Spectre
POV: Alexandra
My instinct was to reach out to Toby’s arm and grab him. He didn’t look me in the eye when I did this and I knew that he knew why I stopped him. I hadn’t noticed before but the moment he came into the room he was not looking at me like he normally did. He was exuding nervous energy. Ronan spoke up, “Is something going on here?” I looked at Ronan, “Well, yeah. You remember when I told you about purgatory and the man who rescued me?” Ronan nodded, “Yeah, I thought it was peculiar that you couldn’t figure out who it was. You’d think you’d recognize your hero.” I nodded at Toby, “Well I think it was Toby. I could be wrong since this is based on my senses but I can smell the cologne of my rescuer coming off of Toby.” Ronan looked at Toby, “Is she right? Did you save her? You won’t get in trouble. You may even be rewarded by His Majesty.” Toby relaxed a little and glanced at me, “It was me.” Ronan waved at the couch next to me, “I think you need to take a seat and discuss this with us. It seems there might be more to the story than just you showing up in purgatory.” Toby sat down with a plop, “Yeah there’s a lot more to it. I think I want to ask a question first.” He turned to me, “You could smell me?” I nodded, “Yeah, is that odd?” He nodded, “Well, my magic is…unique. It’s wind-based but it’s called Avatar magic. You see, when someone calls out to me for help, I can manifest myself in the place I am needed. Apparently, beyond life as well which was new to me. I had never been to purgatory. There was another odd thing that happened.” Ronan took a sip of his tea, “Go on. I find this interesting.” Toby took a cookie and nibbled on it then swallowed, “Well, normally the person needing saving is the one who calls out to me. It wasn’t Alexandra though. It was the voice of a man but I don’t know if I could tell you who it was without hearing him.”
I sat up straight, “So you’re saying if you heard the voice again, you could tell me who it was that helped to rescue me?” Toby nodded, “I would remember that voice anywhere, it was yummy.” I could only think of two men that description could fit. Try as I might, I couldn't call Lucien’s voice yummy. It was nice but too refined. I knew Toby meant smooth, deep, and sexy which Lucien was not. This could only belong to either Blake or Cal. I would have to investigate some more before I could understand who it was that called out to him. I looked at Toby, “I think I need to introduce you to Prince Calypso of Seely then. You haven’t heard his voice before and I don’t know how long it has been since you’ve spoken with Prince Blake.” He shook his head, “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard His Highness speak. The few times he has given speeches, I’ve been on patrol or elsewhere.” I rubbed my chin, “Is it possible you don’t recognize the voice because you have never heard the voice before?” He shrugged, “It is possible. How do you suppose we can compare?” Ronan cleared his throat, “Throw a tea party for your friends, Alexandra. Invite all the men that participated in the ritual along with some of your lady friends. Toby can hear them speak and you’ll find the other half of the ones who rescued you.” I leaned over and hugged Ronan, “Thank you! You’re a genius.” He pulled away from me and cleared his throat, “I ask that you allow me to maintain an ounce of professionalism in my office, Your Grace.” I gasped, “Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry General. I was so excited about your idea, I just didn’t think.”
There was another knock at the door and Derek poked his head in, “Sorry General. It took so long because that jerk was messing with me about how I shouldn’t have given up on Alexandra as soon as I did.” Ronan sighed, “It appears that I’m the only one concerned about maintaining professionalism in the workplace. Ligidew, write down that I need to schedule remedial training for professionalism in the workplace.” Toby nodded, “As you will it, sir. I hate to cut this short but I have other duties to attend to. May I be dismissed?” Ronan waved his hand, “I want you to add to your list of things to do, an official report about Alexandra’s rescue. I’m sure the King will be interested in knowing you were the one to guide her out and I’m sure that Her Grace can vouch for you in official documents.” He glanced at me for confirmation, “Oh yes, I will be more than happy to.” Toby gathered up the tea set and wheeled the cart out of the room. Derek stepped in and closed the door, “What’s this all about with him rescuing you? Did something happen when I wasn’t around?” I giggled, “No, he was the one who guided me out of the place I was during my…illness.” He furrowed his brow and I realized that I never told anyone what had happened to me until visiting Ronan. I spoke before he could ask about it. I explained to him in detail what happened from the moment I closed my eyes to the moment I opened them. Derek’s jaw was clenched, “With this blood magic business, I’m really pissed at Melody. If that spoiled brat thinks she can flirt with me, she can go take a hike up the Tarny Mountains to the cave there.” Ronan laughed, “So, your way of saying that she can be dragon food?” Derek gave a curt nod, “I hope her teeth rot and all her hair falls out. That would be an appropriate level of punishment for a person like her since she’s so freaking vain.”
