Page 13

Twenty Years Old

Dinner ended, and her parents didn’t let her get very far before summoning her to a private meeting. Before she stepped through the doors to her parents’ office space, she knew what the meeting would be about.

“Let’s get this over with.” Marlena strode in on a breeze of her own making.

It wasn’t often she opened a door with her hands anymore.

Marlena was starting to use her powers to remind those around her of what she could do—she couldn’t command the skies, but she could control the very air people breathed, and she could do so without being seen.

And sometimes that was scarier than the storms that came with warnings.

Ryanna sat atop her desk, legs crossed. Jonan stood on the other side, leaning lazily while eyeing Marlena as she walked in.

“It seems the deal you made with Lucius has gone up in smoke.” Jonan stood to his full height, towering over her mother on the desk. Marlena got her height from him .

All of Stella heard the storm over Lake Mons, and everyone knew where it had come from.

When Vega and Bridger didn’t show up for dinner, the energy in the dining room grew tense.

The two had been spending a lot of time together, but it was always with friends— as friends.

Marlena spent her fair share of time with them, along with Khort and Arlet.

But it didn’t take a scholar to see the two were hiding their feelings for the sake of others.

The two weren’t supposed to be together.

Vega had been promised to Khort before she’d ever had the chance to choose for herself.

Their parents had made that decision for her, for him—to better the chances of producing powerful offspring.

“You let your sister swoop in and take the one opportunity you might have had to hold some real power.” Ryanna filed at her nails aimlessly. Lately she made it seem as if anything to do with Marlena was a bore—like her eldest daughter wasn’t even worth her attention.

It made Marlena want to crawl out of her skin—made her want to tear into her mother’s just so she knew she was still there, to warn her of the problem she would become.

Marlena rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. As if holding two seats to the Curia isn’t enough. I think I’ll be just fine.”

Jonan barked a laugh. “You think that just because you’ve found a backbone means we’re going to let you take control?

As long as we’re alive, Marlena, you will work for us.

Under us. You’ve proven to us time and time again that you make childish decisions.

We can sit at the head of our seats for as long as we’d like to make sure you don’t destroy all we’ve worked for. ”

Marlena stared, blinking every so often. She schooled her face to masked calmness. “Do you plan on living forever?”

Her mother pushed herself off her desk, choking back an amused laugh. “Do you think this is a game?” She circled Marlena like a hawk, eyeing her up and down. “This isn’t a game, Marlena. This is ruling. You can’t fuck this up. You have to be willing to take what you want. ”

Take what you want, the voice inside her head mimicked.

“Are you saying I should have taken Bridger from my sister?”

Jonan sent a gust of wind to stop his wife from circling.

Ryanna’s hair fluttered to a stop around her sweet, so pretty face.

She took a breath, closing her eyes until she exhaled.

They jolted open, and a calmness washed over her.

Jonan’s air was a drug to her mother, a grounding agent when she got too wild.

“I’m saying someone who is in the presence of power shouldn’t allow it to be taken so easily. ”

Jonan wasn’t innocent, but Ryanna… She was trained as a young woman to act this way by her own mother. It was the only way she knew.

Years of abuse trickled down to Marlena… and it would end with her. But she had to play her cards right. She’d already rebelled too much—she had to calculate her next move.

“They love each other. Isn’t that what you want for her?

To fall in love and be happy? To marry for the promise of a strong bloodline?

” Marlena cocked her head, turning to face her mother.

“Bridger’s the strongest line you’re going to get, I fear.

And just because he doesn’t want it with me, doesn’t mean I’m useless. ”

“Yes, that is what we want. With Khort Fera. To keep the dragon line alive and strong,” Jonan chimed in. They’d made a deal with the Feras a long time ago, and Marlena was sure it was more than just friendship the deal sealed.

Just because they were both strong didn’t mean their children would get the dragon gene. “We all know that’s not how that works.”

Ryanna sneered. “Eventually it would. She could birth a few dragons and bring back our firing squad.”

Everything was a strategic move for them. Maybe they didn’t love Vega—they just needed to teach her how to.

Sighing, Ryanna walked back to her desk and took a seat when Jonan made his stance clear. “We will let her have her fun, but it won’t last. Your job is to make sure the alliance with Fortis does. However you see fit.”

