Bloods Of Power

12

She didn’t feel any convulsion in her body, and when Aranya waited to feel the weakness, her fire bustling or cooling, nothing happened while she kissed Jaromir and that was enough to make her kiss him even harder until Betla noticed a change in her hunt. And when they had spent minutes kissing each other without any sign shown from Betla, Aranya concluded that whether Betla had noticed Jaromir or not, he would be her hunt. Slowly, she broke their kiss, because for her it was more of a punishment than a pleasure.

She knew he wasn’t bad as a man, he kissed deliriously and she loved it, but what had occupied her mind was far heavy to allow her to enjoy anything. Lorcán had a woman in his life, and now no matter how much she tried, Betla wasn’t ready to acknowledge the change of hunt and Aranya knew for sure that she had noticed the kiss, and known it was a different man, she just wished to ignore. At least for now, until Aranya was back to Zinambra and that was when she would speak.

Jaromir wrapped his hands around her waist and brought her closer to him, staring into her eyes with nothing but love amalgamated with l**t swarming through his orbs. If she could be more real, she could say it was l**t. But she could see there was a hint of love that always accompanied l**t for the time being before it disappeared. She had known this look so much like she knew the look in Betla eyes which had nothing but; fire, revenge, hatred.

“I’ve been rushing to come back to you, Verena. I hope you haven’t been so lonely while I was in Gantrick?” She shook her head, how could she tell him that the suite he had given to her was enjoyable, Portia was entertaining with her wings and chirps, the meals were delicious but she still enjoyed Lorcán’s presence more?

“I wasn’t, thanks to Portia, she chirps beautifully and her wings and so beautiful as well.” She smiled widely at him and felt the way he tightened his hold on her waist, she nearly chuckled. She knew how much effect she was capable of having on him, but if it were Lorcán, he wouldn’t have let it become so obvious as Jaromir did.

What was wrong with her today by comparing the two nearly incomparable men? Why was she thinking of Lorcán even when she was together with Jaromir despite knowing so well that he had a woman he was looking helter-skelter for? What was wrong with her? She shook her head lightly, she had to get a hold of herself before she did something that would be unchangeable and even if Betla would forgive her-which would be so hard to, Aranya knew she would never be able to forgive herself.

“Are you sleepy?” She had never been glad to be asked whether she was sleepy or not, but she didn’t answer him immediately until she lazily opened her eyes and laid them into his bloodshot ones. 

“I am, so much. Can we talk about the rest of the things by tomorrow and arrange everything? I know, seeing you back to Elara is a sign that you’ve been allowed to marry me, am I right?” She charmed him, yet again, with her smile that was so enthralling that Jaromir wished she was his wife already. But he could wait, it was only a few more days.

“They did,” he answered with a soft smile and Aranya felt as he began to loosen his hold on her, which she was thankful for. “I’ll tell you everything in the morning.” He entwined their fingers and waked her to the front door of her suite when she looked up at the tree branch, Portia was there, but it looked as though she was asleep.

“Portia?” He called out, and before Aranya was thinking how the bird slept, she fluttered her wings and in a flash, the beautiful lady was in front of them. “She enjoyed your service,” he said with a smile ignoring the greeting of Portia.

“Thank you, Ve-Your highness.” She quickly corrected herself and Aranya smiled at her, clearly noticing the slip of tongue. 

“You can leave us now.” He said, and she flew away while he turned to Aranya.

“I would’ve invited you in if I wasn’t as sleepy as I am now. Maybe tomorrow? Let’s have breakfast in my suite,” she suggested with a smile and she could see how happy it made him. Had he always been this innocent or he was only this way with her? It seemed as if he didn’t understand anything apart from the one she told him.

“Thank you for the invitation. Goodnight, Verena.” He kissed the top of her forehead and she smiled, what a gentleman, but sadly, even though she didn’t regret it, he was going to be no more in a few days to come. It was indeed a loss of a man good to humanity. 

She walked into her suite and carefully locked the door behind her while she rushed into her room. The flower she had bought from that Durush was all over her bed that she was frightened at first. She knew the Durush wouldn’t do this, beautify her bed with the flowers, if she wanted to scare her into revealing the kind of person she was, there were lots of ways. Lorcán did this, she knew, for she had seen the bracelet she bought for Betla in the middle of the bed. Did she leave it while she was furious at him for mentioning another woman?

