20. Lucky
Lucky
Ihurried to the bathroom to bundle up in the clothes that Nick had blinked up for me.
First, I layered on thick black joggers, then a long-sleeve shirt, then a coat that I quickly zipped up.
I shoved gloves and a beanie in my pockets, not sure if I’d actually need them.
I knew it would be colder—even during the summer—than what I was used to, but I didn’t think it would be hypothermia cold.
At least, I hoped not.
When I exited the bathroom, I met Nick at the front of the plane, by the exit. He’d already blinked into warmer clothes and was waiting with the pilot.
I shook the pilot’s hand again. “Thank you so much for getting us here safely.”
He looked pleased as he nodded. “It’s my honor. I’ve never flown in this part of the world before, so it’s been a treat. The King has indicated that he left a jeep here at the airstrip with the keys in it, and has given me the directions to his castle. I’ll drive you both there, if that’s okay.”
“Sounds good to me.” I glanced at Nick who nodded. He was a little on the quiet side again, but I knew why this time, so I reached for his hand and squeezed it, trying to comfort him.
I hated that this was hurting him, but it needed to happen.
It wasn’t just me and Nick I was thinking of either now. On the way over, I’d had the terrifying realization that if Nick and I kept going the way we were, eventually we would start a family.
The thought of bringing a baby anywhere near my chaos magic made me nearly lose the contents of my stomach.
I shuddered. No, just no.
I put the hood up on my coat as we left the plane. The first thing to hit me was the cold. And the cold wasn’t static. Wind rushed all around me, blowing my hair in my face, and plastering my clothes to my body.
“Woah, it’s windy here,” I said, trying to keep my hood on, and then giving up entirely when it blew right off again.
Nick nodded. “It’s the winds coming in off the Atlantic. Summers here are normally in the 40s and 50s, so we shouldn’t see much snow down here, but it will be cold.”
The airstrip we’d landed on was actually a good size. When my feet hit the ground, it crunched beneath my tennis shoes. “Black dirt?”
“Volcanic soil. Lava mostly. This whole area was shaped by the volcano,” the pilot said, pointing to an enormous mountain rising in the distance beyond the cliffs. The lower slopes looked dark and green, but the top was covered in ice and snow.
“Wow.” I was kind of speechless. Moonhaven was gorgeous, but this was next level.
The landscape could only be described as brooding and powerful.
Jagged basalt cliffs, green moss carpeting the ground in patches along with a few sparse wildflowers, a massive roiling ocean surrounding us...
I couldn’t see the castle yet, but I was sure it would be impressive.
“He’s a storm elemental, right? King Asharien?”
Nick nodded, taking my hand again as we followed the pilot to a waiting jeep. It looked heavy-duty and tough, like my jeep back home. The jeep on Maui had been mostly for fun, but I could tell this one was built to last just from a glance.
“Yes. The elemental monarchy is set up similar to the shifter monarchy. The strongest elemental is crowned king or queen. For the last thirty years, it’s been King Asharien who has ruled over them.”
“Makes sense.” The ancient-feeling landscape certainly made it easy to believe a powerful storm elemental ruled these lands. It was the perfect setting for a gothic novel. “Is the area hidden from humans?”
“I’m sure it is. Probably using the same system that has kept Moonhaven hidden.”
We piled everything into the jeep and took off. To the side of the airstrip was a small, narrow access road. We traveled down that for a while before it started winding higher and higher, taking us toward the ocean and the cliffs rising above us.
After a while, I started seeing flashes of what must be the castle. From the lower elevations, warm light spilled from huge windows, the dark charcoal-gray foundations set into the basalt cliffs. As we climbed higher, I could see the massive scale of the castle, and the towers rising high above it.
One tower rose the highest, and I thought it looked open at the top, but it was hard to see from this distance.
When we finally reached the top, our driver parked in the circular driveway and I stared up, and up, and up.
This thing was massive.
The doors opened and a butler stopped on top of the stairs, waiting for us. We grabbed our bags and quickly hurried up the stairs to meet the butler, who took the bags from my hands and nodded to Nick and the pilot.
“I am Arthur Blankenship. I am His Majesty’s personal butler. If you will follow me, I’ll take you to your rooms first to get settled in, and then His Majesty would like to speak with you, Miss Carra. Alone, preferably, but he understands if Mister Steele wishes to join you.”
“I will be joining her,” Nick said firmly. “I can be silent, but I will be there.” He looked at me to make sure I was okay with that, and I nodded gratefully. Maybe I was being a big chicken, but I had a feeling I was well over my pay grade with the king.
“Very well. Follow me, please.” He led us through the enormous doors and into a large entryway. The room just inside was large in scale as well, with massive skylights set several floors above.
We followed him up a set of stairs to the second floor.
“These are the guest quarters where you will be staying. Miss Carra, your room is to the left.” He set my luggage down in front of my door.
“Mister Steele, yours is right next to hers, as His Majesty imagined you would want to be close to her.” Nick nodded, and the butler’s attention turned to our pilot.
“If you’ll follow me, sir, you’re down the hall.
” He turned back to me. “I will come fetch you in fifteen minutes, if that would be acceptable?”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, thank you, Arthur.”
His eyebrow twitched when I said his first name. Apparently, we weren’t supposed to address him so familiarly. He didn’t hesitate to nod, though, and then went off with our pilot.
