Chapter 9 Evira #3
He jolted and spun back around, eyes shooting wide. “Oh, fuck, now what? What’s happened? Was there something you left out about your meet-up with Vorzyr, Fanor, and Cornelius? Is it bad? How bad? Just give me a tiny warning, enough for me to brace myself and—”
I burst toward him with my dragon speed, closing the distance between us. “I love you.”
He blinked. “You… wait. You’re—”
“There was nothing bad, hellion. This was what I wanted to tell you, what I couldn’t hold off any longer. I love you… a fuck of a lot.”
His lips quirked. “A fuck of a lot? Is that so?”
I grinned. “Absolutely so.”
He threw his arms around me. “I love you, too, icicle. So fucking insanely, honestly.”
I chuckled against him. “Sounds about right. Especially for our foursome.”
A disturbance in the atmosphere just outside the ward had me pulling away all too soon, and I turned, focusing my senses quickly.
A rumbling might was cutting through the air.
A dragon.
I frowned. “What the—”
Then I felt that familiarity.
The magic. The scent. The overall presence.
“Torvek,” I uttered.
“What?” Zayn said. “Torvek is here?”
Before I could get out a word, the fire dragon in question burst through the ward, his vermillion magic enveloping him.
And he did not look happy.
His nostrils were flaring, his eyes narrowed and sparking fiercely with his magic.
How had he passed through Vaxan’s ward? And left it completely intact as he’d done so?
Had he—oh. Of course. His brother, Vorzyr, had been here after that Temperance battle and been granted passage by Vaxan himself.
I knew how T’s mind worked. He’d masked himself temporarily, and with him having the same blood as Vorzyr and a very similar magical signature, it would have made it much easier to pull off.
Registering the major aggression, Zayn bolted from me, and rushed over, calling his power to his right palm, his fuchsia magic flaring.
Torvek snarled, “Stay back, chaos gremlin, or you’ll feel the wrath of my flame.”
I grimaced as Zayn blasted him, swiping a deep wound across Torvek’s cheek that had him grunting, eyes blazing with fury—knowing him, at the insult of it more than the pain.
“That’s the second time you’ve threatened me with your fire, flame boy,” Zayn called to him as he strode closer, power still live and at the ready. “That’s what you get.”
I felt T’s power coil.
“Stop,” I ordered, then I burst between them.
I swiftly pressed a hand to T’s chest with my dragon might, then signaled Zayn to take it down.
Zayn sucked in a breath, but did as I’d asked, calling his power back, and not escalating any further.
Thank you, my lovely.
“Torvek,” I snarled when he tried to push against my hand. “You’ll hurt me. And striking Zayn will cause me pain too.”
His blazing eyes flickered unsteadily as they settled on mine properly.
And then he stepped back.
I dropped my hand. “All right, now what is this all about, flame bite?”
“That’s right,” he snapped at Zayn. “It’s flame bite, not flame boy. You hear me?”
“We’re all hearing you loud and fucking clear,” Zayn shot back.
“And trust me, the raging thing doesn’t usually end well, so keep that in mind.
Seems you need a release—some way or another.
A little controlled violent sparring with your dragon warrior buddies back in your kingdom? Some hard fucking?”
“Watch your tongue,” Torvek snarled, almost starting forward again, but holding when his gaze flicked back to me.
“Zayn, leave it,” I told him as he came to stand beside me.
He nodded, but wrapped his arm around me, glaring at Torvek.
T tugged at his hair, then rumbled at me, “You knew that Fanor was aware of what I am?”
I jolted. “What?”
He glared at me. “V had a talk with me concerning what you, him, Cornelius and Fanor are trying to putting in place to help Draven push back the call to mobilize.”
Vorzyr wasn’t supposed to have done that.
Not yet. Not until things were properly in place, especially when it came to the Torvek aspect of it, so he wouldn’t be put at risk—or majorly panic.
Like right now. It had to mean that T had found out on his own somehow.
He had his ear to the ground and access to a lot of intel funnels.
He went on, “Fanor knowing about me came up—had to come up for him to get his point across. Then I inferred the rest where your knowledge base was concerned.”
Before I could respond, he started pacing, “And how could you not include me in that meeting with my brother—and you, essentially my little sister, present? Not to mention, Fanor! Evi!”
I held up my hands and told him calmly, “Because you’re not on the periphery. You can’t act outside the political landscape like all three of us can. It would have compromised you.”
He frowned. “So this is why Fanor recused herself from certain topics involved in her role at the Dracoryn Core? I thought it was because of me, us breaking things off. But that even seemed far-fetched, because Fanor isn’t the type of person who’d compromise her career over a romantic entanglement.
She’s powerfully ambitious and steadfast in all that she does. ”
“First, you’re right that she wouldn’t do that. Second, you’re also not just some ‘romantic entanglement’ to her. You’re it for her. The one, T.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t… all this you’re working on clandestinely. Then her knowing about me? About me, Evi! My other abilities! For so long, too.”
