The Taming of a Beast

Chapter 12

A/N: No plagiarism, kiddos. Enjoy!

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"Adrian?"

Esen, the man whom Adrian had pointed his sword at, took no hesitation of Adrian's distraction at Evelina's voice and flew upwards using his wind magic. He landed softly by the unknown woman being helped by Evelina.

"What is going on?" Evelina crossed her arms and looked at everyone.

Adrian sheathed his sword and hurried to Evelina's side, subconsciously slightly putting himself between Evelina and Esen.

"A small misunderstanding," Esen said, raising his hands to show he meant no harm.

Adrian felt Esen's wind magic drop. The wind mage had truly dropped his defensive magic in order to convince Adrian.

"Esen," the other woman said worriedly, tugging at his arm.

Her hazel eyes darted between the two, trying to gauge the situation.

"It's all right, dear," the wind mage soothed the woman Adrian assumed to be his lover. Then he noticed his lover's ankle injury. "What happened?"

His eyes glanced up at Evelina wonderingly, then his eyes widened a fraction as he noticed her pink eyes. Adrian's grip tightened on his sword in case things went south.

"My ankle sprained during the crowd trampling. Miss Ellie here was helping me get back home," Esen's lover explained.

Esen's face relaxed a little, though he was still concerned about her injury.

"Ah, then I must thank you, miss, for helping my wife. I am Esen." He bowed his head slightly.

Evelina nodded back. "I am Ellie."

Adrian's eyebrow raised slightly at her pseudonym but didn't comment.

The other woman introduced herself as Cassandra, Esen's wife. As Esen introduced Adrian to her, Cassandra' eyes widened a fraction in familiarity. Esen must have told her about him, Adrian surmised, as well as his "special" abilities.

"And I apologize, Sir Adrian," Esen bowed slightly. "It was not my intention to harm you in any way. I was just surprised."

"You said I was supposed to be dead. What the hell does that mean?" He growled.

"About a week ago, Prince Neer sent out an official statement that you were...deceased. Quite a few of us knights didn't believe it, but when you didn't appear for duty, those of us thought Prince Neer's words might be true. Rumors between the commanders of each battalion were that should you be alive, we were to kill on sight. But I assure you, I am truly glad that you are alive and well," Esen reassured him. "I thought I had been seeing things, particularly with your hair color change. But there is no way I could forget my savior's face."

"Hold on, am I the only one who's lost here?" Evelina frowned.

"I, too, would like an explanation," the other woman said.

Esen looked over his shoulder at the mouth of the alleyway.

"It's not safe here where there's too many prying eyes and opened ears. Let's head back to our place so we can explain more."

For now, Adrian decided to trust Esen. At the very least, the man had never engaged him in conflict and treated him the same as Esen did to everyone else.

Esen and Cassandra lead them stealthily through the alleyway to a quieter part of the town before ushering them quietly into their house. As Cassandra closed the curtains and lit candles for light, Esen explained how he had met Adrian.