Elfin (16 page)

“My Liege,” Al
ok said as he knelt before the Dark Elf King. “I thought he must be handling something for you and I didn’t feel it my place to question. Trik has always come and gone as he pleased.”

Lorsan paced the throne room as his mind raced. He had always allowed Trik more freedom than any in his army, but then Trik had never given him cause to ques tion his loyalty. Trik had always done what he’d asked, always followed through, even if he did give Lorsan grief over just about everything; he still did as he was told. But that was before he had found his Chosen.

“Alok, how are the crops
coming along?” Lorsan asked.

“They are growing well. The
human soil seems to be mixing well with our own,” Alok answered quickly, which irritated Lorsan further because he knew that Trik would have purposely dragged out the explanation, adding a few smart-ass comments of his own. Oddly enough he found that he preferred a contrary assassin to a cooperative one.

“When will
the first batch be ready to harvest?”

“By the end of this week,” he answered again with a no nonsense tone.

“That will be all,” Lorsan dismissed the warrior.

“What of Triktapic,
Liege?”

Lorsan’s head snapped around and the look in his eyes
made Alok step back.

“I will deal with Triktapic and you will
make sure the first batch of Rapture is successful.” Alok bowed and quickly made his way through one of the mirrors in the throne room.

“What is your plan?” Ilyrana asked once she and Lorsan were alone again.

Lorsan threw his hands in the air. “Of all my warriors, he was the one I would have bet my life would remain loyal.”

“You don’t know that he has defected yet,” Ilyrana argued.
“This is Trik we are speaking about, my King. He has always come and gone as he pleased but he has always returned.”

“He has never gone so long without checking in with
me or one of his warriors. Nor would he ever allow a project of this magnitude to go unsupervised for so long.” Lorsan’s eyes narrowed as he continued. “He is being distracted by his human at a time when I don’t need him distracted.”

“She is his Chosen.
”

“So he says,” Lorsan cut his
own Chosen off.

“So bring her here,” Ilyrana challenged
. “Let us see for ourselves that she really is his Chosen.”

“What will that change?” Lorsan growled. “I still expect him to do his duty
; I still expect his loyalty to be to me first.”

“
I agree with you, love. But maybe if Trik feels that we are welcoming her into our race, then he will not feel the need to stray.”

Lorsan
looked at his Chosen and was, once again, struck by her aptitude in forethought. He, more often than not, let his temper get the best of him while she remained cool and logical. He had decided long ago that this was why the Forest Lords had given her to him.

“So we shall have a banquet in honor of Triktapic
’s Chosen,” Ilyrana told him with a smile.

“I can’t decide if this plan in ingenious, or just your
way of getting to throw a party,” Lorsan chuckled, but felt his anger diminishing as he watched his Chosen.

“Maybe a little
of both,” she teased.

~

Trik sat in Cassie’s room
, waiting on her to come back upstairs. He thought about the past week that he had spent with her. They had only been apart when she was in class, with her parents, or in the bathroom. They had talked about anything and everything. His mind drifted off to one particular conversation that still troubled him.

They had been
lying on her bed, her head on his stomach as he weaved his fingers in and out of her hair. She had looked up at him and asked him what his childhood had been like, what he had been like. It had been so very long since Trik had thought about his childhood, and the longer he had sat there trying to think of something to tell her, the harder it had been for him to even get a picture in his mind of what his childhood had been like.

“Very different from your childhood I
think,” he had told her.

“What do you mean
think
?” She had asked him.

Trik had pushed as hard as he could in his mind to form some thought of his childhood, but no memories came.

“I don’t remember it,” he had told her, his voice flat and devoid of emotion though inside he had felt like something was beginning to weaken, some wall that had been erected was beginning to falter in its hold.

“You don’t remember anything about your childhood.” Cassie’s voice had been full of disbelief and sorrow.

“It’s been a long time, Cassie. I am ancient, remember?”

He had teased her, trying to keep her from feeling bad for him, all the while, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling growing inside of him.

Trik sat up abruptly as the unwelcome pulling sensation drew him from his memories. He knew that sensation and it was one that he was beginning to dread. Lorsan was calling to him. He wasn’t forcing him, but he was definitely summoning him.

Cassie’s bedroom door opened and Trik stood quickly
, closing the distance between them.

“What’s wrong?” Cassie saw the frustration written across Trik’s handsome features as he pulled her into his arms.

“Lorsan summons me; I must go.”

“When will you be back?” She asked him calmly, pushing out any of the possibilities for which his King would be calling him.

“As soon as I can.” Trik pulled back and looked down at her. “I don’t suppose you can stay in your room until I come back for you?”

Cassie stifled her laughter into his shirt. When she looked up into his silver eyes
, she saw worry there. “Trik, I can’t just stay in my room when you aren’t with me.”

“
Why not?” His brow furrowed in frustration. “I can’t keep you safe when I’m not with you Cassie.”

“There is nothing you
need to keep me safe from.”

“
A'maelamin,
I am the most feared assassin in the history of my race.”

Cassie was surprised to hear no vanity in his
tone. He was just stating the facts.

“I have taken more lives than you have probably met and pissed off
double that amount. Believe me, there is plenty to keep you safe from. The news that I have found my Chosen is spreading quickly. You will soon become a target to anyone who wants to get to me.”

