The Relentless Warrior (24 page)

Sure, he was in the forefront of the proverbial race… but that was only because there
wasn’t anybody else for him to compete with!

I shuddered at the finality of Sebastian’s threat. I wouldn’t hurt Jericho no matter
how much I didn’t want this life.
I wouldn’t.

I owed him so much more than my life. And so if worse came to worst, then what? Could
I commit myself to him forever on some shaky feeling of loyalty and gratitude? Was
there enough of the other stuff, the attraction and affection, to make something lasting
and eternal?

I barely knew him.

In fact, I knew exactly three things about him: One, he was a good man. Caring, loyal,
sacrificing… he’d taken care of me before he really knew me and he’d encouraged me
to become strong again, demanded I let go of the trauma from my time with Terletov
and grab hold of myself again. Two, he and I were in some way already connected. Since
the moment I saw him, my body reacted before my mind could catch up. There had been
an easy friendship between us and an even easier attraction. I didn’t always want
to like him, but I couldn’t help it. And I didn’t like that many people. So this was
a big deal to me. And three, he was a hell of a kisser. Logically, I knew I couldn’t
engage in that delicious behavior ever again, not if I wanted to leave this Kingdom
behind some day. But physically… my body was already reacting to the idea of touching
him again.

And I wouldn’t have trusted him so completely with
that
part of me, if there wasn’t already some link between us.

So what now?

“Are you alright?” Jericho asked quietly from the seat next to me. We were back in
the private plane, on our way to my home-town. Talbott had asked to fly so that he
had something to occupy his hands. And his mind, I assumed. If Talbott was the result
of united Magic being severed, I did not want to experience that. I did not want to
risk ending up like him with a lost his fiancée, who I assumed was in worse shape
simply because she was imprisoned by Terletov. “You’ve been quiet since we left Brazil.”

“I’m just thinking,” I told him and tried to smile, although my lips wobbled pathetically
instead. “A lot’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.”

“That’s saying something after the state of the rest of your life.” He nudged my foot
with the toe of his boot. Yesterday he’d been all vacation-casual, in preppy, expensive
clothes. Today he looked like the military leader he was with black fatigues, black
long-sleeved t-shirt, black boots. His unruly hair as characteristically out of place
and what little exposed skin he had was scrubbed clean since we took off a few hours
ago. He looked like GI Joe, if GI Joe was my ultimate fantasy embodied in a man.

“Do you really think there’s no cure for this?” I asked in a quiet voice.

He didn’t say anything at first, but he did take my hand and pull me onto the luxurious
couch he’d sprawled out on. We were alone back here. Titus had offered to co-pilot
the moment after Talbott asked to pilot. Titus had exchanged a look with Jericho and
was jumping up front directly after. I knew he’d gone up there by Jericho’s order,
but I didn’t know if Jericho sent him up there to keep an eye on the seemingly-unstable
Talbott or if Jericho wanted to be alone with me.

I was okay with one of those reasons, since it was important to me to get to Orion
instead of crashing somewhere in between.

“Liv, I’ve doubted there was a cure for this from the beginning.” He put a comforting
arm around me but it did little to alleviate the pressure hammering down on my chest.
“I will help you look for one until we can say that for certain. I will help you in
any way that I can. But the chances of reversing this are slim, I think. And the consequences
of stripping your blood of Magic now might be fatal.”

“Oh.”

“The problem is we don’t know,” he went on. “There could be a cure and all you have
to do is swallow a pill and the Magic is gone and you’re free to go back to whatever
life you lived before this nightmare started. In that case, you have my full support.
Or there might not be one and taking your Magic from you would be the equivalent of
killing you. If that’s true, then I won’t let that happen to you. No matter how hard
you fight me. I will not watch you kill yourself to get rid of this Magic. Besides,
it’s not as bad as you think it is. I mean, it can be. But it can also be… good. And
you can still live a full life despite it. You could still finish school, still spend
time with your family. It’s not the end of the world, alright? I won’t let you believe
that it is.”

