Prince Nova.
I felt a chill rise up through my spine at the mention of his name. The sky overhead lurched into a whisper of thundering or maybe it happened in my head.
A certain pair of angry brown eyes were affixed on me, and I dared not turn towards them. Guilt was all that I felt for having hidden this fact from Doran.
"I asked you, didn't I?" He said, and I turned to look at him. His once gentle eyes, were nothing but flames of restrained fire. I took in a huge guilty breath.
"She was afraid," I heard Serena's gentle tone, "He had her under his control. I sort of understand why she chose not to tell us anything."
Una reached a hand towards her, and Serena gently curled her fingers around it. I understood then, that Una knew what had happened to Serena. What the devil had done to her or had planned to do!
Doran jerked his head away in a swift motion and I felt a pang of hurt gripping me. "Nova did all this." He whispered. Not a question. "The day we met the Phoenix, the blood on your dress...what did he do?"
I shuddered slightly, and found my vision blurring with the images of the dead guards. "He killed his guards in the study."
"What?" Una sucked in a breath, "Nova? Really?"
The air around us seemed to change and I looked at Serena. She was on the verge of tears and it was making the air violent.
"Was this the same day when we met in his study?" Ralph asked in a low voice, his fists clenched.
I nodded.
"I shouldn't have left you there," Ralph said, his red eyes flickering wildly.
"You didn't know. Besides, you didn't know me either." I said and offered him a small smile.
"Why did he take your blood in the dungeon, Eleni?" Serena whispered.
And I practically felt everyone freezing up.
"What's she saying? What blood?" Una asked in a rush.
"That bastard was in the dungeon?" Doran asked, his forehead furrowed.
I nodded and turned slightly to Una, "He has the Head Alchemist." The pain in my palm flared up.
Una swore at my side. "Yes. I..." she said with a nod, her eyes flickering with worry, "Fireling showed me your satchel and the wand inside...well, I understood."
"My blood is the missing element," I said, my hands trembling in my lap.
"But..." Una rubbed her palms and squared her shoulders, "But why is he being like this? Why does he need a drug that is used to keep people slaves? Nova won't hurt you, hurt anyone... There's a mistake. Are you sure?"
"I don't know but he has someone as his slave. Or many more. Maybe even the Alchemist is his slave..."
Now that I was finally letting it all out, I wanted to spill it all. Every. Single. Thing. But they needed to know that this wasn't going to be easy.
"You are not supposed to know this," I said in a meek voice.
"Well, don't worry about that. We can handle this," Ralph said and I found Doran and Una agreeing.
I suddenly screamed aloud, "No. You cannot. He threatened me that he will take revenge from my brother, and he almost did," I glared at Ralph, "And he also threatened me with you," I turned to Doran.
"And he held a dagger at Serena just the other night. It's not that easy. You can't handle this." I shuddered again but continued, looking at Una, "He also threatened my sister. I cannot let you just run to him and demand for answers. This isn't your typical courtroom drama. He is always one step ahead. Always."
Everyone tensed up at my outburst. Ralph looked stricken and Serena's chirpy façade seemed to drop dead to the ground, and Una... her eyes glistened as she kept them rooted on Serena.
"What revenge?" Ralph asked, in almost a whisper.
"Well..." I glanced at Una, before answering, "I might've used my powers on him."
"You fought him?"
I nodded at Una's surprised expression, and a ghost of a smile appeared on her face.
And there it was at last – a touch. Doran had moved closer to me and his hand was at the small of my back. Steady and assuring. Yet distant.
"He has found a way to get the Throne!" Emboldened, I blurted.
Una took in a shuddery breath before saying, "But it's Nova. The Throne would choose him in a heartbeat. He is the best of us. Ever since we were kids, it was like a premonition, that Nova would be the mightiest Conqueror of all. So why is he doing all this?"
For a prolong moment, there was just the gentle cadence of tree leaves rustling and crickets chirping in the pinkish glow of the sunrise.
"This is so unlike Nova," Una added, her face twisted, and she looked from Ralph to Doran, "You know, it actually sounds like this is not Nova but..."
And before she could finish her sentence, a loud growl arose from a sleeping Spikes.
"Give me a moment. He sometimes has nightmares." Una said and rose up.
Serena asked leaning in as soon as Una was out of hearing distance, "A dragon has nightmares, too?" Her face looked comically adorable, in the haze of the bonfire. Serena's subtle way of easing the sky-high tension, did not leave my notice.
"Aftereffects of all the duels, so yes, possibly," Ralph answered.
