The House of Muerte and the Elite working together was an ingenious idea for the battles that lie ahead. Granted we could keep from killing each other. But it was wreaking Havoc on my love life…no pun intended. Having both Thien and Noah at my side twenty-four hours a day was playing with fire.
“We have to come up with a plan of action.” Thien stands next to Noah as they announce it to the rest of us. I would’ve thought it would be a cold day in hell before I would see the two of them working together side by side. Yet, here they are, Mc Dreamy and Mc Steamy. They’re here to torture me. I just know it.
“How are you holding up with the dynamic duo over there?” Willow whispers to me.
“Thien’s got his walls back up and Noah…Noah has Qi.”
“Is there something you would like to share with the rest of us?” Thien’s eyes fall on Willow and I.
“Your girlfriend started it.” Willow threw me under the bus.
I shot an icy glance at her and she shrugged. “Since you obviously have better things to do than listen to us, why don’t you tell us what you would do?” Noah challenged me.
“Okay.” I rose to the challenge. I was General for a long time. This was my specialty. “While we’re sitting here wasting time talking about tactics and probabilities we have yet to tap into our biggest resource.”
“And what would that be?”
“You.” I offer, turning to Noah. “No one knows Gavin better than you do. You know who his friends are. You know his habits, and you know how he thinks. If you were Gavin and you were planning something of this magnitude, who would you turn to for help? Where would you go?”
Noah took sank deep into his thoughts. “The in-between.” He finally spoke. “Many people believe the in-between is just a place where nothing happens, but that’s not true. Anyone who feels that way just hasn’t traveled deep enough into its center to find what’s there.”
“Who would be fool enough to want to go venturing into the in-between? The place is a void.” Thien scoffed.
“Gavin.” Noah replied. “There’s a town there, and a bar, but first you have to get past its forests and pits of quicksand.”
“And you believe Gavin is there?” I ask.
“I believe that if we have any chance at finding him, our answers would be there.”
“Then we leave at Dawn.” Thien instructed. “Everyone should mend so that you’re at one hundred percent tomorrow.”
Our meeting came to a conclusion. I wanted to talk to Thien but he approached Noah and began to pick his brain to find out everything he knew about the in-between. While Noah filled Thien in I decided to roam the castle I grew up in. The first stop on my list was to visit my brother Lucas and my sister Syria. Lucas should be eighteen in human years if my calculations are correct, and Syria should be eight.
Syria’s favorite color is pink, and the outside of her bedroom door has hand painted flowers colored in monochromatic pink colors all over it. I make it to her room first and push open the door. Her inky black curls are what catch my eye first. She’s playing with her deluxe edition winged Barbie and she doesn’t even know I’m here.
“I should have known you’d be playing with your Barbie.” I speak from the doorway.
Sy’s head whips in my direction, “ARIA!” She quickly climbs to her feet, runs across her room and comes colliding into me. “You’re back!”
I pull her into my arms and take in her scent. She still smells like black licorice. Thien and I used to smuggle it in from the human Galaxy every chance we’d get. The first time she tasted it, it made her sick. She broke out in little black rashes all over her body and the medics couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t until Thien and I confessed to giving her black licorice that they were able to give her something that made her better. Then she wanted more.
“My friends say you killed someone.” Her voice sounded small. All of the excitement was gone too.
“You know me Sy. I only kill out of duty and honor to Muerte. I would never harm someone outside of the instruction of the Magistrate.” I assure her.
“I knew it!” The excitement returned. “I told them you were innocent. So did Havoc.”
“Wait…Thien defended me?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes.” She nodded. “He defended you to EVERYONE.”
The last conversation I had with Thien, he came right out and asked me if I killed Myra. I told him no, but he kept asking and kept digging. I assumed he was like everyone else who saw me as a murderer without honor. “All this time I thought he turned his back on me.” I sighed.
“Its okay, you and Havoc are like Petrem Barbie and Ken. You belong together. I’m sure the two of you will work things out. Besides, he’s really hot and he’s got nice hair.” She winks at me. Oh my Alpha…my little sister is growing up!
“And out of the mouth of babes.” His voice creeps in from the doorway like morning sunlight. “I got you something Sy.” Thien tells her.
“What is it? Is it a baby centaur? A mood ring? A harp?” Sy is brimming with excitement. The anticipation is literally killing her.
Thien kneels down on one knee and pretends to present Sy with his Yang so they can get pretend married. He hands her a box with a crystal in it, shaped like a butterfly. “On second thought, maybe you should get your own man.” Sy tells me. They’ve only been pretend married for five seconds and I’m already getting kicked to the curb.
