Page 17 of Unwilling Queen (Kingdoms #1)
Chapter
Seventeen
Colbie
I ’d like to be able to admit that I took to surfing like a dolphin takes to water, but that would be a lie. It was freaking hard work, and the waves were a lot bigger up close than they appeared from the porch. Nox taught me to paddle, but after the twentieth time of being hammered by a wave and dragged around by the leash attached to my board, I gave up. I waded out of the water, my board under my arm.
“Where are you going?” Nox calls from beyond the breaking waves, sitting on his board like he was made for it.
“I think maybe I should wait until the waves are a little smaller,” I tell him. “But don’t let me stop you. I want to watch.”
“Fine, but you almost had it on that last one,” he lies, and I feel a rush of affection for him.
“Pretty lies,” I tease him and continue my journey back to the beach. I run up and set my board on the rack on the porch then strip off my wet suit, wrapping one of the towels there around my waist. I grab another cup of coffee, keeping a close eye on the feral cat, but he barely cracks an eyelid from his perch on his ridiculous cat tree.
Carrying the mug, I grab Nox a towel and head back to the beach to enjoy the early morning sun and watch the poetry in motion that is Nox on a surfboard. I settle down and sip the coffee as his board slices through a barrel, showing only his silhouette wrapped in the wave’s embrace. He’s laughing with pure, unfiltered joy when he emerges from the other end, and my heart skips a beat. He pushes his hair back off his face before he dives from the board and into the water.
Fuck, I’m getting attached, and that’s only going to lead to more heartbreak. How did this happen so quickly? I’ve only known him for a few days. Maybe it’s because he feels like a kindred soul.
The sun rises in the sky, and the waves fill with more surfers who paddle around the point from the other cove. Soon, there is a congregation of wave worshipers floating just beyond where the waves crest, waiting for the perfect one to call to them. I can hear them talking amongst themselves, but I can’t make out any words. I close my eyes, lie back, and let the sun beat down on my face, knowing this is going to be the last moment of pure peace that I’m going to get for a long time.
I must drift off a little, lulled into a false sense of comfort, because I don’t know how much time has passed when a shadow casts across my face, and I crack my eyes open to find Nox standing over the top of me.
“Hey, pretty girl, you’re going to get burnt if you aren’t careful.” He crouches down beside me as I sit up and blink a couple of times against the brightness of the day.
“Are you done?” I ask him as I watch a bead of water drip from a lock of his long hair, which looks darker when it’s wet and has managed to work itself free from its confines.
“Yeah, come on, I’ll make you some breakfast.” He stands up and holds out a hand. I reach out to grab it, and he freezes, looking at the marks on my wrist which have somehow been exposed. The sleeves of my rash guard are pushed back, so it must have happened while I was napping.
My heart starts to race as his eyes narrow on the marks, which are somehow darker now, the gold almost shimmering in the sunlight.
“Colbie, what is that?” he asks, and I hear the suspicion in his voice. I hurriedly snatch my hand back and tug down the long sleeves to cover the marks, but it’s too late, he saw them, and they have caught his complete focus.
I push up off the sand and brush it off me before tossing the spare towel at him. “Nothing,” I tell him, not waiting for a response before I start walking back to the cabin.
I hear him following behind me and pray he lets it go, but when we mount the steps to the porch, he grabs my arm.
“Colbie?”
When I turn around to face him, his eyes blaze with both anger and more questions.
“That is not a normal tattoo, is it?” he asks, but he already knows the answer, so I don’t bother replying. He ditches his surfboard haphazardly off to the side and reaches for both my arms, pushing up both sleeves. His fingers circle my wrists and the marks that sit there.
His gaze lifts to mine, and I see so many emotions swirling in his—hurt, anger, and confusion. “When did they appear on your arms?” he asks, and I shrug.
“Saturday night,” I admit, and he drops my hands like he’s been burnt.
“You’re the new shifter queen,” he whispers, sounding awed as well as slightly horrified. “That’s what you were so upset about on Sunday.”
