MATURE FANTASY** He is a predator who thought he captured an ordinary girl... but her mind is sharper than any of his claws.
Ariana lives in the shadow of her monstrous father in a world barely held together by a treaty. Until her lands are invad...
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I sat on the floor of the empty room with my legs crossed, hands folded in my lap, and eyes shut. Digging within, I felt the power moving within. Like oceanic water, it rolled in waves before crashing against my internal control. Focusing, I pushed it outside of myself. Opening my eyes, I saw the waves from within move out in misty sprays. The entire room was filled with a liquid mist that touched everything but me. My gaze drifted up, and my conjuring followed. It condensed and shifted before me, forming a wall. All of it was done while my fingers were firmly closed into fists at my sides.
Sounds of clapping came from behind, echoing through the empty space and stealing my concentration. The mist lost its formation, falling into liquid pools before vanishing.
"You're getting really good at that." Landin's voice reverberated through the empty room.
"Still not good enough." I rose to my feet, turning to face him after wiping the sweat on my brow with my sleeve. "Are we prepared for tomorrow?" I asked. It was the first time we would go through the Lysian's white night without the protection of the treaty. A night when the Lysians became more instinctual and less predictable.
He nodded. "Of course we are. We are always prepared for the white night." His smile faltered a touch. "Any word from your... friend." He meant Erik. It was a bit of a culture shock to stop referring to the Lysians as animals when I first returned home. After all, if we were to be judged by how we cared for our prisoners, the Bavadrins were far less humane. At least in the days when Fraser ruled. Those days were no more. We were going to change the way we viewed others. We were going to change a lot of things.
"No word," I replied lowly. I wondered who would reach out to whom first. Erik wanted my help, didn't he? I expected him to make contact, but he didn't. After returning home three weeks ago, there was no word. It was as if the treaty was never broken, and the border between our lands was not to be crossed again.
A part of me longed to go to the border that night, for it was the white night. Erik told me that during the white night, he patrolled the edge of his territory. I wondered if that was still true. He probably would think me mad for going there alone on such a night of all nights. The thought nearly brought a smile to my lips.
My mind refocused on the realization of Landin's presence.
"What's wrong?" I asked, closing the distance between us. I was in an abandoned building in the woods just outside of our city's border. It was a trek to get there. Landin would not have come all that way if he did not have something he needed.
"Well, nothing that I know of," he said while retrieving something from his pocket, holding it out to me. "This arrived for you." He held a neatly folded piece of paper in his hand, which was sealed with silver wax. The wax itself had no seal imprinted. It was simply melted onto the paper. My name was written on it.
Nothing alarming about it, yet my pulse spiked.
"The Lysians?" I asked him, taking the letter.
He shrugged. "I'm not sure. It was brought by bird-" He then hesitated as if he didn't know how to say whatever was on the tip of his tongue.
