Cai reached for one of Bahati’s vegetables and she turned
her skewer around to threaten him with the pointed end. “Most of the people
who live here are outcasts,” he said practically, snagging a bit of green
pepper. “What do they care?”
Ville leaned forward, staring hard at his friend. “You’re
not telling us everything.”
Cai’s eyes went round and startled, then he laughed. “I
forgot how good you were at reading people.” He sighed. “Okay, so it’s not
just that. People here have been enlightened. They also know the truth.”
Bahati hissed at him and I could have sworn she kicked him
under the table. He ignored her. “Look Ville, you know as well as I do that
there is one hell of a big wool being pulled over our eyes. Why do you suppose
our two clans go to such great lengths to put distance between our
territories? Why haven’t you ever heard of a Fallen and a Shifter dating, or
having kids?”
Bahati’s smile was growing forced. “Cai…” she warned.
He waved a hand at her. “It’s Ville,” he said emphatically.
“I trust him with my life. Besides, he needs to know these things. He needs
to know the truth so he can take his ass home and fix the problem.”
Ville held up a hand. “I’m not going home.” He linked
his hand in mine. “Neither of us is. We’d be killed if people knew the truth
about our relationship.”
Cai narrowed his eyes at me. “Who are you?”
I widened my eyes and spoke slowly as if he were stupid.
“Wren.”
He let out a rich guffaw, but Bahati drummed her fingers
on the table, a small frown wrinkling her brow. “I know you,” she said
softly. “I just don’t know why I know you… red-head… wolf…named after a tiny
little bird….” I glanced at Ville and he shrugged. Apparently, he trusted
them with our identities. Bahati sat up straight as illumination struck. “Oh
hell,” she said softly. “Oh Gods and Angels.”
Cai looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Mind
sharing your epiphany, dear?”
Her shock crumpled into gasping laughter. “Absolutely
amazing! Cai, I think maybe you’re right. They just might be able to do
something if they know the truth!” She elbowed him in the ribs. “She’s
royalty too.”
“Hardly,” I muttered under my breath.
A slow smile spread over Cai’s face, and his expression
took on a fervent glow. He leaned forward intently. “It’s the humans,” he
said in a hushed tone. “They’re behind it all. The assassinations, the
disagreements, all the misleading information. They want us to keep fighting.
It’s all just carefully orchestrated genocide!”
I frowned at him. Ville could have at least warned me that
his friend was a nutcase. “Conspiracy theory,” I muttered. “The humans are
practically helpless. They depend on us for protection.”
Bahati picked up our plates and headed inside. Obviously,
she’d heard his spiel before. Cai’s face turned red. “It’s not just a
conspiracy theory. It’s an actual conspiracy. Think, Ville, think! You think
the Shifters killed your mother. The Shifters think the Fallen killed their
queen. You both think you protect the weaker species from each other.” He ran
his hands through his hair. “We pay the humans to supply us with everything
from textiles to farm machinery because we are so busy fighting.” He threw up
his hands in frustration. “Isn’t your relationship alone enough proof that they
are trying to keep us apart?”
We both looked at him blankly. “What do you mean?”
Ville’s voice was soft, not harsh and incredulous as mine would have been.
What a fruitcake!
Cai sat back and stared at us. “You’re kidding, right?
The bond. The increased power. The empathy, telepathic connection…” he looked
back and forth between us. “How long have you been bonded?”
I wrinkled my brow at him. Telepathy? Ville flushed and
looked uncomfortable. “I don’t see how that has any bearing…”
Bahati came back outside, not bothering to latch the
door. It stayed open a crack, and she left it that way. “It matters,” she
said. She came to stand looking down at me. “How many times has he bitten
you?”
I swallowed. “Uh…three, I suppose.” Then I remembered
the train. “No, four…or…maybe five?”
She smirked. “But you’ve only had sex recently?”
I gritted my teeth and Ville put his head in his hands.
“Yes.”
She laughed. “They don’t know,” she said to Cai.
“They’ve only just established a real bond.”
Ville lifted his head. “Are you saying the bond between
us has increased our powers?”
Bahati nodded. “Not only that, but changed them in some
fundamental way. Ville, you may be able to do some alchemy. And Wren’s magic
may have the flavor of the wind.”
