Chapter Twenty-Two
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
Two weeks flew by so fast it was unbelievable. Jileana had never known time to move so swiftly. Now the moon was almost full and that meant the gateway would be open for the next week.
Jaykun was ready to depart that same day.
He was preparing his trunk for his return.
He looked down at it and smiled. The entire time he had been there he hadn’t touched a single stitch of the clothing he had brought.
After so many weeks, he wondered how he would be able to bear the confinement of clothes, never mind armor.
He had never been so free as he had been these past weeks, in more respects than one.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had had so few demands on his time.
Oh sure, he had been busy overseeing Jalaya’s council meetings, had danced hard to keep Horgon in his place as he contemptuously took a seat at the table and did exactly what they’d expected of him: hindered more than helped.
It was clear that power was his goal, not the true will and needs of the selkie people.
If he gave a damn about them, he would have stopped balking and started helping.
In the end, Jaykun believed Jalaya would have no choice but to eliminate Horgon’s influence and threat, and he believed the empress was realizing that for herself.
But this was no longer any of his concern, he reminded himself. He was heading back … Well, he could hardly call it home. He didn’t have a home. He frowned. It was strange, but this place had begun to feel like home to him.
A dangerous thought. An unwelcome one. Home was merely an illusion of feelings.
A sense of comfort meant to soothe one’s soul whenever one was away.
It was a place of belonging, and he most certainly did not belong here amongst the selkies.
He was a man. Simply a man. A cursed man, an immortal man, but a man just the same.
He closed the trunk and looked around the cave one last time.
Jileana was not here yet. She had said she needed to do something before they went.
He had unpacked her dresses from his trunk for her, although he didn’t really know what use she would have for them here.
He felt a painful sensation in his gut as he came closer to realizing that he was mere minutes away from leaving her and never seeing her again.
The past weeks had been a whirlwind of unforgettable moments and lovemaking, and dozens of new and wondrous experiences in the world of the selkies. He did not deny that all of it had been made memorable and special just by Jileana’s presence.
He had grown very attached to her. He wouldn’t deny that. He would miss her when she was gone from his life. He did not examine too closely just how much he might miss her.
Then, as if his thoughts had conjured her, Jileana appeared at the mouth of the cave.
He looked away from her, unable to figure out what to say to her now that the moment of his departure was at hand.
He knew what v she felt for him—what she believed she felt for him—and he knew that it would cause her pain to let him go.
This distressed him because he wouldn’t wish any kind of pain on her and he didn’t know how to avoid it.
Perhaps he should’ve distanced himself from her beforehand, but he hadn’t been able to do anything of the kind.
He hadn’t wanted to color their time together with sad thoughts of the moment when he would eventually leave her.
It had been wholly selfish of him. But he hadn’t been able to be a better man. Now he would turn his back on her, swim through that portal, and never see her again … all the while knowing how much pain she would suffer in his absence.
“These go too,” she said, making him realize she had come closer as he had wrestled with his thoughts. She picked up the dresses he had set aside and put them inside the trunk. He looked at her and raised an inquisitive brow. “I will need something to wear,” she explained.
He tensed from head to toe. “Jileana,” he said with warning in his tone, even as a part of him leapt with joy at the idea of her coming with him. A surprisingly large part of him.
“Just for the week,” she said quickly. “Until the portal closes. Then I will return home.”
He hesitated. He had intended to make a clean break from her, and that was exactly what he should do. Right here and right now.
But the idea of having another week of Jileana was too delightful to resist. His whole body relaxed as if a great weight had been removed from it and he gave her a measured smile.
“Very well. But I think you might be making this harder on yourself in the long run. I do not wish to increase your pain.”
“My pain will not be increased by another week with you. It will be relieved by it,” she said softly as she moved into his arms. She reached to kiss his mouth, but he avoided her for a moment.
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I would not wish to cause you hurt.”
“Then do not leave me,” she said simply with a shrug of a single shoulder. “That is the only way you will avoid causing me pain. But,” she said quickly when he opened his mouth to speak, “since you will not do that, I will gladly postpone my pain until a week from now. All right?”
