Chapter 16: Revelation

The next morning, we stood in the entryway of the castle, preparing to set off for the temple. King Augustus and Sawyar had come down to see us off.

The king handed me a ring. It was silver and it looked plain, though as I squinted at it, I thought I could make out etched writing across its surface.

"This is what we shall use to stay in contact with you," the king told me.

"Who has the other one?" I asked.

King Augustus looked at someone behind me, nodding slightly. I turned to look over my shoulder and saw Atheria, packing hard tack in her backpouch. On her finger, I saw a ring identical to the one I wore.

I turned to Augustus and nodded my approval at his decision. The king gently placed his hands on my shoulders and sternly looked into my eyes. "Lucas, remember, if you and your friends run into trouble, you are not expendable. They are here to defend and protect you. Understood?"

I started to argue with him, but he shook his head. "We cannot risk anything happening to you. You must stay safe, even at the expense of the others, if that is what it comes down to."

I didn't want to admit it, but I knew deep down inside he was right.

As the king walked away to say his farewells to the others, Sawyar approached and firmly shook my hand.

"Best of luck to you, Lucas," he said.

I stared at him for a moment. I said to him in a voice too low for the others to hear, "Why were you staring at Gianna yesterday?"

"I don't know..." he began to say, and I knew he was about to deny it.

"You were staring at her during our meeting with the king. You stared at her the entire time. Then you whispered something to Sheperd and both of you started staring at her. I want to know why."

He peered at me curiously, looking deeply into my eyes. "You don't know?" He then glanced at Gianna. "Does she even know?"

"Know what?" I demanded, my voice a low growl.

He looked back to me and said, "She..." he hesitated, started to continue, then stopped again.

"What is going on? I'm not asking you again."

"She's pregnant," he told me. "And above all else, you must keep her safe."

"What?" I asked, hardly able to believe what he was saying. I understood the part where he told me she was pregnant. It only made sense, since we had engaged in unprotected sex several times now. But I didn't quite understand why he was telling me to keep her safe.

"What are you saying?" I asked him. "I'd keep her safe anyway."

"I cannot explain further," he said. "But it is critical that you keep her safe. Ignore what the king told you. You must protect her, even at the cost of your own life."

I started to say something, but he spoke up, interrupting me. "I promise you, all will be made clear in time. But in the meantime, you must let no harm come to her."

Before I could say or ask anything else, he turned and walked away.

"Hey," Gianna said, calling to me from where the others were waiting. "Are you ready?"

We traveled straight through the entire day, stopping only for a very brief break before we set off once again. All of us knew that we needed to make as much haste in our journey as possible. The longer I stayed on this world, the more chance Dred had of finding me.

The travel was quiet and awkward for some of us. Val and Atheria chatted with each other most of the day, but everyone else was silent for the most part. I was still feeling uncomfortable around Gianna, and so I avoided her. I felt mortified about what I did to Tasmine, so I avoided her. And Benthor knew I was hiding something, so I avoided him.

We camped for the night next to a lake. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat any dinner with the others, instead preferring to leave them behind at the campfire. I went and sat on the bank of the lake, staring across its dark surface.

"We're going to talk," Gianna's voice came from behind me, jolting me out of my troubled thoughts. "No more avoiding me. You're going to tell me what's wrong, and you're going to tell me right now."

"It's not that simple," I said sullenly.

"We're going to make it that simple," she replied in a stern voice. "I'm not going to go one more step to this temple until you tell me what is wrong with you."

She was right. As usual. I owed it to her to tell her everything, to tell her why I couldn't meet her eyes, couldn't touch her. Why I had been avoiding her as much as I could.

"I've been having these dreams," I slowly began, my voice somber. "Dreams of me abusing my pheromone power. Taking advantage of every woman I've come across, making them do sexual acts that they would never have done otherwise. And you've been in those dreams too. Some of the things I was making you do, they frightened a part of me. But there was another part of me that enjoyed it. It keeps telling me to use this power I have, to make any woman I meet obey my every whim, no matter what it is.

"You're better than that," she told me, placing her hand on my shoulder. "You're a strong man, you can resist that kind of temptation."

"No," I replied. "I can't. Whatever it is inside of me that is making me having these dreams is something I can't resist."

She was quiet for a moment, then she placed her hand on my chin and turned my face to meet her eyes. "You did something, didn't you?"

"Tasmine," I replied, pulling my chin out of her hand and looking away. "I took Tasmine's virginity. I didn't even want to. But whatever it is inside of me made me do it. I couldn't resist. And afterwards, I felt ashamed of what I had done. I couldn't even bear to look at either of you."

She stood up, looking down at me. I could feel her eyes staring at me. She stood there silently for a long time, simply regarding me.

"I believe you," she finally said. "I believe that there is something inside of you that is making you do these things. I don't know if it's your power controlling me, making me say these things, but I don't believe it is. Because I can feel in my heart that there is something different within you. The Lucas King who saved my life without knowing who I was, who covered me up without taking advantage of me. The Lucas King I first met would never do these things you speak of."

I started sobbing softly, tears rolling down my eyes. To hear her say that she believed in me felt like an incredible weight had been lifted off of my soul. I climbed to my feet and took her in a hug, burying my face into her shoulder as I let all the pent-up turmoil and emotion come pouring out of me. She soothed me gently, her hands rubbing up and down my back, making me feel safe and protected.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" she asked me. "You and I, we could have figured this out together."

"Sweetheart, I'm not the only who's been keeping secrets." I pulled back and looked her into the eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant?"

She looked into my eyes, completely confused by what she had just heard. "Pregnant? I'm not pregnant, Lucas."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not pregnant, that's what I mean. My bleeding ended just a few days ago. I am not pregnant," she repeated. "What made you think that I was?"

I stepped away from her, my mind racing. "Sawyar. Sawyar told me."

"Why would he possibly tell you that?"

"He kept staring at you yesterday, while we were meeting with the king. When I asked him why, he told me you were pregnant, and that I needed to protect you, even at the cost of my own life."

"But the king, he said that we should be protecting you with our lives," she replied. "Lucas, what is going on here?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "This isn't making any sense."

"We should tell the others," she said.

"No. We need to keep this between us, at least until we can figure out what is going on."

"I don't like this," she told me.