I glanced at Nick, who was looking pretty grim again, opened my door, and brought everything inside—including my boyfriend.
When I shut the door, I hugged him. He looked like he needed it.
He settled against me, and let out a breath against the top of my head. The longer I held him, the more his body relaxed. I hesitated to ask if he was okay, because I knew he wasn’t. Instead, I said, “I’m here.”
Arthur knocked a few minutes later, and Nick and I followed him to a large room on the fourth floor. It looked like it was meant to be some kind of receiving room. One wall had floor-to-ceiling windows that let in streams of pale late afternoon light.
The view outside was nothing but ocean for miles and miles in every direction.
There were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lining another wall, and along the left was a sitting area with a table, a large rug, some comfortable-looking chairs, and a crackling fire blazing in the fireplace.
It was to the chairs that Arthur directed us, giving me my first glimpse of the elemental sitting there.
I couldn’t tell how tall he was because he was sitting down, but he was a study of intense contrasts.
His hair was deep, midnight black, and he had pale skin and stormcloud eyes that shifted between purple, blue, and grey.
The occasional rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance, accompanied by a streak of lightning in the King’s eyes, and I wondered if he was controlling it, or if the storm was just responding to him in some way.
“Please, sit.”
I sat on the opposite side of the low, round table, and Nick pulled a chair closer to me and sat as well.
It was quiet for a moment as the king studied me with his disconcerting eyes.
Eventually, he said, “I have heard many things about you, Miss Carra, from both Draven and your grandfather, Liam. They have explained the nature of the chaos magic within you. Admittedly, at first I thought there had been some exaggeration, though I’ve never known Draven to exaggerate.
But now that you’re here, I can see that there was none. Do you know how this happened?”
I shook my head, clutching Nick’s warm hand like a lifeline.
This guy made me nervous. I could feel that he was powerful even with my human senses, but what really made me nervous was Nick’s stiffness.
He was sitting as straight as a board, and his eyes never left the king.
I had a feeling his posture wasn’t because he felt like we were in danger, but, rather, because the sheer power that radiated from the king was something Nick could sense far more strongly than I could.
“No. It was just something I was born with.”
He nodded as he sat back in his chair, clasped his hands together in his lap, and studied me again.
He must have been looking at something I couldn’t see, because his gaze wasn’t really on me.
It was more like he was looking at the space surrounding me.
After a few moments, he nodded again, as if he had a theory he’d just proved correct.
Arthur came in bearing a tray that he set on the low table between me and the king, then he poured us all a cup of tea from the pewter teapot. There were other things on the tray to snack on, but my stomach was one large snarl, so I only accepted the tea. The scent was unmistakably chamomile.
I’d thought I was doing pretty well at at least appearing outwardly calm, but apparently I was as easy to read as a book in extra-large print. The butler must have noticed too. Hence the chamomile.
Embarrassing.
I was used to dealing with criminals along with the occasional powerful supernatural. I wasn’t used to dealing with powerful kings. Unless you counted King Draven, but he had basically become a Moonhaven legend and seemed far less foreboding once you got to know him a little bit.
Once we finished the tea, the King spoke to me again. “Lucky, I’d like to speak to you alone.” He didn’t qualify the request or try to make it any softer, he just threw it out there.
I turned to Nick, whose expression had gone blank. After a moment, he nodded at me, and I absently wondered when it was that we’d developed the ability to communicate without words. His nod meant that he was now comfortable leaving me alone with the King.
“I’ll be right outside the door if you need me,” he said, rising and kissing me on the forehead. When the door shut behind him, I looked at the King again.
He got right to it. “Miss Carra, what you are asking of me has not been done for centuries by any elemental monarch. Do you know why?”
I shook my head.
“Because it’s dangerous.” His tone was sober and weighted.
“If we’re speaking in percentages here, you likely will only have a thirty percent chance of making it through the procedure alive.
And if you do manage to live, there is no guarantee what you will be left with.
Will your chaos magic morph into something more terrible?
Will it combine with the element that settles into your body in complex ways that are even more dangerous? I simply don’t know.
“I am not denying that the life you’re living right now is full of challenges, even some dangerous situations, but at least you would be alive to meet them.”
I clenched my tea cup before shakily setting it down on the tray.
“And my future spouse? My future children? I can’t live with something that might hurt them.
That might kill them. If I were left with that choice, I would choose to remain alone so I wouldn’t be a danger to them.
I understood coming into this that there would be risk.
I’m grateful for your bluntness, but I still want to try if you’re willing. ”
He paused, studying me again for a long moment, before he nodded.
He looked... sad. “Very well. I will make the transfer tomorrow morning around nine. You should be in comfortable clothes, resting on your bed when I transfer the essence magic to you. Mister Steele can be in the room, but he can’t interfere.
I have no idea how his magic and mine would react to each other. ”
I nodded and stood. I was still nervous, but... this was the man offering me hope, and I really wanted to hug him.
“Can I... give you a hug?” I asked, trembling with emotion.
His stormcloud eyes looked pained, but he gave me a small smile and nod, then stood. I walked forward, already crying before I wrapped my arms around him. I stood there long past the time he probably thought the awkward, messy human should be through.
Finally, I pulled back, wiping the tears from my face with the back of my hand.
“Thank you,” I whispered. Then I turned and walked out the door.