Chapter 25

He moves to meet me at the centre.

Each motion braced with beast-like power.

He's armour-less, leaving only his regular burgundy uniform. All prestigious ornaments removed. Even without the armour, his powerful stature remains superior with those Spartan shoulders, every bulging muscle wrought from iron. The top part of his hair is tied in a loose bun, the rest free to reach the end of his neck. Idle strands of ink caress the sides of his face.

My heartbeat quickens, its rhythm catapulting into a frantic crescendo, my composure veering off into a mute frenzy.

"Your form has improved."

Groping for words, I string them together. "I think that's the first decent thing you have said to my face."

"I may possess the resolve to wield arms against the realm's adversaries, yet that which I wish to say to you is a courage that eludes me."

I rotate to the side to turn my gaze ahead, pretending to view the ever-evolving scenery. The rising heat in my face scorches my cheeks, leaving me ragged with discomfort.

"How did you find me?"

"I was not looking for you... but I found you." I frown. A veiled depth to his words, layered by enigma. "I do not care how safe they claim the Citadel is. I will always make certain that those in my custody are well-guarded. Always. When were you indentured?"

I jolt at the laugh that pushes itself out of me. "Indentured? Out of all your considerations, you assumed the reason I serve him is that I owe him a debt?"

"Why else would you serve that ruthless scoundrel?"

"Because it was of my own accord." I throw a quick glance at him. "He sought me out, but he offered me promises I couldn't afford to reject. Others depend on the Decuria to supply provisions, scraps to eek out a living. I wanted more for my kin. So, I gave him my allegiance, and I have never regretted it since."

"You said he sought you out. What did you do to merit his attention?"

"I seduced him," I say jokingly, turning my head to look up at him through my lashes with a teasing smile. "He was hosting a party, and I slipped in. I enticed him with a dance in front of all his men. He liked it so much that he sent his guards away. And had me dance for him privately."

By the swift look of me, you can tell I would never do such a thing. However, the mere thought of it makes his eyes appear darker than winter midnight. His stare is a force reckoned with the all-consuming void of the aether, powerful and penetrating, capable of unravelling the strongest resolve.

I make a fast verbal retreat.

"If you spar with me, perhaps I will tell you the actual truth."

A sense of ease touches his rough-hewn features.

I step back, scanning the unrailed platform, unprotected from a fall of death with just one blunder. I rather take those odds. My eyes dart around his face, but never in those onyx eyes. Not again.

He prowls towards me with ominous intent. I move away until we start to circle each other, going round and round the square-shaped platform. Shadows shifting over our moving forms.

"You dare challenge me?"

I shrug innocently, observing him vigilantly. "I long for a worthy opponent. But in the absence of one, I shall have to settle for you."

He shakes his head reproachfully. A dread-inducing smirk cracks his stony mask. "You should remember your place, Your Grace."

My jaw trembles and I clench it into stillness. Steeling my resolve. I do away with the swords before my fingers curl into ready fists. "Then put me in my place," I provoke.

His arm twitches—a bolt of black lightning—I narrowly evade the strike. I swivel around as we swap positions. In retaliation, my foot hits stomach. He barely flinches.

He glances down and flashes another deadly smirk.

We collide, executing a plenitude of expert moves. He muses my strikes and I endure his, studying his movements, analysing his fight pattern, and searching for his weaknesses. That's if he has any. However, I have noticed that he depends on his dominant right side, nevertheless; he is inarguably skilled. Most soldiers alike to his size, hinge on their strength, but Primus Kelan utilises both speed and agility. A formidable fighter.

I sweep beneath a kick, shooting up my forearms to block a jarring smack that shudders my bones. I can barely block his attacks before the next one comes. I unleash a barrage of punches and his body jerks from one direction to the other, in rhythm to the opposite line of each attack. Dodging with enviable speed.

Out facing him, I spin around with one fist outstretched, using the momentum generated to put force behind the resulting contact. He evades the tornado of fists. Amidst the clash of arms and legs, I catch glimpses of his bestial grin.

I leap, throwing two kicks mid-air, both of which he smacks away.

I launch a jab—he sidesteps—he seizes my wrist, yanking me towards him, spinning me around so my back crashes against his ironbound chest. Our bodies are dangerously close, the heat of our exertion surging with the galvanic current of something unsaid, a bridled power, fathomless alchemy. My arms jut up, and with his, he locks me in his iron grip, my arms crossed and squashed against my chest. A searing supernova explodes from within, scalding my skin where his touches mine in breath-stealing velocities.

I squirm to break free, but my efforts are as futile as my will to escape his hold.

"I must admit. I am impressed," he whispers. His words tumble down the back of my neck and the hair erects as every inch of my body tautens. His voice, deep and resonant, his praise echoing through me. "You are a commendable fighter."

My chest rises and falls steadily. My breathlessness goes beyond fatigue.

