Page 49 of Phoenix Falling
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
ChapterTwenty
SUN
“Why can’t Arik just come to the lair?” Basile asked, his voice grumpy.
“Because he’s still as paranoid as fuck and that’s likely to never change.”
We were leaning against a couple of columns along one side of the Parthenon. Much more casual than the first time we’d met Arik here a few months ago. At the time I hadn’t seen him in nearly 900 years and had believed he’d murdered his own parents. Despite hating each and every one of us—and me especially—he’d led us back to Kat, his mate, and the discoveries that had changed the future of the Archai permanently: the secret psychs hidden among the human population, and the return of the Anigma.
Now here we were on the cusp of war and meeting Arik once again. At least now his aim wasn’t to kill me, although we’d never be close like we’d been in our youth. But I hoped he could help with our plan to find the Anigma’s regional strongholds in the US.
While we waited, I took advantage of the rare moment alone and glanced at Basile. “How are you doing, my friend?”
My second in command didn’t respond with more than a scowl, wrinkling the long, jagged scars in his cheeks. I didn’t know what to say. My own mourning cuts had healed quickly, leaving behind no trace of grief, but Basile’s cuts had been dug into his skin by his own claws and had been too rough to heal cleanly. The damage was intentional, of course, forever evidence of a grief that would never disappear. What would that kind of love be like?
Then it was I who frowned. There had already been rumblings, mere days after my father’s death, about the lack of an heir to the throne. It seemed the elders of our clan had nothing better to do than stick their noses in my sex life. But I knew, at some point, I would no longer be able to ignore their concerns. And that meant a queen.
Not a mate, a queen. Whether or not I was in love with the mother of my child didn’t matter to anyone but me; what mattered was carrying on the royal line. Ensuring the future of the Archai by ensuring the occupant of the throne was the right one. My own mother had been treated with disdain at best, disgust at worst by my father, a male who had never mated his queen. Was that what I wanted for my future? My queen’s? My child’s? Personally I was beginning to believe the Americans were on the right track—why was it blood that got to choose our leader? Not all shifters were honorable or trustworthy, and though I hated to think that my child might be the one to falter, if they weren’t strong—or hell, just didn’t want the responsibility—why could the Archai not choose another?
That wasn’t something that would change in my lifetime, I didn’t think, but maybe, when all this was over, I needed to consider what steps I could take to move us in a more modern direction when it came to leadership. And love. The idea of tying myself to someone I didn’t love, just as my father had chosen my mother and discarded her after she had done her duty, held no appeal. Maybe it would fade with time, but if I was going to bind my life to another, I’d prefer it be someone like Rissa. No, I hadn’t known her long, but what I felt for her, what she made me feel, was more real than anything I’d encountered in a thousand years. I wanted that with my mate and my queen, someone who excited me emotionally and mentally as well as sexually.
I held very little hope of that happening. In my long lifetime I’d met one female who’d made me feel the way Rissa did—that woman being Rissa—and she was human. The Archai would never accept her as mate to their king, mother of their prince or princess. It just…wouldn’t happen.
So why couldn’t my heart stop longing for her?
The scuff of a boot along concrete drew me out of my thoughts. At the end of the colonnade, two figures emerged from the shadows, one tall and strong, one smaller, delicately built. Arik and Kat. Watching them walk toward us, I couldn’t help admiring Kat just as I had the first time I’d seen her. She’d been dying then, but that had only served to give her beauty an ethereal quality, like an angel visiting earth. Now, strong and coming into her power, she was more like the Valkyrie Demetri had labeled his sister. Flaming red curls fell around her face, and her light eyes stared at us directly. No cowering for this psych.
That’s what happened once you accepted that you could kill someone with no more than a word and your own will. Self-confidence began to ooze from your pores.
Arik was the same warrior I’d known since we were children together, though I noticed that in the months since he’d met Kat, he’d begun to allow his silver-white hair to grow a bit. Arik’s bloodline wore their hair long, a sign of their lineage and power, but he’d cut his own to his scalp after his parents were murdered. It was good to see him coming alive again.
“I’m happy to see the two of you looking so well,” I said, greeting the warrior with a traditional fist to my heart.
“Don’t blow smoke up my ass, Prince.”
Ah, that was the Arik we all knew and loved. I refrained from rolling my eyes. “Actually, you might be dismayed to learn I am no longer our prince.”
Arik jerked to a stop mere feet away. “No?”
“No.”
He dropped his gaze to the ground. “I am sorry.”
Sensing Kat’s confusion, I explained. “My father, the king, has passed.”
“Oh.Oh…So…you’re not…”
I bent my head to her in respect. “I am now the king.”
“Don’t count on us bowing or anything,” Arik said. “You were already too big for your britches.”
Kat frowned and gave Arik’s belly a backhanded smack. “Behave.” Abandoning her mate, she stepped forward. “I’m sorry for your loss, Sun. May I hug you?”
My heart melted for this new little sister we had not gotten to know yet. I held my arms up. Kat’s hug was full of warmth and compassion, not sex, though I admit I held on longer than necessary when Arik growled his displeasure. As she eased back, I gave her a wink from the eye Arik couldn’t see.
She shook her head, grinning.
