Page 23

Aruan

I ’ve lost count of how many times I’ve wanted to go after Elsie but let her get away instead.

Some of those times, I knew she needed space, and I did my best to respect it.

Granting her that space took immense self-control.

Just like now, as I watch her march all three stones of her meager weight down the hallway, walking so fast the wall lights have a hard time keeping up.

They go off in flashes, mapping out her angry steps as she stomps farther away from me until she turns a corner, and I lose sight of her.

I clench and unclench my fingers. And count to several moon cycles.

The atmosphere between us was changing this morning.

Finally, she was softening up to me. Then the possessive beast inside me reared his head, and I opened my big mouth and said things I wish I hadn’t.

Trust me to spoil a perfectly good moment.

I want to chase her down with everything I’ve got, but I have someplace to be, and I’m already late as it is.

Trying my best to put Elsie out of my mind—and failing spectacularly—I portal myself to the clearing in the jungle behind the palace. Kian is already there, pacing in the circle of gum trees and flexing his muscles. Warming up, no doubt.

A sardonic smile finds its way to my lips. “Practicing your rusted skills?”

He stops and pins me with a narrow-eyed look. “You’re late.”

“Impatient.” I click my tongue. “It’s not like you, brother.” Peeling my lips into a wider grin, I walk to the center of the clearing. “Did you miss me?”

“Was it difficult to get out of bed?” he taunts me with a laugh. “Was it nice and warm with your mate in it?”

The mention of Elsie in such a disrespectful manner sets me off like a strike of lightning. I charge at him like a rabid dragon, pulling back my arm and aiming for his dirty mouth, but Kian is fast. He can’t read my mind because I’ve blocked it. Nevertheless, he sees me coming.

He sidesteps to the left and slips behind me, catching me off-guard with the fist he smashes on my side. I barely grunt, although I feel it. I turn around and swing another punch at him, but he’s skirted around me again. I definitely feel the fist he jams into my lower back.

I leap out of reach and prowl in a wide circle, getting the coward in my vision. A parasite vine that creeps around a tree decides it’s a good moment to try and strangle me. It knots its tentacles around my neck, its multiple suckers already drawing blood through my skin.

Kian chuckles as I wrestle with the parasite. I could’ve easily melted the carnivore, but no powers or weapons are allowed in the clearing. Just our bare hands.

My brother is unscrupulous enough to take advantage of the situation by pounding his fists into my stomach. I tear the tentacles straight off the trunk of the creeper, but the faster I dismantle them, the faster they grow back.

The next blow falls on my chin. My head snaps back from the impact.

Another one hits me straight on the mouth.

A metallic taste coats my tongue. Enraged with the pesky creeper, I rip it off my neck so hard the whole vine comes off the tree.

I chuck it aside and wipe the blood from my split upper lip while Kian laughs at me.

Coward. Kian has always fought like a sand snake. He likes to come up from behind and bite you in the heel or to lurk in the grass until you’re incapacitated before he strikes. But I’m done playing.

I hook a fist under his chin, sending him flying. The air leaves his lungs with a thud as his back hits the ground. An opportunistic trumpet worm sees his chance and lunges for Kian from the undergrowth on the border of the clearing, fangs bared and saliva dripping.

Kian swipes at the worm irritably, backhanding it on the sensitive membranes behind its feelers hard enough to make it reel.

I catch it behind its head and squeeze, preventing it from snapping its jaws at us.

Kian pushes to his feet, grabs the tail-end, and flings the worm into the jungle.

Then he turns his attention back to the fight, bouncing like a dancer.

He may be light and fast on his feet, but I can read him too. I’ve been sparring with my brothers in amiable and not-so-amiable fights for many moon cycles. When he pounces, aiming another jab at my jaw, I duck and whack him on the ribs.

He grabs his side and doubles over, leaving his face wide open. I plant a fist on his cheek, sending him stumbling backward. Before he’s caught his balance, I knock the wind out of him.

“Enough?” I ask, raising a challenging brow.

Usually, we fight until one of us surrenders, but neither of us wants to make that call because saying it means admitting defeat. More often than not, we go at each other until someone can no longer get up from the ground, and that someone is never me.

Kian spits out blood. “In your wet dreams.”

I grin. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

I go for him again, letting him get a few jabs in to make the fight a bit fairer. Just as he really gets going, raining vicious punches on my abdomen, I hook another left under his chin. The force of the blow makes his teeth clack together.

A ground crawler, who’s smelled blood, quickly inches closer, its stinger already poised for attack.

It’s small enough for Kian to flick it away.

The crawler, a leechlike species that’s not easily deterred, dives for the few drops of blood that have already drained into the soil.

It swiftly vacuums up the sand. The crawler has the ability to filter blood from anything and to secrete the undigested waste material.

It can even swallow stones. We let the small vulture be.

Let it suck up whatever it wants as long as it doesn’t interfere with our fight.

Kian circles me. I can tell from his labored breaths that his cracked ribs are bothering him, but he doesn’t show pain. For what he did, he deserves a lot worse.

“You endangered my mate,” I snarl, storming him again.

I ram headfirst into his stomach but not before he thwacks me on the nape.

“It was necessary,” he throws back at me.

I take up a defensive position. “You don’t get to make that call.”

“The people need to learn to trust her. She has to make a place for herself in Lona, and she can’t do that if you keep her locked away.”

“That’s dragon shit.” I sneer. “Don’t pretend to care about how Elsie is settling in. Caring about others isn’t your style. You never do anything for anyone unless it serves your own purposes.”

He picks up a handful of sand and throws it in my face.

For a moment, I’m blinded, but I hear the sand crunching under his boots as he sneaks to the side.

The arm he pulls back is nothing but a wisp that displaces the air, yet I feel the movement.

