All I Am

Chapter 3

Ari entered Valery's room without knocking, rolling his eyes at the figure sleeping on the bed. Sure, Valery was an extremely powerful elemental master, but Ari didn't think that gave her the right to sleep in and miss meetings with the king.

He walked over to the curtains, yanking them open loudly and letting sunshine stream in.

A deep voice groaned in response to the intense light flooding the room. The covers were thrown off the bed, revealing a completely naked man underneath.

Ari stared for a moment, dumbstruck. "You're not Valery," he said, finally finding his voice again.

"Valery?" the man asked as he slowly rose from the bed to tower over the room. Ari's lower center of gravity and agility had always been an advantage when it came to fighting, so he never had any misgivings about his smaller size. But now, for some reason, he wanted nothing more than to be taller than this stranger.

"The girl whose room this is," Ari said pointedly, turning his gaze to his right shoulder. Though the man seemed quite comfortable being totally nude in front of him.

Valery's guest smiled as he threw on his pants. "Oh, Red! No, she's not here."

"You don't even know her real name?"

The man continued to smile infuriatingly. "We didn't do a whole lot of talking last night, if you know what I mean."

Ari gritted his teeth. He unfortunately knew exactly what the man meant. Not like it should matter to him. It wouldn't be any of his business if Valery decided to screw everyone in the entire capitol. And considering he had seen six different men and three different women leaving her bedroom in the morning since she had arrived in Peria barely over a month ago, it seemed like that might be her goal.

Not like he was keeping track.

And he definitely hadn't been fixating on the fact that all of the people she brought back to her room looked nothing like him.

"Do you know where she went?" he asked the still-dressing mammoth.

"No."

"Great," Ari said sarcastically. "Thanks, you've been a big help."

"No problem," the man replied, seemingly oblivious to Ari's sarcasm. "But hey, when you see her, let her know I'll be back tonight. We can pick up where we left off."

The way the man said the last line made Ari want to vomit. He left the room as quickly as he had entered it, eager to get away from Valery's lover. Though, could he even be called a lover if all they did was have sex? He doubted there was any love between the two of them last night.

Ari went to his next potential lead – the terrace where Layla sunbathed. As a healer, she had been exhausting herself curing all the kingdom's maladies. Peria was the healthiest it had ever been, but that meant Layla was using a significant amount of energy and frequently needed to replenish it. So she had taken to relaxing in the sunlight on the second floor East Wing terrace.

Ari doubted he would find Valery there, but he figured Layla may have a better lead than Valery's sex toy. Layla had been the closest with Valery, especially after Zamari's death, so if anyone actually knew where the spitfire was, it would be her.

He found Layla sprawled out on the ground, eyes closed, as she let the sun soak into her melanin-rich skin.

"Layla?" Ari asked softly, not wanting to startle her.

Layla opened her eyes and smiled. "Hello general. What can I do for you?"

"I'm looking for Valery," he told her.