Lightning and Fire, page 19
“Like every guy looks at you?”
“Scared out of their minds,” I say.
“No…” he blushes, a broad smile on his face and dimples form on his cheeks. He kisses me again. “Like you’re the most beautiful woman in the world.” Kyle buries his lips in my cheek; he nibbles against it, not with his teeth but with his lips folded under.
It tickles, and I laugh; I kiss him back. “I hope you’re not jealous.”
“Not a chance.”
“Great, because you have nothing to worry about.” There’s a knock on the door, and we break apart. “Come in.”
A guard comes in. “You have a delivery, Your Highness.”
“A delivery?” I ask, shocked, curiosity filling me.
“Yes, a delivery from King Jamal.”
Kyle lets out a sigh. “Of course.”
I stifle a smile. “Where is it?”
“It’s in the throne room,” says the guard. “King Jamal says it’s an engagement gift.”
“Well, isn’t that thoughtful of him?” I say.
“Very thoughtful of King Jamal,” says Kyle with a sarcastic tone. I ignore him and pull him along with me. We race down the hallway. Well, I run down the hall like a child at Christmas, finding a gift under the tree, and I force Kyle to match my pace.
We are down the stairs that take us from the living quarters to the ground floor. I’m too excited to see what it is, and I feel it will be something good. I let go of Kyle’s hand, and I run around the corner and head to the throne room. When I enter through the door, I see it, and a grin I know is silly forms across my face.
Kyle turns the corner to the throne room and walks through the door. He sees my grin first, and I know it won’t be anything that he’s expecting. I turn to watch him and observe the look on his face as annoyance turns to awe.
The gift that King Jamal sent over for us was a second throne for the throne room.
“It’s a gift for you,” I say.
I know he doesn’t want to smile. Kyle tries to stifle it. But he can’t deny this is a beautiful gift. The throne is the same size as mine. Instead of gold and white, this throne has red cushions and gold trimmings, so it’s a vibrant red and gold color. Etched into the back cushion of the throne is a golden crown. It looks so official.
I walk over to the throne and run my fingers across the metal frame and then across the soft cushion. It feels wonderful. At the head of the throne is a crown carving, and this one had two green gems—one in the middle and the other at the very top, the color of Kyle’s eyes.
Kyle walks over to it and takes in his gift. On the ground, next to the throne, is an envelope. Kyle picks it up and reads the letter.
“‘Hope you like this gift that allows you to sit next to your queen.’ That’s interesting, thoughtful,” says Kyle.
“Now you like it when it’s a gift for you,” I say.
“I have no problem with the guy,” says Kyle.
“Sure you don’t,” I say.
I hear footsteps hammering through the front door of the castle—it echoes against the marble floors. Kyle and I stop admiring our gift and run out of the throne room. I almost forgot that I am still in my nightdress. Leaving the castle is a group of men, followed by Nate.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“I’ve gotten a lead on where Calina is, and we’re going to check it out now,” says Nate. “Sorry I didn’t brief you with this information. I thought you would be asleep.” He looks at my nightwear.
They were close to getting Calina, the best news I’ve got all morning. The sooner they get her, the better for me and for everyone. The last thing I want is for communication to go around that she’s alive. There will be people that doubt that I’m the queen, doubt I’m the savior, and I can’t have that either. The worst of all outcomes would be to have her do what she did to the Dark King and start a war—an uprising. I won’t give her that chance.
“Yea, that’s fine, go ahead,” I say to Nate. He nods and marches on through the door. Joy fills me, and I can hardly contain myself. “And Nate,” I say. “When you find her.”
Nate stops and turns to face me.
“Don’t let her escape.”
Part Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Calina
I leave Zaina with a friend, and I walk around Undas for a moment. This is such a sad day, and I can’t fathom everything that has happened. So many people dead. Zaina losing her mother and now her grandmother; such a young age and all she knows is loss.
Though this day is sad, there is still so much beauty here. There are many brightly colored plants and flowers. I remember admiring the garden, the pools and even the waterfall close to the training grounds. It brings back my feeling of serenity, before everything happened. The feather of a large bird falls next to me and I pick it up. For a moment I admire the soft white feather, then I continue looking around.
I walk past the caves, and the rod is housed inside one of them. Nostalgia fills me. Many months ago; I prayed the rod would work and transport me back to my home. The rod’s working now but again drained of it’s charge. It will be only a matter of time though, before I can go home.
As I think this, the ground shakes, and I feel like I’m being pulled somewhere. There’s a rip in space; I know one when I see it. I see the lights I know so well, the blue, purple and the white. It’s a portal. In a zap, I’m at my house. In my house.
I look around the room in bewilderment. “Did I do this?”
I’m so happy. I don’t know if I should scream or cry. Home, I can come home. I need to get my mother and Ric back from Kollosnia. As I think about it, I’m there, back at Kollosnia.
It was me. I created the portal and brought myself home. Somehow, these powers I’m getting have become useful.
