Chapter 10

Viria really did not want to stop kissing him, but she had to. She needed her breath. Yet the temptation was crazy. She was still pressed up against him, feeling the contours of his chest as his lips trailed softly over the skin of her neck.

Her senses were coming back to her, but she didn’t push him away. His hands did not wander anywhere else, and his lips remained on her neck, the furthest to her cleavage but that was it. Burying his face in the crook of her neck, he breathed deeply as if he was trying his best to control himself. She loved how he was holding her. She hadn’t felt this safe and loved in quite a while.

“I really should hold back,” he said, his voice coming out strained. It had dropped a few octaves and Viria had never heard anything so stimulating in her whole life. Her hands fisted his shirt instinctively.

We’re teenagers with raging hormones and I haven’t so much as masturbated right in my life, she reminded herself, I should have foreseen this.

“I really should push you away right now,” she breathed. He immediately pulled away and grabbed her face, nose to nose.

“You should’ve told me no if you didn’t want it,” his demeanor came out panicked and Viria knew he’d misunderstood her.

“No, no!” she gasped. “I mean physically. Not emotionally or whatever. I mean, what’s the point of denying this?”

He sighed in relief and pulled back. “All right… that really did kill me for real down there.”

She coughed and looked away, “That’s a good thing, I guess. I mean, you’re alive there.”

“I’m leaving now,” he declared. “Get dressed and we’ll get you breakfast.”

He hurried out of the bathroom. Viria watched the door close as she placed her head back against the mirror, the feeling of his lips like a ghost on hers. She really couldn’t believe that had happened. But it had. She shouldn’t have let it happen, nevertheless. She’d promised herself to maintain boundaries. No romance until this whole ordeal was over.

She wasn’t against romance or love, but she felt there was a particular time and circumstance it could be allowed under. Now was not the time. She could not afford such distractions.

Getting off the counter on surprisingly wobbly legs, she reached into the inbuilt closet of the bathroom and pulled out her clothes. She hardly had any comfort clothes or pajamas since she was working almost all the time. The most comfortable she could get was with grey fleece pants and black T-shirt. The only T-shirt that wasn’t shredded to pieces. She needed to send someone to buy her new clothes.

Viria almost bumped into Ivanna’s chest as she opened the office door. Ivanna pushed her inside and closed the door behind them.

“I saw Mitch acting weird and you cannot convince me otherwise of what I think has happened,” she said firmly.

“It was an accident.” Viria rolled her eyes. “A little kissing won’t get me killed. Plus, It’ll be the last time.”

Ivanna looked at her carefully, her thoughts calculating. “I mean, it doesn’t have to be the last time, you know? Is he a good kisser?”

Viria’s face was getting redder by the minute and she tried to get away from her. “No details.”

“Okay, but don’t you feel nice, though?” Ivanna asked, stepping in front of her.

“Sorta.” Viria tried side stepping again.

“You know you should really give sex a shot.” Ivanna smirked as she blocked her sister again. “It’s a great stress reliever.”

“I’ll honestly flip you over and break something.”

“What? It’s true!” She laughed. “Look at everyone else!”

“For fuck’s sake, Ivanna,” Viria groaned. “I need breakfast. Also, you’re still hiding a lot from me and I need to know everything!”

“If you rest and meet with Cole Grace tonight, then I promise I’ll put out everything in the open,” Ivanna said. “But you have to rest.”

“Okay, I will!” Viria cried. “Now let me go, please?”

“Also, it’s really obvious you and Mitch like each other a lot so maybe—”

“I don’t even know how to properly masturbate, okay?” she cried out. “You want me to just up and ride his dick?”

“You’re really crude for someone so young and innocent.”

“I’ve watched porn, Ivanna. I know how it works.” she deadpanned. “Oh, my, God, please just let me go and eat.”

“Want banana pancakes and milk?”

“I hate you.” Shepushed past her.

“It wasn’t even a reference of that sort!” Ivanna laughed as Viria slammed the door.

****

That evening, Viria waited anxiously for Cole’s arrival. Ivanna had told her everything she needed to know without holding anything back, and Viria knew she had more missions to take on after that meeting. Her mind was a blur preparing and organizing the operations.

Her train of thought was interrupted brutally by the doors opening with a rather uncomfortable creak.

Did no one oil the hinges at all this week? She stood up to greet the man who’d walked in and her eyes instantly widened. Goodness, that was one handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on.

Mitch was just as stunned at Cole’s appearances, but his heart churned in disdain as his eyes tore to look at Viria. He could see how Cole awed her with his beauty. He was with her when Ivanna told her all about Cole. Experienced in war, had many contacts, and was a genius. He took on a lot of mission abroad while on the run from his community’s traitorous leader and came back to overthrow and execute him. Mitch knew he was no match.

