While we try to make sense of what’s going on, and who else may have had a hand in this, a lightning bolt strikes the earth creating a vortex that sucks every last one of us in. When it spits us out I immediately recognize where it’s taken us. We’re in the throne room of the Royal House of Bliss.
“I’m glad you all could make it.” My father speaks from his seat on the throne. I glance up at him and realize that it’s not just him. Standing with him are the members of the Magistrate and the Watch. Even Noah’s father is standing with them. Whatever just happened, it was BIG. Big enough for them to allow Mal Archer into their midst.
I look around and find Noah and his team was sucked into the Vortex with us. This is DEFINITELY big. “What’s going on?” I ask. “Why are we all here and why would you bring the king of Kaalen to our home?”
“Because Princess, its come to our attention that there is a threat even bigger than that coming out of Kaalen.”
“I don’t understand.” Noah took the words right out of my mouth.
“It’s Gavin, Noah.” His father announces. “I don’t know how he did it, but he’s managed to raise an army whose soul intention is to activate the weapons and kill every last human on earth.”
“We can’t let that happen.” My father adds.
“I get why you would want to stop them.” Noah motions to my dad, “but why you? You don’t care about the humans.”
“Gavin has no plans on stopping there, Noah. Once he destroys the humans he’s coming for us.” I surmise from the expressions on their faces.
“If he arms those weapons and turns them towards the Legion, we will all be at his mercy.” My mom delivers the bad news.
“I’m not seeing a problem here.” Noah scoffs. “First you exile my father for defending himself. Then you exile my brother for defending my father. If that wasn’t enough, you exiled my mother and myself for no reason. I hope he does come back here, and I hope everyone last one of you gets what you deserve for what you did to us.”
Noah turns his back to leave. “What about Aria?” My father speaks. His words stop Noah in his tracks. “He won’t just stop with us. He’ll kill her too.”
“Noah doesn’t care about anyone but himself.” Thien scoffs.
He’s wrong. Please don’t turn around and ruin what’s left of my perfectly good life. Noah, please keep walking. We’d figure something else out, just…don’t turn around. That simple gesture would reveal more than I wanted it to. More than I’d want Thien to know.
With one pivot of his foot, he exposes us…me…to the entire room. What was once an unspoken set of circumstances between my parents and us had now turned into a public forum on which my dirty laundry was displayed. All eyes were on me. A knot formed in the back of my throat.
Don’t look at them…you’re not ready. They’ll see right through you. I told myself. Ten seconds.
That’s how long I gave myself to pull it together and then I faced the team. Thien’s painful glance was the one I met first. There were so many times I wanted to tell him about Noah and me, but the words just wouldn’t come out. I’d hinted at being with someone before him, but I never told him who. Now that he knew, I wondered if it changed the way he felt about me.
“What do you want me to do?” Noah asks.
“I know the two houses have been at war with one another for close to a decade, but now is the time to put those petty differences aside and work together.” Mal spoke to his son.
“Whoa. Wait-wait-wait…you want the house of Muerte and the house of the Elite to join together?” Thien asks, flabbergasted.
“You’re not just facing any demon Noah, this is Gavin. What better way to ensure his safety than for you to be a part of the militia designed to stop him?” His father asks.
“This is madness.” Noah shakes his head. “I can’t believe what you’re asking us to do.”
“I agree with Noah.” I raise my hand. “We’ll kill each other before Gavin ever gets a chance.”
“This is not up for discussion or debate. The decision came from both the Watch and the Magistrate. Gavin has an army at his disposal that’s six hundred beings strong. Surely the twenty-eight of you can put your differences aside for the sake of your kingdoms. Your livelihood depends on it.” My father hands down the order.
“I am SO tired of you people telling me what to do.” Noah glares at him. “You don’t know what’s best for me. All you want to do is kill my brother, you don’t want to bring him back here safely!”
“Noah!” I shout to get his attention.
“Aria stay out of this.” He quickly shut me down.
“Mind the way you speak to the Princess.” My father rose from his seat.
“You mean the Princess you discarded like trash when the magistrate deemed her a murderer.” He spits and turns to walk away.