"Oh, wait, what's your dragon's name?" I asked Ralph, the thought occurring to me out of nowhere.
"Aren't you supposed to know that being a Corresponder?" He raised a brow at me.
"I didn't really pay any attention to you back then," I threw a wide mocking smile at him, surprising myself.
He sat up straight, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "And you say you're not annoying."
"Just tell me," I groaned.
"There's no name to his dragon," Doran said, and I felt his hands withdrawing away from me. I missed his touch already.
"You didn't name your dragon? How do you call it then?" Serena turned to Ralph.
"Boy? Mate? Hey there, brother?" Ralph shrugged; his face amused.
Serena slightly punched Ralph's arm and they both laughed. Only Serena would befriend a royal that easily.
"Laughing, are we?" Una's deep voice reverberated from our side and we all looked up at her towering figure.
"And you'd prefer us not to?" Ralph cocked his head at her.
"There are important things to discuss here," she glared, her eyes moving furiously between him and Serena. I felt a shift in the coziness around us.
"What's happening?" I whispered, leaning back towards Doran.
"I do have a theory, but I'd say Una is being...well, a little too much Una." He whispered conspiratorially and I stifled a chuckle.
"Wait a moment," Ralph said suddenly, "How do you know each other?" He moved his finger pointing to us three girls.
"Now let me," Doran said and I snapped my head at him and blinked.
"Yes. Islander here, made Serena punch a guy at the royal ball," He winked at Serena, "Which was so satisfying to watch, by the way."
And I expected Serena to smirk but to my utter astonishment, she was exhibiting a rosy blush, while Una fidgeted in her seat, as her fingers absent-mindedly drew patterns in the soil.
"How do you know that?" I turned reluctantly, from my two extremely weird friends to look at Doran.
"Uh, hello, I was at the ball, too," he replied, grinning at me, a grin that gave me butterflies, the size of Spikes.
"I know that, but I didn't know you were inside," I said, clearly remembering the night of the royal ball. He was out in the cold, when I had stumbled on him accidentally.
"Well, I was actually..." Doran said and his hand ritually scratched a little behind his right ear, "Never mind."
An instinct had told me that Ralph's gaze was keen on us and that fact had made Doran move a little away from me. Both their eyes were wide open... as if they just had realised something shocking.
Ralph cleared his throat out of nowhere. "I feel like I'm the only one who has questions here," he said, looking into the fire.
"Oh, believe me, I have some too," Serena said staring at me.
I knew what was coming.
"How could you possibly think that it would matter to any of us that you have two powers and you hid it? I would've never found out if Una hadn't told me before." Serena's eyes were borderline accusatory.
Serena indeed knew!
"I told Ralph," I said, squirming in my seat, suddenly finding myself the target of everyone's glare.
"In all honesty, I figured that out on my own, thank you very much," Ralph said, glaring at me.
"So did I," Una snorted at my side.
"And," Serena's eyes widened with rage again, "How could you not tell me about him?" She pointed her index finger at Ralph.
Una asked promptly, crossing her arms, "What about him, Serena?"
"That he is her brother, Una. That she is a royal from her father's side. What's wrong with you?" Serena crossed her arms as well, staring dead at Una.
I stared from one girl to another, unable to understand what exactly seemed out of place. But something was different.
My eyes met Ralph's for the briefest moment and I blinked them away. My heart suddenly pounded in my chest and I found myself freezing up. He had called me 'First Daughter of House of Aries.' The air seemed to halt a little away from my lungs, making me breathless.
"Can I talk to you for a moment, Eleni?" Doran said from my side, his voice like a warm breeze over my cold skin.
I nodded my head and quickly stood up. I watched Doran's eyes meeting Ralph's and Ralph looked puzzled for a heartbeat, his questioning eyes moving between me and Doran. Doran scratched an ear smiling sheepishly and Ralph pinched the bridge of his nose, a conversation passing between them, quite inaccessible to me.
Were all men crazy or just the Summer Realm ones?
"Thank you," I said, hugging myself as I turned left to walk ahead. Doran had somehow understood my need to get out of the conversation.
"No, not there..." Doran gently held my elbow and swirled me into the opposite direction, "We are not going into the forest to be some famished beast's dinner or well, breakfast." I gave out a nervous laugh and walked after him, towards a now peacefully-sleeping Spikes.
"Is something wrong?" I asked him, unable to hide it anymore, as he leaned himself carefully between Spikes' two large spikes.
"No."
