Aviva
Ryan walks in alone, his unfamiliar companion rushing back down the stairs away from the house. He’s slightly unkempt, like he’d been to the sawmill, wood shavings sticking to his clothes and hair.
There’s a new scent being carried on his clothes–male. Familiar, yet unplaceable.
“Hey,” he says with a smile, pressing a kiss to my temple as he walks past me toward the bathroom.
I whirl, following him. “Who was that?”
He turns on the shower. “I have to make this quick. We’re leaving in a few minutes.”
“Oh–”
He rushes out of his clothes, stepping into the bathtub and pulling the curtain. I chew my lower lip as I walk out of the bathroom, edging toward the window to look outside. In the distance, a group has gathered in the center of the village around a stranger that I can’t see clearly. I have an odd feeling about this. I glance back at the supplies I have laid out on the table in anticipation for our trip tonight, not in a few minutes.
Tapping my foot, I go into our bedroom and pull one of my dresses from Endova out of the drawer with the rest of my clothing, a mix of both styles–the looping, shiftable dresses from my old village, and the new, soft, flowing dresses I’ve grown to like wearing here.
“I like the dress you have on,” Ryan says, towel drying his hair as he steps into the room. He has boxers on already as he reaches past me, pulling a pair of pants I’d never seen him wear out of the drawer. They’re a dark gray and made from a thick, complicated fabric that doesn’t look handmade. He pulls them on, fishes for some socks, and then walks to the closet.
“Why are we leaving early?”
“Sydney got here early.”
“Your brother? He’s here?” Nervous excitement blooms in my chest. Why? Why would Sydney be here? “Is he traveling with us?”
“Yeah.” Ryan shrugs into an off-white long sleeve shirt, turning to face me. It has buttons all the way up the chest–tiny ones, which he deftly secures into place without missing a beat. He shaved, too. His hair is brushed away from his face like he tried to tame the curls he usually ignores.
I turn to the mirror over the dresser, hastily pulling my hair away from my face and securing it in a bun at the nape of my neck with a ribbon.
My mind keeps dragging me back to why he’s dressed like this. He looks so different. He looks, I realize, like a prince. At least, what I imagine the Prince of Crescent Falls would look like.
There’s a knock on the door. He curses under his breath, turning toward the closet for a pair of shoes–again, a pair I’ve never seen him wear. He slides them on. “I’m coming.”
I follow him into the living room just as he opens the door, and his twin steps inside, smiling brightly.
Sydney is exactly what I expected. He looks like Ryan… kind of. Not totally. Ryan is larger overall, but not by much. Ryan’s roughness is accentuated by Sydney’s polished looks, however.
Their eyes are exactly the same.
Sydney notices me and smiles kindly, which catches me off guard.
“This is Aviva. The one I told you about when you got here.”
“You’re in so much trouble when we get to Moonrise,” he replies with a nudge of his elbow into Ryan’s ribs. Suddenly, Sydney’s walking toward me, his hand outstretched. “It’s nice to meet you.”
I don’t know what to do, so I tuck my hands behind my back.
Sydney bites down on his lip, nods, and curls his hand into a fist before letting it drop to his side. “Well, uh, we should get going. Mom’s waiting for us. She told me to be back in time for dinner.”
What? Back where? Moonrise is days away…?
“Yeah, sure. You can do this, right? You’ve been practicing?”
“I jumped here from Moonrise. It’s fine.”
“But with two extra people–”
“I got Sarah and the boys to Moonrise from Crescent Falls–”
“Sarah has these powers too–”
“It’s fine, I’m not going to kill you.” Sydney’s eyes slide to mine. “Or your wife, I promise.”
I have no idea what’s happening as Ryan gives his brother one final, skeptical look and reaches for my bag on the table, hauling it over his shoulder. I step toward my bow, hand outstretched, but he catches my hand in his, knitting our fingers together. One second, I’m standing with my feet planted on solid ground. The next, Sydney claps a hand on Ryan’s shoulder, and the room spins out of control.
I scream.
“Oh, fuck I didn’t warn–” Ryan’s voice breaks, replaced by a whirling, roaring sound that blasts through my ears at the same moment I fall to pieces, pulled apart.
Everything goes dark. That spinning sensation remains. I can’t make sense of up or down. I think I might be screaming for help because new voices are breaking through the darkness, lifted in excitement and…
“Ryan! It’s been so long–oh, my Goddess, is she okay?”
Bright light erupts in my eyes. I’m blinded, my knees buckling as the scream chokes out of my throat. I can’t catch my breath as my vision tunnels, the brightness fading, replaced by gold. Golden walls, light flooring. Sunlight beaming toward me.
“Fuck,” Ryan growls, scooping me up. My stomach pitches as I grip his shirt for dear life. “Aviva, I’m sorry, I forgot–”
“Who is that?” A bright female voice hisses nearby, but I can barely keep my eyes open.
Oh, gods, I feel so sick. I’m going to throw up. I need to–
“Did you even warn her? Oh, Goddess, Ryan, get her to the infirmary–” Another female voice I don’t recognize bursts toward us, followed by rushed footsteps.
“Sydney, who is that woman?” the first female voice repeats, but her voice is far away as Ryan clutches me to his chest and starts to run.
I catch a single glimpse of the two women before I’m forced to close my eyes again against the twisting, sick pain in my stomach. One woman is very short, with thick, dark brown hair that falls nearly to her waist. The other is tall with hair so blonde it’s nearly white as she gapes after us. I see her swat Sydney on the chest before my vision starts to fade again.
Where am I?
