*****
Marcus endured a few more minutes of Cleo’s overexcited squealing before cutting past her, placing his hand firmly on Anita’s waist and drawing her away. ‘If you will excuse us Cleo, there’s something I promised to show Anita.’
Cleo raised an eyebrow at Anita, her embarrassment causing her face to flush a soft shade of red, as she was guided back inside, past the bar and up the stairs. ‘You promised to show me something?’ Anita scorned. ‘Was that the best you could come up with?’
‘Does that girl ever get tired of talking?’ he asked, ignoring Anita’s comeback.
‘Not that I’ve ever witnessed,’ Anita smiled.
‘And anyway, there is something I want to show you.’
‘Oh?’ Anita looked at him warily.
‘This way,’ he said, when they reached the top of the imposing staircase, his hand refusing to leave her waist as he opened a vast door and ushered Anita through in front of him. They were in a large sitting room, with floor to ceiling windows and light curtains that wafted softly in the breeze, seeming to invite them out onto the balcony beyond. The balcony was directly above the one they’d been standing on outside the bar. Anita looked at Marcus, her eyebrows raised expectantly. ‘This is my suite,’ he said, by way of explanation. ‘I wanted you to have a good view.’
‘Of what?’ she asked, exasperated.
He led her out onto the balcony just as the night sky lit up with an explosion of twinkling lights. ‘Of that,’ he smiled.
Anita walked open-mouthed to the stone railing and leant against it as the next release of energy hit the sky. It was beautiful. Anita had never seen anything like it, and not only could she see the smoky, shimmering lights, she could feel them as well. It was extraordinary, a series of small bursts that felt like popping candy on her skin.
Marcus couldn’t take his eyes off her; a light seemed to radiate from her as she watched the display. He walked up behind her, placing his hands either side of her waist. ‘I thought you’d like it,’ he murmured, as he bent his lips to the base of her neck and gently brushed them against her delicate skin. The movement sent delicious shivers of energy down Anita’s spine, all the way to her toes, then back up to rest where Marcus’ fingers lay on her waist. Could he feel that too? Not that she currently cared; she was too preoccupied with the energy display to bring it up. Marcus slipped his hands around Anita’s waist and pulled her back towards him. She didn’t fight him, leaning her head back against his shoulder, resting her hands on his arms. They watched the rest of the display in silence, Anita’s skin greedily drinking in this new sensory excitement.
It ended, and Marcus drew her back inside, her skin still tingling, both from the, now phantom, energy bursts, and the continued contact between Marcus’ skin and hers. ‘We had better go back downstairs,’ he said softly, ‘unless we want to give the gossip mill something else to talk about.’
Anita smiled in agreement, hiding her disappointment. ‘I suppose you have a point. I’m just going to use your bathroom, and I’ll join you down there. I’m assuming you have a bathroom up here?’
‘Through the bedroom,’ he said, pointing to the right. ‘You might want to wait a while before coming to find me. I’m going to go and find dad to apologise. It’s definitely better to do it when the castle is full of people, and hopefully he’ll be full of Ginger Champagne or something stronger by now.’
Anita laughed. ‘Good luck,’ she said, heading for the bedroom. Marcus watched her go before making his way back downstairs.
To her surprise, Marcus’ bedroom had windows on both sides. One side looking out onto the balcony where they’d just been standing and the other leading to who knew where. Other than that, the bedroom was pretty much exactly what Anita had expected. There was an enormous four-poster bed, covered with the most comfortable looking duvet and pillows Anita had ever seen. The bed had been turned down and there was a sprig of lavender on the pillow. Of course, thought Anita, they have people to turn down their beds! The rest of the room was relatively simple. There was a large wooden chest at the end of the bed, a simple mahogany dressing table in front of the balcony window, and a round table with a chessboard inlaid, with beautiful, simple, gold and silver chess pieces on top. The pieces had been left in the middle of a game and Anita found herself wondering who Marcus brought in here to play with him.
