Chapter 8

Alador

He’d looked for her throughout the rest of the day, but she’d vanished as surely as the Under Goblin had.

And though the castle was still warmed by magical white flames that refracted with every color of the rainbow, and there was a bounty of foods set out for he and the children whenever one of them even so much as stepped foot in the dining hall...the castle felt strangely empty without her in it.

He suspected she might be guarding the castle, ensuring no harm befell them. But he also suspected very strongly that she’d run away from him this morning.

Because of that touch.

That touch that’d rocked him to his very core.

He sighed. The only thing he’d been able to do after that was to keep a close eye on the children and make sure nothing happened to them, or against anyone else.

But they’d been happy...or rather as happy as could be expected under these conditions. Even Kai had come out of his shell a little and was laughing with Gerda as they’d eaten their lunch of soup and sandwiches.

Alador had taken the children to go exploring the castle proper once done. Eventually stumbling into a room that had been created with the express purpose of being a child’s paradise.

There was an endless array of plush toys, dazzling costumes for play, and stacks of children’s books.

The children had run into the room with delight, and he’d sat in a corner, taking turns glancing out the ice-paned window as he looked for her.

The children had settled down finally, playing quietly with each other, giggling over an icy checkerboard as Gerda bested Kai in a second round.

They’d had their fill of candies and sweets, it seemed whenever the children even mentioned it a silver tray of Turkish delights would appear to them, only to be gobbled down in the very next instant.

She had done this.

Provided above and beyond what she’d needed to, and asking for no words of praise in return.

She truly sought nothing from them.

And it bothered Alador more and more.

Turning his left palm over he stared at the marking for at least the tenth time, tracing the spidery lines of a snowflake that’d appeared on it the second he’d touched her shoulder.

He’d felt the bite of frost rage through him, but rather than make him want to scream, make him want to turn and run and hide, he’d craved more.

He’d not suffered from the burn, but instead had been consumed by it in a different way entirely.

Even now, remembering the way her power had rippled through him, had roared through his veins like a lion seeking whom it could devour, he shuddered.

Clenching his fingers tight as the tiny snowflake in his palm burned bright.

But on the heel of that powerful emotion came a thought...what did this marking mean exactly? Had she bespelled him, or—as he was more inclined to believe—had he been marked because his soul recognized its mate?

The thought so startled him that he shook his head. It wasn’t possible. Centaurs didn’t mate. Not in the traditional sense.

Except they did.

Though the herd often denied it, saying it was unnatural to be loyal just to one, there were rare and few cases of it. Chester and Kym, and even a few others in history.

There was even a mating ritual that was often taught to them as children, though they all laughed because surely it was nothing more than fables and fairy tales...every centaur knew what to do if by some bizarre stroke of fortune they were blessed to find one.

The door opened then—cutting him off from his thoughts—and a maiden with short blue hair that stood up shockingly like frosted icicles on her head, peeked her head in. “Time for bed, children,” she said softly.

“Have the castle grounds been checked over?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Yes. Astrid and the mistress have built snow monsters who are even now guarding the exits of the castle. And there are dark magic yeti’s in the castle proper.

He lifted a brow.

But she’d routed his question before he could even ask it.

“The queen built them to detect the dark magick traces of the Under Goblin. If he returns, we will know it.”

Gerda and Kai turned to look up at Alador.

“We’re frightened,” Gerda said softly, all smiles they’d worn earlier now gone as she grabbed hold of Kai’s little hand. “Can we sleep in your room, Alador?”

He shook his head. “No. I’ve nothing but piles of straw, it is not nearly suitable for children.”

“Do not worry, children,” the maiden said as she stepped inside, and unlike before when the maidens had been dressed as scullery maids, this one was dressed in thick icy plates of battle armor, “you shall each have a guard standing just outside your doors. The Goblin will not return this night, he’d be foolish to try.”

Alador wasn’t so sure, but had no wish to frighten the children either.

Holding out her hands to them, she waited for the children to slip their hands into hers.

