Being closer to my Ascension was a big deal.
Because being closer to it with these embers still inside me also meant being closer to my death. Not even Nyktos’s blood could save me, because it required more than just his blood.
It required his love.
Something Nyktos had prevented himself from feeling with the removal of the kardia.
So, we needed to get the embers out of me, and today was the first major step in that direction.
The sky was only beginning to lighten as Nyktos and I left the palace the following morning, headed for the stables as my new iron-hued cloak trimmed in silver fluttered around my boots. The material was soft and warm, and I really hoped things didn’t get messy where I’d end up ruining my new clothing.
Nibbling on my lower lip, I glanced up at Nyktos. At some point yesterday, I’d decided that he didn’t need to know how I felt. That I…I cared for him. It didn’t seem fair to put that on him, even though I knew he cared for me, too—and even though I thought what I felt might be more.
He had his hair swept back in a neat bun at the nape of his neck, all but that shorter piece I’d cut that rested against the height of his cheekbone. He’d continued to honor the deal—both deals—that he’d struck with me, joining me for supper and then, later, proving that he was an exceptionally fast learner when it came to using his tongue. My face warmed as memories rose of his head between my thighs and his mouth on me, doing all sorts of wicked, wonderful things for what felt like a small eternity.
Nyktos looked down at me as we neared the stables. “What are you thinking about?”
My eyes widened slightly and then narrowed on him. “Stop reading my emotions.”
“I’m not.”
“Sure doesn’t sound—” I gasped as Nyktos shadowstepped without warning, grasping my arms. Within the blink of an eye, he had me against the wall of the stables, the entire front of his body pressed to mine. My breath snagged as I looked up at him. Iridescent wisps of eather bled into his irises.
Then his mouth was on mine.
Nyktos kissed me, and he—gods—he kissed like his very life depended on it, and this was one of those moments. There was no checked or banked passion. He went for it. Lips. Tongue. Fangs scraping, teasing. When his mouth left mine, my knees actually felt weak.
“You were projecting,” he whispered against my throbbing lips. “Desire.” His tongue flicked over my lower lip, drawing a gasp from me. “Smoky and thick. If you keep thinking about whatever you have in your mind, we’ll never make it to the Vale.”
Clasping the front of his cloak, I fought the urge to pull his mouth back to mine. “That wouldn’t be…responsible of us.”
“Absolutely not,” he agreed, dragging his hands down my cloaked arms. “So, behave.”
“You’re the one manhandling and kissing me,” I pointed out.
“I’d say you’re the one driving me to do so.” His lips grazed mine. “But I’ve been looking for a reason to kiss you since you licked that drop of juice from your lip at breakfast.”
“You don’t need a reason,” I told him. “All you need is want.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” His forehead touched mine. Neither of us moved for the span of several heartbeats, and I almost wished we could stay this way. But that was a silly thought. Finally, he stepped back.
I peeled myself off the wall, noticing that a handful of guards were grouped together not too far away. Nyktos must have been aware of them long before I was, but that hadn’t stopped him. Which confounded me a little as we returned to being responsible and got moving. His act—his kiss
—had been rather public. And, well, I wasn’t exactly used to anyone even acknowledging my existence in public.
The scent of straw and hay reached me as we entered the stables. I quickly saw that they were empty except for the horses. “Where’s Nektas?”
Nyktos led me toward the back row of stalls, his hand on my back a steady, grounding presence. “He’ll join us on the road.”
“In his draken form?”
“No, he’ll be on horseback. It will be quicker and easier to travel that way once inside the Vale.”
Meaning it was quicker and easier for me to travel that way. Not Nektas, who could take to the sky. But I bet Nyktos had wanted the draken in his mortal form beside me.
He stopped, the dim light of the stables glinting off his cuff as he slid open a stable door. “Meet Gala.”
Peering around him, my lips parted as I saw a gorgeous mare standing in the center of the stall, already saddled as she nibbled on some hay. She was almost as large as Odin, quite a bit bigger than most horses in the mortal realm. Her coat had a unique roan pattern with white hairs on top of a black base, giving her a faint blue coloring.