Now that he’s released me, I whirl and hurry into the house, straight to his bedroom. I tug off my borrowed swim gear and throw on my clothes from yesterday before quickly attaching the jeweled cuffs to my wrists again. I grab my phone off the bedside table. There are a couple of missed calls from my mom and a message asking where I am. I don’t have the energy or emotional strength to deal with her right now. It’s taking everything I have to keep my shit together at the moment. When I turn, I find Nox leaning against the door, watching me.
“Talk to me, Colbie,” he begs.
“What do you want me to say, Nox?” I say flatly. “Do you want me to tell you that I am the very last person who wanted this? That the thought of it makes me feel sick to my stomach? That I am the worst person for the job? That I secretly want to run away and pretend it never happened? That I wish I could wear the cuffs for the rest of my life and pretend the marks aren’t there or find someone to tattoo over them so I can forget about them?” I’m shouting at the end of my tirade, and tears spill down my cheeks.
He pushes off the doorframe and hurries toward me, gathering me into his arms and holding me tightly. I sink into his embrace as he murmurs words of reassurance, but they are empty promises. There is nothing I can do to stop this runaway train. I’ve spent enough time hiding. When I leave here today, I will return to the neutral zone, get my affairs in order, and then present myself to the shifters. There’s no more avoiding it, the goddess made sure I knew that.
He leads me out into the living room and helps me onto the couch. Nox pulls a blanket over me and hurries around the kitchen, doing something. I watch, kind of in an emotional daze. He removed his wet suit and is only wearing a pair of boxer briefs, so all his golden skin is on display, but even that’s not enough to get me out of the funk I’m sinking into.
When he returns, he has coffee as well as the plates of pie we didn’t get to last night. He hands me one and puts my coffee on the table in front of the sofa before returning to grab his own. When he joins me on the couch, we are both silent as we eat our pie, but then he clears his throat.
“For what it’s worth, I think you’re going to be an amazing queen. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I can tell you’re a good person with a kind heart, and I think that needs to be the core makeup of someone who is chosen to be ruler. I don’t think you will let the power and status go to your head like some have in the past, and I’m sure the shifters will be proud to have you as their queen.”
I scoff and continue to eat my apple pie. It’s pretty good. “Easy for you to say. I’m sure you’ve never disappointed anyone in your life.” I wave my empty spoon.
He frowns, pausing with his spoon halfway to his mouth. “Oh, I can assure you, I disappoint plenty—my parents, my friends, the people of my village, just to name a few.”
We sink into silence, a pity party for two in the making. “You know that any shifters you come across are going to know who you are, right? The magic in those marks will call to them, and it will get stronger the longer you leave it.”
My mouth drops open, and I gape at him in shock. “How do you know that?”
“It’s my business to know about magic. They may mistake it for magic in the cuffs, but eventually, they won’t be able to ignore it.”
I groan and slump down on the couch. “One of my employees is a shifter,” I admit to him. “I was hoping for another day or two at least to get my grandparents situated and up to speed in my bakery before I had to present myself to the palace.”
This gets his attention, and he whips around to face me. “You’re going to do it?”
“Well, like you said, I don’t have a lot of choices, and I may have gotten a visit from Aramis just before I ended up on your porch,” I admit sheepishly, and it’s his turn to gape at me with shock. I can’t stop the little giggle that bubbles up out of my chest at his stunned expression.
“The goddess Aramis visited you? That’s unheard of.” He sounds awed.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she knew I was thinking of bailing and wanted to let me know there was no escaping this.”
“That’s slightly terrifying,” he remarks before shoveling another bite of pie into his mouth.
“You have no Idea,” I agree as I lean forward to grab my coffee, washing down the last of my pie with it.
The silence is loaded, and I feel like squirming, but I hold my shit together. Suddenly, Nox jumps to his feet and starts pacing back and forth before stopping and looking down at me.
“Will you let me help you?” he asks, and I feel my eyebrows jump in surprise.
