The Rising Read online

  I then burrowed into him.

  His arms tightened.

  We stood that way for some time before he gave me a squeeze and said something his tone told me eloquently, he very much wished he did not have to say.

  “Hera shared that they are soon to begin building the pyres, my darling.”

  I nodded, my face rubbing against his leathers.

  “After, I would ask that you attend me as I ink Jasmine into Mac’s flesh.”

  I closed my eyes tight but did so nodding again.

  I loved it that Mac intended to do that.

  “Nero will then ink you into me.”

  I opened my eyes, dipping my head back, and caught his.

  “And it would be my plan that you and I return to Sky Bay, with Mars, Silence, True and Farah,” he continued. “For I will have you inked into me and then I will have you wed me without any further delay, no matter what these insurgents plan. You are my queen, but I wish you to be princess of my realm, my bride, and at long last, my wife. And when I make you just that, I want our friends about us. All of them.” His face softened, “Or all of them we have left.”

  I felt my own face soften as I whispered, “I vote for this plan.”

  “We will return to the Bay when you feel you are ready.”

  “In my stead, I’m leaving Lucinda in charge of The Enchantments. She will protect it and she will keep the sisters calm and focused. Julia will remain with her to assist. But in this time of strife across Triton, I’m keeping Melisse with me.”

  “And Serena?”

  “She is my top general, Lucinda was Mother’s. Thus, my sister will stay with me and Agnes will be at her side to assist.”

  “Decisive,” he murmured.

  “You don’t agree?”

  “I think your mother chose you for many reasons, my warrior. And one of them is that you are just that. Decisive. Another is that you’re able to delegate. We all have much happening, too much. Not a one of us can take it all on. It is only the wise who understand that with a depth that they do something about it and share the load.”

  I nodded and did so not hiding how his compliment made me feel.

  “So, we have our plan,” he said, his tone now gentle, which was a tender reminder that we did indeed have our plan, and as such, I had other things on my agenda for that day and I needed to see to them.

  “We have our plan,” I agreed.

  “I felt you find some rest when your mother slipped into the veil,” he noted in the same tone.

  “The veil is a part of us, all of us,” I told him. “Even you, though you are not attuned to it. But as we are, the Nadirii, those who are charmed, those who hold magic, we feel it more. She is a part of me as she made me, but when she slipped into the veil, she became a part of me in another way. So yes, Cass. It brings me peace.”

  “So, it will be good we can release Jazz and Rose and give you that,” he murmured.

  “Yes,” I replied, coming up to my toes to touch my mouth to his. “Now I must set about preparing my friends.”

  In turn, he touched his lips to my forehead before he gave me a squeeze and let me go.

  I walked several paces away before I turned around, still walking, but backward, and called his attention, which had shifted to the rent in the veil, back to me.

  “Just so that you know,” I said loudly, “I accept your invitation to claim you against all who might wish your stiff cock.”

  His body gave a mild jolt before he tipped his head back and roared with laughter.

  And there…

  For in all his care of me, I had not forgotten he had lost too.

  Thus, a smile playing at my lips that I had managed to return the gift of a short respite that my man had given me, I turned again and headed with dread, but less of it than I could have felt, to where we would build the pyres.

  Princess Serena

  Northeast Border

  THE ENCHANTMENTS

  After the task was complete, as she strode from the pyres, she saw Chu where he had been sitting for some time, cross-legged in the grass, his back against a tree, his sword across his lap.

  His eyes on her.

  In fact, his eyes had been on her the entire time she helped her sisters erect the pyres.

  She ignored him through this (as she had been ignoring him since their conversation the evening after the Battle of Heights, though it was hard to do so, especially when he fought at her side the day before—fortunately, that battle had been short).

  Serena also ignored him as she strode toward the tent where she was sleeping, as her treehome was in the heart of The Enchantments, some forty miles away, and she was sticking by her queen, and her queen was not moving from the rift.

  This was disappointing, she wished to show her treehome to Gal and Brix.

  But as her queen was here, this was where Serena would be.

  She did not, however, ignore Heloise, her lieutenant who, along with Genia, her other lieutenant, and Darma, her mentor, had ridden to the border upon hearing it had been breached.

  And now, they stood huddled, some twenty feet away.

  Serena did not ignore Heloise for Heloise broke off from the others and approached.

  She stopped and waited for her friend to arrive.

  It was with a heavy heart, but not surprise, when Heloise did not delay launching right in.

  “You build Jasmine’s pyre?” she asked snidely.

  In her thirty-two years on that earth, Serena had learned very recently she did not know very much.

  But in that moment, she knew that did not matter.

  For she knew she needed to act solely on what was important in the now.

  Her mother was dead.

  Her only remaining blood, her sister, faced grave challenges on multiple fronts.

  And her sister had not only forgiven profound affronts, even with the history Serena had created between them, without delay and without hesitation, she had settled her trust on Serena’s shoulders.

  Indeed, before they began building Jasmine’s and Rosehana’s pyres, Elena had taken Serena aside and said, “We will travel to Sky Bay soon, to regroup after these battles but also for my wedding. And if you will have the post, I would wish you to be my top general in this war we wage with the Airenzian against the Airenzian. And as such, I would have you by my side.”