Straw crunched under my boots as I walked to her. Gala lifted her head, twitching her ears at my approach. “She’s beautiful,” I said, slowly lifting my hand to her. She stilled, letting me run my hand down her smooth, broad muzzle.
“I’m glad you like her.” Nyktos had entered behind me without making a single sound. “She’s yours, after all.”
My head whipped around. “Come again?”
“I planned on giving her to you for the coronation.” Nyktos brushed past me, checking the straps on the saddle. “But I saw no reason to wait.”
Gala nudged my hand since I’d stopped stroking her in my shock.
“You’re surprised.” He glanced over at me, the tendrils of eather faint in his silvery gaze. “And, no, I’m not reading your emotions. I can see it on your face.”
I blinked. “I just…I wasn’t expecting a gift.” I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”
“Is it not customary to bestow a gift on a wedding day in the mortal realm?” Nyktos turned to the wall behind the horse, where several short swords were sheathed and affixed to the wall. I would’ve thought that was a strange place to keep weapons, but then again, there seemed to be stashes in every other chamber.
“It is.” I focused on Gala’s beautiful doe eyes as mine burned. “I don’t have a gift for you, though.”
“I don’t believe it’s customary for the bride to give the groom a gift, is it?” Nyktos walked to Gala’s side, thick lashes shielding his eyes, but I still
felt his gaze. “And besides, you are giving me a gift. The embers.”
“More like your father is giving you that gift.” I scratched Gala behind an ear. “I’ve never had a horse.”
Nyktos drew closer. “I imagine that wasn’t for a lack of readily available horses. A Crown’s stables are usually filled.”
I shrugged.
“Did your mother believe that the promised Consort of a Primal didn’t deserve her own horse?”
My chest tightened. “I don’t think my mother believed it was necessary for me to have one. I wasn’t allowed to leave the grounds of Wayfair until I was seventeen. All I needed to know was how to ride one, and Holland taught me that.” I patted Gala’s side, forcing my breath out, slow and easy. “Will you be riding Odin then?”
“I will when I head back.” Nyktos lifted the reins. “You’ll have to share Gala with me for now.”
“Not a hardship.” I gripped the pommel, hoisting myself into the saddle.
Wisps of eather brightened in his eyes as he grinned faintly. “I have a feeling I’ll need to remind you that you said that at some point in the near future.”
“Probably.”
Nyktos chuckled as he easily swung himself up behind me. All of my senses immediately became hyperaware of the proximity of his body, the press of his thighs to mine, the arm around my waist, and the feel of his chest against my back. I’d fallen asleep in his arms last night, and it had felt different than him keeping me within arm’s reach. Our limbs had been tangled. Both of his arms had been wrapped around me. One of his knees had been tucked between mine. He hadn’t been in bed when I woke but had been in the quarters beyond the bathing chamber. I lay in bed, listening to him speak quietly to who I believed was Rhain.
“You said you weren’t allowed to leave Wayfair until after I refused you as Consort,” he said, and I guessed me trying to be polite about the timeframe had been unnecessary. “You left, though, to travel into the Dark Elms.”
I frowned as he reached around me and picked up the reins. I knew that Nyktos had had his guards, Lathan and Ector, keep an eye on me, but that
was after he’d rejected me. “The Dark Elms are technically part of Wayfair,” I told him. “Was that one of the times you were watching me?”
He guided Gala out of the stall. “You don’t need to make it sound like I was stalking you.”
“You weren’t?”
“No,” he muttered.
My lips twitched, but then I thought of something else. “Exactly how much did Lathan and Ector see of my…travels in the mortal realm?”
“Enough.”
I widened my eyes as we exited the stables, figuring that he must have known about my trips into the Luxe and possibly even what I’d been doing there. But I felt no shame. There was no reason to. He’d rejected me then. Or set me free. Whatever.