“How dare you turn your back to me!” My father shouts. I watch in slow motion as he rises from his seat, launches himself in the air and tosses a lethal spark of light at Noah. I can’t tell you when I did it, because for the most part my mind seemed to be caught in this endless moment where I slowly watched Noah’s death come to fruition. But at some point I placed myself between Noah and my father’s wrath.
“Aria, NO!” My mom’s frightened voice pierces through the air. It was too late. In a split second I’d made one of the dumbest decisions I’ve ever made. This was it. This was how I was going to die. I turned to face Noah who’d whipped around to see what the commotion was. The look of horror in his eyes only solidifies the fact that I’m about to die. I wait to die…and wait…and wait. Nothing. There was no pain, no searing of my flesh…nothing.
Turning to face my father, my eyes fell on Thien. He had his back to me. He placed himself between my father’s wrath and myself. Fearing the worse, I hurry over to him and relief washes over me when I realize he caught the spark of light between his hands, and is shrinking it away to nothing between his palms.
“Holy shit!” Wake gasps.
Everyone exchanges shocked glances. At first I wasn’t sure if they were in awe of the fact that I risked my life for Noah’s, or that Thien managed to catch and harness my fathers powers, which should have killed him. My father was one of the most powerful beings within the Legion. No one had ever done what Thien did just now and even if they tried, none of them would ever live to tell about it. Yet Thien was alive and well.
Once the spark is gone, I wrap my arms around Thien. He saved my life. “Thank you.” I whisper to him, burying my face in the nape of his neck and squeezing him as tightly as I could. He pulls me away from him and in a tone so grave it frightens me, he reprimands me in front of everyone.
“Don’t EVER put your life in danger for the likes of him.” He scolds me. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes.” I nod.
Thien exchanges menacing glances with Noah and then he storms off. My parents sent the others and I away so the Republic could have a word with both Thien and Noah in private. Still reeling from what happened only minutes earlier, I decide to take a walk in the garden and my team follows. So did Noah’s.
“Why didn’t you tell us about Noah?” Willow asks.
“There’s nothing to tell.” I shrug.
“Bullshit Shadow. You have feelings for him.”
“You don’t know what I have.” I became defensive.
“Says the girl who just jumped in front of a bullet for him.” Wake chimes in.
“It’s nothing.” I lie.
“Girls like you don’t put their lives on the line for nothing.” Bo, code name Silt chimes in. “If I were you, I’d come clean.”
“About what? Look, there’s nothing going on between Noah and I, and Thien and I are NOT TOGETHER. I don’t owe him an explanation.”
“You owe me something.” Thien announces from behind the crowd. He made his way through the crowd and started demanding answers from me. “Do you have feelings for him?”
“No…I don’t know.” I sulk.
“Do you have feelings for me?” He searches my eyes while he waits for me to answer.
Yes. Hell yes. A million times yes. “Does it matter?” I manage to say.
I look around at all the curious faces waiting for me to speak my truth and I can’t. Such a public spectacle has me feeling weak and exposed. Sensing my hesitation, Thien takes me by the wrist and pulls me into my home. He takes me to my bedroom and closes the door behind us, locking it so no one can get in.
“Talk to me.” His voice is softer now…more vulnerable. “Why would you risk your life for him Aria? Why? You care about him, don’t you?”
“Yes.” I finally admit to both Thien and myself.
He rests his head against mine and exhales. For a second his tough exterior falters and then he began punching the wall on each side of my head while I held my breath. I waited until he got it out of his system and then I gently took his face in my hands and forced him to look me in the eyes. “It was before you…before us.” I told him.
Thien clenches his eyes shut and waves his hand over the holes he put in the wall, returning the wall to its pristine condition. Without uttering another word, he opens the door to my room and he leaves. Willow, Pru, Becka, Samara, Cara and Sky all came running in to make sure I was okay. I held up my hand to let them know I was fine and they all sigh with relief.
“All we heard were his fists going through the wall.” Willow stammers.
“Thien would never hurt me Blaze.”
“Then what the hell happened?” Pru asks.
The truth was I didn’t know. Thien was so used to playing it cool that this was the first time I had any indication his feelings for me went far beyond one date.
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