Winning Souls (7 page)

The dinner was cleared away, and the traces of sweetness were still on Enher’s tongue when the music started.

Kiot rose to his feet and extended his hand. “Would you dance with me?”

She got to her feet and went into his arms.

Kiot moved slowly, formally with her. “Ulises is frantically coaching me right now.”

She giggled. “I see. Well, you are following direction wonderfully.”

They swayed around the open deck of the penthouse as light landed in columns all around them.

“So, you agree to all my terms?” She licked her lips nervously.

“I do. And you agree to accept me as a mind within your mind and Ulises as the body next to yours.” His eyes swirled with streaks of gold in them.

“I do.”

“Then, I do not wish to waste a moment.”

He bent toward her, and she felt his kiss a moment before light struck her from the inside out.

Enher came to herself, hovering in a lavender cocoon above the decking of the penthouse. She felt Kiot in her body, but he was keeping separate from her conscious mind. He was drawing her extra power and humming happily.

Ulises was watching her closely. “You are going to have to get yourself down.”

She drew a deep breath and pulled the light into her via her joints and the chromatophores on her skin. She was stronger the moment that the light finished making its way into her body. She was also the same bright lavender as her hair.

“Okay, so that is going to get annoying.”

He laughed. “Kiot assures me that you will soon learn to control it.”

She was standing on her feet again, so progress was being made. “I need some food...again.”

“Breakfast is here. The caf is nearly as good as the one we had on our first day out. The pies and pastries are better.” He held his hand out to her and smiled. “I have to say it is quite the relief that I am not bearing the weight of Kiot alone.”

“It is my pleasure. I am going to have to call Relay, though. She is going to need an update. Wait, what colour are my eyes?”

He grinned. “A rich and vibrant blue.”

She blinked. “That’s new.”

“They used to be brown, did they not?”

Enher shrugged. “They could change with my aura, but blue was outside my scope.”

“Well, nothing is outside of your reach now.”

They sat, and the servers brought a breakfast that did indeed rival that first breakfast at the café, though the caf was lacking.

She wanted to jump, to run and to stay very still so that no bit of power leaked out. Her skin was too tight, and her heart was pounding as Kiot sunk into her inch by inch.

“You are handling this much better than I did.” He smiled.

“What did you do?”

“I took to the skies and flew until I was exhausted then crashed into the mountains, and he rebuilt me.”

She licked crumbs off her finger. “So, it wasn’t a leisurely stroll around the world until I got here.”

He shook his head. “Panicked flight.”

She looked down and watched the pattern of energy on her skin. “The colours are wrong.”

The server collected the empty dishes, and the knowledge of the origin of the pattern became clear.

She bolted to her feet and took to the skies. The instinct to fly was powerful, but the urge to vent the tension was an inexorable wave.

Enher-Dahl flew a mile above the city, and she let the energy loose. Generations of souls were set free with no bodies to bind them. They had been bound to the power of Kiot, and the energy of the Nurmegar did not mix with that of a Reedamani.

She opened herself to the power and let the souls go. Kiot was shaking with relief. His drive for fresh minds, fresh power had not known how to release those who could no longer offer their support. Enher knew what to do. She let it all go and kept only what was hers and Kiot’s.

She felt better immediately, but too much power had been expended. Enher began a slow descent toward the city, but she could no longer fly.

Ulises caught her and flew upward with steady beats of his wings. “That was impressive.”

She smiled weakly and chuckled. “Nice catch.”

“The leap of faith is usually a bit more formal, but I believe we satisfied the necessities for my people. By Enjel tradition, we are now legally wed.” He grinned.

“That is a messed up tradition.”

“When you are born with wings, you have to keep things interesting.” He winked.

Kiot was inside them both, sighing with relief and brimming with joy. He had what he needed, solid Avatars who would take him with them as they lived their lives.

Enher didn’t ask where they were going; she didn’t care. Her body was coming back under her own control once again, and she was close to feeling normal. Her season was about to kick off, and she wanted to be herself when it happened.

Sparks of moonlight danced around the party as Enher and Ulises watched their youngest and her husband make their way around the dance floor.

“She looks so happy.” Enher sighed.

“Moli-Dahl is the brightest mark of your training and my stellar genetics.” Ulises laughed.

“Yaski, Loria and Morked are also prime examples.”

He chuckled. “And yet they are all settled with children of their own. It is apparently hardest to see your youngest married off.”

“She is in good hands. I trust Nokil to keep her safe. If not, I know how to track him.” She grinned and rubbed her hands together.

“My dearest, would you care to dance?” He looked at her, and Kiot was an equal partner to the question.

Enher smiled. “I would. Is there room for three of us on the dance floor?”

She opened her mind to Kiot, and he fed off her joy at this event. They wandered to the floor with her other children and relatives. They laughed with the new in-laws, and the conglomeration of wings jostled for space on the dance floor.

It was quite the party.

“Forty years, love.” Ulises stood at the edge of the balcony with his arms around her, as usual.

“Yup. I would say time has flown, but I was the one flying. You made a surprisingly good father.”

He chuckled. “I would not be averse to trying it again.”

She looked up at him. “Are you a glutton for punishment?”

“I love each of your children. They are part of you and part of me. How they all managed to breed true is a peculiar event that still has us fending off geneticists.”

Reedamani with wings was new, and the Imperium nobility was stumbling over itself to get in line for any available offspring. The early attempts to kidnap the children had resulted in Ulises stepping up as the official Nurmegar Guardian with the right to kill in defense of his offspring. The attempts had soon ceased.

“I don’t know if I want to do it all over again. I thought we could relax and enjoy the incoming grandchildren.” She kept her arms over his around her waist.

“Ah, but there is nothing like holding a little one of your very own. You are still young, I am still young...”

She laughed. “Because Kiot keeps us from aging. He just likes to sit back and watch what we do with all this time on our hands.”

Those hands started shifting over her hips. “We have gotten creative now and then.”

“Do you seriously want another child?”

“I want a dozen more if you would provide them. Each child of yours is a beautiful jewel that gleams brightly in the darkness.”

“Your genes are in there, too.”

“And yet, when I see our girls and boy, you are all that I see.”

She sighed. “I will have Kiot give me three months of normalcy. If I change colour, we can pursue that particular avenue. It isn’t fair that I am getting older than you are with every pregnancy.”

He stroked his hand over her waist and hip. “My kind live over a hundred years longer than yours do, love. I would always look younger than you do, but you don’t look a day over the way you looked the day we met.”

Enher sighed. Decades of travel, of Guardians found, friends and family lost, and so much love. Four children, pictures on the walls, teaching them to fly, holding them when they sobbed about their differences and getting them to accept themselves.

They were parents, about to be grandparents, Guardians and Avatars. There was room in their lives for being husband and wife, but it had to be tucked into the crevices around the others. This was their time to be alone, but alone had less appeal than another new life and a whole new start.

She turned and looked up at her husband, watching her reflection in his golden eyes. He was smiling down at her with smug amusement.

She sighed. “I am changing colour right before your eyes.”

“And it is truly a beautiful sight.”

His wings flexed, and he took them up to their private aerie. A spot forbidden to all and guarded by an energy curtain and several raptors. Even Avatars had to hide from their children now and then. This was definitely one of those times.

This one started in the Citadel and went for a walk. Oops. It also got a little sappy at the end, but I just got off the phone with my mom...so....oops again.

Thanks for reading,

Viola Grace

[email protected]

violagrace.com

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.

An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.