“Now that we’re married and all, I want to ask permission to borrow your sister for a little while. Is that okay with you?” Thien asks.
“Sure, whatever.” Sy waves him off. She’s too captivated by the crystal he gave her to pay attention.
“We’ve been married for less than five minutes and she’s already ignoring me like we’ve been married for ten years.” Thien jokes. We both laugh as we exit into the hall. It’s dark out now and the moon casts an ethereal blanket of light on everything in its path.
“What did you want to talk about?” I asked. Being so close to him is giving me butterflies. All I can think about is wanting to kiss him, but something my father told me a long time ago forces me to be patient. He said, ‘Aria, the hardest test in life is having the patience to wait for the right moment. You can’t rush something you want to last forever.’ That’s what I wanted with Thien…I wanted the moment to be right because I wanted us to last forever.
“I want to talk about us.” He stopped and leaned back against the wall, shoving his hands in his pockets. “For the four years you were locked away at the Fortress, I’ve been empty.” He tells me.
“And naturally you decided that being a manwhore was the proper thing to do.” The words flew out of my mouth without my permission. What the hell Aria! Really!
His lips curled up into one of the sexiest smiles I’ve ever seen. “You’re mad at me for having a love life.” He realizes.
No. “YES!” I blurt out the truth instead of the lie I was trying to talk myself into believing. “You were supposed to be my first and I was supposed to be yours. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WAIT FOR ME!”
Its official…I’ve lost it.
“You were sentenced to life Aria. To wait for you would’ve meant dying a virgin.” He shook his head.
Don’t say it. You’ll hate yourself for it later. “Then you should have been prepared to die a virgin.” I spat. Aria, this is Thien we’re talking about and you sound like a lunatic right now.
“This isn’t some fairytale in a book or some special on the romance channel.” He sighed with frustration. “This is real life, and in real life, people cope the best way they know how.”
“By becoming a manwhore?” I tilt my head and narrow my eyes at him.
“Would you rather I fell in love with someone else, settled down and started popping kids out like pez?” He replied. “And STOP CALLING ME THAT.”
“How many?” I ask.
“What?” He frowned.
“GIRLS…exactly how many girls have you been with?”
“I’m not answering that question.”
“Why not?” I push.
“Because it DOESN’T MATTER. NONE of them mattered. They just…helped me pass the time.” He sulked, exasperated. “Look, they’re not you Aria. It was just sex.”
“How would you feel if the roles were reversed? How would you feel if you were the one who went to Prison and I was the one sleeping around with a bunch of guys?”
“Have you?”
I’m caught off guard. “Have I what?” I frowned.
“Slept with anyone?” Thien asked. “Have you slept with Noah?”
“I’m still a virgin.” I scoff, shaking my head.
“What’s the deal with you two?”
“Nothing. We’re just friends.”
“Just friends?” He sounded skeptical. “Oh c’mon Aria, there’s history between you two. All I want to know is where the two of you stand.”
“We’re friends.” I reply. “So are you and I.”
“Friends huh?” He seems offended. “Come here.”
“For what?”
“Because I said so,” he reaches out to grab me and turns me around so that my back is facing him. Thien pulls me into him and wraps his arms around my waist. He rests his chin on my shoulder and we both look out at the blackened sky together. “I brought you out here because I made you something too.”
Thien places a white box in my hand and when I open it my heart melts. It’s a necklace with a crystal made into the shape of our family crest, which is the Eye. There’s a rare yellow diamond in the center of the crystal that gives the pupil of the eye its color. Thien takes the necklace from me and places it around my neck.
“It’s beautiful. These hands of yours have a knack for making beautiful things.” I smiled, admiring what he created for me.
“Its my promise to you that the next person I decide to be with will be you.” He whispers in my ear. “Whenever you’re ready…and not in prison for murder.”
I turn to him and all I can think about his kissing him. It’s all I’ve ever thought about since I met him. I was ten years old then. We’re locked in an intense gaze and our lips are moving closer…and closer…
“Hey!” Sy comes storming up to us with her hands on her non-existent hips. “You’re supposed to be my boyfriend!”
“Don’t blame me, blame Aria. She’s skilled in the art of seduction.” Thien smirks, glancing over his shoulder as he carries Sy back to her room.
“What does seduction mean?” Sy frowns.
Thien and I exchange panicked glances.
“Really?” I frown. “Sy, why don’t you ask dad. You can tell him Thien taught you all about it.”
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