Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

KALLE

Kalle stared, wide-eyed as her grandmother slipped into the room, closing and locking the door behind herself, whispering the whole time.

"…I knew it. And I was afraid to ask—but I was going to if you didn't come clean soon. Kalle, you should have told me, I have so much to tell you!"

Gahrye glanced at her, a question in his eyes. Kalle shrugged and widened her eyes at him. "Help with what, Gramma?" she asked, confused.

Her grandmother turned around folded her arms and looked at Kalle like Kalle should know better. "I'm going to help you help Gahrye understand himself better. And maybe… maybe he can help you get to Anima. I don't know. I make no promises, but—"

"Wait, what?"

"Gah, it's been so frustrating keeping all of this from you. But it was part of my swearing not to reveal it until or unless it was relevant—there are prophecies about us, Kalle. Do you know that?"

"What?!"

"The Guardians. We have always caused as much conflict as we've solved. If you'd been older, I would have chosen you as my heir, but I had to choose and Shaw was so enamored—at the time he was the right choice. But now…"

"What? What's wrong with him now?"

Her grandmother's brows pinched together. "I don't know, he's just so…"

"Fascinated," Gahrye said quietly.

Her grandmother smiled at him. "Yes. It's kind of creepy, don't you think?"

"He lacks balance."

"Yes! And imbalanced people can always be pushed in directions that they might not want to go—or might not understand. Anyway, that's not important. What's important is, if you two are mates, I'm no longer oathbound to keep this from you. Honestly, Kalle, I can't believe you didn't tell me! How long have you known?"

Kalle looked at Gahrye and he smiled. "I've known since I arrived."

Her jaw dropped. "You did?!"

Then he looked away, a shadow behind his eyes, but he turned to her grandmother and smiled. "We gave vows a couple weeks ago."

"Weeks?!" Grandma whirled on Kalle. "Why didn't you let on? I could have given these to you that day!"

"Give us what?" Kalle exclaimed. "And I was going to, I wanted to, I just… it's all so new and we didn't want Shaw to know. I thought you had to tell him!"

Her grandmother snorted. "Shaw believes he's at the top of the pile because I let him believe so. If he could get his hands on what I'm about to show you, he would have kittens. But you cannot show him. His imbalance would… it just wouldn't be good."

Kalle's head spun. She looked at Gahrye, but he was busy staring at her grandmother, an odd mix of admiration and wariness on his gorgeous face. She saw his nostrils flare and was about to ask when he blinked.

"The winds…" he breathed, his eyes going wide. "You will… what do you know, Eve? What gives you such conviction—and such fear?"

Her grandmother put her hands to her mouth, her eyes shining. "Gahrye, you're… you're what they call disformed, correct?"

"Yes."

Kalle snapped at look at her grandmother. "He is no less an Anima than—"

"Believe me, Kalle, I know it better than anyone," her grandmother replied. Then her face lit up in delight. "I'm going to show you the hidden histories. They'll explain everything, I promise. Oh, and that will mean you'll be able to choose your own heir to learn them as well! But… Oh gosh, I need to think this through. Look at me, I'm all flustered. I'm just so excited!"

"Grandma, what are you talking about?" Kalle demanded.

Her grandmother shook her head and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I've been waiting and hoping for this for so long: Kalle, it has always been prophesied that when two humans heard the True Heart's Call, they were the ones to open the hidden histories. When I heard about Elia being Reth's mate, I hoped and prayed. And now… Kalle, you can read these. The prophesied ones…. They're you! You and Elia!"

"Wait… What?"

*****

Reeling from the shock of her grandmother's rambling excitement, she and Gahrye ignored a pouting Dillon who sat at the front desk as they followed her grandmother out of the main library space and down, through the rabbit warren of hallways, storage closets, and dusty rooms, to the basement of the building.

Kalle feared they would be walking into something from a horror movie when her grandmother mentioned the basement. But it was surprisingly well lit, and although out of date, the rooms at the bowels of this building had been refurbished thirty or forty years earlier, then only used for storage.

Her grandmother's tension increased as they walked, but so did her smile.

When she finally stopped, and with shaking fingers unlocked one of the doors, Kalle took Gahrye's hand. What were they about to find?

"I don't mind telling you, I've waited for this day my whole life," her grandmother said with a sigh. "I prayed I would be the one who got to hand over the true histories. I hope… I hope you'll choose to share them with me. Keeping these hidden has been the hardest battle of my life. The temptation… but it doesn't matter. I didn't break the vow. The histories have remained hidden. And now you can be the one to open them," she said softly, swinging the door open and ushering them through.

Inside was a bare, nondescript room, one long, narrow window high in the wall to let in some natural light. One side of the room was lined with boxes, almost to the ceiling. On the other, a wooden, rectangle table the size of a small dining set squatted with two or three plastic chairs around it. And behind that, in the corner, what looked like an old, steel railway trunk, a massive, but contemporary padlock falling from a brass hoop on its front.

Her grandmother trotted straight across the room to that trunk and knelt down, picking through the keys on the ring she always carried at her waist.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe it!" she whispered, her gray hair fluttering because she shook. "We can finally read them!"

Then she shoved a key into the padlock, turned it and the lock sprang open easily.

"It's here, Kalle," she said, opening it up and then stepping back to let Kalle and Gahrye come closer. "It's all here. Everything. The Anima. The humans. The voices… everything." Her grandmother turned and looked at her, as if she'd never seen Kalle before, her eyes wide and awed. "It's really happening. We've been waiting centuries for this."