20. Kiera
TWENTY
KIERA
“ W hen did this miracle happen?” Zaria called as we came into land in the courtyard.
“Oh no! I need to go do some research. I can’t go to the festival yet,” I said to Jaxus, through our bond.
“You go and at least make some notes. I’ll try and delay them.” Jaxus offered as I slid off his back.
The air changed behind me in an almost audible swoosh as his form changed. The rush of his shift pulling at my chest. I bent to grab his pants from my bag, tossing them over my shoulder, so as to not see him. After our almost thing in the prep room, it was much better not to look.
I still didn’t know where that kiss had landed us. We had barely even become friends, and now, there was this whole new dimension to try and navigate .
He stepped beside me as he tied the waist, giving me a side glance which I refused to read into.
“That was the first time,” I said as Zaria, Nyx and Luka approached. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and finish something?—”
“Nope! It’s a high holy day and the festival has started already. More work can wait. My mate promised to take the afternoon off and you have to come too. I’m putting my foot down. This is my first festival!” Zaria scolded, wiping her forehead as she stopped in front of us. “Goddess! It’s so warm.”
I sighed, “Okay, but I need to change out of these leathers. It’s way too hot for them if I’m not flying.”
“Go on then. We will wait here.” Zaria shooed me off. Clearly, she was in a hurry to get to the fun.
I turned and entered the healer’s wing at a brisk pace and as soon as I was out of sight, I broke into a run, eager to buy a few minutes to make notes. I burst into my rooms, bolted straight for my journal, and hastily spilled my thoughts from our flight down onto the paper so that I could research everything when we returned later. Then, I threw on a summer dress and headed back out to meet my friends.
“Wow!” Zaria exclaimed when I appeared outside. “That dress is?—”
Jaxus turned around and when he caught sight of me, he swallowed. “Revealing,” he said tightly.
“Wait until we get to the festival grounds. It’s sweltering, so I’m betting everyone will be half-naked before sundown.” Luka smirked, elbowing Zaria. “So much to look at.”
“I don’t need to see a bunch of half-dressed females. It’s about more than that.” Zaria rolled her eyes.
“No, he’s right, that is the best part.” I grinned, feeling Jaxus’ eyes on me.
“Told you!” Luka bowed to me playfully. “At least someone here has taste. ”
“Is that something you really enjoy?” Zaria asked inquisitively.
“Who doesn’t like looking at the female form? Fae are art. Right?” I asked Nyx, who adamantly shook his head.
“Not the point of going to the festival, Kiera,” he said in a hurry.
“Even if your mate won’t admit it,” I said to Zaria. “It is half the fun of the Festival of Nanaya. Bring in the heat of the summer with love and prosperity. Why do you think we have a boom of births in the spring every year?” I laughed because Nyx looked utterly uncomfortable while Jaxus’ mouth hung open.
“At least I have one of you to have fun with.” Luka offered his arm and on a whim, I took it.
Luka and I started back down the hill, leaving the rest of them clamoring to catch up. I could almost feel Jaxus’ gaze burning into the back of my neck, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you doing?” he asked in the privacy of our bond. His long strides let him catch up with us quickly.
“What do you mean?” I asked innocently, glancing over my shoulder at him.
Jaxus huffed, and I swore smoke came out of his nostrils. “I thought we were going to train for an hour and then go?”
“We’ll have time for training when it’s not a festival day.” Or never. Which sounded better.
“If you don’t face your fear?—”
I held up a hand, cutting him off. “Can you enjoy yourself for one day? You’ve been all work and no fun since you got here. Let loose.” I made eye contact with him. “Besides, you said you didn’t want to go alone, and now you have a whole group accompanying you.”
It was a low blow, and I knew it, but he must have taken the finality in my voice as closure of the subject because he didn’t reply. Instead, he joined us by my side as our group stopped, forming a half circle at the edge of the festivities .
“We need to find the mead,” Luka said, taking the ringleader spot in this.
“Mead sounds great,” I said, ignoring the flicker of Jaxus’ mood hitting me in the back of my head, almost like he’d thrown a physical pebble at me. I resisted the urge to rub the spot as he came and slipped his arm into my other.
“It’s barely noon,” Jaxus said under his breath.
“Everyone drinks on festival days,” Luka said. “Lighten up.”
“Who are you, and what did you do with my best friend?” Zaria asked, linking her arm through Luka’s other arm while nudging his shoulder with hers.
“I’ve grown a lot from what we were allowed to be in our village, you know.” Luka got a serious look about him, but I don’t think Zaria caught it because by the time she glanced over at him, he’d plastered a smile back over his face.
“What do you mean?” Zaria asked.
“I’ve been to a few of these since we left the village. They are like traveling trading posts. But this is the first time I’m here for just me. There is so much more to life than what we knew, than what’s in the palace. I want to experience it all.” Luka detangled his arm from mine to put his hand on Zaria’s cheek. They stilled and something passed between them. A connection I could only imagine between best friends. “You should get a taste of it all, too, even if you are soul-bonded.”
“I am.” Zaria’s face lit up as she glanced over at Nyx.
He returned her smile, eyes burning like I’d never seen a male look at anyone.
Jealousy panged in my chest. The care with which Luka handled Zaria touched me. I’d never had anything that binding. I’d had Nyx and Kol, but as twins, they’d had each other on another level that, despite their best intentions, was impenetrable.
Add to that how Nyx looked at her, she really was loved and cherished. Suddenly, I didn’t want to be here. What had I been thinking? I’d never fit into these types of situations.
