Chapter 33
“A gain.”
Dax had been taking me through my paces for what seemed like an eternity.
But it had only been a few hours.
The sweat dripped down my face and onto the surface of my scales, the ends of which were brought up to my collarbone and down the lengths of my arms. I gripped my trident tightly—a soft glow emanating through my hand. I twirled it into position, readying myself again—giving Dax a nod.
He wasted no time. His massive, muscular arms hoisted his trident over his head with ease and swept it down in the next second. In a move that even I was shocked by, I blocked his blow before swiftly twirling with my trident, landing my hit on his side. As it hit its mark, we paused.
Dax’s face lit with pure delight. “You’re getting much faster.”
“Thanks,” I said, willing heaps of air into my lungs.
“I want you to focus on the form in your twist. Grip higher on the trident stem. It will deliver a harder blow,” he instructed, rubbing his ribcage. “Although, that last one was pretty hard.”
I winced. “Sorry.”
Dax fluttered his large hand. “Don’t be. That’s what I want you to do. I can take it.” He gave me a reassuring wink. “You’re doing great, Asherah. I wish half my Guardians had your focus and determination. It would do them a world of good.”
His words had me beaming with pride. “Thank you.”
A young male faeling ran through the open doors of the training facility with an envelope in his hand. “For you, General Lumeya.”
He took the letter, his cobalt blue eyes scanning the parchment. Dax ran his fingers through the long strands of his blond hair and let out a deep sigh. “I need to go. The little council tyrant requested my presence.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why does she want to meet with you?”
Dax shrugged. “Who knows? She’s acting bitchier than usual. Even Roarvyn, who has a knack for letting things roll off his shoulder, is growing impatient. Something must have crawled up her ass.”
I had an inkling of what that something might be—or who rather—but didn’t voice it. No sense in doing so. Dax was already aware of Melysah’s petty games. “I’ll hang back and practice a bit.”
“Sound plan.” Dax planted his trident on his shoulder as he strode for the exit. “See you tomorrow.”
The training facility was blissfully empty. I summoned water to quench my thirst, gulping the cool water with relief as it traveled down my throat. I splashed a bit more on my heated face, feeling instantly relieved. I wasted no time rolling through my practice swings with my trident, my mind zeroing out the world around me.
Left, down, turn, swing, twist up—
WACK!
I pitched forward, unable to breathe, my eyes wide, as my knees hit the ground. Immense pain spread out through my back, immobilizing me.
WACK!
The impact sent me flat to the ground. I couldn’t think. My vision became clouded with stars.
I needed to move.
Fast.
With all the energy I had, I rolled to my back just as a glowing trident slammed on the floor next to my head. I gazed up at Melysah’s sneering face.
“You really should watch your back, Princess.” Melysah swung her trident over her head, aiming the tips at my torso. I hoisted myself in a crouch just in time, watching with sick satisfaction as the impact from Melysah’s trident against the ground reverberated throughout her body.
“You really should learn to fight fairly,” I bit back.
Melysah positioned herself in a fighting stance.
Oh, yeah. We were doing this.
I wasted no time. I thrust my trident into Melysah’s torso, prompting her to bring her trident down for the block. I quickly twisted, landing a fierce blow into her side.
But Melysah, with her decades of training over my own, dropped into a well-practiced fighting stance—her gaze assessing her opponent and calculating her next move. And move she did. With a grace I had to admire, she swirled her trident, the blows landing with a clank against my stem and vibrating throughout my body. Her feet followed a careful dance as if she were recalling a warrior dance she’d practiced in the quiet confines of her room. I challenged each step and blocked each move she made around the room, her face held in fierce determination.
With my own determination building, I blocked another blow and immediately jabbed her in the stomach with the base of my stem, just as I’d practiced with Dax. He’d be proud.
Speaking of…
“Aren’t you supposed to be meeting with Dax? Seems like that would be a better use of your time.”
Melysah readied herself for another go. “Not the way I see it.” An evil grin spread on her obnoxious face. “And to answer your question, I needed some way to get you alone.” She came for me then, her trident swinging in a graceful flow. My body, already heavy with exhaustion, could barely keep up with the blocks. The impact on my scales would leave a mark tomorrow. That was for sure. I needed a way to end this. I dropped and swung my leg out, catching Melysah unaware, her body hitting the ground.
I rose from the ground and smirked down at her. “I truly appreciate you coming all this way to practice with me, but this session is over.”
