18. Ronan

18

RONAN

I'd always assumed—with far too much ego—that I had a better understanding of the Northern Forrest than other Tamers. At least of its creatures and the dangers that potentially came with them. Now, all that was being called into question, because somehow, an entire civilization of wyverns had existed underneath our noses for centuries.

Everything about this trip to the Northern Forrest felt vastly different from anything I'd experienced in the Southern Forrest. While flying through the canopy, I found myself looking at the forest with new eyes. Was it still potentially dangerous? Sure.

But I think a part of me had ignorantly believed and treated the Northern Forrest as some type of…artificial habitat. Like something you might find in an Earth-realm zoo. The forest contained beasts and kept them safe, letting them live in as natural a habitat as possible.

But the distinction—as taught by elder Beast Tamers during training—was that because the Northern Forrest was within Alfemir's boundaries, we exerted control over the beasts. Therefore, angels owned their home. And them.

Now, every single part of that felt like pure ignorance. I believed what Niz was saying from the start, but standing on the precipice of seeing it myself felt far different, almost intimidating. I knew my view on everything was about to change, hell it was already shifting. Rather than us 'containing' the beasts of Alfemir, it now simply felt like our walls were encroaching on their claimed space.

For the longest time, the idea that the Tamer's strength came from their ability to dominate the creatures around them was pounded into my head over and over again by higher authorities. But with new knowledge and the revelation of my dead affinity—coupled with the truth of what truly happened with Niz's people—I now saw what should be the tie between Beast Tamer and the creature they were working with— partnership.

We weren't supposed to dominate or control them, we were supposed to earn their trust—much like how I had earned Niz's when he came to me in his wyvern form. Beast Tamers had been going about all of this wrong for so long. I knew it wasn't my place, but I wanted to tell them—to enlighten them all.

Maybe one day—but today, I would have to be satisfied with being humbled by my personal experience.

"Just follow me and stay close," Niz instructed the others, his voice echoing in the cave's entrance as Bastian and Kieran joined us, my gaze turning from our destination to my Beauty.

I could tell she was worried about Bastian, her brow furrowed as she watched him with a look of concern, but his vow to make Alfemir pay only bolstered my confidence in the dedication he had toward the cause. Considering what a crazy bastard he could be, it was often hard to tell where he stood on more serious matters, but he made himself all too clear this time.

As Kieran walked toward us, I didn't resist the urge to offer her a hand, smiling as she stepped up between Niz and me, intertwining my fingers with her own. I could practically feel Steele's glare at the action, but I didn't entertain the other man's possessive feelings at the moment. I didn't like him but carrying Kieran up here at fucking all, and I wouldn't stand by quietly while he staked some imaginary claim over her like there weren't four more of us involved too.

"Don't be surprised if we're stopped by guards on the way in—I'll have to explain our situation a few times over," Niz continued, sounding frustrated. Honestly, though, if explaining our situation and why we were trying to gain access to the wyverns was the worst of it, I would take it—I didn't want Kieran in any unnecessary danger.

As we began our slow descent into the narrow mouth of the cave, I kept my free hand on the wall to stabilize myself, the floor covered in loose pebbles and stones. After several feet, the cave leveled out and the silence around us grew uncomfortable, the light from outside disappearing and leaving us in oppressive darkness. I wondered briefly if Niz had led us into the wrong cave. Kieran's hand tightened in mine, clearly feeling uneasy as well?—

"Halt!" A loud, booming voice rang through the space, causing me to tense. Niz let out a sigh under his breath, and the exasperation in the sound was so familiar—something I was used to hearing from him in wyvern form when he was being particularly difficult—that I couldn't help but feel some ease in the moment. Still, my hand loosened from Kieran's momentarily before wrapping protectively around her waist, and her body melted back against my chest.

"I planned on announcing myself, but don't worry—" Niz sighed before his voice boomed louder, "It is I, Nizuss, the crown prince!" I looked around with interest and a bit of caution, trying to gauge the type of space we were in considering the echo of both voices.

With a flicker of fire from ahead of us, the room suddenly lit up. I blinked against the unexpected light, my eyes taking a moment to adjust to the sudden brightness. After a moment, I saw that we were in a cavernous, circular room with the now-lit torches lining the walls.

