FULL NOVELXO Queens and Monsters: Chapter 13
When I woke up Sunday morning the house was empty. On the kitchen counter sat the remnants of the breakfast I missed. I picked out some bacon and a muffin and followed the sounds of shouts and clanks outside. In the field between the house and the barn the Wren siblings and some extended family were sparring. Some with martial arts, others with fists, a few with wooden clubs.
“Training day,” Bethany explained, bringing me a steaming cup of coffee. “We knew you could use some sleep but one day you’ll need to learn to defend yourself too.”
“I can take care of myself.”
She smiled kindly. “I’m sure you can, but I’m talking about more than escaping an attacker.”
“Battle.” I sipped my coffee and relished the feel of the warm liquid.
“It’s always looming over us. Dray was just shot.”
And now I had the Universe telling me something even bigger than war between the Houses was coming. “Maybe I should start today.”
Bo got the advantage on Kris and suddenly the younger brother was rolling away from a kick and then back on his feet.
“I think you should start with the basics.” Bethany turned and picked something up off the table beside her. “I want you to have these. I have a feeling they’ll work quite well for you. Hold them. Learn how they feel. It’s an excellent place to start.”
I unrolled the leather wrap to reveal two gorgeous daggers with long silver blades. Down the center of the blade was an intricate design and inscription in a language I didn’t know. The silver cross guard had a matching design. The handle was black. They fit perfectly in my hands and the energy I was now used to feeling flowed seamlessly between the weapons and my palms.
“They’re perfect.” I moved. Not clumsily, but not with some sort of instant weapons knowledge either. Something in between.
“Good,” Bethany managed to say before Gigi came bounding up to us.
“Yay! You’re up! How did you sleep?”
I realized I had the first good night of sleep since Awakening. “I slept really well. Lots of dreams.” But even as the words left my mouth, I realized they were wrong. Those weren’t all dreams. Some of it was me interacting with the Plane in my sleep.
“That’s good!” Gigi exclaimed. “It means you’re making progress. Things will level out for you soon.”
In time for something new to knock me on my ass, most likely. “What time are we leaving?” I went ahead and packed my bags so we could leave whenever.
“Not until after lunch at the earliest. We’ve got another hour of training.”
“You should get back to it.” Bethany shooed her away. “Watch. Learn,” she said to me.
She followed Gigi back to the training ground while I settled into a deckchair with my cobbled together breakfast. I took time with each group to figure out what they were doing, what seemed to be the advantages, and whether it appealed to me.
Until I got to Dray.
The man was shirtless and sparring with Bo now. They seemed in many ways to be equally matched. Bo was quick but Dray was powerful. Bo smiled most of the time while Dray remained so focused his expression never changed. Sometimes they moved with practiced choreography, other times they surprised each other and chaos ensued.
With the coffee and food gone, I picked the blades back up and weighed them in my hands. How would I use them in a fight? I’d never been in a real fight. It seemed I had quite a lot to learn very quickly.
Shouts from below grew louder. The fight between Bo and Dray had grown and everyone else abandoned their training to form a wide circle around the brothers. Dray swept his legs, knocking Bo onto his back, but the advantage only lasted a moment as Bo spun away and landed a kick on Dray’s abdomen. The sparring continued in a swift flurry of flying hands and feet until finally Dray had Bo on the ground, face down, completely immobilized.
But Dray didn’t throw his arms in the air in victory or cheer. He simply released Bo and stepped back. “That’s enough for today. Go clean up.” Then he turned and began walking up the hill to his treehouse.
Gigi skipped by. “We’re all hitting the showers and we’ll meet back for lunch at noon. So you’re free to nap or chill or wander around.” She patted my shoulder as she ran inside. “First dibs! I am not taking a cold shower again, Bridge!”
I returned my new daggers to their leather wrap and set them inside before wandering into the barn garage. The family all had different tastes when it came to cars. No two were alike. In one slot was a tricked-out Jeep, in another a large pickup truck, there were Land Rovers, Mercedes, Subarus, and Gigi’s Audi. Off in another section were tractors and farm equipment. Beyond the parking slots was a maintenance area with a car lift and all the tools and tires imaginable. One bay was empty while the other had a classic car in pieces. Behind that was a door with a window. I had to go up on my tiptoes to see through it.
An empty room. I tried the handle and the door opened. “Hello?” My voice echoed off of every wall. I found the switch and turned on the lights. It was an actual barn, but it was completely cleaned out and empty.
“We’re clearing the energy,” Kris explained from behind me.
I jumped and turned toward his voice. “Oh wow! You scared me! I thought everyone was gone.”
