I turned to see Khea and the queen holding both pairs of hands around the hilt of the single long-bladed knife, oblivious to the death of the tiger and both trying to keep their footing amidst the rumbling stones. A guard appeared behind me and attempted to hold my arms to my chest, but struggled to get me completely under his control.
“Your tiger is
dead
,” I shouted as I turned to punch the guard square in the face. The revelation had the desired effect: distracting the queen long enough for Khea to forcefully sink the blade into her chest.
The guard stopped to watch Khea kill Xiuhpilli, giving me the chance to push him back just as another bolt of lightning struck down. When the queen lay lifeless on the ground, Khea pulled the long blade out of her chest and drove it in again, over and over, until blood splattered her arms and face.
“Ladybird,” I said running over to her. She didn’t seem to hear me as she continued the mutilation of the fallen queen.
“
Ladybird
,” I said more quietly the second time, standing behind her with a hand on her shoulder. She turned, suddenly, to look at me with tears streaming down her face. Her hands flew up and wrapped around my neck tightly, and I lifted her off the stones as the world seemed to quiet.
A sharp breath plunged in as I struggled to comprehend that I was actually holding her again; her skin was pressed firmly against mine and the warmth of her flesh radiated through me–just as I had dreamt so many times in the last few weeks. I had to concentrate to remember where we were and what was going on around us. By the time I opened my eyes, I knew it was too late.
Guards began to approach the platform from every side, having an easier time of it since the shaking of the stones had stopped and rain had lessoned considerably. It quickly became clear that we were surrounded. I set Khea back down on the ground, prepared to fight off as many as I could.
I should have known there was no need. She used the bloody blade to cut the ropes from her wrists and pull the copper bands away from her skin, releasing the full range of her abilities.
The guards neared us on all sides but, in a moment of what must have been hallucination, they each stopped to kneel and place their knives on the stone platform.
“What’s going on?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. I can’t read them.” Without waiting for an answer, Khea lowered the platform to the ground, crumpling the stone monument like paper. A few guards that had been climbing the tower had only seconds to find a way back down before they were crushed.
Once our feet were firmly planted in the soil, the orange glow of the pit receded, and I knew she had cooled it. I pulled her over to where Tototl was still chained and looking shocked to still be alive.
“My queen,” he said when he was free, imitating the kneel the guards had shown.
I opened his thread and found the reason for all the kneeling: Nakben law considers the queen to be the successor, whether by election or combat. Khea had killed Xiuhpilli to save herself, but in the process she had unknowingly declared herself queen of the island nation.
The crowd that had gathered to witness the grand event could only stand in shock as Khea, Tototl, and I made our way back to the docks. Chimalmans kneeled on both sides of the street as we walked for several minutes. Children danced around us in circles through the mud as the rain subsided.
We had only been in the city square for less than an hour, but it had been enough to change our lives completely. I held Khea’s hand firmly in mine as we walked to the ship with blue sails and climbed aboard. Tototl selected several guards to operate the royal transport ship and quickly got us underway, for which we were all very thankful.
Khea and I slipped into one of the two rooms below deck and closed the door. At once, her hands flew around my neck again, and, for the first time since the Turtle, I had the opportunity to just stand and appreciate how good it felt to be near her again. I found a cloth and a jug of fresh water to gently wipe away the dried blood that dotted her chest and arms, and even a bit of her face. There was a long slick of dried blood down one arm from the knife wound, but she had healed it since then; the dark mark was all that remained. It took several minutes to get her cleaned up, but it gave me the chance to look at her, at every square inch of her, and take in all I had missed. Her blond hair fell over her otherwise bare chest in a look that I found I liked on her.
“How did you figure out how to block me?” she asked quietly a few minutes later.
“You gave me the ring. I thought that’s what it was for.”
“But you’re not wearing it.” I knew the ring couldn’t be seen by others, but surely Khea could see it, since she had been the one to charm it. I reached down and pulled it off my hand and set it in her palm.
“How’d you do that?”