Melysah clenched her teeth. “Not yet, it’s not.” Her foot reared back, then pitched forward, catching me in the stomach. I bent over, trying to bring air into my lungs as Melysah rose from the ground.
“Perhaps we should do this like real females.” She fashioned her scales to cover her breasts and left tiny shorts shaped on her lower body. Everything else was pale-colored skin. “Skins and tridents only. What do you say, Princess?”
I stood at full height, dropping my scales to match hers with a lift of my chin. “Challenge accepted.”
And then we sparred.
I could feel the determination rise within my soul. Going against everything that I stood for, I wanted to beat Melysah within an inch of her life to teach her that she could no longer bully me and mine. When her trident swept at my knees, I leapt and twisted—my trident cutting through the air and smacking into her back. She jabbed at my heart, nearly nicking me with the tip of her trident, her sneer only growing when I blocked the hit. I pushed her back and jabbed the stem into her nose with a sickening crunch. As the blood leaked from her nose, she twirled her trident, her next move unreadable as she swung and whacked me in my side, taking the air from my lungs.
Blow after blow. Cut after cut. My limbs began to tire, and Melysah didn’t look any better—her breathing became more erratic, and the hits she made felt like taps against my skin.
It was time to end this charade.
I swung the tip of my trident across Melysah’s lower abdomen, the blood seeping down what little scales she displayed below. Melysah’s hand flew to her open wound, her mouth hanging open as she stared at me in disbelief.
“That’s for stalking me.”
Before Melysah could recover, I twirled with all my strength, sending a blow into Melysah’s stomach. Melysah crashed to the floor with a groan. “And that’s for sending your lapdog after me.”
I stepped to her side, Melysah’s body trembling as her furious gaze fixed on me.
Oh, how I wanted to pierce Melysah straight through her gut. I wouldn’t, though. That’s not who I am.
But I could act like I was about to.
I lifted the trident above my head, baring my teeth. “And this, this is for trying to come between me and Draevyn, like you mean anything to him.”
Just before my motion brought the trident down in a mock stab, Melysah’s fingers flicked. Pain in my stomach like I’d never felt stilled my breath. I glanced down at the three ice daggers sticking through my stomach. I dropped to my knees, the taste of iron filling my mouth. When she rose from the ground, I spat blood at her feet. My vision clouded with the effort to breathe.
Melysah stood over me—the stars in my vision peppering her satisfied smug. “For the record, I feared for my life. At least, that’s what I’ll tell them. And here I was, simply trying to teach you how to fight. Seems like a poor way to repay me.” She crouched down as my head lolled to the side. “You know, Draevyn met me at Guake'te once,” she said as she bit her lip, the corner of her mouth quirking. “Mmmm, there was nothing quite like it. I’ll never forget the feel of him, the way his body moved against mine, or the look in his eyes.” Despite my lack of oxygen, I could feel the anger rising in me like a tangible thing. Melysah stared in the distance. “There was something in his gaze that evening, something that let me know I was his despite his words,” she recalled, her evil gaze shifting back to me. “I get your obsession, the desire to make him yours.” Her hand snapped out and gripped my chin, her nails cutting into the skin of my cheeks. “But he is not yours to have. He never was. He never will be. So, I want to make myself very clear. You won’t be attending the bonding ceremony. While the other Atlantians find their mates, you won’t even sniff the air around the temple. You’ll be safely within the confines of the palace—likely touching yourself with how potent the lust emanating from the bonding ceremony is—but you’ll be nowhere near Draevyn. And do you know why?”
Melysah waited for an answer, but my voice failed me. I opted to spit in her face instead. I anticipated the slap that came across my face—almost reveled in it as my body listed to the side. Melysah rose and summoned water to clean her face, but it did very little to wash away the expression of righteous anger. “Do you know why, Asherah? Answer me!” she bellowed.
“No,” I murmured through a gargle.
The smile that emerged on Melysah’s face was one of pure delight. “Because I’m a true Atlantian. A true Water Fae. I’ve studied the council text. Scoured them. You don’t want to find out the ways I’ll retaliate. But above all, my plans for you don’t include Draevyn because one day, he’ll present me before the Bohiti as his chosen bondmate.” I thought that was very unlikely. The room began to fade into darkness. “Draevyn is my mate. You have no place here. You are nothing but a little distraction, Asherah Delmar.” I closed my eyes, but not before I winced when one final dagger pierced my middle, followed by Melysah’s cackle. “Pathetic.”
