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Who was King Thebe, anyway? Even though I was blood-related to the late king through my late father, I still knew little of him. Did Araki have a good reason to kill him?
Were my parents guilty of genocide? Was it why he had killed them too? My head hurt from all the thinking. I changed the subject.
“You see this scar?” I blurted, pointing at a small indent on my lip.
Araki tore his eyes off the gravestone and to me.
“Whenever anybody asks about it, I say I got it in a fight with a wolf,” I continued. “But when I was first brought to the coven, I was climbing a tree to spy on the boys' training. I fell and cut my lip. Knocked out my two front teeth and had to have them magically fixed. Master Briggs told me next time that if I wanted to ogle the boys, I should find a safer vantage point.”
His lips twitched. “Did you? Ogle the boys, I mean?”
“Sometimes. When I wanted a distraction, I never had a… serious relationship with any of them, though,” I admitted, my face flushing. “Master Briggs though he was strict, he still was nice to me. He would always tickle-attack me. He told me I had to lighten up, that I was a child, and I needed to remember to have fun sometimes.”
“Hetickledyou?” Araki asked, a slight trace of amusement in his voice.
I offered a weak impish smile. “He was my teacher and like a father to me. He was a tough, quiet man but gentle too. I secretly loved that he’d tickle and tease me. It made me feel like maybe I wasn’t entirely broken. Then, when Nala was brought to the coven… I wanted to make sure she knew she was a kid, too. There are so many terrible things we must face in our Coven. I wanted her to be a healer. Not an assassin.”
“Nala is the one we saw in the forest?”
I nodded.
“And you love her.”
Moisture pooled in my eyes, and I wiped them away. “Yes. And you love Klaus.”
“Yes. I do.” Araki smiled, though it seemed strained.
“Are you brothers?”
“Not by blood. Is Nala your sister?”
I returned his smile. “Not by blood.”
We looked at each other. The connection swelled between us. At that moment, I wasn’t an assassin. He wasn’t a king. We were Reilyn and Araki, two people who understood how the other had suffered. We understood the bonds of love that could bind you far tighter than blood or spell. Warmth spread in my chest. Araki lifted his hand. He hesitated a moment, then brushed his thumb over my cheek. My skin tingled from the touch, and I lifted my eyes to his lips as he leaned closer. I held my breath. His magic and mine seemed to mingle, bursting with life inside me. His warmth wrapped around me as his lips pressed mine.I should pull away. But I didn’t. I leaned into him, returning the kiss as my eyes drifted shut.
Fields of Roses
Araki
Her soft, succulent lips pressed against mine. I teased her lips apart with my tongue, eliciting a soft gasp from her. Taking the opportunity, I slipped my tongue in to taste her. She tasted sweet, like peaches and magic. I grabbed her waist, pulled her closer, and sought her taste more. The kiss was gentler than all the kisses we shared before. A whimper escaped her lips as she touched my tongue with hers, wounding my body tight. Our magic swelled together, shifting and bleeding between us. She didn’t steal anything from me, only a natural siphon that seemed to make my magic feel stronger as if fed back to me. I sensed a change in her and broke the kiss. Her golden eyes glimmered, her face flushed.
“I think I can teleport us back to the palace now,” Reilyn muttered.
I dropped my hand from her waist. Even though I would love to keep holding her and sharing our magic, I wasn’t about to jeopardize this uneasy truce between us.
“We should go back to the horses first,” I said, my voice gruff. “Otherwise, Klaus is going to be suspicious.”
“So, you don’t plan to tell him about this?” Reilyn arched a brow at me.
I had to smile at that. “Yes, I’ll tell him. But in my own time. Besides, I don’t want to lose the horses.”
Reilyn nodded once and held her hand out. I took it. The world seemed to jerk around us, spinning in a blur of sound andcolour. The horses were spooked when we returned, and it took us half an hour to calm them. From there, it was a silent ride back to the palace. The sharp bite of the cold nipped at my nose and ears as dusk fell. Reilyn glanced at me once when I escorted her to her chambers in the palace, but when I waited for her to speak, she merely closed the door. With a sigh, I returned to my room. Klaus soon joined me, and I briefly summarized what happened before telling him to go home to Nadine.
“Nothing else is going to happen tonight,” I assured him.
Klaus frowned at me, his gaze sweeping up and down me. “Something’s different. Something changed.”
I patted his shoulder, smiling wryly. “You could say that. But I’m not sure what it means yet. I’ll tell you when I do.”
