Chapter 5
“Go where?” Peter looked up at his brother in confusion. They were still standing outside of the cells. It turned out that Alexander could not take the sight of Peter standing there, looking at him as if he was a criminal.
“We're going with Ariel to Earth for a while. This is not the environment you need to ease your way back into the world.”
“Am I your prisoner, then?” Peter asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“No, of course not,” Alexander said. “Give us two weeks. If you are still unhappy with the world, then I will let you do as you wish.”
“You'll let me return to the Other?” Peter asked.
“If that's what you want,” Alexander replied. “But, Brother, you returned. It couldn't have been because you didn't want to. Something in you kept you alive enough to return.”
Peter had no answer to that, but he didn't disagree.
“Good,” Alexander said. “Ariel needs to return soon anyways, so we were thinking of leaving as soon as you were ready.”
“No time like the present,” Peter said, although he said it without enthusiasm. “What about the issues here at the palace that should be dealt with?”
“Nicholas has been in charge before while I've been away. It will be nothing new. Earth will be calm, relaxing, and you can focus on yourself.”
“Exciting,” Peter said, without much enthusiasm “I also know I won't be able to use magic there.”
“No,” Alexander admitted, “you won't. But I will be there for you, Brother, until you make a choice.”
“If this is what it takes,” Peter replied, “for you to let me be free, then so be it.”
“Thank you,” Alexander said. “Earth will be relaxing and boring. You'll have plenty of time to regain what was lost.”
Ariel leaned on the doorway, watching them. Frankly, she wasn't one for emotional family reunions. But she had also never seen Alexander so emotional, so torn down. She didn't realize this would affect him so much.
“Let's hurry up before I'm late,” she said, clearing her throat. “You know I hate rushing into the theater.”
“How do we do this?” Peter asked. Alexander led them just outside of the prison where the magic wasn't blocked. “I've never taken the magic to Earth. Not even when we were boys.”
“I can do it,” Alexander reached his hand out. Ariel took one, and Peter the other.
“Can you do this with all three of us?” Ariel raised an eyebrow at him, and he met her eyes.
“Are you challenging me?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Look, if you could convince them not to dock me for not showing up, the two of you can go by yourselves,” she teased. She said it in English, not because she was afraid of Peter's opinion, but because she didn't want him to worry about anything else. She felt sorry for him, even if she was angry about him for abandoning Alexander.
“Perhaps a show would do him good,” Alexander said, as the magic began to swirl.
Transporting himself and Ariel was hard enough, but pulling his brother along was a little more difficult. Still, as crown prince, he should have been able to do it, even if he used up his store of magic for the week.
When they got to Earth, however, Alexander dropped to his knees, panting as the color left his face. Before Ariel could get to him, Peter placed a hand on his shoulder, crouching down. He said a few words, low enough that Ariel couldn't understand. What she did see, though, was an older brother comforting a younger brother.
She was used to Alexander being drained, and it was only a few moments before he rose. She recognized that he had taken her to the back alley beside the hotel they were staying at, so nobody noticed. His distressed brother, however, distracted him from the roar of the city.
She gave them a moment, and eventually, he recovered his strength, rising. He brushed past Ariel without saying a word. Peter was behind her, and she turned to him, keeping her voice low.
“That's normal,” she said to him quietly. “Especially if he hasn't eaten.”
“Still?” Peter asked, and she raised an eyebrow.
“Has he always had problems with control?”
“Since we were children,” Peter answered curtly.
“Oh,” Ariel said, as they caught up to Alexander. “Just goes to show you that you never really know who you married.”
The check-in to the hotel was easy. Her colleagues that were out and about greeted her like she had been on a weekend trip and not on another planet. She held her head high as they checked into their suite where her bags had been transferred to.
“So, this is it?” Ariel said to Alexander. “Your brother works through his depression, and you and I figure out whether we can take being married?”
He gave her a soft smile, closing the door behind him as he took her in his arms. Kissing her delicately, he sent the familiar shivers down her spine.
“And relax,” he said. “Recover.”
“Recover,” she said, giving him another quick kiss. “Means eating something. It's Wednesday, so you need to find something to feed on. Getting away from me is a start so that your dragon hunger can take over.”
“I'll take Peter with me then,” Alexander said. “You can get ready for the show.”
“And everything will be fine,” Ariel assured him. “You want comp tickets for the show?”
“Ah, leave them at the desk,” he said. “I don't know if we'll use them, but–”
“The best kind of audience,” she smirked at him. “The kind that doesn't show up.”