I glanced at Ville. “I can feel your energy, and
it’s…connected to mine.” Even after the first time he bit me, we had been
connected somehow. I recalled the vivid dreams of him. And what Raven had
said about my magic.
Ville glanced at Cai. “Okay, so we’re bonded. How does
this prove that the humans are our secret enemy?”
Bahati sighed. “Iris, come here.”
I followed her gaze back toward the house. The door
slowly creaked open to reveal an adorable little girl. She stepped out onto
the patio and the light reflected off the glossy feathers of her perfect little
tawny colored wings. Bahati motioned her on out. “Come introduce yourself
honey.”
She came to the table and stood staring up at Ville and me
with her huge violet eyes. Then she smiled and scrabbled up onto the seat
between us. “I’m Iris,” she said proudly. “I’m three.” She held up three
stubby little fingers.
Cai grinned. “That’s right honey.”
The little girl wiggled her rear end, settling in. “I got
a new ball today,” she announced. “After dinner I can play with it.” She
looked at Cai. “Daddy…”
He nodded. “You can play in a minute honey.”
I studied her small, cherubic face then turned to face Cai
and Bahati, thunderstruck. “She yours. Both of yours?”
*****
I tossed the brightly colored ball around the little
courtyard with Iris. I’d never been around kids much, but her exuberance was
catching, and I was grinning like a kid myself. It was a little sad how happy
she was just to have someone to play with.
“We have to keep the children out of the public eye,” Cai
had explained. “Otherwise word of their existence would spread, and the humans
are always watching…”
There were too many of the winged children to explain in a
town with such a small Fallen population, so Iris and the others attended a
“private school” during the day, where they were kept hidden away from any
strangers who might pass through town. This certainly explained why Ville and
I were greeted with suspicion when we had arrived in Ansil. The children were
given covert play dates sometimes, in the wee hours of the night, but they were
rare. Iris was thrilled to have “new big people,” that she could talk to.
Bahati went about the courtyard lighting tiki torches, and
the place was filled with a soft glow. She paused to light an oil lamp on the
table, and I noticed that her magic was different. She wasn’t using alchemic
compounds to make fire the way a Shifter would. Instead, fire just sprang to
life between her fingers.
Ville’s eyes met mine before he looked at Cai. “Tell us
about the bond.”
He sighed and shook his head, the soft light glinting off
his blond hair. “There’s just so much you’ve been missing out on.” He grinned.
“You’ll have noticed, I think, that you don’t need blood as often if it’s from
Wren?”
Ville’s eyes met mine and I flushed. “Isn’t that just
because I’ve got more spirit energy than a human?” I had just assumed that my
blood was stronger than his usual fare.
Ville and Cai answered at the same time. “No.”
Cai paused and glanced at his friend, laughter flitting
about his thin lips. Ville’s eyes were still on me, and I suddenly felt too
warm. “It’s you,” he said softly. “I don’t think anyone else would do, now.”
Cai nodded, ignoring my embarrassment. Iris tugged on my
shirt and I picked her up, my attention still on the adults. “We’re like two
sides of the same coin,” Bahati said softly. “Two halves of the same soul.”
She had come to stand behind Cai, placing a hand on his
shoulder, and he covered her hand with his. “It’s a powerful connection. Your
powers complete each other.” He cocked a tawny eyebrow at us. “Haven’t you
ever thought it strange how perfectly opposite Shifters and Fallen are?” He
gestured at the lamp. “Take fire for example. We can both make it. Shifters
use alchemy to create combustion using specific elements. Fallen use energy to
heat something until it burns. But Bahati and I- we don’t need the elements or
a physical object to focus energy on. We can simply create the flame.” He
held out his hand and a little tongue of fire coiled along his fingers and was
gone.
I stared at him, wide-eyed. “Are you saying that by…by… bonding,
we’ve combined our powers?”
Ville’s eyes were sharp and intent. “Does this always
happen?”
Bahati nodded. “If there is a bond. It’s not just any
pair, you understand, but the right pair. You have to find the matching half.”