He had little choice but to hesitantly nod his assent. So she packed the dresses and gave them a satisfied pat.
“Now come with me. The empress wishes to say farewell before you leave.”
“I had every intention of saying goodbye to her of course.”
“I know you did. Come.”
“What about the trunk? Is Dremu coming with us?”
As if the mention of his name had conjured him, Dremu appeared in the mouth of the cave.
For the first time in weeks, he was wearing the clothes he had arrived in, having gone native himself sometime after the first week.
But the sight of his clothing told Jaykun that Dremu was indeed going with them.
“Only for the week,” he explained. “I’m coming with my mistress and will return with her.
I like it here, I do. I’m as different here as I was in the Overworld, but they don’t seem to care none.
They treat me with kindness and respect and fascination.
I’m sure the novelty will wear off one day, that maybe one day I’ll want to go back through the portal, back to the Overworld, but I can tell that day is a long time away.
And, well, there’s this girl …” He flushed.
“I ain’t never had a woman before, but she wants to be my woman. Her name’s Luzi.”
Jileana beamed at him. “Oh, Dremu! I’m so happy to hear that! And I know Luzi. She’s a very nice girl. I hope you’ll be very happy together.”
Dremu blushed. “Seems like we might be,” he said bashfully.
Jileana gave him an enthusiastic hug, which only made him blush a deeper red. “Dremu, can you take the trunk and meet us at the portal?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Good,” she said with a smile. “Come, let’s say goodbye to the empress.
” She grabbed Jaykun’s hand and led him to the ledge of the cave’s exit.
Then, without a second thought, she dived off.
Jaykun had since grown used to her diving from such great heights, and he had grown used to taking those dives himself.
So he followed her down, cutting cleanly into the water with hardly a splash to be had.
They arrived at the underwater palace minutes later, Jileana’s father meeting them at the front gate.
“There’s something of an uproar in council chambers,” he warned them. “Horgon and his usual nonsense.”
“I trust Jalaya can handle him,” Jaykun said.
“Indeed she’s gotten quite adept at it,” Creasus agreed. “But it may mean she won’t be able to say a proper farewell.”
“That’s all right. We’ll take what we can get.”
Jileana’s father looked at his daughter with something like sadness in his eyes. “Take care, my daughter,” he said, kissing her forehead for a long moment.
“I will, Father. And I will return,” she promised.
“Good. Your mother would miss you,” he said. But it was clear he too would truly miss her if she did not return as promised.
They entered the council chambers a short while later to hear Horgon’s voice booming throughout the open water of the room.
“You are a disgrace to your crown! I swear to you, I will rip it from your head as soon as I am able!” he hurled at Jalaya. She was sitting at the head of the table and Horgon at the foot. Horgon was standing, shouting at her the length of the table away.
Jalaya stood up slowly, outrage simmering in her eyes. “Enough! I have had enough of your insults! I am your queen! You will not treat me thus!”
“And who will stop me?” he demanded of her, his son stepping in to stand at his elbow, a show of force against her.
“I will! Guards! Take Horgon to the chains!” she said, a terrible tone in her voice warning them all she had been pushed too far.
“For what?” Horgon demanded to know, although he didn’t seem so cocky as the guards closed in on him.
“Treason,” Jaykun said. “Anyone who disrespects or threatens the empress is a traitor and should be punished because of it.”
Jalaya turned grateful eyes onto Jaykun, but the expression was fleeting as suddenly Horgon drew the blade attached to his side, his son doing the same, and they faced off with the guards advancing on them.
Jaykun swam forward in a flash, leaving Jileana behind and insinuating himself into the fight, grabbing up a sword that had been taken from one of the guards.
Jaykun dodged a deadly swing by Horgon, and in a flash of movement that proved how well used to moving in water he had become these past weeks, he was holding Horgon by his hair from a position behind him and had the blade against his throat.
“Stop!” he commanded Barban, who was still fighting the guards. “Stop or I end this contention with your father once and for all!”
Barban had no choice but to stop. The guards disarmed him and seized him by his arms.