Life couldn’t take it anymore. If there was one thing that she wasn’t… that would be a person who kept her questions to herself. So she did what she had to do and went straight to Master Red.
“You have some explaining to do.” She said to him when she arrived at the hideout.
Master Red was not insulted by her lack of respect.
After all, this woman was older then him. And she was both trustworthy and reliable. It didn’t really matter if she wasn’t that respectful.
“What’s wrong?”
“You told the new king that you would get rid of Avaryn,” she said. She took off her mask, revealing her beautiful yet aging face. People couldn’t really tell, simply because she was such a lovely woman with her long, silky black hair and defined, strong brown eyes.
But Master Red could see the fine lines of age forming on her face as she glared at him.
“So?” Mast Red asked.
“Avaryn is one of us. You cannot be serious about abandoning him,” Life said, “You haven’t explained it to me and I cannot just sit here and wait for you to cut ties with him. He has done a lot for this team and I–”
“Relax, Life.” Master Red said. “All I said was I would remove him from the Hidden–”
“Exactly,” Life said, “how could you?”
“Removing him from our team does not necessarily mean we will stop working with him. He will still be a warrior and he will still help us. He just wont be a part of the Hidden.”
Life was completely and utterly annoyed with his play on words. And she showed it. She rolled her eyes and let out a grunt of annoyance. “I can’t believe you’re trying to deceive the King. I thought you wanted to work with him.”
Master Red smiled, but decided he had no need to discuss his intentions with her. “So? Did you follow Meenu?”
“Yes,” Life said, “and you were right.”
Just then, almost perfectly on time, Avaryn entered the room. He bowed, giving Master Red the respect that Life refused to give him. And he nodded his head respectfully at Life.
When Avaryn looked at Master Red, he spoke. “The King of Destyn is–”
“I’d keep an eye on your lover,” Life interrupted.
Avaryn looked at her, confusion in his red eyes. “What’s wrong?” He really felt rather crippled by the fact that he couldn’t sense when Meenu was in trouble anymore. He often felt the urge to rip his evil out of him again… but he knew that that was a bad idea.
“She’s spilling your secrets to the new King.” Master Red said.
Avaryn looked at him with wide eyes. “What?”
“I think she means well though,” Life said, crossing her arms, “I think she wants you two to be best friends again.”
“You’re following her?” He asked.
“Orders from the Master,” Life said, jerking her chin at Master Red.
Avaryn looked at Master Red, who kept a straight face. “For her protection, of course.”
“I don’t think that’s what’s important,” Life sighed, “It’s probably too late now by maybe you should make sure she doesn’t do something like this again.”
Avaryn sighed loudly and sounded rather annoyed. He turned around to leave but Master Red stopped him by calling his name.
Avaryn turned around.
“Seliaryn’s mother… Lady Maryryna,” Master Red started, “She asked me to inform you of her desire to see you.”
Avaryn hesitated, looking rather surprised by this.
“Go see her when you get the chance.”
A flash of worry passed through the eyes of Avaryn, but he nodded… and with that, he disappeared.
Seliaryn was sitting hunched forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together. Everything that Meenu had told him made sense. So much sense that he just found it so much harder to believe.
Of course King Kyryn was murdered. How else could you explain the mysterious and sudden death of such a powerful man? Seliaryn was never able to understand the thought that he had just gotten sick.
And the True Knights being behind it?
Of course.
It made sense.
Seliaryn may have been young at that time but even he could see that those men hated King Kyryn for taking away their power.
Seliaryn rubbed his eyes with both his hands.
And Avaryn apparently only killed the men that were involved in his father’s death.
It made sense.
Seliaryn had, at a time, noticed that most of them people that were killed were members of the True Knights… but what threw him off were the ones that weren’t. He assumed now that they simply had some sort of connection with the group.
But whatever the case… the bottom line was that he did it to avenge his father? Or to purge the traitors?
Both of those reasons… to Seliaryn’s demise… Were things that even he would have considered doing if he were in Avaryn’s shoes.
Meenu watched as Seliaryn processed all the information. She knew it would be hard for him, so she waited patiently.
But she also felt her stomach turn in sadness, knowing that she had betrayed Avaryn’s trust by telling Seliaryn.
All she could do now was hope that Avaryn would forgive her.
She didn’t do it to hurt him, after all.
If anything, she just wanted to help.
“So he’s still looking for the person that was in charge of killing his father?” Seliaryn asked.
Meenu nodded.
“Does he have any idea of who it is?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she hesitated, “so you believe it?”
He leaned back against the bench, thinking for a moment of the answer. “It makes sense,” Seliaryn said, “I don’t know how I feel about it but it makes sense.”
Meenu smiled. That was something. “Do you trust Avaryn?”
Seliaryn let out a laugh. “No.”
And now Meenu frowned.
“I don’t think I can ever trust Avaryn again,” Seliaryn said, “I may try to be sympathetic to his cause… but I won’t trust him.”
“What exactly happened between you two?” Meenu asked, curiously.