  Serena hesitated nary a second in assuming that command.

  She knew instantly her decision was the right one, for she watched her sister’s eyes grow moist before Elena nodded and moved away.

  And Serena no longer felt confusion or alarm at the feelings that came to her in the new bent of decisions she was making.

  For her sister had lost a sister.

  And Serena was giving her a new one.

  And that felt right.

  So, she was moving on, choosing family and nation above all else.

  As her mother would do.

  As her sister would do.

  Thus now, this, with Heloise, she would not do.

  And as such, her reply was simple, and obvious, for Heloise, with the others, had watched her do it.

  “Yes. I helped to build Jasmine’s pyre.”

  With that, she turned to regain her path to her tent.

  Heloise moved to stand in front of her, forcing Serena again to stop.

  “She died fighting with Airenzian for Airen,” Heloise stated.

  “I know. I was there. Fighting with Airenzian for Airen,” Serena returned.

  Heloise’s face twisted before she hid it and asked, jerking her head in Chu’s direction, “Who is that man who follows you?”

  “He was the love of my life before he was lost to me.”

  Heloise did not attempt to hide her disgusted shock before she whispered, “The love of your life?”

  “Yes,” Serena confirmed.

  “A man?” Heloise queried.

  And Serena’s patience slipped. “Yes, sister, your eyes are not deceiving you. He is indeed a
man. Very much so.”

  “Who you loved,” she stated with disbelief.

  “Who I loved,” Serena stated with conviction.

  Heloise now appeared confused. “How is he lost to you when he’s sitting fifteen feet away?”

  “It’s a long story,” Serena mumbled.

  “As it is clear you do not wish to share it, fine then,” Heloise retorted. “But now tell me, why do you travel with gnats?”

  Oh no.

  Bloody no.

  Serena’s back shot straight as fire scorched through her veins.

  This reaction must have registered on her face as well as in her body for Heloise took a step back.

  “Those males are my friends,” she clipped dangerously. “And when I could not trust you to call upon to be at my side, at my back, involved in my life, for you would not comprehend my mission and my purpose, they were. It was dangerous, Heloise. I could have been discovered by The Rising, and in their machinations, they shared clearly they did not mind dealing hostilely with those they thought were enemies. And a royal title made those dealings all the sweeter to them.”

  She drew in a deep breath, and with it a slender thread of patience, before she leaned toward her friend and finished.

  “And if you…ever…refer to my friends, or any fucking gnome any-fucking-where, Heloise, as a gnat again, I will challenge you, and I will unhorse you and then I will draw my sword and I will humiliate you in a way that you will never forget it.”

  Heloise knew Serena could do just that, and this was why her face paled before she started, “Rena—”

  Serena leaned back with a snap of her spine and interrupted her.

  “I serve the Nadirii Sisterhood. I serve Queen Elena. I serve my blooded sister as she takes her crown as the Princess Regent of Airen. And if you, Genia and Darma do not share these philosophies, I am honor bound to report that to my queen. I will advise her that she then relieve you of your duties in the Nadirii army. However, rest assured. Elena is fair. She will find you something else you are adept at doing.”

  It was Heloise whose spine snapped straight at that.

  “I will remind you, I’ve been at your side since training,” she declared.

  “And I did not invite you to leave it,” Serena retorted. “I simply told you the terms you must accept to remain at it.”

  Heloise glared at her.

  Chu was watching, Serena was keenly aware of that, so she did not have time to allow Heloise the fullness of her glare.

  She also did not have the patience for it.

  She thus walked around her and resumed her path to her tent.

  A tent Gal and Brix were now standing outside, also watching her.

  Goddess, she hoped they were too far away to hear that gnat comment.

  But seeing them, knowing why they stood where they stood, their gazes upon her, she thought it was funny that she knew them such a short time, but she felt their strength at her back far more thoroughly than she’d ever felt Heloise’s or Genia’s.

  Or Darma’s.

  And she’d been to battle with them so many times, she’d lost count.

  By the goddess, she’d been a fool.

  It was with blatant design that Chu had positioned himself as such that he was not only close enough to watch her work at the pyre, but she’d have to walk by him on her way to the tent.

  This she did not looking at him.

  Even so, this did not deter Chu speaking.

  “That was well said.”

  She ignored that and continued walking.

  She also shot a look to Gal and Brix that shared without words she was in no mood for the mood she saw on both of their faces before she slapped the flaps back on her tent and entered it.

  Gal and Brix, as they were wont to do, ignored her mood and charged in behind her.

  “We must speak,” Gal stated.

  “We must not,” she replied, throwing herself down on her pallet and casting her mind about for something to do, anything that would make her appear busy enough they’d leave her be.

  She should be meditating before the ceremony.

  One look at her friends and she knew there was fat chance of that happening.

  “He’s pining for you,” Brix began, darting his arm out behind him to the tent flaps, finger pointed, indicating Chu, “in direct vicinity to you.”

  “And?” she asked.

  Brix’s brows shot up before they darted together.

  “We must hear this story of what happened between you and him,” Gal declared.

