Amneris managed to convince herself to go to dinner. It had nothing to do with Colt’s earlier attempted bribe of triple chocolate chip cookies. Nope. It had everything to do with who was in charge of cooking tonight. Nikki. Amneris loved the Shifter’s food. She always used some sort of exotic spice in her meals—often more than one—which made sure her food was always unique and flavoursome. And delicious. And often left the Court begging for more, much to Nikki’s delight.
Amneris was the last person to arrive at the table. It was a brisk summer night. The weather had finally cleared up enough for everyone to eat at the large table outside. The table was covered in various food choices—meats, salads, bread, potato, rice and pasta options—so everyone had an option, as well as a variety of drinks. The only remaining seat was between Nikki and Colt, so Amneris went there. Colt held her hand under the table, giving it a comforting squeeze.
Amneris found herself looking around the table as food was passed around on plates and bowls. A few things had changed over the last few years which she only recently noticed. Really, they were slowly becoming more obvious.
Leo and Nikki sat side-by-side chatting in hushed whispers. Nikki would occasionally have a giggling fit. Were they holding hands under the table? Yes! So they had finally hooked up. Good for them. A little further down, Jay and Kayla sat together but, for some reason, Kayla refused to make eye contact with her boyfriend clearly had taken place. Across from them, Hathor was reading a schoolbook, asking Zoe what certain words meant and taking note. She was trying to get a head start on the next semester at the Academy. It was coming up fast.
“She has been very into her schoolwork for months now,” Colt murmured, passing Amneris a plate of minty-smelling meat. “Kayla and Jay have not talked outside of work for a few weeks. They all refuse to talk about anything, but I have seen Jay and Dan talking often. Carmin and Hathy also talk alone at times. Hathy and Jay have become close.”
“I see.” She placed slices from the plate onto her own. “I would like to know more. If something is wrong in my Court, it should be brought to my attention.”
“Then ask them.”
“Later.” Amneris passed the plate to Nikki as a bowl filled to the brim with golden-coloured rice came along. “I don’t want to ruin this meal.”
“I am glad you decided to join us, Tali,” Colt said with a smile. “I know that must have been hard.”
Amneris shrugged. It was true, though. Working up the energy to do anything lately was a struggle. There were days where she had to be dragged from bed to her desk to do any sort of work. She knew the others were becoming worried but there was nothing to do. Amneris knew something was wrong with her. She hadn’t had a phase like this since she was made immortal in the first place. Did it have something to do with her latest failed death? She had no idea.
Colt, sensing her thoughts, kissed her cheek. “Whatever is going on, we are here for you. We love you and will help you any way we can.”
Amneris’ face burned as she passed the bowl to him. “I probably just need a mission or something involving a lot of violence to get my head back on straight.”
The meal had been awkward to say the least. Amneris couldn’t help but blame herself for that. Colt, Leo and Carmin had insisted while they cleaned after dinner that the rift between Jay and Kayla, and Hathor’s seemingly distancing herself from everyone had nothing to do with her. It didn’t help. Amneris still felt responsible. She was the Queen, for the sake of the Gods. She was supposed to look after her Court, not the other way around. No time like the present to try and fix things. Right?
While she was worried about all of them, Amneris found herself most worried about her daughter. This was one of the few times she’d seen Hathy around the house. According to Carmin, Hathy had spent the majority of the past two years at the Academy. She only came home on breaks between semesters. According to the calendar on the wall, she was currently on one of those breaks. If there was any time to talk to the girl, it was now.
Amneris knocked on her daughter’s bedroom door, three doors down from her own. “Come in,” said her voice from inside.
Amneris stepped around the door. “Hey, baby.”
“Hi, mum.”
She closed the door with a food, hands full with a tray. “I bring offerings of Nikki’s chocolate scrolls and sahlab. Interested?” Hathor didn’t bother looking up from her sketchpad as she smiled and nodded. Amneris sat on the heavy silver cover, placing the tray beside her. She looked over her daughter’s shoulder, careful to avoid her silvery wings. “Whatcha drawing?”
“Nothing,” she answered.
