Page 27 of Celestial Alphas

Aleksander slides his fingers through mine, his hand warm against the rural Scottish cold air of the night as we step out of the tent and both of us freeze. Aleksander might not know who he is, but he could tell from the way I react that it’s not good this Vian in particular is waiting for us. My connection to my Nexus is immediately dulled with his power, just like that time in the alleyway where Finnegan came for me. We both know Finnegan isn’t coming for us here, but I have Aleksander, and I don't have to hide how good I can be at defending myself this time. Samar leans on the side of a half wall. Next to him are two beefed up Vian grunts. He lowers his hood, watching me with a dark smile and he is still bold, covered in markings that I learnt label him as a high up Vian. He pushes off the wall and opens his mouth to speak, but Aleksander smoothly beats him to the punch. “I’m playing nice for the rules of the market, but I remember you. You attacked my mate in Starlight, and she clearly knows you, which means you’ve likely hurt her before. You’re a walking dead blood bag to me. You have ten seconds to say your last words.”

I shiver from the cold brutality, the protectiveness in Aleksander’s voice. Just damn. I didn’t know having my mates protect me like this could be such a turn on, but it is. “Everyone’s looking for you. I didn’t think you’d be brave enough to come to the folk market, though. When I saw you, I sent word to my prince. He should be here soon.”

I laugh for a long moment. “The folk ban the royals from the market. He won’t even be able to find it. Do you think I’m dense enough to come here if Severi could find me?” I arch an eyebrow. “For the king’s best Vian, you’re pretty stupid.”

He grits his teeth. “You won’t be saying that when he gets you. It’s prophesied, your future, and you can’t escape it.” I tighten my hand in Aleksander’s. Prophecy? “Brave or stupid. I could never put my finger on what it was for you. All that time with our prince and you didn’t break down. The torture, your parents’ deaths... all of it?” He shakes his head and Aleksander growls when he looks at me for a moment, when it’s like he can see the memories playing across my mind. My heart is racing, and I can’t control my reaction to the memories of that time. “The Vian are in uproar, after what happened to the prince’s home. What you cost us, well, quite a few of our king’s favourite soldiers suddenly ended up dead in the forest. Do you know what they did to Severi for losing you?”

“I don’t care.” I snarl. “Aleksander, this is Samar and he’s a coward who I’m pretty sure only gets hard when he sees people in pain.” I tap my chin as Samar looks ready to lose it. “Oh, in fact, there’s a better word for that. He’s a pussy.”

“You’re a total bitch!” He shouts at me.

“Time’s up,” Aleksander’s voice rolls like thunder in a storm. “I’ll fucking kill you.”

“You can’t spill a drop of blood or start a fight. We will all get locked here...forever. The rules of the folk far outweigh the war between the Vian and Nexus.” Samar taunts.

Aleksander really doesn’t look like he cares. “That’s a problem for after I’ve ended your pathetic excuse of a life.”

I grab his arm before he can step forward. “Don’t. Not yet. Please trust me.” He looks into my eyes and whatever he sees there, whatever trust he can manage to dredge up for me, makes him pause. I turn to face Samar. “What do you want?”

“You, of course. Come with me, peacefully, and we won’t kill your mate.” He is being so serious, and I shouldn’t laugh, but I do. I can’t help it. Every one of my laugh’s winds Samar up, and Igrin to myself. Angry men are easy to escape, especially because they aren’t thinking straight.

“I’m not going with you.” I chuckle.

“Don’t you all know what they did to Severi? You’re so heartless not to give a shit about your mate?” He watches me with a coldness only a Vian could show. “They tied him up and each one of the knights was allowed to do their own justice to him. He screamed and screamed and screamed. It lasted a whole twenty-four hours. So painful.” My heart’s racing in my chest and my Nexus pushes against Samar’s power. She is really fucking mad. The ground at my feet starts to turn a pale grey, the mud leeching from brown into nothingness, but she still can’t take over. “Uh-uh, you’re not allowed to use powers here either.”

Aleksander looks at the paleness of the ground, spreading around his shoes but not touching him. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having someone at my side, alive and unhurt, and my power not killing them. I kill everything and yet my mates can stand there, at my side, not showing a little of fear. They know what I am and the risks, but they stay and it’s strange. A good strange. I don’t often let myself wonder what it would have been like if I didn’t reject them, if I told my parents no and made another choice at fifteen. I can’t change the past, or fix the future, but a part of me is glad I was taken to Starlight City and met them. “We’re leaving. You and I, Samar, will meet again and next time you won’t get a chance to walk away.”

“That’s not happening.” Samar pulls out a long dagger, the gold blade sparkling. Oh, it’s pretty. I want it. Even my Nexus perks up at the sight of such a pretty dagger. My Nex dagger might get jealous, but I’m keeping that one. Aleksander moves in front of me in a blink, all of his powerful body blocking my view of my new dagger. Sigh.

Alek growls low. “If you think the threat of being trapped here will stop me from defending her, you don’t know anythingabout me. No one touches her. Ever. Let me guess, you were never blessed with a mate to defend? With an ugly face like yours, I can see why the gods chose your fate. Now move the fuck on and pretend like you didn’t see us.”