“What can you do?” I ask skeptically. “I can’t hide out here forever, no matter how much I would like to.”
He spins and hurries across the room and into his office, talking loudly. “You know how I do security and web design, but I also have an interest in everything supernatural? Well, sometimes on my research trips, I come across items of interest.”
I frown, kind of lost with where he’s going with this. “You’ve lost me,” I call, but all of a sudden, he shouts, “Ha!”
When he returns, he’s carrying a corded pendant much like the one he has around his neck—even the stones are the same gold and black—and he thrusts it toward me.
“I picked this up on a trip to the witch kingdom. This should hide the magic in those marks from any shifter you come in contact with at least for another couple of days, long enough for you to do what you need to do with your bakery.”
I stare at him, feeling confused and hopeful all at the same time. I reach out and take the offered necklace. The weight of the pendant is surprising. I hold it up to the light, and the stones shimmer. I narrow my eyes, looking from it to the one around his neck. He sees my gaze and shrugs, unconcerned.
“I liked the stones. There’s nothing magical about me whatsoever, but there was something that made me buy them.” He looks out the window like he’s lost in his thoughts for a moment before returning his attention to me. “Take it. I hope it gives you a small reprieve before your life dramatically changes.”
I sigh and place it over my head, and my eyes widen with surprise as the marks shimmer and fade from view. “It works,” I exclaim, and he nods, looking pleased.
“That’s great.”
We fall into another awkward silence, and I can’t stand that our time together has ended like this. I go to apologize, but he interrupts me.
“Come back and visit if you can. I’ve really enjoyed our time together.” He sounds as sad as I feel, like he’s saying the words knowing the chances of it happening are slim. Shifters aren’t allowed in the human zone without special permission. I’m sure as the queen of the shifters, I could probably get in, but I’m not sure a booty call is the right reason.
“Or we could meet in the neutral zone, at my café, for lunch maybe,” I say hopefully.
“Sure, maybe. I’ll text you,” he replies, but I know from the look in his eyes he’s only giving me lip service. I don’t think he’s anti-supernatural, since he admits to having a fascination with magic and the like, but Nox is a self-confessed loner, and even the sparsely populated neutral zone probably has too many people in it.
I stand up, knowing that the longer we draw this out, the more painful it’s going to be. “I need to get going. There is no point in putting off the inevitable anymore. The sooner I can get my grandparents settled in at the bakery, the quicker I can get this over with.”
He chuckles darkly. “You sound like you’re going to your death. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be that bad to be queen. Hey, you may even love it. What shifter form are you hoping to gain?”
I gape at him, unable to control my shock at his words. “Shifter form?” I say, and his eyes almost bug out of his head.
“Yeah, part of the magic gives you an animal. You will learn to shift. How else can you control shifters without having the same kind of power?”
I wobble slightly, and he puts a hand out to steady me. I shake my head. “I haven’t even thought about it. Hell, I don’t even know all the different kinds of shifters there are.”
Once I’m steady, he lets go of my arm, moves over to his bookcase, and pulls out a large hardcover book. “Here, take this. It’s shifter 101.”
I take the large book from him and open it, flipping through some pages. The information is everything one would need to know about shifters, even closely guarded information.
“How did you get this?” I ask, and he waves a hand.
“It’s been in my family for years. Someone must have had shifter connections in the past.”
I hug it to my chest. “Thank you. Hopefully I can get through it in the next few days or so, then I won’t look like such an idiot when I present myself to the palace.”
He reaches out and gives my hand a squeeze. “They would never think you are an idiot. Humans are deliberately kept in the dark, but I think you’re going to do amazing things, Colbie. Have faith in yourself.” He sighs and steps toward his room. “Just let me throw some clothes on, and I’ll run you home, okay?”
He walks toward his room, and it’s all I can do to bite my lip and hold in the sob that wants to escape. Tears well in my eyes, but I don’t let them overflow. Crying about this isn’t going to solve or change anything, but I’ve been so happy the last few days, and I will hold onto these memories tightly for the rest of my life.