Authors: Quinn Loftis
They emerged
into the conference room and Cassie’s mouth dropped open.
She turned in a circle as she took the room in. Candles lined the walls on shelves
, that hadn’t been there the last time she was there. The long table that had been in the middle of the room was gone and in its place a small round table that held a single, small black box. Light from the candles fell down across the box and though it was the smallest thing in the room it seemed to take up the most space. Soft music played, though she didn’t know where it was coming from.
She finally looked over at Trik who was watching her with eyes full of passion. He reached for her and pulled her into his arms. He wrapped one arm around her and his hand found the bare skin from the V in her dress. He took her other hand in his and held it to his chest and began to move with her.
“I wanted some time with you alone.
And I thought what better place to go than where we first met. Once we arrive at Lorsan’s I will get little time to hold you,” he told her as he pulled her tighter against him. Cassie laid her head on his chest and immersed her senses in Trik. His scent, the feel of his body, the touch of his hand on her back, the breath pouring over her hair as he laid his cheek against her head. Cassie didn’t think it could get any better than this. Trik chuckled as he caught the thought.
He leaned down and whispered into her ear, as his lips grazed her skin
. “It gets better beautiful, much, much better.”
Cassie’s breath caught and they stopped dancing as she looked up at him. He took
her face gently in his hands and his traveled over it. She was sure that he was going to say it, but she locked that thought away. She wouldn’t ruin this moment by worrying about what hadn’t been said. She would focus on all he had said to her. He trailed his thumb across her lips as he spoke.
“
Arwenamin, a'maelamin, lle amin ar amin naa lle nai. Amin mela lle .”
Cassie listened as the language of his people rolled off his tongue and poured over her heart.
“What did you say?”
He moved his thumb from her lips and caressed her jaw as he brought his lips to hers. As he spoke , his lips brushed hers with every word. First in Elvish, and then in her language.
“
Arwenamin means my lady, A'maelamin , my beloved, lle amin , you are mine, ar , and, amin naa lle nai , I am yours to command.”
Cassie
felt each word in the very deepest part of her soul. She felt her soul reaching out to him, wrapping her in the promise of them. She pulled back from his lips and her head tipped to the side as she examined his eyes. “What about that last part? What did that mean?”
Instead of answering her he pulled her over to the table that held the little black box. Cassie felt her heart begin to race as she watched Trik pick u p the box, opened the lid and pulled out a ring. It didn’t look like an engagement ring and she couldn’t decide if she was glad or disappointed. He took her left hand and as he slipped the ring on her finger she felt him tremble. That’s when she realized that this was extremely significant.
He sta
red at the ring on her hand. His eyes were intense and she watched as he dropped his human guise and his Elfin form took over. Her eyes widened as a halo of light bathed them both in warmth and as suddenly as it had come it was gone.
“Trik?”
Cassie said hesitantly.
He looked up at her as his thumb stroked across the ring.
She didn’t look at it. She couldn’t, not yet, not until she knew for sure that his heart belonged to her.
“I cannot tell you what it means right now. What I can tell you is that I am
yours; I will follow you to the ends of any realm. Never has there been and never will there be anyone who holds my heart as you do.” He pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers. His hands followed the contour of her body drawing her closer to him. He deepened the kiss as she opened her mouth to him and he drank her in as a dying man who had gone a lifetime without water. Trik walked her backwards until her back was pressed against the wall. His lips left her mouth and she groaned in protest. He smiled against her skin as he kissed her jaw, behind her ear, down her neck, and across her collar bone.
Cassie gasped when Trik suddenly turned her around so that her back was pressed to him. He gently brushed her hair aside leaving her neck bare and the complete V of her dress visible. He kissed the back of her neck and up to her ear nipping her before he whispered. “I’m not sure I approve of how deep this plunge is my love.” He punctuated his words with a finger trailing down the opening from her neck to her lower back where the V ended.
Cassie hissed at his touch and arched her back.
“You don’t get to complain, you picked out the dress,” she told him breathlessly.
Trik chuckled against her soft skin, “
Touché, Arwenamin .”
Cassie lo
oked over her shoulder at him. “Am I,” she paused as the emotions she had been holding together began to crumble, “am I your lady?”
“Shh, my beautiful one.
” His words only made Cassie’s tears fall faster. “Of course you are mine. Have I not shown you, told you, possessed you body and soul?”
“Yes,” s
he whispered through the tears and though he had done all those things, one thing still remained and she tried to stop the thought before it came but she knew that he had seen it when he tensed. It took only one heartbeat for him to relax again.
The tears st
ained her face as she began to compose herself. She was being ridiculous. Trik had shown her how he felt about her; she didn’t need to hear it to know it was true.
He held her face and kissed each tear away and then pressed one
gentler kiss to her lips.
“We should go,” he told her as he stepped back and helped her straighten her dress.
He smiled and considered her slightly tousled look. “You are breathtaking after I have loved on you.”
Cassie rolled her eyes.
“Is that a compliment for me or you?”
He took her hand and laughed
as he pulled her back towards the windows. “A little of both I suppose.”
“Of course
it is,” she mumbled as they once again stepped into the glass.