My eyes flew open one last time as Melysah ripped the daggers from my body—the hot flow of blood seeping out of my wounds. She turned toward the entrance. “Go find Dax. Let him know his little Princess has been injured in a training exercise.”
It was the last thing I heard before the darkness claimed me.
A low murmur of voices broke into my consciousness—voices my mind slowly began to recognize, the fragments of their conversation piecing together even before I had the strength to open my eyes.
“She was supposed to be guarded by Belamo. He'd told me he had her while I went to see what was amiss with the grand council wench,” Dax seethed in a low whisper.
“Yeah, well. He did as you asked. He just didn’t know Kane had been banned from guarding Asherah when he came to relieve him,” Dad said with a sigh. “Whatever the case, Myles will get to the bottom of it. I’m sure he’s ripping her a new asshole as we speak, in the most Myles way possible, of course.”
“Will that woman stop at nothing?” Reneah asked, appalled.
“Apparently not,” Draevyn said. A small moment passed before he went on. “I can’t help but feel responsible.”
A chorus of ‘no’s’ went up.
I mustered my very little strength and attempted to open my eyes. The faelight assailed my senses before the shapes began to take form. I blinked a few times to get rid of the dryness. The stone room of the infirmary was one place I hadn’t expected to be. My gaze found Draevyn sitting in a small wooden chair with his face buried in his hands. “It wasn’t your fault,” I said, my voice cracking.
Four sets of eyes swung to me, the concern evident on their faces. Draevyn moved his chair, placing it by my side. “How are you feeling, nanichi ?” he asked as he slid into his seat.
My gaze flew to Dad. He’d never heard Draevyn call me that. Cats out of the bag, I supposed. My gaze shifted back to Draevyn. “Like I lost a really good sparring match.”
“Is that what really happened?” Dax asked, eyes begging for the truth.
I hated lying to the people I loved and cared for, and Dax fell into that category. Since arriving in Atlantis, he’d been my mentor and someone who looked after Dad with great honor. That’s why when I replied, “That’s what happened,” an overwhelming sense of guilt came crashing down on my weary body. One look at Draevyn told me he didn’t believe the lie that rolled off my tongue.
I tried to move up the bed, but the pain caused me to wince. Draevyn’s arms reached under mine, gently pulling me to sit. “How long have I been out?” I asked.
“A day,” Dad answered. He appraised me with narrowed eyes. “You know you can tell us anything, Sher? Did something happen in there that wasn’t supposed to happen?”
Reneah handed me a cup of water and adjusted the pillow at my back. “Seems to me like the wench took a couple of cheap shots,” she remarked coolly.
I huffed a humorless laugh. “She may have.” My gaze snapped up to the group. “But we’re not going to report her.”
“Why the hell not?” Draevyn asked, his tone heavy with anger.
“Because we’re not going to stoop to her level.”
“But she violated you in the worst way,” Dax insisted. “We’ve seen your wounds, Ash. We found you bleeding out on the floor. Had you not been Fae, you would have died. I counted four gaping wounds. That’s not a sparring match. That’s a death match.”
I glanced down at the cup in my hands. “Yeah. Well. She didn’t win, did she?” I shrugged.
“Sher.” I met my father’s worried gaze. “You don’t have to be brave. Everyone in this room knows you already are. If she did something—anything—that is a violation of our laws, she deserves to be punished. She cannot do this to our Queen.”
“But I’m not your Queen. To Melysah and the Water Fae who think like her, I’m barely even a Princess.”
I couldn’t help but notice the look of worry the group shared with each other.
Draevyn took the cup from my hands, placed it on the small nightstand beside my bed, and took my hands in his. “I want you to pay close attention to what I'm about to say. When you’re dealing with a realm as big as Atlantis, you’ll always have those who are narrow-minded. Those who don’t support you, your decisions, and your leadership will always exist. Whether you asked for it or not, it’s part of the role, your role, as the Queen of Atlantis. So, every time those who oppose your rule begin striving for attention, I want you to remember one thing and this one thing only. Other people’s opinions of you are none of your business.”
An eyebrow lifted to my hairline. “How are they none of my business?”
Draevyn shrugged. “They’re none of your business. What you think of yourself is the only opinion that matters. That’s it.” He motioned around the room. “Not even the opinions of the people in this room matter.”