Oh, I’ll make sure it sticks all right.

Marlena would make sure, for her sake. Without another word, she turned and headed for the door. This was a game—a game of wits and who could outlast the other.

“If you need to spread your legs again like the night in Amora to get attention, then so be it.” Her mother’s voice followed her down the hall and clouded her mind well into the night.

Vega hadn’t come home, and Marlena finished a bottle of wine before anyone walked through the garden. The patter of Arlet’s light steps gave her away.

“Aren’t you cold?” Arlet wrapped her arms around herself. She stood beside Marlena, who had been sitting on the stone garden wall for hours.

Marlena couldn’t feel her butt anymore, but the alcohol helped with that. Over the last few years, she’d started to drink more, aching for the release it gave her. Marlena had never liked to be alone with her thoughts, and the older she got, the louder the static in her head became.

“I suppose I should be.” Marlena hadn’t been thinking about the cold.

Arlet’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her tight curls bounding down her shoulders. She was in casual clothes, long since having changed from tonight’s dinner attire.

She leaned forward against the chest-height wall, resting her elbows and propping her head up. “Wanna come inside? Your parents are gone.” Arlet nodded behind her to the house. “Said they’d be back in the morning.”

Marlena raised her brow. It wasn’t often she didn’t know where her parents were going. “Where did they say they were headed?”

Arlet shrugged. “I don’t ask questions. I just figured you’d like to know so you can come inside and not risk freezing to death out here.” She shivered, a gust of wind making her pull the collar of her coat up higher .

Marlena grabbed hold of the wind with the feeling inside her chest and rotated it through the garden where they would be blocked from its new course.

Now that Arlet pointed it out, the temperature was continuing to drop as the night wind started to pick up. The garden would start to hibernate soon. Most of the flowers were gone for the season, but the green foliage hadn’t disappeared yet.

“I made muffins.”

That got Marlena’s attention. Arlet’s mom’s recipe was inimitable.

She slid off the garden wall, the heels of her shoes sinking into the moist ground.

“And you’re just now coming to tell me?” Marlena held up the end of her skirt, but it had already gotten a splatter of mud from when she’d come out here and trudged to the farthest corner she could find. “You should have led with that.”

The warmth of the Aeris home wrapped around Marlena like a friendly hug. From the change in temperature, a chill shot up Marlena’s and Arlet’s backs at nearly the same time. The girls laughed a little, and Arlet’s teeth began to chatter.

“I have a better idea!” She rubbed her hands together, yanked the plate of muffins off the counter, and hurried for the staircase.

Marlena followed, watching Arlet bound up the stairs.

“C’mon, slowpoke! A fire is calling our names.”

Marlena heard the door to her room fly open and a little “ oops ” echo down the hall as she made it to the top of the stairs. She watched a muffin rolling towards her and bent as she walked, scooping it up to peek into her bedroom. A few more muffins lay scattered around the room.

“It’s fine! I saved a few.” Arlet smiled, holding up the plate at the same time another muffin hit the wooden floors below her. “Fuck.”

Marlena laughed, and Arlet joined in. The girls fought off a fit of giggles as Marlena started picking the muffins up.

It had been so long since Marlena laughed like that.

“It’s probably fine. The floors get cleaned almost every day, right?

” She put them down on the coffee table in front of the hearth that was roaring with a fresh fire.

Arlet sat the plate down, careful not to lose any more muffins. “I had a fire lit before coming out to get you. Figured you’d be cold.”

Growing up alongside Arlet had taught Marlena one thing: there was still goodness left in her darkening world.

Arlet was sunshine, through and through. Always thinking of others before her own well-being.

“Thanks…” Marlena didn’t know what else to say—she wasn’t used to being cared for. When she and Vega were kids, Vega would do caring, sisterly things for her, but over the last few years, so much had changed.

The sisters were changing, their lives splitting two separate ways.

Arlet waved her off, scurrying over to the fire to warm herself. She shuddered the closer she got to the heat rolling off the flames. “Oh my gods.” She drew the words out slowly.

Marlena watched her with a soft smile. She loved that Arlet was so carefree, never a worry in the world unless something completely detrimental happened.