Movement at the Rise caught my attention. The guards there bowed as we rode past. I didn’t recognize any of them, but my cheeks heated, nonetheless, remembering what they’d seen. Even if they were simply bowing for Nyktos, I wasn’t used to such a show of respect.
Nyktos’s hand left my hip. He lifted the hood on my cloak as my gaze swept over the terrain. The road to the palace split into two, one heading northwest and the other northeast toward Lethe. Gala followed the narrower road to the left. Buttoning the top clasp on the cloak that held the hood in place, I peeked at the walls of the Rise, glad to see them bare.
“Where do your guards think we’re going?” I asked.
“They likely think I’m taking you to see the Pillars.” Nyktos’s hand returned to my hip. “But I’m sure some will be curious. Kars had questions.”
Remembering the guard from the courtyard, I asked, “And what did you tell him?”
“That it was none of his business.”
I snorted at that. “But I imagine all know what your prior plans regarding Kolis were, don’t they?”
His chin grazed the top of my head. “I think you know the answer to that, Sera.”
I did. His guards knew. I almost pointed out that it was just me that he’d kept in the dark, but I managed to stop myself. I eyed the crimson- leafed branches of the nearby woods, remembering what Nektas had said about my seeming lack of interest in the world here. In Nyktos’s life.
I glanced up at the star-speckled, gray skies. No one else traveled the road. There was no wind. No scents other than Nyktos’s fresh citrus one. The only sound was the clap of Gala’s hooves against the packed ground as I worked up the nerve to ask again. I didn’t know why it made me nervous to do so. Him being evasive or flat-out refusing to answer was the worst that could happen.
I took a shallow breath. “I…I would like to know what your prior plans were.”
Nyktos remained silent.
Clamping my jaw shut until I thought my molars might actually crack, I ignored the sting of disappointment I felt.
“You were right, you know?” he said, breaking the silence. I had no idea what I was right about. “The day you asked me if I’d accepted this way of life. I haven’t. From the moment I Ascended, I’ve searched for a way to destroy Kolis. To weaken him enough that he could be entombed. As you already know, I couldn’t find anything.”
It could’ve been the surprise flickering through me that prevented me from making the same mistake I did before by pointing out that he had. “Is that why you have an army?”
“It is why I began to build one.” He was quiet again for several moments. “Are you at all familiar with war, Sera?”
“Lasania has been on the verge of war more than a few times, usually with the Vodina Isles, but there were other kingdoms that thought to exploit us as the Rot started to spread,” I said. “Even if I wasn’t party to the conversations between my mother and the King, I always knew when we were on the precipice again. The armies would intensify their training, there were drafts of those of age, and all was done to ensure the soldiers were as well-fed as the nobles.”
“But your kingdom never went to war.”
“Not during my lifetime, thankfully.” A rattle of dry branches drew my attention to the woods. I stiffened at the sight of a large, onyx-hued draken gliding over the dead trees.
“Ehthawn,” Nyktos observed. “He must’ve been near and saw us leave.
He’s just keeping an eye on us.” I nodded, relaxing.
“There have been times when Primals have fought over one offense or another,” Nyktos continued. “In the end, they are left standing while
thousands fall. And all because one felt insulted. But those skirmishes were never wars. If I were to go to war with Kolis, it would be a war of Primals, and it would spill into the mortal realm. Hundreds of thousands would die, if not more.”
My skin chilled.
“But then I found you.”
I tilted my head back to look at him. “You didn’t find me. Your father basically…gave me to you.”
“That’s one way to look at it.” He shifted, his arm tightening around my waist, drawing my back flush to his chest. I faced forward, unsure if he was even aware of the act. “Up until the moment I learned that you carried the embers in you, I had no hope of avoiding such a war. It seemed inevitable. Not only because of what Kolis has wrought upon the Shadowlands, but because, eventually, he will turn his sights on the mortal realm. He’s already started.”
The back of my neck tingled as we finally passed the length of the Rise and a sea of untouched, crimson trees rose along the road.