Said nothing looked an awful lot like one of those boys Hathy hung out with in Lapide. Amneris had seen them from the Palace a few weeks ago. “Is that your future husband?”
“Mum!” Hathor pushed the sketchbook, charcoal and pencils aside. She grabbed a pillow and whacked her mother’s head with it. “He’s just a friend and you know it!” she laughed.
A fiendish grin crossed Amneris’ creatures. “Just a friend, eh?” Hathor held up the pillow with a playful glare. This time, Amneris found herself laughing. “Okay, yes, I’m teasing. We all know he isn’t your type. What about that blonde-haired girl? You two get along very well.” Hathor whacked her again. “I’ll stop, I’ll stop!”
Hathor waited a moment longer before tossing her weapon of choice back onto its pile. She took one of the two mugs from the tray, taking a long drink from it before sighing a satisfactory sigh. “Why are you in here, anyway? I doubt it’s to give me dating advice.”
“Curiosity and concern for my only daughter.”
“Hilarious. Care to elaborate?”
Amneris bit her lip. She’d never been good at these talks. “Has something . . . happened?”
“Happened?”
“Yeah. Something, um, bad?”
Hathor looked down. “Oh. It’s really nothing important, you know.” Amneris moved the trave aside and gave her daughter a questioning look. She sighed. “Things have been a bit off lately, that’s all.”
“Off?”
“Yeah.” Hathor took another pillow, hugging it against her chest. “You ever feel like you should be doing something really important but you have no idea what it is?”
“All the time. Comes with the Queen thing.”
Hathor flexed her fingers, a weak silver light spluttering to life. “My powers have been acting up, as well. I don’t know why that’s happening either. Then there’s the fact I’m about to start my last year of classes and I still don’t know what I want to do afterward.” She clenched her teeth, grasping her head in her hands. “Everyone is developing their powers and know what they want to do but I’m just . . . here. And I feel like I’m supposed to be somewhere else but I don’t know where or why and I can’t stop thinking this way. I just want my head to shut up.”
Amneris crawled over the pile of pillows. She lay back, pulling Hathor close and wrapping her arms around her. She begun stroking her daughter’s hair as Hathor dropped the pillow and hugged her tight, a few small sobs escaping her. “Why didn’t you tell me, baby?”
“You’ve been so . . . distant lately,” she managed to say. “I didn’t want to bother you with my b.s. when you’re so clearly going through your own.”
Amneris lifted her daughter’s chin. “You can bother me with your problems whenever you want.” She brushed Hathor’s tears away. “I don’t care if it’s because you had a bad day at the Academy or if you’re just feeling down or if you’re having a two-hundreds crisis. Tell me.” She gave her a soft smile. “Even if it’s in the middle of the night or I’m in a mood or trapped doing paperwork at the Palace, you can tell me anything anytime.”
Hathor pressed her head against her mother’s shoulder, closing her eyes with a slight smile. “Okay.”
“That’s my girl.”
She laughed suddenly. “I hope you’re not too mad about me and Kayla switching partners.”
“Ah,” Amneris said, frowning. “Yes, why you chose to willingly be Jay’s partner is beyond me.”
“You haven’t told me and Zo to switch again, or to change with anyone else.”
She shrugged. “I trust you. And I trust that Fae, no matter how much he pisses me off.” She leaned down to kiss her daughter’s hair. “While I respect your decision, that doesn’t mean I don’t question why you would want to be stuck with someone that annoying.”
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Hathor sat up, wiping away the last of her tears. “He’s actually very sweet, and you were the one who made him immortal and your Advisor so you must like him somewhere deep down.”
Amneris feigned a shocked gasp, clasping her hands over her still heart. “My own daughter!” Said daughter burst into laughter. Amneris ruffled her. “Okay, you, just for that, it’s bedtime.”
“Mum!” she whined. “I’m over two-hundred years old. I think I can determine when it’s time to sleep for myself, thank you very much.”
“Right, and that wasn’t you I saw on the lounge at sunrise binge-watching Earth anime because there was an all-night marathon. How much caffeine did you have to get through that, again?” Hathor crossed her arms and looked away, pouting. Amneris couldn’t help her smile. “Want me to sleep with you tonight?”