She moved to the bed with a smile, a very soft one that would have gone unnoticed if she wasn’t the one smiling. She carefully sat on the edge of her bed and took one of the flowers into her palms, it was a beautiful flower. Touching the edge of her hair, she felt the one she had pinned this afternoon was still there and pulled it out, it was beginning to wither. 

Aranya looked around the room to see if she could find a vase to put the flowers in, they shouldn’t be wasted and when she found nothing, she magically created one and from where she sat, she watched as the flowers packed themselves and went into the vase while a swift of her fingers had a reasonable amount of water into the vase and she took it to the bedside, smiling at herself. She would sleep with the scent of the flowers filling her nostrils. She would have gone to his room if she wasn’t trying to avoid him. 

She would have thanked him for the flowers. But he had another woman in his life, she had Jaromir as her hunt and wasn’t allowed to act up to any personal feelings of her own. She took out her hairpin and laid on the bed, the smile not leaving her face. She appreciated the gesture, a lot. Sleep overtook her soul while she pondered on how she felt when she saw him at the market today, and how furious she felt when he made that dismissive comment on looking for a woman on all the places he could lay his feet into. And now, he had her sleeping with a grin and the scent of the flowers making it so hard for her not to run to his room, but she knew she was stronger than all these fantasies.

•

The breakfast she suggested with Jaromir was only to only speed up their process of going to Zinambra, and they set a few days to come, for both of them to get ready. He asked whether she had told her mother about him and Aranya nodded, blushed and told him her mother was only waiting for them. Convincing his family about her wasn’t an easy task, she knew, but when he told her how hard it was and they weren’t fully convinced until he went back with her, Aranya almost felt sorry for the family that would never see their son. And the kingdom that had to carve the statue of their gone prince.

Only a day left, just a single day before she left to Zinambra with Jaromir and that would be the end of everything. She would never come back to Elara, not even for her next hunt. She wasn’t even sure if there would be more men needed by Betla or it was over. She was always in the marketplace, looking anywhere to see if she could see Lorcán but he wasn’t there. Whenever she went to his suite, he had sealed it up and even though she knew she could easily break through the flimsy magic he made the seal with, she wouldn’t want to make him suspicious. 

She came back to the inn, tired and detached. Angry at herself even, because she didn’t know of her obsession with Lorcán these days and even though she kept telling herself that she had to see him for the last time before she left, deep down Aranya knew it was just a lie to comfort herself. Maybe he had gone to another place looking for his woman, or he had even found her and brought her to Elara before he took her home, hence the seal. So no one would disturb them, not even the girl he called a fairy.

Despite her getting riled up by her suggestions, she didn’t know how she found herself walking toward his suite and she saw him coming back from somewhere. He broke the seal himself and before he sealed the entrance back, she rushed into the suite. She knew he had noticed her but chose to ignore it and when he came into the living room, he acted as though he was the only one in the suite and that angered her more. 

First, he was ignoring her. Who even gave him the right to? With the moon half above the sky and the dark and scary wind of Elara blowing through the windows, Aranya knew she could take life by just howling, considering how furious she was at the moment. Second, he deliberately put up the seal on his suite because he thought she was a mortal and would never know how to break it. And now after she had managed to get in, he acted as though she wasn’t there? Who the hell did he think he was?

Furiously, Aranya followed him to his room, where he had already taken off a few of his clothing and was about to get on the bed, “What do you think you’re doing, Lorcán?!” She roared furiously and he didn’t flinch. She moved deeper into the room and watched as he laid down on the bed and pulled the duvet to himself. It was chilly outside, so with a flip of his fingers, the fire in the hearth went on and she watched as he ignored her, again, and turned the lights of the room with another flick of his fingers.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” She thundered, as angry as she could ever be and the lights he had turned off were brought back by her fire and she watched him looked up at her with bewilderment in his eyes.

It was visible today, the fire he had always caught a glimpse of in her eyes. Her whole body was shaking and he didn’t know whether it was the hearth she was standing in front of or it was his eyes, but Lorcán could say there was fire running through her veins and she looked deadly, scary even. 

“I should be the one asking you what you’re doing in my…” he wasn’t done yet when Aranya from where she stood, few feet away from the bed flicked her fingers and Lorcán felt as her magic lifted him from the bed until it had him standing in front of her. She knew this wasn’t right, she had blown her identity of not being mortal, but to her, for the moment, it mattered not.