The visual of a Fire Prince, nestled against an Earth Dragon, would be a scandalous topic to write about, I mused. Behind him, the lavender skies gave way to one single shiny meteor, gliding towards the land. I smiled to myself, as the image of Doran with a falling star in the backdrop, did things to my heart that not even a thousand meteors could.
"Eleni, you're bleeding."
At his sudden shriek, I looked down at my palm, twice cut-open palm, which was wrapped in an ointment-dipped fabric by Celia.
He took my hand in his, in a swift motion, his touch at the back of my hand like a feather and he peeled off the now blood-soaked fabric, his movement so gentle that I did not even feel it.
I wanted to stop him from looking at it, from asking me questions about it. The memory of Prince Nova's murderous hazel gaze on me, triggered the ache in my palm some more. It was not him in the duels – the thought kept echoing on. I felt dizzy in my head, but hearing Doran speak to me, I snapped out of my horrible memories.
"...seems sewn well, but why does it keep opening?" Doran was saying as he looked at the severed cut, around which dark red blood clouded in a straight line and a fresh bout of blood drizzled down my wrist. He looked up at me, from his thick eyelashes, "I am not really an expert, but I can clean it up."
Recalling how I had screamed at Celia for the exact same thing, I gulped. "The scar..."
He cut me off, "It won't go."
Doran's eyes closed and I found myself gazing at his handsome face. He had no right to look this good!
My palm tingled under his healing spell. But my eyes seemed reluctant to leave his face. His long curved eyelashes - shadowed on his high cheekbones, the perfectly straight nose - which I now observed was studded with five freckles - which looked like a certain constellation - I didn't know the name of, his carved jawline tightening and loosening and... as my gaze moved to his lips, I jerked out of my string of thoughts.
My mother's voice boomed in my head – How long can you control?
The cut was severing up and it hurt. I bit my lip to stop an escaping groan. And I felt a gentle touch of fabric on my skin. Opening my eyes, I found him cleaning up the blood with a piece of cloth that looked like a kerchief.
"Do you think Serena might have an extra cloth, I need to tie this up," Doran said, in between his strokes around my wrist.
"Doran," I whispered, "Is something wrong?"
He smiled in surprise, "What makes you say that?"
"You are being...different." Distant.
He let go off my cleaned hand and palmed the back of his neck, "I don't think so."
I nodded, pursing my lips, unconvinced.
"Hey," he dipped his head a little, and touched my cheek with a lone finger, "I...I don't know what I did wrong but I guess, I'm sorry."
And just then, he took a small step back and it felt like all the air around me being sucked away. I followed his gaze, craning back my head a little and saw that Ralph had gotten up from his seat.
"What is it?" I asked, my voice high-pitched, patience running out.
He chucked a nervous laugh, "It's nothing. Just..." Doran's hesitated, "He is my childhood friend. My brother's friend mainly, but we have always known each other and..."
My face crunched up in question, "So?"
"So?" He chuckled again and that annoyed me.
"You're his sister," he raised his brows as if indicating 'isn't - it - obvious.'
"Half-sibling," I corrected, my jaw tightening.
"I clearly heard him call you his sister in the ring back there," Doran said, his gaze softening. "Don't fight it, Eleni. Ralph isn't going to abandon you like your mother..."
My eyes widened at his words and he shut his mouth.
He seemed to move farther away from me as he rubbed his neck, "Eleni, listen, I found you before Ralph did. And I heard everything. The Chief of the Eclipses is y-your mother and you decided to lay low with them. Believe me, if I had gotten the slightest whiff that they were going to hurt you, or you were being forced, I would've intervened and got you, b-but it was your mother for crying out loud. I reckoned you'd be safer with her, safer with the Eclipses than with m-me..."
He always found me.
"You were there? Then why would you send Ralph when you knew it was my mother?" I found my throat clenching.
"Because, all his life he has been looking for answers. I just had to, for his sake." He let out a long sigh.
They were indeed good friends.
"You saw me there and still...?" I asked, my voice inaudible even to me. You didn't come to me.
"I knew you'd feel safer with Ralph and others around, instead of just me alone."
"Why would you say that?" I asked, with a wildly beating heart.
"You clearly trust them, Eleni..." he said, his jaw tightening, "not me."
A heavy boulder-sized dread slid into my stomach at his words. Had I made him feel so insecure about himself, that he had not only reached out to Ralph but also to his supposed enemy – Una?
"I do trust you, Doran," I said, frantic, my voice almost a shriek of plea.
