Empress of the Gods

Atarah

The shapeshifters’s camp was bigger than the other one. She could see kids running around while some of the shifters were in their animal form, guarding it. They were ready in case someone tried to attack the camp since it was near the port. A copper-colored lion with a long fluffy mane and golden eyes like the sun surrounded the camp, and from time to time, keeping an eye on her. She remembered the story about a brave young shapeshifter that risked his life to save what remained of his kind.

Aeron used to say the young shapeshifter had the strength and the courage the king of the realm of Nevaenna lacked.

It was weird she was not being summoned by Duncan the moment they arrived at the camp, as if he already knew who she was.

The lion observed Elysia and sometimes growled at her. She ignored him while the shifter named Zander worried for her. The shifter looked at her friend with enamored eyes, but she couldn’t say the same for Elysia. Even when the moment she saw him, she flirted with him. He knew her as Midnight-whisper and not by her real name.

Two days had passed since they arrived. The first thing she did was attend her wounds. She had purple marks on her face that still hurt without mentioning the wound on her back. Her favorite emerald dress was covered in mud, blood, and was shredded to pieces. Elysia gave her a pair of leather pants that had a line of buttons and a white shirt. She could pass for someone who worked on a merchant ship. Plus, she felt more comfortable in it.

What Sabine told her was messing with her head, in the same way, she kept thinking about the moment Sabine had shifted into William. She got close to losing herself on that illusion when she saw him. She scolded herself for that because she barely knew him.

Without forgetting, Sabine confirmed she had a father and brother out there, but Atarah didn’t know if they were alive. That only confirmed she was not losing it. She didn’t dare to think if they were looking for her. Somehow thinking about it was torture.

She still thought about what she mentioned about her last breath. What did she mean by that? She couldn’t help wondering about that specific thing. It didn’t make sense, and yet she described how she felt. She even forgot about those green-silverish eyes that reminded her of a deep forest. No one could have ever known about that since she’d never told a living soul that she dreamed with those pair of gentle eyes a couple of times.

She played with the branch of a tree she found on the ground, moving the wood into the fire, feeling the warmth of the flame on her skin. She couldn’t openly talk to Elysia thanks to the fine ears of the shifters in there and less if they were being watched, so her friend was catching up with Zander while she was there trying not to think on Sabine’s words.

Atarah was starting to miss Robbie, and above all, her grumpy hunter. She knew she would face the music once they arrived.

Galad lifted his head towards the entrance of the camp and when she followed his gaze, she stood up and started walking towards William. She ended up jogging and when she had him in front of her, she put her arms around his neck, while he put his arms around her waist as if they had done it before. When he looked at her, he carefully put his warm hand on her bruises, followed by a tight-lipped expression while he did it.

“Let’s say Sabine was not Rhiannon’s friend after all,” she dared to say in a lower tone.

William kept touching her as if she was going to break.

The lion growled at them, and William moved her behind him. Duncan, in his lion form, walked from one place to another, seizing William, that prepared his ax to attack. She tried to move between them and Galad put himself next to her, showing his teeth, while William watched the lion.

“They come with me,” she told to Duncan. The lion stopped moving and fixed his gaze on William’s weapons. “Put it down, Will,” she told him, but he didn’t do it. “Put it down,” she marked each one of her words. Duncan buried his claws on the ground, arched his back and continued to show his canines, but when William lowered his weapons, Duncan walked behind a tree, letting her see how one of his paws changed into a human foot.

One of his men stood next to the tree with clothes in his hand.

Elysia tried to peek from where she was and then winked at her.

Duncan had shoulder length reddish curly hair that matched his amber eyes. He was a ravishing man with a tanned, naked torso.

“I think I’m inspired to write a song about how Willi almost peed his trousers with a lion,” Robbie said as he began humming the music and tuned his mandolin.

“Do you enjoy breathing?” William asked, irritated in a lower tone. He wasn’t in the mood for that.

“I thought we were becoming friends,” Robbie said as he stopped playing his mandolin.

“I thought I was clear I didn’t want to see you again, Midnight whisper,” Duncan said with a gravelly tone of voice. Atarah looked at Elysia and she nodded with her head as she closed her eyes only for a moment, while Duncan put a shirt on.