“Does your mate want to tell the story of how we know each other? I was there in the house, tasked with making sure Severi behaved with his mate. All these feelings in a young seventeen-year-old Vian, who just found his mate, and none of those feelings could get in the way of his true fate and the reason he was born. I was the one that was there and held down her mother as your precious mate drained her of her life and killed her. Killed her dad at the same time, too. He didn’t fight her, though. He smiled at his daughter as he died. Her mum fought. She screamed and tried to run away from her daughter, called her a monster in her last moments after I held her down and threw her back in the room with Gwenieve.” Sickness rises in my throat, and I know my cheeks are wet with my tears. It’s like it’s happening again, the worst moment of my life. “What were her last words to you, exactly? Ah, I know. She regretted ever choosing you, the monster she could never control—" He doesn’t get another word out because Aleksander punches him straight in the mouth, so quick and hard, that Samar doesn’t get a chance to use his powers on Alek. I blink, panic flooding my chest as Samar roars in pain. His blood splatters across the air. It feels like the world slows down as the drops fall to the ground. Right before the ground shakes, old magic blasts through the air like a wave, sending us all flying backwards until I slam onto the ground with a smack.

I climb to my feet, holding my arm up against the dust in the air. “Alek!” My shout echoes as I search for him, stumbling on one of the Vian, who crawls away from me.

“GWENIEVE!” Alek’s roar echoes from my right, and I run to him, finding him by the tent. There is a cut on his forehead,blood dripping down his cheek. I rush up, touching his cut and wincing for him. He cups my face too, searching me for any injuries before taking my hand and we run without saying a word. We run straight towards the market. The folk are in chaos, packing up the market as dozens of folk flood into the forest. Shit. They seem to run right past us and no one looks our way...at least so far. Hopefully Samar is knocked out, before the folk realise it was Alek that drew blood first. We need to get out of here now.

Alek grabs me, pulling me down and behind a stall as hundreds of folk run past in a tight formation. He cups my face. “Your mother was scared and, she didn’t mean them. I never want to see that devastating look on your face again. They forced you to kill them. You didn’t choose it, and you are not responsible. I will forever hate your parents for taking you from me but, they did it to protect you, and their last moments shouldn’t be what they are judged on.”

“You didn’t know my mother. How would you possibly know she didn’t mean them?” I whisper.

“Because I know you and I know that she did everything to keep you safe. That is love. Her last words don’t deserve to be taunted or said as a joke by some fucking Vian that’s going to die and be forgotten.” I look up at him and smile. “Now we are getting out of here. Ready?” He pulls out the gold dagger. “I saw you eyeing it up. Couldn’t leave without it.”

I can’t help the massive smile on my face as he hands me my new dagger. This is the best day. “I’m ready and thank you. I was almost tempted to go back and get it.”

“That would be crazy, Gwen,” He laughs as we climb to our feet and begin running through the back of the stalls towards one of the exits.

“It’s about time you learnt I was—" I wink at him and that’s my mistake. I’m not looking where I’m going. I slam straight intoa stall, literally falling right over the top of it. The stall is full of potions, and they smash onto the surrounding ground, but one explodes onto my neck, the glass smashing but only nipping me a little bit. Some bright purple fizzing liquid disappears into my skin, smelling like roses and sweets. My eyes widen as big as Alek’s, who’s shaking his head as he picks me up. “What the fuck was that?”

I try to wipe it off, but the liquid is fully absorbed into my skin. “I don’t know.” I pat my pocket and Rhodes’ potion, relieved to find it is okay.

“We don’t have time to find out right now!” Alek is looking behind me, and I don’t want to look to find out what he wants us to run from. “Time to go, mate!”

We run straight through the marketplace, through the absolute chaos of other people who are leaving too. I don’t think they’ll keep us here, mostly because they know that I would stay and destroy everything. My Nexus would have the biggest tantrum if they tried to take Aleksander from us. I have a feeling that the folk are scared of me and rightly so. Sometimes it’s good to have my Nexus, even when she’s crazy and scary. We run like the market is on fire, my hand tightly in Alek’s. After a few minutes, when we are so close to a random exit, a wave of heat flows straight from my stomach and bursts across my body, crawling up my spine. I nearly fall over from how intense that was. What the fuck? Alek tugs me along, completely unaware of what’s happening. Thankfully, we crash straight through the exit barrier, and outside into the still and quiet forest. The folk let us go and they could have stopped us from leaving if they wanted to. I have a sinking feeling they got what they wanted with my blood, and they were all too happy for me to leave.

“We didn’t come out in the same place.” Aleksander explains, looking around in the darkness of the forest. I don’t know how he can tell. It all looks the same to me. “The car’s at least amile in that direction. My Nexus is good at finding things with your scent on it.” He finally looks at me, where I’m holding my stomach, and my legs are getting weak. “Are you okay to run?”

“Yes,” I answer, my cheeks burning. Like hell am I telling him why I can barely move? We jog through the forest, through the thick leaves that line the floor, and everything is going blurry the longer we run. Another, much stronger wave hits me, and I nearly fall over, but Alek catches me. Every inch of where he touches me feels like it’s burning, and not in a bad way. Heat flows through my body, particularly between my legs where I’m soaking wet. It is so intense, and I can’t do anything about it. My body feels like every inch of my skin is turned on.

---