The Secret Trinity: Reign (Fae-Witch Trilogy, Book 3) (6 page)

Penni’s
friend looked horrified when she saw me, and tears filled her eyes like I would banish her right then and there. 
Penni
was obviously the pack leader.  Although she looked surprised, she was much less fazed by the fact that I had heard her and she held her chin high.

“I don’t need to fly in,
Penni
, I can teleport now,” I said, instantly teleporting to get in her face.

“I’m sorry you overheard that, my Queen,”
Penni
responded, smiling quietly that she didn’t apologize for saying it, just that I heard it.

“As your Queen I should punish you, but as your peer I’m torn.  I don’t really think you’re worth the effort, and trust me when I say
this,
you’ll never be my competition.  Clay’s all yours.  Good luck,” I said with a smirk, and turned to walk out of the locker room.  She wasn’t worth the headache.

Unfortunately, with every step I took away from the boldest words I had ever spoken, I found myself freaked.  I made that statement because I thought there was no way Clay would go for her, not with how he has been with me lately, but now I wasn’t so sure.  I wanted him to move on, didn’t I?  So why was the thought of
Penni
throwing herself at him tonight making me want to throw-up?  What if he was sick o
f me and gave into her advances?
  I didn’t care.  It wasn’t my place to care anymore.  I made that clear this morning.  Clay could do whatever he wanted.

I took a few deep breaths trying to push away the nausea as I made my way to the
Aira
Gym.  I saw the empty boxing ring and went straight for it.  I was definitely in the mood to punch something right now.  I waved over
Bree
, who was a fellow
Aira
and employed to assist with training in the
Aira
gym.

“Hey, Ari.
  Word spreads quickly. 
Congrats to the Queen!”
Bree
said cheerfully from across the football-sized gym as she flew
toward
me in the boxing ring.  As soon as she said my name, everyone stopped what they were doing
,
turned in my direction
,
and started to hoot and holler with congratulations for my upcoming crowning.  I turned bright red and waved them off, giving
Bree
a good glare for announcing my presence like that.  She knows I like
d
to fly under the radar around here, so to speak.

“When’s it going to be?  I’ll be in the front row,”
Bree
said landing next to me in the boxing ring.

I shrugged.  “
Dunno
yet.  L
ess talking, more punching,” I said, slipping on some petite gloves slung over the ropes.

“Uh oh, I know that look.  I won’t argue with that,”
Bree
said, grabbing some protective mitts. 
Bree
and I had become fast friends because I had been spending so much time at the
Aira
gym. 
Bree
was very pretty, with chin length, stick straight blonde hair, and thoughtful light brown eyes.  She was tall and model thin, which I imagined made her the envy of
many of the girls in
Draíochta
since
several
of the ladies were
shorties
like me. 

Even though
Bree
was my age, she had a maturity about her that made her seem like an old soul.  She actually reminded me of a younger version of my adoptive Mother, Joann.  Within five minutes of our first training session together,
Bree
had taught me to control my flying and said that I had a lot of pent up anger from spending too many years not speaking my mind.  It was without a doubt the most profound thing I had ever heard.  Yet here I was now, speaking my mind to
Penni
, and still somehow beyond pent-up, ticked, and
I didn’t want to think about it
.  Right now I only wanted to punch something.

I put my gloves up to protect my face and started with a simple one-two punch. 
Bree’s
brown eyes went a little wide with surprise when she felt the force of my punch on her padded mitts, realizing how upset I really was.  She
swooped
her right mitt at me and I easily ducked.

The boxing was meant to help with an
Aira’s
quick reflexes which are one of the more common
Aira
gifts. 
Whoosh, whoosh
, she
tried to swipe at me and I duck-
weaved and counter-punched.  I felt my anger bubbling, picturing
Penni
trying to kiss Clay, and suddenly I felt a
pulse from under my glove when I made contact with
Bree’s
right palm.  She flew back into the ropes with so much momentum that they sprang her forward like a catapult coming right for me. 
Bree
was an experienced trainer and quickly gained control of the situation, easily flying over my head so she avoided crashing into me, landing softly on her feet.

“Whoa, someone’s having a rough day.  Do I dare ask?” 
Bree
said, patting
my shoulder with her surface-
scorched mitt, and I shook my head with a prominent no.

“Why don’t I take
over.
  We both know she’s thinking about me when she’s punching anyway,” Clay said from behind us, casually leaning against the ropes inside the ring.  I was actually thinking about
Penni
, but close enough. 
Bree
looked at Clay and
I
a few times before taking her mitts off and tossing them to Clay.

“She
’s
all yours,”
Bree
said, giving Clay a hello high-five before she flew out of the ring over to the rock climbing wall across the gym.

Clay didn’t say anything, just put the mitts up defensively and walked toward me.  I went at him r
ight away with a double punch.  S
huffling in a circle, we began our dance.  He went for my side and I jumped away.  He tried the shoulder and I deflected, responding with a right hook to his kidneys, but he maneuvered before I could make contact.  I glared at him and he smirked at my attempt, which only fueled my anger.  I one-two punched in rapid succession connecting forcefully each time with his mitts until I was completely out of breath.  I heaved one last wild punch before ripping off my gloves and throwing them right at his flawless face in hopes of making a mark.

He of course deflect
ed the gloves from reaching him
just like he did my feelings
,
and he looked at me trying to figure out what was with my mood.  I was even angrier than this morning and he still hadn’t figured out why.