“I will check on you before I go to bed.” Alador promised. Then looking at the ice maiden he said, “Perhaps the guards should—”

As though knowing his thoughts, she smiled serenely. “We know what’s happened this morning, and we’re now prepared. An attack such as that will not occur again.”

Alador raked his gaze down her form, studying the body armor again. Not that he didn’t believe that they’d try to be prepared, but even he couldn’t fathom how a slight child like Gerda had been able to take on Antigua in the first place.

“Do not worry, male,” the ice maiden repeated, “the yeti’s can taste dark magick, if the Goblin returns, we will know it.”

He supposed there was nothing more to be said after that. It didn’t sit right with Alador to leave the children alone, and yet, he knew he’d have no choice but to stay with Luminesa in case the ice demons returned.

Gerda nodded slowly. But Kai pursed his lips tightly. The boy was upset.

Understandable really. No doubt he was worried about his family. Worried about how to leave this place. He might be younger than Gerda, but Kai seemed to better understand the kind of danger they now found themselves in.

Tomorrow Alador would make an extra effort to comfort the boy as best he could. But right now he needed to find the queen.

They needed to talk about what’d happened this morning.

Once the children were out the door, he stood, and went in search of her.

~*~

Luminesa

Luminesa heard his footsteps long before he’d entered the glass room.

She did not move from her spot, didn’t turn her face to look at him, she continued to gaze up at the nighttime sky ablaze with winter’s kiss.

But she did light the hearth behind them, filling it with the heat of frost fire, a lambent flame that would not melt ice but warmed the room up.

He inhaled deeply, pausing only once he’d gotten to her side.

“The moon is so full tonight,” she said softly, taking a quick second to glance at him.

He nodded.

The moon looked triple the size it normally should, a giant, glowing orb filling up the navy sky with its soft radiance and turning the snowstorm into a crystalline shower of light.

“Thank you for going out of your way to keep us warm, I know it cannot be comfortable for you,” he said.

Hugging her arms to her breasts, she turned, looking up at the tall, exotic male and wondering all over again why it was that she felt so relaxed in his presence.

“You’re welcome. But it is not uncomfortable for me.”

Those green eyes she’d dreamt about last night studied her so intently that for just a moment, Luminesa forgot how to breathe.

And the world around them ceased to exist.

She forgot about the snow outside, the howling winds, the children sleeping warmly in their fur-lined beds, the Goblin’s riddle, or even the fact that if she couldn’t figure out his game in a month’s time she’d cease to be who she was.

What she was.

Because right now, the only thing she could focus on was Alador. And how his words from last night continued to haunt her.

“I do feel,” she finally admitted into the heavy silence that hugged them.

The muscle in his jaw tensed.

“Keenly,” she whispered.

“I am sorry. I should not have—”

But she didn’t let him finish, instead she shook her head. If she was going to be honest with him, if she was going to open her heart to him then she couldn’t look him in the eye as she did it.

And as much as it hurt to turn away from him, she did. She faced that night sky and whispered her truths out into the world for the first time since the dawn of her rebirth.

“I ran away from you this morning because what you did, when you touched me, it broke something in me.”

“I am—”

“No.” She shook her head. If he said anything else she’d lose what little dregs of bravery she now possessed and would never be able to get this out. “Please just listen.”

From the corner of her eye she saw him nod.

Turning her palm over, she stared at the horse hoof marking that’d appeared not to long after he’d touched her. She wasn’t sure what it meant, all she knew was anytime she touched her finger to it, a shot of warmth pulsed up her arm like a welcoming wave and that somehow, someway...Alador was becoming so much more to her than just another centaur male.

Taking a deep breath, she plunged feet first into her tale.

“Long ago,” she began, “I was not the woman you see today.”

The only sound she heard was his steady, but heavy breathing. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine that it was just her here; that no one else was around, that no one could hurt her again. That she was safe and protected. It was easier to speak that way, when she was separated from the rest of humanity, when there was no one around to make her feel...alone.

Thinking back on that day a hundred years ago, Luminesa finally let herself give it life again.