I pictured what Melody would look like with rotten teeth and no hair. It wasn’t a pretty sight, it reminded me of the movie The Witches when they showed their true selves. I shuddered and Derek pulled his uniform jacket off and placed it around my shoulders, “If you’re cold, you need to tell me these things.” Ronan gave a loud throat clear, “You forget yourself Chalshin, your uniform is to remain intact unless you are in combat and it gets ruined.” Derek sighed, “But she’s cold, I’m trying to be a thoughtful gentleman.” Ronan glanced at me and shook his head, “I’m pretty sure she’s not cold. Even so, did you ask her before throwing your jacket over her and thus breaking the uniform code? Certainly, you don’t want to be punished.” Derek’s eyes widened, “Y-you’d punish me? For this?” Ronan looked at me and winked then shrugged, “Who knows? I would be well within my rights under the law as your superior officer.” I knew Ronan sometimes loved to mess with the Chalshin brothers. We once had a whole conversation about how he would mess with them often because they took things too literally and seriously at times. I thought to myself just then that perhaps Ronan was in need of remedial training for professionalism in the workplace but I certainly wasn’t going to say so. I figured that would earn me some cold shoulder and silent treatment. I wasn’t about to make the General of the Citadel my frenemy. Derek bowed at him, “I’m very sorry for breaking the code, sir.” Ronan waved him off, “I’ll let it slide this time because it was in service of our mutual friend here. I will say though, Chalshin, next time if you don’t ask her if she needs it. You will give me fifty proper pushups before you leave here. Do I make myself clear?” Derek stood at attention and fastidiously replied, “Yes, sir.”
Ronan dismissed him shortly after when I was ready to leave but before I did I whispered to him, “You really need to lay off the guy. He’s looking rather stressed.” He winked at me, “We’ll see. I’m not sure I’m bored yet.” I sighed and walked out of the room before I turned to Derek, “You know he was messing with you right?” He looked down at me confused, “Huh? Who?” I sighed again, exasperated with having to explain who I was talking about. I poked my thumb at Ronan’s door, “The General. He wasn’t intending on punishing you for putting a jacket on me. Also, he was right, I wasn’t cold. I just had a mental picture of Melody with rotten teeth and no hair. It reminded me of a story in Terre and the image used to creep me out.” He smiled down at me, “What did it look like? Was it an ugly witch story because that is what I picture.” His eyes sparkled when he explained that and I giggled, “It’s scary the way we think alike sometimes. You’d think you were my twin rather than the other guy.” We climbed into the carriage to go back to the castle making small talk on the way about the weather and what we thought dinner at the manor would be tonight. Derek was hoping it was stew because that was his favorite and I had hoped it was paella. I wasn’t really into the muscles in the dish but the shrimp were delicious. I found out Ashton was a fan of the muscles but hated the shrimp so we vowed we would trade the next time our mother made it. Mother spent a little time in Spain for what she called work at the time but I hadn’t known that she was helping to ramp up talks with the Spanish government to let us be known to their world. Lucien’s father had been pretty shocked that the United States and Spain were the first two who were open to talks and the United Kingdom was open shortly after that. They didn’t have much luck in the Middle Eastern countries and they hadn’t attempted to contact the Eastern countries like China, South Korea, or Japan. I thought that perhaps Lucien was holding off because he didn’t want to stretch things too thin. My father had explained to him about NATO and alliances. He understood that he couldn’t keep our existence from any of the member countries when we were negotiating with places like the United States or the United Kingdom.
We finally came upon the castle and walked into the castle where Teddy was waiting for us in the foyer. He stopped me, “Um…I don’t know if you want to go up there. They sent Toby’s sister to see Lucien.” He looked at me nervously, “Malinus said if you aren’t comfortable, we could organize the books in the library.” I smiled at him, “I’m fine. I don’t worry about Rayla nearly as much as I did Melody. I happen to know for a fact she’s not interested.” We all walked up to the office and Malinus shot up out of his seat. He looked at Teddy, “Did you tell her?” Teddy nodded, “Yep, she said she’s not fussed.” Malinus let out a relieved sigh as he sat down, “Oh thank the Gods. I was hoping this wouldn’t be bad like last time. He told me to send you in when you got back.” He handed me a paper, “It’s a tactic to cut the date short. Are you comfortable with doing that?” I nodded, “I have no issue with that.” I took the paper and knocked on the door, “Your Majesty, I have paperwork for you.” I heard him say, “Come in.” I walked into Rayla whispering in his ear and him nodding. She excused herself, “I think I should go now. I’ve stood here longer than I wanted to.” She smiled at me, “Bye sweet Alexandra. I’ll see you at the ball.” She left the room and Lucien hopped up from his seat and waved at the seat across from him. I sat down and handed him the paper, “What was that about?” He hummed a little, “I’m glad you’re here because we need to discuss exactly what she said. It’s pretty interesting.”
