Chapter 36
Reign
“Come on! I have a surprise to show you!” Amaya pulls me out of my bed, dragging me by the arm.
“Where are we going?” I moan, suddenly wishing I didn’t give her a spare key to my room.
“You’ll see!” I follow her all the way to the far end of the Hall, stopping at one of the hidden passageways I have yet to come out of. Before she leads us through its threshold, she turns around to me. “Ryder and I have been working on it for weeks.”
“Working on what?” I ask as she takes me by the hand, pulling me up the last few stairs that lead above ground.
She steps to my side, fanning out her arm in front of me in a slight bow.
“Welcome to the first ever Skycap.”
Just like in the Infinite Sea Territories, bonfires spread across the open wasteland as members of every Entity gather around, embracing their gifts.
A dark violet dragon swoops down in front of us and I instinctively duck.
In the distance a group of wolves race each other down the ash covered terrain while a group of witches bend fire and water a few feet away.
“Sooo… what do you think?” Amaya asks, turning to me with a proud grin. “Since we don’t have the sea here, Skycap seemed like a better name.”
“Consider me impressed!” I answer, locking my arm through hers.
“Ryder approached me about the idea a month ago and we’ve been planning it ever since. I’m actually surprised he’s not here to see it,” she says, looking around for him.
I know it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ryder would make something like this a priority, but it does. I know who he is. I know his character and yet, the fact that he came to Amaya, wanting to create something special for his people during a time of war still blows me away.
“About time you got her here!” Emeric chimes when he runs up from behind us.
“Yeah, well you know what it’s like when you come between Reign and her bed,” she quips, giving him a shove with her free arm.
“I do. Which is exactly why we sent you to retrieve her,” he teases before taking off to join the other shapeshifters flying above.
Akari, Elias, and Damien are already seated around one of the fires.
Elias has chosen to remain in his chair but the other two are sprawled out on large, thick blankets on the ground.
Akari twirls a glass of wine in one hand while she tosses grapes into Damien’s mouth with the other.
When one bounces off of his forehead, their laughter radiates across the field of fires.
Whatever problems the two of them had before seem to be long gone and I find myself wondering how she was able to get over his betrayal so easily.
Maybe with all of the time they’ve spent together she’s been able to get past it all.
Maybe time is what it will take. But even now I have trouble separating the two versions of him I had grown to know.
It’s part of the reason I’ve kept my distance since coming back. Both versions of him hurt to be around.
“Come, sit!” Akari motions to the blanket and pillows next to her and immediately hands Amaya a glass of red wine.
“No thanks,” I say with the wave of my hand when she offers me one. If I have anything to drink now, I’m afraid I won’t be able to wake up in the morning.
“Oo, look!” Elias points.
We turn around to see a muscular, male fae shooting what looks to be metal darts out of his palms. A water witch a few yards from him is firing off a round of icicles into the air as he continues splitting them in half, one-by-one with his silver darts.
“That’s Caesar,” Damien tells us. “He’s one of the council members but he used to lead one of the military units back in Dreodorian before he got banished.”
I turn around again to get a better look at the man and realize I do recognize him. I’ve only sat in on a few council meetings and still haven’t learned everyone’s names, but I recognize his salt and pepper hair along with the scar that runs into his left eyebrow.
“That takes so much precision to be able to do,” Elias admires, watching in awe.
As the night passes, we sit and talk underneath the stars, occasionally getting distracted by different magical demonstrations and musicians showing off around us. It feels familiar and I’ve missed it. I’ve missed feeling connected to people. I’ve missed feeling present and alive.
Earlier, when I was flying for the first time, it clicked for me.
Amaya was right. This matters. Living matters.
Yes, there is a war coming and we can’t ignore that, but that doesn’t mean we should forget to live in the meantime.
If I really am immortal, then I have forever to live, but they don’t.
My time with them is limited and I would be a fool to take it for granted.
“Thank you,” I whisper, resting my head on Amaya’s shoulder.
“For what?”
“For bringing me here.” I lift my head up to look at her. “For reminding me to live.”
Her smile widens, and she wraps her arms around me in a tight hug. “It’s you and me, kid.”
“You and me.”
Emeric plops himself down in between us, abruptly interrupting our moment. He grabs one of the pillows and uses it to lay his head over Amaya’s outstretched legs.
