CHAPTER 22
Billy had never been to the Matriarch’s home, so it took him a while to find it. Dogs barked furiously as he landed in the front yard. A tall girl emerged from the granger armed with two wands, clearly willing to use force to defend her home.
“Emily?” he asked, a smile lighting up his face. It felt so wonderful to see her again. Last he heard, she was dueling constantly.
“Billy!”
The way he ran to her with so much joy almost made her forget her badly burned face. If he noticed it, he did not show it. He lifted her in his arms and twirled her around, laughing like he had forgotten how.
“It’s so damn good to see you,” he said, nose to nose, after finally putting her down. The way he held her close delighted her. No man had ever held her close before. He certainly had grown up. Literally, he was almost taller than her.
“Why are you here, Billy?”
“Prince John had my father murdered, so I killed him and the queen, then freed Richard so he could become king. Now I’m gonna kill John’s family at Edinburgh since they’ll oppose his succession. Well, mostly because I’m pissed, but also to protect grandpa.”
Emily stared blankly at him, not believing what he said, but not doubting that it was true.
“Can I come with you?” she asked as if he was off to the store.
His face lit up. “You’d risk your life for me? Again?”
“Of course. I have nothing to lose. I’m surprised I haven’t died dueling in Europe.”
Billy didn’t like how she said that. “What do you mean? A young, beautiful, powerful quad like you has everything to live for.”
Emily smiled down at him. “Guys don’t court stronger quads. Much less ones whose faces have been burned off.”
“But you’re gorgeous! You’ve always been gorgeous.”
Wow! Emily drank that compliment, and the worm that came with it. “Men look at me like a freak, not as a woman.”
Billy blinked to clear his eyes. “I can’t see you as a freak. Freaky, hopefully, but not a freak.”
Emily almost pitied him. She leaned forward and turned so he could not miss her burned face. “Scars make men look better and women look worse. Men with scars look like heroes while women with scars look like victims.”
“But that’s nothing!” he insisted. “It didn’t even ruin your eye, nose, or mouth, and your other cheek is good as new. Ha! You call that a scar? Behold!”
Billy took off his shirt and turned around so Emily could see literally thousands of scars from cuts, burns, and bruises. Layers of impacts made him look like the surface of the moon. It was much worse since the last time she saw him.
“How did you survive so many wounds?” she asked.
Billy laughed, held up his left palm, and cut it open. Blood flowed out for just a few heartbeats before the skin began stitching itself together again. He closed his eyes to hurry it along, his left hand wand practically glowing. By the time his eyes opened, the cut looked like just another fresh scar.
“No wonder you don’t fear battle.”
“Apparently I heal several times faster than most quads. I paid librarians to research it, but they couldn’t find anyone with my recuperative ability. Even my flame length does not explain it. Dad think it’s because I owned the world’s most powerful wands while so young. Growing up sucking so much juice affected my development.”
"You must juice every day.”
Billy could not make eye contact. The hands tracing his scars felt too good.
"I’m never off the juice. Before I duel all day, I’ll suck an entire wand dry. Before battle, I’d share a wand with my parents, then we’d heal our burns afterwards by sucking dry another wand. I always pick my weakest captured wand, but I never have wands that are really weak. Transferring ownership keeps the demons away, but nothing compares to fresh juice. Each wand tastes different. Some are even too bitter to drink, while others feel like a hot saltwater bath. I know I wouldn’t have to drink so much juice if my body didn’t need to heal so frequently, but I can’t stop now.”
"Your body cannot take this punishment forever," she pointed out.
"Yeah." He already reached that conclusion. "So many great wands transfer their power to me that I simply have too much energy to keep still. I need to duel or fly just to burn off that excess energy. It's like I over-heat.”
Although his expression didn’t change, something flashed across his eyes. “What are you afraid to say, Billy?”
He sighed deeply like an old man who has to get out of bed again to pee. “Nobody has ever had a wand addiction half as powerful as mine, yet super-quads die when they stop juicing. So I must kill or die. But what happens when there’s no one left to kill?
