Chapter Seven

I had slept and woken up and was still filled with a rage I didn't know what to do with. So much so that when Leila off-handedly mentioned my singing last night I lost it in a fit of rage that ended up with the vanity turned over and only vaguely remember screaming something about how their benevolent prince was a handsy little douche monkey. Leila was staring at me with wide eyes when I stormed out of the room and ran into the garden. Part of me was surprised that I hadn't been scooped up by the guards after last night and tossed into some musky cell to rot. Out in the garden, however, they were all staring wearily at me as if I had become a leper.

"Lady Aria?"

I wheeled around, prepared, even looking forward to being angry but it fizzled away. The Lord of the Realm of Darkness, was smiling at me. His cropped dreads were a tossed mess on the top of his otherwise shaven head. His dark skin shone like onyx in the sun and his dark eyes were like the unexplored depths of the ocean. He was sharp in his navy blue suit and golden brown belt and shoes. The white shirt underneath was crisp across the outline of muscles. Was no one in this world a portly dad-type? Even Lord Xavia was wall of muscle with a sharp jaw.

"Lord Seraphinus." I said with a slight nod.

"You remember me." He seemed surprised.

"I do. You were quite pleasant company." He smiled, and I went on, "To what do I owe this continued pleasure?"

Seraphinus rocked back on his heels and regarded me as if he were seeing me for the first time. "Can I be honest with you?"

I nodded.

"Well you made quite a scene yesterday. Your performance was..." He faltered watching me make the sign for him to wrap it up. "I just meant... I mean after you slapped the prince you were the talk of the night."

I feigned shock. "You mean the woman that was ripped from home to be a walking trophy for a pompous ass was the talk of the night? No way."

He was completely taken aback and it took him a moment to recover and close his mouth. For a moment I watched him toggle between apologizing and moving on. He chose to move on. Good man. "I supposed I'm just surprised to see you out and about. Turns out, I guess, that the rumors of you being quite... fiery have been true. We could use some of that spice in the Realm of Darkness. I would love to show you around."

I shrugged, today, now, really wasn't the time to offer the company of more royalty. In fact I was a little confused and highly suspicious as to why he would want someone who just publicly insulted his prince. "I'm sure your Realm is lovely, Lord Seraphinus. I do hope to see it one day." There, a polite but vague acceptance.

"Wonderful," He said.

"Lord Seraphinus." Prince Lucien interrupted suddenly.

I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes as Seraphinus turned and smiled. "Prince Lucien, it's been a long time. How was your evening with my sister?"

Great. Let the pissing contest begin. What that little jab for me? Ugh, fuck them both.

I had to unclench my jaw and force a smile. "It was nice to catch up. Unfortunately I didn't have the same lovely experience with the Dragon Bride as you."

To provoke me further, Seraphinus took Aria's hand and looped it around his arm. "Shame, she is splendid company and a wonderful dancer. I can't wait to take her to the Realm of Darkness as she's agreed to take a tour with me."

I swallowed a growl and shifted my gaze to Aria as if to confirm his gloating. Aria stared back at me, as if daring me to speak to her, to give her a reason to lash out at me. I felt myself sink back. I didn't want to fight with her. "I see." I said, holding her gaze. "Lord Seraphinus, will you excuse us for a moment?"

He hesitated, looking down at Aria but her arm slithered out of his and he nodded to her then to me. Aria and I didn't break eye contact, not even as he departed. From off in the distance I heard, Seraphina, his twin sister, corner him and express her distain for his offer to take Aria around their realm. He waved her off, changing the subject.

I shifted, pushing my hands into my pockets. My mouth had gone dry and I let my gaze drop to the floor. Aria scoffed and turned to walk away. "No, Aria, wait, please."

"I told you to stay away from me and the first thing you do is flex on someone to get me alone?"

I looked up, "Will you just talk to me?"

"No." She spat. "Fuck off."

"Aria." But she was gone. Storming off down a path into the garden. As much as I wanted to run off behind her, I thought better of it. Aria was not afraid to put her hands on me and I had to wonder if she would hesitate to rip my arm off like she had the vampire who tried to violate her. It was better to just not take that chance and give her some time. If I was lucky she would find it in her heart to forgive my lie and hear me out. I had to hope that all her talk of justice would extend to me once she cooled off.

