AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, I see what has happened clearly. This power of yours has gone to your head. It is time for a change, yes, a change for someone who can lead us properly, who can adhere to the old ways. This world is not going to change for someone who has no respect for tradition.”
I rolled my eyes. “You keep saying the same things over and over again Darrow, and none of it is going to help. None of it is going to change our plight. Either we’re going to Orestes or we’re going to some other world that I can take us to. It may not be safe, but anything is going to be better than this one. This is the only chance we have for a future, and I will not let anyone stand in my way, not even you.”
“Destroying our past is not a way to bring about a future Ava. Your father was right. He feared that you would bring about the undoing of this place. I should have tried harder to prevent it.”
“You can try now,” I said, and immediately turned into a lion. He shifted as well, into a long, strong lion that belied his aged appearance. He slashed his claws at me immediately, releasing a lifetime of frustration upon me. We danced around my chamber, darting towards each other and then backing off, trying for an opening. His reach was long, and his arms struck out, trying to scratch me. When he did this I ran inside his reach to tackle his body, knocking the wind out of him. I drove him against a wall and things rattled off tables, falling to the floor. I felt something crack inside him, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from attacking me. Instead, he brought his hands down and dug his claws into my back, tearing apart my skin. I howled with pain and was forced to let go of him, pushing myself away, shaking off the blazing agony that bled down my back and stained my fur.
My eyes gleamed with anger at this man, this man who stood between the pride and survival, this man who was the last remnant of an old way, who would prefer to look stubbornly at death rather than try to find another way to move forward. As long as he lived he would always try and dissuade people from listening to me. Supposedly he was loyal to me, but he had never stopped being loyal to my father.
I stood in the middle of the room, waiting for him to attack again. I tasted blood that had trickled down the corner of my mouth. I bared my fangs. He prowled and staggered forward. I had done some damage to him, but not enough to stop him from fighting. We roared, our hot breaths blasting the air, and then he charged towards me. I braced myself and caught him as we fell to the ground. I was still reeling from my fight with Naaro, otherwise I would have made short work of him. We slashed and bit and fought each other, trying to tear each other apart, until we twisted around so that my stomach was near his legs. He thrust them forward with all the force he could muster and kicked me back. I stumbled towards the opening in my chamber, to the wide window where a rope was strung up and led down to the dusty bowl beneath, to what used to be a hunting ground. As I turned back I shifted back into my human form and teetered on the edge, my momentum almost carrying me down.
At that point I saw Mika rushing into the room, a look of shock on his face. Darrow had nothing but enmity for me though. He snarled and saw his chance. The pain blistered on my back and surged all the way through me. This was going to be it, I thought. He was going to tackle me and send us both hurtling down into the chasm below, and I was going to die amid the dust of this accursed planet. At least Mika was here to see this though. At least he was going to be able to make the right decision and take my pride back to Orestes.
That was what I liked to think, anyway. That’s what I wanted my last thought to be; my pride thriving in a world that had always been made for them.
But at the last moment, as I found myself staring at Mika, there was some instinct that took a hold of me. It was as though I was a puppet and someone else was tugging my strings. The air folded around me as though I was traveling, but this time another world did not present itself to me, I simply moved from in front of Darrow to behind him. Suddenly there was nothing but empty air before him and he was unable to halt his momentum swiftly enough to stop him from careening through the window. I watched as he flailed out his arm, shifting back into a man as he tried to grab the rope, but he was an inch too low. I ran to the edge to watch him fall. There was a sharp impact as his body crashed and then slumped against the ground, his limbs twisted, his body broken, his neck shattered.
The old way was dead.
“What just happened?” I gasped.
“I wasn’t sure if you knew you could do that or not. You don’t just have the ability to travel through worlds, but through the space around you as well. I wanted to tell you, I was just waiting for the right time,” Mika said.
“Well there almost wasn’t a right time.”
“Why did he attack you?”
I found my head shaking in wonderment at the same question. “To be honest I’m not entirely sure. He had an idea of the way the world should have been, but I also wonder if there wasn’t something of jealousy playing a part, jealousy that he wasn’t able to find a way to save us all. I think in a way he wanted to be a hero, and in the end the only obstacle in front of him was me, so he tried to get rid of me. But he is the last of his kind now. I will not tolerate anyone who shares his views. We must change our ways if we are going to survive, but I suppose that all rather depends on you, doesn’t it,” I said. I then looked at the empty space beside him. “Where is Lanas?”
“With his mother. She is… not well. He is spending a few moments alone with her.”
I bowed my head at thought of the poor woman. “I hope you see now what our lives are like. This is what we have to contend with every day. Our lives are a battle and there is seldom cause for celebration. Even when we win something there is always something that we lose as well. Poor Lanas…”
“You care about him, don’t you?”
“Of course I care about him. He was chosen to be my mate. He was the only one in this pride who trusted me enough to remove the bracelet that prevented me from walking between worlds. If it wasn’t for him then this pride would be doomed. His loyalty cannot be questioned and his devotion to me is absolute.”
Mika nodded, pursing his lips. “It’s a shame that because I was thinking… well… it had occurred to me that, I mean, well…”
His gaze had been turned to the floor and he stammered over his words.
“What is on your mind?” I asked, wishing that people were able to get to the heart of a matter rather than dancing around it.
“It’s just that I wondered about your plans if you did return to Orestes. Would you want to remain your own pride and have your own settlement somewhere, or would you prefer to be folded into our pride? Of course, it would mean that you would not be a leader. That duty falls to me. Unless, well, the thing is Ava that I have found you an impressive woman and I have always known that one day I am going to need someone to stand beside me when I take my place as leader of the pride. I am slowly realizing that there are some qualities I possess that may indeed be good for leading a pride, but I lack so many other things as well, things that you do not. I cannot think of a finer warrior of our generation. You would never let anyone rule worlds.”
His words faltered and he was clearly uneasy, but I thought I sensed the deeper meaning of his words. I walked up to him and spoke softly. “Are you asking me to be your Lioness?” I asked.
He nodded.
I leaned my head back and then I responded the only way I knew how. I slapped him.
He staggered back, so taken aback by the action that he clutched his stinging cheek.
“You dare make me bargain for my people’s lives with my body? If this is what the fate of my people depends on then yes, I will fall on my knees for you, I will lay with you, but I will resent you for it and one day I will exact my revenge. I cannot believe that you would ever dare insult me like this. After all you have seen me go through. This is humiliating. Was this your plan all along? You dare ask this of me when you know how desperate I am to save my people?”
The words thundered out of me in a torrent while he held his hands up to protest his innocence and shook his head, repeating my name so that he could have a chance to speak.
“It’s not like that at all! It’s just that I have never known anyone like you. From the first moment we met I was impressed by you, and since then I have only grown in my admiration of you. You are so beautiful and strong and I can’t imagine there being a finer woman in all the land. You are everything a woman and a lion should be, and how could I want anything but the best to stand beside me and rule the pride and raise our heirs? Of course I’m going to save your people. I can’t let them live like this, but I’m not going to do that based on your response to this question. It was just… it was another matter entirely,” he rubbed the nape of his neck and looked unsure. I regretted assuming the worst of him.
