Page 25 of The Erion Triad

A hoot rose from the crowd. Some people stood from their seats and walked over to the cleared area of floor in front of the platform.

Kyel looked to his brothers. “You have any idea what’s going on?”

Zaen shook his head while Juliran had a goofy smile and a faraway look in his eyes while he gazed at Lucie. “No idea at all.”

Kyel kept in the sound of frustration at his brother’s response.

“Hey, can I order a Beetle Burger and Can’t Buy Me Love fries?” A man sitting at a table close by asked.

Kyel swung his gaze on the patron. “You would eat food made from insects?”

The man sank into his seat, his mouth going slack. His gaze flittered to his silent girlfriend sitting next to him. “What? No? I just want something to eat.”

Kyel strode over to the man and towered over him, anger heating his gaze. “Contain your stomach or get it yourself.” He went to turn, but stopped himself. “And do not ask our mate to get anything for you ever again. She is busy enough as it is.”

The man squirmed in his spot. “I… uh… okay…”

Kyel let full displeasure color his face before he turned away, satisfied when the man wilted. When their mate had done whatever she was doing, he was going to take her away from here. She would not be serving anyone again, apart from them, but in an entirely mutually beneficial manner.

“You know I usually sing music from the fifties, but I thought I’d start with something a little more modern, if that’s all right with you.” She smiled when people clapped. A few whistled.

Curious. He had no idea what that meant. Something else to add to the list of things they didn’t know about their mate. The hot lash of shame boiled in the pit of his gut. He had failed her, an error he would fix until the end of his days.

She spoke momentarily with the band and offered a shy smile at the crowd as she waited for… something to happen. To his surprise, the people surrounding her played music. They held instruments! They were a far cry from the instruments of their Homeland. They sounded foreign, completely alien, yet no less musical. There was a booming beat of a bass instrument that was coordinated with stringed instruments that emitted a variation of harmonic notes. They combined into a pleasing background noise. People smiled, clapped. or tapped their feet to the beat.

Lucie stepped towards the microphone and started to sing.

He forgot to breathe.

She was heavenly. Her voice wove through him, touching a part of his soul he never knew existed. Her song was pure manna from the Heavens. Filled with light and shade, he was transfixed. Hypnotized.

Kyel managed to flick his attention to his brothers. Zaen’s eyes bulged and his mouth fell open while Juliran’s goofy grin had only intensified. Their entire attention was riveted on Lucie. Even the threat of treading in Drumas turds would not divide their attention. As was right.

Her song wove around him. Through him. Calling to him in primal waves and along with it his greatest shame. She no longer looked tired, or harried, or slightly lost and confused. She had stepped into her element and for the first time, Kyel had a glimpse of the true woman she had hidden from them.

She was utterly magnificent.

He’d had no idea she had a voice like this. It was a voice that would stop warring kingdoms as fast as it stopped him in his tracks.

Zaen stepped next to him.

“Did you have any idea she could sing like this?” His voice was hoarse, filled with wonder and regret. Kyel had no doubt Zaen felt as guilt-ridden as he did.

On the raised platform, Lucie had transformed. Gone was the timid female they had come to know. Gone was the exhausted servant that worked herself to the bone. In her place was a confident, beautifulstar.

This was the true Lucie, this talented woman who held everyone present in the palm of her hand. She was transformed into something… other. Her talent was undeniable. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from the woman on stage. He didn’t want to.

Her voice rang true and clear. It touched his soul, but now as he stood before her true self, it was as though light poured inside him, illuminating the mating-link that bound them all. Juliran rubbed his chest, right over his heart while Zaen breathed out long and slow.

“Do you feel that, brothers?” Their bond was strong, but now there was an added dimension that wasn’t there before. Something extra that was made from light. It wove around him and through him and as it did, emotions pressed in on him. Not his emotions. Or his familiar brothers.

He looked back to their mate. Her eyes were closed as she sang about freedom and being a young child and that was all it needed. The notes swirled and built around him.

Connecting him to her.

The innate knowledge that she was theirs was an undeniable link that was forged by the strongest of soul connections. It clicked into place in high definition, as though what they had before was filled by white noise. Now it was perfectly clear.

“It’s her. I feel…her,” Zaen said, his face open in amazement.

---