"You should have let your mother have her arrested." Miho was behind me.

I couldn't turn around. If I did the anger bubbling through me would have spilled over. "No." I said. "She had every right to react the way she did."

"No one has a right to hit a prince." Miho snorted.

Such was the rule. It had been a rule for as long as I could remember. It had been engrained in everyone from the lowest peasant to the highest noble. It was the reason my father got away with doing and saying whatever he felt. The reason even I couldn't stand up to him. Nor could my mother, who was supposed to his wife and partner. They must have had similar rules in Aria's realm because she had screamed at me last night that she bowed to no one. She wasn't afraid of me, or of hitting me, which meant she understood the consequences of her actions and still stood behind them.

"I shouldn't have tried to kiss her." I said absently, rubbing the spot where she slapped me.

"What?!" Miho's voice went up an octave.

I turned and Miho's lavender eyes had gone dark. Her stark white hair framed the anger and jealousy in her face.

"You kissed her? How... How could you? Why?"

There was no way I could explain it Miho. I had marked Aria as my bride by reciting the ancient words, words that were supposed to be spoken on the wedding night. If I told Miho that she'd have blown a gasket. "I wanted too. I shouldn't have."

Miho shook her head vigorously. "I don't understand. I thought you were over this? Her..."

"I guess not."

"Lucien, you can't possibly be considering..."

"I don't know."

"Lucien!" Miho cried. It was loud enough for people to stop and stare at us. I took her arm and led her a little further down the path as she went on, "Are you really going to let this happen again? Have you lost your mind?"

It wasn't my mind that I had lost. It was my heart. I had given it up. I couldn't think of the exact moment but I knew I had. As much as I wanted to fight it, I knew it was true. "No." I finally said. "I just don't think Cassian would have wanted my revenge."

"What are you doing?" Mawrek asked, looming over my shoulder. He smelled like copper coins and an autumn breeze.

I sighed and pushed away from the security monitors and the books on the desk in front of me, swiveling in my chair to face him. Mawrek was my lieutenant. His copper hair and bronze skin betrayed his lineage as an autumn elf. He was lean and elegant like every elf with a sort of anime like masculinity. "There is something strange about that Dragon Bride."

He raised a brow at me. "Is there? Or are you jealous that she's had Prince Lucien's undivided attention since the day she arrived?"

I scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. I think there is something seriously wrong with her. I don't trust humans."

Mawrek pulled up a chair beside me, scanning over the books I had open. "Or maybe this has to do with Prince Lucien?" He sat back and stared at me.

As far as the vast population of the Realms was concerned, Prince Cassian had run away with his Dragon Bride a century ago but nearly everyone of the guards and staff had been present the night of Cassian's coronation and they knew the truth.

"Of course, it does." I said, idly playing with the tip of my braid. "I am, after all, the captain of the guard, it is my sworn duty to protect him."

"Protect him or keep him to yourself."

I growled, leaning forward. "Don't try me, Mawrek."

He put his hands up and leaned away. "Okay, okay. So I suppose you will want to know what I heard." He paused and I nodded. "I heard her dragonfly sprite telling one of the maids that the Dragon Bride confessed to not really bring the bride. Then later, Lycidas told me that he heard the bride telling Lucien she wasn't the bride. The true bride tricked her into taking her place."

"If she isn't the bride, then the humans have broken the treaty." This was perfect. I needed to find the real bride and prove to Lucien that the humans couldn't be trusted. "Mawrek, you're in charge. I need to go to the Realm of the Mundane and investigate these claims."

Further down in the garden, the perfectly trimmed shrubbery gave way to natural archways over the cobbled path created by the tangling of tree limbs. It was like moving through a wooden warp tunnel and beyond the tunnel was the shining light of the sun reflecting off of water. The way the light rippled and drifted casting scatters of prism light on any surface around was a sure indicator of water. Water had always been a peaceful place for me, whether I could get in it or not. At the end of the tunnel, I thought I would find peace. Instead, I found myself at the end of the spears with guards ordering me to halt.

