Free Derive by Jamie Magee Page A

assumed together.
    There is a massive fountain that centers the palace. The sculpture in the fountain is a man holding a woman in a lover’s embrace. The sculpture is a symbol of creation, of purpose. The lovers unify what my grandfather had spoken of before, light and dark side by side. The man was made of white marble, the woman of dark. The water flowed into a pool of what looked like a night sky, a pool of darkness with lights of energy beaming across the rhythmic flow of water.
    This piece of art was the only one that had ever given me pause on my strolls through here in the dawning hours of the day, the strolls that Seneca had accompanied me on for as long as I could remember.
    I’m not sure where Seneca spent her nights, but I knew it was not at the palace. I never asked because I knew the response would be silence; instead, I became her alibi, and she became my sounding board when we would share those walks. I told her once how this piece seemed epic to me, how each day I stood there and listened for something that I could not hear, but feel.
    Skylynn laced her hand through mine, and her lips parted ever so slightly as she took in the piece. “Her love for him is comparable to how I feel for you.”
    I tensed and locked my gaze with hers.
    “I don ’t want to scare you, but…I love you.” She blushed. “That may be the wrong word, though; it seems too weak.”
    I couldn ’t speak. I could not fathom how years and years of listless wondering and questioning my path had seemed to click over the course of one day. I feared I would wake any second, wake a stone cold warrior with nothing to hope for.
    “My only fear would be losing that emotion you give without a question, the emotion I felt for you the second you fell from the heavens.”
    My hand broke from hers and slid around her waist, pulling her to me as the other cupped her face and my lips brushed against hers. “You are love.”
    A gaping smile came to her as she leaned up and captured my lips. A split second before that kiss became inappropriate for public display, I heard someone clear his throat.
    She froze in my arms, but I only grinned. I knew who was there. I glanced away from her angelic face to see Lorecan, my first-in-command, standing at a distance.
    His eyes carried a fascination for Skylynn, but oddly the emotion behind them was different, almost fatherly.
    “Is everything well?” I asked, not wanting bad news to fall after that moment I’d just had, but expecting it simply because that is how this day was currently playing out.
    Lorecan walked to our side, his eyes glinting with that out of place emotion. He was my first-in-command because he was just as fierce as I was. He had no lover, no family, and had traveled through that Fall many times. I saw myself in him. Even though I led him, he had numerous eternities on me.
    Not breaking his gaze from Skylynn, he said, “It will be.” He reached for her hand and kissed the flesh there. “You are ravishing. That beauty must, in part, come from your mother.”
    Obviously, Skylynn had a blinding effect on the entire male race. Lorecan could see tracers as I could. Earlier today, he told me that he believed that Skylynn was a new soul fallen from above, that he wanted me to believe how rare this gift was, to hold the prize before the battle was fought. I assumed Tarek had urged him to persuade me. The thing was, I didn ’t need to be persuaded; I was entranced by her.
    Lorecan ’s gaze met mine. “I was simply coming to tell you that I will keep watch tonight, for you to rest at ease.”
    I appreciated the offer, but I would not be at ease until Camlin was nowhere near this palace or The Fall. Lorecan was a valiant warrior, but Camlin was cunning, no doubt there.
    I gave him a nod. He let his gaze linger a bit longer on Skylynn, then dropped his head and walked past us.
    “His energy is familiar,” Skylynn said to me.
    I’d always felt that way about him, so I smiled in