Being pressed against the long, masculine form of Rykert the Bold was everything Felicity had hoped for. He felt like home. This unfortunate thought made her heart pang.
Then why did all of her instincts shriek that their relationship was not right? It certainly felt right. He felt right. As though they belonged together.
In the same manner as Ari and Kellen. Two Aasguard warriors who had blended their lives together and were about to open this much needed school to train new Aasguard warriors. [Seeking: Warrior Mate - The Seeking Series - Book 3] This should help to shore up the waning Aasguard numbers. The couple had married and planned to improve the lives of their kind and those with exceptional fighting skills.
Their joining had already brought good to the land.
Felicity slanted a look at the man who held her.
He was already in tune with her. “What?”
It took her a moment to sort her thoughts. “Ari and Kellen have married and are providing a much needed service.”
She barely got that out before commotion in the sky and on land distracted both of them.
“Ah, we have new arrivals.” Rykert released her as he surged forward with her to greet both the arriving Aasguard warriors from the skies and those from the ground.
A few students also trickled in. She had met all of them. Although she’d spent time helping to defend Swiftland and Montequirst, she had also spent time traveling to other nations. And enjoyed every moment.
This made her pause.
Again, Rykert felt this. He darted a look at her and she allowed him to hear her thoughts so she did not need to repeat them. He could ruminate over these points as well. Perhaps within these scattered thoughts lay the answer to their situation.
Perhaps not. But Felicity wanted to marry him. He was her mate, on that count he was correct. He had created unfamiliar reactions she never experienced prior to their first meeting over a year ago.
It had been easier to be unaware of his existence and not know that marriage had occurred for a select, lucky few than to know her mate existed but they were prohibited from joining their lives. Knowing he was within reach but unable to grasp him had proved harder than her long years of loneliness.
Rykert spread his hand up her spine and across her back. A gesture meant to soothe her and it did. It reminded her they had a different focus right now. She set her chaotic thoughts aside and joined Ari, Kellen, and Rykert in greeting their guests.
Ari’s brothers and their wives both arrived, and if Felicity was correct, Raene showed signs of impending motherhood. This timing was probably about right, if Queen Raene and Vidar the Loyal had waited a couple of years before they secured the kingdom’s next monarch.
Amazing that only twenty-eight months ago, no Aasguard had ever conceived of marrying. Much less contemplated a career other than protection services. They had guarded other’s treasures and persons for millennia.
But one small queen had changed the course of their lives when she named Vidar the Loyal as her husband instead of choosing one of the circling warriors who vied for her attention. [Seeking: Warrior King - The Seeking Series - Book 1] She had lost her mother and been expected to name a husband on the same day. Too much for anyone, much less a woman who had only seen twenty-five summers. Despite all that pressure, Raene had proved herself worthy of her station.
She had chosen wisely even in days of utter turmoil and selected the Aasguard warrior in the land for her king. And forever changed the course and lives of every Aasguard warrior.
Felicity was both grateful to her and resentful. Because while Vidar and Raene had married, and shortly after Vidar and Ari’s oldest brother Lajos had married Raene’s best friend Stefana, both women had still been human. The ramifications had not been brutal upon their nuptials.
Only after Ari, Vidar and Lajos’s Aasguard sister had joined her life with a fellow Aasguard had the consequences reared their ugly head. No one had been able to confirm that the joining of two Aasguards had opened the portal between them and the nasty desampus. But Felicity had fought with her fellow Aasguards during that battle and had feared their victory.
It continuously remained in the back of her mind that she and Rykert could also open a portal to an even worse world than that of desampus. She could not, in good conscience, join her life with Rykert if such an action brought about the destruction of others.
A niggle of doubt taunted her. Whether this was actually the reason for her hesitation or if something deeper caused her qualms she couldn’t ascertain.
Seeing Rykert laugh with the two married kings, men who had been Aasguard warriors longer than she, who now lived much different lives, made her wish for things that might never be hers. These men thrived in their new challenges and had been given opportunities that their colleagues who had chosen to pass on had missed. These two warriors enjoyed life in a way that none of them ever had.
A most welcome change.
Now they used all their skills. They enjoyed the long lives they’d been given and had joined their lives to those who loved them.
Felicity had no desire to be a queen. She had no desire to run a kingdom.
Her gaze strayed back to Rykert. What exactly she wished to do she did not know.
And therein lay another problem.
At this very moment both of them were homeless and unemployed. She and Rykert had agreed to attend the opening of this school, but she did not feel compelled to remain to teach the students trickling in. Queen Stefana’s brother, Lukas, had technically been the first student of the school, but he had already undergone much of the textbook learning and possessed the warrior skills needed to become an Aasguard warrior in the same manner as his sister and Raene.
He had already become an Aasguard warrior, before ever spending time here at this school. He had joined his sister and Raene in becoming Ari and Kellen’s first students before the school had been built.
One unforeseen consequence of human women marrying Aasguard warriors is that they themselves had become Aasguard warriors. The transition had been so stealthy that none of them recognized what was happening at first. Eventually the women’s improved abilities had shown themselves and Ari insisted upon testing them.
Now both queens were full Aasguard warriors in their own right. They had, as all Aasguard warriors before them, spent the required time training to become better warriors. The difference is they would never protect persons or treasures. Both were monarchs tasked with running their nations.