"Wow," Kieran murmured, her head falling back as I looked up, noting the stalagmites that pointed down from the high ceiling. They cast shadows along the walls and drew my eyes across the space to the front of the room where a massive door stood. It was a large, metal structure that appeared to be a permanent fixture in the stone that surrounded it.

"Your Highness!" My eyes narrowed on the individual approaching us, his words filled with deference despite his sword being drawn. I briefly noticed three other men behind him, all staring at Niz in surprise. "We didn't realize you were coming back. We weren't told to expect you, if we had known?—"

"At ease," Niz commanded, and the man immediately shut his mouth. "I didn't tell anyone I was returning."

I couldn't deny how fucking odd it was to see Niz in this light—in a position of power, commanding others. It caused me to feel a bit unbalanced, the reality of our situation countering what I knew about the wyvern.

"Of course, I shouldn't have assumed." The man bowed so low I worried he wouldn't be able to get back up before he straightened and looked at the rest of our group with cautious curiosity. "Should we announce the arrival of your guests, or would you prefer them to accompany you unannounced?"

As Niz stood across from the soldiers, I couldn't help but note their physical similarities—their height was nearly the same, with Niz standing slightly taller than them. They both wore dark armor with a crest in the center of it, long swords sheathed at their hips.

"The king and queen aren't aware of my guests, so let's not make a formal announcement just yet. We will, however, need an escort directly to the palace down the main street—time is of the essence." It was clear that whatever patience Niz had was running out, his entire posture tense and annoyance flashing in his gaze. I didn't blame him—I could tell everyone was eager to move past this conversation.

"Right." The man turned sharply and strode back toward the door. "Open the gate for the crown prince—immediately."

"Crown prince. How fancy ," Kieran murmured with a teasing lilt to her tone that softened the sarcasm of her words, causing a smirk to tug on my lips.

Bastian offered a retort under his breath behind us, but I was unable to hear it over the boots of the soldiers echoing on the rock beneath our feet. Instead, my attention moved to Niz's expression he was trying to hide—one that was right there behind amusement at Kieran's comment. Concern, sadness, and regret— an overall heaviness that seemed to weigh my friend down as we grew closer to the door.

The loud groan of the door opening echoed through the cavernous room as we neared the entrance—even more light flooded in through the doors, causing me to shield my eyes. As my vision adjusted to the influx of light and we stepped through the door, the passageway revealed what could only be described as an underground world .

"Damn." My murmured words were lost in the sudden noise of the bustling kingdom that laid before us, the doors having blocked out all signs of its existence until now.

The mountainous cavern around us—that had to be at least several hundred stories in height—housed an entire world within it. From where we stood, at the start of the stone pathway leading into the city, I saw so, so much—including how the land dipped into a crater in the center of the cavern.

The houses, marketplaces, and even the castle appeared to have been created in the process of digging into the ground, rather than building upon it. And while I couldn't see exact details, it was clear the buildings were made of stone and mud brick, but decorated in brightly colored paint. The colors were further illuminated by the gigantic torches that were mounted on the cave walls on all sides.

These weren't normal torches—judging by the hulk of the figures flying past them, they were easily as big as eight or nine adult wyverns. Along the perimeter of the cave wall was a series of interconnected bridges, where individuals stood guard near the torches—no doubt, part of the effort to keep them lit.

There must have been hundreds of wyverns down here, the sky littered with them in numbers comparable to the city below. And at the center of it all was a castle made of black stone that stood above everything else. I was going to take a wild guess and assume that was where we were going.

"Just keep a straight path forward, try to not interact with anyone." Niz strode forward confidently following his words, and we moved him with a group of soldiers on either side of us serving as an escort.

As we made our way down the stone path, the crowds on the street and in the marketplace turned to look at us in curiosity. Instantly, I saw confusion filling their gazes and it wasn't hard to guess why— we didn't look like the wyvern population here.

All wyverns we passed appeared to be tall with lean muscles, female and male alike, the first reaching around six feet and the later nearly seven. Their hair was brightly colored—to reflect their scale pattern like Niz, I assumed—and their skin was almost silvery in nature, probably in part due to the lack of sunlight. And while they wore plain clothing that appeared handmade, they decorated themselves with expensive jewels—even the children running by were adorned with them.

"Everyone is so beautiful, and the gems!" Kieran whispered, awe filling her tone as her voice carrying to Niz, who looked back with a look of understanding.

