Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (16 page)

“But how can I?!” Draven asked like a desperate man half close to breaking into that famous temper of his.

“Send her away Brother, I implore you.” Sophia said taking a step closer but Draven tore his gaze from hers as if the very idea repulsed him.

“Out of the question,” he stated firmly.

“Then you will not only lose every chance of meeting your Chosen One, but you also condemn us all to damnation with you, for you know of what the prophecy speaks.” This was when Draven hit his limit and let his fist slam down on his armrest cracking the carved black stone it was made from. I watched as the lightning bolts made in the throne snaked along until stopping just before touching my fingers that were still placed against it.

“Of course I know of the damned prophecy and this fated girl for whom I am expected to give my life up for,” he thundered bitterly and I winced knowing I was both causes behind this curse.

“You know that it is not meant to be that way,” she said softly, obviously feeling bad for her brother’s given predicament.

“No…then tell me dear sister, for how is it meant to be?” he lashed out the question resentfully.

“You are fated to fall in love with this girl,” she said lowering her voice to barely above a whisper.

“And what if I have already fallen in love with another!” he shouted confessing the way I could only hope he felt. Sophia and I gasped at the same time but only one was heard.

“You can’t mean…” she started to say having taken a staged step back from shock. 

“And why not, because she is mortal?” I looked from Draven asking the question to Sophia who was almost too dumbstruck to answer.

“But how could this have happened? It was never fated to be this way. The Oracle said…”

“I don’t give a damn what the Oracle said, for she must have been wrong,” he ground out, slicing a hand through the air.

“Wrong? But that is impossible! An Oracle as powerful as she is never just
wrong,
Brother, you know this!” This time it was Sophia’s turn to snap.

“All I kno
w
Saphira, is how I feel and how there is nothing
wrong
about it. I cannot simply ignore it and trust me, I have tried for more than the sake of my own people but for hers as well,” he told her reining in some of his anger and doing so with more reason in his voice. Sophia hung her head and shook it as though she couldn’t believe in what she was hearing.

“But you don’t even know this girl or anything about her!” she said trying to cast doubt in his mind and call it reason.

“I know what I feel and that is enough.”

“And what if she was sent here…um, have you thought of that?” A rumble came from Draven’s chest as the idea angered him, so Sophia jumped on it.

“For all you know she could be here as a spy for our Roman enemies, one to tempt you into bedding her to get close to you for information or worse, a temptation sent from the enemies of our own kind hoping to cast doubt upon your rule and make you a mockery for your past judgements sentenced down upon our people.” Sophia said trying with one last attempt at planting enough seeds of doubt to cast at the very least a shred of suspicion or mistrust as to my intentions.

“I will not hear of this…” Draven started to say calmly and obviously trying to keep a lid on his rage but Sophia took this as an opportunity to push further.

“I mean, all you need to do is look at how she came to be here and the mysteries around it. By the Gods brother, think about it! She doesn’t even know her own name or where she came from and for all we know that ‘attack’ on her was staged. Planned from the beginning so that Ranka just happened to come across her just in time, giving her instant access not only to the palace but more importantly to
you.”
  Well I had to say that by time Sophia was done, even I was almost convinced as half of what she said wasn’t exactly all that far from the truth. But one glance at Draven and it didn’t take a genius to know she was fighting a lost cause.

His face had turned a deeper shade of tan giving his scars an even more startling contrast to the rest of his skin tone. Veins in his neck became more prominent as his muscles tensed and I could see him grinding his teeth from where I was hiding in plain sight.

“That all sounds a very likely cause…”

“Good, I am glad you are finally agreeing…” Draven’s hand shot up to silence her, cutting off her premature victory.

“I am not finished. What you say could be true or at least have some grounds for mistrust…”

“That’s what I…” Once more she was celebrating too soon and finally got the message when Draven shouted,

“BUT…there are obviously factors in which your own palace spies have failed to tell you about our mystery girl. For I find it highly unlikely that someone sent here with the sole purpose of getting close to me, would then attempt to escape her guard and leave the palace just after I make it apparent to her that she is my new favourite. Can you explain that to me?” I looked to Sophia after Draven’s cutting statement and compelling evidence given in order to clear any doubt from my character and she just looked shocked.

“I…well, it seems to me that those actions might have also been taken to cast any doubt aside so that…”

“Enough! I am tired of hearing anymore of your attempts at convincing me to think ill of her!” Draven exclaimed and by the looks of Sophia’s slumped shoulders, it finally seemed that she was admitting defeat.      

“Then that is it…for there is nothing to be done other than to let you ruin all that you have worked so hard to set into place. Are you really prepared to show your people that you aren’t a King to be trusted but instead a tyrant like our father who broke all the rules?” 

“Be careful of which you spea
k
Saphira, for those broken rules are the very ones that lead us to be here today.” Draven said in a tone that spoke only of warning and it was strange hearing him sticking up for his father, someone I knew he wasn’t on the best of terms with.

“Yes and we too were also classed as an abomination at one time, is that something you are really so eager to go back to?” she lashed out at him in a nasty snarl.

“They would not dare!” Draven bellowed standing up from his throne in his outrage.

“I would not be so sure brother, for they are plenty and we are but three. It took us a long time to get here and you are ready to risk it all for the selfish reasons of your heart, a heart filled with feelings as our kind you cannot even be sure are real!” she shouted back getting just as angry as her brother.

