Bloods Of Power

13

Stupefied, Lorcán kept staring at her as she placed him down, roughly. He thought maybe from where he sat on the bed, the reflection of the fire burning fiercely in the hearth was what added to the fire he thought he was seeing in her eyes, but that wasn’t it. As he had a closer look of her now, he figured the fire was in her eyes. He stared at her fingers that were curled into a fist as she stared at him with the kind of anger he had never seen in his life, the fire bubbling through her veins as though the blood running through his.

“You’re not a mortal, Avyannah,” he whispered softly, not believing his voice could ever sound as shaken as it did and how he was sure he felt the sting of betrayal when she lifted him up and he figured she was so strong for him to break the magic she used on him. “What are you?” His anger had suddenly found a way to his lips when he couldn’t get an answer from her, she was just staring at him, maybe thinking of the right way to kill him?

“Who I am shouldn’t be your greatest concern now, Lorcán, it should be what you did to me!” The end of her sentence came as a howl and when Lorcán saw the way she looked so deadly before he began to wrap his hands around the kind of creature she was, the sound of her howl broke his glass and he heard the fluttering sound of birds running off their branches. 

“Who the hell are you, Avyannah?!” He thundered, and like it did always, this time his thunder didn’t scare her. Instead, it made her even more furious because she didn’t miss the way he was making little to no importance of what she was saying, or rather, what he knew he did to her. Did he think he could go scot-free that way? And no, today she wasn’t going to smother her fire because of him. If killing him will be it, so be it.

“You don’t expect me to answer your question when you haven’t answered mine, do you, Lorcán?” She said through gritted teeth and when she tilted her hand upward, it looks as if the fire inside was in a jar, one could see it freely moving as though her body was a transparent porcelain. 

“Not until after you answer mine, Avyannah.” He had his stoic expression painted perfectly on his face and she wondered if he meant to scare her that way. Gone was the time when she wanted to conceal what she was to him, but not anymore. She would be the one to scare him today, not the other way round. He should have understood that when she brought him where she wanted him to be.

She bit her lip not to utter ’That’s not mine my name!’ But she knew that would be a whole different thing to unveil. She bit back her words and stared at him with a hurtful expression. “I don’t think you deserve an answer from me!” Before she could close her lips and for Lorcán to fully assimilate her words, Aranya had acted upon impulse and punched him so hard on his stomach. 

Lorcán staggered back, for she had taken him off guard. He had always known that she had been wanting to punch him, no, to fight him since the first day she had met him. Maybe he would give her the pleasure of fighting with him. From the way she looked and how the punch felt, he knew she was one powerful being but he himself wasn’t so bad. With one magic swift, his sword appeared in his hand and when she saw that, she wickedly smiled and pulled hers out of the air.

“Let’s get this over with.” She spoke enigmatically and in the blink of an eye, they both disappeared out of the room and appeared at the empty riverside. She wondered how he knew this would be the place she would come when she disappeared. Maybe because he knew she loved the place and it would be so nice to take a good bathe after she was done with him? 

Lorcán didn’t give her a chance to speak when he swiftly moved his blade across her face and she was so fast on dodging it and she aimed at him with hers. He remembered the way she looked in Jaromir’s eyes and how passionately they kissed, and Lorcán struck his sword even more dangerous. They began to fight, with only the screeching sounds of their swords as they came in contact and also, the flash of them disappearing and appearing again on the air. She was glad they chose this place, it was so quiet that no one would see them. They kept fighting, Aranya had always known he was strong, but maybe she had even underestimated him.

She flew higher into the sky and Lorcán followed her, he had no intention of hurting her physically but he was so enraged and determined to show her that he could fight her for betraying him. He thought she was human, hell, she looked so ordinary. Even though her beauty was so tantalizing for him to say she was just a human, but the softness, the innocence and if for once he hadn’t ignored the flashes of the fire in her eyes, he wouldn’t have been fooled this much.

“I guess you aren’t a bad fighter,” she said whilst they adjusted themselves on the sky, staring at each other with their swords ready to attack. “But I doubt if knowing you for the few days I did would make me take it easy on you.” When she looked down at the river below them, she smiled. Beside the moon reflection on the unmoving water, there was their reflection, the reflection of their swords and she wished their emotions could be painted too. 

“If I happen to harm you so much, I’ll like to apologize before it happen.” He said and took her off guard by attacking her first but Aranya was so swift in dodging it. She expertly sliced her sword across his chest but before it cut through, she knew she couldn’t hurt the chest she had lain on for a whole night, instead, she let her sword cut through his arm. 