“My opinion about her trident training matters,” Dax murmured.
Draevyn shot him a look. “The point is,” he continued, “you need to have thicker skin. It’s about to get a whole hell of a lot worse.”
I sighed, nodding in resolve. “You’re right.”
“That’s our girl,” Reneah beamed.
“So,” Dad cut in, “with that all said, do we need to report Melysah?”
“That’s what she wants.” My determined gaze met Dad’s. “And I won’t give her the satisfaction.” I couldn’t help but glance at Draevyn, whose lips lifted in a smirk.
The room went quiet before Dax spoke. “She’s like Teflon, that one.”
Dad’s brows furrowed. “How do you even know what Teflon is?”
Dax managed to look affronted. “I’m not a complete imbecile. I do keep up to date with new advancements, slang, and terminologies in the Above World…brah.”
Draevyn snorted.
“Alright, you two bickering ninnies,” Reneah cut in, motioning for the door. “Let’s leave Ash to rest.” She glanced my way. “I’ll make sure the healer knows you’ve awakened. I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable in your own bed while you heal. I’ll see when we can get you moved.”
“Thanks, Reneah.”
With a gentle smile, she followed Dad and Dax out of the room, leaving Draevyn and me in silence. He scooted his chair closer to the bed, reaching up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind the tip of my ear. “I’m sorry.”
I brought my hand to the back of his, holding it against my cheek, reveling in the warmth. “Please don’t. It’s not your fault.”
“It is. This is because of me. And her obsession.”
I smirked. “Not to break your ego, but this has to do with more than just you. She doesn’t think I’m fit to be Queen.”
“Yes, but she’s always contested your right to the throne. She only started to get violent when she saw us together.”
My head tilted, kissing his palm. “True. But us being what we are to each other is not your fault. If anything, it’s a burden we share together.”
His gaze grew intense. “What did she say to you, Ash? And don’t lie. Not to me.”
I stayed silent for a beat before the confession fell from my lips. “She doesn’t want us bonded.”
“Fuck.”
“She seems to think that the two of you are bondmates and that I’m not worthy of being yours.” I debated the following admission. I’d had other lovers in the Above World. None of them could ever compare Draevyn. I chose not to speak of them in front of him because it didn’t matter. And who he’d been with before me didn’t matter either. That was B.A.: Before Ash. But a part of me wondered why he’d sleep with Melysah when, from all past conversations about her, he seemed to detest her very existence. My curiosity won out. “She told me that you met her at Guake'te.”
Draevyn’s lips pressed together. “That is a lie.”
“Not as she tells it.”
“Asherah,” his gaze grew serious, “have I ever lied to you?” I shook my head. “Then, do me the courtesy of letting me provide you with the truth. Please.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to accuse you of anything.”
“I know you weren’t. It just angers me that she implied that I’d gone there with her. I hadn’t, by the way. I’ll not lie to you and say nothing happened between her and me. It did. I didn’t regret it at the time because I didn’t know who she truly was. She hadn’t even been appointed to the council yet. Everyone knew she was trying to work herself up the ranks, as was I within the Guardians. Perhaps that’s what made her appeal to me.
“But not even with all the energy the bonding ceremony brings, not even as I bedded her—and others—that evening, none of it compares to how I feel with you. None of it.”
My heart warmed, but my curiosity continued to prod for more questions. “And you had no intention of presenting her to the Bohiti?”
“No, I swear it. I’ve been to the festival dozens of times over the centuries. I’ve never felt like presenting anyone. But I do feel like presenting myself now because I’ve known…”
I waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, I asked. “You’ve known what?”
“Would you come with me somewhere? When you’re feeling up to it.”
I nodded.
He sighed with resolve. “Good. That’s good.” A small smile broke on his face. “It’ll give me a better chance to explain.”
I wondered what he was up to, but his answers gave me enough reassurance that Melysah’s feelings were unrequited. He said it was me he wanted to take to the bonding ceremony. I wanted our bondmarks so badly, so we could move past this whole ordeal.
But Melysah’s voice rang in my mind.
'Draevyn is my mate. You have no place here. You are nothing, Asherah Delmar. Nothing but a little distraction.’
A deep sense of worry festered in my gut. I had no idea what plans Melysah had, but we were sure to find out. Nothing and no one—even Melysah—would keep us from the bonding ceremony.