Agartha

Chapter seventeen

The king dismissed us and left to his room with his wife, asking soldiers and everyone else to enter again to the palace. Nothing strange there, they probably thought all the fuzz was about me coming back. Explaining a satyr at breakfast tomorrow is going to be interesting.

Hari scolded her sisters for taking Angel´s side and wanting to follow him to his room. She practically dragged them upstairs. Aunt Marilin tiptoed to kiss Angel on his forehead and went upstairs too; uncle Den is expecting a long conversation with his angry wife.

My grandparents and I led the way for Angel. At his provisional room, my grandparents told him many stories about his mother, and he found he has his mother´s features but his father´s sweet temper. He told us how much he had suffered feeling different his whole life. He also showed our grandparents how agile he had gotten at the use of his wand.

His wand was very beautiful (would probably be better if the king had made it), it had carved feathers and lilies all over, and a thin stream of water circled it all the way from the base to the tip.

Grandma felt quite amused “well, not exploding things like Galia is a good start, and you already move things and make light bubbles!”, she made Angel and grandpa giggle.

“Very funny grandma… You know I'm perfectly able to control my magic if you don´t make me use the wand”. We talked until Angel and I felt asleep. Grandpa tucked us up and walked grandma to their room.

At the middle of the night I was suddenly awaken by someone covering my mouth with a hand, dragging me and holding me tight against a cold wall. Judging by the tall size and muscular body pressing against mine, it was a man. My heart was pounding and as soon as my eyes adapted to the dim light of one remaining bubble, I realized it was Angel. I couldn´t ask what was happening, why was he acting like that. His eyes were glowing blue and looking fierce.

Then, I saw it, someone had entered the room and was looking around for something. Probably, Angel went invisible and was protecting us from the intruder. I sent energy to my hands to be prepared and Angel nodded in understanding. The stranger turned and, to our surprise, it was Ragnar. I rolled my eyes and relaxed my hands, Angel shook his head in disagreement, he was scared. While we were debating with gestures, Ragnar approached looking at all directions but unable to see us.

When he was close enough, in a split of a second he looked directly into Angel´s direction and grabbed him by the neck. I tend to forget how good of a tracker Ragnar is.

“NO!” I yelled and we both became visible to Ragnar.

“There you are!”

“Ragnar, let go off him, NOW…” Before I could finish my sentence, Angel kicked Ragnar´s chest very hard, making him loose his grip and step back, and with the impulse, he made a flip back in the air spreading his wings to cover me.

“Ragnar! Angel! Stop it!”

“Princess, is General, remember?”

“Oh, cut that off! Angel knows, satyrs can tell sentiments”

“And yet, he took you away”

“It was a very fortuned misunderstanding” I said matter-of-factly. “What are you doing here Ragnar? You scared us!”

“I needed to make sure you were not hurt”

“You saw me at the library earlier. And yes, I'm hurt, you hurt me”. My voice was full of pain. “Angel, please put your wings down! I can´t see anything, Ragnar is not going to hurt me”

“But you just said he already did” He speaks like a child sometimes, so innocent and pure. At first sight, he looks like a true angel, the ones carved in marvel, with purple eyes like all satyrs. He wears only cotton pants and now wears his mother´s neckless. His wings are most of the time folded at his back, but when spread, they are almost three meters long horizontally. His hair is just like mine, honey and curly, his curls fall wildly over his face and his grin gives him the aspect of a player. He looks like the kind of man every girl would fall for, but he is just too innocent, looking for his one true love.

“Yes, Angel. He hurt my feelings, that’s all”

“You need to talk to him, I feel it. Go”

“I can´t leave you here alone”

“I'm fine. I feel protected by your grandparents”

“Our grandparents” Angel hugged me with his arms and wings and Ragnar cleared his throat making me roll my eyes. I didn´t want to leave Angel, he needs to be protected. I hope he is safe here.

Ragnar left to the library and I followed him a few minutes later under the curious eyes of the guards.

“So?”

“You are the one who needs to talk to me… according to the satyr…”

“His name is Angel…”

“Galia you disappeared for a week! Do you have an idea of how worried everybody were?” He came closer to me; his sad eyes pierced my soul.

I felt sad. “I know, it was a hard choice, I needed to find out the truth about Angel before coming back. I have the feeling that after tonight, they are doubling the security around me…”

“I AM doubling the security around you!”

“No longer your responsibility… Tomorrow, I'm asking my grandpa to release you from your guarding duty”

“Why?” He said whispering and came even closer towering me, lowering his face and kissing my cheek.

I felt that kiss directly in my soul “Stay away from me, honor your word!” I stepped back angrily.

“Galia, do you truly think is a good time to tell your family about us?”

“There is no us. You decided that!”

“Of course not. I proposed to delay things, until you are older… until things are easier for you…”

“For me or for you?”

“Galia, I'm a war man, I have nothing to fear. Fighting is what I do… but you are the purest thing in my life, I don’t want to taint you with all of that”

“You will soon be gone, anyways…”

“And that thought hunts me every second of my life”

“Ragnar… I can´t just wait and stay away from you. I need you!”

He pulled me by one hand roughly, hugging me tight, with despair.

“I truly need you. I have the humans´ short conception of time, the feeling that time is passing by and taking me away from you is overwhelming” My voice was pleading.

“Don´t worry about that, we have time”

“You don’t understand…”

“I do, but what do you propose to do? I see no alternative”

“We are fine like this, we don´t have to formalize anything now. Let´s give it time, but together”

“Galia, discipline is built in my character, but I don´t know if I can hold myself for too much longer, I want you. I want to have all of you, your thoughts, your words, your heart… your body…”

“I feel so too” I said caressing his chest, lifting my face to meet his lips but he stepped back.

“We can´t! We feel true love, succumbing to those feelings will bond us forever and make it evident to everybody”

“Is it that strong for elves?”

“If you make love to someone, being truly in love, is the same as a marriage. You become mates and it is the beginning of your lives as one”

“Now I understand your fears… but you should have talked to me!”

“I know… I'm erratic since I met you, and I don´t give you enough credit. I am sorry”

“Let´s stay together and delay our definite bond until is the right time. We can do it”

“Speak for yourself…” his cocky smile was adorable.

“Good night, General” I intended to kiss him short and soft before leaving, but he grabbed my waist tight and kissed me deep, passioned, his tongue entering my mouth without asking any kind of permission, taking what he knew was completely his.

Hungry kisses building passion inside our very souls, it felt like magic was pushing us to take it to the last consequence to find some peace.

He finally separated our mouths, both gasping, his eyes glowing green and mine… “Galia! Your eyes!”

“What?” I casted the mirror spell and saw my reflection. My eyes were no longer dark brown, but a very dark green.

“Great…” His eyes stopped glowing and I saw they had changed too “Your eyes!”

He took a fast look in the mirror and found his eyes were no longer light green, they were dark green.

I laughed “I can hide it with a spell, but you are in trouble”

“Not funny! What am I gonna do!”

“Blame it on your advanced age”

“Still not funny”

“I'm serious. If anybody asks you say hadn´t you noticed? Decades ago my eyes got darker because of my age”

“That is so not going to work. People aren´t stupid”

“True, but they are very distracted. I am tired good night”

“You are not going back to the satyr´s room, are you?”

“That is precisely what I'm about to do. I'm not one of your soldiers, you don´t get a saying on this matter. Good night, General” I rushed out, before we did something that would make anything else change in our appearance.