Chapter 25 Erik
ERIK
The little old Bavadrin’s hand pressed to my chest, keeping me back. She was impressively strong for both her small size and age.
“Don’t you dare interfere with this.” Edda sounded vicious.
I was not sure who she thought she was. Did she desire to be reduced to ash?
Iver stood beside me. His gaze fell upon Edda, her hand pressed into my chest, and then back to the makeshift arena. For the first time in his life, he appeared serious and focused on what was occurring around him.
Ariana stood in the open circle, while her opponent, who was both larger than her and more muscular, pulled out a sword.
The hand fell from my chest, but the hag stood there looking up at me.
“That girl is the only thing in this entire world that I love,” she said with such viciousness that I believed her.
“If you think I would allow her to place herself in harm’s way with no hope of a victory, then you are sorely mistaken. ”
An intense desire to toss the nuisance of a woman out a window came over me.
“How is she supposed to stand against someone with a sword when all that she has is a dagger?” Kole asked Edda, whose black eyes lit up at the question, and she released a small laugh.
“That idiotic boy is trying to fight with force because that is all he has ever known. Ariana needs the dagger only to draw his blood, not to win.” She smiled devilishly.
“I don’t understand.” Kole looked at Edda as if she had just lost her last marble, though I was reasonably sure she lost it long ago.
Edda laughed. The sound was unbelievably irritating. “The girl fights with something much more powerful than a simple sword. She has the hearts of her people. That is why she is the one to become Leader Superior.”
Edda turned to me. “You have seen the way the people respond to her when she walks through the city. They are drawn to her, and they are drawn to her now.” The little terror of a woman then turned to watch, her back to me.
“Prepare yourselves. You are about to witness a rebirth. The Spirit will guide her today.” She sounded giddy, and I was pretty sure that she must have been far too old for that mind of hers to function correctly.
Ariana and her opponent walked the perimeter of the circle they were in and then stopped.
He flexed his muscles with each step as if to show his strength.
In contrast, Ariana moved with a sense of calm surrounding her.
She squared her shoulders, keeping her chin held high.
Not a shred of fear or uncertainty lingered in her eyes.
I found myself pulled in by her, intrigued that despite all that had happened to her that she was able to find herself on steady ground.
Able to face opposition without a shred of doubt.
He looked down his nose at her, raising his blade. “Last chance—give up.”
Ariana merely stood there, hands at her sides.
“No.” She did not yell, but every soul in the room very much heard her words.
The simple word sent her opponent flying across the circle, blade poised to strike. If not opposed, then he would have done more than bring her to her knees. He would have killed her. The hair on my neck stood. My palms instantly heated as I tapped into the power which always hummed through me.
Before I even took a single step, Edda moved.
“Don’t you dare interfere!” she hissed. “This is not something Lysians have any right to involve themselves with.” Her arm splayed out before me as if it was strong enough to stop me.
I would have shoved her out of the way had others in the room not started shifting, pulling my attention again towards Ariana.
While Shal ran to close the distance between himself and Ariana, others stepped into the circle.
Two Bavadrin men drew blades, flanking Ariana protectively.
Shal came to an abrupt stop, a look of surprise gracing his face.
Then, two others stepped out, flanking him with blades drawn as if to assist the scumbag.
His ridiculous smirk did not get the chance to fully form before four others emerged, blocking Shal’s men.
The entire thing was like something done by design. To call it random acts seemed unlikely.
Landin, the Bavadrin whom Ariana saved by giving up her father, positioned himself behind Shal, kicking the back of his knees. Shal dropped to the ground, his sword slipping. Landin brought a thin blade to his neck when he looked up. The room stilled completely.
The warmth in my hands receded. My attention trained on her, drawn to the woman who controlled the entire area without even moving a muscle. Fear did not touch her steady green gaze as she observed the man on his knees before her.
Ariana remained where she stood when Shal had first been poised to attack. Those loyal to her protected her, fighting for her to ascend. She did not give a single order. No command was spoken, yet the Bavadrins acted so fluidly.
Ariana tilted her head, eyes narrowing. “Do you give up your claim to Superior?” Her voice moved through the chamber as though it were alive. Like a cat, her words slinked around every soul before setting its sights on the man on his knees before her.
The room held its breath, waiting for the response.
Shal looked at her with such hate-filled eyes. “You don’t deserve to be the Superior.”
“Very well.” She pulled my blade from her pocket and looked at it.
At first glance, it appeared simple and silver, but if given the time to be observed, its intricate carvings on the handle and the blade could be seen.
She turned the dagger in her hand, taking the time to view it while running a thumb down the handle.
Then she shifted her attention to Shal, walking over till she stood before him.
“Final chance,” she said, giving him yet another opportunity to give up.
“Your father should have taken care of your mother before you were ever even born!” Shal seethed, and the room soundlessly gasped, lips parted, jaws dropped.
From where I stood, I could hear Ariana’s breath leave her. Her eyes momentarily slid shut, and she inhaled slowly and deeply. A slight tremble moved through her, likely unnoticed by all others.
The nerve of that maggot to use such emotional words in his pathetic attempt to derail her.
He was honorless. If he were to take over as the Leader Superior to the Bavadrins, then I would have seen to it that he would have met the same fate as the previous one.
My hands itched to feel the warmth of his blood on my knuckles.
The old bat standing before me balled her hands into fists at her side, her heart rate raising ever so slightly. Edda’s entire stance turned rigid. The male’s words triggered something in her as well.
Ariana stood motionless before Shal, her gaze turning uneven and difficult to read. If the man’s comment hurt her, she did not show it on her face.