“How should I know? You’re the one with all the tricks.” I teased her as I pushed her back onto the bed and kissed her forehead. I thought back to the tiger bursting into flame and marveled at how she could accomplish it even with the wrist cuffs limiting her Spark.
“I didn’t do that to the ring. Or the tiger.” She sent me her memory, her version of the events, and it didn’t include any attempts to incinerate anyone. Instead, she desperately wanted to use her impeded abilities to prevent anyone else from dying; she had been truly blocked by the copper bands. But if it wasn’t her, then who?
Surely Khasla didn’t come back from the grave to do it.
At the thought of Khasla, I couldn’t help but think of Jhoma, and then Micha, to picture his head rolling off his shoulders and plunging into the pit. Fresh tears streamed down my face as the memory resurfaced. I knew that men weren’t supposed to cry, to be weak, especially in front of a woman, but the events were too traumatic to be held back. Khea’s hands were quickly on my cheeks as she slid her body to lie next to mine and release tears of her own. For a long time, we just cried over the friends we lost and the agony of their deaths.
“Lark, if I could have–”
“I know. It’s not your fault.” It was Xiuhpilli’s fault, and Khea had killed her. There was nothing left for it, except to keep their memories alive and let time heal us.
We just lay in bed for a while longer before she said, “It was you.”
“What was?” She sent me my own vision of the tiger bursting into flames and collapsing into a pile of ash.
“Come on. I’m not a Striker.” She nodded and smiled at me.
And this, too.
Again, she sent me my own memory, this time the tower shaking and throwing a guard over the side. After that came Micha’s memory of removing the bandage from my shoulder, looking at the small scars that had formed in a week, and wondering how I might have healed so quickly. I winced as I remembered how comfortable I had been with Micha’s thoughts, and how I would never sense him again.
“Oh, so now I’m a Healer, too?” I was almost laughable, except it made me a little concerned for what had happened to her over the last few weeks.
“Lark Davies, I am
not
crazy.”
Oops.
I had gotten too used to having my thoughts to myself.
“Then what’s your suggestion?”
“Think about it. Do you think our Sparks match?”
“Without a doubt.” There was no way I was made to love anyone else in this world, and the only explanation was the Affinity. We were made to be together and there was no arguing it.
“And if I have abilities in many areas–”
“Then you think I do, too?” She nodded a sly smile as I considered the possibility. I had always been skilled at building a fire, and Avis had said I was gifted with languages, but it seemed pretty far-fetched.
“Go ahead. Ask.” Of course she knew my misgivings.
Why now? Why was I suddenly able to light a man on fire? I’ve never been able to do anything like that.
Something made you stronger.
Again with the sly smile. Clearly, I was missing something or I was just plain simple.
“Like what?” Instead of answering, she pulled my hand down to rest on the flat of her stomach. It clicked instantly, but I had no words. I was supremely relieved to have Khea back in my life, and now we were going to enrich our lives further. No man had any right to be so lucky.
Hearing my thoughts, she rolled me onto my back and straddled me beneath her. With her hair falling down, her bare chest was revealed in all its perfection and in prime location for me to get a good view. She lowered to meet my lips with hers and deliver a kiss I never thought I’d get the chance to experience again. It was hot, and strong, and sweet, and everything I’d dreamt about.
My hands couldn’t help but slide along her smooth skin from her shoulders to the sweet round cheeks barely concealed by the swath of light-blue fabric. We spent the next hour or so lost in our own world, experiencing the touch and the closeness we both thought we’d lost forever.
Instead of going to sleep, we wandered up on deck to find something to eat. She hadn’t eaten in two days, and I was going on at least six, though it didn’t seem that bad considering. Maybe we were just experts at being hungry or maybe our Sparks let us manage better than most. We sat on deck eating the queen’s fruit and cheese, with her back laying against my chest and watching the stars.
The Future
The sun baked us on the deck of the ship as my eyes flittered open and my mind tried to grasp all the events of the last few weeks. Had it all really happened? Had I lost Khea and miraculously managed to get her back again? Were Jhoma and Khasla and Micha really gone? Was Khea the queen now? It was a lot to wade through in the blur of the morning.
