A Gift from the Goddess
Chapter 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine “Miss?” a voice called out to me. My vision had slowly faded after theshocking realisation of what was happening, and I looked up to see Lucy leaning over me. “Aria?”she called again, worried enough to drop the honorifics. I blinked several times, coming back toreality, but I could still feel my entire body shaking. “l was going to kill Aleric.’ The thought keptrepeating itself in my head and I didn't know what to do. In the past, my visions had shown methings caused by others that I needed to stop. But this time... this time it was me causing harm. Howcould things become so bad between us... that I ended up wanting t o kill him?

“Aria?” Lucy called again.

“Lucy... sorry,” was all I could say, letting her know I was fine.

"Miss, you scared me!”

She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. It was nice to know that even after all thehell and extra duties I gave her, she still seemed to care about me. “I'm sorry,” I said and wrapped anarm around her in return, still in shock.

After a few moments of hugging, she finally pulled away.

"What happened to you? It was like you were passed out... but your eyes were open.”

"Oh..." I said. I had forgotten how freaky it looked to onlookers. I knew that if I told her the truth, itwould be too difficult and emotional for me to go into detail right then. But at the same time, Icouldn't tell her it was nothing. Because obviously, it wasn't nothing. It was the same predicamentI'd found myself in with Cai last year. To give too little detail and I'd be sent to the hospital for a fullcheck-up, yet to say too much would only b e more trouble.

"..It's a side effect of the mark,” I finally said. “It gives me nightmares sometimes when I becomestressed.”

I told her the same line I'd once fed Cai and hoped it would satisfy her enough to leave me be.

But she only looked at me as if she had so many questions, like nothing I'd said was making sense,and in all honesty, I couldn't disagree with that reaction. But I couldn't give her any more answersfor now. Not yet anyway. “Come on, Miss,” she said finally, helping me to my feet. “Let's get you intobed so you can lie

down.”

She must have known me well enough by now to realise I had secrets I couldn't tell her. Aftereverything she'd helped me with since coming back, how could she not? By pushing aside herdoubts and questions, I was eternally grateful that she was able to leave the topic be for now. “...Thank you, Lucy.” She held me by the hand and helped me up the stairs to my room, my body stilltrembling slightly at the graphic scene Id just lived through. So, when my head finally hit the pillow,allowing me to relax, I was happy for just the small amount of peace it gave me. “Stay here amoment, Miss,” Lucy said once she was satisfied I was comfortable. “I'll be back i na minute.” Ifrowned. “Where are you going, Lucy?” “Oh, I need to inform the Alpha heir you're okay,” she said."He was the one who came and found me. He said something was wrong with you and that hethought it would be best to leave it to me.”

"...Where is he?” I asked, hesitant about whether I actually wanted to know the answer. “He's beenwaiting in the parlour,” she replied. “I'm just going to go down and let him know you're fine so hecan head home... maybe make you a cup of tea whilst I'm there.” I tensed up immediately. I couldhave sworn he'd left but, after thinking it through, I realised I never actually saw him leave. It wasjust the sound of his footsteps walking away I'd heard right before the vision. ...So... he had gone toLucy to ask her to help me? And was waiting in the parlour this whole time?

Why...?

And then I realised what may have been going through his head. Did he think it was like the lasttime with Cai? He saw me breaking down again before him and, the last time that happened, heknew it was because of him. Cai had rescued me then... did that mean Aleric left because he thoughthe was the cause of my stress? It wasn't necessarily incorrect, but the real reason I'd been unable toget a hold of myself to answer him wasn't because of his presence. It was because of the vision thatwas slowly about t o make me pass out. “Okay...” I finally managed to say, allowing her to go. Theminute Lucy left though, I realised that I was now alone in my own thoughts... and it wasn't apleasant place. So much had happened tonight, so many mixed emotions. Aleric had shown me aside of him I'd never seen before, someone who felt vulnerable. It was something I was struggling tocome to terms with since, the image of him inside my head, was one that had been cemented overyears of suffering. But could I have been making that image a reality by projecting my fears ontohim so early? It wasn't until hours later that I finally managed to push all my thoughts away, tryingmy best to shut my mind off, until, finally, I fell asleep. And from then on, things between Aleric andI... were weird.

Not weird in a bad way, just... weird. Or, at least, I was.

I found I didn't know how to act around him anymore. Was I changing him further by being soafraid? But then when I did talk to him, I wondered what could possibly happen in the future t omake me finally snap and kill him.

