Page 12 of Ethereal Shifters

“I’ve watched you for years. Your father liked to play chess. I know everything about you.” He waits and waits, finishing the setup of the wooden chess set. The chess set is the same as the one I used to play with my dad, and it brings back so many memories. It makes the ache in my heart deeper. I miss him so much.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“I gather you play really well. I want to see.” He waves a hand at the set. “I played chess with my sister for a long time, too. She never beat me, but I think you can. Maybe beating me will be a bit more satisfying than stabbing me and less painful.” He’s still bleeding from his arm, but he doesn’t seem to notice or care. He follows my gaze to his arm. “I’m glad you care, but don’t worry about my arm. I have natural healing from being a Vian. We heal faster than Nexus do.”

“You said you’d make the chess game worth my while.” I change the subject.

He doesn’t call me out on it. “We each get a question, and we have to answer it honestly. You can ask me anything you want. I’m sure there are many things that you want to know.”

“How could I possibly know you’re telling the truth?” I shake my head. “You’re a liar. You’re literally my enemy.”

“I swear it on my Vian soul.” He touches his chest.

“How do I even know that is a thing?” I roll my eyes.

“I would have thought your mother told you, but ah, she was a liar, too.” What the fuck is he talking about? “We treasure our souls and our mates. Those two things are single-handedly the only things we care about. You can trust that if I swear on it, it’s real. I’d swear on you too, but a little too risky for my liking. Don’t like to tempt the Gods for something I actually care about.” My cheeks burn at the stare he gives me.

“Fine.” I make a move first. I move my pawn into place. “Why does the Vian hate the Nexus and want us all dead?”

“You had to start off with a complicated and boring question.” He tuts like he is disappointed I asked that question. I’m sure he would have preferred a question about himself. “I don’t know the original reason why or what started the wars between our kinds, but when there are powerful beings, one race always wants to be on top. All I know is that my father is our king, and he wants you all dead. Your kind are not innocent, and the Vian have suffered far more than you have been told. Have you ever considered that you might be on the wrong side of the war?” He doesn’t wait for my answer. “While my father rules, you are always going to be our enemies. We don’t need your powers to survive. We don’t need anything from you to survive, but we want change. We are born with our own powers, and draining Nexus is not an instinct. It is taught to our soldiers, just like your rangers are taught to kill. Having extra powers is actually a nuisance, complicated and really fucking annoying.Drives us all a little mad if you take too many powers. It’s almost like it’s a curse to take.”

I’m shocked silent for a moment. “I did not know that.”

He moves his pawn next and asks his question. “Why can’t you swim? You lived in Spain for years, by beaches and pools. Why the fuck can’t you swim? And why are you scared of water?”

“I never said I wouldn’t lie,” I counter as I gulp.

“Come on, play the game properly, or I’ll stop telling you any truths that you want to know. I’m sure you have other questions.” He leans back to rest against Annie’s bed. “You’re smart and capable of anything, so why does deep water freak you out?”

Fuck it. “My parents used pools and the sea, any deep water to train my Nexus and her power to make sure I had control over it. I developed a fear for it, and learning to swim kind of negates the whole fear.” His eyes flash black and I swear he’s angry for a second, but then he schools his expression completely. I move another pawn into place. “What’s the Morrigan?”

“Where did you hear that?” He looks surprised and somewhat happy. “Did your Nexus explain it to you?”

“I asked the question.” Why would my Nexus tell me anything?

“Fair.” He smirks. “The Morrigan is a part of our history. She was a Goddess and the only real Goddess that we worship. The phantom queen, the queen who will come to save us with fate, war and endless death. Some say she’s been reborn, but no one knows if that is true. The human history books talk about her, and it’s the one Goddess they got right, but not all of it. The Morrigan pulled a dark star from the sky to save her lover and made the first Vian. She died saving him, as our priests teach.”

“Tell me more about her,” I demand.

“You asked me what she is, not a full description of her. Ask your Nexus, not me.” He moves a piece. “Why did you rejectthem? Not the excuse that your parents told you to. Not the ‘because I’m a monster and I was scared.’ I want the real reason.”

“The real reason…” I pause. “Because I knew I could never be normal and I would always be a danger to them. I thought I could be alone. I was fifteen. I thought I could be alone forever and not ache for anything more. I was wrong…I don’t want to be alone. I knew it the second my parents died and I was truly alone for the first time.”

“You were never alone,” he whispers, like it’s a secret between us. Our mating is just that—a secret, one that would get me killed.

I move my knight. “Tell me what your father’s planning.”

“To rule. It’s that simple, and no one can stop him.” He is firm on that, and it scares me how easily he’s talking about murdering millions to win.

He moves his castle. “Does your Nexus want me as much as I want you?” I cough on thin air and he laughs. “I’ll give you some bonus information for answering this one, as it clearly bothers you. I’ll tell you something you won’t ask for, but you’ll definitely need to know.”

“Yes,” I say through a clenched jaw. “But she doesn’t get what she wants. She’s a spoiled brat. What bonus information?”

“Do you know that the Vian don’t have trials? We just kill for any crimes. My father has no need for a trial for anybody that’s found guilty of the many laws that we have in our city,” he offers. They have a city. “But if a Nexus breaks the rules, you have several trials. There’s one that’s fascinating to me. It’s called the Rite of Freedom. If someone does something so bad that they were never going to escape death, that they will end up killed by your kind, they can plead the Rite of Freedom. The Rite of Freedom was first done by your ‘Gods’ to make up for one of the sins of their lovers.” I frown. I’ve never heard of it.

“The person who pleads the Rite of Freedom,” he continues, “will go before the five Gods and complete a trial set and designed by the Gods in the arena where the Gods were buried. No one ever survives it, from what I’ve heard, but really fascinating. There’s still proof of your Gods here in Starlight, but our Goddess? Just whispers. Starlight City is the only city that can do the Rite of Freedom, but no one would be crazy enough to actually call for it. It’s like praying for a painful death… Now if you win it, apparently you get an audience with the Gods.”

“Interesting, but I don’t need to know that. You just wanted to know if my Nexus wanted to sleep with you,” I mutter, and his returning grin makes his dimples appear. His muscles under his dark shirt clench as he leans forward. I wipe the figures off the chessboard and move back. “Enough with the fucking questions. You need to leave.”

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