Queen of Summer's Ice (Book 2)

Chapter 43

     "It's not me! It's not me!" I heard Clovis say through the earth. Alagan wasn't even breathing heavily as he held on to me. There wasn't a worry on his face, and even though he held back his power still, he was in control.

     "He's telling the truth," my brother told me. "It feels like it's his fathers."

     "Well if it's not you then tell your family to back off this instance," Palma said, followed by some groans coming out of Clovis. She was probably twisting his arm or digging her knee into his rib. Even Nuri's roar was heard clearly from where I stood.

     The rumbling stopped and after a few seconds the part of earth Alagan and I were trapped in started to break open. The afternoon sun found its way to my brothers face, his Spring features seemed to come alive now that he was on his favorite land. The green in his eyes seemed to dominate the blue.

     "You're family's going to be a handful," I muttered to him quietly.

     The birds around the tree's were singing harshly, as if it chaos was causing them stress. Silly birds, this was nothing compared to what was coming.

     "Yeah, you are a handful," Alagan whispered back.

     Well, duh I was.

     The trap above us kept shifting between a close and open, Clovis and his father were battling out I was sure of it. Having a very long distant conversation.

     "Enough!" Clovis yelled as if his father would hear it. The ground waved from under me and I felt it lessen as it traveled away from us. After that the dome crumbled and left in front of us was a heavy breathing Clovis with Aunt Palma and Nazim on each of his sides. Nuri was the only one in front of him with his long teeth promising to sink into his throat.

     Alagan released me and patted his horses hair as if what happened was just a regular day.

     "That shouldn't happen again," Clovis said.

     "Why? Because you told your father to stop? You think he will listen to the son he thought he killed. You're alive because I saved you, but he'll probably think I brainwashed you."

     Clovis opened and closed his mouth. Whatever he was thinking he held it back, or deemed it unworthy to say. At least he's improved with learning how to think before speaking. "Yeah the old bastard is probably going to try again, but is that going to stop you from meeting him? We've traveled this far, I highly doubt you're going to turn back now."

     Clovis turned to his horse to go back to traveling, but as soon as he did Nuri growled deep within his muscles and started pacing around Clovis. If he made another move, I knew Nuri was going to attack. Clovis only widened his eyes a fraction but tried to keep his posture as casually as he could.

     "If you're going to kill me for what my father did then just do it, but we can't pretend that this wasn't a possible outcome."

     "Oh, no, I fully expected something like this to happen. Lands, I wouldn't be that naive. But my beautiful tiger has a shorter temper than me, he is a full summer after all." I got off the horse and started walking to Nuri. At this point Aunt Palma and Nazim were already back on their horses and were just waiting on Clovis.

     I knew calling him to stop was not going to work, not when I was pregnant. That's when he became the most animalistic and protective, so I had to physically show him that I was not in any threat. I placed my hand on the back of his head, right in between his ears and started scratching. He still didn't care to take his eyes off of Clovis, so I knelt down and became the only thing Nuri could see. His lips slowly relaxed from his fierce growl and so did his stance. When I started rubbing my face along side his, he did the same and let out a soft purr.