"That's far enough, Dragon Bride." Said a male guard I didn't recognize. Not that I had been marking many of them other than their positions around the castle. These weren't castle guards however, not by the way they dressed. They looked like gladiators.

"Let her pass." I heard a familiar voice call from a distance.

The spears parted and I started forward. Greeted by marble paving around a deep and clear pool where flowers climbed the walls, I felt as though I had shifted from a grand English castle garden to private pools of a Mediterranean villa. I stopped at the edge of the pool and watched as Lord Xavia, wearing nothing but what amounted to a blue loin cloth cut through the water like some sort of great serpent. Water rushed against the side of the pool as if it had rose up to carry him out, he was the Lord of Tides, after all.

He plopped easily on the side of the pool, pushing his mess of curls back on his head before sliding back and standing up. "You seem distressed, my dear."

I shrugged, following him along side the pool where he dropped onto a lounge and stretched out with his feet still touching the floor. With a sweep of his hand, he motioned for me to join him on the lounge. Gathering my skirts, I tucked one leg and sat down on the edge of the lounge.

"Have you considered my proposal?" He asked, tucking his hands under his head.

"No." I said flatly, because I had hardly had a moment to think of anything but Lucien words on the balcony. They played in my head over and over like a song stuck in my head. Because I couldn't decide if he was a pompous asshole pissing on my leg like some alpha dog or professing some sort of declaration of affection, it was driving me up a wall.

Xavia propped himself up on his elbow. He was older, his face always dotted with stubble, his hair a tangle of gently tended curls but his broad shoulders were still strong and his abs bunched when he sat up. The tattoos that decorated his arm wove down his chest and abs and across his back from what I could see. "You should. I believe you are destined for great things."

I scoffed, staring absently at the small stretch of lounge between us.

"I know you're not the true Dragon Bride." He said, his voice low and cautious.

I looked up then, trying to gauge his face. He knew. He wasn't placating me because he'd heard me say it once before. He truly knew. "How?"

"I was there in the club, when you first noticed Lucien. Like I said, I know that boy better than anyone. I knew he was taken with you. I followed you to the theatre, I saw the Hic Sunt Dracones choose you and I know it was not meant for you."

He was doing it again, building up to something. I felt my face twist suspiciously and Xavia's laugh rang out as if he read my thoughts.

"Clever girl." He said, pulling himself to sit up and shifting closer to me so he could lower his voice further. "I'm telling you this because, the fate of your realm doesn't just rest with my nephew. If anyone found out you're truly not the Dragon Bride, that the promised bride backed out of the centuries old agreement and found herself an illegitimate girl to take her place, the royal family will have every right to destroy your world. They will see it as your realm reneging on their end of the bargain and use it to justify the destruction of your realm. So I wouldn't dwell too much on discovering that your guard was indeed the prince."

I scoffed, folding my arms. "That isn't why I am mad."

"Oh?" Xavia said thoughtfully. "Well, that's good. I know for a fact his intentions were honorable."

"I know." I said, looking down again. A heart beat of silence lingered and I could feel the Lord staring at me. "After what you told me, I put it together that he is still toggling between a need for vengeance and becoming the king his brother would want him to be. He probably thought the best way to get close to me was to pretend to be someone less intimidating. I can forgive that. It's the plight of royalty to always wonder if the voices around you are truth or simply bowing to your crown. A good king will always seek honest counsel however he can get it."

"Spent much time around royalty, have you?"

"No." I watched his eyes widen. "I read. I watch movies. The written history of my realm is a broken record of bad counsel and cruel kings who would hear only what bolsters their bloodlust, but there have a been a few goods ones. This realm or that, there always is. Life is balance and for all the bloodshed there will be a turning of the tide to wash it clean."

It was Xavia's turn to go quiet. He was giving me that thoughtful look he'd given me in the hallway in front of the portrait of Cassian. "Well you speak like a true Lady sometimes, darling."

"I've just seen enough shit to know nothing stays the same. People might, but life goes on. It's constantly rotating. One minute you're up and one minute your down."

