23

Discreetly, the way she was sure Betla wouldn’t notice, Aranya swiftly pulled more magic onto her stomach and it did a great job at hiding the small bump. She chuckled nervously, “How could you say that, Betla? Of course, I'm not.” She sat back on the bed and watched as Betla sat on the stone and she looked across the cave with a knowing look in her eyes, examining to see whether or not something had been tempered with in the cave.

She turned back to look at Aranya, and she was certain the fire she saw in there was nothing sort of a joke. The fact that Betla came here to see her, didn't wait for her to go back to the palace was enough to tell her that something was up. “Is everything alright, Betla?” She couldn't help but ask, suddenly aware of the dark ambiance and the cold Betla’s presence brought in the room.

“Something happened to you, right?” She asked, and Aranya was so quick at shaking her head.

“Nothing happened to me, Betla. You know so well that I usually isolate myself here whenever I'm back from my hunt, is that why you’re here?” She sighed softly, realizing that she needed to be slowing down unless she wanted Betla to realize that she was hiding something. And the last thing she wanted was for Betla to know that Lorcán had come to Zinambra and he even tried to kill her.

Betla sighed and stood up, “You’re going to Kestramore; it’s the home for Elves and Dragons. I need an Elf now, come back with a hunt as soon as you can, okay?” Aranya stared at her with her mouth slightly agape.

“I came back from Elara barely a week, Betla, I thought it would be in half a year to come?” What happened to Betla? Were they in danger that she needed another powerful blood to keep them safe?

Betla shook her head, “This will be the last hunt we will need before I can get the power to avenge, Aranya. Make sure you get me a very powerful elf, like the one you brought a few years ago, okay?” Aranya gulped down a lump in her throat, she was referring to Dûsan, he was the only elf she had ever brought and by someone like him, that should be Lorcán.

“Like the man you have kissed in Elara.” The moment Betla spoke those words out, Aranya felt as her whole blood froze and within the blink of an eye, Betla had disappeared from the room. She stood there, frozen in the cave, forgetting the fact that Lorcán was hidden under her garment and when she remembered about him, she pulled him out at once.

He coughed lightly as he stared at how frozen she looked and he sat beside her, “Anything wrong?” He asked, taking her hand in his as he gave her a light squeeze.

She turned to look at him with a light expression and she shook her head, “She knows, Lorcán, she knows you’re here. No, maybe she doesn’t know that, because she’ll make sue to kill you first if she knows I've been staying with you in this cave, but she knows I’m trying to protect you. Oh god...” She palmed her face and stared began to pace to and fro in the room, remembering how to panic and Lorcán came to her.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and lightly shook her, “Tell me, what is it? Who are you trying to protect? What does she know?” She stared into his eyes longer to make her calm before she pulled him to the bed and they sat down together.

She sighed, taking his hand lightly as she squeezed it, it was more to calm herself than him. “In Elara, I kissed you first.” She mentioned, and he watched her with confused eyes. She lifted her head up exasperatedly and realized she had to make her explanation broader than it was. “Whenever I go out on a hunt, whoever I kiss first, that should be the man I bring back to Zinambra. She knows whoever it is I kiss first, and it’s the man she would expect home.”

She felt as he tightened his hold on her hands, “And you kissed me first?” He asked, she could only nod her head, feeling the way her heart was beating erratically beneath her chest. “Why didn’t you bring me to Elara then?”

Why? She asked herself, and even though she had been answering herself times without number, she needed the answer now. She shrugged her shoulders, still flustered with shock and fear of not knowing what to do. “I don’t know, I just wanted to protect you. That's why I tried to avoid you, I wanted to become closer with Jaromir so she could forget about you. That howl?” She asked him, even though she knew he would never forget, but to make herself feel better.

With his hold tightening on her, he nodded his head, “Yes, that howl.”

“It was to show me that she wants you as my hunt. But...” She let her words trailed off, realizing that she was shaking and her voice breaking. She knew Betla, and the only thing that could stop her from getting to Lorcán was nothing, as plain as that could sound. “I couldn’t bring you to Zinambra, Lorcán. I just realized I could not. I thought she has forgotten or she hasn’t realized whom I kissed because I made sure I kissed Jaromir long enough to make her change that, but it seems she hasn't forgotten. She knows I've been hiding something all this while, trying to protect you.”

Lorcán stared at the way she was rambling in one breath, trying to suffocate herself. He placed his hands on her shoulders and stared directly into her eyes. Today, there was no fire in them, he could only spot fear, as raw as he had ever seen it in someone’s eyes. Was this how powerful Betla was? For her daughter to fear what she was capable of doing this much?