Seliaryn didn’t look at her but let out a sigh. “All I’ll say is that it is nearly impossible to regain the trust of a Lumynos man. Talking about it in too much detail may make me lose the small amount of acceptance for him that I’ve allowed myself to have.
Her smile returned. “Well… that’s better then hating him.”
“I guess.”
“I really hope you can learn to forgive him, Seli,” Meenu smiled, “even with all of this nonsense going on… he hasn’t really changed… at least, he hasn’t changed much from what I could remember of him.”
Seliaryn simply nodded his head, and after a moment of thinking, he spoke, “thank you for trusting me enough to tell me this, Meenu,” he started, “I know that Avaryn won’t be too happy about this when he finds out.”
Meenu smiled, and though she did feel bad for betraying Avaryn’s trust, she felt relieved by the calm on Seliaryn’s face. “Of course I trust you Seli,” she said as she placed a hand on top of his knee, “you’re one of the few people who took care of me even though you knew the truth about my past… and even though you actually hated Avaryn.”
Seliaryn looked at her.
“You protected me when you didn’t need to and you saved my life… and…” Meenu took a deep breath, “we both know that I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for you. If you hadn’t come by to visit me at Amberdyse since I was a child… and if you hadn’t told me over and over again that I was special… then I wouldn’t be who I am today… and I’m happy with who I am today.”
Seliaryn didn’t realize that she took all of this to heart.
Of course, it made sense that she would.
“You may not be best friends with Avaryn anymore… but you are my best friend. No matter what, you always will be.”
Seliaryn let out a chuckle as he smiled at his best friend.
“And something else… something else that I think you should know,” Meenu now took one of Seliaryn’s hands in both of hers, “You really are amazing, Seliaryn. You are amazing and fully capable of being the king– no, the greatest king of Raffyre. Almost everyone knows it!”
Seliaryn smiled.
Meenu looked straight into the man’s red eyes as she spoke. “And the people who don’t know it are ignorant fools who just refuse to get to know you… or they just didn’t get a chance to meet you and see how capable you really are.”
“Thank you, Meenu.”
“Don’t forget it, okay?”
Seliaryn nodded. “I’ll try not to.”
Meenu smiled.
And then she surprised Seliaryn by hugging him, and Knight, who seemed to have seen the hug coming before even Seliaryn did, was already sitting a step away.
She hugged him tightly and though Seliaryn was taken aback at first, he felt some relief when his fingers, that were just itching to touch her soft curls, finally got their chance.
He ran his fingers through her hair and hugged her back.
“We’ll be friends forever, right?” Meenu asked.
Seliaryn thought he heard a crack in her voice.
Was she really that worried that she was going to lose him?
“Of course, Meenu.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
He felt Meenu sigh and relax in his arms, and then she pulled away.
Seliaryn saw the small amount of water in her eyes and it was only then that he really saw that she felt some true fear of losing him.
He let out a sigh and touched Meenu’s cheek with a smile on his face. “You have nothing to fear, Meenu. I’ll do my best. I’ll make you proud.”
Meenu chuckled and nodded her head. “Thank you.”
If anything, Seliaryn knew that he was the one who should be thanking her. At least… at least now. It was strange how suddenly, he did feel like he wanted to make her proud. He did want to be a good king.
And he did fell capable of doing it.
“I should get going. I wanted to be home before midnight… my parents are constantly worrying about me these days.”
Seliaryn looked at Meenu as she turned and squinted, glancing at the setting sun. “Are you sure you can go home alone?”
Meenu smiled as she looked back at him. “I’m not alone, I have Knight.”
Knight walked over to his mistress and sat himself down to face Seliaryn.
Seliaryn smiled and nodded.
She tilted her head and gave him a funny smile. “And I’m almost warrior status, you know?”
Seliaryn chuckled. “Right,” he stood up and started walking towards the castle, “let me walk you out.”
Meenu kept smiling as she stood up and ran after him.
When they reached the gates of the palace, Meenu surprised Seliaryn for maybe the hundredth time that evening by bowing.
“Meenu…” Seliaryn rolled his eyes.
“What?” Meenu asked as she rose. “I really am going to be a warrior soon… so that means I’ll be serving you. That means I’ve gotta practice my bow.”
Seliaryn rolled his eyes again and shook his head. He then reached out and messed the hair on Meenu’s head as she giggled and pulled away. “Stay safe, warrior-to-be.”
Meenu was absolutely pleased with that title. She grinned at her best friend. “I’ll be back very soon. Don’t miss me too much.”
Seliaryn raised an eyebrow. “I’ll try not to.”
Meenu laughed as she got onto her horse. “Bye!”
The new King waved as Meenu set off. He didn’t worry about her safety too much.
He only started to make his way to the castle when he couldn’t see Meenu anymore. And when he did, he let out a huge sigh.
After the short amount of time he had spent with Meenu, something had changed. He felt lighter on his feet. Happier, even.
He hadn’t felt that way in what felt like forever.
And as he returned to the castle, there was only one thing he could say to himself.
He knew it was hopeless.
He knew it was pointless.
And he downright knew it was a foolish mistake.
But he had finally admitted to himself that he was most definitely in love with Meenu Kyrus.