CHAPTER 6: Tour of the Kingdom

Last night Cade took my phone so it could have service here. I just finished getting ready for my tour of the kingdom. This morning he sent me a text saying they’d be waiting out front for me. When I found them, I noticed Stewart was with them. It was nice to see a second familiar face. With them were another girl I never met. “Stewart said you met last night, and this is Arma,” Cade introduced us.

Arma shook my hand. “I work in the garden.” 

“That seems fun.” I was trying not to make it too obvious that I was nervous. All the friends I had back home made it difficult to socialize with. 

“We’re going into the city by flight, do you know how to fly?” Arma asked.

Cade answered for me. “Don’t tell any of the other workers but her shifting abilities are sealed for now. She can ride on my back. I’m serious about secrecy.” He looked at me. “Everyone here is obsessed with gossiping, try to keep a low profile,” he warned me.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Stewart reassured us.

Arma joked, “You keep secrets up the ass, but you also gossip like the rest of them.” I’m sure Arma was included in that too.

I took this as an opportunity. “Like the secret you’re keeping about what Lexus was really doing last night.”

Arma gasped. “What secret are you keeping for Prince Lexus?? I tell you all my secrets.” She looked at Cade before continuing. “He’s the only one I tell secrets and I don’t tell him yours,” she cleared up. 

Cade rolled his eyes before shifting into his dragon form and we ended up all climbing on. “Well Lexus was just sitting outside your room while I was cleaning,” Stewart reluctantly muttered. “He wasn’t really doing anything so I wouldn’t think anything of it. He told me not to say anything or I’d be fired so you guys can’t say anything. If you do, you’ll be risking my job which means I’m back on the streets or in the skies.” I guess this job was doing a lot for him financially. 

“Aqua, don’t get involved with Prince Lexus,” Arma advised. “Just in case he was sitting out there waiting for you to make a move or something just don’t bother pursuing it.”

Her advice led me to believe maybe he had done this before. “It’s okay, I’m probably not his type anyways… I work for him now and he has his fiancée.” 

Arma didn’t seem very convinced by her expression. “Hasn’t stopped him before.”

I wanted to respond but we dropped so quickly I was afraid we were crashing instead of landing. We climbed off quickly and I was practically sliding down. Cade spoke as soon as he shifted back to his human form. “Aqua don’t listen to Arma okay? Prince Lexus is my best friend, he loves Sadia so don’t buy into any thought you might have of him being interested in you. He wouldn’t be interested in someone who works for him. I might sound harsh, but I don’t want possible feelings to get in the way with our family’s work.”

It might have been already getting in the way. “Don’t worry I get it. I once dated a girl I worked with and it didn’t work out. I know how feelings can fuck up work.”

“You don’t just work with Lexus; you work for him.” If Cade took his work so seriously, why did he have a close friendship with someone he worked for.

I shrugged. “I get that too. I’m not even looking to be with anyone since I’m still trying to get over my ex-boyfriend.” I’m not sure how true that was anymore because I was over him. He was nothing compared to Lexus.

“Let’s stop all the lecturing and show Aqua around.” Stewart took the lead. “I love this kingdom, and this is just the central city. We can’t show you much today but we’ll start here.”

I looked around and noticed one big difference between the human world and the dragon world. Their buildings were all huge. They were all the sizes of the dragons; they could just walk in through the doors in dragon form, but the castle doors weren’t as big. “The first king and queen who designed the castle didn’t think we should enter in our dragon forms. That’s why the buildings are so wildly different. There was a time when our dragon form was seen as informal.” Cade answered my unasked question. “That’s what most outsiders wonder when they see the difference between the public buildings and the castle.”

I felt so small in this world, but I was small in comparison. I couldn’t shift and it drove me crazy. Shifters were walking side by side with some in their human forms and others in their dragon forms. “Why didn’t Vella come with us? Did you invite her?” Arma asked.

“We got into a big fight last night.” Cade looked away with a frown. “Things have just been weird lately.”

Arma put her hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you should consider breaking up with her.” 

Cade pushed Arma’s hand away from him. “No, it’s not that serious Arma. We should be able to have better conversations about what's been going on. You don’t break up with someone because of a little arguing.”

We all sat down on a bench. “I wish we still had chosen mates; it would make relationships easier, but we’ve been abandoned.” Stewart hung his head.

Cade glared at Stewart. “The moon goddess would never abandon us, Stewart.” His expressions softened. “Times are just different now so we can find our own love.” Lexus found his own love, but he also was given me as a mate. The irony is cruel.

Arma elaborated, “The last generation who had mates had a forty percent rejection rate. So many of them found that they wanted to be with people who weren’t chosen for them, so Diana stopped choosing.” Until now and speaking of mates I started to sense mine was nearby. My palms felt sweaty, and I was a little embarrassed about the oversized clothes I was wearing since I didn’t have time to bring my own.

I looked around for Lexus as I spoke, “What if someone did have a chosen mate? Then what?”

“It’s up to them but everyone’s been used to choosing themselves.” Cade answered. “Who knows if anyone else would even believe them. The only proof they’d have is to mark each other and finish the mating process. Marks of true mates look different from the marks we get from the mates we choose ourselves. The only other way is if they rejected each other because then we’d all seen an X that stands for the rejection in the place the mark would be. When mates we choose reject each other the mate more just go away with no X.” Those two things haven’t been seen on someone’s shoulder since the last generation of chosen mates.” That’s what Lexus was talking about, I can see why he wouldn’t want it now.