Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tarek’s grip was unyielding as he dragged Aela through the bending hallways.
It was a miracle they didn’t keel over; the view from the windows was beginning to face in rather than out to Theora.
The other Houses were long gone, eager to regroup after a disastrous beginning and ominous end to the first of many meetings between the Primary Stars.
“Why can’t you simply do what you’re told?” Tarek snarled as she tried to pull her hand back.
Aela’s eyebrows jumped into her hairline. “I asked a question.”
“You know your place is to remain silent.”
Shaking her head, she readied herself for one of Tarek’s infamous tirades. Once they arrived in the guest quarters Sagittarius reserved for them, Tarek flung her hand away from his, and Aela fell onto the floor, sliding on her hip.
She chuckled darkly. “It’d be a shame to damage the dress. Then what would you say? How would you cover up laying your hands on me?”
He lunged, bracing himself over her on a bent knee. “I owe no one explanations, least of all you.”
Aela spat in his face.
Tarek reared his fist back. Aela leaned in closer for the strike.
“Do it, Tarek. How long have you waited to simply beat me into submission? When your crystal bands aren’t enough. When your words and—” Aela dragged her eyes down and back up the length of his body, finding it utterly lacking. “When you did nothing?” She finished with a curl of her lips.
With a roar, he slammed his fist onto the floor.
“After all I’ve done…” he muttered, standing.
Tarek wiped a hand down his face as he stalked away from her toward a golden cart along the wall by the armchairs in the seating area.
Aela unfastened the jewelry clamped around her legs and kicked her shoes off, slowly rising to her feet.
The clinking of glass and the pour of what was sure to be a potent drink filled the minacious silence.
Aela sighed, rising to his bait. “And what is it that you think you’ve done?” With visible restraint, he finished his glass and gingerly set it down on the cart. Aela tracked his every move.
“What have I done? I saved your unrested life!”
“I never asked you to!”
“No, you’ve never asked for anything, have you?” His tone suggested otherwise.
Aela’s eyes slanted dangerously. “Tell me, am I really the first being who has finally stood up to you, who hasn’t let you push them around, and who hasn’t gotten on their knees for you?” She took a step forward.
“Careful. Your spirit is showing. You’ve been so docile all these months that you almost had me fooled… Don’t ruin it by actually trying anything.”
“You wouldn’t survive if I tried.”
Tarek smirked at her. “What’s a drifting, all but burned without name, lone star of Aquarius going to do to a Primary Star? Hmm?”
Aela’s heartbeat picked up pace. “How did you find out?”
“As if I didn’t know, what with your flashy lightning and disappearance act… come on, precious. You need to keep your so-called secret better than that.” Tarek ran a thumb over his bottom lip. “I’ve never lain with an Aquarian. If I touch you just right, will your lightning—”
“You’re disgusting.”
“Say that again.”
“No, I have something else to say.”
She had played the part for her survival for the past six months, and Aela was sure her next words might very well end her life, but she was done holding her tongue.
“What you did to that planet was abhorrent. You could have offered safe harbor, relocated them, literally anything, yet you let thousands, millions, of innocent lives end to fuel your city on an unnecessary jump! And don’t even get me started on your House. Eros was right.”
Tarek went utterly still.
“You are a sorry excuse for a Primary Star. It’s a position you were never meant to have.”
Tarek exploded.
The stone floor fractured beneath their feet, and the glass windows caved in. The golden cart shattered across the room, and amber liquid rained onto the floor. Aela lifted her hands in time to protect her face from the blast, but when she lowered her arms, the entire suite was in shambles.
“That… is… the only time you will speak to me in such a way.” Tarek’s chest rose and fell with his labored breaths.
“We are going to bond. Once we have, I will Ascend and be the most powerful Primary in the realm. Do as you’re told, and you’ll live out your existence in luxury and perhaps happiness.
Go against me, and you’ll be reduced to something I can use. ”
Aela felt no fear. Only anger.
He disappeared to Fates knew where, leaving her behind in the mess he made of their accommodations. Not for the first time, nor the last, Aela cursed him under her breath.
An attendant wearing the gray equivalent of those worn in Avarice intoned from the doorway, “The Primary meeting has been called back. Please come with me.”
Aela looked down at her ruined white gown and the blood that slid down her arms. The elegant panels of her dress were in tatters, and only one of the pins in place on her shoulders kept half the bodice up.
