “Okay, what was—”
Gods save me…
“I’m sorry about that,” Tristan began. He scratched his head, clearly embarrassed, but I couldn’t really see his face. My eyes were locked in on the now shirtless man standing in front of me. His chest was covered in the same dark marks that I had seen before, and… and I was staring.
Morrigan, stop it, I scolded myself as a familiar heat blossomed in my chest. I hadn’t realized that he was still talking until I looked back up at his lips, which were actively moving. “What did you say?” I interrupted him.
The moment a smirk stretched along his lips, my cheeks flushed, and I pressed my lips together tightly.
“Nothing,” he lied. “Why don’t we pick this up tomorrow. Clean up, rest, and I can properly introduce you all at dinner tonight. Alright?”
I nodded my head in agreement and turned away as quickly as I could, picking up my pace as I walked back to the stairs leading inside. From behind, I heard the remnants of a thought fading into the distance.
… doesn’t even know how perfect she is…
My blush deepened.
I sat at the table, staring down at my food as the room filled with more noise than usual.
Between Mara yelling at Malakai, Malakai refusing to take any breaths between his words, and Azrael’s laughter, it was… a lot. However, it was also the most I had heard Tristan speak before. His face lit up when talking to Malakai, indicating a rather close relationship between the pair.
Tristan and I didn’t talk a lot. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get to know him, it was just that… I didn’t know how. How do you go from hearing someone in your mind for the past ten or more years to seeing them in person? It still felt like a dream to me, and now he felt like a stranger to me.
“Little wolf!” Malakai yelled out, the nickname catching my attention and drawing my eyes to him. From his pocket, he pulled out a tiny dagger, half the size of the ones sheathed along the leather strap crossing over his chest. “I made this for you.”
I gasped loudly as he tossed it into the air, throwing the blade in Azrael’s direction.
I all but leapt over the table, slamming it down onto the black wood, and my heart thumped rapidly.
My surprise quickly morphed into anger, which directed itself straight toward the manic, white-haired beast sitting nearby.
“What is wrong with you?!” I seethed, dragging the knife toward me and sitting back down. “He is a child! You can’t throw a knife at him and expect him to just catch it!”
Malakai didn’t seem fazed by my irritation. Instead, he shook his head and smiled before pulling another dagger out, the same size as the last one. “Don’t worry, bud. I made more.”
This time, he threw it quicker than I could stop him, and my heart stopped beating just before Azrael’s hand reached up, catching it on its hilt.
He looked at me with pride in his eyes, but an apologetic smile on his lips.
“I’ve been practicing. Mr. Malakai spends time with me while you are in the garden with Mr. Tristan. ”
I shook my head, attempting to shove down my annoyance, and scowled at Malakai. “He’s barely eight years old.”
But Malakai matched my gaze, refusing to back down or even bothering to lower his smile.
“I-If I may,” my mother cut in, slicing the tension between us with her soft voice. “He’s been very careful with him, and Azrael is extremely talented. It… might be good for the boy to learn how to defend himself for when you decide to—”
Tristan cleared his throat, and my mother sat back in her seat. “I should have told you. I’m sorry. If you’d like, we can have Malakai train him outside nearby. That way, you can keep an eye on him.”
As I looked at Azrael’s pleading eyes, I realized that this battle was one I wouldn’t win.
Perhaps they were right. Azrael of all people would need to be able to defend himself, and I still didn’t fully understand his power.
Could he use it against multiple people at once? Did it take a toll on him?
“Where have you guys even been?” I asked the table.
If Malakai had been training Azrael, then that meant they were around here somewhere. But it had been roughly two weeks now, and I hadn’t even seen a sign of anyone else residing in the castle.
“Tristan thought you might want some time to adjust,” Mara spoke up, still not meeting my eyes. “So, while you were resting, Malakai and I went to stay somewhere else for a little while.”
How big is this world? I thought to myself. I had only seen two small parts of it, but… was it as large as mine? Did even more monsters lurk in other places?
“So, princess,” Malakai said. “I must admit, I am a little offended. You watched me turn from a beast to a naked man in mere seconds, and yet you haven’t asked me what I am.”
His lips pushed out in a mocking pout that made me want to roll my eyes. Aside from the fact that he was obviously insane, he kind of reminded me of Dez in a way.
“I get the sense you’re about to tell me now,” I countered, my eyes still straying to the girl sitting next to him.
Tristan chuckled, and with that, Malakai stood, pushing out his chair.
“Allow me to formally introduce myself, Your Grace.” He dipped into what was clearly a mocking bow.
“My name is Malakai. Like you and your lords, I do not have a family name. I am a lycan, or as your gods like to call us, a hound.”
The last word left his lips in obvious distaste, but his expression shifted so quickly that I almost missed it.
“You see, during your gods’ war, they needed something a bit more powerful than a mortal to be able to defeat the vampyres.
So, they created the lycans with venom that could kill a vampyre in mere seconds.
But, it isn’t very easy to control a wild animal now, is it?
So, a few of us were gifted a rare ability. ”
Malakai lifted his hand as if to examine it. With a quick glow of his eyes, his nails began to grow into bone-like claws.
“Pack alphas were granted the ability to shift into mortals. That way, the gods could give us our orders, and we could relay it to our packs.”
“I… I thought Rosina created the mon—creatures used in the war.” I felt embarrassed for even opening my mouth, knowing what I knew now, and remembering that her son sat beside me.
“Well, now you know who really did.” The humor in Malakai’s voice dropped, and he lowered his hand, nails receding as he sat down to finish his food.
I turned to Mara. She stared off in the distance, her mind clearly spinning with something she didn’t want to share. “And you?” I asked her. “Are you like… him?”
She didn’t look at me. She just stood from the table to excuse herself. “No, Morrigan. I’m not.” Without so much as a goodbye to either of the men, she began walking out of the dining room.