38. Regent
REGENT
Ihad, for the longest of times, watched over her. The young princess, who often cried because she had magic in her blood, unlike her father and former ancestors. She was the first to break the line among a kingdom that feared and hated greers.
On the edge of Hemmont and the city closest to the old temple of prayer to the god Neina, lay the city of Ethera, known for its eccentric appeal and docks closest to cross the seas to the land of Graftore.
I should’ve known how cunning that king might’ve been to get his hand out of debt.
I shouldn’t have been outwitted so easily.
But I couldn’t simply turn away as I watched the maiden desperately grow into a beautiful woman and so inevitably wither inside as she tried to hide away from her given powers.
I sensed her every time she approached my territory, into the steep mountains that most feared.
But as she always crept in unguarded, the little princess had now become a woman.
I realized she probably hoped that something would take her life, a job she couldn’t manage herself.
And for all the times I’d watched that bewitching woman enter the mountains with loose resolve and intention of giving in to the wilderness, she always dragged herself back to the main city.
Until one day, something did try to catch her, and it changed my life and fortune for the rest of my days.
A stray marvel had cornered her. I heard her scream and watched on, as was my role as the demigod tied to the land.
I never interacted with humans, and none had yet seen me.
I was only ever meant to observe. But I heard their whispers of thanks and prayer to keep their crops alive and enrich their soils.
Never had I served a more blessed purpose for all my entirety and hundreds of years of existence until that very day.
The marvels were skittish creatures, a wild spotted dog on the top half and a scorpion on the bottom.
They very rarely entered my territory and even more strangely were never alone.
I’d assumed it was a young one who’d lost its way from its pack.
The tail was to be feared more than what the canines could tear through.
Without even thinking, I instinctively ran out, jumping over her frail frame, and lunged for the marvel that was so tiny in comparison to my own might.
It was as simple as slamming down one paw, his tail acting as a thorn.
Green oozed on my beautiful white fur, and I knew the consequence of that pinprick would last a delirious number of hours.
Not even I was an exception to the dark beast’s poison.
I looked over my shoulder at the woman who was the first to witness who and what I was, the beauty of which I was in my most prestigious form.
I expected fear, but instead I was greeted with admiration.
I was beautiful, but oh, how I was lethal, and this daring greer who couldn’t defend herself, even with a stick if it were provided for her, watched me with an unnerving intensity.
As the poison made quick work through my bloodstream, I sloppily made my escape into the high foliage.
The soil around me festered and cracked—an ominous indication of how much poison I’d taken and what it would do to the land surrounding me if I were to ever jeopardize myself so recklessly again.
I wasn’t a creature, nor some cursed beast. I was intuitively something more, with a knowing purpose and connection with the magic of the land and its regeneration.
I was the son of Neina— worshipped by many but seen by none.
And it equally made me just as vulnerable.
I’d collapsed, and when I awoke, the frail princess was tending to my wounds. No one had ever known of my habitats until now. This woman, who was a quarter of my size, was wrapping a human cloth around my paw with a man-made concoction.
But I couldn’t harm or push her away any more than what felt natural.
I slowly fell in love with her every time she returned to my mountain.
My love for her also was the demise and unraveling of all I’d been built for.
And when I chose to be selfish, feeding into her lies and promises, I found myself undone and far too sickly, tainted by the human world.
How the memory of her scorched me in such a way—a continuous bleeding wound that had begun to fester the day I saved her—and I understood the magnitude of love and devastation.
And now another voice called out to me… commanding and concerned.
Spirited with might that could match my own as the demigod I was originally born.
That fluttering voice was like a binding, yanking me out of my solace and back to resurface into the dawn of a new day that I often didn’t want to face.
Ismell her first, the undertone of spice and something dark. Her back is pressed against me, and my arm hangs over her, holding her close. My markings hold a more vibrant blue than usual, as they always have the night of a full moon.
Esther murmurs in her sleep, and I take the moment to roll in her warmth, memories from last night coming in waves.
The beast and I are not so different, though we don’t always agree.
She’s lucky we didn’t kill her. At the very least, I’m certain she’d be able to put me down, especially since in my beast form, my magic is a trickle of its magnitude, courtesy of the curse placed on me.
I dare not move, but I shift enough so I can admire her thick eyelashes and the fine lines around her face. The hollow of her cheeks, the dip of her curves even under the leather coat, where comparatively I lay naked beside her.
What am I going to do with you?
Both man and beast. She is the second woman I’ve let see me in this form. The first tricked and forced me into this curse of a man. But as I lie here right now, I can’t hate it so much. But I can’t ignore the lingering sense that I’m only falling for the same trick twice.
Because one thing I’ve learned of man and power is that they all want it, some more cunning than others. So, what happens with an omni greer, who in her own right can have it all, regardless of me.
She moans and shifts farther back into me, her ass pressing against my cock.
“You’re doing that on purpose,” I growl, nipping at her ear.
