Revik96

I watched the two kids start their dance of battle as Kael crossed his arms.

“Where did you find this small thing? She is amusing, and Kiel seems to enjoy her company.” He shifted from one foot to the next, smirking, unable to take his eyes off the small girl, her movements, so much questioning in his eyes.

“Remember how you found my—her?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the name, hesitating with a shaken breath. We had attachments to names, and they could hurt. Kael stiffened, turning his head from the kids to stare at me once more.

Niala spoke with Kiel, a playful banter. She’d lost much of her accent and fluency. As much as she was Wildling, with one having stolen her heart, she was undoubtedly Acerrai as well.

“Awfully young to be chosen, yes? I suppose that’s what happens with you Anael when you keep one of ours without knowing better.” Kael sniffed, turning his nose up a bit.

“I’m not Anael,” I told him quietly.

Kael closed his eyes and nodded. His aura of anxiety twitched, but he became too distracted by Niala flooring Kiel with expert dexterity. Size didn’t scare her. “If not Anael, Wildblood then?” Kael tried to contain himself, politely raising a curious brow, but the anxiety around him made it obvious.

“Yes. I assume she told you?” I never said my daughter’s name if I didn’t have to. I didn’t feel like I deserved the right to say it.

“No, Sai did. She said you had your reasons, and while I cannot understand, I cannot judge.” He went calm and stoic as he spoke, and this was not the Kael of sixteen years ago. He was not the Kael I knew.

“I can only hope you can forgive me,” I whispered, but I didn’t seek his forgiveness.

“Your loss was my greatest gift.” Kael’s lips turned into a wry smile and halted as Niala stepped back from Kiel’s fallen form. Her shirt’s back fell open as she made herself small while Kiel moved to stand. He rolled his shoulders and lashed his wings hard, all four of them.

Each wing shot out in succession, a crack and a blatant snap of feathers against the sky, dark grey and white banding, red suffused through as a hawk’s wing, two sets, one atop the other. It sent Niala cringing and her legs scrambling against his back, trying to find purchase.

I felt my own wings shoot free of my back, and Kael hissed between his teeth, just barely containing his. I gasped, trying to catch my breath. Fuck, it hurt when they went that hard. Niala yelped and grit her teeth as the impact shocked her. Her wings stayed in.

“Creator’s feathers….” Kael let a laugh bark through. “She reminds me of someone.”

“Yeah. When I first saw her, she reminded me a lot of Erythmia.” Niala just had to turn to expose her Ikris. It’d tell him all he needed to know. News like this would have to be broken slowly with Kael, no matter how much he’d changed—preferably out of arm’s reach.

“She does. It’s a little hard to look at her, but knowing she was gelded… She seems fine for it.” Kael’s cheerful look clouded.

“She wasn’t gelded. My people found her and raised her. I only recently found out. She’s Wildblood in her heart.” I could see the spirit of my people in her, her playful eyes and posture all Wildling, carefree and—

Niala bared her teeth and matched Kiel head-on at a run. She leaped like a cat and worked the only skill she had—her agility. I could see the black forming in her eyes, and Kael stood still, jaw slowly dropping.

“Four!? How the chata you have four wings?” Niala had her arms deadlocked around Kiel’s neck and knees pinned in between his wingbases. She kept shifting, not knowing where to place her knee. Kiel’s atypical anatomy threw her for a loop.

Kiel gasped for air and struggled against her as he tried to swing and grab.

He got a handful of hair and started jerking to no avail. She only clutched tighter, then tighter still as his four wings slapped back at her.

“Pretty strong to match a seraphim.” Kael spat a nervous laugh that caught in his throat with a choke as Kiel stumbled over and took her with him. She snatched one of Kiel’s arms to pin behind him as her other arm tightened.

“Call yourself pigeon, and I stop!” Niala announced. Her awful grammar needed more help than I could give, and I don’t think the Acerrai played that game.

“I only today discovered they had her. She’s a gift for you, in hopes that in the coming months, we can favorably work to create a peace between our peoples as we look at uniting our tribes.” I took a step back from Kael. My next words had every possibility of pissing him off.

“Why would I want this girl as a gift?” Kael searched my face, and I took another step back as he braced himself. Tension rose in his neck.

“Promise me you won’t attack me.” I held up my hands placatingly. Maybe if I did this right, he’d be calm.

“I promise you. You’re a good friend to me, maybe not to her, but to me, yes.” Kael nodded, proud of himself.

I braced myself. “You say that, but….”

“Girl?” I called out to her in English as Kiel choked out strained words.

“Not-pigeon-hrk,” Kiel’s tail slapped at her as his wings tried to buck, her hair taking a hell of a beating.

“Hmm?” Niala had laser focus but equally dividable attention.

“Mind telling Kael here what your name is?” I asked her, tensing.

She kept focus on Kiel, “Niala Samia sima tam tie.” ‘I am called Niala Samia.’ Her words came hesitant and slow but distinctly Acerrai.

Kael took a long breath, calming himself. I had exactly two seconds of breathing room before Kael turned on me and drew his fist, the motion so quick that I couldn’t dodge. Black fire raced over up and over his arm and flew back several feet and skidding across the ground before I even felt the first searing slice of pain and the impact.

Niala looked up from her hold of Kiel and drew her wings with a sharp jerk. Her tail whipped free, and eyes went dark as the night skies. Black fire shot up her arms, coursing over her skin, a childish response of someone unfamiliar with their power.

“REVIK! Don’t hurt him!” She shouted, and her voice brayed, a shriek from powerful lungs. Kael’s wings responded with a flourish, lashing in kind, and he turned to face her, horror and tears in his eyes.