Page 22 of Quest for her Knights (The Lost Souls of Dyconia #5)

“I think you’re all probably alphas,” I say softly.

Silence follows before Blaze thankfully changes the subject.

“Did you have family back home?”

I nod. “Yeah, my parents are back there. I didn’t get to say goodbye. Coming here happened rather quickly.”

“Couldn’t you have spoken to them before you left?” Arrow asks, confused.

I shake my head. “No. The more I stalled, the more pain Ari was in. And I couldn’t exactly tell them I was going to another world. That sort of thing doesn’t exist there, well, I guess it does in stories, but nobody believes it’s real.”

“It doesn’t exist like that here either. You and Freya are the only ones we know of who’ve ever traveled through a portal from another world.”

“Really?” That surprises me. Ari had said there were hints of magic here, and I assumed portal travel was one of them. “But you do have magic here, right?”

They exchange glances, but no one speaks.

“Did I say something wrong? We don’t have magic in my world… that I know of. But Ari said it exists here. ”

Ranger is the one who answers. “Yes, there is magic here. But it’s rare. And complicated.”

“How so?”

He sighs, scrubbing a hand through his blond hair before looking at me. “It’s against the law to use magic. People are afraid of the power it gives those who wield it.”

I consider that for a moment, thinking about all the fantasy and paranormal romance books I’ve read. It might not be the same, but I’ve read plenty of stories where the heroine had to hide her power from the world.

“That must be really hard for people born with magic.” I glance up at their surprised faces. “I’m assuming people are born with gifts, right?” I ask.

“Right,” Draven says, licking his lips and swallowing hard, his eyes turning to the fire.

“Well, it’s not their fault they’re born with it. That doesn’t make them bad people. They probably live in fear of being caught and punished, or killed, for something that was out of their control.”

“That’s a rather open-minded opinion,” Blaze says, watching me carefully.

I shrug. “Honestly, I think it’d be so cool to have magic!

I think I’d want invisibility. No, super strength!

No, no, no…” I shake my head, thinking seriously about this choice.

“Flying would be cool, but so would being able to throw fireballs from my hands…” I tap my lip in concentration before glancing up at the others.

“What would you guys choose?”

“What?” Arrow frowns at me.

“If you could choose a magic power, what would it be?”

“Uhh…” His eyes dart around to the others, as if he isn’t sure he should answer.

“Come on! It’s just for fun! Oh! What about telekinesis? That’s a good one!”

“Tele-what?” Blaze asks, his brows scrunching in confusion.

“Telekinesis. It’s the ability to move objects with your mind.” His eyes widen in surprise. “Pretty cool, huh? Actually, you can’t choose that one, I want it.”

Arrow laughs as I glance at him. “We can’t share the same one?”

“Nope.” I shake my head. “We each have to have something different, and I want telekinesis. But if you don’t want to choose for yourself, I’ll choose for you.”

“No way, I want to pick my own,” Arrow says, surprising me. “I want that fireball one. Then I can just fire those at my enemies and not even need to carry a weapon.”

“Awesome! Blaze, what about you?”

“Hmm. Maybe healing? So I could heal anyone who gets injured.”

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that, that’s a good one! Ranger?” I ask, turning my head to him. His eyes are slightly narrowed, like he isn’t enjoying my game, but he answers anyway. “Super strength.”

I grin, and an image of him lifting a tree straight from the ground and pressing it over his head has my body heating. I lick my lips and turn to the last of the four. “Draven?”

His eyes are narrowed as he stares at me, his gaze making me squirm slightly, and I’m not sure if it’s discomfort or warmth I feel radiated back at me.

He stands up abruptly and storms over to the small creek without saying a word.

“Okay then… He must already have magic.”

“What? Why would you say that?” Arrow asks in concern.

I grin as I look at him. “Isn’t it obvious? He has super grumpiness.”

He lets out a laugh as I turn back to watch Draven, my smile dropping. He stands there unmoving, staring at the water. I wonder what upset him.

He must really hate magic.

The longer he stands there, the worse I start to feel. Perhaps someone he cared about was hurt or killed by a magic user. Wait—Maybe that’s how he got all those scars! Someone with magic attacked him.

I push to my feet and make my way over to him, ignoring Arrow calling my name in question. Draven doesn’t even look up as I move to his side, but he must sense I’m here because his hand tightens on the hilt of his sword .

“I’m sorry, Draven. I didn’t mean to say anything to upset you.”

His head tilts the tiniest bit, just enough for him to look at me, and his brows pinch in confusion. But he stays quiet. So, of course, I can't help but fill the silence.

“I don’t know what I was talking about, anyway. Sometimes I do that. Talk too much, I mean. In my world we have books and movies about magic and… I admit, I always thought it was really neat, but I get that the real thing is probably completely different.”

He slowly turns to fully face me, his frown firmly in place. I fill the silence. “You have every right to be upset with me. Although, if I have a choice in it, I wish you weren’t. The last thing I want to do is make you upset.”

His eyes snap up above my head, and I open my mouth to speak, but all that comes out is a small gasp when he draws his sword and yanks me behind him.

