10
Alarie
“So you glow?” I asked Luke incredulously as we sat on the back porch of his beach house.
The aurora around him intensified like he had released a damper on the light exuding from his body. My breath caught in my chest as I took in the sight of Luke with his caramel brown hair rustled by the sea breeze and his golden tanned skin. He offered me a white, toothy grin as he was surrounded by an ethereal golden glow.
“The Lord of Light,” I muttered under my breath, remembering Jay’s words from long ago.
“You already knew?” Luke asked, surprised.
“What?” I asked, still trying to process the light pouring from him. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “Just something I heard once, but I didn’t know what it meant at the time.”
“Well, you heard right. That’s what I used to be called…before.” Before the magic began to wane.
“And I thought I looked better with a tan,” I joked.
My skin had already taken on a golden sun-kissed hue from our hours at the beach. But Luke looked like the gold on his skin came from his every pore, almost creating a sparkle to his appearance.
Luke and I, along with Rhett, sat on the back porch of Luke’s cottage overlooking the crashing waves as we sipped our cocktails and nibbled at some snacks before the Summer Ball. Rhett said he and James had seen the light, “like a small second sun,” coming from the island, and he’d decided to stick around to get the story behind it. James had decided to head over to Lady Bellamy’s brunch and was not back yet.
Rhett looked at Luke like he expected Luke to say more, but when Luke didn’t add anything further, Rhett jumped in.
“Luke was known as one of the most powerful protectors in Valencia. People would fawn over him in an attempt to bask in his healing light and protective shields,” Rhett said.
I knew that a protector was a kind of warrior who specialized in defensive arts, such as shielding and healing.
“If we’re going to talk about people fawning… tell her about your powers,” Luke said to Rhett.
Rhett looked back at his best friend of the last hundred years.
“Mate, she already knows. In fact, I…” Rhett hesitated in a way that was foreign to the overly confident lord.
“He’s going to kill me either way. Al, you tell him. Tell him about that day you asked me to, uh…” He raised his eyebrows suggestively at me. “Show you my powers.”
I rolled my eyes at Rhett.
“Oh. That,” I replied, looking at Luke, who was still waiting for an explanation from his two closest friends. “Well, Luke, you know I have always been curious about how I would fare under Rhett’s powers,” I began.
Luke looked at Rhett. Luke was not smiling. In fact, Luke took several steadying, deep breaths.
“Luke, come on. It was nothing. I was fine. Really,” I reassured him when his foreboding aspect did not lessen. “I found Rhett slightly more attractive than I normally do,” I said. I saw no reason to sugarcoat it.
Rhett pretended to be affronted.
“But that was it. I didn’t dissolve into a puddle of giggles or anything,” I said, looking at Luke.
“Alarie, you really do look ravishing with a tan. I swear, it’s almost like you are glowing with the same light as Luke,” Rhett said.
Really? I thought, now hardly seemed like the best time for Rhett’s flirtatious teasing.
Rhett looked at his best friend, a smug smile on his face. Luke returned his friend’s smile with something close to a glare.
“Come on, what’s going on with you two? Spill it,” I demanded.
“Al, have you thought through the possibilities that allow you to be around me giggle-free when I’m not holding my abilities back and Luke’s not shielding you?” Rhett asked.
I gave him a small shake of my head. I really hadn’t thought about it at all.
“There are three,” Rhett said definitively. “The first one: you’re in love with someone right now and that protects you from my power.”
I had no doubt that I loved Luke. But in love? I didn’t know if I would ever allow myself to be that vulnerable again. Not after Jay. I avoided making eye contact with Luke as I shook my head once from left to right, indicating I didn’t think that was it. I waited for Rhett to continue.
“And you claim not to have any of your own powers, correct? So you aren’t doing anything to block my powers?” he asked.
I shook my head, giving him another no.
Rhett went silent for a moment. I looked between Rhett’s and Luke’s handsome faces, waiting for them to explain the final option.
“Al, the only other answer is that—”
“You’re his mate,” Luke breathed out.
I stared at my two best friends in disbelief, the waves behind us growing louder as they churned into something less peaceful as the day wore on.
Rhett could only have one mate. He had one shot at true, eternal happiness. And Luke thought that Rhett’s one chance was with me?
“Geez, who died?” James asked jokingly, walking out onto the veranda. “I know I’m the life of the party, but you guys really should be able to get on for a few hours without me,” she teased, totally oblivious to what she walked into.
James was the kind of woman who should be Rhett’s mate, not me. She was groomed from the day she was born to be the wife of a high lord. She moved with the graceful confidence of a woman who knew her beauty, knew her worth, and would settle for nothing short of the very best.
Rhett broke into a smile, the fact that he was showing a little more of his white teeth than normal was the only indication that something was slightly off.
“They may be able to get by without you for a few hours, but you are asking entirely too much from me. You have been gone too long for my taste,” Rhett quipped, pulling James up and toward the house before she could get settled on the sofa next to him.
* * * *
I dressed in the silver and white colors of House Bellamy since I was Luke’s guest for the Summer Ball. My gown was nearly to the floor and was made out a white gossamer fabric so light that even the warm summer breeze coming off the Azure Ocean caused a chill to rise on my skin. Luke came behind me, kissing the top of my exposed shoulder so gently that the chill that had just left my skin returned threefold.
“Oh, sorry about that,” he chuckled, trying to rub away the goosebumps on my arms with his calloused hands.
A warmth radiated from his palms, and it felt like sunlight on my skin. I felt like I was lying on the beach again, the sunlight kissing my skin under a refreshingly light breeze.
“I love that feeling,” I said, looking over my shoulder up at him.