"This mountain is rich in minerals, including gemstones," Niz explained to all of us, probably noticing the attention the jewels everyone wore garnered. "We occasionally will go into Alfemir, disguised to trade, in order to acquire more modern resources in return."

Despite the explanation, I still felt baffled. This went beyond anything I could have ever expected. A few wyverns in a cave was one thing, but this ? This was a fully functioning society that could easily rival Alfemir with the collective power of their numbers.

"Niz, your parents don't know we're coming…" Kieran trailed off, her sweet voice filling the air pulling me from my muddled thoughts. Had the others been asking him questions the entire time I was zoned out? "Just how upset will they be?"

"I'm not sure," Niz admitted. "They will be certainly upset about me revealing who we are and likely even more so about me bringing you here…but there's nothing we can do about that. I hope they will see reason once we explain what's happening."

The fact that he was relying on hope for their understanding caused me to worry. If we didn't have their help, we would quickly find ourselves at a dead end when it came to our options moving forward.

Before I could further press him on the matter, my attention was drawn by a building we passed that featured a family of four sitting outside of what appeared to be a restaurant, considering the plates in front of them. The man offered me a nod of greeting in passing, though his brows arched toward his hairline, and I tried to offer a friendly smile back, hoping that the friendly gesture bode well for our time here.

After nearly a half an hour of travel, we reached the castle. As we entered the front courtyard, the gates closed behind us and several guards flooded the space. Each of them bowed in passing to Niz as we made our way up the rocky front steps, through large fortress-like doors, and down a long hallway. The walls were covered in alternating torches and fabric flags displaying a black and green wyvern—one that looked a lot like Niz.

When we finally reached a set of double doors at the far end of the hallway, they were opened to reveal a throne room. Unlike the hallway, the floors were marble here and there were two fireplaces on either end of the room to light and warm the space. All of it, though, was merely a distraction from the two individuals that were sitting, waiting clearly, on matching stone thrones— Niz's parents .

"Nizuss!" An enthusiastic voice echoed through the room as a man with vibrant green hair, only interrupted by a black metal crown, stood from his throne and stepped down from the platform their seats sat upon. He embraced his son, matching him in stature and height, before pulling back and adding, "It's so good to see you, boy. We were getting worried."

His warm greeting was as polar opposite as possible to the woman I assumed to be Niz's mother. With dark hair and black eyes, she gave off a cold vibe that was only enhanced by the way she looked over all of us with an icy aura of judgment and disinterest. Her jaw was tight with tension and she vibrated with what seemed to be fury, refusing to meet Niz's gaze. I found I felt defensive over her potential treatment of him.

"No need to worry, just had some things to handle," Niz assured him. Behind us I heard the doors shut with a loud thud, leaving our group with the king and queen, the guards remaining posted outside. With the crown prince by our side, it seemed that they didn't consider us a threat to their leaders.

His father's gaze darted toward us before his brow furrowed in concern. "Clearly. What and who exactly did you bring?—"

"I should say hello to Mother before explaining," Niz interrupted him, and his father nodded in understanding before turning back toward the throne and making his way to his seat. Immediately, everyone's attention turned to the one unknown individual in the room—Niz's mother.

" Angels …you brought angels into our home." The woman spat with vehemence, the word angel sounding like a curse from behind her thinned lips. My hand slipped around Kieran's waist, pulling her close to me. I wanted to be able to move her out of the way if this situation escalated to violence.

"Nora—"

"No, Conan," she hissed, interrupting the king's attempt to de-escalate the situation. She shot her husband a scathing look, lips and eyes narrowed, before finally returning her attention to Niz. "Not now, not today."

"Mother," Niz greeted calmly with a small bow of his head in deference to his mother. "What I need to talk to both of you about is far greater than any issue regarding just the angels?—"

"You know nothing about the issues with the angels!" His mother snapped, clearly trying to patronize him while interrupting her son. The look in her eyes was chilling, a mix of scathing hatred for those who had oppressed her people and disappointment in her son. "You have brought death to our doorstep by bringing them here. You have failed our people—you alone Nizuss."

My jaw tightened in frustration as Niz continued to stare at her, completely unreactive to her words compared to the rest of the group. I could feel the uneasy tension running through the rest of us, and a sense of defensiveness grew within me at him being talked down to like that.