I spin to see what he’s looking at and end up taking a step backwards in fear. Moving towards us, just inside the edge of the trees is a giant… “Ogre!” I whisper in horror.

I take another step back and suddenly the other three knights have joined Draven, aiming their weapons in the beast’s direction.

It has to be at least twelve feet tall, wearing some sort of well-worn animal hide, like a giant loincloth. He holds a giant club that looks like a tree trunk .

“Stay back!” Ranger yells, holding his sword out between them in warning.

The beast growls and steps out into the clearing. Then, to my horror, it looks like he splits in two, but I quickly realize it’s just another one, stepping out from behind him.

Once the two of them are standing in the clearing, side by side, they stop for a moment and stare at us with hunger in their eyes.

“Foooood,” one of them mumbles, stepping towards us. His voice rough and barely understandable.

“Oh, hell no,” I mumble as I stumble backwards.

Arrow releases an arrow at one of the ogres' heads, but it doesn’t even seem to notice when it sticks out of his forehead. Blaze and Ranger charge forward with their swords, slashing at their legs.

The ogres try to use their clubs to bat them away, but they’re slow and my knights easily duck out of the way.

I hear a grunt behind me and spin around, finding a third ogre staring down at me, licking his lips like I’m a juicy steak.

A small shriek escapes me as I trip over my own feet, falling on my ass.

I stare up at the beast as fear coils tightly in my stomach.

He raises his club above his head and a scream rips from my throat as his arm swings down towards me.

I squeeze my eyes shut tight, but after three seconds, when I don't feel anything, I open them and see he’s staring at his empty hand in confusion.

Looking up, my eyes widen in shock. His club is hanging in the air above him like a scene from Harry Potter.

I stare, waiting for it to drop on his head and knock him out, like in the movie, but it stays still, and the ogre turns to me, revealing his teeth in an angry snarl, like I did this to him.

“Shit,” I whisper, trying to crawl backwards. Movement beside me has my head turning to see Draven slowly moving in front of me, his palm outstretched towards the beast. What is he doing?

He places himself between me and the ogre and I watch as his hand moves to the right, and at the same time, the giant club moves in the same direction, in front of the ogre and getting his attention.

Hells bells! Draven has telekinesis! My jaw drops open in shock as the ogre tries to grab the club, just to have Draven move it out of reach. He continues to tease him with it until an arrow comes soaring over our heads, hitting the beast directly in the eye.

It roars, loud enough to have me clamping my hands over my ears to try to block out the terrible noise. Ranger and Blaze appear in front of me, their swords swinging towards the beast as they attack it. Blood sprays from its wounds and the sight makes my stomach roll.

I yank my hands away from my ears to cover my eyes, turning sideways to try to avoid seeing the worst of it.

Something touches my back and I tense up, but when I realize it’s a hand, I relax and let them pull me into their lap, holding me against their strong chest as we listen to the sounds of the ogre being attacked and groaning in pain.

I move my hands back to my ears, keeping my eyes shut tightly as I lean against my knight.

A soft humming comes from the man holding me and I try to focus on it, letting it drown out the sounds of the battle. I’m still not sure who it is, the chain mail not letting me get a good read on their body.

The humming fades away and so does everything else. Silence surrounds us, and I slowly lower my hands, placing them against his chest as I take a few deep breaths.

“Princess? Have you been harmed?” This doesn’t come from the man holding me, so I tentatively open my eyes to find Ranger crouching down in front of me, a deep look of concern on his face. “Are you alright?” he asks again when I don’t answer.

I give him a quick nod as I try to take stock of my body. Besides tripping over my own feet, I don’t think anything else happened. My eyes catch sight of the dead ogre and my heart starts to race again, my breath stuttering in fear.

“She’s not.” I jerk in surprise, turning to see the man who spoke was Draven. And I’m sitting in his lap. He’s the one who held me through the attack? Who hummed to drown out the noises?

“Draven?” I say in question, wanting to ask him a dozen different things, and yet not having the words to ask any of them. His eyes meet mine and he presses his lips together tightly, looking frustrated or… worried .

Is he mad he had to show me his secret, one he obviously wanted to keep hidden? Is he worried I’ll tell someone?

Unsure what he’s thinking, I throw my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. He seems to freeze up underneath me. “Thank you for saving me,” I whisper against his neck. His body slowly relaxes, and he gently hugs me back.

I pull back and give him a kiss on the cheek.

His face turns pink and he clears his throat, looking away as he mumbles, “You’re welcome.”

Oh my god, is he blushing right now? My smile is huge as I stare at him. He narrows his eyes at me, clearly not liking my reaction. He grips my waist as he stands, pulling me to my feet with him.

When he’s sure I have my balance he steps backwards, his eyes darting to mine, then he gives me a weird little bow and turns around to join Blaze, who’s standing over one of the dead ogres bodies.

What was that about? He is the hardest person to read. I don’t know if he’s upset with me or embarrassed. It could be anything when it comes to Draven.

That man is a mystery… One I’d love to solve. Too bad my job was to marry noblemen because so far, none of them had anything on these knights.