“You know what we need? Those meltpuffs you were telling us about. I’m officially putting in a request for those next Skycap.”
Amaya laughs, and it makes Emeric’s head shake in her lap. “I’ll see what I can do about that.”
“Alright, everyone.” Akari claps her hands together, drawing our attention. “I say we go around the circle, and each give our peak and pit of the week.”
“Our what?” Elias asks, moving his chair a little closer.
“You know…” she waves her wine glass in the air. “The best part of your week and the worst part.”
“Oo, I’ll go first!” Amaya offers with her hand raised. “Let’s see…” She leans her head back to think. “Okay, my peak is for sure this! It’s everything I wanted it to be and more! And for my pit…” She looks down at Emeric. “You disarming me with a double-ended sword.”
Emeric shoots up with a giant grin plastered on his face. “Hey, that was gonna be my peak!”
Amaya shakes her head and shoves her hand in his face, pushing his head back into the pillow covering her lap. “Alright, so what’s your pit then?”
“Hmm.” Emeric strokes his chin. “No meltpuffs.”
Damien tosses a pillow at him. “Of course, yours would be food related.”
“Hey, I’m a simple man.”
“Don’t we know it,” Elias adds, and we all burst out laughing.
“Okay, okay,” Akari says, trying to compose herself. “Damien, you’re next.”
He sits up off of his hands and wraps them around his knees. “Peak… a conversation I had with Ryder.”
“About what?” Akari interjects before he gets to his pit. He hesitates, but she presses him again. “Damien, what conversation?”
“I’m going to the palace to extract Kane.”
As if a bomb went off, the entire group instantly shoots up.
“Are you insane?”
“You can’t!”
“That’s a death wish!”
Everyone is firing off their thoughts, but I can’t seem to do anything but stare back at Damien whose gaze is equally as fixed on me. The rest of their reactions seem to muffle as my mind begins running wild with dark thoughts.
Without thinking much about it, I take off back towards the passage that leads underground. My thundering heartbeat pounds in my head with each quick step I take.
“Stop!”
A tight grip catches my wrist, spinning me around. Damien’s expression is strained, and it almost looks like he’s fighting back tears.
“You can’t do this.” My voice breaks and I have to look away from him.
“I need to, Reign.”
His grip softens as his hand finds mine and that’s when it hits me.
“You’re doing this for me.” It’s not a question, but more of a statement.
“I want to be the man you fell in love with.”
Anger or perhaps fear begins to suffocate me. I grab onto his jacket, pulling him into me. “You don’t have to do this. I know things are different between us, but you can’t do this.”
“I have to.” His hands wrap around my clenched fists. “I may have come back from the dead, but my soul still needs saving.”
He rests his forehead on mine, and we stay like that, holding onto one another.
His scent sends a wave of memories crashing into me and when I look up at him again, I see him.
Not the man who deceived me, but the man who stole away my heart.
The look in his amber eyes seems to melt away the lingering resentment I’ve been holding onto for far too long.
Now, it’s just us. Damien and Reign. Two souls that somehow keep finding a way back to one another.
He runs his thumb along my cheek, wiping away the tear I didn’t realize had fallen. My heart aches feeling his touch. It burns into me as I try to push away the truths burrowing themselves into my mind.
I just got him back and now I’m going to lose him all over again. Maybe this time for good.
“You could die or—”
“Shh.” He pulls me into his chest, wrapping his strong arms around me in a blanket of warmth. After everything that has happened, I shouldn’t feel safe in his embrace, but I do. It feels like home.
“I need you.”
It’s barely a whisper, but his eyes go wide with understanding.
His room is spacious with black and gold décor, but it all seems to blur as we cling to each other. His soft lips press against mine as my hands grip his hair.
Mother, I’ve missed this. I’ve missed him.
Our movements are intentional, driven by an intense desire to be closer to one another.
I don’t want to feel like two people in a fit of passion.
It’s not enough to feel his touch. I need to be infused with him.
I want to feel so connected that I don’t know the difference between his heartbeat and mine.
“I never stopped loving you,” he whispers, brushing my hair out of my face with his fingers. “My love may have been silenced, but it was never gone.”
I stop him with my kiss, worried that if he says another word, I’ll shatter into a million pieces. I don’t want to think about how he feels or how I feel or everything that has happened between us. I just want to be here.
Together.