I can feel his heartbeat resonating through my skin, thundering with my own.

He frees a harsh exhale, and the heat of his breath makes my jaw clamp.

"You will tell me what I wish to know."

"Unhand me and I will."

He releases me and the intensity in his eyes our eyes lock tells me he knows exactly what I'm about to do. He moves closer, his movements more deliberate now, teetering the boundary of caution and curiosity. I can sense the change in his approach and feel the shift in the air between us. With a sudden surge of adrenaline, I launch myself at him, our bodies colliding before he has me ensnared in a tangle of limbs. I knew I would fail. I just didn't think it would be that fast.

"Some things alike to destiny are a fixed path. No matter the alternate course, you will always find yourself where you belong."

Gradually, the steel cage unlocks. I slip past and turn to face him again.

"Perhaps my ambitions are too high to hope for a day that you would choose to reveal your truths by choice and not coercion," he says. The measured mirth in his eyes is like a deep, dark abyss, gleaming like blackened waters under the moonlight, mysterious and enchanting.

Never so enchanting that I'd lose my wits over it.

His words are still seared into my head. His perception of me, and even if it has changed, mine never will.

"I don't know what game this is, but I'm not playing, Primus. All that exists between us is that you were my drillmaster. That is the only formality that I will respect."

His countenance is a mask of impenetrable stoicism, betraying no hint of the emotions that lay beneath. No flicker of emotion crosses his face, his demeanor as unyielding as a fortress wall, giving nothing away to any who seek to decipher his thoughts.

"I will assess the full extent of your abilities next time, when I have returned. For the subsequent test, you will need to know more than combat."

"Next time?"

"Yes, a... private tutoring."

I blink several times. "Wait... when you return? Where are you going?"

He folds his burly arms. "We need to procure horses and a new carousine for the next location. And I must ride out to the Avangard bastion up north, to request for more soldiers to be positioned along the journey at certain checkpoints."

"Why do you have to go personally?"

The corner of his plump lips draws to one side. "A summoning can only be done by one of my rank. I must demand an emergency council. The attack, and the emergence of this mysterious plague, all but confirm the return of the Ulris."

I nod slowly. "You think there is more to it?"

He nods grimly. "When the Vulkra attacked. It was a slaughter. They were too easily thwarted, and that concerns me. I think it was a plot to have us change our newly chartered route. I need to gauge the ambit of this looming peril. And have Avangard forces ready to obliterate their efforts and send them back into hiding."

I risk a glance. He clings to my gaze. I cannot escape it.

"I need to take half of my soldiers, but the rest will remain. Will..." he wavers, severing eye contact for a high-strung moment. Tension filling the crevice of silence. "Will you fare well in my absence?" The words shoot out like arrows from his mouth. The question is delivered in a straight shot.

Face to the ground, I say, "As you have witnessed. I can take care of myself."

We lapse into a fraught silence, strained by unsaid words.

I dare to glance back at him. An emotion flares in his gaze, too fast to identify.

"You have twilight eyes," he declares. He takes a silent moment to marvel them like he's beholding a summer sunrise. "First... they were soft, sweet green, like blades of grass glistening with dew after a gentle morning rain. But every time I look into them, they seem to vary into a profusion of hues."

I fling my gaze anywhere else.

"Each glance like a breath of spring, strong and full of life." He moves to tower over me. "Do I unsettle you? Does my presence cause you... discomfort?"

Studiously avoiding eye contact, I say, "Of course not," I blurt, fearing I would choke on the lie. "Why would it?"

"Then look at me."

My insides clench like a torqued in bow. "And what will that prove?"

"Nothing. For my own reassurance, I need to see you before I go. Spare me but one glance."

I brace myself, lifting my gaze until twilight meets with night. His mere gaze embraces me more tangibly than any pair of hands ever could. And I know; I accept that I will be forever lost in those two infinite black holes of his dark eyes is to surrender to where the boundaries of reality blur and only the intensity of his gaze remains. 

I don't know what it is. But fate has forged something between us, as unseen and as palpable as wind, alike to the continuum of sky and sea. A tangible tether that strangely binds us together but also keeps us apart like a constant push and pull. The daunting awareness of one another... as if we had known each other in another life.

"Be safe for me, Aurora." My name like a knee-weakening caress. "I should return by the fourth noontide."

He observes me, his gaze piercing, overwhelming as it is insatiable. Then only after a few more beholding moments pass. He eventually rotates and draws back into the shadows. Our encounter thaws like a dream once one wakes.

I turn my gaze back to the scenery. Dawn arises, the orange brilliance unpeeling, first light unfurling across the sky. Not long after Primus Kelan left, us purebloods, are beckoned for breakfast at the same place as before in the palace, at the balcony. But this time Vince is nowhere to be found and his absence is all too prominent as his presence.

My mind vibrates with theories.