“You couldn’t possibly understand for it has not happened to you yet and your lack of compassion for others is testament of that. But be warned little sister, for one day you too will fall under its spell and when you do, then you can preach to me about the selfish ways in which such a stolen heart beats for one person. But until then, I would think twice about reproaching me on this matter again!” My mouth dropped open and not just from the furious way in which he spoke to his sister, but also from how in such a short time he felt for me. The love he spoke of was exactly the same way that Draven from my time would have spoken about it, which utterly shocked me after such a short time spent together.

Had the same thing happened to him when we first met back in the woods that day? Had it been as instant as he said it had been, but I just never let myself believe it until now? Well if I had ever been worried before about him feeling the way he did just because it was fated, then those fears were now firmly out the window as he was ready to renounce his own people for me!

But really thinking about it, was this not the same as he was doing back home, by denying the Fates of what they asked of him? He was willing to give up the entire prophecy, something he had believed in since first meeting the Oracle, just to keep me alive when our future together was most likely going to come to an end anyway due to that very same prophecy.

Sophia looked as though she had been slapped before being banished by her own blood. To the point that I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her because, even though I knew that in this time she hated me, she was still only doing this for what she believed in, just as her brother was.

At least one thing was confirmed and that was the Sophia I saw now didn’t yet know what it felt like to fall in love. Zagan hadn’t yet been introduced in this time so Draven was right, she didn’t yet know how it felt to give your heart to someone and the selfish levels you would reach to keep that love alive and ultimately with you.

I watched as Sophia gave her brother one last look o
f
despondency before composing herself when she saw the proof that she obviously had no hope of getting through to him. She straightened her back, took a deep breath and after smoothing out the front of her dress she nodded in respect. I could easily tell it was done more to her King than to her brother, who she had no doubt lost some respect for.

“And Saphira…” Sophia stopped by the door and waited, refusing to look at her brother.

“You will leave the girl alone and not interfere again, am I understood?” Draven’s command somehow felt as if it came at great cost but as I was the only one to look into his eyes, I was the only one who knew this. Sophia glared over her shoulder at the floor but only for the second it took to say,

“Oh I understand
all too well, brother.”
And then she left the massive room as though it was closing in on her. It was hard fighting my instincts against wanting to run after her to offer my friend comfort but I would only be fooling myself into believing it was the same Sophia I knew. It was as I said before, two thousand years could do a lot to a person as much as it could
for
a person. And without yet experiencing love for herself, then that certainly could change someone, which in her case, was obviously for the better.

I hung my shoulders in defeat as she had done, knowing I was stuck between sandstone time and a hard place, one that was safer to stay in between than get emotionally involved. I think even Pip would have agreed that the Sophia here wasn’t the same girl we both called friend back home.

“You may come back in now.” Draven said and I was surprised to see Ranka when she came in from behind a hidden door.

“I take it that it didn’t go as you hoped, my Lord?” Draven released a heavy sigh and let his head rest on one hand so that he could rub the top of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, as he so often did when frustrated.

“I want you to keep an eye on her.”

“My lord?” Ranka’s tone mimicked the shock on her face.

“I don’t trust her.” At first I thought they were talking about me but when he nodded to the door and said,

“She will not let this go.” I knew then that he was talking about Sophia. Ranka looked torn and I knew why seeing as this would have been the perfect opportunity to tell Draven about Sophia’s first attempt at getting rid of me. But then again, Draven now knew to be wary of his sister’s intentions and how far she would go, so I guess Ranka didn’t see the sense in adding fuel to a flame that already burned at a dangerous level.

“I will do what is needed, my Lord.” Ranka said bowing her head but Draven wasn’t finished and hearing his next question made my heart pound. 

“I wanted to ask you about the day you found her.”

“My King?”

“You were hunting at the time, were you not?” Draven asked rubbing his beard as he obviously thought back on some of Sophia’s claims.

“I was.”

“So it would not have been easy to foretell your whereabouts?” I knew where Draven was going with this and so did Ranka, for she relaxed slightly.

“Not unless they could foretell the whereabouts of the stag I was hunting, for as you know when I hunt I do so vast and wide until I reach my prey.” Draven nodded seemingly happy with her answer.

“As I thought.”

“If I may my Lord, what I saw that day was no act but only the actions of a desperate woman whose sole intention was to survive. I truly believe that had I not made the impromptu decision to go out hunting that day then she would not only have been raped many times over, but that she would have only had death to welcome her at the end of such an ordeal.” Draven listened to Ranka’s words as I myself winced at reliving them, realising now how true they were and how close I had come to death at their hands. Ranka had saved me in more ways than one and from Draven’s expression, he knew it too.

“Then I thank you once more and this time on my behalf, for not only saving her life but also bringing her into mine.” Ranka looked taken aback by this and I had to wonder how many times she had been thanked by her King before, because if I didn’t know any better, I would say that this was the first time.

“It is my pleasure to serve you my Lord, as it is my own pleasure gained in saving the life of an innocent girl from meeting a violent end.” I couldn’t help but shed a tear in thanks to my saviour who had exceeded my every expectation since coming to this place. Her help in this quest had been monumental and no matter the outcome of it all by the time we made it home, I would forever be in her debt because of it.

I swiped away the single tear that rested on my cheek knowing now the importance of being a witness to all this as I rested my head on the side of the throne in which he still sat. I released a deep sigh knowing that I could go back to my own bed and finally find a peaceful end to this turbulent day. Of course this in theory sounded easier said than done when the next thing out of Draven’s mouth was an unexpected order…