“I need a moment.”
“Allow me,” a feminine voice said.
Aela looked over her shoulder from where she sat on the side of an upturned chair. The Adjacent of Virgo dismissed the attendant with a wave of her hand and came to stand behind her.
“Your dress looks a little worse for wear; do you have anything else?”
Aela frowned. “I’m not sure. I know how that must sound, but Tarek had attendants pack for me.”
“Sulae,” the female said. “My name is Sulae. Why don’t you come with me, and I’ll get you dressed?”
“I couldn’t possibly—no, I don’t want to impose.”
“It’s nothing. Please allow me to entertain my curiosity about who has the Bull throwing a tantrum in front of those he claimed to hold in such high esteem.” Sulae’s pale green eyes twinkled.
Aela relented. Settled in the Virgo quarters, the ambiance was much cozier than the rooms Taurus had been provided which spoke to a longer standing relationship between the Virgo and Sagittarius Houses.
Where in the Fates is Arche?
Aela fished out her selenite shard that was miraculously intact from a pocket in her dress and sent a message to Arche.
Her crystal bands snagged on the frayed skirt, ripping a thread loose.
His reply came back, and she let him know that she was safe in the care of the Virgos, which prompted more messages.
Sulae was speaking with Sagittarian attendants as Aela reiterated to Arche through the pearlescent crystal that she was fine and that they would confer later.
“Would you like some tea?” Sulae asked, coming to sit in an unoccupied chair beside Aela’s. Her cobalt hair shifted with every subtle movement of her head, the strands like liquid silk.
“I’d kill for some tea.”
“Let’s make sure it doesn’t come to that. Ah, here we are. Thank you.” An attendant left a tea service on the side table beside Sulae’s chair and departed.
“Please, allow me,” Aela put her selenite back in her pocket then stood to serve the Adjacent. Sulae raised her eyebrows.
“Tarek has trained you well, but I am not so delusional as to believe that I could overpower you, dear. I take no offense at your offer,” Sulae added when Aela’s face slackened. “I may be ancient, but you… you are something different, aren’t you?”
Aela’s insides squeezed as she straightened her spine. “I’m not here to cause problems.”
“No, of course not,” Sulae said. “You might not intend to. Yet you are. You’ve caused quite the disturbance.”
“Aren’t we supposed to be in the meeting?” Aela asked, returning to her chair, her temper simmering.
The Adjacent served them tea and said, “Heze is stalling for me. For you.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve seen a female in your position before. Tell me plainly if you wish to bond with Tarek.”
Aela didn’t hesitate in her reply.
Sulae sipped her tea and nodded. “I figured as much, but love can twist you around and turn you upside down on the best of days. That settles it; you’ll be staying with us while you’re neighboring. Where you wish to go after everything is concluded will remain up to you.”
“You can’t be serious.” Aela huffed out a breath, plunking her teacup into the matching saucer. Warm liquid sloshed over the rim. “I mean to say, thank you for your hospitality, but I find it hard to believe that the other Primaries will be as understanding as you and just allow me to leave?”
“I don’t see why you couldn’t come back with me and my House, Gemini, stay in Sagittarius or go with Aries, though—nasty business, that. Bit of a bloodbath. A Line restructuring, as it were,” Sulae said, raising her tea to her lips.
Sensing Aela had much to mull over, Sulae didn’t comment further, and they finished their tea in silence.
Later, an attendant came and helped tend to the cuts on Aela’s arms, which had mostly healed over in the short time she had clutched her selenite.
The attendant then helped her into a fresh dress.
While Aela prepared herself to return to the meeting, Sulae had another attendant bring her belongings—or rather, what Tarek insisted on—to the Virgo quarters, where a spare room was being prepared.
Without further delay, the females returned through the winding hallways to the meeting room. Sulae pointed to a door where a pair of Sagittarian sentinels were standing guard.
“Taurus,” she indicated before she slipped into a separate door.
Aela walked the remaining distance to the entrance Sulae had pointed out and paused.
Do I knock?
Just then, Tarek rounded the curved hall that spiraled inward toward the Taurus quarters.
His eyes swept down her body, noting the change in her dress.
Mourning black fabric encased her figure from chin to feet.
Where many of the beautiful gowns that had been made for her in Avarice were the focal point when she wore them, this dress without embellishment showcased her.
Devastatingly beautiful and ready for war.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“No,” Aela answered with a touch of venom.