Chapter 27 Sacrifice #2
I opened my eyes to see her looking at the mark on my ribcage. “A birthmark.”
A knot formed between her brows. She shook her head without speaking, her mood turning—souring—and I hated that.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up at me. “Of course.” Her hand traveled higher until she toyed with one of my braids hanging over her.
I didn’t want to hurt her. She wasn’t a virgin, but I wasn’t a small man in any sense of the meaning. I wanted her to take the reins, but only within her comfort zone.
I stood, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. “I want you on top.” I turned to unbutton my pants, pausing when I heard her sharp inhale.
“What happened?”
I buttoned my jeans and turned to her. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Your back.” Seeing my confusion, she specified, “The scars.”
My brows lowered. “You’ve seen it.” I already told her about the scar along my lower back. Few knew the story, but I’d felt compelled to share it with her.
“No, higher than that.”
I stepped into her bathroom, angled the handheld mirror she passed me over my shoulder, and froze at the sight greeting me.
Two jagged scars marked my shoulder blades.
“They look fresh,” she said. “Did you get hurt before you came here?”
No.
In fact, we hadn’t gone to battle for some time prior to the events that brought us here. It had been a long time since I’d sustained an injury capable of scarring.
The most disturbing thing was how the scars marked the exact place my wings formed.
As soon as I told Ezra what happened, he wasted no time calling Zeke and Cyn, leaving on foot without a word to anyone.
The implication behind my scars settled heavy in my stomach, ruining my appetite, so I followed him. I couldn’t sit idle and speculate. I needed to know, and I knew he did too.
It didn’t take long to find a place as far from human eyes as possible.
Once we reached a quiet clearing in the forest near Rae’s home where the sounds of traffic died and birdsong carried through the trees, Ezra stopped and stripped his shirt off without hesitation.
I cursed behind him, seeing the same damning marks on his shoulder blades.
“What the fuck are you two doing out here?” Cyn called out, crossing the grass to us with Zeke on his heels. “What happened to your back?”
“That’s why we came out here,” I said, pulling my shirt up my back to reveal my own scars.
Cyn and Zeke shared a look before Zeke turned, letting Cyn pull up his shirt. “Son of a… Check me.” He turned, allowing Zeke to do the same. They both bore the same scars.
“Right now, we don’t know anything.” I looked at Ezra. I knew as much as he did that this revelation meant something none of us wanted to face.
Zeke wrung his hands and started pacing as Cyn flicked his tongue piercing against his teeth, and I settled on a large rock protruding from the ground.
Turning away from us, Ezra moved a few feet away.
I tried to relax while he did his thing, inhaling the forest’s smells and the underlying, unique smell of approaching rain, but I couldn’t.
After several minutes I felt the familiar stirring of Ezra’s magic brush my skin.
Zeke’s voice broke my concentration. “Why isn’t he doing anything?”
“Shh,” I admonished. “Can’t you feel it? He’s trying.”
Ezra’s shoulders dropped at my words. He knew I could feel his power leak into the air, but judging by his reaction, he couldn’t call on his wings. The realization settled like lead in my stomach.
Cyn cursed and spun around, heading for the forest when Ezra turned to look at us, expression shuttered. “I’m going to kill her.”
“Cyn, no!” Zeke grabbed his arm, hauling him to a stop. “It’s not her fault.”
He shrugged Zeke’s arm off. “Then whose fault is it?”
“Kalthea,” Ezra said, getting dressed.
Cyn’s scowl deepened. “What?”
“We didn’t use a tiisra stone to cross Kalthea.” I ran my hand over my beard. “If we weren’t in control of how we crossed from the infernal plane to this one—or what sacrifice we offered—then Kalthea made the choice for us.”
Cyn’s lip curled. “And I’m not supposed to hold her responsible for this shit?”
“No.” Ezra buttoned his shirt at the wrist. A bead of sweat trailed down his temple, and I wondered if his shadows were giving him a hard time.
He’d told me they didn’t like Cyn’s volatility toward Rae but didn’t elaborate.
“While I believe she summoned us here, you can’t act rash and harm her when she may be our only key to getting home.
If we can’t get home, we can’t get help reversing the magic that took our wings. ”
Zeke slumped onto the rock next to me, his eyes glassy. “Can it be reversed?”
“I can’t say, but we have a better chance of finding a strong vallant to help us in Niemna than on our own here.”
“Maybe there’s something in the book about it,” Zeke offered, rubbing his eyes hard.
While the book hadn’t provided any leads on how to return home, maybe it could give us insight on how to get our wings back. I doubted it. No matter how many times I read over the pages, I found nothing I understood. None of the guys recognized the languages.
I wondered if our inability to read the script was another manipulation keeping us bound to Earth.