A suave smile crosses her features. “Am I?” her voice is raspy, freshly woken. The cold doesn’t affect me, but I know she’s most likely freezing.
“Why did you stay the night?”
She shuffles in my arms, resting her head on my outstretched arm. “Because it’s where I was called to be.”
My heart shifts. An unpleasant serenity folding over me as the beast that I try so often to ignore rolls in her like she’s the sun he’s been waiting for, drowned in only moonless nights.
“It’s dangerous when I’m in my god form. I’m not entirely myself.”
“You once said that I’m dangerous too. Besides, you and your beast aren’t so different; you both seem to grumble in complaint, even though you sit when you’re told to.”
I pinch at her ribs, and she laughs, the sound echoing through the cave. “I do not get told anything,” I remind her as I lean in, more beast than man as I growl into her ear, my cock only further hardening.
Her hand cups my jaw, and she strokes, staring into my eyes and making me unnerved now that she has seen all of me. “What happened to you?”
My jaw ticks, a lifetime of keeping to myself, harboring secrets, and hiding in the shadows, asking for me to become something that I am not.
Honest. But an omni greer who is willing to let me hold her like this, after seeing what I am, at the very least deserves truths when I’ve forced Esther to tell me hers.
“I once thought I loved a greer, and what was meant to be a blessing turned out to be a curse. I was turned into a greer to be with her. Princess Katarina, at the time. She lulled me into thinking of love as this grand, beautiful thing, only to have guards surround me and lock me away close to a full moon. I hadn’t known that my curse was conditioned.
The three days on either side of every full moon, my magic depletes to near nothing, and on the full moon, I return to my former glory, but only in form alone. ”
She curls into me deeper, her legs entwining with mine as she listens to my story. It’s strange to say it out loud, to someone who might be the only salvation for me, and the fear of her denying me, of refusing to help me, is visceral.
“When I was locked away, the Fates helped me escape, but I often look back, wondering if it was ever worth it to continue. Fifteen years now, I’ve loathed my existence, hunted by King Saldom, who, only a moon later, married Katarina.
It’s evident that a deal was made, and I was a mere fool caught in the crossfire for a bigger gambit.
Katarina has since lived in King Saldom’s rule in Graftore, and so I took to the Boey Jungle, abandoning my post and duty.
The longer I remain in this form, the longer the earth will gradually decay. ”
“And is that what you want? To go back?” she asks quietly.
“I have no choice. I’m an abomination as I am now.
I hate this world, these people, these politics.
Between the gods and the humans, they are all the same.
There is no place for me other than being alone.
I refuse to be caught and turned into a randor blade.
I refuse to fall for another political gain. I just want to go back to being.”
“Where it was easy?”
I shake my head. “Where it was quiet.”
She swallows, and I study her breathing, as if she’s lulling me into peace as a fine drop bounces into the water pool. Grimace remains sleeping on top of a rock in the corner of the cave.
“That’s why the Ariagem was important to you.”
“Yes. I’m bound to the land I was born in. Without it, I can’t go to the places that call to me with the other artifacts. I need those to free myself from this curse and prison.”
A subtle sadness shifts in her, and her magic spikes, always giving away a face she thinks she’s masked.
“Why haven’t you tried to find the first artifact yet?”
That pindrop hits the water again. The words lodge in my throat. Because of you. Vulnerability and truth are the same. I am still not so much of a good man that I can leave myself exposed.
“I promised to help you first, so in return you can help me.” The truth, but not all of it, and my inner beast grinds his jaw, not happy with my cowardice.
Her throat bobs, but then she allows me the reprieve and quietly asks, “How old are you?”
“Four hundred and eighty-six.”
She whistles, staring up at the top of the cave, disbelieving. “And in all that time, you still only know how to be an asshole?”
I chuckle, pinching at her ribs again. “What about you, smart-ass, your only form of defense is a viper tongue, which I’m sure hasn’t always served you well.”
Her head lazily rolls over, and she smiles. “But you like it.”
“I do.” That undeniable tension ripples between us, our magic of light and dark dancing and folding over one another. “But my stamina is certainly that of a man in his early twenties.”
The scent of her arousal flares my nostrils, perfuming me in the most aphrodisiac smell, my inner beast rolling in it.
My weakness in between full moons has become her.
I hate playing into the Fates’ hands, nor can I deny myself the one thing I’ve wanted to do since I pulled her out of Lake Mahoori.
Protect her.
Laugh with her.
Lie with her.
I cup her cheek, gently stroking her delicate features. Her mismatched eyes study me, weary, and it reassures me that we both have bleeding hearts. That we know whatever this is between us is most likely doomed, but I can’t deny myself or my beast our claiming.
A demigod does not fall in love.
An omni greer does not favor a son born of Neina.
Magic on either side of a coin.
I lean in and kiss her, finally taking what is owed to me.
Finally claiming her as mine.