Page 20 of Tempted
“We need to talk about Tanda, and you guys can’t just rage at me over it. I remember things that—well, honestly, that sicken me, but he’s still one of our bonded and my love for him hasn’t wavered despite the loathing that’s also taken up residence in the space he’s always lived. He’s still my mate as much as you all and just as it is with any of you, I’m not sure I could live without him.”
“After all he’s done, you want to forgive him?” Ezhno scoffs his disbelief, clearly still not over what happened all that time ago.
“I’m not saying it will be easy or something any of us should take lightly, but I also know your hearts. Not only do you all love him as fiercely as I do, but you want the best for all people—always. Even those who’ve wronged you,” I argue my point, though I do it gently because they don’t deserve my frustration or my bad energy.
“Think back to that day, Ezhno,” Raini says, turning to face his tribal brother. “Think of the Tanda we’ve always known up to that point and think about who we faced during our last moments with him. They are not the same.”
It’s moments like these that I am so thankful Chief is such an amazing voice of reason. Always thinking with sound logic, even when his heart demands action based on his emotional reactions at times.
“Raini is right, brother,” Mahkah chimes in, his earthy energy working to ground us all and I appreciate it.
In fact, I welcome it with a smile on my face and lean in to place a light kiss on his lips.
“Your power.” My eyes widen in realization, my gaze shifting over each of the men before me.. “I missed you coming into your power.”
“You did,” Raini agrees, amusement lining his features. “But that’s okay. If nothing else it will help us guide you as you relearn your own.” The small twitch of his wide lips broadens into a huge grin and it takes me back through space and time to long ago when he was a mischievous young boy, teasing me relentlessly over some nonsensical thing or another, then to the same grin adorning his face when he took over as the chief of our tribe for his father. He’d still been a bit young but his father was ill and Raini, while occasionally playful, was never malicious and always a bit beyond his years when maturity was needed.
“You all look a little bit older than me now, like you’re in your mid-twenties or something. Tanda does too. It’s really weird,” I say, segueing unintentionally as I study them all now that I can really take the time to appreciate them in real time.
“You’ve seen Tanda?” Luta queries, a tinge of concern in his tone.
Biting my lower lip, I pull it into my mouth and chew on it for a moment for something to do. How do I explain what I’ve experienced since coming back to the island without making them upset? When Caiya pulls my lip from my teeth and places a healing kiss on it, I know I’m out of time.
“I… have. And I don’t want to upset or worry you so can we put that conversation on hold for a moment? I have questions that need to be answered as well and if this is all what I think it is, then we need to get back to my house so I can stay on borrowed time with Tanda until we can figure out how to go about things and work out all of our unanswered questions.”
“We’re in our house, Little.” Ezhno’s gravelly voice sounds a little appalled at the idea that anything other than this place could be home.
“I know that, but as far as Tanda knows, I’m still of the thought that I’m Felix Jackson and I’m on this island to attend university and be the ultimate failure in my parents’ eyes,” I tell them, a hint of something in my voice that almost sounds like worry. When all I get back are blank looks, I explain myself further. “When I came to the island, I didn’t know anything about who or what I really am. I’d been living the new life I was born into and when I found all of you I think it sort of unlocked something, my memories, and my magic, I guess, maybe. But before I found you, I’d met Tanda, who’s currently pretending to be one of my professors and he warned me away from these ruins and this whole part of the island in general. He must have known, or at least assumed, that if I came here, I’d reconnect with either you or my power, or something because he was adamant that I avoid this place at all costs. He’d called me Zii upon our initial introductions when I got here and I hadn’t a clue as to what he’d been talking about. I think he used magic on me to reconnect with me or see if I knew who I was. I’m not really sure, but I intend to find out. I can’t do that if I blow it all by giving away that I know who I am or that I have you all back.”
The dots are connecting but there are still some missing pieces of information.
“I don’t want him to catch on to what I’ve discovered until I’m ready to face him and help him find his way back to us. I also think we have a lot of catching up to do and you all deserve time to heal and forgive him in your own ways, on your own timelines. I know you’ve had literal centuries, but from what I can tell, it’s mostly festered your hate of him and even if you don’t forgive him, holding onto that will be toxic and you deserve to work through it just to feel healthy and whole again.”
“She’s right, as usual,” Raini says, ever the voice of finality.
“I’m not saying this will go how you want it, but you gave your life for us and we’d do anything for you. We can give you this—time. But you’ll be hard pressed to get rid of us now that we’ve just gotten you back,” Lutah says with a blinding smile, forever the most physically flawless man I’ve ever known.
Or I guess giant is what the human species would call him, err… us?
“Time I can give, forgiveness is another matter entirely. I’d rather break his bones and crush him into dust before sprinkling his ashes into the sea. He’s undeserving of you and of a relationship with us as well. I can’t imagine I’ll change my mind on that,” Ezhno states, drawing me away from my thoughts, and I notice the men all unconsciously nod along, their brows dipping and their fists clenching in anger even though they just agreed with me moments ago.
They’ll see reason, they just need time and, well, me.
We all need a distraction.
“Hey, why are we small now? And how do you know about things in today’s age? Our speech has always been advanced, but you’re all talking to me in plain English.” I ask nobody in particular, but when I’m met with the laugh of Caiya, I know this has something to do with him and his incantations or enchantments. He’s quite adept at glamours from what I remember. I can only imagine he’s perfected it over all this time.
Mahkah is the one who responds, however, and he appears amused as well. In fact, they are all laughing at me now.
Distraction accomplished.
“Well, you came to us in human form and looked alarmed at the size of us when you first saw us again, so Caiya infused some of his magic into our own and we learned how to shift. This is what we look like as humans. As for the speech thing… Well, it’s all a part of who we are and what we are to this world. As the world changes, so do we. Our native tongue has long since died, but we’re fluent in all current dialects.”
“Oh. Okay then,” I say, reeling over the language news a bit. “We all look the same as before, just smaller. But I’m way smaller than all of you still, even in your human skin. Shouldn’t I be tall as well?” I ask, scrunching my nose at my wee stature, bothered where I once wasn’t. “Can I shift also? Do you think I can go back to how things once were?”
“Of that, we really don’t know, Little Goddess,” Caiya responds, looking a little more forlorn than he had before I’d asked the harder questions.
“It’s okay. You’ve always been my Little anyway. We’ll figure it out together along the way,” Ezhno says, offering me his hand and squeezing it lightly.
