Chapter Five
Celeste
“So… what happened back there?”
Sigisvult and I had made our way back to a rocky outcropping some of the chosen women were using as shelter until their mates got back from speaking with the Koth after their weird little triathlon, or whatever that was supposed to be.
We sat in relative privacy on a makeshift stone bench near the opening of the cave and basked in the light the flooded in and heated our soaking bones.
The leader of the Koth had dribbled down from ten shifters to just one: Galsthenn. It used to be a democracy before the rebels started creeping in. His wife, Rosalyn, made her way over to us with a blanket and draped it over my lap.
“I saw what happened out there,” she said with ease as her eyes flicked over to Sigisvult. “I keep telling him this
Sigisvult lowered his brows and accepted a second blanket from the woman and shrugged as he laid it across his lap. “I’m not so sure,” he cautioned. “The fact that I can’t make it across those damn craters might say I’m less equipped to fight the rebels that Galsthenn believes.”
“Oh dear.” The brunette pushed her long hair behind her ivory gown that flowed with her every movement and leaned towards the blue shifter. “For the record, the rebels don’t live underwater,” she teased. “I think you’re in the clear.”
“How are you holding up, ma’am?” he asked with a respect I’d never heard from him. He looked up at her with genuine concern.
“Oh, you know…” The brunette rolled her hazel eyes and offered a polite smile. “Threats, fights, rebels, rinse and repeat. It’s been that way since I first got here.”
I gave a slow nod, and it seemed like the queen was almost startled by my presence, as though she forgot I was even there.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a gasp. “How are you, dear?” she fixed the furry throw over my shoulders and knelt down in front of me, grabbing my hands with sympathy. “I saw you jump in the water.”
“Would you tell her she’s insane?” Sigisvult quipped as he ran the furs through his hair and down the shaft of his wing.
I shrugged playfully at the woman. “I’m impulsive.”
“You must care very deeply for this one to have risked your life like that. The craters are incredibly dangerous and…” she trailed off, growing lost in her own words. “Well, one is very lucky to find even one love like that in a lifetime.”
I didn’t realize that a huge smile had crept across my face until Rosalyn smiled back at me. She brushed my hair behind my ear and tilted her head to the side.
“Yeah, well,” I rubbed my arm awkwardly and let out a nervous laugh. “Shucks.”
Rosalyn breathed in as she stood from in front of me, brushing the dirt from her dress as she rose to her feet. I looked down and saw her huge, pregnant belly in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed.
“Congratulations,” I said earnestly and gestured to her stomach.
She nodded her appreciation and cupped the child’s outline protectively. Her eyes again flicked to Sigisvult, and her voice lowered to a dangerous tone as she asked, “You heard about Haden?”
He nodded.
“Sarra’s gone too,” she bit her lip. “Needless to say, Zaphira’s furious.”
“She feels betrayed, no doubt,” she said absent-mindedly. “She’s coming up later this evening
“Of course. She doesn’t have anyone to do it for her, anymore.”
“I just keep thinking this must be some kind of mistake. They’ve been chosen together for…” she looked up and began counting on her fingers. “What?” she asked. “A decade? How could they just… leave?”
“For their children’s sake, I hope they have a good reason,” he snapped.
Her thin brows crawled up her round face, and she breathed as though she suddenly remembered she shouldn’t have been talking so openly in front of us.
“Well then,” she said with a nod, “I’m sure the nurses have attended to you by now. I hope you don’t take this too hard.”
“I won’t,” he said.
Rosalyn looked at me with a perfectly uniform smile as she took her leave. Spinning on her boot, she turned just once and said to me, “Don’t let him pout the day away.” She laughed.
“Oh, I’m on it!” I called back to her and then looked over at Sigisvult awkwardly. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” he dismissed quickly.
“You know, you were just perfectly nice to her. What’s a gal gotta do to get a little respect around here?”
“She’s basically the queen of the planet. How would you have me speak to her?”
“Wow! Okay, and we’re arguing in less than ten seconds. That’s gotta be a record or something.”
Sigisvult grew quiet, and I leaned over the bench, tilting my head forward to wring my hair out on the stone below.
“Sorry,” he said quietly.
“I get it,” I brushed him off. “You’re just embarrassed that a girl came in to save you.”
I looked over at the handsome shifter and marveled at his features, the crooked bridge of his nose, his full brows and strong face. I looked at his pointed lips as they curved up into an unfamiliar smile and I eagerly smiled back.
A comfortable silence settled between us until he corrected, “To be fair, you didn’t exactly rescue me. As I recall, it was you stranded down in the depths of the pit hanging onto a ledge for dear life, and it was me who flew you out.”
“Uh, yeah, that is after mine and your giant orange friend tore your ungrateful ass out of the watery deep.”
We laughed, the first real laugh shared between us and my eyes became transfixed on him once more. “We both have a cleft in our chin,” I marveled with a silly expression, reaching out to touch his chin. To my surprise, he let me.
“So… what happened back there?”
He sighed. “Can I not relive this for one second?”
“I wonder if I scored any points for my dive,” I joked and leaned back into the bench behind me, wrapping my furs close to my arms.
“It’s not that kind of tournament.”
“No? They don’t score you by number?”
He chuckled. “Not quite.” A long pause. “But thanks.”
“For…? Saving your ass?”
He shrugged. “Something like that.”
“See!” I exclaimed and neared my lips to his in a teasing way before bragging, “What in the world would you do without me! What did I tell you? You’re going to be in love any day now.”
“You don’t believe in all that.”
“What?” I blanched, flushed. “Love?”
He nodded.
“It isn’t exactly an old wives’ tale.”
He stared at me curiously at the expression, and I waved him off. I almost forgot I was on another planet. He had no idea what I was trying to say.
“I just mean,” I huffed, “It’s not a legend, you know? Not a foreign concept. People have been in love. It’s not something to believe in. It’s just… a real thing.”
“Well, that was a rant.”
I muffled a laugh and stared at the shifter curiously. “So, you don’t believe in love?”
“And you do.”
I scoffed. “Why else do you think I’m here?”
“To be pampered and spoiled. You think by being a breeder it makes you some sort of princess.”
“Hey, buddy,” I snapped, moving farther away from him on the bench to better my view of the shifter. “You chose me, remember? So don’t get your back up with me about your insecurities.”
He stared at me seriously for a moment and then laughed, despite himself.
“Maybe I do have my back up about the union,” he said almost as a revelation. “Actually, there was no maybe about it. I wasn’t fond of the idea of pairing up.”
My heart fell.
“Then why did you?”
“Loyalty,” he said evenly. “But I won’t be your charity case.”
“Ah,” I nod in frustration, my lips opening to speak several times before I finally snapped them shut.
He gave me a look that seemed to express a desire for me to continue speaking, but I just sat listening to the moisture on my quickly frizzing hair drip onto the stones below.
“So I guess it’s safe to say you don’t like me.”
“I’m embarrassed by you,” he clarified with a laugh.
“That’s fine,” I said with a casual shrug. I wasn’t always proud of who I had dated in the past, but that didn’t mean I didn’t follow my heart. “But do you like me?”
“Celeste,” he said firmly. “I know your affinity for ignoring the things I say, so if you don’t hear anything else I’m telling you, hear this: this is a business transaction to me. Clear?”
“Crystal.” I stared numbly forward and could almost sense his surprise at my reaction. “You never answered me, by the way. And you never thanked me, either.”