Ryan kicks a door open, and suddenly the expansive, gaping nothingness surrounding us shifts. It’s dark in here, wherever we are. It smells like… him. His things. His clothes. I’m so confused as I blink up at the domed ceiling, painted a deep, dark green and trimmed with dark wood. He rushes me into a new room where a light bursts to life, and the nausea returns.
“I can’t–” I whimper, trying to roll out of his arms. “I don’t feel well–”
He unceremoniously dumps me in front of a toilet and kicks what I realize is the door leading into a bathroom closed against the voice rushing in our direction.
I clutch the rug, crawling toward a porcelain bathtub, and press my cheek to its cool surface, closing my eyes.
“I am so sorry,” Ryan grinds out.
I don’t even open my eyes. I’m still spinning. “What the fuck just happened?”
“We’re in Moonrise.”
“What?”
“I didn’t think–I wasn’t thinking,” he exhales. “You’re going to be okay. Jumping is hard for people who don’t have powers.”
“What?” That's all I can manage. I slowly start to feel my body again, and the light doesn’t feel so painful to my eyes. When I finally lift my head, Ryan is sitting on the ground with his back against the door, resting his arms on his knees. He doesn’t look so great either, like he’s fighting the same dizziness that has my body in a chokehold.
I take the opportunity to look around. We’re definitely not in Silverhide anymore.
* * *
Ryan
I close the door to my bedroom in Moonrise behind me, holding it closed as the two men waiting nearby watch me with similar expressions of disbelief and curiosity. My private apartment in the castle is exactly how I left it the last time I was here, which was probably close to a year ago now, when I’d last visited the family.
“She’s asleep,” I tell Sydney and Evander.
Evander glances at Sydney, rolling his eyes. “She’s going to be out for a while. You can’t just jump with someone like us and expect us to land on our feet.” He’s talking about the fact that he, and my mate, don’t have the same kind of powers we do. I can jump all over the place, and it barely affects me. I get a bit of a headache afterward, but nothing major. I don’t have the power to do it myself, which is probably why I feel a little sick to my stomach right now too.
Or, that’s the guilt of straight up neglecting to tell Aviva how we were traveling to Moonrise.
I run my hands over my face, shaking my head.
Sydney takes a breath in preparation to say something, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand.
“Nobody say anything to me for a minute, okay?”
Evander smirks down at his boots, crossing his arms over his chest.
Seconds tick by. The questions haunting the room fester between us.
“Fine, what do you want to know?”
“How’d you end up with a wife, Ryan?” Sydney grinds out. Back in Silverhide, I’d told him the news and then promptly followed up by telling him to shut up about it until I had a moment to explain in length.
“She’s my mate, first of all.”
Evander stiffens, and Sydney looks perplexed.
“You’re sure?” Syd asks, lowering his voice.
I glance between the men and nod. “It just happened a few days ago, all right? I’m just as shocked as you are and still processing.”
Evander runs his tongue along his lower lip. “So you married her right away?”
“That came before. It was a… a fuck up, on my part. I didn’t fully understand the customs of her people and accidentally paid her bride price.”
Neither man understands what I’m talking about, but at this point, the last thing I want to do is explain myself, especially since it’s a matter of minutes before my parents find out we’re here.
“This is a lot for me,” I admit. “It’s even harder for her, so please, rein in your wives tonight.”
Evander chokes a laugh. “Kenna is already bombarding the mind-link right as we speak. They want an explanation.”
“They’ll get one, but I’m not going to totally overwhelm Aviva, not tonight. Just give us a minute. I need to talk to Mom and Dad,” I tell Sydney. “I need to talk to them about this first. Ryatt, too, since she’ll be queen of the Deadlands.” The words fall from my tongue. I hadn’t even thought of it that way yet.
I feel sorry for her. Neither of us had any idea what would happen to us the night I gave her father that pelt.
Evander nods. Sydney, too, slumps his shoulders and relents by saying, “Do you want to come see the boys? Blake has been asking about you.”
“Yeah,” I reply, rolling out my shoulders. “Uh, in a bit. I’m going to stay with her for a minute, make sure she feels okay.”
Evander steps forward, tilting his head toward the bedroom door. “I’ll have some tea sent up. Kenna has a special blend for me that I use when I have to travel. It helps with the nausea and headaches.” He claps me on the arm.
“Thanks, man.”
I watch them leave and lock the door behind them, making sure the exterior entrance is locked as well, and creep back into the bedroom.
But Aviva isn’t in bed. She’s standing at one of the windows, the shadows cast by the tall trees right outside dancing across her face.
I walk to her side, resting my hand on her lower back and watch her gaze out at the sparkling, golden city and the turquoise lake beyond.
“Is this real?” she asks.
“Yeah, we’re really here.”
She looks up at me, a bit flushed and pale. “They’re not going to like me. I’m not a princess.”
“Have you ever cared if people like you or not?”
“I care if theydo.” She holds my gaze, and I can see the doubt behind her eyes.
I cup her cheek and lean down, brushing my lips over hers before taking her mouth in an open, heated kiss. The kind I’ve been dreaming out.
“UNCLE RYAN!” Tiny fists pound on the door in the next room that leads into the castle proper. “UNCLE–” A yelp, then a sucking, angry cry as the voice is carried away. “NOOOOO! I WANNA SEE UNCLE RYAN! RIGHT! NOWWWW!”
“That’s Brie,” I laugh, resting my forehead against Aviva’s. “Are you ready?”
“I don’t think we have a choice.” She laughs and allows me to take her hand and lead her out of the room.