Once she’d freshened up in the bathroom, which was also exactly what she had expected, complete with spectacular roll top bath, Anita headed back into the bedroom. She couldn’t resist seeing what was on the other side of the mystery windows, so walked over to have a look. As she approached what she could now see were, in fact, doors, she felt powerful energy coming from the other side. Peeking through the curtains, Anita found Alexander’s familiar, delectable form lying on a stone bench on a balcony, and without hesitation, she opened the door and stepped through. Alexander had felt her energy before she’d opened the door and sat up as she appeared.
‘Anita,’ Alexander blurted, both his tone and his body language communicating his surprise. He obviously thought Marcus was about to emerge, she thought to herself.
‘Hi,’ she said hesitantly, for once managing to keep her energy under control. Probably something to do with her curiosity as to why he was out here, not to mention all the alcohol she’d consumed. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked quietly.
‘Getting away from everyone downstairs,’ he answered truthfully. ‘Sometimes all the energy waves get a bit much.’
‘I know that feeling,’ she smiled back warmly. ‘Where’s your date?’ she asked, relishing the opportunity to fish for more information about this mysterious man. ‘What was she called again?’
‘Patricia.’ Alexander’s face cracked into a clandestine smile. ‘She’s probably got a search party out looking for me by now. Excruciatingly boring and wildly stuck up,’ he exclaimed. ‘I only agreed to come with her as a favour to her father, and now I can’t get rid of her!’
‘I see,’ she said, raising her eyebrows, surprised by this sudden rush of information.
‘Anyway, what are you doing up here? I’m surprised Marcus let you out of his sight after your show earlier.’ Alexander was as brisk as he could manage, but he too wanted to find out more about his unexpected companion, the girl who was supposedly the rightful Body Descendant.
Alexander’s upfront appraisal took her by surprise. It was one thing to think things like that, but quite another to just come out with them. She paused, taking the time to carefully sit down next to him, just far enough away to mean there was no actual skin contact, but close enough for them both to be agonisingly aware of the other’s proximity on the cold stone bench. ‘He’s gone to find Austin to apologise for our dance,’ she said honestly. ‘Judging by the way Austin was glaring at us, I can’t image it’s going to go especially well.’
‘No, I wouldn’t have thought so,’ Alexander said slowly, studying her quizzically. ‘Austin is a dangerous man to cross you know, and you’ve done it several times now.’
Anita smirked offhandedly. ‘Why does it matter? You’ll all go back to Kingdom in a couple of days and Austin will forget he ever knew I existed,’ as will the rest of you, she finished dejectedly in her mind.
‘Is that really how you think this will play out?’ he asked, clearly shocked at her brazen response.
‘Yes,’ she said firmly.
Alexander propelled himself to his feet and turned to face Anita. ‘Anita, Austin doesn’t just forget about people like you. You’re powerful. Very powerful, and as I’ve told you before, you’d be a valuable asset for someone like him. Austin isn’t the only one who’s interested in you, especially after your display at the Chase, and after tonight’s performance, you’ll take some forgetting. Austin will view what you did as a public humiliation. Not only did you have the audacity to turn up here tonight with his son, you proceeded to make a spectacle of the first dance.
People will be talking about that for years, and Austin will take a very long time to forget you, that’s if he ever forgets you.’ Alexander’s tone had turned and the mood between them had shifted from open and light-hearted to separated and a little fierce.
‘So what?’ He was lecturing her, and she didn’t like it. ‘Even if he doesn’t forget me, what’s he going to do? And what do you mean I could be a valuable asset? And who else is interested in me? I have no idea what your riddles mean,’ she said crossly, mainly at herself, because she hated it when she couldn’t quite keep up.
