Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
MAREINA
B ased on the look on Nakoa’s face, you’d think that I’d informed him that he’d lost a piece of cutlery, and not his soulbound— despite the bond between us burning so badly I was surprised I wasn’t spitting bile. Guilt knotted my stomach, and my heart broke further at our reality. While I fucking loved Malekai more than life itself, the soul-deep need for Nakoa was undeniable.
“I will still rule beside you in Atratus, but I have responsibilities here as well that require my presence.”
Nakoa’s black gaze gave nothing away as it remained locked on mine. “Congratulations, Mareina.”
The restrained pain in his words was enough to crush my chest.
“Thank you,” I managed weakly.
“When can I anticipate you joining me in Atratus?”
“When do you need me?”
Nakoa’s hands fisted at his sides. “As soon as possible. I am only waiting to have you beside me to have Zurie pronounce me King so that we may schedule a dual coronation as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the longer my people remain enslaved. I would also request that your consort accompany you. He is my general, after all, and I have every intention of keeping him in my employ. I do hope he hasn’t planned on abandoning his duties.”
My wariness returned, eyes narrowing. “If you think to manipulate me through him, I can promise you I will not hesitate to give you many more reasons to loathe me.”
A corner of Nakoa’s mouth tilted up in a joyless grin. “That’s the last thing I want, Mareina.”
Tension coiled tight between our silence. Unable to bear it, my eyes landed upon Rumiel. Outside of his long black hair boasting a single streak of white, the greatest difference in their appearance lay mostly in Nakoa’s more rugged and scarred appearance. Outside of the mass of muscle that I couldn’t help but notice, what with him being fucking shirtless and all, he appeared to not have a single scar or blemish.
Rumiel’s powerful yet quiet and inquisitive magic explored mine as if he were searching for something. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, I felt the visceral touch of someone brushing their fingers against the new claiming mark on my neck. A powerful shudder ran through my entire body as panic so intense swelled in my chest that I found it hard to breathe.
“Something’s wrong.”
Without any further thought, I found myself barrelling past them and out of the house. The moment I was past the threshold, my wings spread wide, giving powerful beats before launching me towards the entrance to my father’s temple.
Fuck, how did I fold before?
“Mareina, let me help you.”
I turned my head to find Nakoa and Rumiel flying hard beside me.
“Take my hands,” I shouted over the wind to both of them.
Before they had a chance to ask why, I tucked my wings in tight and reached out with my arms. In the breathless moment that I began to plummet, Nakoa and his father lashed out to grip my arms.
I focused on Malekai’s spirit, his presence, as I silently chanted his name.
Space, and the absence of light, swallowed us whole. A moment later, a hole in the fabric of the universe unfurled, and we stood in Malekai’s living room.
Malekai’s name tore from my throat at the sight of his enormous, prone form laying on the floor like a felled tree. I sank to my knees, gripping his blessedly warm flesh with my hands and shaking him to wake.
“I have to say, I’m rather impressed with your timing.”
The sound of an unfamiliar male’s deep, lilting voice had my magic spilling out of me in writhing red tendrils as I turned to face him.
Before I could speak Rumiel stepped forward, and I didn’t miss the foreboding undercurrent in the rasp of his gravelly, broken voice. “Azrael.”
“Rumiel,” Azrael grinned, eyes sliding to Nakoa and studying him in a way that made my hackles raise, “I see you’ve produced off-spring during your time off the leash.”
“If Malekai has been harmed in away?—
“He’ll wake soon enough, don’t worry… I apologise for employing such a brutish method, but I had to find some way of drawing you out of Avernus and away from the prying eyes of Zurie’s palace, .” Azrael’s gaze drifted back to Nakoa and Rumiel briefly. “Though I see that was an exercise in futility.”
My voice dropped to a growl. “Tell me why you’re here.”
For a moment, Azrael hesitated as something like nervousness shuddered his expression.
“I have two favours I implore you to grant me: I need you to open your realms, Avernus and Bellorum, to some of my denizens that have grown restless within the confines of my realms… And I need you to help me find someone.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Why would I do any of this?”
