Lioness | Erik Killmonger

Chapter four: No secrets

' Two can keep a secret
If one of them

Is dead '

Chapter four: No secrets

The followers picked their way carefully through the branches of a garden that hadn't yet recovered from the swarm of flames Erik made it to be; they groped for solid footing on the hidden, uneven ground. Anila and Adnan were the first to walk along the pathway. Adnan was laughing and joking as he walked and finally Anila heard the breath go out him slowly. "Well!" He exclaimed, managing to walk along the roughly stoned path.

Anila's lips were already parted. "Why did you come here, Adnan?" She asked, "did my brother send you?"

Adnan grinned and looked up from his bundle of folded arms. "Of course I had to come for him," he said. "I would only be allowed to leave Asharn and come to Wakanda, if it were only for him."

Anila was set a light with curiosity. She would have thought that Moran would send one of the Bdt Al'asad to deliver a message, seeing at least one of them would satiate her discomfort. But, Moran sent Adnan instead. Why? And, a message? She thought, what type of message? And, what for?

Adnan ran in front and stopped. "So how is Wakanda? I've heard many thing about it- and oh! How is the great King Killmonger?"

"Wakanda is a beautiful place, it isn't Asharn though. I miss home... so much. And, Erik is fine." Anila told him, feeling her blood rise.

"Fine?" Adnan said, smiling. "Surely he isn't just fine."

Anila's heart was pounding against her chest, she attempted to push past him but failed when Adnan mimicked her steps.

"It's not like you and I, Adnan- I have only known him for a short while, I only married him yesterday- there is nothing to say of him. Yet." Anila said almost too calmly. Her hands formed into fists at her side, her nails dug into her skin causing her knuckles to turn white.

Adnan nodded and said, "well how is his love making? Is it better than mine?"

"Adnan." Anila growled.

Anila tore her eyes away from him. She had told Erik that she had never been with a man, and amongst all her friends in Asharn, she was pure, a virgin before coming to their matrimonial bed. And that was true. But what she failed to say, was all the times where she had been intimate with a man, Adnan, without pursuing the objective of sex. And, she intended on keeping it that way.

Adnan gave her arm a quick and gentle stroke, then turned her face toward him, "do you love him, like you loved me?" Anila's expression softened, she held his face lovingly. "Do you care for him, like you cared for me? Because, Anila I still love you, and I still care you. And, after all this time apart I know you feel the same way- you should just leave with me! I may be returning to Asharn tomorrow, but after then I'm leaving- for good-"

"It's not that simple- I've married the man, Adnan," muttered Anila cautious of any listening ears. Since being in Wakanda she had learnt that the king's eyes and ears, see and hear everything.

"But that doesn't mean-" Adnan stopped.

Anila frowned. "Queen Anila, the king asks for you," Nomada said. Appearing from the other end of the path.