Elliotts POV—>(earlier that day)
Behind the main 'stage' as Aria and Peter get announced, I practically sprint to sneak into the hall. Running past and dodging servants and stragglers, I turn a corner and spot a door at the back of the room that leads into the ballroom.
The moment she stepped out her rooms door, real laughter started bubbling in me for the first time in months. She looked like an overdressed Pom Pom, in a huge golden dress, with her face heavily painted in makeup that hides her blushing cheeks, and eyelashes that disguise her golden eyes. They were trying to make her someone she isn't, someone fake.
When I go to open it, voices murmur on the other side, whispering frantically as I conceal myself in the shadow behind a very large plant.
The Queen practically floats out behind a woman in a black dress, cloak covering her face. The Queen of Vitala does not walk behind just anyone.
That will be looked into later.
They turn a corner, rounding into another hallway so I make my way back to the bustling ball room, filled with beautiful Females in flowing dresses and respectable Males talking in small groups around the dance floor, where I spot Aria and Peter twirling around the dance floor to the first dance
It is like they were made to be together, they are the picture of royalty, beaming at each other.
She has never smiled like that at me. Never.
Lingering alone at the usually busy drinks table, to monitor Aria, a light haired Raptorian Female- wingless as we are in Vitala- wearing a revealing red dress that flows down to the floor watches me.
What is another Raptor doing here?
Of course Malakai is here with his parents, as the next heir, but usually it's only one a year. And normally he doesn't interact much, certainly not looking as calm as he seems to be with Aria.
I need to tell Aria soon. Really soon.
Raptors are normally extremely unusual to find in Vitala due to the curse put around the border, that when any other magic wielder not born of Vitalian decent enters through the border their magic- or in our case wings- are stripped from them.
"Elias Rhaeven?" She asks in a serious, professional tone that takes me by surprise, I nod curtly and face her fully.
"My name is Annika Soraz, I'm a friend of Lorenza, I'm aware you two are close?" She asks as she monitors everyone around us, whispering and glaring at the lingering stares.
Three Raptorians in a room is not common by any standards here.
Even without the wings, we have sharper faces with sharp ears and even sharper canines. Thanks to my mixed heritage, whenever I cross that border I get stuck in my Divisioner body. It's strange to say the least, the border like having hands over my ears and nose.
Divisioners and Raptors have a difficult relationship. In history, Divisioners treated Raptors like less than dirt on the bottom of their golden shoes. They pushed us out of the cities and back to "their natural habitat" in the harsh forests and mountains in the Southern country separated by an unforgiving channel of water. Ever since St Loudon 800 years ago banished Raptors with black mail to stop an attack on our sacred river, the two peoples have lived separately, rarely mixing. That is why my childhood was so... hard.
"We grew up together, is she ok?" Annika tilts her head out towards the door on the left and I see the edge of a brunette curl of shoulder length hair.
What is Lori doing here? Lorenza is in my close circle of friends in the Raptorian mountains, she is one of the 100 Female Raptors in one of my top squadrons of almost three hundred.
YOU ARE READING
The Shadow of Royalty
Fantasy"I don't know if I should kiss you or stab you." - Aurelia Cartozen Aria was chosen. There was no denying it and certainly no escaping it. She was chosen for the sacred role as a Regalas, forced into the deadly ranks of the elite royals, and she has...
