Chapter 19
Solyrian’s effect in Straelon had made Lunara feel wild. Like she could run across the crimson sand with her arms spread wide or sprint through the dappled forests with reckless abandon.
In Thodelebor, it was cozy. So soft and warm.
Rolling hills of gold and green bathed in its rays, crops soaking up the light as they swayed in a gentle breeze.
It tempted her to curl up on a hilltop amongst the tall grass, lazy and content.
Made her feel safe. Hidden, somehow, like no one would ever be able to find her if she chose to run out into the towering wheat and live her days there.
But what she loved most about the sunstar, no matter where it shone, was that it chased away the shadows—the ones that lived inside and festered in the silent, tenebrous dark of the Evesong.
The dark isn’t the problem in Nachthelliae, though, is it?
No. It was the ‘ruled by murderers’ part she couldn’t stomach.
Sure? They weren’t really the ones who slaughtered your parents.
The memory struck like lightning. Blood and her father’s screams. Blackened claws embedded in her mother’s—
No, no, no. Ignore. It’s fine. You’re fine.
Lunara forced her mind to blank, cutting the vision off before its horror could take hold, and looked up to find the group well ahead of her.
Shite.
Shaking herself, she stifled a groan and willed her legs to work faster, glad for the distraction of movement despite her exhaustion.
The strange time difference meant they’d skipped the night hours, their trek beginning in the Westrealm’s next early morning, and the nearest portal was quite a distance from Glynmor.
More than ever, she was grateful for Nyri’s gifts of blood. The young Demon had even thought to bring her one before their departure, and Lunara had guzzled the entire thing in her nervousness. Add in the moonlight she’d been soaking up every night and…
It’s a wonder you aren’t outshining Solyrian, you eejit. The damned well is nearly full!
Exactly. The surface of her skin was crawling over itself, humming, power teeming within her. Even so, she hadn’t seen a bed in too long, and her bones knew it.
“Don’t make me come back there to prod you along, Sorcerit!” Hedda shouted, throwing a judgmental glare over her shoulder. “If I have to scout the village after sunset, I’ll make sure eggs are the only food you eat for our entire stay.”
Lunara barely resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at the barking commander.
The worn, gravel-strewn path fell with the landscape, and she let the small hill carry her body quicker, the fields of grain and wildflowers whizzing by.
Stunning, but eerily abandoned, the emptiness like a warning—
Her foot snagged a rock as one of those feelings rose up. The kind where she went still to the core, frozen in a false settling before the shift.
Shite.
Naturally, Brand chose that moment to break away from the group, dropping back beside her while she urged her heart to slow. They walked in silence, the others inching further and further away, and she realized he was matching her strides.
Merciful Sisters, she could keep him just for that.
No. No, no. Head out of your arse.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you,” he finally said, pulling a waterskin from his belt and offering it to her.
Lunara took a welcome sip to hide her nerves. The list of questions he could have ranged so widely that she wasn’t sure which possibility to panic about.
“Go on.” She handed the skin back, hoping he didn’t notice her trembling fingers.
Brand studied the leather pouch for a moment, lost in thought.
When he finally raised it to his own lips, her mind emptied, worries forgotten when the corded column of his throat bobbed with each swallow.
A bead of sweat trailed down his neck to disappear into the collar of his tunic, and she followed its path, mouth watering.
The desire to sink her fangs into him hit like a comet, and had little to do with a need to feed. Unfortunately, that particular intimacy had the potential to bring on a whole slew of complications she could not afford.
Look at you, using your brains for once.
Too bad, really, because—stars and arses—he was a fine male, and she was willing to bet he tasted as good as he looked.
Brand scrubbed a hand across his mouth, and she blinked rapidly, trying to dislodge the longing from her body.
“Caius has never mentioned my aunt’s death. Not once. One day, Meliora was there, vibrant as anything, and then...” He let out a slow breath. “Was it truly as bad as the rumors suggest?” he softly asked.
Ah.
She recalled Caius’s last words to her. “This is murky waters for me,” she admitted.