Panic fluttered up under my ribs and I grasped Ville’s
hand. Iris slithered to the ground to chase lightening bugs. “How do you
know? How do you know if you’ve found the right one?”
Ville’s eyes lifted to mine and I thought I could feel his
worry. “Not that it matters,” I said immediately. “I don’t care about
anything else, as long as I have you. I’m just…curious.”
Cai laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure you two are
meant to be together.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “But to answer your
question, you’ll see the changes.” He glanced at his wife. “First I started
being able to feel her when she wasn’t even in the room. I’d know when she was
upset, or lonely, or when she was really happy.”
Ville slowly let out his held breath and pulled me over to
sit on his lap. “I’ve been able to do that for a long time now.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “You have?”
“Yes, when I least expect it. At first, it was somewhat
inconvenient, but I’ve gotten used to it. I actually enjoy feeling what you’re
feeling.” He smiled down at me. “It’s like a rollercoaster.”
I glowered at him. “Glad you’re enjoying the ride.” But
he had only confirmed my own suspicions. Sometimes I got hints of feelings
that I didn’t think belonged to me. I suddenly recalled the time, just before
we learned of the emperor’s death. That pain and grief I’d felt. It had been
Ville’s pain, his loss.
Bahati laughed at us. “Don’t worry, we’re still learning
new things about our bond, and we’ve been together for years.” Her eyes darted
to Iris, still chasing fireflies. “It’s her I wonder about, though. We had to
find each other to be whole. She’s the genuine article. Who knows what power
she and the other children possess?”
Cai nodded. “And now we’re back to the humans- can you
see now?”
Ville took a deep breath, looking haunted. “They’ve been
keeping us apart- keeping the Fallen and Shifters from bonding, so we are
weaker, and smaller in number.”
I stared into his icy blue eyes, feeling utterly lost at
the enormity of it all.
*****
I lay on my stomach, a fluffy pillow propped under my
chest as I watched the gauzy curtains around our bed dancing in the soft breeze.
The posts of the bed were big white pillars, and the whole room carried the
southern gothic flare that seemed to be popular here. I turned my head to
study my beautiful companion. Ville was stretched out on his back, one arm
behind his head. His long, dark lashes rested on his pale skin, but I knew he
was still awake. I felt a vague twinge of embarrassment over what we had just
done in Cai’s guest room, and I reminded myself, with a continuous sense of
wonder, that we were married.
We had shown somewhat more restraint this time, with the
thought of little Iris fresh in our minds. Cai was right. Both the Fallen and
the Shifters had very low birth rates, which kept our populations much smaller
than that of the humans. If the clans knew that our species were compatible in
this way, they just might overlook the taboo of cross-clan relationships. And
the humans would have a lot to lose if that were to happen.
I trailed a hand over the smooth, defined planes of Ville’s
chest and down across his lean ribs, my fingers bumping along over the swells
of muscle. He twitched away slightly and I brushed my fingers over his side
again. He snorted and I relented, grinning. My big, fearsome monster was
ticklish.
I paused in my exploration, running a fingernail over a
rough, shiny scar that started below the curve of one beautiful peck and arced
downward across his ribs, and onto his back. It was only visible on close
inspection, but it was a large scar and it looked like it hadn’t healed very
well. “A shifter blade?”
I glanced up to find him watching me. He pressed his chin
to his chest as he tried to see the scar. “I almost lost one of my generals.
When I went back for him, I ended up with that. It wasn’t a very deep wound,
but since it was an enchanted blade, it took a week or so to heal.” He dropped
his head and gave me a crooked grin. “It itched like hell while it was
healing. And I thought Ibbe’s nagging would kill me.”
I curled my toes into the bed and pushed myself forward to
plant a kiss on the old wound. He reached out and took my right hand, turning
it over so my palm was bathed in the warm light coming in the window. “And
this? Did you get it in battle?”
I shook my head. “No. It was a Shifter weapon.”
He looked at me curiously. “And it left a scar? I
thought your blades were only enchanted against our kind.”
I curled my fingers inward, covering the thin scar that
spanned the width of my palm. “My father’s blade is poison-tipped to slow
healing. It works on Fallen and Shifters alike. Only the king is allowed to
use the poison.” It was created by the clan’s most powerful alchemist.