Though, to his credit, Aleric was completely professional despite my awkwardness, and that wassomething I hadn't expected in the slightest. To be honest, I had completely anticipated that hewould be angry or even annoyed at how I had behaved at dinner. But he didn't show any signs ofthat at all. In fact, he always spoke to me calmly and politely as we worked alongside each other,and I was beyond grateful for that.

It allowed me to continue to throw myself into our work and get my mind off everything. Over time,I even found the small doses of being around him in a work environment were slowly allowing meto heal, and that was far more valuable than anything else. However, it was still a bit strange though.It was a version of Aleric I had only ever witnessed occasionally from afar with others, someone whohad never shown their face to me in the past. Was this what it was like to not feel terrified of beingaround him? Had things really changed so much that I didn't need to be scared of him losing histemper at any given minute? Though, whenever I thought about it all, the only thing I achieved wasin giving myself a headache. I had more questions than I knew what to do with at this point, andknew that only time would be able to give me the answers.

By the time a couple of months had passed since the dinner, I still didn't have any better idea o fwhat was going on. To my dismay though, I found that I was going to be hard-pressed to figure itout soon.

.. Because the Alpha had summoned me.

A day later, I found myself standing before Alpha Tytus in the meeting hall, Aleric to my left.

"Alec, Aria,” he greeted. “Thank you for coming to see me.”

We both bowed our heads.

“I've asked you both to come here today because of an interesting predicament I found myself in,”he started. “You see, we've been in negotiations with another pack for a few months now and theyhaven't exactly been making our lives easy.” I frowned. I wasn't sure what this would have to do withme. At most, my errands consisted of paperwork based tasks or checking in with warriors for statusreports. Negotiation input was definitely above my current job requirement. “It seems the GoldenBlade pack believe our conditions for the alliance are unsuitable, and are even underestimating thethreat we pose.” I could feel Tytus watching me carefully as he spoke, almost as if he was trying tosee what was going on inside my brain. “Well... I told them, of course, that our pack was currentlyrevered by the Goddess herself, so therefore the price of the alliance was more than fair.Unsurprisingly, they didn't believe me.”

And finally I understood where this was going.

“So I said “we have a living Saintess amongst us’,” Tytus continued. “And, well... they still

didn’t believe me. So, in conclusion, you will both be going to the Golden Blade pack to act asambassadors in the negotiations. This treaty is imperative to the Winter Mist so failure is not a noption.”

I had expected this to be the case, but hearing it said aloud still made me shocked,

“Alpha, I'm not sure that it would be suitable for me to accompany Aleric. I'm not yet sixteen and Ihaven't undertaken my full duties yet,” I argued.

I was sure he was purely doing this to show off and avoid paying more for negotiations, rather thanfor any real concern he had about the treaty itself. He easily could have just increased the tradeagreement benefits without the need to involve me.

But, of course, that wouldn't have been as fun for him.

"Ah, well, I think we both know you're perfectly mature enough to handle this,” he replied.” Andbesides, wouldn't this be a great first mission for the two of you to undertake?”

Oh, so that's how it was. He was also using it as a way for Aleric and I to become closer. I had onlyjust gotten somewhat used to talking to Aleric, and now I was supposed to be going on a long-distance trip away with him? I felt sick from the stress of just thinking about it.

"Both of us are not yet of age,” I pointed out. “Do you really think it would be wise to send us alone?Two unshifted ranked heirs would be an easy target for other packs wishing to start a war.” I hadposed the question even though I knew nothing would probably change his mind.

He laughed. “Of course, of course, young Aria. You are quite correct. That's why I will be sending afew warriors to accompany you.” I internally sighed in defeat. There was no use in trying topersuade him. “Oh, don't look so gloomy you two, it's going to be fun!” Tytus chuckled. “You'regoing to have a great time, trust me. Just show them the mark, negotiate us a great deal with thatintelligent little head of yours, Aria, and you'll both be back in no time.” I looked over and, sureenough, Aleric seemed just as unenthusiastic as I did. But it wasn’t the same look as me who wasirritated at being used as a pawn for Tytus. No, his face looked almost... sad.

I tried not to think too hard on it for the time being though. If there was one thing these last fewmonths had made me realise, it was that I was spending too much time worrying about what wasgoing on inside Aleric's head.

And I had more pressing things to deal with right now. Like how I was going to explain to myparents that their fifteen year old daughter was going o na road trip to a foreign land... with anolder teenage boy.