I thrust myself forward, wrapping my arms around his neck; he patted my rib cage softly, laughing.
“Thank you, Arthur. Thank you for always believing in me.”
“Well, Amara—” He cupped both hands against my sides and pulled away from the hug, holding me there, just in front of his body, “—You give me good reason to believe in you. What Mike sees, what your people see, it holds no bearing on what you’re capable of. And I have seen it in you. I have seen you fight against all manner of terror to survive—to give hope of a better world.”
I dropped my arms back down to my sides, as did Arthur, and we stood in front of each other, nothing much to say, but comfortable in the closeness of friendship.
“Hey, Arthur?”
“Yes, my dear.”
“Can I ask you something personal?”
“Of course,” he said, fastening the snake latch in place on Nhym’s box.
I moved away and hoisted myself onto the marble ledge, my dress puffing up around my hips and ribs, falling in layers toward my feet. “Why don't you have a girlfriend or anything?”
He half laughed, wiping a hand across his nose. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, I don't know.” I twirled a lock of hair around my finger. “You just…you seem like such a nice guy. It doesn't make sense that you never married or anything.”
He leaned on the balcony ledge beside me. “I’ve never found someone to love after Arietta.”
“Why don't you just date someone—maybe you'd fall in love?”
“Date?” His brow arched.
“Yeah. You dated Morgaine once, right?”
“Morgaine?” He almost spat the words out. “What ever gave you that idea?”
Cold washed through me, my cheeks burning with the warm rush after. “I…that’s what people say.”
He scratched his head, his face all screwed up. He looked kinda human when he did that—not so much like a seventeenth-century prince. “Uh, well…Morgaine and I may have…” He moved his hand down and scratched his neck. “We might have…bedded, but—”
I burst out laughing, barely covering my mouth to catch all the spit. “Oh, my God. Arthur, you're so awkward about this stuff.”
He dropped his hand, a Cheshire cat grin narrowing his eyes. “Well, Majesty, I come from a time where men did not discuss such things, especially not with a lady—his queen, to be exact.”
I grabbed his hand and cupped my other one over it. “But times are moving, Arthur.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed.”
“Look, I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you, but I think about it a lot—how lonely it must be to have no one. You know, you go back to an empty room every night, for all eternity. Never have someone to lay with, talk with, tell secrets to.”
He nodded, sliding his hand slowly out of mine. “It does get tiresome.”
“So, why not date?”
His dimple showed with the thoughts rolling across his face. “I don't fit in so well these days. I'm afraid I’ve spent too much time in the depths of century old traditions and monarchies. I would have to either date someone from our world, or make a fool of myself in the human realm.”
“You’d fit in with humans just fine,” I said, jumping down off the ledge, feeling shorter suddenly beside him. “You just need to loosen up a little. Here—” I grabbed both his shoulders and pulled forward. “Slouch a bit. You're so stiff. This isn’t the army.”
He rolled his spine, making himself shorter. “Better?”
“No.” I laughed. “Now you just look like you have a hunch.”
He stood straight and tall again. “I'm afraid my century of birth suits my personality better.”
“Do you…do you think, if we find a way to turn vampires back to human, like, if the prophecy child was real, do you think you’ll ever fit into that world again.”
He sighed. “I'm sure of it. It might take practice, but I would be more than willing to try. However—” He slid his hand down my arm, making little bumps rise with his soft touch, and took my hand. “Your husband is gone, Amara. What hope is there of a prophecy child now?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll love again.”
“But the child would not be the one foretold; she would not be blood of Knight.”
“If that’s meant to happen, if the only child that can cure vampirism is one from that bloodline, then Fate wouldn’t have taken my husband—and Jason as well.”
He swiped his thumb over his chin and folded his arms, glancing quickly over at Mike then back again. “They were not the only blood of Knight, Amara.”
Before I could stop it, a snicker grumbled in the back of my throat. “Are you…are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I'm glad the idea amuses you.” He turned away and leaned over the railing.
I thought he was upset, until I leaned beside him and noticed a smile in his eyes. “I'm sorry, Arthur. I didn't mean to laugh. It’s just…you know…”
“It’s a little creepy.” His breath of laughter eased the tension.
“Uh, yeah. It’s, I mean…it’s not that I don't find you sweet…and even attractive, it’s just…”
“David was my nephew.” He nodded.
“Yeah. That. It kind of makes you family.”
“It does make us family,” he breathed. “But, for us to have a child would not be incestuous, my dear. We’re not of the same blood.”
“I know. And…I’ll keep it in mind.” I laughed again, feeling way too much blood under my cheekbones. “But…I mean, we probably better not mention this to anyone.”
“Ha!” He stood tall again. “I agree. I imagine no amount of ancient experience would save me from the wrath of Mike if he were to find out.”
I laughed too. “No. But…thank you, Arthur. You know…for offering.”
“I’d say you're welcome, but somehow, that just seems inappropriate.” He cupped both my arms and rested a gentle kiss on my brow. “I'm proud of you, Amara. And I love you dearly. I would do anything for you.”
I wanted to rub the kiss away, not because it was gross, but because it was a little chilly. But I let it rest there, knowing he could see the moisture his lips left on my skin, because it felt rightly placed. It was a kiss of friendship. And I liked this friendship. “You know I feel the same, right? And if—” If David wasn't alive. “If the need ever arises and the prophecy child is possible, I would be proud for you to be her father.”
His eyes sparkled with tears; he didn’t even try to hide them.
I touched his face and let my hand slide down the gristly stubble on his cheek. “You’re a good man, Arthur.”