His lips pulled up on one side in a wry smile. “My apartment is up there.” He pointed to the room above us.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I’ll go now.” My cheeks turned bright red.
“You can look around. Just not upstairs.” The other side of his mouth turned up into a full smile. He nudged his chin to the room behind me. “We used to have cows, a couple of horses, some goats, and chickens, but the energy here got cluttered and we decided to clear the space and let the energy recover. It’ll probably be at least another year, maybe five at the most before we start over.”
Yes. I looked around the space and felt exactly that. The energy field was indeed so muddled even I could feel it.
“Have you seen the garden?” He waved at the door on the other side of the room.
“No.”
“Let me show you, then.” Kris was a mix of Dray and Bo. He was as friendly and kind as Bo, but as aloof as Dray. He politely led me through the empty barn and out the door to a terraced garden. “We’re in the swing of summer already. The tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs are growing like crazy. When we’re really at it, we can fully sustain the family between the livestock and the gardens.”
“You sound like you’re very invested in that part of things.” I wandered between two terraces, peering at the growing vegetables.
“I like knowing we can take care of ourselves, so I’m antsy to get back to normal.”
“Do you like living in the barn?” It seems he could easily claim a room in the house or build his own place like his siblings and cousins.
He shrugged. “It’s between my favorite places.”
“Cars and food?”
He smiled again. “Something like that. Besides, I like having my own space. Everyone on the mountain is all up in each other’s business all the time. Bunch of gossips.”
“Even Dray?”
He laughed hard. “God no. He lives in the fortress at the top. No one bothers him up there.”
My gaze caught on a path beyond the gardens. “Does that lead to the falls?”
“It does.”
I knew exactly how I was spending my next hour.
I dropped my feet into the water and relished the cool water. It was a shock for sure, but it also felt good to ice my weary feet. Maybe I’d regret it when I had to walk back, but for now, I’d enjoy what felt good in the moment.
The falls were as beautiful as I remembered. Even at this time of day the light sometimes cast the water in varying shades of orange and pink as it cascaded over the edge above. It was a remarkable sight to behold. Would it be warm enough to swim here? I could picture picnics on the grass and swimming all afternoon.
I hoped I would be able to visit again one day. So many things here felt natural. My easy friendship with Gigi, my connections with all the siblings, and of course with Dray.
But first I needed to take finals and close up my human life for a little while. And then…then I needed to figure out what it meant to be the heir to the House of Axl. It was easy to hide here with the people I’d come to like, but I really didn’t know what to expect with my grandfather. Maybe I’d find similar friendships and maybe even family?
“You’re going to freeze,” Dray said.
I yanked my feet out of the water realizing I was starting to lose some feeling. “They hurt.”
His eyebrows rose. “There are ice packs in the freezer.”
“The freezer doesn’t offer such beautiful scenery.”
He set a bag on the grass and jumped up on the rock, coming to sit beside me. “It is beautiful here.”
“I think I would come here every day if I could.”
“I do. When I’m here. We used to spend a lot of our summers here too. Can you imagine all nine of us running around with all our cousins? It was like our own country club or something.”
I was stuck on that number. It had been jumping out at me all weekend. “I see nine around here a lot and you all mention it, especially in reference to the family. Is there a reason?” They said it the same way my freshman roommate stroked her crystals and stones for power.
He nodded slowly. “It’s our number. Every family has one. It’s when you’re the most powerful. We already had eyes on us because of how many of us there were, but when the twins were born our universal energy with the Plane intensified. There were nine of us. It’s a convergence of power and energy.”
“So you have family Houses, great swords, and power numbers? Anything else?”
“Plenty,” he laughed. “Our family symbol is the griffin and there’s an unspoken agreement that when all else fails, choose the color blue.”
I flashed back to Gigi floating through my shop dressed like Cinderella. “Got it. The griffin, huh? The lion with wings?”
“Depends on the time period. Mostly it represents our duality, our existence in two forms.”
The bat, the butterfly, the cat, and… “Why don’t you shift?”
He paused; the muscle of his jaw ticked. And then he sighed. “My other form is extreme. It’s why I heal easier than most. I have to. I don’t enjoy shifting, but more than that…I hate what I become. So I don’t.”
He sounded so upset. Not quite sad or angry. Something much deeper. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” I slid my fingers next to his and let them rest just barely touching.
He stared down at them. “It’s a logical question to ask. As far as I’m concerned, shifting is for emergencies only. The only reason I’d unleash that beast again would be to save my family.” He swallowed hard, some sort of deep connection developing between us. I felt the warmth of his energy, the power of his gaze sweeping up to meet mine.
I’d do it for you, too.