  “We need hear no story,” Brix put in. “He’s a Trusted. Trusted are trusted. He wears the green and red against the black on his mantle. He has Mars’s ear.” He tossed his hand to indicate Serena. “And he fights gallantly at her side not only for this righteous mission, but in protection of her person, and she walks by him without looking at him?”

  “Maybe he hurt her,” Gal returned to Brix.

  Brix made a chuffing noise, but then his eyes shot to Serena.

  “You are strong,” he said.

  “Even a strong woman can be hurt by a man,” Gal declared. “For the Green Man’s sake, Brix. Hurt comes in a variety of forms. And the worst of it is the kind that does not leave a bruise that can be seen.”

  Brix’s eyes, still on her, went squinty as he demanded, “Did he hurt you?”

  “Brix—”

  She got no more out.

  He made his own (correct) assumptions, thus turned on his boot as if to march out, she knew, to confront Chu.

  Bloody hell.

  Except he did not get to do such.

  The tent flaps slapped aside and instead they were all confronted with…

  Chu.

  She cast her gaze to the ceiling of the tent, praying, Goddess, deliver me.

  Chu’s deep voice sounding brought her attention back to the tent.

  “I would have words with Serena.”

  “And I would have Sinchella, the fairest maid of The Doors, take my cock,” Brix retorted. “But she prefers gnomes with a great deal more coin than I have, so there’s little chance of that. As there’s less chance of you speaking to Serena if she does not wish to be spoken to.”

  It was at that, Serena was again surprised at her reaction for she not only wished greatly to burst out laughing, she wished even more to rise, walk the four feet of the tent to Brix, and give him a hug.

  “Serena,” Chu called.

  “We have said all there is to say,” she reminded him.

  “And that says all that needs to be said in the now before you leave,” Gal added, speaking to Chu.

  “Little mouse,” he murmured, eyes glued to Serena.

  It was the wrong thing to do.

  Gal’s silent anger filled the tent.

  Brix’s filled it with words.

  “Never pick a fight with a gnome, Trusted,” he spat. “We have a direct line to your balls, so we do not consider it a low blow.”

  “Calm,” Chu growled. “It is my pet name for her.”

  “She is no mouse,” Brix retorted.

  “She’s my mouse,” Chu returned.

  “That’s absurd,” Brix shot back. “Think of another pet name. Like firebrand.”

  “Or maiden warrior,” Gal suggested.

  “Or minx,” Brix went on.

  “Hellcat?” Gal asked Brix.

  “Works well, brother,” Brix muttered.

  Serena was listening to them prattle, an error on her part.

  For when Chu’s rich laughter filled the tent, it took her by surprise.

  And his face softened with humor felt like a punch to the chest.

  She dropped her head, focusing her efforts on keeping her heart beating, instead of it refusing to withstand the severity of the blow.

  Gal most certainly noted her reaction, for his tone was much changed, conciliatory, calming, but beseeching when he said, she knew, to Chu, “You really must go.”

  “I cannot go, for I’m in love with
her.”

  Her head dropped even farther.

  “Then we must go,” Gal whispered. “Brix,” he prompted, for clearly Brix was not of the same mind.

  “I’m not going,” Brix proved her correct.

  “Brix,” Gal warned.

  “Gal,” Brix returned.

  “Welbrix.”

  “Galbdor.”

  Serena opened her eyes and said quietly, “Go. I will speak with him and I will be fine.”

  Both her friends turned to her.

  “You are certain?” Brix asked.

  She nodded.

  Both gave her a thorough assessment before they made their moves to leave.

  “If she’s upset any further…” Brix issued this open-ended threat to Chu before he moved through the flaps.

  Chu gave it a moment before he said softly, “They are good males.”

  Well, at least they agreed on that.

  “Yes.”

  “Serena—”

  She stopped him before he could start.

  “This is not happening.”

  “My beautiful warrior,” he whispered.

  Another shot direct to the heart.

  “Please, don’t,” she begged.

  He studied her, and as he did, he appeared to be getting angry.

  This was proved correct when he bit out, “Why?”

  “I loved my mother, and she is lost.”

  “I am sorry about that, my mouse, but—”

  “She was lost before I could show her what I had learned. What she would wish to know. She left this earth, she joined the veil, not knowing she could be proud of me.”

  Chu stood at the flaps of the tent, apparently frozen by her words.

  “And I lost you by—” she began to continue but interrupted herself as she had only the time to brace for impact before she was on her back on her pallet, Chu’s weight atop her. “Chu,” she wheezed, partly because of his weight, partly because, bearing it was so beloved by her, she could not process it.

  “She speaks my name again,” he murmured, staring down at her and shifting so some of his weight was held in his forearms and his hands could frame her face.

  “I—” she began.

  “You did not lose me, I am right here,” he pointed out.

  “I cannot—”

  “You can.”

  “We cannot—”

  “We can and we will.”

  Of a sudden, staring up into his eyes, feeling him there, the only thing in her world in that moment, the only thing beyond that moment, in weeks past and into a bleak future that she wanted most in her life—outside her mother’s return to this earth—something started happening deep within her.