“I thought I’d known him. Or known him well enough to feel safe in going to his tent.”

She tracked the flurry of snowflakes that fell right in front of her, swirling and twirling in the blustery wind. Her eyes were glued to the night, awaiting the first flicker of ruby red demon eyes.

Her heart thundered in her chest.

Luminesa recalled that night with the type of startling clarity that usually only came from a fresh memory. But no matter how many years passed, how many lifetimes she walked through, or how many silent admonishments she’d given herself that Josiah of Scarta no longer lived, she could also never forget.

His callused palm landed on her shoulder, and just like before his touch burned her to her core. A fire that she didn’t want to leap back from, but rather, jump headlong into.

He was giving her a chance to change course, a chance not to say the words hovering on the tip of her tongue. Words that she’d swallowed for so long that giving them life now felt a lot like squaring off against a demon crawling straight from the deepest, darkest pits of perpetual fire.

The first tear rolled down her cheek, crystalizing the moment it fell off her chin.

“His name was Josiah of Scarta. A man I’d known all my life. We’d been raised together as children in the same, little village. I thought I knew him.”

Funny how time could pass, a hundred years, but always some memories—the ones that cut through a person’s soul—could remain just as startlingly clear today as they had the day it’d happened.

She’d been a bar keep at a local tavern. An unassuming, mild mannered woman with brown hair and brown eyes...nothing truly extraordinary about her. She’d liked people and generally thought the best of them.

“The genie woman—Nixie—she walked into my tavern. She’d come on an errand from her newest master. Josiah said he wanted to see me again.”

Looking out the window, she didn’t see the snow dusted plains of night, but the depth of sorrow in Nixie’s eyes as she’d asked the favor of Luminesa. Compelled by her own bonds of servitude to perform. Luminesa had known immediately that Nixie hadn’t wanted to do what she’d been forced to do.

It’d been that hesitation that’d compelled Luminesa to go, not for Josiah, but for the slave woman. To save her the heartache of forcing Luminesa to go if she chose not to do it willingly.

“So you went, to spare the genie the pain of using her magic to compel your willingness.”

Alador’s deep voice, so wise, so full of insight, caused her to tremble. Why did she like him so much? She hardly knew him, and yet, he was the first male since the night with Josiah that she genuinely liked.

He took her hand.

And she let him.

Even as every molecule inside of her froze. Because once again she was bombarded by emotions. The warm feeling rippling through her stomach in waves from the rough feel of his ridged palms and fingers.

The smell of him invaded her brain, a mix of moss, earth, pine, and man.

Her fingers were so pale compared to his bronzed ones. Slender, and small, to his large, strong ones.

She couldn’t help but look at him, and was drowned by that malachite gaze that pierced right through her soul.

Yesterday morning when they’d met he’d been what everyone else had ever been to her, distrustful, uneasy, angry even. So what had changed between now and then?

He bent his forelegs and then his back, kneeling on the floor and bringing her down with him.

Again she suffered the thought that she should shake free of him. But his was the first touch that made her feel something other than dead inside, and goddess help her, but she was coming to crave more.

Then his strong forearm banded tight around her waist, and he dragged her flush to his side, so that she was settled upon him in a half sitting, half supine position.

His scent of earth and horseflesh was a delicious combination that made her body tingle in a most unusual way.

His eyes never left her face through the entire process, as though asking without words if what he did were okay.

It was strange.

They’d hardly knew one another, and had he been any other male (even a centaur one) she’d have flashed him in ice for the impertinence. But something deep inside of her recognized something deep inside of him, even if she didn’t know exactly what it was yet.

So she nodded instead. Letting him know that ‘yes, it was okay.’

Settling her shoulders against his strong body, she smiled as she suddenly slipped into a curve that fitted her like a snug pillow. A perfect little rounded bend that seemed as though it’d been shaped just for her.

Because they still needed to remain vigilant to the demons that could come crashing toward them at any moment, she changed the walls of the room from opaque to see through, so that from every corner of her nook she could see the outside, could see the gusting snow, could see the dance of the aurora borealis sway through the nighttime sky.