My enhanced senses pick up his subtle inhale as he fills his lungs with air before striking.

I’m ready, catching his fist in my palm and restraining him in the vise of my hold as I hit him hard enough on the side of his head to see stars.

While he comes to his senses, I wipe the dust from my eyes. Kian is breathing hard, staring at me with unconcealed animosity—a rare display of emotion for my brother.

I walk right up to him, putting us chest to chest. “If anything had happened to Elsie, this fight wouldn’t end with you crying defeat. It would end with you dead.”

He holds my gaze without blinking. “There are more ways to lose someone than in death.”

The statement is like scratching at a festering thorn under my skin. I’ve been fretting over losing Elsie since the moment she came back into my life.

“She’s mine,” I growl in his face. “No one and nothing will take her away from me again.”

His swollen lips lift in one corner. “Are you sure about that, brother?”

I grab him by the collar of his tunic. “What the dragon is that supposed to mean? I’ll kill anyone who tries.”

He watches me with a steady gaze. “Even Elsie herself?”

His meaning hits me between the eyes. “She won’t leave.” Because I won’t let her.

His expression turns pitying. “You can lock a pixie dragon in a cage and pretend you can tame it as much as you like, but the moment you open that cage, you know what’s going to happen.”

Fury rises like lava inside me. For good measure, I punch him again. He doesn’t even try to deflect the blow. He takes it stoically, all the while staring me down.

“You did not take Elsie to the village to do her or me a favor.” I let him go and ball my hands at my sides to prevent myself from strangling him. “You did that just because you could, because you like to provoke me.”

“You and your big ego.” His smile turns condescending. “Everything isn’t always about you, Aruan.”

“Then why did you do it?”

“Her loyalty had to be tested,” he replies evenly.

The anger that surfaces isn’t like molten lava this time. It’s cold and lethal. “What did you say to me?” He dared to test Elsie as if she’s a simpleton, some experiment, and not with the respect owed to my mate ?

“We needed to know how she’d react in a crisis, if she’d make the right choices.”

“Right choices?” My laugh is scornful. “You mean if she’d run away or help you.”

“We needed to know the extent of her power.”

I pull my eyes into slits. “You endangered Elsie to submit her to a test ? You went against my will and explicit orders.” I raise my voice loud enough to make the small winged dragons scatter from the trees.

“You masked her mind and prevented me from feeling her through our bond. For that alone, I can kill you.”

I dive at him, not holding back any longer. We go down, fists flying through the air as we roll on the ground. He pummels me in the ribs, not tamping down his strength either.

I find purchase in the fabric of his tunic, kneeling over him and holding him down as I slam my knuckles into his face. “If you come near Elsie again?—”

He bends his leg and knees me in the groin. “Maybe you should let her decide who she wants around her.”

Son of a dragon. I hit him again, hard enough to register the pain in my knuckles. “You deceived me. You masked my own mate from me.”

“That was me,” someone says at my back.

I pause with my fist in the air. Turning my face a fraction, I take in my father who stands at the edge of the clearing. He’s wearing his crown, which means he was attending official and very important business. He only wears it for ceremonial events in the palace.

He walks to us with easy strides, his face giving nothing away—I’d even go as far as to say he appears bored—but I sense his coiled anger.

In many ways, our father is like Kian. He only shows people what he wants them to see.

He’s not easy to read, but I’ve learned to pay attention to the energy rolling off him rather than visual clues.

I let go of Kian. “What did you say?”

“That was me.” My father stops next to us. “I shielded Elsie’s mind and mirrored her emotions.”

My father possesses the most deceitful of all powers in the five kingdoms. He has the ability to not only copy but also store in his mind anyone’s sentiments at any given time. His specialty is the unique connection that exists between mates, allowing them to sense one another through their bond.

That ever-growing pool of personal information in his mind is an infinite source he can tap into whenever he wants.

He can camouflage several minds at the same time, making it impossible for mates to feel their bonds.

He can go one step further and project a memory he recorded to fool anyone about the whereabouts or feelings of their mates.

The most famous use of his power was when he kidnapped my mother from the Red Kingdom.

He married her before her father could catch wind of her disappearance.

As far as my grandfather was concerned, my mother was still safely locked in her tower, far removed from the vicious prince of Lona, who, very unfortunately, turned out to be her mate.

“Why?” I push to my feet. “Why would you let me believe Elsie was safely in my quarters when she could’ve been in danger?”

“Kian is right.” My father gives my brother a hand to help him up. “We needed to know where we stood with Elsie and how far her power extends.”

I grit my teeth. “Did you get your answers?”

“Yes.” My father smiles. “She behaved very commendably during the crisis. She could’ve fled, but she used her power for a greater good.”

“You mean she didn’t abuse it,” I snap.

“We doubt she’s able to command more intelligent species. If she were, it would’ve manifested by now.”

“You had no right to do that.”

“I’m the king. If the safety of Lona is at stake, I can do anything I want. If you two have eaten enough dirt, we have guests waiting. You’d better clean up before meeting them.” He looks me up and down. “We don’t want to make a bad first impression.”

The sideways glance Kian shoots me says he knows who these surprise visitors are. Why do I get the feeling I’m the only one in the dark?

“Who?” I ask as my father opens a portal and strolls to the circle of lights.

“Elsie’s uncle and aunt, the king and queen of Marikanea.”

“What? You want her to meet her family?” I want to add, “ Now ?” Our relationship is much too unstable. Too much has been happening. I’m not sure Elsie is ready for this. “Why?”

He turns around. “It’s time for Elsie to see where she comes from.”

He can’t mean what I think he does.

And then he proves me wrong by saying, “It’s time she visits her birthplace. She leaves with them. Tonight.”