Page 85 of A World of Ruins

‘I can still fight you in this,’ I warn him, and his palms fly up in defence.

‘Don’t listen to him, Nara,’ Freya laughs. ‘He’s just upset that Tibith ate his breakfast this morning.’

I laugh, but it sounds like a wheeze as I try to control my breathing. Idris, for once, smiles as Illias bursts out into raucous laughter alongside a giggling Tibith.

‘It was delicious bread, Mrs Nara!’ Tibith kicks his little feet as my brothers settle beside him on the settee. ‘I couldn’t help it! Darry told me that any bread I see will always be mine!’

‘Perhaps you should tell that husband of yours that bread is meant for sharing.’ Iker looks at me pointedly.

Idris grumbles something under his breath, frowning as he shifts his big frame against the cushioned seats. A twinge ofregret plucks at my heart, knowing how devastated my brothers were to find out Darius and I had married in secret. Most of all, Idris. Like most families, they wished to have witnessed their youngest sister marry without the fear of certain death.

They didn’t disapprove of Darius; they admired him, in fact. After the fight at the arena, Darius was there to make sure they got everything they needed, but that didn’t stop them from being their usual overprotective brothers, always wanting to talk with him in private.

‘Oh, how I remember the first year of marriage,’ Aelle says wistfully, giving Leira a sideways glance as she turns me to face them.

Leira chuckles, fixing my cleavage. ‘It is still that way.’

‘I would rather not think of my sister in a marriage at all,’ Idris mutters, and I don’t think he intended for all of us to hear, yet we did.

Freya chuckles lightly, waltzing over to me in her usual beloved purple attire. She holds a circular silver piece of jewellery shaped like a sleeping dragon in her hands. It is the same one I was looking at earlier today.

‘I thought this would be fitting,’ she says, rising on her tiptoes as she places it around my neck.

I touch the carved scales that rest above my collarbones, and both Aelle and Leira move out of the way to reveal the mirror at the end of the room. I look so small from this angle. The dress, however, almost seems to swallow me up with its thick layers of gold.

‘Show them you’re the queen of dragons.’ Freya squeezes my upper arms with a grin as she admires me in the mirror.

I tilt my head to look at her. ‘You know I am not.’

She gives me a look resembling Leira’s expression whenever she tells someone off. The same dark brows furrow as she pouts.‘Fine, then, the queen of all creatures.’ She is back to grinning. ‘Solaris.’

The contents inside my stomach jump with a nervous thrill. In many ways, it still feels wrong to be called that when I am not the true Solaris. I am only part of her, a reincarnation, yes, a vessel, of course, but not a deity to be worshipped.

I glance back at the mirror, thoughtfully tracing my fingertips over the dragon necklace. Below it, Darius’s coin still rests upon my skin. I smile. ‘I like the sound of being queen of all creatures.’

‘Once a Trapper, now a keeper,’ Illias comments, strutting over with Link clinging to his arm and my other two brothers right behind. ‘You look stunning, Nara.’

I smile, clutching his hand in mine and giving it a slight pinch.

Idris’s gaze then lingers on Freya, his stoic expression not matching his words as he says, ‘That gown is very nice on you, Freya.’

She smiles like she didn’t expect him to say that. ‘Thank you.’

Idris nods, his eyes flitting elsewhere while Freya unabashedly continues staring at him.

On any other occasion, I would smile proudly that Idris managed to say something other than a complaint, but then I see Iker’s despondent gaze beside him, and my heart feels for them both.

‘Right.’ Leira snaps her fingers, and Freya seems to jerk out of her trance as she turns to her. ‘We should head to where Darius must now be.’ She and Aelle try to usher my brothers and Tibith out, but Idris is a mass of unmovable walls. After a moment, she gives up and shakes her head. ‘Don’t take too long.’ She points at him as everyone else leaves. ‘I mean it.’

I chuckle, watching as she slowly closes the door, and I turn to my brother. A frown splits my forehead as his eyes roam my poised hairstyle and lightly dusted cheeks. ‘What is it?’

He shakes his head. ‘It’s just that the first time I visited you here in the city, I thought you looked so different. A Venator in training, your fighting garments, the friends you’d made . . . But I was wrong.’

I don’t know what to say. A lot has changed since I stepped foot in this city, and I can’t tell if Idris hates that or is just learning to accept it as we go along.

‘I mean,’ he says, ‘you are still you, just . . . grown up.’

Ah. Now I see.

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