Ephrem
I leaned against the door, grateful to have a barrier between me and the princess. She was apparently used to commanding her way around people, especially guards. It made me chuckle. Regardless, this wasn’t her domain and she was right, she was no longer royalty here. I owed her nothing, and she didn’t have any power over me.
Blowing out a breath, I proceeded to peel off the rest of the drenched clothes clinging to my muscles. It’d been a long night, and with Lily in my care, things were much more complicated now than they’d ever been before. I’d never saved a royal before. Banishment was as good as death to any soul. Why did I have to stumble upon a royal of all people tonight? Especially an ArcKnight royal? It was one thing to save one of my own pack, a MarkTier, but the opposing pack in the city of Temple was a whole other matter and held a bottomless pit full of possible problems.
If only it’d been another guard who’d found her tonight.
I clutched my Ardent talisman, feeling its magic hum beneath my fingers. The presence of any royal-blooded wolf always excited the stone, and its constant thrumming against my skin made my head feel light and dizzy. Not that I needed any more help with that. Lilliana was unique in her own way. What little I knew of her from the brief spotlights I’d seen in the media was not much, but I knew from the moment I first spotted her years ago that she was different from the rest of the royals, even her sister, Rafaela.
Tossing my sword to the side, I rolled my shoulders back before heading into the master bathroom. I thought about nothing but Lily as the steamy water recharged me. Never in a million years had I thought I’d ever meet her face to face again. She apparently didn’t remember me from when I’d been part of the royal guard for my pack thirteen years ago.
When I was still a boy and escorting the royals of the MarkTier pack to the ArcKnight palace for negotiations over land disputes, I met Lily. That same meeting had left the two packs forever separated. They failed to come to an agreement for control over a portion of the neutral lands, and in the process of all the disagreements, the promise we’d been held to as a betrothed couple had been severed. If we’d married, it would’ve united the two feuding kingdoms and satisfied an ages-old prophecy for peace. Even if she and I were both second born in our lineages.
But it was never to be. There could never be peace.
I wondered if Lilliana knew she was supposed to be my bride once upon a time. Her memory failed her, but I remembered her clearly and more than anyone I’d ever met before. I wasn’t going to refresh the past for her either. I was no longer the skinny kid looking at the much younger five-year-old named Lily, who would’ve been my bride thirteen years later. Instead, here we were, both on alternate paths and unmarried. How ironic it all was… or could it just be some sick and twisted coincidence?
Either way, I shut my eyes and squeezed them tight, hoping to block all thoughts of the past and what could’ve been or should’ve happened out of my mind. It was no use. No matter how long I’d waited to finally have her in my arms, this was by far not the way I’d imagined it. Not even close.
After my shower, I lay on my bed, staring up at the shadows the rain threw against the ceiling. It was pleasant, yet I couldn’t sleep for the life of me. Training Lily wouldn’t be an easy feat. She was older than most trainees I’d worked with, set in her ways and stubborn as a boulder. Somehow I’d have to help improve her combat skills so she wouldn’t end up under another behemoth of a man and almost crushed to death trying to survive the neutral lands of Temple. If I hadn’t been there at the right moment tonight, she’d have been a pancake.
Not the best way to go, but certainly not the worst either.
I chuckled to myself as I placed my hands behind my head, listening to the tiny noises coming from the other bedroom. The wall was thin, and I could hear each and every little creak the bed made as Lily tossed and turned, evidently as restless as I was. I felt for her. Even though I’d never been officially banished and had instead been assigned to monitor the lawless parts of the city, it was as good of a punishment as any banishment could be.
I hated the job, but I had no choice on whether I wanted to do it or not.
The lightning flashed outside my windows, followed by a gut-trembling rumble of thunder.
I heard a gasp and sat up to find Lily standing at the edge of the couch in the living room, pale enough to be a ghost and trembling. I could see her through my open door.
I jumped up and called out to her. “Are you all right?”
Her lips trembled. “The storm… it’s louder here than it is back home.”
Her hands instinctually clasped over her ears as another bolt hit. The buildings were some of the tallest in the world here in the city of Temple. Much like New York City, most of them had lightning rods to ground the lightning. My apartment building was no exception, but we were near the top of the building where the strikes resonated with roars of noise.