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in the matter, but if you decide to be amenable, you’ll be gaining a powerful ally.”
Nakoa, Rumiel, and I all replied at the same time.
“No.”
Azrael frowned. “It’s an inevitability. ”
“Then so is your death.”
Azrael gave a sardonic huff. “As much as I wish the solution were as simple as that, it’s not. My power is the only thing securing my realms from yours. So as tempting as death may be, it would only further enflame the situation.”
“Well then, if that’s the case, what difference does it make?”
“When the citizens of my hell realms arrive, you will want me as an ally. And I can assure you, I am not easy to kill. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
My arcanum , as Malekai had called it, burned as my magic writhed beneath the surface, desperate to be unleashed. While I may have been powerful compared to some, against someone like Azrael, it would be sheer delusion to think I could overcome him. He had been strengthening and wielding his power for time immemorial. I was a mere 120 years old, and I’d only developed a fragment of my power.
“I think you’ll have a better understanding of things if I simply show you. If you like, I’ll swear it in blood that I will return you.”
If it was a choice between going with Azrael and potentially saving my soulbound, and the entire realm, from a slow and bloody death, or not going and being forced to allow Azrael to rip a hole between our worlds... Then, there was no decision to be made.
Nakoa stepped between us. “Mareina isn’t going anywhere with you.”
Touching Nakoa for the first time since he’d rescued me sent a flood of emotion through me as I laid my hand on his chest.
“It’s ok. This is one of our many obligations as rulers, visiting other neighboring and distant kingdoms and realms. If what he says is true, this problem is just as much ours as it is his.”
Nakoa’s expression became stricken as he shook his head vehemently. “Then I will go in your stead.”
I shook my head as Azrael spoke up. “I’m afraid that’s not an option, Your Majesty.”
Azrael extended a long, elegant hand that coaxed Nakoa’s growl. “Touch her, and you’ll be missing a fucking hand.”
That little, malnourished blossom of love Nakoa had planted in the depths of my heart flourished under his protectiveness.
He would never grant me permission, and I wouldn’t allow him to come to harm so long as I was alive to prevent it. My gaze flicked to Azrael, who held my gaze knowingly as he spoke to Nakoa. “Do tell your friend that I folded his horse to Zurie’s stableboy.”
Azrael’s eyes turned the color of flames roaring to life as I folded in front of him and took his hand. Nakoa’s roar echoed in my mind as darkness coupled with gravity so powerful it knocked the air from my lungs and drove the contents of my stomach towards my oesophagus. In the next moment, my feet hit a marble floor so hard the impact reverberated through my bones and into my teeth. Azrael gripped me by my shoulders to steady me as guilt sank to the pit of my stomach.
Swallowing back bile, I shifted to take in my surroundings. My lips parted as my neck craned upwards to reach the height of the towering buildings whose spires and peaks were hidden by clouds high above. Ships and other… things … flew through the air in front of us. My breath caught on a gasp as the unmistakable form of an enormous drakonati soared above us, blotting out the sun and casting us in its shadow. Its body was at least the length of a dozen men, with a wingspan of more than double that.
“I sometimes forget what a beautiful and inspiring place Ouranissa is until I get to witness a newcomer’s expression.”
I gaped in awe as I watched its red, cream, and gold scales, all in varying shades, glitter and shine beneath the sun as if made of metal, though it undulated across currents of air like fluid defying gravity.
“They’re still alive…”
“Oh yes, we have many of them. Though it’s probably best you avoid getting near them.”
My eyes finally slid back to his as the drakonati disappeared around one of the towering spires. “Why is that?”
Azrael’s brows pinched as though I’d just ask a question with a very obvious answer until something like realization settled on his face, and he endowed me with a smug grin. “They can be rather… possessive.”
He turned on his heel and disappeared through a set of peculiar, glass balcony doors that slid open parallel to the exterior wall. “Come… Let me show you Ouranissa.”