⟡ Ember ⟡
⟡
I swear my heart was beating somewhere out of my chest. It felt surreal. The warmth of his presence was enough to cloud my mind, let alone his lingering touch. He had already pulled his hand away, letting it dangle at his side, but the buzz never went away. If anything, it doubled. The crowd of people, the laughter and talking - it was all gone. Everything faded away for some time, leaving me, this beautiful man, and my thoughts. I felt as light as a feather. Reality came rushing back like a wave, crashing into me at full force and knocking the air from my lungs. He was my SoulBond. My mate.
"What - what do you mean?" I manage to ask, whispering. He stared at me for a moment, his eyes roaming down my body shamelessly. He smirks, meeting my gaze once again. A hint of amusement lit up his features, his eyes widening ever so slightly. I wanted to touch him like he touched me.
"You forgot to cover your mark, necromancer." He whispers the last word, barely heard by me. My blood runs cold with realization and fear. I quickly cover the side of my neck, feeling far more stupid than I ever have. How had I forgot? Why didn't anyone remind me? My mom couldn't possibly have missed it, she looked me over a million times to ensure I was presentable. He hums with amusement, leaning in. "I don't suppose you'll tell me your name?"
I glance around the room, luckily no one was looking at us. No one could hear us over the laughter and excitement. I look back at him, and all over again i'm gasping for air. This feeling was - "Ember, my name is Ember." Euphoric.
"Ember." He says slowly, his breathing slowed for a moment as he took deeper, longer breathes. "Well, Ember.." He reaches out and I don't shy away as he wraps his calloused hand around my wrist, tugging my arm away from my neck. "You no longer have to worry about that mark, no one will think about touching you. Not unless they wish for death." His hand lingers for a moment before he lets my wrist go. I felt the lack of electricity instantly. It floated around us at all times, and whenever we touched it's as if it waited for the contact to come alive. The buzzing current in the air would move, and it would meet at his touch, and spread throughout my body. It was an odd sensation, but a start of an addiction.
"No one will hurt me?" I ask, surprised. "But my kind is-"
"Not a single soul in this room would be stupid enough to look at you, let alone touch you. Don't fret." His words made me scan the room again, and once again I noticed not one person looking at us. Before, at the food table, i'd get glances from random men - I was touched at least seven times while eating. But now? No one would look at me. As if sensing my thoughts, his hands fall onto my shoulders. Close enough that his thumbs brush along my neck, sending pleasurable electric shocks down my spine. I almost sighed with content. "Do you know who I am?"
I shake my head, letting my eyes close against better judgment, too focused on how his fingers felt on my bare skin. The buzz, the warmth, the electricity. Was this how my mom felt around my dad? Guilt scratched against my ribcage, trying to rip me apart from the inside out. My eyes snap open.
"Are you okay?" He suddenly asks, looking my body over. "What's wrong?"
"What? No i'm - i'm fine." I shake my head. "Who are you?"
He doesn't answer right away. He continues to look at me, up and down. Twice. Once he's sure i'm okay, from whatever it was he saw in my face, he answers. "Warren Crowe, King of SunSide." I wasn't surprised, I could feel his power radiating off of him. I could feel through his presence that he meant something. But I hadn't expected him to be King, maybe a Lord serving the King and the land but -
"What are you?" I ask next.
He leans in dangerously close, close enough that I could feel his breath fan my lips. I shivered. "One of many Demons." He pulls away, sparing a glance at the crowd. "Which is exactly why no one in this building will touch you, they wouldn't want to start war with us."
I raise an eyebrow, his hands fall from my shoulders with reluctancy. "What's so scary about demons?" I ask, genuinely curious, but with the way he looks at me - I begin to think maybe it was an offensive question. He looked almost shocked, appalled to know that I wasn't afraid of his kind. Then the surprise is replaced with something else, something softer .. and he smiles. Two dimples form perfectly symmetrical to one another.
"May not be scary to you, necromancer. But scary to others. Don't forget we are the second most powerful species, people should fear us."
"Who's the first?" I knit my eyebrows, stepping closer to him without realizing. He drops his gaze to the small gap separating us, his onyx eyes swirling with something mischievous.
"You, you are the first." He grabs my hand suddenly, dragging me into the mob of people. "Dance with me..no, you don't have a choice." He adds when I open my mouth to protest. I frown despite my insides curling with warmth at his touch. We squeeze through multiple couples until we were in the middle of the ballroom, and he didn't waste time before pulling me into him by my waist. Heat pooled in the pit of my stomach, traveling lower.
"I don't dance." I admit, fumbling to the side.
