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Then I looked up when I realized that Naaro was grunting in frustration. The man had changed into a lion. He was not a match for Naaro in size or stature, but he was still able to offer enough resistance with his snapping jaws and sharp claws. He and Naaro wrestled for a time, grappling with each other for supremacy. I stole my vision away from moment to moment, still trying to free Divad.
I was just undoing the last strap when I heard a harsh voice growl at me.
“Stay away from him. He’s mine,” Char said. She clutched her side, trying to hold in the blood, but it poured over her hands and stained her clothes. Her legs wobbled as she walked, and the whites of her eyes were visible as she glared at me. She pulled herself towards Divad, but fell just as she reached him. Her hand slipped against his arm and then it was dragged down to join her. She lay on her back, her lifeless eyes staring into space. I had expected to see some moment where I could see the life leaving her eyes, but there was nothing. I had always imagined it to be like a light switching off, but instead it was just a moment that passed, one where she was there, and one where she was not.
I helped Divad into a sitting position and tried to shake what I had seen from my mind. There had been so much furious emotion in Char’s voice, and yet all that led to nothing. She had slipped away without getting what she wanted; a final moment with Divad. I was not sure what had led to her betrayal, but I knew that she hadn’t been happy when she died. It made me think about my own mortality. If I was faced with death, what would I be the most upset about missing out on?
I couldn’t spend too long on my thoughts though because Naaro and the mystery man were still grappling with each other. I watched them as Naaro used his strength to get the upper hand. Everything within him was bred for this moment, made for combat, and I couldn’t see any way for the man to prevail. However, he was sly and dropped to the ground, shifting back into a human in a smooth movement. It was all so quick that I could only detect a blur, and then the lion had become a man again. Now that he had a hand instead of a paw, he was reaching out to the knife again, seeking to take it in his grasp and stab at Naaro. I took my arm from around Divad and moved towards Naaro, but I knew I would not make it in time. I was not blessed with the same swift speed as these impressive lions.
But Naaro did not need my help. I should have had more faith in him. He was off balance when his opponent ducked away, but he righted himself quickly and then drove his foot onto the man’s chest. There was a huge crack as his ribcage split. I winced at the sight of this powerful lion putting all his weight onto the man’s chest. The hand that gripped the knife twitched and the fingers spasmed open, while his eyes and mouth opened wide. He clawed at his throat as he tried to breathe, but his lungs were crushed and then, just like Char, he was gone.
Naaro looked down and then shifted back into his human form. He turned and came towards Divad. He flung his arms around his brother and I stepped back, feeling as though I was intruding on a private moment. The brothers were held together, the differing complexions of their skin melting into each other. Divad looked exhausted, while Naaro was relieved. It was a moment where I found myself overwhelmed with emotion because I had never been witness to such love before. These two men were bonded by blood and I knew that they would have done anything for each other. They were inseparable, and I knew that nothing would ever stand in their way even if they faced the impossible.
It was actually quite humbling.
I wish I had known love as intense as that. There were many different kinds of love, some platonic, romantic, familial, and no type was intrinsically better than the other. But seeing what these men were willing to go through for each other put certain things in my life in sharp perspective. There had been absolutely no hesitation on Naaro’s part to come to his brother’s aid, and I hadn’t even been able to respond to my boyfriend’s marriage proposal.
Chapter Fourteen
Divad
I wiped the blood from my head and gathered myself. I leaned on Naaro for support. My wrists ached from the tight restraints, and the fear had not yet been drained from my system. I looked at the carnage around me. Zizan lay on the floor, his chest sunken from where Naaro had crushed it, while Char was slumped beside the table, her body devoid of life. Emilia was there, our strange guest, the girl who had come to me and freed me. I gazed at her with gratitude. And then there was Naaro, my brother, the one who I could always depend upon.
“You came for me,” I muttered.
Naaro leaned back and nodded. “Of course, I did. As soon as we realized you had been taken, we found your trail.”
“And you,” I said, turning to Emilia, “you came too?”
“I… I thought it was my responsibility. I had seen these two talking. I should have spoken up sooner. If I had then perhaps you wouldn’t have been taken.”
“Then I owe you a great debt. I was… I was at my last Naaro. He was about to take everything from me.”
“Who was he? What did he want?” Naaro asked.
I told him the whole sorry plot. “The worst part is that I can understand why he did something like this. I know that I have been neglecting my teachings. Maybe I am not the lion I should have been. I haven’t developed my gift. But he wanted war Naaro. He wanted to undo all of father’s work and take us back to the way we were before.”
“I don’t understand. He thought he could take your ability to walk through worlds?” Emilia asked.
I nodded. “I don’t know if it would have worked. He might have just been crazy, but he thought he could strip it away from my brain and implant it in himself, and that would give him the ability to walk between worlds, where he wanted to conquer and find other lions to join him, eventually getting enough of an army behind him where he could take over Orestes. He was utterly insane, but he got this far.”
“And it happened right under our noses. I am sorry brother. I have failed you,” Naaro dropped to his knees and bowed his head. I looked at him, completely nonplussed.
“Naaro, you came here to save me.”
“But this would not have happened if I had been more observant. I should have known that Char was up to no good. I should have known that there was some foreign force working to capture you.”
“Naaro, I was the one who spent time with Char alone. If I didn’t pick up on any of this then how could you have? I should have paid attention to the warning signs, but just like everyone always tells me I haven’t been good enough at taking things seriously. I just thought… I don’t know what I thought… but this has shown me that it’s time to change.”
I used to think that my parents and Tania had just been nagging me because they wanted to make my life hell, but after this ordeal I was beginning to see that there had been a point to what they were saying. They were only trying to get me to be better. There was so much I could accomplish. I always assumed that I had more time, but all the time in the world had almost been taken from me. Even when Char had been speaking about the future, I had never really taken it seriously, figuring that it was something I wouldn’t have to deal with for years, but now everything seemed immediate, and I knew that I was going to have to change things.
My gaze turned towards Char. Despite her final act of betrayal, I did grieve her. She had loved me in her way, and for a time I loved her, at least the version of her I thought I knew. As it turned out I hadn’t known her very well at all. We had spent so much time together where she had hidden the truth of herself from me, and I hadn’t been bothered enough to look closely. I could only imagine the chaos that would have followed had we actually been married. My choice for mate could not be made lightly. It required someone I could trust; someone I knew would always be there for me. Someone who…
My gaze drifted towards Emilia, who was standing behind Naaro. A thought flickered in my mind, an impossible thought, but one that I could not quite shake. I kept it to myself though, for I needed to think on things. I knew that it was time for my life to change, and change had to begin now. I was going to return to the pride a new man and I was going to show Mom and Dad and Tania and everyone else that I truly deserved to be the Alpha.
“We need to head back,” I said, stumbling from the table. It was hard to walk under my own power, for I was still weak from whatever concoction Zizan had poisoned me with. I quickly tried shifting again, but the ability had still not returned to me. I explained the situation to Naaro, who looked grave.
“I’m sure the lion will come back in time,” he said. Emilia looked sad for me as well. I wondered if there was any equivalent in her life of losing the lion within.
