13. Rae
RAE
“Um, not to break up Fight Club or anything, but those horns don’t exactly sound warm and fuzzy.
” My gaze jumped around the ember forest, trying to find the source of the noise.
It wasn’t like a fire alarm or anything; it was almost like the sound you’d imagine hearing when an ancient warrior blew through a shell.
Rhys’s younger brother frowned at me. “Fight club?”
Rhys sighed. “It’s a human movie. Like our moving pictures.”
“Human,” I echoed. As in what I was, and they most certainly were not—not with the magical wings and superspeed. And what I guessed from this little battle scene was also super strength. “What are you?”
Ayden scowled in my direction. “Certainly not human.”
He spoke the term as if it were a dirty word. The pieces started to come together a little more. I’d been right. He hated me because of what I was. Maybe Rhys had the same beliefs. It would make sense, given how he always looked so damn angry.
“And neither are you.” Rhys spoke the words casually. Too casually. As if they were nothing more than a simple statement of fact. The sky is blue. Chocolate is delicious. You’re not human.
“I’m sorry?” I croaked.
Rhys blew out an annoyed breath.
“Don’t be an asshole,” Pax muttered and sent Rhys a glare.
Ayden bared his teeth at my friend. “Watch your tone. You’ve always pressed your station.”
Rhys waved him off. “I don’t need you to defend me, Brother.”
“I’m not,” he clipped. “I’m defending the honor of the throne.”
“Our throne is perfectly intact,” Rhys grumbled.
“Thanks to me,” Ayden shot back.
My head swam. I was dreaming. This had to be a dream.
I pinched my arm as hard as I could and then cursed softly. But Rhys’s gaze was instantly on me. “What did you do?” he demanded.
“I’m trying to wake myself up.” I tried it again. “Ow.”
Rhys closed the distance between us, forcing me back until I hit the trunk of a tree, making sparks fly around us. He towered over me, pinning me there. “You will not harm yourself.”
My mouth opened and closed like a fish on a line.
I’d always hated fishing. My dad loved it and went every weekend.
He’d tried to teach me once, but I’d puked in the bushes when he hooked a worm, then cried when he caught a fish.
From then on, he’d swapped fishing for simple boat rides and hikes around the Pennsylvania trails.
Looking back, I had to admit that I’d always felt a little different.
Like I didn’t quite fit in. I’d always chalked it up to the fact that I was adopted.
But my parents had always gone out of their way to make me feel loved and accepted.
Still, I’d felt like my cadence was different than everyone else’s.
That dizzy feeling swept over me again as I looked back and forth between the massive man crowding me and the one behind him, who I’d thought was my friend. Finally, my gaze stilled on Pax, and I tried to analyze him with new eyes.
He was unnaturally beautiful, with light-brown hair that had glowing golden undertones and green eyes that sparked on occasion. He was also tall and broad. Not as big as Rhys but larger than anyone else in our classes.
“You’re not human?” I whispered.
Something that looked a lot like regret swept across Pax’s expression. “I’m sorry, Rae. I couldn’t tell you.”
Pain lanced my chest—the kind that came from everyone else knowing a secret you were left out of.
“As touching as this revelation of betrayal is,” Ayden cut in, “we need to move.” He glared at me. “Since you just brought the witch contingent to our doors.”
My stomach dropped. It wasn’t the first time the word had been so casually thrown around, but a contingent? That sounded like a lot. “Witches?” I echoed. “As in broomsticks and putting eyeballs in cauldrons?”
Rhys scoffed as he stepped back, allowing me to breathe a little more fully. “Please say that to them.”
Pax let out a soft growl. “Try not to get her killed.”
Rhys looked down his nose at Pax as if he were a moron. “Please. She’s their chosen one. She’ll hardly get executed. And she doesn’t need you defending her. Not from me.”
What did that mean? Not from him? He seemed just as likely to snap my neck as his brother.
My gaze swept our surroundings again. The warrior-looking people had closed ranks around us. Should I be calling them creatures? What were they?
Whatever it was, they didn’t appear particularly friendly. A woman with the sides of her head shaved, showing the pale skin beneath, stared so hard at me, I wondered if she was trying to light me on fire with her mind.
Can they do that?
My breaths came faster. What the hell was this place? And if I couldn’t pinch myself awake, did that mean it was all…real?
“Her mind hasn’t been awoken yet,” Pax said, cutting into my spiraling thoughts. “She has no memories of this place or who she is. You need to go easy on her.”
A low, rumbling growl emanated from Rhys. It wasn’t from his mouth or throat, exactly. It was more like the sound came from his chest. It filled the air in a way I could feel. The vibrations swept over me in a wave, raising the tiny hairs on my arms until they stood on end.
And I wasn’t the only one affected. All the warriors straightened, wariness and respect filling their expressions, as if the sound alone had reminded them how powerful Rhys was.
“You will not speak as if you have rights to her,” he snarled.
Pax’s face paled. “I’m not. But you made me her guardian. And that does not cease just because we entered Lumaria.”
Guardian?
Rhys let out a huff of air, and I saw some of the tension leave his body. “You need to mind how you speak about her. How you speak about me.” His gaze flitted to me for a single moment, but the quick connection stole my breath. He turned back to Pax. “And you know why.”
Pax jerked his head in a nod.
My so-called best friend might know why, but I didn’t. I opened my mouth to ask, but Rhys was already speaking.
“Take her back to the castle, and do not leave her side. I’ll return as soon as I’ve dealt with the witches.”
“The hell you will,” Ayden snarled. “If she sets one foot in my castle, I’ll have her beheaded.”
There was a single second of stillness before Rhys moved. And when he did, it was in a blur of motion. One moment, he was standing in front of me. The next, he was beside his brother.
He gripped Ayden by the hair and pulled his head to the side at an unnatural angle. Rhys’s canines elongated into fangs and pressed against Ayden’s throat. “You threaten her again, and I will not hesitate.”
All of the warriors braced, whispering among themselves, clearly uncertain of what to do or who to follow.
But I was focused on one thing only. Teeth. Fangs. Rhys had fangs.
“Vampires,” I whispered. “You’re vampires.”