Chapter 16 Evira #3
Now that was a whole other thing.
I couldn’t believe it as I turned and found its owner right there like I’d clocked.
Curly vibrant-red hair cascaded over her crimson corset top and she cocked her hip in a pair of gold leather pants. She really wore that harsh outer edge so much like her drill sergeant father, the infamous trainer of fire dragons. Definitely giving off the badass vibe.
“Fanor.”
She strode the last couple of feet to me and actually smiled. “Nice seeing you, Evira.” Then she even gave a bow.
Huh. She was usually much more no-nonsense—and harsh.
Unfortunately for her, that didn’t do so well when slamming up against the same in me.
While I wanted Torvek happy and to embrace his love for her, it didn’t mean I was particularly fond of her.
She was good for him, though. Their mentality and approach to things were very similar and melded well together.
Just her with most other people… not the best.
So it was definitely strange that here she was smiling, bowing, and playing nice.
The fact she was here at all was… unheard of.
“Is everything all right?” I asked, pushing things along. “Also, as you well know, I’m not Crown Heir anymore. Torvek is.”
Was I being a little icy—pun definitely intended? No. It was warranted. The way things had been going down between her and T didn’t sit well with me. I hadn’t gotten involved, but now she’d come to my doorstep, so all bets were technically off, weren’t they?
She flicked her wild hair. “Please. It’s ridiculous.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s been obvious for ages. You need to be Joint Crown Heirs.
Torvek has the patience for the more… frustrating aspects of political intricacies and the roadblocks in the Dracoryn Realm, but he doesn’t have the charm and no-nonsense nature that you bring to the role.
Both are needed. Both would be a fantastic formation. ”
Huh. That was… insightful.
She stepped right up to me. “Look, can we talk?” She gestured around the busy quad. “Somewhere without supernatural hearing all over the fucking place?”
“If you’re here about Torvek—”
“Really? You?”
“What?”
“Assuming a woman is here to only talk about a man?”
I scoffed. “Hilarious. I’m merely reading the context—and you.
Our only connection is Torvek. There’s no other reason why you’d be here, why you’d come to me.
Although, making that accusation, knowing it would fire me up, is an interesting choice.
” I shoved my hands into the pockets of my coat.
I didn’t need them free. I wasn’t threatened by her. “Your purpose?”
“First, we require privacy. A warded space with auditory reduction in effect.”
“Fine.” I held out my hand.
She took it and then I teleported us straight into my dorm room, erecting a sweeping auditory reduction spell the moment we materialized.
“Nice setup you’ve got here,” she said, taking in my combat trophies—of course—then running a hand over the iced coffee table in the seating area, before she took a seat without prompting on my snowy white couch.
I slid into the armchair opposite. “Well? You were saying?”
A smile spread over her face. A genuine one. “I’m sick of it, too.”
“Sick of what?”
“Power touched but not able to be wielded efficiently, pathetic choices made by fools. Your father and grandmother are obviously exceptions, but their more diplomatic way of reigning comes with many they must answer to, and appease.”
“Hold on. You’re here about Exalt?”
“Yes.”
“This is unexpected.”
“I know I’m not technically an heir. At least not to a throne or a coven, or whatever else.
But I am in a position of power—touching power but also controlled by the level above it through my father and those connected to him politically.
As Warrior Supreme, my father is also revered much like royalty, has high-level influence and standing. ”
“The technicality of the heir situation isn’t a deal-breaker for Exalt membership.”
“It’s not?”
“It’s not meant to be an elitist setup. The nature of heirs just invites that, obviously.
But what you’re suggesting here opens up a great deal.
Something I’m definitely not opposed to.
” I sat forward on the chair. “What I could be opposed to, though, is your abrasive attitude. While I value the passion and ferocity, with the way you wield it, working with others isn’t always possible. Or pleasant for anyone involved.”
She sank back against my couch. “I know.”
“You… what?”
She blew out a breath. “I know, Evira. And that’s half the battle, once that’s recognized, isn’t it?”
“It can be, if you follow through.”
“I intend to. This is important to me.”
“All right. Put a proposal together, detail your specific goals, what you’re looking to get out of it, what you’re advocating for others.”
“Will do.”
She rose from the couch, but dragged her feet. Very unlike the formidable fire dragon warrior she was known for being.
“Something else you want to discuss?”
She turned back and grasped the arm of the couch.
“So part of your reason for coming here was to talk about him? That dig earlier was about you not liking that fact?” I put to her.
She shoved a hand through her hair and told me, “I’m seeing to something.”
“Regarding Torvek?”
“Yes.”
I tensed. “The way I understand it, the two of you are done.”
“Something he needed to believe. It got his attention off me, enabling me to move more freely outside the Dracoryn Realm.”
So, yeah, that worry spiked like crazy at her words. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m working on something to ensure the Realm is forced into a difficult choice when it comes to the Crown Heir situation.”
“Excuse me?”
“The old ways that too many still hold to… there’s a lot of pushback since you abdicated.
You were beloved. You are beloved. Knowing you stepped down because of public opinion concerning a dragon heir mating with “death incarnate”—sorry, that’s the term floating around—it’s had people questioning things.