"Then help me, Aria." Xavia said. "Help me save your world."

I sighed. "Do you know what the requirements for a valid contract are in my world?"

"Are we entering into a contract?"

"If I'm going to do this, I might as well get something out of it."

"And what would you like to get out of it?"

"My life for starters."

"And what does that entail?"

I paused there. Those feelings I had for Lucien when he posed as Dante started to stir again. I swallowed them down. I couldn't let something so fleeting, something that had happened so quickly cloud my decision. The hopeless romantic in me was going to have to take several seats and wait for another moment to shout her desire to run into his arms. There would be other men and I could hope for far less complicated circumstances with which they came into my life. Besides, I was still torn on my feelings of his actions last night. "I want to go home."

"So tell me, Dragon Bride. How does one enter into a valid contract in your realm?"

"A valid contract needs three things: an offer, acceptance and consideration."

"Then my offer is this: I will take you back to your world, regardless of my nephew's decision on his coronation day, if you help me convince him to spare your realm." He then held out his hand, palm up for me to place my hand in his. When I did, he put the other hand over mine and it began to glow blue. "I give you my powers, as consideration, once the deed is done and you're home, you will give them back to me."

His power tickled through me. I felt like the stone face of a waterfall as it all washed over me. When the blue light faded my palm glowed with the white hot tattoo of a wave for a moment before fading completely. My fingers curled over my palm and I brought my hand to my heart. "I accept."

Xavia smiled broadly and nodded. "Do you want to test your new power?"

I stepped away from him, staring down at my fingers. "I had always thought of myself more of an Airbender or an Earthbender really, but I suppose I can figure this out." He cocked a brow at me and I knew he didn't understand my reference. Stepping closer to the pool, I reached out, palms down, and willed some of the water to rise. To my surprise it began to slither up like a great worm. I turned my hand to the side push the water one way then gently pushing it the other, in a fluid Tai Chi motion.

"Go on," Xavia coaxed me. "You have all of my power. Use it."

I hesitated and watched the water ripple with my indecisiveness before straightening out with my steady exhale. Another push and pull gathered more of the water in the pool under my power and finally I pushed forward with a grunt of strain. The water in the pool rose up in a great wave and crashed down on the guards standing across from us, guarding the gate. They both yelled in surprised and dropped my hands quickly, pointing across my body at Xavia. He was standing smiling smugly with his arms folded over his chest before he realized I was blaming him.

"Hey!" He snorted with laughter. "Alright, alright. That's enough for today."

As Xavia lead me back to the lounge, I watched his guards shake like dogs and change out the detail so they could dry out some where. There was a beat of silence before he cleared his throat. "This won't be as hard as you think. My nephew already feels something for you."

I snorted. "Congratulations to me." Suddenly I was standing on the balcony again, Lucien's hand on my face, his thumb controlling my chin, his massive body hovering over mine. "Dragon Bride, you were brought here for me. Your attention belongs to me. Your heart shall beat for no one but me. Your body belongs to me and shall remain mine alone. You are mine, Aria." The words rang in my ears and I almost wanted to believe it was some profession of love. Maybe if it hadn't come after watching me dance with other men. Maybe if it hadn't come after pretending to be someone else, ignoring all opportunities to reveal himself and instead choosing to be a complete shut out the night of. Maybe.

Frustration pulled a tight knot between my head and heart and I stood from the lounge. Xavia regarded me with a raised eyebrow and I said, "I'm off to formulate a plan." It came out flippantly, casual. Thankfully with no sign of my inner turmoil.

He nodded and I thanked him for the powers before turning and leaving, heading back through the garden.

As I emerged back to the part of the garden I was more familiar with, I was greeted with the sounds of heavy grunting and the hard smack of wood on wood. Curiosity piqued, I followed the sounds down a sparse cobbled pathway and found the Lord of the Realm of Darkness combating two of his guards with a staff. He wasn't as tall as Lucien, and slightly broader. His heavy arms and broad chest were glistening with sweat. His neck was thick and corded with muscle. I found myself watching as he evened his footing between his opponents measuring who would strike first. The guard to his right, struck first, wood colliding with wood and within moments the two guards were sprawled on their backs. Seraphinus was light on his feet, quick and agile. Lucien was rooted, brute force and power, even if he used his great sword as if it were a dagger.