“Kolis believes all mortals should be in service to the Primals and gods. That their lives should be dedicated to appeasing the whims of those more evolved than they are,” he continued, and my stomach tightened. “That those who do not worship the Primals with dedication and respect should be punished. He has already ordered the Primals and gods to punish mortals more harshly, even for the simplest indiscretions. You may not have seen this play out in your kingdom yet, or were simply unaware, but failure to even bow before a statue of a Primal could result in death in other places.”
I jerked in shock.
“While I do not relish the idea of wreaking the kind of havoc a war among Primals would cause, war seemed, as I said, inevitable.”
“Until me?” Weight settled on my chest, and I forced myself to take a deep, even breath. “Your plan. You think it will avoid a war if it works?”
“My plan will work,” he corrected. “Once I have the embers, Kolis will be stripped of his glory as the King of Gods. That alone will weaken him, but it might not be enough to entomb him. He won’t go down easily. He will fight.”
“And the other Primals?” I could now see the damage the draken had left behind in the Red Woods. Empty areas where trees once rose to the sky. “What will they do?”
“Some may opt to remain neutral.” My lips peeled back. “That’s bullshit.”
Nyktos chuckled at my curse. “It is, but Kolis will have his loyalists. Not just his gods but Courts that have been able to rule with little to no order, able to do whatever they want to whomever they want, with their only concern being that of avoiding Kolis’s ire. Primals who enjoy the way it is now and would not like to return to how it was when my father ruled.”
“And how did your father rule?”
“That was before my time. But from what I know, it was with fairness.
He wasn’t without flaw, but he would not allow what happens in Dalos.” Honestly, did it matter how his father ruled, as long as it wasn’t like
Kolis did? “But there will be Primals who would fight against him? Who would help?”
“I have my supporters. None that have armies such as mine or Kolis’s, but stripping Kolis of his title as King of Gods and rising as the true Primal of Life may be enough to sway others to abandon Kolis,” he said. “How much destruction is caused will depend on how many Primals are swayed.”
My grip on the pommel tightened. “There are a lot of possibilities there. No guarantees that the plan will weaken Kolis enough or cause other Primals to abandon him.”
“There are never any guarantees,” he said quietly.
He was right, and that made me think of the strange prophecy. “What Penellaphe saw in her vision? She made it seem like Kolis had gone to sleep.”
“Or was entombed.”
I nodded. “But it also sounded like he woke up again.”
“Prophecies are only possibilities,” Nyktos replied. “Parts of them may or may not come to pass. They, too, are no guarantee.”
But I wanted guarantees when the lives of hundreds of thousands were at stake. And there was only one I could think of.
Me.
I could prevent a war among the Primals, but Nyktos’s plan could go wrong. There could be enough Primals swayed that Kolis could be defeated without war, and I could fulfill my destiny, but not in the way Holland had inferred.
I noticed that Gala had slowed, and we were steadily creeping closer to where the Red Woods and Dying Woods converged. A few moments later,
we left the road.
“Are the Pillars within the Red Woods?” I asked.
“No.” Nyktos led the mare through the trees. “I want to show you something.”
Curious, I fell quiet as we traveled on, under Ehthawn’s large shadow. I couldn’t help but wonder what the woods would look like in the sun. How rich would the leaves appear? How stunning? Once the Rot was vanquished, the sun would return to the Shadowlands, and I decided in that moment, without hesitation, that I would be here to see that.
Excitement built, but there was more to what I felt. The breath I took was unrestricted, deep and lifting. No threat of panic making it feel brittle or like it wasn’t enough, but there was a shivering sensation along the back of my skull and a whipping motion in my stomach and chest. It reminded me of removing a too-tight bodice. A release even more tantalizing than what I felt in Nyktos’s arms accompanied the excitement over deciding something as simple as wanting to see the leaves of a tree under the sun. But it was my decision.
My choice.
No one else’s. Not my mother’s or an ancestor’s. Not Nyktos’s. Not even Fate’s. All mine.
“Here,” Nyktos said quietly, drawing me from my thoughts.