“When it comes to your other abilities, you don’t do well with it, but I am sorry for having to keep you in the dark, T. Really.”
“Having to? So you still think the secrecy was necessary? That cutting me out was necessary?”
“Yes.”
Our eyes locked.
He sighed, then scrubbed his hand over his face. “I am… difficult. With that. It’s a… a certain…”
“A survival mode reaction?” Zayn offered. Really nicely, his tone soft and understanding.
He was seeing some of the Torvek Titanus that I knew, not just the outburst version he’d already run into twice now.
T gave a nod, and almost smiled at him. “Yes.”
“You know, Winter spent eighteen years hidden away from the world. And when he was finally allowed to step out into it, the main response he got from people was fear. Just because of his powers, of what he is, of the way he was born. Not through one single fucking thing he did,” Zayn told him.
“Temperance was even created just to take him down. A whole organization. So, I get it. All of us here get it. You hiding those two Celestial-based abilities, though, you think it’s sparing you from that, from being ostracized like Win was, but it seems to me that it’s breaking you.
It’s definitely keeping you from the woman you love.
It’s got you in a perpetual state of fear. ”
“And you’re not you, T,” I added gently. “Only inside Vortimer Palace behind closed doors.”
He grimaced and started pacing. “When Ruxnoth outed Winter… I thought Winter was done. Ruxnoth made it seem like everyone’s worst nightmares about him were going to come true, destroy us all.
But now the tide is turning. Draven told me about the Temperance stance altering, them calming—something you conveyed to him, and is now being spread throughout the Realm.
And it’s calming a lot of the population.
Not all, but a large portion. And there’s also growing support for you being linked romantically to Winter, Evi.
Yes, it’s about strategy—them seeing that him being tied to you will ensure he never acts against the Dracoryn Realm, that they’ll always be safe from him—but it’s still something. ”
He took a beat, then told me, “My meeting with V just now… it was about him being invited back into the Dracoryn Realm. Invited back! After all this time. And it’s actually because of this situation.
When you, Fanor, V, and Cornelius met, you created a proposal that Draven was able to run with and present to the Realm that was received very favorably—for V to be there and use his Primal Celestial Resonance to protect the Realm against Ruxnoth. ”
“Yeah, it’s gonna stop them mobilizing against Winter’s family.” I shifted my weight. “Fanor is also putting something in place to protect you.”
He frowned.
Okay, so he only knew that she was aware of his abilities, not why she hadn’t told him.
Then he was likely assuming it was because she wanted him to trust her with it and tell her himself.
Like she’d said, though, it wasn’t about trust. But of course he thought that.
Survival mode thinking, just like Zayn had clocked.
“You’re going to tell me?”
“Might as well, it’s all coming out now, isn’t it?
” As his lips quirked, I went on. “This is just the last piece. Basically, she’s working on rigging the Crown Heir situation to create a safeguard where if it ever did come out about your other abilities, the Realm would have to rethink their biases, recognize that the severe fallout of ousting you would outweigh accepting you.
She’s using backchannels to feed that narrative of your importance, your constant stability, your impact on the political scene…
so that if it does come out, that’s what they’ll see. Who you are, not what you are.”
He took an uneasy step back. “Oh, hell.”
“I know it’s a lot to digest, flame bite.”
“What she’s doing for me… what you’re doing for me… Vorzyr, too…”
“It’s okay, T. We love you.”
“It’s not. Not okay. This secrecy is causing pain now and trouble—and not just to me. Things are shifting.” He sighed. “Maybe it’s time.”
I started. “Really?”
“I… think so.” He tugged at the sleeves of his tailored black coat. “I need to sit with it.” He blinked, then I smiled inwardly as his eyes shone. “First, though, I’m going to tell Fanor that I know that she knows.”
I reached out and grasped his hand. “Good, T. Really fucking good.”
He smiled and squeezed my hand.
“Uh… you know that the love of your life is working with me via Exalt, right? That’s not an accidental secret on my end?”
He shook his head in dismay at me. “No, I’m aware of that.
Although, how that’s going so well was more than a little surprising to me.
Not Exalt going well—I know you, of course that’s progressing powerfully.
Evira Vortimer and Fanor Seffalyn working alongside one another was what the shocking aspect was. ”
Zayn gave me a squeeze. “Evira’s got a talent for dealing with problematic personalities.” He thumbed himself. “Case in point.”
“Aww,” I said, hugging him to me. “You’re not problematic, lovely.”
“She’s right, I’m not picking up on that from you,” Torvek told him. He even actually smiled at him.
But then that smile slipped all of a sudden.
He staggered back.
With a grunt of pain, he pushed his coat off his left shoulder.
Then I saw one of his dragon markings blazing—his new Crown Heir one.
He cursed and gritted his teeth.
This happening, and in this manner, could only mean one thing.
He voiced it before I could, his grave expression locking on mine, “The Dracoryn Realm is under attack.”