There’s a lot of talk about relaxing the dragon purity traditionalism toward death magic, death-touched beings, even vampires.
With there even being some dragon hybrids in existence now who have vampire sides, Shadowmancer, that sort of thing, but them living outside the Realm due to this not-infecting-life-with-death nonsense, it’s already made itself an issue to be questioned. ”
She shifted her weight. “That nonsense also extends to anything exceeding dragon might. Like Celestial power. One reason Vorzyr Titanus is permanently exiled. The party line is that it was because he betrayed House Titanus to your father and grandmother so they could take power. But that’s a lot of bullshit baked in there, because him doing that freed the Dracoryn Realm from the tyrannical rule of Vorzyr’s—and Torvek’s—parents. ”
Adrenaline thrummed through me. “What are you getting at exactly here?”
“There are only two suitable Crown Heirs available—you and Torvek. For now, your relationship with Winter Nox has tainted you. But if that were to happen at any point to the only remaining heir, the Realm would be forced to adjust its opinions.”
Oh my God.
And then she said, “Yes. I know. I know Torvek has the same abilities as his brother. Celestial-based abilities alongside his dragon nature. And I’m working with Vorzyr and Cornelius Martel—Inter-Realm Ambassador—to fix things.
Torvek is terrified that if he ever revealed his Celestial abilities, he’d be denounced.
But the situation with the Crown Heir guards against that—or it will fully soon. ”
I shot to my feet. “How do you know about him? When?”
She held up her hand. “It’s all right. I promise.
I’ve known for a long time. Two years. One night Torvek and I were sleeping together outside—not fucking, because he won’t do that with me because of his fear of revealing his abilities—next to each other as we were sort of camping for a few days…
and in his sleep, he let loose that Primal Celestial Resonance ability.
Cornelius Martel had crossed into the Realm to meet with the Dracoryn Core and I guess Torvek’s system reacted to it. He didn’t know I saw.”
“You knowing about this changes—”
“It will change nothing. He’ll still be afraid of letting go. His fear isn’t of me knowing. It’s them, all of them. He’s not like Vorzyr, not a rebellious, maverick force. He loves his life in the Dracoryn Realm. It’s his whole identity.”
“There’s a whole other part of his identity he’s never let breathe.”
Except the brief time he was secretly sent to Haven Initiative to be taught how to control those Celestial-based abilities—his Primal Celestial Resonance that could push back Celestial power, and his Command of Beasts that could take control of animal-based supernatural species.
“I agree. Completely. But he can’t even entertain that until there’s this safeguard in place. Let me sort this. I’m handling it, and we’re close now. It will help him and you both.”
“This is a lot to take on, a lot of pain to hold at bay, too—with the breakup in effect. Torvek not knowing you’re doing any of this and—”
“It’s fine. I’m a hard-ass, remember?”
“That’s not what it’s about.” I walked to her. “You come to me.”
“What?”
“You come to me from now on. Text me if that’s easier for you—and your pride. Just talk to me about this, let it out every now and then.”
“Why would you—”
“Torvek is family to me. You’re so very important to him. And what you’re doing here could change his life, could finally free him.” I smiled. “He could finally be happy. Finally be himself out in the open.”
“Okay… yeah,” she actually agreed. Then she rolled her shoulders and told me in a steadier tone, “What you’re doing with Exalt is gonna help a lot of people, far beyond just heirs out there.
It’s gonna change perception, gonna open up a whole lot.
Things have come a hell of a long way in the last forty years, but this…
this could very well be the next step up, and prevent any slipping backward. ” She smiled. “Nicely done.”
“Well, we’re just getting started.”
She held out her hand, and we slap-shook.
“I’ll be seeing you, Evira,” she said, walking to the door. She stopped before turning the knob, and looked back over her shoulder. “Thank you. I mean it.”
“Same to you. What you’re doing for T… it’s no small thing.”
She gave me a chin lift, then headed on out.
I sank down onto the edge of my bed.
Holy. Hell.
That was… a lot to absorb.
My phone alarm went off, blasting through my thoughts. It was my advance notice that I needed to get ready for my next class.
As I pulled it out and turned it off, I saw some texts had come in.
I’d been so consumed with that intense conversation that I hadn’t even registered all the buzzing in my pocket that would have occurred.
Zayn: Class is boring as fuck right now.
Had me going into fantasy mode. Wanna know what came to mind?
You choking on my cock as I devour your sweet cunt.
Fuck, yeah. Got hard as a fucking rock just picturing that glorious mouth of yours.
Didn’t stop there. Then it was a visual of you riding my cock like a queen and scraping my balls with your talons.
“Wow,” I breathed, heat flaring through me.
I grinned. He was doing it. Letting go. Being the full him again.
Evira: Mmm… delicious. You’ve got a reward coming your way, little hellion.
I chuckled to myself, then stowed my phone away, and grabbed what I needed for class.
My boys… count on them to take the edge off things right when it was needed.
The three of them, us together, I’d never experienced anything like it in my life.
Special didn’t even cut it.