He was breathtaking. He wore a light gray suit cross-stitched with fine, white detailing, and a thin silver necktie. The suit was made of a lighter material than the suits he normally wore at the High Court, and the fabric pulled across his sculpted chest and boulder shoulders just the right amount to accentuate the muscular nature of his body, but not so tight that it stretched or gaped. His silver cufflinks, made of little silver rope knots, gleamed in the moonlight.
“Quit staring at me like that, or we are going to be late to the Gala,” he warned.
Indeed, I had been staring, unable to peel my eyes away. He looked every inch like the high lord of House Bellamy. He grabbed my left wrist, wrapping his hand around it, and when he pulled away, there was a dainty little bracelet with a chunky charm in the shape of a heart. Not a charm, a diamond, I realized. It had to be worth more than anything I’d ever owned.
“Luke,” I began to protest.
“Let’s go,” he interjected, not giving me a chance to turn away the gift as too nice.
“We’re going to have to drag Rhett and James out of their room, or we’ll be late,” he quipped.
Despite his pleasant mood at the beginning of the night, I was surprised to find my best friend in an unusually somber mood the rest of the night at the Summer Ball.
“I know, it doesn’t seem right, does it?” Rhett asked, tracing my stare in Luke’s direction. There was not a smile anywhere near Luke’s normally happy face.
“Being home always starts to get to him after a few days,” Rhett explained.
“Why?” I asked, turning away from Luke to take in Rhett’s handsome face.
He wore a fitted white suit with House Rein’s color, a ruby tie, and cufflinks. As usual, he looked perfect, not a golden hair out of place, despite the perpetual light sea breeze in Port City.
Rhett pressed his lips together, pulling the corner of his mouth in a contemplative expression.
“Well, you’ve met his parents,” Rhett replied, as if that were answer enough. “But it’s his brother.”
“Brad?” I questioned, furrowing my brows and looking around the room until I found Luke’s older brother. Brad was like a carbon copy of his father but with dark features where his father’s were light. But he seemed nice enough.
“No, Al. His little brother. Jacob,” Rhett answered.
“I didn’t—” I didn’t know Luke had a younger brother.
“He didn’t make it home from the war,” Rhett said, answering my question before I had finished it.
I looked back over at Luke, feeling the weight of the sadness for my friend for the losses that can accumulate when you live unlimited lifetimes. He was being a good host. He had been all night. Instead of just sticking with me and Rhett like he normally did at the High Court, he made sure to make the rounds and speak to every person who had made the trip into town. I had begged off from his side, taking a reprieve from the barrage of new faces.
“Come on,” Rhett said, taking my hand in his. “Let’s dance,” he said, already pulling me toward the floor in the center of the open hall.
It wasn’t until his hand was closed around mine that I remembered our conversation from earlier that day, the one all of us had purposefully avoided mentioning, especially with James around. I had actually been able to forget about it for the first hour or two of the Ball when I had been with Luke. But now that Rhett’s large hand was wrapped around mine, my skin felt hot under his touch. I had danced with Rhett plenty of times before, but now thoughts that had never been there before lingered in my mind.
The lively tune we had walked out to the dance floor during was replaced by a slow, methodical number. Rhett pulled me into the strength of his body, one hand going to the small of my back while he entwined his other hand with mine. He was tall, and even in my heels, I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. I took in a breath and was going to say something, anything, to try to imitate the comfortable friendship we usually shared. But at that moment, Rhett tilted me back, his hand pressing my lower body more firmly into him and causing me to arch into him.
I was self-conscious about things I’d never cared about before while dancing with Rhett, like the way the dip caused the white, delicate fabric of my gown to pull tightly over my breasts. When Rhett pulled me back to him, I had lost whatever words I had tried to muster before.
He spoke first, breaking the tension that had built between us in the silence.
Rhett leaned down and whispered in my ear. “I know it’s not what either of us planned, but if it turns out by some crazy chance of fate that you are my…” Mate. He left it unsaid. “Well, I’d be honored to spend my days with you, Al baby.”
He leaned back, eyes fixed on me. I inhaled a deep breath of the ocean air coming in through the opened ballroom doors. I thought there could be worse fates than being mated to one of my godly handsome best friends.
I met his enchanting, pure-blue eyes and pressed my lips together into a coy smirk.
“Me too, Rhett,” I replied, squeezing his hand.
We slowly revolved in a circle, my mind dancing with possibilities that neither of us had asked for or even considered before. As we made another rotation, I spotted Luke in the crowd. His eyes were trained on me, so when Rhett led me into the next move, his gaze moved with me. I didn’t look away from Luke’s unyielding stare until Rhett moved me again, putting Luke out of my line of sight.
Late that night, after the Ball, Luke and I fell into his overly large bed, silence replacing the usual fervor of our touches. But then Luke pulled me over to his side of the bed, tucking my small frame into the alcove of his body. He nuzzled his face into my hair, making room for himself along my shoulder.
“Luke?” I asked, unsure if I should break our silence.
“Hmm?” he replied softly, still holding me.
“Should we talk about this? This thing with Rhett?” I asked.
The muscles in his arms tensed around me. Luke was silent for so long that I thought he had decided to ignore my question entirely and just go to sleep. But then I felt his embrace soften around me.
“It’s just, you can’t be his. You just can’t, Al.” He pulled me closer into his body until he was molded against my back.
“Why, Luke?” I asked.
I agreed with him. Surely, if I was Rhett’s mate, I would have ended up in his bed, and not Luke’s after I split with Jay.
“Because you’re…”
He didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he nuzzled against my neck. The gentleness of his touch felt intimate, not sexual, and I found myself wanting to reciprocate the feelings he didn’t put into words. I grabbed his hand, which was wrapped around my waist, and pulled it over me, holding it close to my chest, over my heart. Like a treasured possession, I nestled his hand between my breasts for safe keeping.
“Night, Al,” he whispered.