He kissed her again, and then left her to get ready. Ariel always enjoyed the downtime before a show. She was rarely quiet and alone, but this was her time to shift her mind into the proper state. She stretched, arching her hips and reaching her leg up to the ceiling. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror with red hair and green eyes, she wondered if her parents had a sense of humor in naming her Ariel.
She rarely wondered about them, but occasionally a thought popped into her mind. She hated them for abandoning her, for dropping her on the doorstep of a foster agency like she was a sack of bread. Why did they do it? Did she do something so terrible in her childhood? Were they just irresponsible people?
Eventually, she shook the thoughts out of her head, showered, and then headed to the theater next door.
She paused in the lobby to check on whether she could have room service delivered by the time she got back. She thought Alexander would need some relaxing, and strawberries and champagne seemed like a good idea.
While she was waiting for the ridiculously slow clerk, she took a glance around the lobby. It was a beautiful place–high class, with crown molding and gilded leaves on the wall. It was nice, and it was a nice place for Peter to relax.
There was an attractive man standing near the restaurant, and her eyes drifted over to him. Tall and lean, he reminded her a bit of Alexander with his well-sculpted cheekbones and dark colored hair. They had an open marriage; she wasn't above looking at or even approaching other men.
The closer she looked though, the more she thought he looked like a dragon. There was just something about the way he was standing; the way his eyes were downcast, and the way his arms were folded. Even when they were in their human form, dragons just looked a certain way. She had been around them long enough to know when they were simply standing there.
“It's all set, Miss,” said the clerk, and Ariel turned back for a moment, smiling.
“Thank you,” she said, and turned to the dragon. But the man was gone.
Her brow furrowed as she searched the lobby. But there was no sign of him anywhere. Dragons couldn't vanish into a puff of smoke; they had to go somewhere. But the spot where he was standing was empty, and the lobby wasn't crowded. Wherever he went, it had to have been fast.
She shook her head, wondering if she had been imagining things. After all, it was just hours ago that she had been in the palace, surrounded by dragons. They hadn't exactly had a relaxing time since she had left. Perhaps her eyes were just playing tricks on her.
As she walked to the theater though, she realized that it was more than just her eyes that were playing tricks on her. She could feel magic everywhere, only it felt odd. It was tainted by the Other. She was sure of it. After all, she had spent so much time absorbing it from Peter, she couldn't miss it.
Normally, when Ariel was on Earth, she didn't feel magic too often. Occasionally, here or there, she would absorb something normally left over. Dragons and other shifters didn't come too often. There was magic everywhere though–in the air, in the trees, and from the sky. It wasn't enough to turn her head or even make her raise an eyebrow.
Something was certainty going on.
The show wasn't something that she had to put a lot of brain power into. Frankly, she was thinking that musical theater wasn't for her. It wasn't as artistic or as beautiful as the ballet she normally performed, and she was used to being the star of the show. Today, however, she was glad that she wasn't in charge of leading the show. She kept thinking that she saw a flash of yellow eyes in the audience, in the lobby, in the dressing room.
By the time the show was over, her heart was pounding, and her head was spinning.
She picked up her cell phone from her dressing room counter, dialing Alexander.
“Hello?” his voice sounded muffled, and she crossed her arms.
“Are you eating?” she said. She didn't really care if he was ripping the head off one of her colleagues, as long as he was eating.
“Not at the moment,” he replied. “But I have. What's the problem?”
She sighed.
“I think I'm going crazy,” she said. “Everywhere I go, I think I'm seeing dragons, feeling dragons.”
“What?” he said. “Everywhere where?”
“In the hotel lobby. In the theater. At least six or seven times.”
“Well...” he paused. “You may be just used to the palace.”
“That's what I thought, too,” she said. “But I feel the magic. I can't be imagining that, too, can I?”
“No,” he said. “What can I do?”
“I feel like a stupid, clingy girlfriend,” she said. “And I know the hotel is right next door. But can you come and walk me back?”
He had never heard her ask for this kind of help for her. Ariel was brave and strong. She didn't like holding his hand. She didn't even express that she had missed him when they were apart. If she was asking for help, then he wasn't going to turn her down.
“I'll be right there,” he said. “Where are you?”
“In my dressing room,” she said, which alerted him even more. She would normally wait for him in the lobby, but she clearly didn't feel safe.
“See you soon,” he said, hanging up. She leaned against the mirror, closing her eyes.