“Yes, please.”
Mother and daughter pushed the excess pillows off the bed and slipped under the covers. Amneris used a tendril of her power to bring the tray back over, both picking up their respective mugs to finish first.
“Mum?”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you. I feel a lot better now.”
“Anything for you, baby.”
Tara had been trying to sleep for what felt like hours. She’d tried different positions, taking her clothes off, putting them back on, kicking the blanket away and pulling it back on as a sudden chill overtook her body. She spent a good half hour laying on the floor with two heavy blankets wrapped around her as protection from the cold bite of the stone. After discovering that even a cup of warm milk achieved nothing, Tara sat up. She tossed the blankets aside, retrieved a cloak and began to wander.
The Castle she’d come to call home was eerily empty at this hour. It was hardly surprising. Tara guessed it was well into the middle of the night. Everyone would be asleep, excepting the very few Nightwalkers around the city, and they dared not disturb her. A shiver made Tara pull the cloak tighter around her form. It was strangely cold tonight, even for winter. Perhaps that sudden change was what made sleep so difficult. Tara shook her head. No way it was that simple. Things never were.
Tara soon found herself wondering the Castle’s Gardens. While they were lovely to walk through during the day, their true beauty could only be appreciated at night. That was when it truly came to life. White flowers Tara hadn’t bothered to learn the name of glowed as though they were made of soft starlight. A mix of blue and purple flowers had golden dust drifting around them. They looked like small flying bugs. Probably were.
Tara was under the spell of the Garden’s beauty. She would have a garden like this wherever she ended up. Once all the drama of the God Worlds was over. It would be the most amazing garden filled with the most amazing flowers. It would have floating flowers and glowing flowers and dancing flowers and normal flowers. There would be a mix of vine and tree and bush and grass around everything with the occasional stone in between everything for her to sit on and watch it grow. Actually, no. A gazebo would work better than the stones. She’d always wanted a gazebo.
“Tara?”
She in surprise at the sound of her name. No one else was supposed to be awake at this hour, let alone wandering the gardens as she did. It took Tara’s eyes a moment to adjust after the glow of the flowers and bugs. “Liam?”
Her friend, Advisor and Second in Command rushed to her side. “Can’t sleep?”
She shook her head. “You?”
Liam huffed a laugh in answer, beginning to turn away. “Walk with me? He asked.
“Sure.”
The pair wandered down one of the many stone paths in the Garden. They didn’t speak, had no desire to. They only looked around, both enchanted by the Garden. Tara found herself shivering as the temperature continued to drop. Without question, Liam place an arm around her. She was pulled into his side. Tara leaned into his warmth with a smile, her shivering beginning to slow.
“When do you leave this place, Ta?”
She shrugged. “As soon as I can. I plan to just vanish.”
“What if the new Ruler turns out to be worse than you and Enliatu?”
She shoved him playfully, knowing there to be no offence in the question. “I’m sure the Lyriumians will cross that bridge when they get to it.”
Liam glanced down. “Are you going alone?”
“Probably.”
He nodded his head slightly against her own. The motion made warmth flood through her. Even more so when his hand slipped down to grip her waist.
“Why are you asking?” Tara asked.
“Just curious.”
It was a lie and they both knew it.
They continued to walk, reaching a stone bench within a few minutes. It was across from a small pond. Glowing orange fish jumped and swam here and there, trying to catch each other as they played.
Tara used her power to replace her cloak with a blanket. She pushed it around Liam’s shoulders, half expecting him to let go of her. He didn’t.
“Liam?”
“Yes?”
A breath. “If I were to ask you to come with me when I disappear, what would you say?”
He made a show of thinking intensely. “I would say . . . yes. Why?”
“Just curious.” Liam huffed a laugh. Tara glanced up at him. “Do you want to come with me when I—”
“Yes.” He took one of her hands with his free one. “I would go with you anywhere you want.”
There was no need to fake her smile. “We leave as soon as we track down the new Ruler. Remember to pack your bags.”
“Not gonna be a problem.”