Luminesa hoped the demons would not return, but deep down...she knew the Goblin’s cruel games had only just begun.

Then twisting her fingers together, she played with her magic. Creating a design, she wasn’t quite sure what yet, but she didn’t think, simply allowed the magic to move through her as she spoke.

Sometimes releasing a bit of the ice magic was enough to help her settle her equilibrium.

“I went to Josiah’s tent that night. Such a simple-minded fool I was then,” she said it softly, her words echoed through the empty chamber, bouncing back at them teasingly. “But I’d gone to him before, with no issues. I’d assumed that night would be no different than the ones before it. He and I had grown up together after all, I’d thought us...if not friends, well known acquaintances, what could I possibly have to fear from him?”

All of sudden Alador’s fingers had begun combing through the thick locks of her hair. She’d forgotten that she’d unpinned it for bed, but she’d been so restless and full of thoughts that she’d gotten up and come down here instead.

He was gentle as he slid his fingers through her blue curls. Tugging gently on them, but never painfully.

She sighed, scalp tingling pleasantly as he did so. “To be touched again is...”

Her words trailed off as she fought to look for the right word to describe what she felt.

But he’d stilled in his ministrations of her. “I am sorry,” he said, as he disentangled his fingers from her hair. “We centaurs enjoy the act of combing out one another’s hair during storytellings. I forget that you—”

Twisting, she looked up at him.

His face was screwed up in a grimace and her heart lurched because she didn’t want him thinking he’d done anything wrong.

Grabbing the hand nearest her, she guided it back to her head, keeping her palm over the top of his.

His flesh hot. Her flesh cold.

Moving into each other, but not causing pain.

She’d always thought touching another would hurt. That her body wouldn’t be able to stand the shock of warmth again. And though she felt her body thawing out under his hand, it didn’t hurt the way it had when she’d been in the Under Goblin’s domain.

“What I was going to say, horse, was...being touched by another after so long is a wonder.”

Gradually the tightness around his eyes relaxed, and the outer edges of his lips curled up before finally blooming into the type of smile that shone brighter than the sun itself.

His entire face lit up and again her heart went crazy, pounding so hard against her ribcage that it was almost painful.

“Horse,” he murmured, but then chuckled beneath his breath, shaking his head in humored exasperation.

And for just a second a grin flashed across her face too.

But then he started brushing his fingers through her hair again and she sighed with overwhelming contentment, continuing to weave particles of ice.

The mood grew calm between them, peaceful. And slowly she was lulled back into that memory, but not with fear as it used to be.

For so long she’d thrown shields up, running away anytime the memories tried to surge up. Making herself busy in any way she could so that she wouldn’t have to think back on them.

But here, with him, this was a safe place. Quiet.

“Josiah had been drinking. I smelled the stench of liquor on his breath the moment I’d neared him.”

She clenched her jaw, remembering his shifty eyes, and the way his dark skin had gleamed with sweat. How his thinning hair had clung to the sides of his portly neck.

He’d changed so much since she’d last seen him that shock had kept her feet rooted to the ground. And though her mind had niggled a warning that all wasn’t right, for reasons she still couldn’t fathom, she’d stayed.

“He asked me to marry him again,” she said the words so low they barely registered above a whisper.

Alador had begun braiding the thick strands of her hair, his touch as gentle as the glide of a butterfly’s wing against her skin.

“I said no.” She shook her head, a thick lump wedged itself in the back of her throat and the heat of tears burned behind her eyes. She trembled. “I shouldn’t have said no. Maybe I could have gotten away from him if I’d lied.”

Alador’s fingers stopped moving and in a voice as deep as the trenches of Seren, he rumbled, “What happened, Luminesa?”

Her mouth parted. That was the first time he’d ever called her by her true name.

Placing her hand atop of his, she turned to look up at him. His eyes were hard, furious, and his beautiful lips that were usually so soft and easy to smile were now thin, angry slashes.