Cassie started to speak but he cut her off with a firm kiss.

“Look, it’s Saturday,” he smoothed her hair back from her face as he looked down at her. “Just stay in your home until I get back. I won’t be gone long.”

“Fine,”
she said in exasperation as she stepped away from him and flopped onto her bed. “I’ll wait for you here like a good little girl.”

Trik grinned down at her and her heart nearly stopped at his Adonis look. The
elf really was too good looking for his own good.

“I shall reward you accordingly.” H
e leaned down over her, his hands on the mattress on either side of her head and pressed his lips to hers. Trik lingered over her, breathing in her scent and memorizing her taste.

“
See you soon beautiful,” he whispered against her lips. Cassie’s eyes closed as she relished his closeness, but they opened as soon as she felt a soft breeze caress her face. She sat up and blinked as she looked around her room. Trik was gone.

She flung herself back on her bed with a groan. A whole Saturday stuck at home. “This is crap,” she muttered to herself.

Her cell phone beeped. She grabbed it from her bedside table. It was a text from Elora.

E: U up?

C: Yep. Cassie texted back.

E: Quiver boy there?

C: Nope

E: Bored?

C: Yep

E:
Go out?

C: QB says it’s dangerous

E: So is breathing in the noxious fumes we call air. Point?

C: Well
, when u put it that way E: Can’t argue with my logic

C: Uh, u mean can’t argue with you period?

E: That too.
So-u in?

C: Bring it.

E: That’s my girl

Cassie grinned as she tossed her phone onto her bed.
Elora to the rescue. It was good to have a friend who liked to stick it to the man, or to anyone for that matter.

~

“It’s been a while, Triktapic.” Lorsan waited for him in the large garden located behind the King’s palace. Trik looked around as he entered the large garden and thought that it must look much like what humans described in their enchanted tales. Lush grass carpeted the ground. Tall trees with strong trunks and long branches covered in ornate leaves shaded the garden. Flowers in every color imaginable bloomed around them, tall, short, small , and large.

Trik smirked to himself
, thinking that Cassie would ask why the dark elf castle was not actually dark, at least not on the outside. Regardless of the heart that lurked in Lorsan’s chest, he still liked beautiful things and his garden was indeed beautiful.

“It’s been a week
, my Liege, hardly any time at all.” Trik knelt before Lorsan knowing that it would both please and irk the King.

“A week since you have b
othered to check on your duties,” Lorsan’s words were clipped and tight.

Trik continued to kneel. “Alok has it under control.”

“How would you know? You haven’t checked in with him in a week.”

After a long pause
, Trik stood, tired of playing the part. “I do not answer to Alok, and if he thinks that I am not keeping an eye on what is going on, then he is not the Second in Command that I thought he was.” Trik’s head snapped around to look at Lorsan.

“You know that I would not let such a project go unchecked. You honestly believe that in a week I have not laid eyes on the crops myself?” Trik didn’t hide the contempt in his voice.

Lorsan stood, staring at Trik. After several moments of silence he let out a long breath.

“I don’t know what to think
, Trik.”

“Lorsan
, I have found my Chosen, not lost my mind.”

“They are one in the same if I remember correctly,” Lorsan chuckled nostalgically.

A slow smile spread on Trik’s face as his temper faded. “So you remember?”

Lorsan walked over to a chair that had been placed beneath the largest shade tree and sat. He motioned for Trik to take the seat beside him.

“I remember,” Lorsan agreed tiredly, truly remembering what it was like when he had first laid eyes on his Ilyrana. “I have been wrong to question you Trik. But in my defense, this is a very important and dangerous time.”

Trik n
odded and said with a sly smile. “I can agree to all of that.”

“Why don’t you bring her here, let us meet her?” Lorsan offered.

Trik leaned back in his chair as he considered his King’s words and kept his face carefully blank. It wouldn’t do to let Lorsan know that the last thing he wanted to do was to taint Cassie, his pure Cassie, with the darkness of his realm.

“Ilyrana wishes to throw a ball in your honor,” Lorsan continued when Trik didn’t speak.

Trik groaned inwardly at this news. “She’s knows how I hate balls, besides humans don’t throw balls.”

“Sure they do,” Lorsan’s Chosen wa
lked gracefully into the garden. “They call them parties.”

Trik smiled at his Queen and bowed his head.

“Really Trik, all this formality from you is going to begin to go to my head and I might actually think I am the Queen of an Elfin race.”

Trik laughed. He always had liked Lorsan’s Chosen
.

“We wouldn’
t want that.”

“So will you bring her?”
Lorsan interrupted their banter.

Trik stared at his King boldly. He searched his eyes
, looking for any ill intent. Though he could see that Lorsan had an agenda, he couldn’t seem to see that there was any threat to Cassie.

Trik nodded.
“When shall I bring her?”

“
Give me three days,” Ilyrana announced. “It is all planned. Now I just need to put it all together.”

“That quickly?”
Lorsan asked his Chosen.

“It will be very small. There’s no need to frighten her.”

Trik stood and took Ilyrana’s hand. He bowed over it and brought it to his lips. He kissed her hand gently and then looked up into her eyes. “Thank you my Queen, you honor my Chosen.”

The formality of his actions caught both Lorsan and Ilyrana by surprise. He was asking her blessing over his union.

Ilyrana nodded once and answered formally. “As all will honor her.”