“I don’t believe it’s the end of the world,” I told him quickly. “It’s not the life
I wanted to live, but I can see that it’s not the worst thing that could happen to
me. You know, now that I’ve adjusted somewhat.”

His grim face broke out into a breathtaking smile and he kissed me chastely on the
cheek. His warm, surprisingly soft lips lingered against my skin before he forced
himself to pull away. My heart beat wildly in my chest and my Magic seemed to flare
around me. It took everything in me not to turn into him, not to meet his lips and
let our bodies, and our Magics, lead us to forbidden places.

He seemed to read my thoughts and pulled away. Putting distance between us on the
couch, he slid to the opposite side while I pulled my knees to my chest. He ran a
rough hand through his hair and apologized, “I’m sorry about that. I guess Sebastian
was right to some degree.” His bright eyes flashed to mine, more mossy green than
any other color. His hand rubbed at the back of his neck and he looked very uncomfortable,
“I didn’t know… I mean, I hope you believe me when I say that… that I didn’t know
I would affect you like that. There was no way for me to know that we would connect
strong enough to change you.”

“So this hasn’t happened to you before?” I gestured at the unseen Magic floating around
us, already wrapped up in each other without either of us giving them conscious permission.

“Er, no.” He tugged on his collar and I fought the urge to smile. It wasn’t playing
fair if he was going to be all adorable. “Not for lack of trying, though.”

“Will you tell me?”

With a sidelong glance and twitching fingers he gave me a slow, reluctant nod. “I
know you heard in the car, earlier with Sebastian, Eden and I used to date. She’s
the Queen now but back then we were just these kids trying to figure out life. Before
she was Queen, Kiran’s dad was in charge. And Kiran’s family had been in charge for
millennia, since the beginning. Our race was dying and Lucan was more of a tyrant
than any of the other kings. Our Kingdom was suffering and until Eden and her brother
Avalon, there hadn’t been a solution. They’re twins. That’s important to us.”

“I remember,” I told him.

He looked at me then, drinking me in with his intensity. “I forget how quickly you
catch on.” Clearing his throat he continued, “Anyway, because Eden and Avalon were
in so much danger from the moment they were born, their grandfather separated them
at birth.”

“Where were their parents?” I asked out of sheer curiosity.

He waved off the question. “This is a really complicated story; we don’t even have
time to get into that.” He shook his head and then with a rushed breath he said, “Kiran’s
dad was in love with Eden’s mom and Eden’s dad happened to be Lucan’s closest friend
and bodyguard. Eden’s mom and dad ran away and eloped in order to be together and
lived on the run for the rest of their lives. When Delia gave birth to Eden and Avalon,
she dropped them off at Amory’s house- her dad and the rightful King- and let him
protect them. Amory split them up so they wouldn’t be found out.”

I sucked in a deep breath at the same time Jericho did. “You were not kidding. That
is the definition of complicated.”

My head was spinning but Jericho went on with his story, a little bit slower this
time. “Anyway, Amory didn’t have that many people in his life that he trusted. So,
Avalon went to live with one of Amory’s oldest friends, an Immortal. You met her at
the castle, her name’s Angelica. And Eden went to live with a human he knew, the doctor
at the Citadel, Sylvia. Amory kept Eden in the same city where he lived so he could
watch over her, since she wasn’t in the protection of an Immortal, but Eden mostly
grew up human. She had no idea about Magic or her powers or the Rebellion or Monarchy.
She knew nothing until she was sixteen. Her powers kept manifesting in these insane
ways and so Amory was forced to enroll her at Kingsley. That’s uh, that’s a school
for people like us.”

“Sure,” I said evenly. They had their own community and Kingdom; it only made sense
that they had their own schools. “Is that in Romania, too?”

“No,” Jericho said with a faint smile. “Omaha, Nebraska.”

“Naturally,” I deadpanned.