He cleared his throat and sniffed once. “We should head back in.”
“Yeah.” I took his arm and rested my head on his shoulder for a quick moment. “I better go dance with Mike.”
My footprints left a lonely trail in the sand—the only proof life here existed. The morning was new, but the red sky and wild winds gave warning that today would not display summer so much as it would the wrath of Mother Nature.
I closed my eyes and listened to the wind caution the rocks, roaring and wailing—each breath of its cry thrashing my hair out in claw-like fingers around my face.
Last night had passed like a softly spoken story to a child; I smiled and danced, playing the role of a queen, but inside, I felt only the heart of a girl—one who wanted nothing more than to mend the past and undo the future.
When Mike finally got the chance to dance with me, I nearly told him what Arthur offered, but bit my tongue instead. Poor Arthur would be so humiliated when he found out that David was actually alive, and with the secret of immunity out now, part of me wondered if he already suspected it. But, if he did, then why would he have offered a child?
“Hey, baby. I thought I might find you out here.”
“Hm.” I smiled, not turning around. “Or you just asked your knights where I was.”
He tromped up right beside me and cast his eyes to the sea. “Looks like rough weather?”
“Yep. A storm.” I rubbed my temples.
“Do you need me to come sleep by your window tonight?”
I drew my shoulder up to my cheek. “I'm okay. They don't scare me so much anymore. Mostly, I just get headaches.”
“From the storm?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Probably something to do with static energy.”
I nodded. “That’s Arthur’s theory.”
“You’ve talked to him about it?”
“I talk to him about everything.”
“Including the secret of immunity,” he said drily.
“No. I didn't. Not about that.”
“Ara, don't lie to me, baby. You couldn’t hide a lie on that face if you wore a mask.”
My lips tugged on the corners, making me smile. “Okay. Maybe. But it was an accident. He said I let something slip, but I don't even know what it was.”
Mike became smaller beside me, his arms hanging loosely by his sides. “Does he know about David?”
I shook my head, hugging my cardigan around me.
“You think we should tell him?” he asked.
My mouth gaped. “You're asking my opinion?”
He looked back out at the grey day. “I know you’ll tell him if you want to—despite what I say. I’d just rather you told me if you were going to do that.”
“Okay.” I touched just under the sleeve of his shirt, where his Mark showed. “I’ll give you a heads-up if I do.”
“That’s all I ask, baby.”
I took a breath, feeling the slight warmth of it blow back in my face with the fierce wind. “Isn't it strange that we don't have to yell over the wind anymore?”
I heard a soft laugh beside me. “Yeah. It’s great. When we finally get a vacation one day, we should go back to Australia, go surfing. We’d be able to talk to each other in the barrel of a wave.”
I laughed too. “Mm. That actually sounds really good. Tubetalk.”
“Good idea. Tubetalk,” he repeated to himself.
“It’d be nice to see your mum and dad again. I bet they’re missing you.”
“Yeah.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and toed the sand, becoming the boy I grew up with all of a sudden. “But they’re okay. They just got a spa installed.”
“Yeah?”
Mike nodded.
“Awesome. We’re staying at your house when we go back then.”
He leaned in and gave me a gentle peck on the cheek. “I miss you. Miss us.”
I nodded. “Me too.”
“I'm sorry I’ve been a bit absent lately, baby.” His tone sounded as if he was going to continue, perhaps with an explanation, but he didn't. He just looked back at the ocean, his hands still in pockets, his shoulders high.
“It’s okay, you know. I get it. I'm just glad you’re here if I do really need you.”
The shadow he cast nodded. “Well, I gotta get up to training. See you in a few?”
“Yep. Oh, hey, Mike?”
He stopped a few steps away.
“The Immortal Damned—how’s the new quarters coming along?”
He stepped back down the sand to me. “Good. I told you we moved them to the upper cell block, right—so they’d have sun?”
I nodded.
“Right, well, the new prison should be done by week’s end. I’ve got sixty knights working on it, and the Lilithian community has rallied together to help as well.”
I smiled, picturing the plans from blueprint, rising up to the three dimensions, all bright and white and airy. “Great. And when can we move them?”
“Well, even once the building’s finished, I still wanna wait a few extra days, maybe a week. They’re being fed more often and we’re seeing small changes in general behaviour, but they attacked Mr. Keeper last night.”
“Good.”
“Don't be like that, baby. He’s been really good to those kids lately. He just needed to be taught how to treat…well, humans.”
“Fine.” I rescinded. “And, by the way, don't call the new quarters a prison again, Mike.”
“Ara,” he laughed my name out. “It is a prison.”
“No, it’s a home.”
“It has bars.”
“So does a casino, but you don't call that a prison.”
“Ha!” His whole body jolted back with fake laughter. “You’re so funny.”
I gave him a soft shove. “Go to training.”
He skipped off like a ten-year-old boy. “I’ll see ya soon, baby.”
“Bye,” I called, without turning to wave at him.
The heat of electricity formed a shield around me, and even with my eyes closed, I could feel the barrier of the cage. I heard Mike’s voice over the noise, yelling at me, counting down to the second I was allowed to stop, but the pain in my head made it sound as though he was standing on the opposite side of a mountain gorge.
“I can't, Mike,” I yelled, scrunching my eyes tighter. “I can't do it anymore.”
“Just ten more seconds, baby.”
His count and my count went at different speeds. I ground my back teeth together, forcing my feet to stay flat, my hands shaking as the electricity fired from my raw fingertips and into the metal cage protecting those on the other side.