Duty and Destiny

Archer had heard her mumbling a couple of things to herself. But never had he thought that he would be in the air without the support of his own wings. That a girl would dare challenge him by making him look helpless and her having all the control. But he liked it. His insides lurched as he was tossed into the air. He didn’t deploy his wings just yet. Archer was dropping and fast. He had the pleasure of seeing Adalia’s eyes bulge out in fright when he got close to the ground. When he thought he was close enough his wings shot out and in a second he was right beside Adalia.

“Why would you do something so stupid?” she wanted to punch him. But she couldn’t risk lunging at him, startling him and meeting his razor-sharp wings. The wings were fun, but they were also a weapon.

“The rush,” This was what he could control. To him, dropping from the sky and having those delicate couple of seconds for him to fly back up was something he could control. In that pocket of time, he controlled his life and his death.

“That wasn’t funny,” she was smiling but she didn’t find the whole idea of Archer dying to be hilarious. “You want to fly with me?”

He looked into her smiling eyes and all he wanted to say was yes. But his tongue was caught by the beauty in her wings. He wondered how they would look in the moonlight, but then he remembered. He had seen black wings in the moonlight, they weren’t hers but Xander. She was with him that night, flying with him. He couldn’t bear the thought of having left over. She had already had this experience with another man.

Archer’s wings stopped flapping. He froze and his wings were just as still as he was. Archer dropped to the ground but the air beneath his wings eased his way down. His feet touched the ground in a loud thud and a cloud of dirt rose around him. Adalia followed him down. Wondering what she could have said to disturb their tranquil moment together.

“What is it?” She followed him behind. But as much as she tried her tiny feet couldn’t match his long strides. Adalia let her wings out. She jumped midair and landed right in front of Archer. She used her wings to block his path and pulled him into them. It was like they were in their own little pocket of privacy.

Adalia didn’t drop her wings and Archer didn’t dare try to get through them. Archer skimmed his gaze over her then swallowed hard. She watched him, her gaze sliding down from his intense gaze to his jaw. Taking in the slide of his Adams apple then his broad full shoulders. She felt her stomach dance with nerves.

Adalia pressed her eyes closed then sucked in a quick breath determined to clear her head. “We need to talk,” she opened her eyes slowly to find him gazing at her. Her eyes were trying to look everywhere but at him but thanks to her impulsive thinking there was nowhere else to look.

“Look at me,” Archer wanted to gaze into her dark eyes. They always had a way of holding him in a moment. He loved seeing his reflection in her eyes because it made him feel like he was the only one she saw. He bit into his lower lip when a thread of sweat rolled down her neck and into her cleavage.

Adalia looked up and met his gaze. His eyes darkened with emotion, and she felt a visceral tightening in her stomach. “Ohm...yeah,” her eyes round up when he lifted his hand to her cheek. Her breath caught as his head lowered to hers. Their lips were inches from each other when an alarm rang in her head. What the hell was she doing? Adalia tucked her wings in her back and ran away.

Archer watched as she ran from him. He felt a tight knot form in his chest as sadness twisted through him as realization sank in. She wasn’t his. Adalia belonged to someone else.

“Archer?” Novia had been watching from her balcony. She flew down to her brother’s side. “It’s just me.”

He wasn’t used to people sneaking up on him. But that one single act from Adalia had numbed his senses. Archer turned around to his little sister and tucked and unusually stray hair behind her ear. “Hey little one. I hadn’t seen you there.”

“You look at her as if you love her.”

Archer took this as his cue to leave. He picked up his swords, bow and arrows and headed towards the palace.

“If you love her, why are you leaving?” She didn’t need him to answer, Archer could see it in her eyes.

His sister knew how letting go of Adalia was like a dagger had been driven into his heart, it was irrational, just as love was. He had not known Adalia for long and yet his heart felt like it would stop beating if he let go of her.

“Why not take your vows with Randi and me.”

He turned to look at her. He had a deep concern on his sister’s naive view of love. But he was glad that she would get her chance to love without hurting first. Sucking in a long deep breath, he pulled her into his sweaty arms and put a kiss on top of her head. “It’s because I think I am falling in love with her Novia.”

***

Adalia was pacing in the grand room assigned to her. She was in a panic. Grasping at the little memories and images dancing in front of her of the moment she had just shared with Archer, she was trying to make sense of it all. She didn’t understand the pita-patter of her heart, the butterflies in her belly and her inability to breathe. That small pocket of time that she shared with Archer, gave her the illusion that they were the only two living beings in all the six realms. She inhaled as she shook her head to clear it. But when that didn’t work, she buried her head in her bath water.

Novia walked into the room just in time to see Adalia submerge her head in water. Terrified she rushed to her side and pulled her head out by her hair.

“Ow!” Adalia groaned. She felt her head being forcefully being tugged behind by her hair. Sure, the roots of her hair had long unplugged from her head, her hand flew to retrain the one causing the baldness. “Those hurts.”

“What do you think you are doing?” Novia grabbed a cotton towel from the bed frame and threw it over Adalia’s head. She then went ahead to rub it into her skull, towel drying her head.

Adalia winced as she felt what was left of her jet-black hair being pulled into the towel. She was sure; if she hadn’t been bald then she was now. “Novia, I can do it myself,” she pulled away and moved a few paces away from her assailant.

“What do you think you were doing?” Her hands were at akimbo and her foot tapping under her puffy organza dress. The scowl on her face didn’t suit her and for some reason it made Adalia laugh.

“You should wear your face like that more often. It’s hilarious,” she let her hair down and massaged her fingers into her scalp.

“You didn’t answer my question. What were you doing?” Novia repeated with an exasperated huff.

What was she doing? She didn’t have any answers and if she had she wouldn’t have had her head under water, literally. Figuratively her head of late had been constantly trying to stay above water, but she always seemed to sink a bit deeper after every second she spent with Archer.

“I was trying to wash my hair,” she lied. But the ashy blonde, raised eyebrow told her that she hadn’t sold it. “Do you think I would try to drown myself in a basin?” She tried to laugh the suggestion away hoping Novia would also see how ridiculous the thought was.

“Alright then,” she relaxed her stance and began what she had set out to do in the first place. “What’s going on between you and my brother?”

The questions seemed to be giving her sucker punches one at a time, knocking the wind out of her and every thinking cell in her head out of her ear. Adalia said the first thing that jumped into her battered mind,

“Nothing!”

Technically it was the truth, and she wasn’t exactly lying. She was just omitting some truth. But what had prompted the question. “Why do you ask? Did he say something?” she found herself crossing her fingers behind her back. She knocked her heels together and waited for the magic words.

“Actually, he did. He loves you-,”

“He loves me!” She exclaimed.

“-yes,” Novia watched Adalia’s expression carefully, but she found herself even more confused. “But what I don’t understand is why you two won’t just take your vows.”

“It’s a bit complicated,” Adalia moved towards the window, hoping she would catch a glimpse of Archer. But he wasn’t there.

“Are you going to tell me what it is about?”

“No,” she turned around to face her. Adalia shrugged her shoulder in defeat. How was she to explain something she didn’t understand herself? Less than two days ago all she wanted to be a warrior princess. She didn’t want to be tied down by the duty of her marriage to Archer. Then she thought that she wanted Xander but now she didn’t know what she wanted anymore. “Do you mind leaving me for a while? I need to get cleaned up.”

Novia bowed her head in acknowledgement and left Adalia to drown alone in her quagmire.