“He took me. Over and over. And when I screamed too loud the third time because it hurt, he cut out my tongue.” A lone tear slipped from the corner of her eye.

With gentle fingers, he reached over and took that crystalized tear off her cheek and then in a gesture she’d not expected, he brought it to his lips and kissed it.

His warmth melted it back into water.

Her lips parted.

“There can be no gift greater than the trust of a woman’s tears,” he said softly, but then his countenance turned hard once more, “what happened to Josiah?”

Inside those words Luminesa heard the steely ring of fury.

“The genie returned the next morning and discovered what he’d done to me. She killed him,” she said succinctly, shaking off the melancholy like a dog would shake water from its fur, “and since she’d already broken faith and knew she faced severe discipline for what she’d done, she did one more thing for me. She saved me. She asked me to make a wish, and I did.”

His eyes raked her. “You wished to become an Ice Queen?”

“Not exactly,” she shook her head, “but I wished for no man to ever hurt me again. And none have. She turned me into ice. And then she was gone. Punished for what she’d done. I was lost and scared and didn’t know what to do. I no longer trusted men, but as I lingered on the fringe of society I noticed that it wasn’t simply men who couldn’t be trusted, but women too. The hearts of humans are wicked, full of such hate and mischief, I could no longer be around any of them. And so I fled. To the most distant cap of Kingdom and I made my home. Away from everyone. Or so I thought.”

She sighed. Recalling her first encounter with the Under Goblin. She’d been inclined to think kindly of him after a decade with no form of contact with anyone but her land creatures, she’d been lonely and had had time to think, to mull over the possibility that not everyone was evil. That maybe a few were, but not all.

The Under Goblin had been worse than most though, and had only helped to further cement her hatred of all bipedal species.

Alador finished braiding her hair. When he got to the end, he lifted it up for her to inspect. Raising her finger, she touched it to the tip and called forth a jet of ice to act as a tie, locking the braid in place.

Smiling gently, he laid it across her shoulder. But rather than move his hand away as she’d expected he kept it glued to her upper arm. His warm touch making her body burn in more than one place.

His thumb rubbed gently upon her skin.

Inhaling deeply, he laid his head against her shoulder.

Luminesa knew from years of studying the centaurs that they were a naturally affectionate bunch. That often they touched and petted one another, and not as a form of flirtation but as a way of establishing the hierarchy between them.

So, this was probably nothing special to him. But to her...it literally meant everything.

It was all she could do not to turn around, throw her arms around his neck, and beg him to hold her. Just hold her. No kisses. No intimate touches. Just the contact was enough to remember that once she’d lived. Once she’d known what laughter had been. Once she’d been whole...

“Thank you for honoring me with your truth,” he said solemnly.

Luminesa swallowed hard, continuing to twist and turn the strands of ice through her fingers, not paying attention to what it was she was creating.

“I do not want you thinking badly of me, male. The truth is, I’m years out of practice when it comes to socializing, and while humans are no favorites of mine, I will do everything in my power to return those children to their family.”

She felt his nod and her stomach dove straight to her knees. She never wanted his touches to end. Never wanted to walk away from this night, all she wanted now was to close her eyes and go to sleep.

“Queen, may I speak frankly with you?” he asked.

Turning to him, she nodded. “Yes, but I wish you would simply call me Luminesa.”

“Then, Luminesa, I would ask you to never blame yourself again for what he did. For those crimes committed, were not your own, but his alone. He deserved his death. And I am only sorry that you had to suffer as you did.”

For years she had blamed herself. Blamed herself for not running away, for not heeding the still small voice that warned her all wasn’t right with Josiah. She’d blamed herself for not acting contrary to who she was. She’d been so worried that she’d hurt his feelings after her rejection of him that she’d stayed and tried to comfort him. Only to further escalate his hate and anger by doing so.

And though Josiah had very nearly killed her that night, and intellectually she understood that everything that’d happened had been his fault, she’d been unable to stop herself from believing in some small way that at least part of it had been hers too.