Rolling onto my back, I realized morning had come and gone without us. Tototl was standing guard over us a few feet away, looking miserable with exhaustion and ready to collapse at any moment. Khea still lay sleeping with her head on my arm and her back pressed to my side.
“Tototl, go. You need to rest,” I told him in Nakben with my hand shielding my face from the sun. He shook his head, determined to get us to the palace and safe before he would relax. There were at least thirty royal guards still on board to escort us, but he had made it his personal responsibility. Even after everything he’d been through, he was still loyal in a way I couldn’t completely grasp, but was nonetheless grateful for.
I argued with myself for several minutes about whether or not to wake Khea. Surely she would rest better in a comfortable bed fit for a queen, and it would be safer in the palace as well. But she looked so peaceful and perfect with her hair falling over her shoulders and chest as they moved with the rhythm of sleep. The privacy of the queen’s chambers would certainly be a welcome change to sneaking into the woods or the lower decks of the Turtle. Eventually, I decided it was time to go, and her safety was worth more than anything else.
“Ladybird,” I whispered quietly in her ear a moment before a deep inhale and her eyes flicking open.
“Good morning, handsome.” Immediately, my mind filled with her image of me poised over her on deck in that moment, with the sun behind me and my dark hair falling into my face a bit. I could only laugh that she had been having the same thoughts I had had about her only a moment before.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside.” I pulled myself to standing and leaned down to take her hand to help her up. As she stood before me, I moved her blonde hair down to cover her chest despite the smile on her face.
“I thought you liked this look,” she teased me.
“Oh I do. I just don’t want anyone else to get it.”
She lifted onto her toes to reach me and plant her soft, pink lips on mine before opening her mouth fully and letting my tongue explore. I was sure I would never, ever get used to the sound of my heart trying to escape my chest, but it was a feeling I was willing to work around.
Just as long as I have her with me.
Always
, came the melodic sound of her thoughts. She pulled my hand to walk towards the dock and let me help her down onto the wooden platform.
The people of Uxmal began to line the streets outside their intricately designed mud and thatch homes to watch as the queen approached her palace. Compared to the copper skin and dark hair of their previous queens, this tiny, ivory-skinned, blonde was a far cry from the norm. I could sense their awe and doubt, and I knew Khea could hear them as well. But they didn’t know her like I did, and they would never have a better queen.
Tototl was vigilant as he marched just behind us for the half-hour we walked casually through the capital before reaching the palace. The head of staff and the rest of the palace workers had already made arrangements for the new queen, but Tototl still asked her a dozen questions before he was satisfied
“Thank you, friend. Please rest,” I said to him quietly with a hand on his tall shoulder. He closed his eyes for a second too long, revealing his exhaustion and his decision. He trudged slowly down the hall after the head of staff to find a place to sleep. I sensed his determination to stay there with us, and I knew we would have him as long as he was willing.
“Lark, come on,” Khea pulled me along in the direction of the queen’s quarters and found the most spectacular room I’d ever seen. The walls were completely covered in deep blue velvet and there were two enormous windows–easily fourteen or fifteen feet high–facing the garden below. The bed appeared to be made of gold to match the walls of the palace, and the sheets were super fine silk in a pale blue.
“Your favorite color,” she laughed when she caught my thoughts. I pulled her over to the bed and pushed her down into the pillows that seemed to swallow her. A moment later I was crouched over her as her hands reached up to stroke the bare skin of my back. My hands tugged at the light blue fabric and narrow chain around her waist until they fell idly against the sheets.
It wasn’t just the color I loved, but her hands, and her skin, and her kindness, and her strength. She was better than me in every way, and I could only marvel and appreciate all that she was. I knew with complete certainty that I loved her with everything I had, and it would never change. I hoped my strong kiss with a hand on her neck would convey the power of my feelings for her, but, of course, there was no need.