“It’s just hitting the metal poles rising from the roof of the building. They’re made that way so we don’t get electrocuted.” The explanation did little to settle her nerves as she tried to pull her hands away from her ears to listen to my words.
“It’s not just the noise.” Another boom and she buckled to her knees while her face contorted in agony. Her pain made my talisman vibrate even harder, and pounding static pinged against my chest. I grabbed for it, and it zapped my hand with a biting hit. I yelped and yanked the thing off, dropping it to the floor.
That had never happened before.
It was emitting a bright moonlight glow into the darkness of the room, illuminating Lily’s features as her pain grew, her face morphing into sheer terror as she screamed. Her gasping made me lunge for her, down onto the floor, flicking an eye onto the talisman as I slipped my arms around her.
“Lily!” I pressed her to my chest, hoping she wouldn’t hurt herself with the spasms.
The pendant had scorched my skin where it had been resting against my chest, and I flinched as Lily’s weight pushed against the injury. The pendant continued to glow, pulsating now and then like a heartbeat. I picked it up, holding it by the chain. It was still glowing red hot. It slipped and landed on Lily’s arm, but it didn’t burn her.
What the hell was going on?
I held her tight, avoiding the glowing talisman. It had never done that to me during a lightning storm before. In fact, I’d never seen it glow quite so much before. Could it have something to do with Lily? If so, why?
It was because it was her talisman all along. Of course.
I cradled her in my arms as her eyelids fluttered while she lost consciousness. I slipped the pendant around her neck and watched it seep energy into her. She remained unscathed, and a moment later, went completely slack but was breathing softly. The talisman seemed to go dormant, the light ebbing until it was extinguished.
The storm outside calmed to a drizzle, and the lightening distanced itself from the building, still flashing in the distance but farther away with each passing second.
Checking to make sure she was still breathing, I found she was quietly sleeping now. I reached for the talisman, now cool to the touch, and studied its tiny runes and the moon stone set into the pins. It looked harmless and, as always, strangely beautiful. It had always drawn me, and I knew the moment I tried to take it off that it was not supposed to be anywhere else but with her now.
I don’t know what it was that drove me that moment to leave it around Lily’s neck, but I did, and I stared at it as it slid down her neck and in between her breasts. Her beautiful figure had not escaped my notice, and I averted my eyes from her smooth, milky skin and looked back at the talisman.
It was glowing again, but not nearly as intensely as before. How? In all the time I had owned it, it had made only a slight shimmer for me when I was in need of some extra power. I’d come to believe it gave it to me whenever I was exerted, hurt or depleted. I’d come to take comfort in its familiarity and calming presence. It was very much aliv
e, though I’d often wondered what it was and where it’d come from. It had been in my possession for as long as I could remember. My mother would just smile and tell me it was a gift from someone special. Nothing else ever came of it, and I knew better than to push the issue further.
Watching it calm Lily by slowing her breathing and soothing her heart rate, I could feel her anxiety die with it. Now, she slipped into an alternate world, deep into dreams where nothing of this world could follow.
It had never been my talisman in the first place. I’d known that for a long time, but now I fully understood. It was a dowry from the days of our betrothal. How could I have known it would want to return to its rightful owner if I ever saw her again? How could I have been so blind?
It was an ArcKnight relic, and it had been given to me when I was promised to Lily. So where was the MarkTier talisman that was its mate, the one I’d given up to Lily when she was promised to me?
I didn’t see it around her neck. I had to find it. It would want to return to me, too, if Lily’s had literally scalded me to be replaced around its owner’s neck.
Wait a minute….
She’d been banished, but for what? What sort of thing would deserve such a fate in our strict pack societies?
Every royal-blooded wolf had a talisman. It was the essence of our powers and only left a wolf’s neck when exchanged with a mate’s pendant. If it was ever lost, banishment was always the punishment for such a crime.
Maybe Lily had lost my talisman… or it’d been stolen from her.
I had to find out who would’ve done such a thing, why and how.
I hoped Lily had some answers for me when she woke up. Otherwise, it was only a matter of time before someone wielded it against me.
The clock was already ticking in a game I didn’t know I was playing until now.
Chapter Six