I started to look back at him, but he caught my chin. The charge of energy caused the embers in my chest to warm. He directed my gaze down, past the glistening gray bark to the dry, gray grass—
I gasped.
A vine had sprouted from the dead soil at the base of a blood tree. Deep green and fragile, it wound its way up the bottom of the trunk. Tiny buds were scattered along the length of the vine, but one had blossomed.
It was half the size of my hand, petals the color of moonlight, folded up and closed in, revealing only a thin strip of crimson. It was what I’d seen Nyktos going into the Red Woods to check on before.
“The poppies,” I whispered. “The poisonous, temperamental poppies that remind you of me.”
“The powerful, beautiful poppies that also remind me of hope,” Nyktos replied, his thumb smoothing under my lower lip before returning to my hip. “Those poppies are the hope of life. The power of those embers. Proof that life cannot be defeated, not even in death.”
 |
Nektas was waiting on the road just outside the Rise, cloaked and seated astride a chestnut steed. He greeted us with a nod, and then we continued on. I didn’t know if I should feel relieved that the journey had been eventless or worried because it had been too calm. Eventually, as the three of us rode under Ehthawn’s shadow, the woods on either side of the road gave way to flat, barren land.
“What used to be here?” I asked.
“Lakes,” Nyktos said. “Just like on the road into the Shadowlands.
There were lakes on both sides.”
“Far deeper ones, though,” Nektas added. “And they were the color of polished sapphires.”
“Sounds beautiful,” I murmured as Nyktos’s thumb moved on my hip again. Even through the cloak and pants, I could feel him tracing the same slow, straight lines that he’d drawn on my thigh in his office as he spoke to Attes. It was utterly distracting in the most pleasant way, and it also felt… intimate. I liked it.
“Will they return once the Rot is gone?” I asked.
“I really don’t know,” Nyktos said, shifting the reins to his other hand. “The rivers that used to feed the lakes and streams here stopped flowing into the Shadowlands. It’s possible that once the Rot is gone, they will once again feed these areas.”
I started to ask exactly how the rivers had stopped flowing into the Shadowlands, but I noticed that the sky ahead had started to change color— a gradual shift to iron-gray brushed with faint traces of pink.
“We’re nearing the Pillars,” Nyktos explained, noting where my attention had gone. “And the Abyss. What you see is smoke from the fires darkening the sky and changing the color.”
Realizing what the fires could be, I stiffened. “The pits?”
Nektas glanced over at us, a wry twist to his lips. “They never stop burning.”
The Pits of Endless Flames were where souls that had committed the most atrocious crime were sentenced—some for an eternity.
And that’s where Tavius was.
A rather twisted smile tugged at my lips. And maybe I should’ve felt disturbed by that, but I didn’t.
We rode on, seeing no other signs of life. Then the land began a gentle climb, and the stars slowly dimmed until they could no longer be seen, now hidden behind…clouds—something I hadn’t seen in the Shadowlands. But these clouds were entirely too low to the ground, reminding me of when storms festered and grew out over the Stroud Sea. I sat straighter, squinting as Gala neighed softly. The embers in my chest vibrated, causing my skin to tingle.
What I was seeing wasn’t clouds.
It was mist, thick and heavy, obscuring the land and the sky, leaving only the road visible. I looked down, seeing tendrils of it seeping onto the road, but I knew this wasn’t normal. It was the essence of the Primals, and the longer I stared into it, the more I could make out darker clumps within. Forms. There were shapes inside it—bodies—drifting slowly. My head snapped to the side as I looked past Nektas to the other side of the road. There were shapes there, too.
I drew back against Nyktos’s chest. “What’s in the mist?”
“The souls of the recently deceased.” His arm tightened around me. “They’re waiting to enter the Pillars.”
Staring into the mist, I lifted my hand to the center of my chest where the embers continued to hum and spread warmth through my midsection. There had to be hundreds inside the mist.
“You okay?” Nyktos asked quietly, dipping his head to mine.
I nodded as I squeezed my hand into a fist. My palms were beginning to warm. “The embers are kind of vibrating like they do right before I use them.”