Viria wasn’t so easy to win over. The charm only lasted a very short while before her eyes regained their serious demeanor and inspected him all over. His left shoulder was weak, which would make combating with the arm difficult. His eyes were his most important aspect in battle because those shoes would not feel any vibrations for shit and his ears shouldn’t be covered by his long hair that way if he wanted to use them efficiently. Viria knew she had an advantage over him because she could fight blind or deaf, even both. There were times she deliberately had to because some torture procedures would require deafness or blindness.

Cole studied her eyes carefully. He knew they were the window to the soul, but he didn’t expect Viria’s to be so intense and damaged. There was a lot of trauma of all kinds she was hiding under her lopsided smile greeting him warmly into her abode. And from the way everyone talked and addressed her, they had not a single clue how dangerous she could be if she wanted to be. Suddenly, Cole did not feel very safe in her presence. He worked with people through empathy, kindness, and persuasion. Viria looked like she could walk into a room and people would know she was someone to be listened to with no questions asked. It wasn’t her small frame in any way, but the air around her. The way the members of the High Council stood beside her with the hands together and shoulders squared, bodies turned just a little toward her, ready for her commands. And Viria looked dangerously authoritative with her short messy brown hair, piercing hazel eyes, and arms crossed. It was the most disorienting sight to see and the oddest thing to consider a little girl had so much power. It was easier to believe when he’d heard about it, but seeing Viria in person blew him away.

He didn’t even notice Nina standing beside Mitch.

Mitch could see the fascination in Cole’s eyes. He knew Viria became a fatal obsession to all that met her. But the jealousy that erupted in him was just as lethal and he wanted to pluck out Cole’s eyes so badly.

“Cole Grace,” Viria addressed him, “Welcome.”

“It’s an honor,” he said with a slight bow of his head, hand to his heart. Mitch wanted to scoff, andViria’s expression only sparked a raging fire in his chest. She looked intrigued and maybe somewhat amused, but not disrespectfully. She nodded in acknowledgment and asked him to take a seat from across the round piece of marble that had lifted from the clock on the ground, the symbols serving as seats. Viria and Cole took a seat. Ivanna came to flank Viria from one side as Mitch did the other.

“It’s in your knowledge,” Viria stated, “that some of your rogues teamed up with someone within the Inner Circle to partake in a political affair.”

“I apologize profusely for such an inconvenience,” Cole replied, but Viria held her hand up and he stopped.

“I understand they are not your responsibility, since you weren’t the leader of your community when they’d run away,” she said. “You’d asked Ivanna not to hurt them, so we took no further action against them. What do you plan to do with them?”

“A public execution shall be in order for them,” he claimed firmly. Viria raised a brow and leaned over the table. A certain radius of the table disappeared, turning it into a ring. She looked over the edge and below into what looked like a pit.

“Hear that, boys?” she called down to them. Cole paled and got up to look over the edge. His face paled further at the sight of a platinum blond boy. The prisoners were silent, looking away in shame. Viria sat back and observed Cole. He still allowed emotional interference.

“Cole Grace,” Viria said and he looked up at her, regaining a professional composure and seating himself again, “I understand you’re a man of justice and that you set examples and not all talk. But I think it would be more just to hear them out first. What they did wasn’t entirely a crime.”

“They knew they would be hurting people,” he said, voice hardening. Viria’s mouth quirked and Mitch was left confused about her reaction.

He’s so hard on himself, she thought pitifully, It interferes with protocol and reason.

“Are you not interested in what drove them to do so?”

“Criminals need to be held accountable nevertheless.”

Viria clicked her tongue, cocking her head, “That was not what I was talking about.”

“Viria…” Ivanna said warningly, but she raised her hand to silence her.

“Cole, who matters to you?”

“The people of this realm.”

“What is it of theirs that matter to you most?”

“Their safety.”

“And do you not get to the root of what threatens it? Is it not important to understand how and why criminals work the way they do? It’s not about the right of a criminal to a voice, but the indirect right of your people to their own voice that could protect them. There will be many amongst your people who could become criminals. How would you avoid the mistake if you do not listen to the outcome?”

Viria knew the only reason he was listening to her at all was because she had a reputation, he had an impression to make, and that they weren’t all that well-acquainted for him to comfortably interrupt her on her territory. He may be reforming the Council of Elders, but she had the public influence and she knew how powerful people could be against authority. So did he.

“I shall consider hearing them out.” He sighed.

“That is very much appreciated,” Viria said with a slight nod and drew a symbol on the table with a glowing finger, flicking it with her thumb and middle finger to the center of the table. It floated in the air and the platform on which the prisoners were placed rose to the surface, visible up to their chests.

“Would you like to talk to them alone?” she asked. Cole nodded. He couldn’t trust himself to speak. After all, it had been over ten years he’d seen his twin brother.