I need to say goodbye to Zaina, or maybe I will take her. Wait. No, I can’t take her. My mind is in a whirl when Aiden comes up to me. I’m so excited I blurt out the news. He doesn’t react the way I expect, unsure what I expected, but he has a look on his face that I can’t place.
I’m about to say something else when I see a light shoot up in the sky. A portal has opened, but this time it isn’t me. I look to the direction it’s coming from, the cave—the rod. Aiden stares at me, and he doesn’t look surprised. Now I understand the look on his face. I had caught him in a lie. The lie he made up when he told me the rod wasn’t charged. It’s charged, and he knew it.
“I was going to tell you,” he says.
“Wow, you were going to tell me? When?”
“Yesterday, this morning, I didn’t find the right time,” Aiden says.
“It seems to me you had plenty of time, but you didn’t. You say you’re different. How are you different? How have you changed?”
I take a deep breath to calm myself; still I’m relieved. I’m going home. “After I get Ric and my mom, we are leaving.” I try to beam, but I can’t. My hands shake and I’m too upset to focus. I’m not in full control of all my abilities yet, and me being aggravated doesn’t help. I take another breath.
“I have changed. That is not the person I am anymore. You refuse to forgive me,” he says.
“I forgave you. But how do you expect me to keep trusting you when all you do is lie to me?”
Before I can try again, I step back, and an arrow shoots past my head. I take a moment to register what happened, and then I look up reflexively, only in time to see Nate holding a bow.
His face is a mask of hatred. He reaches for another arrow, but I throw my right hand and he’s pushed back. The bow falls. That worked, but by accident, that’s not what I intended to do. I try again, but this time nothing happens. I can’t control it.
Aiden steps forward and lights his hands up, so flames stand in the center of both palms. I bet he thinks he’s saving me.
Nate laughs, his face twisting cruelly. “The savior can’t control her powers. Aiden, did you think I would come alone?”
Aiden glares at Nate. He never liked him, and he was right not to. Men surround us—two, then four, then too many to continue counting.
“What do you want, Nate?” I ask.
“What I always wanted, to get rid of you.”
“I did nothing to you,” I say.
“You didn’t belong here from the beginning, and you still don’t,” says Nate.
“I’m leaving, anyway.”
“Can’t risk the chance that you will come back,” Nate shouts.
His men charge in on us. Nate is using a weapon, which means he has no powers, at least not yet.
I’m pushed back by air and I fall to the ground. A slim woman with curly black hair and grey eyes uses her ability to move wind against me. Aiden throws a fireball at her, and she falls back, screaming. The woman’s clothes catch fire, and she rolls around on the ground, trashing.
It seems like a lot of them are having trouble controlling their powers, too. They were probably okay until they got here to kill me. They didn’t account for the effect all this excitement will have on their new abilities.
A man jumps in my direction. I’m still on the ground, and I roll out of the way, missing his punch. The man is about two feet taller than me, so he towers above me enough to be intimidating. He is muscular and deep veins bulge from all over his hands and neck; he looks like someone who’s possessed.
The man slams his fist into the ground, and it separates, leaving an imprint on the earth. Before I can move, he holds onto my leg and picks me up. I know he’s strong, that’s obvious from the dent in the earth, but how can he lift me by my leg? I’m hanging upside down. My hair dangles over my face, obscuring my view.
I glimpse Aiden through the strands of my hair, throwing fireballs at the man, one after the other. At first, it does nothing, then he yelps and tosses me aside, like a child’s doll. I hit the side of a cave hard, and I let out a groan as I slide down the side of it.
Aiden runs over to me, and I think he’ll sail fireballs haphazardly, but he doesn’t. He lights a circle of fire around us and brings it up high above our heads. “Get us out of here Calina, before they find a way in.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Aiden
An arrow shoots past Calina’s head, but she’s okay. It misses. My heart is in my mouth as I turn back to see Nate. I knew I should have killed him when I had the chance. Now he’s here to repay the favor and kill Calina too. Nate has already played a part in trying to take Calina away from me, and now he’s back. He won’t stop. I know that now, not until I stop him. Nate goes to line up another arrow, but Calina knocks him off his feet, which gives me enough time to light my hands up.
Before I know it, they surround us. A woman pushes Calina aside by moving air with her hand. I sail a fireball at her and she flails around. Calina is still on the ground, and before I can help her up, Nate’s reaching for his bow.
I throw a fireball at him and he drops it again. Another man tries to do something, but he can’t, so instead, he kicks me in the leg, catching me off guard. I fall to the ground and he pounces on me, wrapping his fingers around my neck.