“The embers of life are responding to the souls.” Nektas drew his horse closer to ours as the mist steadily crept closer, narrowing the road. “When Eythos was the Primal of Life, he always found it difficult to be near the Pillars—close to death in such high numbers. It…wore on him.”
Realizing that Nyktos was listening as closely as I was, I lowered my fist to my lap.
“He once told me it was hard to ignore the pull—the instinct to intervene.” Nektas turned his gaze to the sky. “He knew death was a way of life. A part of the cycle that must continue uninterrupted. But it saddened
him, especially here. He couldn’t see their souls like his brother could—like Nyktos now can—but he knew each of their names. Knew their lives, no matter how short or long. The ones who lived the briefest troubled him the most.”
My gaze drifted back to the souls shrouded in mist. I figured that Eythos’s ability to know the lives of those who had died was like the names of those who’d died coming to his son to be written in the Book of the Dead. He simply knew, and I was grateful that I didn’t know anything about the souls in the mist. That the embers weren’t that strong in me. Ignoring the urge to use them was hard enough.
“Can they see us?” I asked.
“No. They cannot see or hear us. They cannot see each other,” Nyktos told me.
My chest became heavy. “That sounds…lonely.”
“It’s for only a brief time, one they will not remember once they pass through the Pillars.” Nyktos reached down, placing his hand over mine. The contact startled me, and I looked up at him. “Does it wear on you?” His voice was low. “The need to use the embers?”
“No.” I looked ahead.
“Liar,” he whispered, and I swore the arm around me tightened even further.
“Eythos couldn’t be near the Pillars longer than a few minutes. If that,” Nektas continued after a minute. “He would have to leave, knowing it was the only way to stop himself from using the embers. And yet, you are able to remain within their presence.”
I glanced at the draken. “I only have two embers. He was the Primal of Life. It probably doesn’t affect me as much as it did him.”
Nektas’s crimson gaze settled on me. “You carry two Primal embers in you. That is more than enough to feel the same impact as he did.”
“He speaks the truth,” Nyktos confirmed.
“How can that be possible when I don’t know anything about the souls in the mist?”
“Have you tried?”
My brows furrowed. I hadn’t, but I also hadn’t tried to use the embers.
They just sort of did their thing whenever someone was dying or injured.
“You’re stronger than you realize, meyaah Liessa.” Nektas smirked as I shot him a glare.
“The embers, you mean,” I corrected him.
“He didn’t misspeak.” Nyktos’s thumb swept back and forth. “He speaks of you. Not the embers.”
I fell quiet as we continued the climb, a little relieved to know that the urge I felt to use the embers wasn’t due to my inability to control myself. And also a bit disorientated to think that I would somehow have a better handle on them than Eythos. Both Nyktos and Nektas had to be mistaken, but Nektas’s question echoed, and I found myself staring into the mist, focusing on one of the shapes. Seconds ticked by, and I…I thought the form became clearer. A head and shoulders became unmistakable. The shroud seemed to fade around the soul as the embers pulsed—
Sucking in a short breath, I quickly faced forward. Heart thumping unsteadily, I decided that I didn’t need to know if I was capable of naming the dead or seeing their lives. There was no point when the embers would soon be in Nyktos.
But the embers continued to throb.
 |
The mist had pulled back from the road and sky, widening and spilling out over the land. Even more souls were here, but I didn’t dare look too closely into the mist.
Nektas’s chin jerked up, and I followed his gaze to see Ehthawn veer off to our left, his long wings cutting through the faint tendrils of mist.
I watched until I could no longer see him. “Where’s he going?”
“He must be checking something out,” Nyktos answered as Nektas sent him a quick glance. We crested the hill just then, the stars returned, and the Pillars came into view.
They, like everything in the Shadowlands, were made of shadowstone. Two deep black columns rose from the mist, positioned several yards apart, and they stretched so high into the now-violet-laced iron sky, I couldn’t see where they ended or if they even did. There appeared to be markings on them, similar to the ones I’d seen in the Shadow Temple. A circle with a vertical line through it. As we began to descend the hill, my attention shifted below.
