House Of Legions (The Angel Descendants book 1)
Chapter 34 (Liam)

The night in Khiron was a bustle of chaos, Liam had done almost everything he could to stay unnoticed, keeping his distance by staying across the bayou, but Ruzak had other plans.

Sitting on the bench, Liam watched from across the water, the fire crackle and listened to the descendant's gossip, and next to him laid Ruzak. His wings stretched across the ground, head nudging Liam's thigh, but he never complained.

The bird had awaited his presence long enough. Liam, being the only one who was allowed to stroke the wings of Ruzak even if it was done in secret because Casters were forbidden to make such close relationships with the Guiders. Like a stupid rule would stop him from doing what he wanted.

Shaking his head in silent disbelief he stroked Ruzak's wing, pausing when he heard the sound of grass moving, "Ah, I was wondering when you'll be joining me."

A tall woman showed herself, Ruzak snapped his beak, and flew up into the air.

"Not all are pleased, obviously." A strong, deep feminine voice answered before her face was seen. Some found her voice enchanting. Her body planted next to him, attired in a long light powder blue dress. Platinum hair shined as bright as the shimmers of stars, and eyes black as midnight. She was strikingly beautiful but not shockingly so to Liam's eyes.

She was different compared to the other Elvan, and he knew her struggles that came with it, "Alexandra."

When he saw her grim face his voice dropped, "What's with the hair?"

"The moon ceremony, my mother suggested I blend in with the Elvan and not with the Lightwatcher's."

"So she made you dye your hair? Is there no end to her madness, you should consider living with me."

"Then I would be just one of your mistresses." She teased.

He couldn't argue, he had considered it many times in the early years. She was the Elvan Princess and half Lightwatcher, he knew she would've made an exceptional distraction, but he also knew he hated their diet, just the thought of it made him pale, but he decided why not amuse her, "The thought did cross my mind."

"So did it mine."

Her black eyes daring him the way it did, would have made any man squirm with the invitation it had given him, but he didn't even look amused, instead, his eyes dropped on the glittering water, which sparkled with the reflection of the full moon. There was no mistaking his message, he was not in the mood for mind games.

"In a few days." he paused, "I'll be brought to the Elvan mountain by Asguardians." His eyes not reaching the princess, "I would need your help to escape."

"Whenever you ask for my help it means betraying my own." She snarled, "I have settled my alliance with you years ago."

The long silence between them said more than the words had, "I have not seen you in months William and you send messages summoning ME, do you forget who I am."

She stood up, his eyes changed, as he stared at her, he knew he could be intimidating, but so could she, which is why he kept his voice gentle, "Yes you don't owe anything to me, but in believing we are allies, I thought you'd be willing to assist."

She stamped the ground, for the fifth time with the grass shoes she was wearing, like a schoolgirl who didn't get her way, "Really, you are going to go there now? The ally thing oh, okay let us use that."

Her face was flushed, and her breathing heightened, she was ticked, "Tell me the plan, If I like it I'll join, if I don't, forget me, ask Calub, he can enter Safiereal at will."

Liam had known Alexandra for years, he knew how easily perceptive to words she was, he got up as she walked toward the back path she came from, "haven't you heard Alexa?" "Heard what?"

"Calub has been kidnapped."

Alexandra- Alexa stood still, her mouth opened, her face whitened even in the shadows, PALED, like a ghostly creature of the night, “Impossible, I saw him a few days ago, I would've known."

"It's very recent, I heard it myself like an hour ago."

She didn't move, "Are you going to save him?"

"I have to save his sister first, I'm sure you heard of her, Clare."

He had liked talking her name, it was short and simple, like his nickname Liam, just the thought of the beauty made his mood lighter. She had been breathless when he spoke to her, and he felt the pull toward her, his body's urge to hold her. It took a lot of restraint not to touch her, or grab her, or reveal his identity. In the end, he succumbed to his desire and held his princess.

He wondered how she was, did she settle in, what was she doing, he began to rid himself of the thoughts, but it was so intense, that he had to create a shield. He didn't understand this reaction to her, he really needed to stop thinking of Clare, for his own good and many others.

Alexa walked closer to him, lost in her own phantom, "I did, my mother's calling her a weakling, apparently, her memory's wiped out."

Her voice dropped with every word said, it was softer than he had ever heard, an extra effort made on her part to sound more trusting or convincing perhaps. He wouldn't put it past Alexa, and with his own shields held in place, he didn't want to invade her mind and risk losing control and hunting down Clare and laying a public claim to her.

"I have deep feelings for Calub." Her confession was final, Liam held her midnight vision, with his blank one, he had just seen something at that moment which was not his to witness- Love, it was personal, but she wanted him to see it.

Alexa kept her sights on the sky, oblivious to what he might have thought but he didn't blame her. Alexa had succumbed to decades of worrying about what other's thought and said, mostly by her mother's own doing. Unfortunately unlike her sister Wuzana, Alexa had taken a majority of her father's genes, she had looked and thought mostly like a Lightwatcher, and being the youngest meant she would be queen, which made it all harder to fill the shoes of her mother.

"I want to see him safe, William, so whatever plan you have on saving him, you have my alliance, there, only."

Her dress showed her slender figure and curve between her hip bone and ribcage, one side more curvaceous than the other. Liam had remembered that day, when it happened- the war of descendants. They all had their scars of that day, but Alexa's was more permanent, because on that day twenty years ago, had marked her as one who had lost another. She had kept the deformity in her spine as a constant reminder of that which had been savagely taken from her- a sister, a friend and a warrior and though, her limp was a disability, she was still one of the best Fuized fighters he had ever seen in two thousand years, on this earth.

Liam tightened his jaw, there was no remorse in his eyes, no hatred, nothing. He was emotionless when it came to most, there were only a few who he ever cared for, and only two who he placed above others, they were his siblings, and part of him knew that innocent little Clare was too fast becoming a vital part of his existence in more ways than one.

He had known the loss of family, the absence of that which was a part of you slipped away. He had once lost, more than most, which was why he never got too deep, too emotionally involved. He urged himself not to drop his guard, to hold his own, BUT it was time for Alexa's trust to be tested.

Eyes on her, recalling what she said, he couldn't say he was not entirely stunned by the Princess's confession. In his absence from Khiron, he had still heard stuff from Jullie.

The ongoing complaints of Calub's play days with Alexa, but he knew Calub well enough to know how this was going to turn out. Liam wanted to highlight the obvious, but another part knew not to meddle, especially when it got him what he wanted, he never claimed sainthood, "Isn't he a little young for you?"

"Not as old as you are for Natarsha."

His blue eyes seeped into the sky, as the stars sparkled in its miles, "She's just a friend."

"Okay, then, enlighten me, what are you doing across the lake?" she grinned, "When there's a ceremony happening, and might I point out, of a dead woman which happens to be your student?" She spun around slowly, showing her knee-length hair, clinging to her satin dress.☐☐☐☐