With a bigger smile, he went on, “Anyway, by sheer coincidence, Eden started school
at the same time Kiran moved to Omaha due to an arranged marriage. He was the Crown
Prince at the time. Omaha was a safe enough place for him and his dad wanted him to
get acquainted with his future bride.”

“Seraphina,” I put in. I’d learned that much before.

“Right, okay.” Jericho seemed a little put off that I already knew that piece of gossip
but he continued, “Well, Kiran and Eden ran into each other and kept running into
each other. They immediately developed a very strong connection but it was more than
just physical attraction. Slowly, they grew into this relationship that kind of defied
everything either one of them was supposed to be doing. Kiran, son of the King, Crown
Prince and future Monarch was supposed to marry a politician’s daughter and rule the
Kingdom in the same fashion as his father. He was supposed to perpetuate the prejudice
and racism we’d lived with for centuries, continue to hunt and murder Shifters and
above all keep the Magic separate. Eden on the other hand, was supposed to join the
Resistance like her grandfather and brother and bring down the Monarchy. Amory moved
Avalon and me
to
Omaha in order to kill Kiran. But then Eden and Kiran fell impossibly in love and
everything changed.”

“So where do you come into play?” This was a long story and he hadn’t even dated Eden
yet.

“I had a, uh, a thing for Eden. I mean, it was definitely mutual… but I was kind of
the losing side of the love triangle. She was attracted to me. She was
in love
with Kiran. In reality, I didn’t stand a chance. And if I’d been any smarter I would
have seen that from the beginning. But I was nineteen and full of myself. And I knew
that Kiran was the bad guy. Like at his core, at that time, he was a bad guy. Just
like his father and on his way to ruling just like his father. Eden saw something
that honestly nobody else saw, something I was convinced she’d imagined. So while
the two of them got closer, I sat back and fell for Eden all by myself. Somehow I
convinced myself all I had to do was wait. Kiran would reveal his true stripes in
a matter of time and then she would see. Besides, he was engaged to another girl and
it was common knowledge that if Kiran’s dad found out who Eden was, he would kill
her. Like I said, all I had to do was wait.”

I waved him on with my hand, impatient for the rest of this story. His eyes focused
on something across the small cabin and I realized I’d lost him to the memories of
his past. “So what happened? Obviously she’s with Kiran now, so did she never figure
it out?”

“Oh no, the opposite. Like I knew would happen, Kiran revealed his true self. He managed
to get her grandfather murdered and her brother, along with most of the Resistance,
captured and thrown into the Monarchy’s prison. Kiran sold her out to his dad. In
his mind, he did the right thing. Or he thought so at the time. His dad knew who Eden
was from minute one and Kiran bargained for her life by handing over Avalon and Amory.
Lucan immediately destroyed Amory as soon as he had him and there was proof of Amory’s
plan to overthrow the Throne. And then Lucan took Avalon in hopes to absorb his Magic
and then kill him as well. Kiran somehow imagined that all this would be okay with
Eden because now they could be together. She obviously didn’t see things that way
and politely declined his invitation to become his wife. Or, actually, retracted her
initial agreement. For all intents and purposes, Eden’s affection for Kiran had killed
any chance of a rebellion we’d had. She trusted the wrong person and he proved that.”

“But they’re married now,” I pointed out stupidly. I kind of liked Eden, but this
story made no sense. How could she possibly be married to a person who betrayed her
like that?
 

“Yes, they are. But in between then and now, I stepped in. We’d always had this...
thing between us. And when we found ourselves working alone- the last of the Rebellion-
we came together naturally.”

“You didn’t get captured?”

“No, I did,” he told me. “Kiran immediately saw the error of his ways. But so had
Eden. She declared war on the Monarchy and dedicated herself to bringing it down.
She was alone, and in danger. Kiran released me to be with her. He wanted her protected,
even if they were enemies now. He couldn’t send her brother without his dad realizing
what he was doing, so he sent me instead. The next best thing. And that’s when we…
that’s when I fell in love with her. It was hard not to. She’s, well, she’s Eden.”