Alexander took a frustrated step away from her, running his hands through his dishevelled hair. How could she be so blind? ‘Did you see the woman downstairs with ginger hair?’ he snapped, turning round with a sharp purpose that Anita found distractingly attractive. ‘The one that always seems to be hanging around not too far from Austin?’ Anita nodded dumbly; now she thought about it,there did always seem to be a woman fitting that description hanging around. ‘That’s Amber, and she’s head of Austin’s private security and research team.’
‘His what?! What does Austin research?’ Anita laughed emptily, still unable to connect the dots.
Alexander threw Anita a menacing look, wiping the smile from her lips. ‘He researches people like you, Anita, powerful people who he wants to either use or get rid of.’
The words landed and Anita went pale. ‘What do you mean ‘get rid of’?’ she asked quietly, the wind snatched from her sails.
‘I mean kill, Anita.’ Alexander rounded on her to bang the point home, only just managing to resist shaking her, wanting to physically knock the naivety out of her.
Anita looked up at him confused. ‘Kill?’ the word hung in the air like a threat. ‘And Marcus? Does he want to use me or kill me too?!’
‘No,’ he said quickly, almost reassuringly, a shadow flashing behind his eyes that Anita had neither the ability nor the inclination to process in the current circumstances. ‘Marcus doesn’t know the full extent of Austin’s activities. Either that or he ignores them. Your best bet is to stay as close to Marcus as you possibly can. Austin won’t risk losing Marcus, not in the current climate anyway.’
‘Won’t risk losing him?’ she asked, as she would have if he’d just told her that aliens had landed in Empire; a mix of disbelief and misunderstanding.
Alexander couldn’t quite believe he had to spell this out for her. ‘If Marcus falls in love with you, which he seems well on his way to doing by the way, and he finds out that Austin is a threat to you, there’s a risk that Marcus will choose you over Austin, which could drive a split through the Mind line. Austin can’t afford for that to happen in the current climate. He needs all the support he can get, and he’d rapidly lose supporters if there were another internal rift in his family. He suffered too many defectors when he and Amelia separated; Austin won’t risk what might happen if he were to lose Marcus too.’ He said the words quickly, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world, something one just had to quickly recap to clarify.
‘What do you mean defectors?’ she demanded. He was making her feel obtuse, and she was nothing of the sort.
‘You really know nothing do you?’
‘It would appear not,’ Anita sparked, standing up too, turning her back on Alexander and walking over to lean against the railing, now pretty pissed off.
Alexander softened a little; he supposed it wasn’t entirely her fault that she was so oblivious to what made the world go round. He took a deep breath. ‘The Descendants rule by right; that much is true. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have politics. We’re not the only influential players. The Academics and the Councillors are both formidable groups in their own right. They have powerful individuals, those with significant energy, and they know secrets about various Descendants; secrets we wouldn’t want to get out. Amelia was a senior Mind academic when she and Austin married, which brought Austin some significant supporters. Those supporters defected when they split. Marcus didn’t bring supporters with him when he was born obviously, but another rift may cause Austin to lose more support; something that he would clearly like to avoid.’
‘But what if Austin lost all his supporters? What difference would it make?’
‘Worst case scenario? It could lead to a total loss of confidence in the current system, especially if it coincided with a large drop in the energy. Ring any bells? Ultimately, it could lead to an uprising and the Descendants being overthrown.’
Anita gave him an amazed look; was he mad? ‘But that would never happen. It would mean we’d never have a chance to be free of the Gods.’
‘The prophecy may already be broken, and some may think it’s better to take an eternity with the Gods than a lifetime with the Descendants. The balance is fragile, far more fragile than most people realise. Austin, on the other hand, is only too aware of its fragility, so the safest place for you is next to Marcus.’
‘And if I don’t want to be next to Marcus?’ she challenged fiercely, spinning round to look at him.
‘You do,’ he replied simply. ‘I can read your energy, remember?’
‘Don’t worry, I remember,’ she said, searching his eyes intensely, looking for some indication that he reacted the same way to her as she normally did to him, before dramatically changing the subject. ‘How do you hide your energy?’