The road ahead split, becoming a crossroads. The crossroads weren’t empty. Three waited on horseback. All were cloaked and hooded, wearing white. Each horse was also shrouded in the same pale color. Their cloaks and shrouds rippled gently around them, but there was no breeze.
And the horses weren’t exactly normal either.
What I could see of them beneath their shrouds reminded me of the Shades—little more than skeleton and tendon.
“That’s really unsettling,” I whispered.
Nyktos gave a rough chuckle. “That they are.” “What are they?”
“They are Polemus, Peinea, and Loimus,” Nektas answered. I frowned. “Those’re their names?”
“Well, they’re more of an embodiment of who they are than actual names,” Nyktos shared. “It’s Primal language.”
“And they are…” Nektas said, shrugging as he glanced at Nyktos. “Well, I suppose you could call them riders.”
My brows inched up as Nyktos snorted. “Of what?” I asked, definitely creeped out. Other than their shrouds, none of them had moved. Not even an inch.
“Of the end,” Nyktos said, and I stiffened. “Their names mean war, pestilence, and hunger. And when they ride, they bring about the end to wherever they travel because death always follows them.”
“What the fuck?” I whispered, my eyes widening as we neared the three riders.
Nyktos laughed again, the sound rumbling against my back, and I was so glad that he found this amusing. “Luckily, they can only be summoned by the true Primal of Life.”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Luckily.”
The three riders lifted their heads as we slowed and then stopped before them. I couldn’t see anything within their hooded cloaks, and I didn’t want to. I didn’t need to be haunted by whatever nightmare surely existed inside.
Then the horses moved, lowering their shrouded heads as each bent one front leg. They and the riders bowed.
“Huh,” Nektas murmured, his head cocked. “Haven’t seen that happen in a while.”
I glanced back at Nyktos. He stared at the riders, his eyes slightly wide and luminous. Taut, pale lines bracketed his mouth. “I’ve never seen them
do that.” He blinked several times, and some of the brightness faded as he looked down at me, clearing his throat. “The entrance to the Vale is only a few feet to our right.”
I saw absolutely nothing but swirling, silvery-white mist.
“I cannot go farther in that direction,” he said as his hand left my hip and his arm loosened around me.
I turned as Nektas rode in front of the riders, who had returned to their eerily still positions. Nyktos swung off Gala’s back. He unstrapped the two short swords he’d brought with him and secured them to Gala’s side. “Just in case.” Then he passed the reins to me, but his hand remained folded over mine.
Dark silver eyes locked onto mine, and I felt that same sweeping motion in my chest and stomach as he said, “She’s very important to me, Nektas.”
“I know,” the draken responded.
I thought that was a strange thing for Nyktos to say, but he’d said that I was very important. To him. Not the embers. Me. And maybe that was why I blurted out what I did.
“I want to be your Consort, Nyktos.”
The moment those words left my mouth, I was this close to diving headfirst beneath the riders’ shrouds. My lips parted, but no air was getting into my lungs. My heart had stopped. The entire realm had stopped as I stared down at Nyktos.
What in the hell was wrong with me? Had I not decided to keep my big mouth shut?
Nyktos was completely still as he looked up at me. Seconds passed, and in that time, I felt the blood draining rapidly from my face before flooding back. My chest started to squeeze and ache.
He moved, lifting his other hand to my cheek. “Breathe,” he whispered. I sucked in air, shaking.
His thumb drew that line over my chin, just below my lip, and my heart was beating too fast for someone who was sitting. Because the way he stared at me, the wisps of eather beginning to spread out from behind his pupils, it felt like…more. Which I knew was impossible, yet…
He lifted the hand he held to his mouth and pressed a kiss against my knuckles. Then, slowly, he turned it over and pressed another kiss to my
palm. He never took those now-heated, quicksilver eyes off me. “I’ll be waiting for you, liessa.”