“Strictly speaking, I’m bound to no oaths or promises, but your uncle didn’t want anyone to tarnish her name.
I’m not sure what that means when it comes to her kin.
Sharing information about my healings is not something I generally do. ”
“I swear on Solyrian, it doesn’t leave my immediate family unless I find it to be a matter of absolute necessity. Safety.” He was so earnest, looking her right in the eyes.
“Are you sure you want to hear the answer?” Shite, she didn’t want to relive it, but she would. For him, she would. “I promise, you won’t like it. Some things are better left in darkness and silence, Brand.”
A little like you.
“It’s like a hole, not knowing the details,” he whispered, then stronger, “Like she just disappeared, without saying where she was going. Caius and Thad have never been the same, the rest of us left wondering and trying to come up with plausible scenarios.” His laugh was a soft and tragic sound.
“The most powerful creatures in all of Bordoroth, and we don’t know what happened to one of our own.
But here you are, and you were there, and… Yes. I need to know.”
She wanted to save him from the grisly tale, let him keep thinking whatever he liked, because—no matter what he imagined—it couldn’t be nearly as awful as the truth.
But he just kept looking at her, waiting, hope written all over his face.
Lunara closed her eyes, resigned. “It was terrible,” she admitted. “All the years I’ve lived, all my healings, I’ve never seen anything like it. Before or since.”
Memories battered against her as if they happened yesterday.
Cordelia had showed up in the dead of night, begging for help. A last-ditch effort after all the other Elders had failed. Understandable, since Lunara was the only one left among their tier whose true gift was healing.
You don’t need to think about that to tell the story.
Right.
They’d stolen to Starkeep in secret—always in secret—so she could see for herself whether there was anything to be done before forcing a move on the ailing female. One look at Meliora, and Lunara had known she was fighting against something unknown. Something impossible. But she had tried.
Sisters, how she’d tried.
They’d taken Meliora from her sick room and through the deepest shadows to the nearest portal, to Lunara’s hidden cottage. It had been too dangerous to attempt healing her in the capital, forced to hide and petrified the entire time she’d be discovered.
Lunara opened her eyes again and looked to the road ahead, to the others chatting away, blissfully unaware of the heaviness behind them. “Meliora had these black stains creeping under her skin. They were alive. It’s the only way I can describe it. And they were, well… eating her. I think.”
Brand stopped dead in his tracks, shock twisting his features. He searched her face before whispering, “Explain.”
Not a command, but a plea for her to make sense of something she couldn’t.
“The worst was around her eyes and mouth. Faint at first, but as they branched out, the skin blackened behind them. And where it turned black, it started to, um, bleed.”
She swallowed against the wretched memories.
“It was like her blood was feeding the stains. We’d watch as it was reabsorbed back into her, and the dark patches would swell and branch out further.
As they grew, the process sped up. When I finally woke her, she just screamed and screamed.
I numbed her body so she couldn’t feel it, but could still move and talk, but that was both a blessing and a curse.
While she wasn’t in pain, she couldn’t feel her mate holding her either, and I think she started to go a bit mad from it all. ”
Brand scrubbed a hand over one of his horns, back and forth, the repetitive motion one she’d noticed him do often. Not for the first time, she wondered if he even realized he did it.
“Caius witnessed his mate go through that? And Thad… Fuck. No wonder.”
She couldn’t stop her bittersweet smile.
“Thaddeus was only allowed to visit from a distance. We had no idea what we were dealing with, and his father was petrified of him getting sick as well. He and I spent a lot of time together while Caius…” Her lip trembled, an ache gathering behind her eyes.
Sisters damn the emotions betraying her.
“Caius never faltered, cared nothing for himself. He cooed and coddled. He stroked her hair and held her hand and never shied away from kisses or praising her beauty. I’d find them walking the woods, or sitting beneath the moonlight huddled together. I thought she was getting better.”
“What happened? I mean, how did she…” His words trailed off, asking the same question that had haunted her every day since.