That’d been a burden almost unbearable to her.

“What would your sister have done if this had happened to her?” she asked.

Alador lifted his head, and she missed the stinging warmth of his touch on her shoulder. Looking directly at her, he said, “She’d have snipped his balls off, then strung and quartered him.”

Sadness permeated every inch of her being. “No centauress would have allowed herself to have been caught as I was.”

His thumb tilted her chin up. There was a frown marring his brows. “Centaurs are intelligent thoughtful creatures but do not believe for a moment that we aren’t warring creatures too. The capacity for violence exists in all species, Luminesa, not merely your humans. What you just described has sadly happened to members of my tribe, to both the men and the women. Haxion however is a trained warrior as skilled with her sword as she is with her tongue,” he grinned, which caused her to return one in kind, “but you weren’t. The fight was never fair.”

Unable to look at the tenderness he transmitted to her, she glanced down at her hands only to discover that the ice threads she’d been weaving had somehow turned into a glasswork image of a proud centaur male who bore a striking resemblance to the one beside her.

Alador, noticing that too, lifted the fragile ice sculptor off her palm.

She’d expected him to say something to her about it, but he didn’t.

“Luminesa, why has the Goblin targeted you as he has?”

She sighed. “I wish I knew, I can only speculate.”

He shrugged. “Then speculate. At least it’s a start.”

Crossing her legs at the ankles, she leaned back into that comfortable crook of his. “Once, long ago, we had a relationship of sorts. I was lonely.”

She chuckled sadly, embarrassed to admit to the friendship.

He tilted her chin up. “We all make mistakes now and again.” He sighed. “What happened? Because all of this feels incredibly personal and much more than just wanting a bit of land back.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.” And it was true. She rolled her wrists. “But maybe I do. All I know is once I discovered the wicked heart he had, I could not remain with him. After that he made it his personal mission in life to turn mine into a living hell. But it seems ridiculous to think that he’s come after me merely because I may have broken his heart. It is not possible that he actually has one.”

Alador frowned. His thumb rubbed gently along her chin. “Even the most evil among us loves at least one thing.”

Her jaw dropped. It wasn’t possible. Had she really broken his heart? It couldn’t be. Just couldn’t be.

He nodded. “Love can be a treasure, but it can also be a twisted, cruel thing that shouldn’t even be called love at all.”

She shivered.

They stared at one another for what felt like an eternity. And when he moved his hand away from her, she almost wanted to weep.

Luminesa hated how desperate she’d become for his touch, but there was no denying to herself now that she craved it.

“You’re a woman worth going crazy for,” he whispered into the stillness.

And for a second she was so stunned by those words that she didn’t know what to say. When she finally found her tongue, she snorted and made a joke of it, but only because thinking too long on those words was much too dangerous to her heart. “You’re very strange, horse. But I like it.”

She hadn’t meant to say that, but the teasing laughter just slipped out of her. It was so easy to be herself with him, it was actually a little scary how easy it was.

He snorted, but soon the mood turned serious.

“So we are bound together all of us in this strange world, until what?”

“Well, until I find the key to our release I suppose.”

“I think you mean we.”

“We?”

She looked at him. His thumb brushed the corner of her cheek as he tucked a thin curl of hair behind her ear.

“We.” He nodded. “We have a month to find this key. And no clues. You’ll need help.”

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “Why would you help me? I put you in this predicament in the first place.”

“No. Just like what happened with Josiah of Scarta, none of this is your fault, Luminesa. But you came here when you didn’t need to. You’ve built us a fortress to keep us safe from the cold outside, it would be my honor to assist you in anyway I could.”

She’d never known centaurs could be so honorable.

Or maybe...maybe it wasn’t all centaurs...maybe it was this male. Alador.

Luminesa was about to say something, when her words left her because the next thing she knew the castle had been rocked, booming thunderously and feeling as though it was going to fall down around their heads anytime now.

With a cry, they both shot to their feet, racing outside just as the next wave ice demons came bearing down on them.