“I feel it deep inside me. Something pushes, a memory, but I do not know if I want to learn what that memory is. The realms are restless, as dark skies overtake the light. I know everything is about to change. I’m going to have to make a choice. What if I choose wrongly? What if I choose her? I don’t know if I can be what she needs. I know I don’t deserve her. I know that I have done something in my past that has made me unworthy of her love. What is it? What did I do? I know who I was, but I don’t know how I became who I am.” ~Triktapic
Cassie and Trik walked down a long corridor, with cathedral ceilings and pristine, black onyx walls. It was a breathtaking sight. Spaced evenly along the length of the corridor were torches hanging on the walls. The flickering flames cast shadows across the floor appearing as if caught in a timeless dance.
When they had stepped into the glass of the conference room window and out of a mirror
into one of Trik’s suites in the Dark King’s castle, Cassie was convinced that she had to be dreaming. Everything she laid her eyes on was beautiful, made of the highest quality and most precise technique. It was clear that Lorsan spared no expense.
Even now as she walked through the castle and down the corridor gradually growing closer to th e main room, the evidence of his greed was all around her.
“Why does he have so many nice things?” Cassie asked Trik.
Trik looked down at her as his brow furrowed. “Because he can.” His answer was so clipped that Cassie realized that Trik had thought her question ridiculous.
“We shouldn’t always do something just because we can, Trik.”
Trik let out a deep breath and lowered his eyes. “I know,” his words were barely above a whisper.
They finally stood before the large doors of what Trik had called the main hall. Cassie never understood why they called a large room the main hall, when it wasn’t a hall at all.
She shrugged off the thought and brought her mind back to the matter at hand. She was about to enter the room where the Evil King and his Queen were waiting for them. They had put together this Happy Chosen party and she was the guest of honor.
Yippee, she thought to herself. She felt Trik squeeze her and saw a smirk on his face. He was looking into her mind and catching her little sarcastic tidbits.
She let out a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face
, though all she felt like doing was throwing up.
“Please don’t,” Trik whispered to her.
“Would you please mind your own business?”
“You are my business
, beautiful,” Trik told her never missing a beat.
He pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. His eye caught on the ring and he touched it lightly. “Better take that off for now. Can you put it somewhere?”
Cassie quirked an eyebrow at him. “I’m wearing a dress that fits like a second skin and you ask me if I have some place to stick a ring?”
Trik grinned and it was a wicked, wicked grin. “That dress is no doubt incredible, but it’s what’s underneath that is stunning.”
Cassie blushed as she slipped the ring off. She looked down at herself and thought nothing could be done for it. So she looked up at Trik with her own wicked grin and stuck the ring down in her ample bosom. Her grin spread even wider when Trik’s eyes nearly bugged out of his glorious face.
“If you,” Trik started to speak but Cassie held up a
hand to stop him and whispered. “Not a word.”
The doors to the main hall began to open and Cassie held her breath as she waited.
“Breathe love,” Trik whispered.
When the doors were finally opened all the way Cassie was able to see that the black onyx theme carried into the hall. The only difference was the subtle red accents added to this room. The tables along the side of the room, which held every food under the sun, had a black table covering with vases of red flowers spaced throughout.
Huge chandeliers
with silver candles hung from the cathedral ceiling. In-between each chandelier was a banner with a different picture depicted on them. There were a total of four banners alternating in color from red to black holding a picture that was the opposite of the banner. So the first banner was black and had a red snake, or what looked like a snake on it. The second banner was red with a black tree on it, the third black with a red dragon on it and the fourth was red with black stars on it. Cassie stared at the banners and for a moment she swore she saw the great red dragon move.
Trik looked over at her and saw that she was staring at the banners.
“Those are the pictures depicted in the dark elf crest,” he explained.
“Do you all have a team cheer too?” Cassie asked dryly.
Trik simply stared at her and she looked slightly ashamed.
“Sorry, I’m just a little tense.”
He gave her hand a squeeze. “It will be over before you know it.”
Before Cassie could respond a
tall man with gold eyes walked up to them. Cassie had to blink several times as she took in the male before her. He was every bit as handsome as Trik, but he made her skin crawl. His eyes were gold and they stared into her making her wish she could crawl into the deepest, darkest hole she could find. He too wore a tux, which surprised her. She expected them to be in some sort of medieval clothes like she often saw Trik wear when he was in his Elfin form.
He smiled at her and reached out his hand to her. She remembered the first time that Trik had made the same motion to her. Her emotions then had been screaming at her not to take his hand, but she had felt like it was because something in her would be changed foreve r. Now as she stood before the Dark Elf King and his out stretched hand, again her emotions screamed at her to run, but this time it was for her life. They told her to run as far and as fast as she could because this man could easily take her life. She knew that if she denied his hand that it would be rude and embarrass Trik and she didn’t want that. So she reached out her own hand and placed it in his. He brought it to his lips and pressed a cool kiss there, his eyes never leaving hers. It wasn’t the type of eye contact that would be considered flirting; more like the way a snake would look at a mouse. Cassie shivered and politely pulled her hand away.
“I am honored to meet Triktapic’s Chosen,” Lorsan told her.
Cassie smiled and tried very hard to make it convincing.
“Thank you,” she responded. “I
t’s very nice to meet you as well.”
A woman stepped up next to Lorsan and Cassie guessed that she must be his Queen though Trik had never really spoken of her. She was beautiful, of course. Cassie had yet to see an elf that wasn’t. She had long dark hair that shimmered when she moved. Her eyes were a dark purple and made Cassie think of the contacts that Elora wore. She wore a dress that was similar to Cassie’s, only the elf’s dress was long and had a short train that trailed behind her.