“The irony is that I honestly believe I can win this war, but winning means my death because I cannot survive without dueling. Peace will be the death of me. Everyone else is afraid of losing; I’m afraid of winning. Sure, I may be able to reduce the dependency by flying a thousand clicks daily and blasting craters in bedrock, but otherwise I’ll suffer withdrawal symptoms so severe I’ll convulse for weeks. I’ll be like a big newborn, unable to eat food or control my bowels. So if the war doesn’t kill me, the peace will.
Emily shook her head sadly. “Well, that explains the risks you take.”
Billy laughed harshly. “I cannot even risk myself too much because my parents commanded me to reproduce first. As soon as my dad noticed me looking at girls a few months ago, he took me to a porn shop and bought everything they had. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable in my life. I sucked those wands dry without looking at any of them. He practically begged me to lose my virginity. Almost as if he knew his time was near.”
“I’d rather die than grow old as a virgin,” Emily said.
That blew Billy away. “How can you still be a virgin? With that face and body?
Emily swooned. “It’d be a shame if we died virgins.”
“Wouldn’t it, though? Two powerful prodigies like ourselves should beget an even more powerful quad before we go. I’ll have failed my father if I let our line go extinct.”
Emily couldn’t believe their conversation. “You should reproduce with the first quad you see, or else fear of failing will warp your tactical sense.”
“Exactly!”
Now, neither knew what to say, so they started laughing.
“I guess it’s premature to talk of children when no man has even kissed me.”
“Me neither!” Billy said with a smile. “We should get that off the table right away.”
Emily’s smile kept growing. “Absolutely.”
“I’m gonna kiss you just as soon as I stop smiling,” Billy promised.
“Nervous?”
“Yes, damn it!”
They laughed comfortably together.
They kept looking into each other’s eyes so much that Emily wondered if he’d ever kiss her. Finally, his face closed the distance and their lips met. Lightly they brushed, at first, since neither had ever done this before. Then she pressed back, her urgency releasing her. They locked lips and he felt her hands explore his body. When she slipped her tongue in his mouth, he accidentally shot up in the air, which conveniently put his erection right in front of her face.
“I swear I didn’t mean to do that!”
She laughed and pulled him down to her. They’d have plenty of time later to try things in the air.
The Matriarch prepared tea in her home when one of her many great-grandchildren came in.
"A shirtless boy is kissing Emily outside, grandma."
Lost in thought, she worried about Prince Richard, the father of her ten children. Jailed without charges, everyone assumed he’d never leave his cell alive. The child waited, then kicked grandma in the shin.
“Emily is kissing a half-naked boy outside. Just thought you should know.”
The child ran before grandma recovered her w
its, then flew outside with wands drawn.
"Billy?"
He stopped kissing long enough to say, "oh hi Susan," as if everything was normal.
"What are you doing here, Billy? Besides kissing Emily.”
He matter-of-factly told the deaths of his father, John, and the queen. He sounded so old.
"The queen is dead? We have to help Richard escape!"
"Oh, I freed him. I made the few hundred guys at his castle swear him fealty as their king. Now I’m gonna kill John’s family at Edinburgh.”
The Matriarch shocked the boy by hugging him for saving the man she loved. She hadn’t wept since she failed Elizabeth.
“I’ve been looking forward to finding the bastards who ambushed my dad while my mother was giving birth to me. That attack cost me some little brothers and sisters.”
"Well, you can't fight now, Billy. You're exhausted. We have plenty of empty beds here. I'll go pass the word for the family to meet you just south of the castle at dawn. Our male quads are working far away for the bank, but I can probably find a few dozen women and teenage quads who can help."
"You're gonna find housewives and kids to attack Castle Edinburgh?" he asked skeptically.
"I'm gonna recruit some of the best damn quads in the country. Emily, take care of the kids until your aunts come home. I won't be back tonight because I have a lot of flying to do."
Susan left without ever suspecting that she gave them the opportunity to lose their virginity.