Something changed as if the air vibrated with a power stemming from Ariana, and I couldn’t look away from her.
Smoothly, she kneeled down, balancing on her toes before him, my blade in her hand.
There was something otherworldly about her at that moment.
As if she were not the same woman I came to know over the past several weeks.
As if she possessed the power to shift the entire world.
Her head tilted, features softening ever so slightly.
She was completely captivating. Ariana brought the blade to Shal’s cheek and placed a roughly two-inch cut beneath his eye, deep enough for a decent stream of blood to coat the dagger’s edge.
Shal flinched, but Landin kept a firm hold on him, keeping him from struggling.
My heart punched me in the ribs.
Ariana casually observed the blade, the blood on it. Her gaze then locked on Shal, and she brought the weapon’s edge to her lips.
This was unlike anything I had ever experienced. My chest tightened till I could not draw a full breath.
Her full lips parted, and she ran her tongue along the side of the blade. A sigh passed between those lips, sounding as if she just tasted the sweetest thing in the entire world.
My mouth watered.
Spirit, help me. What is this woman doing?
Her eyes remained locked on Shal as though there was no audience. She was a vortex I could not escape.
My lips parted, drawing in a shaky breath.
“Well, looks like she is even more savage than I thought,” Iver commented lowly, his eyes wide with a spark of excitement as he observed the scene unfolding before us.
I didn’t seem able to form a coherent response.
“Mmmm, delicious fear,” she said, naming the taste of his blood. “I wonder if this is how your blood would have tasted that night Fraser butchered my mother. The night you stood beside me, squeezing your eyes shut and pissing yourself.”
“Shut up!” He jerked forward with rage. The men behind him kept him from lunging at her.
Ariana smiled, though it did not touch her eyes, before rising to her feet. She wiped the remaining blood from the blade on Shal’s other cheek. “What’s the matter, Shal? Do you not like remembering where you came from?”
“You traitor! You killed our true Leader Superior!” he growled, looking more and more like a desperate animal.
“Your accusations bear no merit. The Spirit has chosen,” she replied coolly.
“I will kill you for killing him!”
She ignored his threat as if it were never even spoken. “There is something I have long yearned to know, Shal. Why do you love him so? You and I were friends once. Then that night, when my world came tumbling down around me, you went to his side, acting like the son he never had. Why?”
“You should have had the same fate as your mother. For if I ever get my hands on you, that will seem like a mercy.”
Edda visibly shook as anger dug its claws into her.
Ariana slowly turned her head side to side, a sad look in her eyes. “I feel sorry for you. You sought the affection of someone incapable of it, and that has left you a shell of the person you could have been.”
Shal opened his mouth to respond. He never got the chance. Willis’s fist connected with Shal’s jaw, drawing a fresh stream of blood. Ariana’s friend had also grown tired of subjugating everyone to the filth coming from Shal’s mouth.
“You are finished talking,” Willis informed the Bavadrin on his knees. Landin, who stood behind Shal, nodded in agreement.
“I banish you, Shal,” Ariana said to him. “When our city’s gates are under our control again, you will be exiled. You will live out your days as a Bavadrin, but I will never welcome you into my capital again.”
I wished to allow the exile to be executed immediately to get him as far away from Ariana as possible.
But that was not wise. Given the circumstances, we could not trust a man like him not to run to the Sidhe.
It would have been best if his sentence was simply to no longer have the privilege of drawing breath. That, I would have gladly allowed for.
“She should just have him killed,” Iver said under breath.
Edda glanced at my brother. “She is not yet ready to bloody her hands that way.”
“Not yet?” I asked. Was she insinuating as if some day Ariana would be ready for something like that.
Edda gave me a cold smile before turning away from me.
Shal spat a bloody glob on the floor, similar to Fraser’s actions before he was executed.
Landin and Willis pulled Shal up, dragging him from the room.
“The Spirit has chosen!” Edda yelled, drawing the attention of the room. “Ariana is our new Leader Superior!” The room erupted in cheers.
“That’s it? It is all over?” Kole asked no one in particular.
Edda turned, answering him anyway. “Not yet. Tonight, she will spend the night in the Spirit realm. And then she will truly be the Bavadrin Leader Superior.”
“Spirit realm?” I tore my eyes from Ariana as the crowd surrounded her.
“Yes. There is a herbal potion that thins the separation between us and the Spirit’s realm. There, the Superior meets with the Spirit and ascends to their position.”
“Sounds intoxicating,” Iver stated with a smile, throwing an arm over Kole’s shoulder only for him to shake him off. “What is in this potion?”
“That is a Bavadrin secret.” Edda flashed a smile. “But the only one who ever sees the Spirit is the new Superior at the time of Ascension. Otherwise, it just makes you feel more vulnerable to the beauty of the world around you.”
“It is mind-altering?” I was hesitant about Ariana taking something like that.
“Are you not listening, brother? It’s magical juice,” Iver stated, clearly intrigued. He turned back to Edda. “Mind if I try some?”
“Will she be guarded?” I asked over my brother’s ridiculous questions.
Edda laughed. “We will lock her in the temple. She will be fine. And if you want her to lead the Bavadrins, then this is something she must do. Now, I need make sure the next steps of the ceremony are prepared.” She vanished into the crowd of cheering and celebrating Bavadrins.
“That was . . .” Kole began without being able to find the words.
“Invigorating.” Iver finished the sentence. “Perhaps our little Bavadrin is more Lysian than we ever knew.” He grinned, nudging me with an elbow.
“That was not Lysian,” I replied while scanning the crowd, catching sight of Ariana being whisked away by Edda.
It was something else entirely.
She was something else.