Several of you may feel lost and confused by the end of this chapter. I’ll explain it all in detail in the next one, so keep you pants on and be patient.

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Chapter Fifteen

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I sat in the large wooden chair uncomfortably, my shoulder blades rubbing defiantly against it’s high back. It did not suit me. It felt just as imprisoning as the room they had thrown me into had.

“No!” I screamed, my voice raw. “No, let me go damn it! Let me go!” The Airans dragged me roughly through their large, wooden walkways constructed from tree to tree. My feet dragged. I fought to claw into something to stop my kidnapping. “No! No, no, NO!” I began chanting no at the top of my lungs, hoping the message might sink into their pea-sized brains as one of the men opened the door to a large room and the other threw me inside. “Where’s Inu?” I switched my tactics, stalling to keep the door open. “Where is she? Let me see her!” They slammed the door, not even smiling or jeering at me. “No! Get back here you bastards!” I screamed, hearing the door lock and their retreating footsteps. I immediately began clawing at the thick wood of the door, but there was too much of it, and before long my claws were cracked and bleeding. I sat in the middle of the room, whining as I held my throbbing hands aloft. Eventually they sent a healer in to fix them, but I refused to let her touch me. “Get away,” I snarled, quickly backing against the far wall as a healer and two burly guards came in.

“Ma’am, it is only for your own good-“

“DON’T… TOUCH… ME!” I roared, sounding wolfish, and looking pathetic as the healer and guards left. That was when I broke into tears.

The tears were gone now, and so were the abrasions and cracks in my claws. They had given Inu to me, finally, after I spent an entire night wailing for her and longing for the moonlight just beyond my reach.

As soon as I heard the mechanisms that kept my door locked removed, I scrambled to the doorway, ready to pounce out as soon as I was given the opportunity. But as the door opened, a familiar scent wafted to me, and I was too stunned to move as Inu was quickly shoved inside by an Airan guard, her wings almost being clipped in the doorway as they made to lock us in.

I stared at her, dumbfounded, happy, lost. She took one look at me and began sobbing, throwing her arms around me in a tight hug. It took me a moment to be drawn from my stupor, but when I was, I hugged her back, suddenly aware of the agony in my hoarse throat and the pain all over. “Oh Goddess,” she whimpered. “I’m so sorry, so sorry… It’s all my fault that they’ve done this to you.”

“No,” I comforted in a scathed whisper. “It’s their fault.”

When Inu heard the pain in my voice, she drew back to look at me, bleary eyed. “You must be in so much pain,” she said quietly. She crushed her lips to mine, roughly, needing. I felt a tingling sensation in my throat, and it was healed by her wonderful powers. But as soon as the damaged was repaired, she drew her mouth from mine and looked me over, trying to find more to fix.

When she saw my hands, she kissed each finger with delicacy, making my claws glossy and new. All that remained now were the small, dried rivers of blood that had flowed from my previously open wounds. For the first time since our abduction, I felt somewhat safe. “Inu,” I sighed, kissing her lightly. “Thank you.”

“We need to get out of here,” she mumbled against my lips, her eyes closed.

“I know,” I said. “I’ll think of something.” As we stood there in each other’s arms, the moment had to be ruined by a thundering knock on the door.

“Alright, we’re coming in to get the healer!” bellowed a guard from the other side.

“You can always find me in the Temple of Victra,” Inu whispered against my cheek before pulling away. A guard slipped into the room, his gleaming helmet and gauntlets glittering in the moonlight just out of my reach. If only I could get to it…

I looked up from the chair, the guards in their flawless white togas constantly aware of my every movement. They gripped their spears tightly as I gazed out at the entrance so far away, the rays of the moon spilling in only a little, taunting me like they had the night before. This whole thing seemed unreal, like a cruel joke almost. I looked down at the robes they had forced me into, the color a deep, rich red in the torch light. It seemed idiotic to me, the thought of having torches hanging in the large rooms they had carved and built from trees. A whole city suspended in the forest trees seemed a stupid idea to me right now. It had never crossed my mind I might end up in this position. I suppose it made a little sense.

I kissed Inu in a state of bliss, our tongues intertwined and hands roaming all over one another. I shivered as the kiss deepened, and I felt something struck deep within me, the vibrations resonating throughout my very being. I moaned breathily, feeling emotions beyond anything I had felt before. When Inu drew away for air, I whispered desperately, “I need you.”

All I heard from her was a small laugh, and then her mouth was at my throat, kissing and sucking it, and we tried to maneuver ourselves clumsily to the ground. I did not care that we lay upon the gritty sand of the beach at that moment. All I cared about was Inu, and the way she kissed up my neck and to my mouth. My hands drifted over her back, and then I saw her wings expanded over us, and I tangled my fingers into her light brown feathers. She whimpered into my mouth as I caressed her wings, and I felt her hips press into mine slightly.