But I couldn’t leave. I needed to find the traders for my ingredients and I knew there was absolutely no way Zaria would let me escape the fun to go back to my sanctuary and the safety I found within my work. The first and only love of my life.
Jaxus slipped into the place Luka had vacated. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said dismissively, trying to shake off my flight response.
Jaxus glared at me, and I felt him push into my mind. “What are you not saying?”
I couldn’t say it to him. I couldn’t admit what was building. I’d already let him in enough and if I started talking about it now, I wouldn’t be able to contain my emotions. I gave him a tight smile. “I don’t want to talk about it. I want to enjoy myself.”
Or at least pretend to until I could escape.
He glared, not believing me, but let it go as Luka steered us towards a massive green tent.
We stepped into a different world under the moss-colored canvas. The energy shifted, and it felt like walking into a living fairy tale. Light from outside the tent was magically shielded, and the only illumination came from balls of fire floating in the air. Instead of the open space expected in a tent this large, it felt intimate because branches, moss, and nature surrounded us, and above the canopy, performers twirled with the stars.
“What is this?” I asked no one in particular. My cheeks heated when I realized the performers were mostly naked.
“You’ve lived here your whole life, haven’t you?” Luka drew my attention away from the brooding Jaxus. “Shouldn’t you be used to this?” His voice came low and sultry like the shift in mood bled into his voice. Almost dreamy.
“This has never been my scene, and I didn’t grow up here,” I told him .
“I thought you were here in school with Nyx?” Luka asked, and suddenly, we were alone, transported to a path like one the Forest Kingdom would have boasted.
“Yes, but not fully. I went back and forth and spent a lot of time back home. Healers don’t have to come here like ryders and flyers do. Most of the strong healer lines originate from the Forest Kingdom, which is where the best training is for our craft. We only split our time between there and the palace because my father has been Healer on High since before I was born.”
I’d spent so much time in the Forest Kingdom with my gran, able to hide away from this overstimulating popularity parade.
“I preferred it there,” I admitted. “I learned so much under my gran’s tuition. My parents were busy and—” I swallowed my words, not wanting to tell him about the mean kids in the palace, which was the main reason I preferred home. “It was just better for me there.”
His brows pulled, but he nodded. He understood without me saying it. It was easy to see why he and Zaria were as close as they were.
“Where are we going?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.
He lifted his chin, and I followed his gaze to find we’d arrived at a quaint little garden with a fae serving ale from behind a massive tree stump. We ordered and when I tried to put gold down, Luka waved me off. “Your money is no good here.”
I rolled my eyes, but I’d be lying if I said I hated it. “Thank you.”
“You know you deserve to be treated well, don’t you?” Luka wandered through the group of chairs, taking a set out of the way.
“I know.” I kept my eyes on my glass. “Where did the others go?”
“These places have a way of making what needs to happen, happen. That’s why I linked arms with you. The magic decided we needed this time together.” His words made me lift my eyes .
“What do you mean?” I’d never heard of magic like that.
“It’s a wayfarer tent. You step in and leave the world outside while you take whichever journey you need to take. I don’t know how they do it. Some type of earth magic. They travel with the festival and on holy days, they say the Goddess grants you the gift you most need to receive. The magic guides us and leads us to where our fates need us to be.” Luka shook his head, looking into my eyes. “Why don’t you know any of this? Surely, even if you don’t have time now, you came when you were a child.”
I turned my glass in my hands, letting out a breath as I tried to search for words, but before I could speak, another voice ran ice through my veins.
“If it isn’t the little dragon wannabe and the bookworm. Word is, the little bookworm is supposed to be a ryder now? Haven’t seen you out with our esteemed lieutenant yet, though. Is there some reason you haven’t joined the legion, bookworm? Or do you just still think you’re too good to fly”
I sprang to my feet, knocking over my chair, while my mug slipped from my fingers. It hit the grass beneath our feet and splashed across Luka’s boots.
He stood, stepping in front of me. “What do you want, Koen?”
“Don’t make us show you what we do to juuttunuts again.”
I gasped. “You can’t call him that.” It was about the worst thing a flyer could call a regular fae.
“Try me.” Luka had his hand on his dagger, but two of Koen’s friends stepped out of the mist behind him.
My mouth went dry. This was my greatest fear. Even worse than the heights. Heren might be dead, but his gang of sidekicks were still very much alive, and worse, they were the flyers under Jaxus. I’d just hoped to never cross their path.
I swallowed, grabbing the back of Luka’s shirt to pull him back with me. If we somehow lost our friends in this magical tent, surely we could lose these thugs, too. “Luka,” I hissed .
“You go.” The set of his jaw told me he wasn’t leaving. Was he mad? They could crush him.
“I’m not leaving you,” I insisted.
“I’ll be fine.” He lifted his chin. “Go find Nyx and Jaxus.”
“No! Stay, bookworm. Watch us give your little friend a lesson in how dragons fight.” Koen said, his dragon’s grin setting my hairs on end. He looked from me to Luka. “You want to fight, don’t you, wannabe? It’s why you keep hanging around where you’re not wanted.”
My brows drew in. What was going on? It was clear this was an established issue between them and Luka, but he’d never said anything. How long had they been giving him a hard time?
“Go,” he pressed, drawing his dagger.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Koen growled. “I’ve been meaning to give her another flying lesson for so many years. You wouldn’t spoil my fun, would you?”
The three dragons closed in around us preventing my escape, and I knew this was going to end badly.