Were gods falling from the sky?

William tensed next to her.

“Feel free to look at me. I won’t blame you if you can’t stop staring,” Elysia replied, moving her braid from one side to another as she smirked at him. Duncan’s face remained unexpressive to her charms and almost irritated.

“She comes with me,” Atarah added, before Elysia made him angry.

Duncan looked at her. “As the hunter and the bard.” He folded the sleeves of his shirt, letting her see the veins marked in his arms. “May I have a word with you, Atarah?”

She was surprised he knew her name, but once she saw an eagle landing on a nearby tree, it made sense to her. It was obvious that someone in the camp gave him all that information.

“Sure.”

“No,” replied William at the same time.

Duncan stopped walking towards one of the caravan wagons when he listened to William’s answer, while she stared at William.

What’s wrong with you? She mouthed to him before she started walking towards Duncan’s caravan when she heard steps behind her. “What are you doing?” she asked William.

“Escorting you with Duncan,” he said nonchalantly.

“Are you planning on coming in with me?” She had one foot on the stairs of the caravan.

“Trust is hard to earn, and you can easily get lost, my dear,” he whispered to her.

“My my, I never thought you were the jealous type,” she teased him. William took a deep breath. “I’m just going to talk to him. I’m not going to escape with him,” she told him, but William stayed close to her without uttering a word when she closed the door of the caravan wagon.

“The answer is no,” Duncan said, without letting her speak. He sat on his chair while he checked some papers he had on his desk.

It was going to be difficult to reason with him. Dhara warned her that he was stubborn with that topic, but he was a good man.

“You don’t even know what I am about to ask you.” She didn’t take a seat, only stared at him.

He sighed and put the papers down on his desk. “You were going to ask me to join to your cause and I will tell you the same thing that I said to the stupid prick who thinks he runs the world and is invincible. I’m not risking my people. Not for Terrwyn. Not for Khrysaor, whom I doubt needs us, nor any other realm,” Duncan affirmed with a calm, but confident voice.

“I was only going to ask you for transportation for me and my friends to Ekkirah borders so I can get my sister back,” she innocently replied, raising both hands.

Duncan looked at her with narrowed eyes when he leaned his back against the chair as if he was analyzing her. Atarah tried to remain calm. She was no fool to believe he was going to accept right away, but she needed to see his position in the matter. There might not be many shapeshifters with him, but she believed there were others hiding in plain sight and if he called them to fight, they would obey their king because that was what Duncan was. Rhiannon didn’t just want an alliance with her kind. Shapeshifters could be one of the most powerful armies if they wanted, so it was no surprise others wanted to recruit them or want them as allies too.

She was also at disadvantage, since he knew more about her than her about him. It was obvious that either he was waiting for that moment thanks to Dhara’s gift or he had them watched the moment they were traveling with his people. Perhaps both.

“That’s already been settled.”

“Thank you for your kindness and hospitality, my Lord.” She put a hand on the doorknob, taking a deep breath, and thinking she could regret her next words. “You can’t act as if it won’t affect your people. You know about the warning in the wind, and even if you don’t, I know you can feel it too. Denying it is not making it any less true.”

“Why should I care when no one aided Nevaenna? They just sat there watching how it was destroyed.”

“That was them, not you. If you sit here and do nothing, then you will become them and everything you sacrifice will be for nothing,” she dared to tell him.

“I heard a lot about the Silverclaw leader. How she loved to act as if she ran the world, ordering everyone around without caring who they were. She raised you just like her,” he said, opening one of his letters. “I’m sorry for your loss.” He looked at her and then he added, “Why are you doing this? The Silverclaw coven is gone. You are on the run and you are no Queen.”

“Yet.”

Duncan chuckled.

“What?”

He nodded with his head. “Nothing, you just remind me the conversation I had with a reckless prick.”

Atarah rose an eyebrow, looking at him confused without understanding who he was talking about.

“Forget it. The arrangement for the ship is already settled.”

Atarah thanked him before she went out from the caravan, feeling that they needed to have a backup plan.

To her surprise, she saw William outside. Either he was being overprotective, or he really didn’t trust her.