It was perfect, amazing. I grinned as Inu broke away to smile down at me, her amber eyes filled with mirth. Her feathers rustled as an evening breeze came over us, her beautiful feathers… so many feathers… feathers that did not belong to her.

I came to realization too late, and before I could push Inu off of me and stand to fight, the large wingspans of several Airans closed in around us. Inu screamed and held me tight. I screamed too, convinced we were seconds from death. “Grab them!” yelled one of the Airans. Hands were all over us, callused, rough hands that grabbed harshly. I started fighting back, clawing and slashing as the men tried to bundle us into a large net. “No!” I screamed. “Let us go!”

“Let us go!” mimicked Inu, tears leaking down her terrified face. I still fought fiercely, trying to hack at anyone who got close enough. But these men knew my weakness. A heavy club met the side of my skull, just like that assault in the human market, and I was out like a light.

I had been studying my hands in thought, the very same ones Inu had healed last night. But now I looked up, sensing another presence enter the room. It was a man in long, deep blue, flowing robes. In his hands he clutched a glimmering contraption. My eyes widened in fear and disgust, and I rose form my uncomfortable chair, intent on making a mad dash for it. The guards immediately ran to me, clutching me in hard grasps despite my best efforts to elude them. “Neeaaaagh!” I roared, trying to break away. I thrashed and shouted nonsense until I was hoarse again, but the soldiers were able to force me into my confining chair once again. I watched in horror as the man in blue robes began walking toward me.

“Believe me,” he stated with an air of great importance. “We wish there were another way.”

“Then why are you going through with this?” I growled, my arms bucking against the vice grip of the soldiers.

“We must.”

Inu and I were rudely dropped into a bleak, wooden chamber when they reached the city. I had regained consciousness with Inu’s healing lips. The room was devoid of any sunlight or places it might creep in, which meant there would be no rays of the moon to give me the power I could use to free us. As soon as we hit the hard ground, I was slashing the net that confined us to pieces and planning an escape, but several armed soldiers stormed into the chamber within seconds, pointing arrows and glinting swords at us.

I ceased my movements, and Inu grabbed my hand for reassurance. “I am glad to see you are not entirely stupid,” drawled a voice. A tall man in blue robes entered the room, his white hair trimmed neatly and combed back. His face was beginning to wrinkle deeply with age, but a trimmed beard made him look slightly younger.

“Shut up,” I spat. The man just raised his eyebrows. “Why did you take us here?” I asked. “To kill us?”

The old man smiled knowingly, walking safely behind the ring of soldiers. I felt as if I was in a cage. “You shall learn of your fate soon enough, mistake.”

“How dare you call her that,” Inu hissed, her hand clenching mine more tightly for a moment.

“But it is the truth,” he declared solemnly. “This… mongrel… is a mistake. And now the ruin she has caused is forcing us to do the unthinkable… let alone take an ex-priestess back into our hallowed halls.”

“Look, we don’t want to be here,” I reasoned. “If you detest our presence so much, why not let us leave?”

“That is impossible,” stated the man, his voice a deep, faraway rumble. “The law must be followed.” The Airans stuck to their laws as closely as I did to my codes of honor. This did not bode well.

Inu had been brought to watch. Tears streamed down her face, and I knew the only thing keeping her from attacking the man as he approached me were the shackles on her hands and the guard keeping her in place. “There is no other way,” said the man. His eyes looked lifeless as they stared apathetically at me. He raised the object in his hands as he approached, and I squirmed even more, the wood of the chair rubbing sharply against me. “With the powers bestowed upon me as High Councilor of the Salinvai Airan Clan,” he began, “And within the presence of a Holy Priestess of Victra…” The object loomed threateningly above me. I shrank away from it. I wanted to cry.

“You can’t do that to me,” I growled. “That’s inhumane.”

The man closed his eyes with impatience. “The order of things has been disturbed. We must correct everything. Only then will the Airan world be in balance.”

“This is unnecessary!” yelled Inu.

The thing was inches from the top of my head. I gulped. This was the end. “I now…” he droned on.

But there would be no negotiations. Inu was pulled away from me. “No!” I yelled, leaping for her and clinging tightly to her body. “Don’t take her from me!” Despite how hard she and I fought to remain in physical contact, she was wrenched from my grasp and pulled out of the room. I fell to the floor, crying pitifully as the man stood above me. “I am sorry.” He said. “Come tomorrow night, you shall face your fate.”

“…crown you Queen of the Salinvai Clan.”