“What’s with all the hostility?  You’re about to be officially crowned.  Shouldn’t you be happy?  I thought you would be talking my ear off about the pretty dress you want to
wear for the ceremony by now,” h
e said jokingly.

“That is so sexist,” I said, leaning against the ropes with my arms hanging over the other side. 

“It could be, but I have personally seen your overflowing closet, so in this case, it’s a perfectly legit statement,” he said, matching my pose next to me on the ropes.

“What are you even doing here?”  I asked in a deflated sigh, too exhausted for his games.  Clay cleared his throat, trying not to show how my rudeness
and ignoring his flirting
ha
d caught him off guard,
which I usually fell into easily.

“I wanted to find you and tell you that I was proud of you for stepping up to William today.  I know public scenes and speeches are pretty terrifying for you, but you did
good
.”  He stated sincerely, giving my shoulder a little nudge.  Sure that’s what he wanted to tell me.  Wasn’t there something so much more important that he was dying to tell me?  Oh yeah, my Soul Keeper probably wishes he could break our
sealment
with a spell so he didn’t have to feel things for me he doesn’t want to feel.  If Adam had left me with Liam in that dungeon, he would have successfully ripped us apart, and all of Clay’s dreams would have come true.

I didn’t respond to Clay, only stared off into space remembering the pain in the dungeon while trying desperately to hold onto my soul, but somehow this was worse.  I closed my eyes and allowed a protective numbness to coat my heart.  I had learned to shield the pain from Liam’s Black Magic spell and now it would once again protect me and my soul.

“I was also hoping to get some clarity about why you got so upset with me this morning.  I’ll admit my delivery was poor, but you have to admit that you push me away.”  Clay said with a hint of shyness in his voice, and my eyes flew back open from his statement.

“I don’t push you away, Clay.  You shove me away.”  I said, clenching my jaw.

“How can you say that?  I’m the one putting myself out there,” he said, and he quickly moved his hand to tickle me underneath my ribcage because this morning he had discovered this made me laugh.

“
Yeek
!
  Knock it off.  Trying to kiss me every chance you get isn’t putting yourself out there.  It’s putting your tongue out there,” I said slapping his hand away, doing my best not to giggle because that really tickled.

“You’re the one who doesn’t want us to be seen together, even by Kayla.  What does that say about you?”  He countered crossing his arms in an “I told you so” manner.

“You know why that is Clay.  I need the Court backing me right now, not having a hooray for William O’Connor rally.”  I said, annoyed that he brought that up.

“Yes, because I’m sure your Kayla will go running to William and tell him how you’re misbehaving, so he can try to use a three hundred year old, unwritten law against you.  What a bunch of bull.”  Clay said, clearly growing just as frustrated with this conversation.

“You know what, Clay, if I’m so full of it, why don’t you go hang out with someone who’s very interested in your tongue.  I hear
Penni’s
got a determined eye on you, and
ya
don’t want to keep a lady waiting, if you could call her that!”  I said, stepping under the ropes out of the ring to leave.

“Thanks for the heads up.  Maybe I’ll go find her right now since my wanting to kiss you is obviously because I’m the typical dirt bag guy you date, only looking for a sweet piece of ass.”  Clay said to my back.

“You’re in luck because
Penni’s
open for business!”  I said, fighting the urge to flip him off, so not Queen-like.

“Good!”  He yelled back.

“Good!”  I yelled across the gym, mostly for the sake getting in the last word.  I quickly left before I could estimate how many people had stopped their training to watch the tail end of our fight
,
hoping they didn’t overhear the details.

I had to meet Fiona and the rest of our group at the Library to go over the spell we had tried and failed with Morgan yesterday.  I quickly showered and got ready before I popped over to the
Eartha
main house to look for another book to borrow that could be helpful to our meeting.

“Ooh!  Aria you scared me.”  Aileen said from the tufted brown leather sofa in the King’s office, and I spun around to find her hand resting on her chest trying to calm her fright.

“I’m so sorry.  I am trying to get better about that.  I didn’t expect anyone
to
be in here.  I assumed you would be upstairs with the King,” I apologized, flicking my eyes to the ceiling wondering what kind of fragile state he was in.

“Yes well, it’s quite alright.  I should be getting back to him.  I just needed a moment
,” s
he said with a quiver in her voice, reluctantly letting me see how hard watching her husband’s suffering has been on her.  Since I had met Bryan he had been very ill, but it seemed much worse now than even a few days ago.  He was my Guard in the States as a small child up until his illness had taken too much of his strength and he had to return home, allowing his son Brody to take over.

Every member of the O’Flaherty family had made sacrifices for me, and I had never asked about the details of his illness, trying to give their family privacy and respect.  They only had mentioned that they
could
use spells to help ease his ailments
,
and with no mention of treatment or cure, I didn’t want to pry into a painful subject.  Clay had
just
barely started to open up about Brody
,
so I didn’t want to push too hard on touchy subjects
.

I sat tentatively on the couch and rested my hand over Aileen’s.  She looked like she had aged ten years in a week.  Her mousy brown hair look frazzled and had begun to grey.  Her eyes looked tired and blood shot, with dark circles beneath them to emphasize it.  We sat there
silently, my hand over hers in probably the
lamest
attempt ever at comfort.  I didn’t know what to say.  I didn’t know if she wanted me to say anything at all.