And now that she had mentioned it, he realized she had kissed shun his kiss in the market because she wanted her hungry mother to forget that she had ever kissed him. She had kissed Jaromir as hungry as he watched her did because she wanted to protect him. “Aranya, look into my eyes.”

She did, and slowly, the panic raising in her eyes began to calm down. They just stood there, staring into each other’s eyes until Lorcán was sure that she was calm enough to understand him. “Listen, you have no reason to panic, okay? She wants me, and she shall have me.”

She jerked away from him, the tears she was holding spilling onto her cheeks. “What are you talking about? How can you say she can have you? I won’t let that happen, Lorcán.” She was shaking her head, furiously wiping at her tears, angry at both herself and him. Why did she have to cry in front of this man? And why would he have to say what he said?

“What will happen if she knows that you’re with me and you’re not willing to sacrifice me?” He asked, as calmly as he could ever compose himself, staring at the way she was furiously staring at him, at the same time crying her eyes out.

She shrugged off her shoulders, as though what she was going to say wasn’t so important. “She’ll kill me. She has told me once that if I make a mistake, she’ll have to take my soul in exchange for the mistake I commit, and this is the biggest mistake Betla could ever imagine me making. She’ll kill me, use my blood and avenge for what she had been living for.” Realizing that he might ask her what the revenge is all about, she shook her head, “Don’t ask me that, I don’t know what the revenge is all about. The only thing I know is, she needs Blood of Power to avenge, and her final hunt should be a powerful elf, just like...”

He stood up and walked toward her, “Me, and she will have me, Aranya. I can’t risk your life.” He tried to hold her hands when she shrugged his hands off him.

“Do you realize what you’re saying, Lorcán? She’s going to kill you, you’re going to freaking die! And your body will be fed to Zartan. You can’t do this, okay? Look, you have to go back to Elara, where do you come from? Don’t go back to Elara, she might find you, go back to your place.”

He smiled at her and brought her to his body, he lightly hugged her, feeling the way her love was filling every nook and cranny of his soul. “I’m from Kestramore, I can’t run away from her there as well. I can’t loose you, Aranya...” She roughly pulled her body away from him, her tears intensifying. She had never felt hopeless like she did today.

“I can’t loose you either, Lorcán! Mine will be easier, I deserve to die from the woman that makes me kill thousands of men, your brother included. Don’t you realize? You two can’t die from me! I can’t kill you, Lorcán!” She had been trying as much as she could to forget about everything, the way she killed them and their expressions when she did. She didn’t want to remember how Jaromir looked, it still ached. And imagining that she had to do the same to Lorcán was heart breaking, she wanted to cry her chest out at the remembrance of it.

•

She threw the glass she was holding and immediately stood up, she could swear that she had felt her heart in her throat, “What did you say, Katharina? No, that’s not possible.” She was shaking her head, not being able to comprehend what her maid had just said. It couldn’t be possible, could it?

Katharina dropped her head down, afraid of what would happen to her princess now. She had become useless since when the news reached them that Jaromir would no longer marry her. She was always drunk, and she wondered what this grievous news would make her feel. “I’m sorry, your highness, this just arrived from Gantrick, he’s dead.”

“Stop saying that to me, Katharina!!!” Keres screamed at the pitch of her voice and threw out the utensils that were on the table. “How dare you say that Jaromir is dead? How could he be dead?” She lifted her head up out of exasperation and when she stared back at Katharina that was literally shaking, she saw the messenger in her hand and without a word, it disappeared out of her hand and appeared in hers. She pulled it open and there, was a signature from the royal palace of Gantrick. Jaromir was dead, but how could he? She could live with him not going to marry her anymore, but dead? No!

“What happened? You have to tell me how he died, Katharina!” She was furiously standing in front of Katharina in a flash, staring into her eyes with fire practically dripping out of her mouth. “How could he be dead? Arrange everything, we’re going to Gantrick.”

Katharina took a step back, because she was afraid of being harmed whenever Keres was angry. “His Majesty said that you can't leave your chamber, your highness. We have to await his order so we can leave.”

Keres took a step toward her and Katharina stepped backward, “Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do and not. Are you going to do what I said or you’re going to keep on challenging me?!” Fire dripped from her eyes, and at this point, Katharina knew even the dragon king could not stop her from doing what she intended to do.

She moved away from her and bowed her head, “I'll arrange for everything, your highness.” And she was out of the room in a flash. Keres stared at the wall and wondered what would have happened. She shook her head before she slumped down on the floor, screaming at the pitch of her voice at the same time, her fire dripping onto the sofa and she barely glanced at it. Whoever was responsible for his death, she would make sure he or she paid the most painful way possible.