In a Brave New World (Brave New World Book 5)

Chapter 1

Ris

I rumbled in approval.

This could work! It was risky, but no great victory ever came without taking a risk first. I had been in enough battles since reaching maturity to know it.

Though if we won this battle, the victory would be greater than anything my brethren had ever achieved on this or any other homecloud. For it would mean winning the war for this planet, and not just for my world amid the clouds. Indeed, there would still be battles left to fight against certain shadow kinds who wanted all humans exterminated, but those were challenges we had faced before.

Yes, this plan could work.

Once everyone in the palace's war room had expressed their approval with wing-flapping, my liege got up from his seat at the head of the table and flapped his wings himself. He also smiled with a nice display of fangs, something I hadn't seen him do in days.

If he'd had a choice, he probably wouldn't have left his chambers, as any good mate would have done. However, with our first attack against the aliens having been a success, he had to be out and leading us into the next battle, as any good king had to.

Now, smiling broadly at all of us, he was showing he was as satisfied with the battle plan as we all were. I would be smiling like that, too, were it not for my exceptionally long fangs.

Smiles simply didn't work as they should on my face. I had tried it once during a diplomatic meeting with elves, and had ended up with all of the guards aiming arrows at me. Only my Deidre's interference had prevented a disaster.

My mate... Now that the serious war planning was done and my liege was wishing everyone individually a good rest before tomorrow's battle, my thoughts were naturally drifting towards her. Not that they ever truly drifted away from her, but judging by the anxiousness of the other mated warriors in the room, I was dealing with the long hours away from my anima much better than them. It probably had to do either with me being a pure-blooded gargoyle or with my mate being not entirely human.

The mating bond worked in mysterious ways.

"Kalixal, how is your newly found mate?"

My liege's question brought my attention back to the here and now, to discover that almost everyone was already airborne and leaving through the ceiling. Had they nodded in polite goodbye to me without me noticing? I must have phased out completely, my mind filled with thoughts of Deidre.

I grunted. Perhaps I wasn't dealing with the distance between us as well as I'd thought. With us having been separated so rarely over the past six weeks since the Gods had blessed me with her, I hadn't had the chance to explore how the mating bond affected–

"Thank you for your consideration, Ris, my liege" Kalixal said.

He must have misinterpreted my grunt as an approval of the king's question. No surprises there. Until I had met my mate, I'd had only my liege understanding correctly my particular way of communicating. I was used to being misunderstood and didn't mind.

Besides, I was indeed interested in knowing how my brother-in-arms felt two days after having been blessed with a mate. She had been among the latest arrivals of human females from Deidre's kingdom and, more precisely, from the farmlands in that scary underground world of elves. Kalixal had been the one to fly the female to our homecloud. Though the rest of my team had all been carrying a human at the time (except me - I valued my toes and my tail as they were), Kalixal had been the only one to declare upon landing home that he was holding his mate in his arms.

"Cecilia is still adjusting to her mating bond," my brother-in-arms went on, his tail swishing behind him.

My liege flashed Kalixal a knowing smile. "She does not believe in the bond's existence, does she?"

My thought exactly.

Kalixal's tail got even more agitated. "She does not, my liege. She says there is no such thing as fated mates, and that a horny romance writer has created this legend."

My liege laughed out loud, and I grunted in laughter myself. This was so familiar.

One month and a half, and my Deidre was still calling my kind's beliefs 'idiotic'. As if elves' beliefs that hitting a tree meant hurting its feelings and scaring 'the poor thing' for life made any sense. Though I did feel bad now whenever I accidentally stepped on an ant, and looked up at the sky immediately after, expecting 'Mother Nature' to start crying for the lost life in the form of rain.

"I have just one more question for you, Kalixal, then you can go back to your skeptical human." My liege's tone grew serious as he asked, "While Cecilia denies the existence of mating bonds, does she deny you claimings?"

Kalixal's black eyes lit up from within. "Never, my liege. She is, in fact, very passionate. Even when she first arrived here and I told her I wished to take her home with me, she needed no convincing. Once I accommodated her at my house and assured her I would give her all the time she needed to accept me and forget any bad things that might have been done to her during the war... Gods, my magnificent Cecilia just took my hand and pulled me towards the bed."

Both me and my liege flapped our wings in approval, but it was my extra wing span that sent the map flying off the table.

I was picking the map up with my extra-long tail when my liege said through a smile, "Then you have no reason to worry your tail, Kalixal. All females grow to accept that the mating bond is no crap, as my anima used to call it. Especially after having spent two hours away from their mates. I am confident you will be nicely surprised when you get home in a few wing flaps."

"I trust your wisdom, my liege." My brother-in-arms nodded, visibly more at ease now.

I, however, was still trying to process my liege's words. Had I been away from my Deidre for only two hours? It felt so much longer!

"I should not keep my mate waiting a minute longer, then," Kalixal added, saying exactly what was on my mind.

"By no means, go and bring her to ecstasy as many times as possible before the moon rises. Then I want you to get some good rest and be ready for battle upon sunrise."

"Yes, my liege."

I was excited to bring pleasure to my Deidre as soon as possible, too, but as Kalixal disappeared through the cloud above, I addressed my liege. "May I ask how my Queen is?"