And that's when he snapped, "No, you don't. If you did, you would've told me when I repeatedly asked you. I told you I wanted to help, but you never said a single thing. You did not tell me that you had fire just like me! You could've told me, that Ralph was in danger and I could've saved him and your powers would've stayed hidden. You wouldn't be in a dungeon, so damn far away, cold and all alone. And for what? For saving someone's life? For saving your own brother's life?" His voice shook, "I literally owe you a debt for saving my life and if you would've confided into me, I would've strangled Nova in his sleep."
"Heaven knows, from where do you bring all this strength to still smile and laugh? Look at you, Eleni, you're miserable. You've been miserable for a long time - I know because I always feel it. I asked you to let me in...and you didn't. So, what makes you ask, if something is wrong? Don't. Just don't. Because everything is perfectly fine." Doran paused, shutting his eyes close, restraining himself. His eyes flashing red, glistening with hurt.
"And I recently learnt, that not only you, but my father has been keeping some secrets from me too. What do you think that makes feel like?" He said, a laugh wheezing out from him, his voice tad raised.
"Doran..." a small whimper escaped my clenched throat.
"If we were alone," he took a step forward, eyes dead set on mine, his voice almost a deadly whisper, "Would you have told me everything like you just told everyone? Would you be yourself in front of me? I never won your trust, Eleni. Never. Isn't it better that I got you people whom you really trust?"
He raised a shaky finger and pointed it to me, "You thought... that it would matter to me... that you were born of Two Realms, didn't you? They all knew and I...I... didn't." Doran's eyes shone with a myriad of emotions and all I noticed was his vulnerability. "I never won your trust, did I?"
I blinked back the tears that I had not realized were on the verge of spilling. He was being ridiculous. It was only him, that I wanted to see after every wretched thing that happened to me. It was him, that I wanted to protect more than anyone else. I wanted to reach out to him and tell him that he had it all wrong. I wanted to apologize to him for having made him feel like he wasn't needed. I needed him the most.
I only felt at peace when he was with me - Why couldn't he just see it?
I was most afraid of him abandoning me!
But an echoing voice in my head, made me stop from comforting Doran -
How long can you control, Eleni?
I shut my eyes close as I remembered my own words – I would never repeat the history.
"You're crying, Eleni. I am s-sorry, I didn't mean...Hell, I even make you cry now. What's wrong with me?"
I raised my eyelashes to look at him, and I could see his jaw tight, chest heaving high and low, hands balled up in fists, itching to pull me close. But he didn't. And I pulled myself back, freeing him of his agony. In response, he turned around abruptly, but I caught the moistness in his eyes.
There was nothing wrong with him, the mess was all mine!
I wasn't mad at him; I was at myself. It was my fault that he felt the need to be distant from me. I added to his insecurities and he deserved better. Better than a girl, who constantly hurt him, projected her own fears into him.
I wish we didn't have that damned bond.
I took in a huge breath, disbanding the wayward thoughts that suddenly seemed to enter my head out of nowhere. My mother's words echoed on and on as I stood there, staring at Doran's back.
How long can you control?
Stay away from the Ariens!
Don't let that relationship bother you.
His mother killed your father!
Not supposed to mean anything.
I wanted to put a hand over my ears, as the chaos piled up inside me.
I was a Luesha, destined to be alone, just the way I grew up an orphan.
Even after belonging to Two Realms, Two Enemy Realms – I found myself utterly homeless. Even after being surrounded by all my friends, I found myself truly lonely.
Never would I repeat the mistakes that my parents did!
"We are still friends, right?" I asked in a shaky whisper, afraid of his answer.
Doran turned, excruciatingly slow, the intensity in his eyes, challenging me, threatening me. After a painful moment, his lips twitched upwards, "Of course. What else would we be?"
He turned around again, to go, unable to hide his pretense. He was angry and I realized it was better if he stayed that way. Maybe, whatever it was between us, would vanish if left unattended.
But he turned around mid-step and my heart skipped a beat.
"About earlier," Doran said, his voice careful and leashed, "What I meant to say was - I was inside the royal ball, because, well, I wanted to ask you for a dance," he paused, debating, but gave in, "As friends, of course."
And I shut my eyes close at his words.
Doran, stop making me fall for you!
***
Author's note: Nothing like a good forbidden romance, right? *nervous laugh*
On a side note, here are the ages of some of our main characters -
Eleni - 19
Amelia -16-17
Nova, Doran, Serena, Orella - 23
Ralph, Una, Milan (Doran's dead older brother) - 24-25
We don't have a concept of immortality in this book, but slow-aging yes. I will, er, ask the Head Alchemist and get back to you.
@raima123 you smart cookie, have been a huge help and a great friend since the start. Do check her book guys, she is an amazing writer! ❤