The Shadow Kingdom

Chapter 19i

"Come out, Scarlett. The game is over. We've been at this for hours; you must be hungry." It's over when I say it's over. I know exactly where she is, but she is wandering around the forest, flaunting her overwhelming advantage. Perhaps that will be her weakness. She hasn't found me already, so this tree must give me decent cover. If I wait long enough, she might appear right below me.

"Don't you want to call it a day? My brother must be getting lonely. You wouldn't want him to get it from somewhere else, would you?" Shut up, bitch! I close my eyes and listen closely to her voice, judging direction and distance. "Adrian's a very good-looking guy. You know he's got plenty of options." Now! Her voice is right below and right in front of me. I burst out of the foliage with my weapon pointed straight ahead. Diana's back is turned to me, and... Bang!

I fall out of the tree and shudder in anguish. The pain of the impact and the electricity is more agonizing than the first time I fought Diana. When the current finally stops, I am spread-eagled on the ground, struggling just to breathe. Diana towers over my near-death body for the second time today. "You should have waited for me to keep walking. You might have been able to sneak up on me."

Her superhuman reflexes kicked in faster than I could pull the trigger. Damn it! Diana leaves me lying in the woods, and so do the others except Isabella. She comes to help me up. "Second place against Diana isn't bad." Isabella says. "You deserve a pat on the back."

"Second place is dead last, literally. Diana would walk away smiling, and we'd all be in a shallow grave." I respond.

"At least, you beat Vanessa. And me." The two of us walk back to the mansion together. "I heard that you were adopted. You were raised by humans."

"Thank god for it. I didn't know who my biological father was until four months ago. Hell, I didn't even know the Shadow Kingdom existed."

"Your human family, were they good to you?" Isabella asks.

"They were the best family I could have asked for." I reply.

"Where are they now?"

"My adoptive parents died a couple years ago, and my sister... she's out of the picture." We make it to the middle of the hedge maze. The others are here as well, and they're all swimming... naked. Isabella undresses and joins them. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going for a swim." Isabella furrows her eyes in confusion. "It's a good way to relax."

"Doesn't anybody in this house know what a swimsuit is?" I shout.

They all stare at me as if I'm a prude. "Scarlett, it feels way better without clothes on. And if you're going to be one of us, we're all going to see your goods eventually." Isabella laughs.

Diana's proud grin dares me to join them. Oh, to hell with it. I could use a break, so I jump in the pool with my boyfriend's sister and four of his ex-lovers. "So what is your family like?" I ask Isabella. The best way to avoid awkwardness is to make friendly conversation.

"Pretty much the same as any other minor house. Everyone in House Claudius works for Praesidium these days." She answers.

That piques my interest. "Wait, what? Claudius? Adrian told me that house was wiped out by the Ashcrofts and Hassans."

Isabella's light-hearted manner dwindles. "We were defeated, not wiped out. During the Han Dynasty, House Shang and House Claudius had an alliance. There were a lot of intermarriages between the houses. When the war in Byzantine happened, those who lived in the Far East survived, and now, we are a vassal of House Shang."

"Adrian never told me that." I admit.

Everyone stares at me quizzically. "You never found it strange that a Chinese warlock house would have a king and queen named Augustus and Octavia? Or children named Tiberius and Diana? Today, House Shang is of Latin and Chinese descent. They named this place the Seven Hills Manor after the Seven Hills of Rome." Isabella explains to me. Diana overhears our conversation and chuckles. Why must everyone mock my ignorance? "Adrian's real name is Nerva. He changed it when he moved to America."

After I have my fill of aqua therapy and girl talk, I return to the mansion alone. Understandably exhausted, I plant myself face first onto bed. I am half asleep when Adrian returns. "Good evening." He says warmly.

"Good evening to you too, Nerva." He flinches subtly. "Yeah, that's right. I've been talking to the girls." He sighs with exasperation since he knows what's coming. "You are a manwhore."

"Excuse me?" He tries to be indignant, but he has no excuses here.

"You have slept with all of your sister's friends! That makes you a manwhore!" I point at him accusingly while still too exhausted to move.

He takes off his suit and crawls into bed. "I thought we already got past this. The majority of my affairs happened before you were born. Since the day you told me that you loved me, you are the only woman I have thought about."

"I know," I mumble, suppressing my irrational jealousy. "Isabella said some stuff to me today."

"What kind of stuff?" His voice brims with curiosity.

I turn over and face him earnestly. "Adrian, I love you. And I know that you love me. But how long is that going to last?" His eyes furrow incoherently. "If you live for ten thousand years, how do I know that one day you won't meet another girl who fits your criteria better than I do?"

He hugs me closely as he grasps my meaning. "How do I know that next year, you won't find another guy who fits your criteria better than I do? I can't make promises for the future, Scarlett. All I know is that right now, I love you. I love you beyond the limits of sanity. And I can confidently say it will last at least ten thousand years."

I snuggle into his embrace. His affirmation assuages me more than my time in the pool. "So apparently, you are part Italian?" I interject.

Adrian smiles.