"Just step when I step." He flushes his body with mine, his face dangerously close. If either one of us leaned in, our lips would touch. "Do you know what it is to be a SoulBond?" The question throws me off, I stare at him.
"Do you forget that the Bonder is one of my people?" I throw back, almost offended with the question. Why wouldn't I know what a SoulBond was?
He grins wildly, cunningly. "Is that what you believe?"
"That's what I know."
He shrugs. "So enlighten me then, little necromancer. Do you know about the ritual?" His eyes devour mine, his voice low and calculating as if he knew things I didn't. He did, because I had no idea what he was referring to.
"Stop calling me that, I have a name." I grind, becoming irritated.
"Hm," he seems to think it over. "I happen to like calling you-"
"Would you enjoy if I called you a demon? Or a devil?" I counter, which to my surprise he smirks. His hand that was at my waist was now cradling the back of my head, pulling me closer. Moments ago I didn't think we could be any closer. Every bundle of nerves in my body had exploded, turning into soft gentle waves of electricity. His eyes bore into mine like I was the very thing keeping him alive.
"I would never deny what I am." His voice had gone low and raspy, making me wonder if he was just as affected by the bond as I was. "The ritual-" he begins, pulling away and dropping his hand. "-is a ceremony in front of my people, we both accept the bond and combine drops of our blood in a cauldron of water. It'll heighten our bond, and the god's will be made aware of our acceptance. It'll give them an outlook of whether we truly are meant to be together or not. Do the sorcerers not do this?"
I shake my head. "It's rare to be soul bound with another sorcerer, it's only happened a handful of times and none of those times was I alive." I pause. "And what do you mean accept the bond? Do we have a choice?"
He looks almost like he wasn't going to tell me. "You could deny the bond, but it'll weaken the god that created it and I heard it will only lead to death. You're severing your soul in half..it's tough to survive something like that."
"Our souls are combined into one? Like physically? I thought it was just-"
"They don't say it to be cute, necromancer. Mine and yours are one. If we were to deny the bond, therefore severing the link - it'll rip our soul in half. Both left with half of a soul, now imagine you're missing half your body .. you wouldn't survive, would you?" I shake my head, which he nods to. "Exactly."
"Have we not accepted it now?" I question. "I mean we haven't..denied each other so that could only mean-"
"We have not accepted each other, not yet. And we won't until the ceremony."
"But..why not now? Why wait?"
He smirks. "Eager to be mine, necromancer?"
I groan, rolling my eyes. "Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that? Have you forgotten my name already? With the amount of females that have looked at you since we've started dancing I bet you have quite the list of names to remember."
He leans in, his lips brushing against my ear. A pleasant shiver scurries down my spine, stealing all air from my lungs. "Jealous, are you, Ember?"
I swallow, going rigid. "I'm not jealous, I was only joking...Warren." After a moment, he doesn't pull away and I feel his head dip lower. His lips brushing my neck in the softest of kisses. I could turn into a human puddle right now.
"I could listen to you saying my name all day." He finally removes his head from the crook of my neck. His piercing onyx eyes were on me now. "Say it again."
"No." I wanted to say it again if it meant him looking at me like that. "Don't make it weird, demon." His grin turns into a smirk, his eyes glistening with amusement. Out of nowhere, a hand is placed on both of our shoulders. I flinch, leaning away from the woman just to realize who it was. Zoya stood there, both eyebrows raised in astonishment. Crowe. Why didn't I connect the two before? I wanted to slap myself for being so empty-minded.
"SoulBonds?" She asks neither one of us. Warren looked like he wanted to rip her head off for interrupting. She wasn't at all phased by it, looking at me. "What are the odds? You've got the shittiest person alive as your mate."
"Zoya, I will rip your spine from your body. What do you want?" Warren shrugs off her hand, stepping out of reach. She grins with love, like she knew his threat was empty. She knew he wouldn't hurt her.
"Always so grumpy." She states. "Thorin was looking for you, he said something about the Kyters. I guess they're here to ruin the fun, like they did last year." She shrugs, unbothered. Warren breathes deeply, annoyed. He didn't look scared for whatever awaited him, he just looked..fed up. Like these were flies that kept swooping down at your food.
He turns to me. "Stay with Zoya? Actually, Zoya-" his gaze falls back to her. "Get her home, i'll be there once Thorin and I finish up. Get her situated for me, anything she requests is given to her, understood?"
Zoya rolls her eyes, making a motion with her hands trying to get him to leave. "Yes yes, your majesty. I will bend over backwards and offer my left kidney, now go. I'll take care of her."