“We will figure this out.” Rykert’s whispered vow into her ear made her shiver.
She raised her eyes to his and his resolve emitted from the blue depths.
He meant what he vowed and his promise helped to firm her spine and to believe that they could join their lives. Someday. Somehow…
‡‡
Rykert had never thought much about fate before. In all his years of living he hadn’t paid attention to it because his life had been ho-hum and the same. Fate happened to people who had not chosen to become Aasguard.
Now, as he peered at Felicity who was clearly his other half, he wondered if his long years of ignoring it had caused fate to slap him. Here she was, the one woman for him, but her warrior instincts kept insisting they hold off on their pairing. A very nasty, tasteless trick. He did concede in the far reaches of his mind that this could be coincidence.
Felicity’s soft laughter warmed his heart, as did the way she leaned into him, even though she engaged in conversation with the two queens in their midst. One usually interacted with royalty only within a professional capacity. Aasguards worked for them, but did not socialize with monarchs.
And therein lay another problem with their people.
They had spent centuries upon centuries guarding treasuries and royalty, but never communed much with their own kind. They had eschewed having lives of their own.
It boggled the mind at the shortsightedness of this practice.
Who did that? Who limited their lives to mere work?
No wonder so many of their kind had chosen to enter the next life. To move on from the drudgery that was their world here. They had nothing to live for. Nothing that brought them joy.
The only silver lining was that many of them lost emotions. Not entirely lost them but their emotions muted over the long years. At least then they didn’t pine for what could have been. Still, their lives’ emptiness made him shake his head.
Felicity caught sight of this gesture from the corner of her eye and she stepped closer with an arched eyebrow.
“Just reflecting on how empty our lives as Aasguards have been.”
“It is no mystery why so many have passed on. They must have been seeking something better. Something worth their time.” Sorrow encompassed Felicity’s similar take on their late colleagues.
“If only…” Perhaps ridiculous to say that, yet fitting.
“Yes. Now we have opportunity to tell those still living how much more they can do and be.” Felicity earnestly gripped his arm. “Rykert, we could travel the land to find other Aasguards and tell them about all the opportunities open to them now.”
Excitement shot through him, but whether the emotion was hers or his, he didn’t know.
Vidar stirred beside them. “An excellent idea. You could take a census of who is still living.”
“We have need of that.” Lajos, his older brother, joined the conversation.
“Now that we have a school, we can hopefully increase our numbers but we do not have a factual account of our current numbers.” Felicity nibbled on her lower lip.
This snagged his attention. Through force of will only did he tear his gaze from her lips. She had reasons for putting a halt to their relationship and until they explored those reasons, he needed to restrain himself.
Only… he wished he had not already tasted of those lips. Now he wanted so much more.
“It would be excellent to set a program of sorts in place as well.” Lajos readjusted his sword.
“What are you thinking?” Felicity did not seem to be as bothered by him as he was by her. That seemed unfair.
She darted him a look. One that shrieked, “pay attention.”
He hid a smile. Apparently she exerted energy to keep her mind on the matters at hand. Something he should be doing.
“I have not arrived at the planning stages yet,” Lajos admitted.
“Most of us have adopted the practice of carrying a crystal. If Rykert and I seek out our fellow Aasguards, we should be able to encourage them to obtain their own crystal.” Felicity tapped her sword handle. “Once we all have crystals, we could initiate some sort of communication method.”
“Those of us who trained close together already keep in contact.” Thoughts swirled through his mind. Possibilities bounced off each other.
“I keep in contact with several who trained around the same time as me, but I also keep in contact with any female Aasguards I meet over the years.” Felicity inputted this information. “And I know Ari does the same.”
“I have a few friends I have remained in contact with. It is much easier with the crystal technology. But I know at least two of them have moved on.” Vidar gazed into the vast horizon surrounding the school.
A moment of silence met this solemn statement. They could all count a friend or two who had chosen the next life.
“Do any of you have a mentor who still breaths?” Rykert braced himself for this response.
All of them shook their heads.
He knew.
They knew.
None of the earliest Aasguards still walked. At least in his travels he had yet to meet one. Even their dragons had chosen to go on.
Felicity peered at him in inquiry. “None of them were weary in body, correct?”
“Correct. As far as I know, we do not age as humans do.”
“We simply reach a place where we cannot bear the tedium and decide to take our chances in the next life.” Lajos spoke softly.
“None of those I knew had bodily issues. But they all expressed fatigue of the soul.” Vidar added this snippet but it wasn’t new information.
“I wish so badly they could have seen this age.” Felicity tossed her long braid over her shoulder. “The Age of Aasguard is upon us. They could have partaken in it with us.”
Rykert had to touch her. He curled a hand into the small of her back. “I remember my mentor stating that it was time to move on when you longed to run every person through with your sword.”
Vidar snorted. “Yes. When you wish to rid the world of all those around you, my mentor also expressed it was then time to depart.”
“I do hope he was joking?” Felicity tipped her head up to him.
His heart expanded at the loveliness of her violet colored eyes. “I believe so. Partly.”
“Those I knew stated that you just know.” Lajos slicked a hand over his hair.
They stood solemnly staring out at the impressive horizon, all of them longing for those who had reached that point. Before this new age dawned.