A shadow cast over me and I find my eyes wandering up a muscled tower to meet the smug gaze of Seraphinus. "I wasn't aware, you were intrigued by violence, Dragon Bride." He said with a smirk.

I managed to collect myself, and step back, putting distance between myself and the intoxicating scent of man. "Any one who says they aren't is either a liar or a monk."

Seraphinus laughed, a heady chuckle. "My.. you are something." He rubbed his neck and leaned into me, lowering his voice, "I've heard rumors you are quite the fighter yourself."

I refrained from rolling my eyes. "I'm sure."

He was back to smiling and stood to his full height, towering over me. "Weapon of choice?"

"I've never had an opportunity to train with a weapon."

"Ah!" He said, clapping his hands together and it was as if a staff appeared in them. He thrust it at me. "Then we must remedy that."

The staff was in my hands before I had a chance to reply. It was weighted but balanced. I looked down at myself. I was in a floor length gown made of light tulle in a dark blue that made it look like I was wearing a starry sky. "I'm not really dressed for sparring."

"Nonsense," Seraphinus said motioning to his little arena, "A few basic techniques won't damage your beautiful gown."

Maybe, maybe not. I followed him out to the small clearing. Placing the staff on the floor, I parted my skirts where the slit was and knotted it loosely around my knees, the knot riding higher, closer to my hip. I took off my shoes then picked up the staff again.

I watched Seraphinus lick his lips before moving around behind me. He made no bones about pressing his hard body against my back, his fingers brushing from the base of my neck to edge of my bare shoulders. "You have good posture," He breathed into my ear and I felt my pulse pick up. His hands moved down my arms, leaving a trail of goosebumps behind. He left his massive mitts hovering over my hands where I held the staff like a baseball bat at it's center. "That's good," He said, his voice a little deeper now, "Not too tight."

Hours went by. Adrenaline rush I got from training with Seraphinus made me forget about protecting my dress. My knees were scratched, my forearms too. I fell on my face a few times when he was out of reach and on my back when he swept my legs from under me. The longer it went on, the more aggressive it got. I forgot he was supposed to be teaching me and only saw him as a sparring partner. It felt good to let out some aggression after the last few days.

Seraphinus knocked the staff out of my hands, sending it over my head and behind me. I dropped to my knees to avoid taking his staff to my ribs and reached up gripping the end of his staff before whirling on my knees and pulling the weapon from his grasp. I heard him grunt as he fell behind me. As I readjusted my grip on the staff, he threw himself behind me and gripped the staff on either side of my hands, intent on wrestling it out of my grasp. I released one hand and threw my elbow back.

CRACK.

His weight was gone from me and I shot to my feet dropping the staff. "Shit! I'm sorry. Are you alright?"

Seraphinus spit blood and gave me a bloody grin. "I'm alright. That's some elbow you have there."

I felt myself blush, not really knowing what to say but Seraphinus got to his feet and came toward me. At this point we were both dripping in sweat. He circled me again, this time with more of a predatory gait. The scent of earth and musk and stone filled my nose as his arms circled me and brought a staff in front of me. I took it. Then his hands lowered, I felt the roughness of his fingertips hitch my skirts as he moved them down over my hips and finally touched my bare legs. "On my count you're going to shift your weight to this leg," His fingers sprawled just under the knot, "and..."

Lucien was standing where I had been. His massive arms were folded over his chest and he was staring daggers at Seraphinus. Those blue eyes were ice and yet I knew if I got close to him he would be a furnace. I felt the Lord of Darkness pull his hand back, slowly, grazing across my bare thigh with purpose, before finally stepping back from me.

He cleared his throat with a slight chuckle and said, "Seems like our lesson is cut short today, Lady Aria."

I snorted, untied my skirts and left them to their pissing contest making a point of passing Lucien but saying nothing and making no eye contact.