Alexander looked taken aback. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Do I have to spell it out for you?’ she said, trying to recover some of the upper hand. Alexander was surprised at her choice of words. He didn’t say anything but held her gaze until she continued. ‘You have extremely powerful energy, but I’ve only felt glimpses of your true power. Most of the time you hide it, or suppress it, or something. You’ve told me I need to get my energy under control, so I’m asking how.’
‘It’s not quite as simple as that,’ he replied. ‘It takes practise, and I’d have to show you; it’s not something I can just tell you.’
‘Then show me,’ she said insistently.
‘Now is not the time, and I’m pretty sure Marcus wouldn’t be too pleased about me showing you.’
‘Why not?’ she asked, surprised.
‘He’s like a child with a toy. He doesn’t like to share. Now, if you will excuse me, I should probably go and find my date and offer to take her home.’ Alexander headed back inside, but paused and turned back to Anita just before he reached the door. ‘Do not tell anyone about this conversation, especially not Marcus. Do not let on you have any idea about any kind of politics. Do not try to find out more about any of this. Stay as close to Marcus as you possibly can; make him fall in love with you, and above all, avoid Amber and her henchmen at all costs.’ With that, he disappeared through the door, leaving Anita feeling infuriated, confused, deflated, excited, full of questions, and above all, intrigued. She had to get him to show her how to hide her energy, if for no other reason than so she could spend more time with him.
Anita was still preoccupied when she reached the top of the stairs and almost bumped into Marcus who had just ascended them. He reached out and grabbed her waist to stop them from colliding. ‘I was going to send out a search party,’ he teased, leaning his head flirtily down towards her, the woody smell of cigars on his breath.
‘Sorry,’ she breathed, trying to pull herself together, ‘I was just admiring your suite and enjoying the time away from prying eyes. How did it go with Austin?’
‘It could have been worse,’ he shrugged flippantly, quickly changing the subject. ‘I think we should get you a drink,’ he said, leading her back downstairs and into the bar. Marcus handed Anita a glass of Ginger Champagne before they joined Bas, Cleo, Missy, Henry and to Anita’s surprise, Gwyn, on a group of sofas around a low table in front of the fire. Cleo was leaning against Henry; she’s changed her tune since earlier, thought Anita, and Bas, Missy and Gwyn were sitting awkwardly on the opposite sofa, Bas clearly not quite sure wh
at to do with his arms, wedged between the two girls. Marcus and Anita sat down next to each other on a third sofa, their legs touching. Marcus stretched out an arm on the back of the sofa behind them, and Anita leaned in a little to get comfortable. They sat there chatting and laughing for hours; Henry throwing in pompous comments every now and again, Bas tutting about how much energy was wasted on the display, Missy barely saying a word, Gwyn paying Bas a little more attention than was strictly necessary, and Cleo shoehorning in as many provocative comments as she could. Marcus and Anita laughed easily along with the rest of them, but Anita couldn’t shake the feeling they were being observed the whole time. Amber was nowhere to be seen, but Alexander’s earlier warning had made her uneasy.
Eventually, Bas got up and indicated it was time to leave. He was taking Missy, Cleo and Henry back to Empire and offered to take Anita too. Anita nodded. ‘That would be great, thanks Bas.’ Marcus looked crestfallen as he walked them to the front door, where Bas’ car was waiting. The others climbed in, but Marcus pulled Anita back towards him. A look of panic swept across her face, concerned that Marcus would try to kiss her here in front of everyone, including Amber, who had just appeared at the door. But instead, he drew her hand to his lips. He bowed his head then looked brazenly up at her. ‘Good night Anita,’ he whispered playfully, before closing his eyes and brushing her knuckles with his lips.
‘Good night Marcus,’ Anita murmured imprudently, before climbing into the car with the others, to be whisked away down the magnificent drive and back to Empire.