When she was instructed to bring me home I thought we'd walk there, or maybe ride a horse. I've never been on a horse, obviously, but i've heard of them and part of me was excited to finally see one. Instead of a beautiful stallion awaiting me behind the stone building, it was a beast. Perhaps a horse would also be considered a beast, maybe they're bigger than I imagine..maybe they have wings like the terrifyingly breathtaking thing in front of me. Its beady onyx eyes reminded me of Warren's, except they were the size of my fist. Glossy and a never ending abyss of nothing. Its nostrils flared, a gust of air blowing my hair behind my shoulders. I couldn't tell if I was afraid or enthralled, why not both?
I felt too many emotions to place a single one of them. I felt flighty, like my legs could betray me any moment and send me running in the other direction. Yet my hands itched with a desire to touch the dark green scales that covered the monster. So instead of acting on either desire, I stood there frozen and stared.
"It's a dragon." Zoya says, walking past me and toward what she refers to as a dragon. I've heard of them, very few stories, very scary stories. They were the bedtime stories told to frighten you. "Whatever you've been told, it's not true. They hardly cause any fuss, they're like big house cats." She assures, itching under its ginormous head. The dragon seems to enjoy it, closing its beady eyes and stretching out its neck.
"A big house cat?"
She hums, dropping her hand. "Do you not have animals where you're from?" She asks almost jokingly, before her eyes fall to my bare neck - where my hair once covered before the damned beast started a wind show. Something flickers across her face, realization then a feeling that was more subtle, like she was trying to hide her emotion. Yet her eyes widened just barely, her eyelashes lifting to show the swirls of endless darkness - and her lips kicked up at the corners by a sliver of an inch. Then it was gone with another gust of wind, one that came from the dragon's nostrils. "I suppose not, don't worry, you'll meet a cat soon enough. Warren sure loves his Pebbles."
I didn't ask what she meant by that, only aware that his name sent a shiver down my spine.
"So this..this dragon, he's safe?" She nods in response, whistling twice. The beast responded instantly, shaking his body back and forth like be was trying to shake something off of him. He unfurled the wing closest to us, laying it out so it acted like a ramp up to his back. I could only watch as Zoya began walking up the beautifully designed wing like it were a set of stairs. The wing was tipped with something sharp, a blade of bone perhaps - and it was as white as snow.
"Come on, he's our ride." She beckons. When she sees my hesitation, she hums in understanding. "I know he's .. quite large, but I promise he won't hurt you. Warren would never had put me in charge of you if he thought i'd put you in a position to get hurt. In case you weren't aware, SoulBonds kind of have this annoying habit of protecting each other, and I wouldn't want to see Warren's reaction if something happened to you."
It takes me a few seconds to find my words. "I don't know him..or you, or this world. I'd be idiotic to trust you all because i'm told to and jump on the back of some..monster." The dragon grumbles, clearly bothered at the name I had used. Can it understand me?
"His name is MoMo, and i'd watch what you say around him. He's a very grump man when he's insulted." She stares at me for a second longer. "He's Warren's personal dragon, he's loyal to his master and you - well you own half of his soul. MoMo can sense Warren off of you, he understands who you are. He'd never hurt you."
"Who are you to Warren?" I suddenly ask, slowly - slowly - walking over to the laid out wing. The scales became more defined, and I could now see small hints of blue and purple deep within the green. So many colors, colors that i've only seen in blankets and baskets that were given to us from SunSide. They were always so dull, like what we were given were used and thrown aside before handed to us. Yet they were so vibrant, so bright on MoMo. It made him appear less frightening and far more beautiful than not. Though I couldn't find it in me to touch him, to feel the scales.
Zoya laughs suddenly, I stop abruptly at the tip of his wing. The white blade at the end only a few feet from me. "My, were you jealous? Did you think I was his wife or something?" I've heard of many leaders marrying women that weren't their mates - unable to wait any longer for an heir. But I heard that was only in emergency situations, when their kingdom was at risk of no future. But did I think Zoya was his wife? Maybe it was a fleeting thought, but I didn't truly believe it. "I'm his cousin, and even if I weren't - I wouldn't touch Warren if I were the last woman alive." Ouch.
I take one cautious step onto the dragon's wing, and when nothing happens and the animal doesn't stir - I take another one. I didn't say another word as I ascended the wing, and didn't say anything when I sat on his back. Zoya whistled again, like she had the first time. MoMo readjusted his wing and stood. I squealed, grabbing Zoya's arm while my other hand braced beside me to keep me balanced. His scales were surprisingly smooth, soft almost. "Lean forward when he takes off, and when he lands..lean back. Brace yourself, focus on your weight and keep yourself balanced."
"And - and if I don't?"
She shrugs as if it were the simplest, smallest thing in the world. "You'll fall off."