A muscular man attacks Calina, and I can’t get to her. I can feel the air leaving my lungs, the oxygen being sucked from my body. Then I did something I didn’t know I could do before. I set my entire body on fire. The man releases my neck; he catches fire, and he falls over dead. Jumping up from the ground, I focus my attention on the man holding Calina by the leg. Instead of dropping her to the ground, he flings her aside hard. I throw a few fireballs at our attackers, but I can’t keep this up for much longer. There are too many of them to fight. I run over to Calina and light a circle of fire around us, something else I didn’t know I could do.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Anorvia
I wait anxiously for word that Calina is dead and finally out of my life. The thought of her looming around Kollosnia is like a thorn in my side. She hasn’t made an aggressive play at my throne yet. But I know it’s a matter of time before something tells her she deserves it, and she comes after me. The only way to be sure I’m safe is to ensure she no longer breathes.
I’m in the throne room. I’ve showered and changed into the light-yellow dress and had breakfast. Lola came by with a creamy dish made from a type of grain. She handed me the hot bowl and poured a few spoons of honey into it to make it sweet. The sweetener looks and tastes like honey. Dark golden color, and so I call it honey, but Lola reminds me that here it’s called something different.
I tap the armrest of the throne frantically as the minutes tick on. Kyle walks in. He was speaking to a group of different leaders in Kollosnia, trying to push our agenda. Kyle and I have put plans in motion already to ensure that Calina never bothers me again, and now it’s only a matter of time.
“Are you still waiting for Nate?” Kyle asks. Kyle takes a seat on his throne next to mine, and I know he’s enjoying the chair very much.
“Yes, I want to know if it’s over, once and for all.”
“Do you think she is a tremendous threat?”
“You know she is. What are you talking about?” I say.
“I know she could be, but she isn’t trying to at this point. Are we overdoing it?” asks Kyle.
“She isn’t right now. But who’s saying she never will? That’s not a chance I can take.”
“I don’t want to see you get too worked up,” says Kyle.
“Why? Are you backing out now?”
“No, I’m not. I was wondering if we need to put all this effort into one girl that might not be a threat at all.”
“She is.”
“Okay, if you think she is, then she is,” says Kyle. He sits back in his chair; his head resting on the back of it. Kyle turns his head to look over at me. He extends a hand and cups his fingers under my chin.
For a moment, we are silent. Neither of us saying anything.
“What are you thinking about?” I ask.
“My father,” says Kyle.
“What about him?”
“How he was with me when I was growing up.”
“Was he a good father?” I ask. “I know you left him early, but you also wanted to make him happy.”
“I think he loved me. As a kid, I remembered him teaching me how to use a sword. It was a great bonding moment for us. But in hindsight, I wonder if those moments were him training me for the moment he thought would come.”
“Does that bother you?” I ask.
“That part doesn’t bother me. What bothers me more is remembering how caught up the King was with the power he had. How paranoid he was all the time, always thinking someone was out to get him. After a while, everyone was a threat in his eyes. Sometimes I wonder if he sent me away solely to kill you or because he thought that I would have been a threat to his throne, too.”
“You were his son. He wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Power does strange things to people.”
“Are you afraid that I will become like that?”
“I don’t know,” Kyle replies. “I want you to know which lines to cross and which ones to leave alone. Having everything is no fun if you lose yourself in the process.”
“Lines were meant to be crossed, Kyle.”
Kyle laughs.
“The leaders are saying their people have some concerns.”
“Concerns about what?”
“You,” says Kyle.
“Is that why you’re bringing up your father? People think I’m the next Dark King?”
“Dark queen.”
“Sure,” I punch him. “Do you think I’m the new dark queen?”
“I think they can perceive you as anything if we’re not careful. I want you to be whoever you are.”
“So, who cares if that’s what they perceive me as?” I ask. “Maybe that’s a good thing.”
“After defeating the Dark King, the people won’t allow themselves to go back to a time like that. Besides, it’s too soon, they will recognize this kind of leadership. It’s time you decide how you want to play this game. Show them who you are or what they want to see. I’m with you all the way.”
“So, what are you saying?” I ask.
“Ruling is a game. You can be whoever you are and whoever you want to be. But it matters what the people think, for now.”
“I still need to be strong. As a ruler, I have to be ruthless.”
“So, trick them. Distract the people from who you are and keep them distracted,” says Kyle.
“How do we distract them?”
“Have feasts and festivals,” says Kyle.
“Feasts are fun, but it’s not possible to have a feast for everyone in Kollosnia,” I say.
“Then divide them; one group will be on our side living the good life, enjoying the spoils. The other group will know your wrath. One group won’t rise-up alone, they would never win. The other wouldn’t even care even to try, after all they’re reaping the benefits. Why intervene?”
A thought comes to me, and Kyle can see it on my face. Maybe it’s the way I crinkle my nose. Perhaps he can see the mischief in my eyes.
“So, it’s possible that there are people without magic.”
“Okay?” says Kyle, but I can see the puzzled expression on his face, and he isn’t getting what I’m trying to say.
“We create different factions, with different perks. People without magic, people with magic, and the strongest ones on my side. The problem is, how do we decide who’s the strongest?”