She heard the groan, and only then did she smiled, she was relieved and her fire was beginning to cool. “I don’t want to kill you, Lorcán, but believe me, doing that wouldn’t be so hard on me.”

Lorcán stared at the way blood was soaking up his clothes and he grimaced his face, maybe he would have to show her real power even though he could feel the power she exuded and that her sword did. Whoever she was, she could be listed among the most powerful in the world. Who was this lady? Wasn’t she even a man disguised as a woman?

He tried to fly toward her and she knew if he did, she would have to mercilessly hurt him, and she didn’t want to leave thinking of how bad of a wound she had left in his body. To throw him down to the ground, she smiled firstly before she howled dangerously and they all heard the chirps, cries and the sounds of wings fluttering as the other living creatures in the area felt frightened. Lorcán wasn’t strong enough to defy the strength of her howl, the scary air it exuded and also how frightening she looked herself. 

He felt down on his back, clutching the hand she had torn open while he stared at how she was triumphantly smiling. He didn’t know instead of him to be angry at her for what she did and how she triumphed the fight and think of a possible way to avenge. Stand up even, Lorcán relaxed and watched the way she was smiling down at him, even though smugly. But she had cooled off, the anger before was gone in a flash.

“I think I need to dance, seeing the way you fall down was enough joy to last me a thousand years.” She grinned and Lorcán made a pillow with his free hand while he watched the way she created a flute from the wood she had plucked out and began to play while she danced, she was the goddess he had never seen in his life. The moves were exotic, the smile on her face powerful enough to crush him down to bits and pieces. 

Until she was done dancing beside the moon, Lorcán could only stare as he felt the way his heart made some moves it had never done before. And when she slowly began to fly down, he fixed his gaze on her, she was a goddess, he confirmed. She squatted beside him and thrusted her hand toward him, “Need some help before you can stand up?” She asked with a smug expression and Lorcán smiled before he stood to his feet, and she did too.

“Let’s get your wound treated.” She held his wrist and in the next few seconds, they were back into his room and there was a caring box on his bed, she brought it there. “Sit,” she ordered, and Lorcán sat down as she said. The dance, the sound of the flute, the way she competent with the moon in terms of beauty, exquisiteness and effortlessly won was what made him weak.

She took his arms and he watched without uttering a single word as she cleaned the cut and wrapped it with a white clothing after applying an ointment on the cut. She closed back the sleeves of his clothing and stood up. “I’ll take my leave now. Thanks for fighting with me and for allowing me to show you a pinch of my powers.”

She turned to leave when Lorcán held her wrist and she turned to look at him, this time, he figured, she wasn’t angry for there wasn’t fire that flashed through her eyes. He pulled her back and she sat down beside him on the bed. “You came here to speak to me, why would you leave then?”

“I don’t think there’s more to discuss, is there? We’ve all laid out our angers through the fight, so it’s all well.” She watched as he shook his head and when she tried to speak again to make him understand, he beat her at it.

“I saw you kissing Jaromir…” he began, knowing so well he wouldn’t be able to hold it back unless he wanted to fight with her everyday whenever he remembered it. 

She smiled slyly, “Is that the reason you’ve been avoiding and ignoring me?”

There was no point in lying to her, she knew. “I don’t think you need answer for that, do you?”

“No, I don’t think I do. Yes, I kissed him, he’s going to marry me, I don’t think that’s wrong, is it? Besides, have you found the woman you’ve been looking for?” Now, it was his time to smile.

“I didn’t, and I’m afraid that with you in my company, I doubt if I’d have to give that search great importance even though it’s crucial.”

She furiously stood up, “I think I should let you be then.” Her eyes wandered to his wounded hand and she wished she had cut even deeper, “You can heal your wound with magic or let it heal on its own, I was so nice not to have cut it deeper.”

Before she went out of the door, Lorcán chuckled deeply and with a single swift, Aranya was back into the room and she fell on his body, “Ouch, my wound!” She whined and when she tried to lift her body off him, he held her closer.

“Don’t even think of going scot free for doing what I can see you’re thinking-” she wasn’t done with her sentence when Lorcán smiled and instead of the kiss she had expected and known so well that no matter how much she wanted the kiss, she would have to shun him like she did the last for his life, for Betla not to notice, he hugged her.

She felt the way his strong arms wrapped themselves around her body and he brought her closer to him chest until they coalesced in the hug, and she heard him chuckled softly. “I’ve missed you, Avyannah. God, I thought I could pull through but it was so hard. Thanks for coming to find me yourself, it boasted my ego.” She punched him lightly and laughed at the painful groan that escaped his lips before she hugged him back. She didn’t have to tell him, he knew she had missed him as well.