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14
Lagoon Of Warmth
~VIKTOR~
“If you carried that scowling face in the hood, you’d be shot.”
My mind took far too long to register Milo’s words. My eyes slowly drifted to the fae prince as he continued to work upon setting up the lagoon for the awakening ritual.
“Master L never carried such a scowl. Rather the opposite, really.”
“You met my father?” I questioned as I observed him as he began to sprinkle various colored salts along the edges of the peaceful, glowing body of water.
“To be honest, when I first saw you, I almost thought it was him. Your auras are similar, but yours has a more rough but cunning movement. Thankfully, I had the privilege of meeting him when I was but a little boy. It was a little bit before I was sent down to live among humans in the hood.”
“How can aura be cunning and rough?” I inquired. “And if you met him when you were a little boy, how can you even recall it? The little girl you were assigned to guard, wasn’t she brought down here as a babe?”
“Correct,” he said, addressing the second part of my statement first. “Just because we’re brought here as babies to learn the hardships humans and other shifters go through, that doesn’t mean we’re solely left here. It’s kind of a back-and-forth situation, but in order to remember when you’re older, you have to meditate on it. I tried to meditate every night to get some sort of boost during those torture days, depending on whether I even had the privilege to do so. Your father was a gentle soul and did a lot for children when they were at the brink of facing death.”
“Does that mean you dealt with a situation like that?”
“Sort of.” He came to a pause to shrug his shoulders. The spot where he stood shed rays of moonlight that bathed over him, accentuating the purple robe that twinkled with shimmering gold silk and black rhinestones.
Milo’s hair was braided with special gold ribbons that were entwined in his silky black strands, and his arms and feet were marked with symbols in gold that reminded me of henna.
His calm eyes met mine as he decided to give me a glimpse of what I’d requested.
“There was a time when my father’s royal status was questioned. There’s no point in going into the fine details, but race played the ultimate role. Our jewels, attire, and identification that’s valid throughout the supernatural planes didn’t suffice for this individual. Funny enough, it was a police officer. Ironic.” He smiled just slightly as he closed his eyes. “Master L ended up coming out of the gate we were trying to enter to get back home. He defused the situation before it got violent, and as a child, I remembered calling him a hero because that’s what he’d become in a tense moment like what we were in. Looking back at the memories during my meditation, he reminded me of a savior walking out of that spinning gold portal. Interesting how fate decided that I’d be forced to be an officer and be saved by the woman who’d ascend to take Master L’s place.”
It really did feel like a full-circle moment, and it emphasized how small our world really was even though it was massive to our eyes and carried so many layers. Our parents created our foundations and flourished connections during their rise through the ranks of power. Every step they took, whether good or bad, left seeds behind that sprouted through those they impacted, and now those seeds had blossomed individuals on their own paths up the ladder of authority.
A cycle that never ends.
“As for how an aura can be rough and cunning,” he began, “roughness in your aura is shown by the way it moves. Its movement is rough and a bit manic, especially when you’re mad which, no offense, is mostly when Willow isn’t in your personal radius, similar to the distance between where I’m standing and where you are.”
The glare I gave him only made him chuckle as he added, “The cunning factor comes is because despite how raging your aura normally is, you hide it so well that it blends in with the rest of the energy of the world. It’s like a snake that camouflages with its surroundings until it needs to strike. You do this unconsciously, but I have also noticed you lower your guard a few notches when you're with Willow and recently with the pack during Willow’s recovery.”
That wasn’t good info for me, at least the lowering my guard part. I’d done that at the ring when Willow was having her suicidal breakdown and that got her kidnapped after our triggered awakening.
“It’s not a bad thing, Viktor.” Milo’s words tugged me out of my thoughts as my eyes met his once more. “It means you feel safe around those around you.”
“Feeling safe is what got Willow kidnapped,” I countered.
“Nah.” Milo shook his head. “Fate sought for Willow to get taken by Loki. If it hadn’t been him who took her, the princess wouldn’t be alive today. Whether you accept that or not is up to you, but no way were we all brought together without a deeper meaning. That meaning required you to awaken with Willow so you two could endure the final task and claim your positions on the High Court. Everything happens for a reason, but I believe you’ll see for yourself when Neo and Willow arrive.”
“They could have already been here if we’d gone together,” I complained, which was why I’d carried this scowl of death during the entire ride here.
Milo laughed long and hard as he began to walk around and sprinkle more colorful sand upon the ground.
“You and I know that if you heard Willow make a single whimper, you’d try to skin Neo alive. As entertaining as it would be to watch you and Nico duke it out, I’d rather not for the sake of cleaning up someone’s body.”
“You say someone’s body as if you don’t know who would win or lose,” I grumbled.
He chuckled again as his knowledgeable eyes glanced over to lock onto mine.
“True,” he began. “But the reality is, I wouldn’t want to carry your body out of there.”
“I wouldn’t lose.”