"Actually, he didn't do anything alone. We came with him, willingly, despite knowing the problems this could cause." Bastian called out boldly, stepping forward. His hair was a shocking color of orange that matched his eyes, a violent energy seeming to surround him that clashed with the cherry color. "You would do well to listen to him, and us."

There was an underlying threat to his words that I recognized and I hoped Niz's parents would as well.

Unable to help myself, I added, "Niz has explained what happened between the angels and the wyverns to us. It's a horrific story, but it also isn't one we can change. What we can change is the threat facing us now."

"And who are you to speak to me?" his mother snapped, dropping her hand to her hip while looking down her nose at me.

"Niz's friend," I answered immediately, trying to force civility that I didn't feel into my tone. "We have been friends since meeting in Alfemir."

His mother looked back at his son with horror. "Are you telling me that you purposefully revealed yourself to him?"

Fuck. I hadn't realized she would take it that way.

"No," Niz hissed, his frustration clear in how he threw up his hands. "I was doing reconnaissance, as planned. This is Ronan, the Beast Tamer I told you about."

She sneered in disgust. "I see. A Beast Tamer—not the worst of the angelic affinities, but by far the most arrogant."

Is that what they thought of Beast Tamers? I suppose I couldn't blame the wyverns for that particular view.

"He didn't mean to reveal himself to us," Kieran said in defense, moving out of my arms—which I really didn't like. Her hand reached out to hold Niz's own in a comforting move I could tell he appreciated, as an affectionate look filled his gaze as he turned it toward her. "He was hurt—he nearly died in a battle—and only then did he shift to this form."

My Beauty's words had the room going quiet as his mother looked over Kieran for a long moment before turning her attention back to Niz, her voice far softer. "You almost died? What have you gotten yourself into? Who are these individuals, Nizuss?"

"I promise I will explain everything," Niz assured her, infusing confidence I wasn't sure he actually felt in his words as he stepped forward. "But you have to promise me that you will give them a chance and will truly listen to them. I wouldn't have brought them here if I didn't believe the world itself, the future of our kind, is at stake."

"The world?" His father clarified in confusion, his expression open as he attempted to rationalize with his son. "We haven't cared about the rest of the world in centuries. Why should we start now?"

His words could be conceived as cruel, but they came off more matter-of-fact. After all, the wyverns were that isolated from the rest of Alfemir. The rest of the world. Hell, even the stars didn't touch their people.

"Because this could mean the end of everything. We aren't talking about a simple war. What I am about to tell you would result in a mass extinction—" Niz's answer was harshly interrupted.

"Stop!" His mother's voice was sharp and furious once more, her face pink with anger as she stood from her throne. "I do not want to hear another word about this. I have no idea what these individuals have poisoned your mind with, but we won't entertain it."

"Then we will die," Niz warned, vehemence laced through his tone. "If we don't come out of hiding, if we don't move on from our past and move forward—we will die."

Niz's words echoed through the throne room as she froze, staring at her son before moving her gaze over each of us, a sneer pulling on her lips.

"Then we die," his mother spat, turning on her heel and storming from the room through a door behind the thrones. The echo of it slamming shut reverberated through the space. I exhaled in relief at her departure as Niz deflated, running a hand through his hair.

I wanted to offer him support, but before any of us could say a word, his father stood and approached his son. "I hope you know what you're doing, Niz." There was a plea in his words, as if begging his son to help him make sense of this situation.

"I promise you, I wouldn't have done this without thought," Niz promised, infusing confidence in his words as he put a hand on his shoulder.

After a long moment, his dad nodded. "Right then—well, it's clear we aren't going to agree on anything right now or get anywhere with this conversation…So let's reconvene tomorrow, shall we?"

"Sure." Niz agreed, disappointment clear in his tone as his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I suggest you don't leave the castle, or even the guest suite…it could always turn violent," his father warned him quietly, but I knew it was also for us before turning back toward the thrones. "Have the guards show you to the guest suite."

As he exited through the same door as his wife, silence filled the space around us. Looking at the others, who seemed as concerned as myself as Niz gazed at the thrones in front of us, I tried to offer him words of comfort.

"Listen, I'm sure she'lll understand once we explain?—"

Niz brushed my words off sharply, walking toward the main doors that we had entered. "Come on, let's go."

It was clear he didn't want to talk, but while the dismissal hurt, I didn't blame him. Despite our plans, this was starting to feel impossible.