“You stayed outside the door the entire time?” she asked when she saw William leaning on the caravan wall while Elysia and Robbie were around one of the campfires eating. “Oh! William, you are definitely jealous,” she teased him with a half-smile on her face.

“Do you care to explain how you ended up with Sabine?” he asked, ignoring her comments.

“We went walking.”

“Funny,” he replied as he followed her. “I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t go with Sabine. We already knew your sister was in Ekkirah,” he continued without caring who was staring at them. She looked around them and then she turned her hands into fist. When she got inside the first caravan, William followed her inside and close the door behind him. “So?”

“So what?” she asked, annoyed when she turn to see him. “Are you worried about my life or what might have happened to yours?” she asked, getting closer to him.

“I hate every time you do that.”

“What?” She folded her arms.

“When you answer a question with another question. What did Sabine tell you?”

She didn’t answer right away. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, arms on her waist. “Why do you want to know?”

“I thought we had a truce.”

She rolled her eyes when he said that, and it was starting to irritate her. “We have it. I don’t know why you act like I’ve hidden it from you,” she said as she passed him to open the door. It was barely ajar when he closed it again. “Open the door,” she angrily said as she took away the space between them, even when they didn’t have that much before.

“This discussion… it’s not over,” he firmly said with the hand on the doorknob.

“It is over. I don’t have to tell you anything, so open the door.” She remarked the last three words.

“Yes, you do, since you insist on taking unnecessary risks.” She snorted. “You think I don’t see it?” he calmly asked her. “You think I don’t know what you are doing?” He looked straight into her eyes and never in her life had she felt more naked than that.

“Oh yeah? And according to you, what am I doing? Since you have me all figured out.” She folded her arms, waiting for his answer.

“You would gladly swap your place with them if you had the chance.”

“That’s none of your business,” she replied right away.

“You think I haven’t thought it myself? How much I would give and do just to see them again? You are grieving and all the decisions you are taking are from your grief. You are not thinking clearly.”

That ignited something inside her, making her angrier than she was. “And who are you?” she asked in a low intimidating tone. “Who the hell do you think you are? My conscience?” She increased her tone of voice. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.”

“Yes, I do because I was you,” he blurted. “The rush of being in danger without a clear reason or a purpose,” he calmly added as he gave a step back and leaned on the furniture there. “Trying to fill the hollow that you feel inside.” He touched his heart. “I drown my sorrows in taverns to forget.”

“I don’t owe you any explanation. I don’t owe you anything, and I’m not your prisoner.”

“Wrong,” he interrupted her.

“I was right to think that the only thing you care about is your own life,” she told him before he could say anything else.

“You know what? For a moment I was worried about you because I might not have arrived in time to help you, but I think I shouldn’t have since you don’t care about anyone but yourself,” he told her, taking away the distance between them as he was starting to breathe heavily. Atarah didn’t move, and she didn’t contradict him. “It seems that we’re back right where we started,” he added.

“Yeah?” she said, nodding with her head. “If I’m so selfish, what are you still doing here? Why do you care?” When he didn’t answer, she added with a smile, “I was right. You are jealous.”

“What does that have anything to do with this?”

Nothing, but she wanted to deviate the conversation.

“You are,” she teased him.

“Jealous,” he smirked. “Should I be jealous?” He got closer to her again. She didn’t think it would backfire when she said it.

“I don’t know. Should you?” She stared into his ocean eyes without realizing how close they were. She feared his answer, yet she wanted to know. “It would mean that you care.”

He looked at her lips, then at her eyes. “Can’t you see it?”

“Why are you so interested in knowing what Sabine told me?”

“I don’t care what the shadow-seer told you. It was not about her.” He got closer to her and whispered in her ear: “I know you didn’t ask about your sister.”

“Then why were you ranting about it?” she whispered back.

“You left me there.” Sadness covered his features for a moment when he said it.

She couldn’t stop looking into his eyes, trying to understand the man in front of her. They were so close it hurt.

“Oh,” she heard someone say when the door was opened. “I’m sorry,” the woman said, looking at both. “I needed a blanket, but I can come back later.” She gave them an apologetic look.

“Don’t, we are done here,” William replied and left her there, thinking about what happened there.

You left me there. Will’s words repeated in her head.