21. Raithe
Raithe
Her smile had left me awestruck.
For all intents and purposes, she was being abducted. She shouldn’t have been smiling.
Still, the look of wonderment in her eyes reminded me of the first time I ever flew on Cobalt twelve years ago: exhilarating, freeing, completely out of control.
Cobalt was born and bred for flying, but there were fleeting airborne moments where I thought the same for myself.
“You really can’t say why your seer wants me?” Rahzlyn asked an hour into the flight.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I said, peeling a lock of her hair that incessantly whipped against my mouth.
We both would. The only logical reason Gregorios—or rather Gemini—sent me to find the woman situated between my thighs was because she was an apostate, confirmed by the fresh brand on the bottom of her foot.
It had to be. “What exactly was your plan to seduce the king?”
I steered Cobalt through a mountain of clouds toward the arch back to Scorpio. The sky brightened. Sunrise loomed on the horizon. We still had a long flight ahead of us, and she didn’t strike me as the type of woman who preferred quiet solitude like I did.
Rahzlyn craned her neck, causing her cheek to graze my nose. I stiffened, our proximity unsettling. “It wasn’t my plan. I was tricked into doing it for my brother.”
I had no intention of returning for him. If the Black Rose’s family needed protecting, Gregorios would have specified. Guilt sank its claws into me as I recalled how her hopeful eyes had brightened as we shook hands.
Rahzlyn peered down. “That’s the Barrier, isn’t it?”
We coasted low enough in the skies but still at a safe distance from the tufts of ominous clouds that spanned the entire realm. “Cobalt knows to steer clear of it.”
“Smart animal,” she murmured. “It’s greener than I remembered. More eerie.”
“You’ve been this close before?”
“Years ago, when Basil and I visited a client with our grandmother. It was a small isle owned by a noble. I remember it so vividly.”
I usually had little patience, or desire, to hear such mundane details about another.
I didn’t bother to interrupt her though.
I was… intrigued enough by her nostalgic tone to want to listen.
In case she revealed apostai intelligence, of course.
If she were smart, she wouldn’t share anything with her captor that could be exploited against her.
“We were children and curious about everything. Especially the tales our grandfather told of creatures that lurked below. Harpies, chimeras, lamias, giants… everything scary that would deter us from venturing too close. That only enticed me more. To prove I was wrong—that no such creatures existed—Basil dared me closer to the edge. So close that I ended up tumbling right over. Fortunately, the isle had netting that encased the perimeter. Even though I was fine, I don’t think Basil ever forgave himself for that. ”
Even with the wind rushing past us, the tenderness in her voice was unmistakable. I was met with an alarming—and unwanted—pang of envy; I didn’t understand the familial bond she spoke of.
Is there no one in your life you would need to speak to?
There never was, and there never would be, anyone to worry for me. Having personal ties to another only got in the way of duty. Rahzlyn’s desire to protect her family—if true—was not my problem.
Clearing her throat, she said, “Anyway, Scorpio’s quite far. Won’t your beast tire?”
“That’s what arches are for.”
“Arches?”
“Magic doors, so to speak.”
“What—”
I pointed ahead. “You can’t see it, but the wind combined with the water condensed inside that cloud allows for an arch to exist there.
They can only be found where two elements meet, though they’re rare and difficult to find.
The Astrals placed them strategically throughout the realm for Chosens to utilize. ”
“I’m not a Chosen though,” Rahzlyn said. “How—”
Cobalt jerked upright, silencing Rahzlyn with a squeal.
Her wings flapped with exertion and lifted us higher toward the arch.
No guards patrolled the area presently. Daylight made it harder for me to spot the translucent glimmer that floated in the middle of a stationary cloud.
It remained frozen in the sky despite the winds that carried other tufts around it.
I nudged Cobalt’s ribs, urging her to level out and coast. “My talisman will get us through.”
“But skin—”
“Arches are different, as are talismans when using them. Skin contact isn’t required.
” Thank the stars, because if I touched her skin with mine willingly—without a barrier, like gloves—it would grant her the ability to remove my banded topaz ring from my finger.
Like fuck was I granting that kind of power to anyone, let alone an apostate.
The tailwinds of Gemini surged us through the shimmering archway. Once in Scorpio on the other side, we drifted out of the cloud permanently stationed like the one we’d flown through in Gemini. None of our guards patrolled this area either.
“How strange,” Rahzlyn muttered. “Did we travel through time too?”
In the blink of an eye, we’d gone from bright daylight to a midnight blue, starry-filled sky. “It’s still night here in Scorpio. We are thousands of miles southeast from where we were in Gemini.”
Cobalt’s rapid pace evened out as a result of the calmer Scorpion skies. Unlike in Gemini, the only clouds in sight were the ones in which the arch resided behind us, and the Barrier far below us.
“Ow,” Rahzlyn hissed suddenly. She raised her black-sleeved arm.
“Just because there’s no wind doesn’t mean you should let go,” I said, securing the reins. “Hands back on her mane.”
She ignored me, studying both arms now. “I didn’t realize Scorpio was so hot.”
“It’s not.” The air was crisp and dry. “Our winter just started.”
“Then why do my arms feel like they’re burning?”
Before I could respond, her body jerked forward. I gripped her hips to keep her from sliding. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“My—” She broke off in a scream. “My body, it’s on fire!”
Her head lolled against my chest. Foam seeped from her lips as she thrashed violently. Gripping her cheeks, I tilted her face to the side to prevent choking. From the way her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her limbs seized, I knew she was no longer fully conscious.
Cobalt’s head craned to get a look at what was happening on her back. “Faster, Cobalt. Take us home!”
Even through my gloves, Rahzlyn burned. With one arm steeled around her body, I lifted her sleeves to examine her arms. Glistening dark liquid coated her skin.
Blood.
I tilted her face back up to me. Thin gashes down her neck and chest formed like an invisible hand with an invisible blade were carving into her flesh. They flashed a myriad of colors as though her body illuminated from within.
Marking her. Claiming her before my very eyes.
There was only one explanation for the mystical markings that branded her body. One phenomenon that would trigger such a violent, miraculous effect on a body.
I’d experienced it myself when I was eighteen.
The Choosing.
A chill ghosted my skin as I imagined an Astral—Scorpio—with us now, carving celestial markings onto Rahzlyn’s skin. Branding her as a vessel for Scorpio’s power.
No Chosen could be glyphed outside of their own territory. Rahzlyn may have lived in Gemini—perhaps under the protection of a travel stone—but for her to be Chosen while in the borders of Scorpio meant she herself was Scorpion.
Unless Gregorios or Felaf were dead, which my intuition knew not to be true, there was only one vacant Chosen position in Scorpio.
In our history, there had never been more than one Chosen selected for a given position in the span of twelve months. With Cyrene’s death, another princess wasn’t supposed to be Chosen for another ten months.
It couldn’t possibly be this woman, an apostate.
For thousands of years, pretenders had feigned the act of being Chosen. The Choosing demanded raw, unfiltered pain like nothing else. My eyes and ears did not deceive me. This was real.
Cobalt raced back to the palace, detecting the sudden urgency.
Rahzlyn’s limbs finally stilled. Scorpio was gone, having left a bloody mess in her wake. We were still at least an hour from the palace, and Rahzlyn was far from in the clear.
Once the Choosing began, every fleeting second was critical.
The process cut into the skin so deep that only the blood of the court’s other Chosens could awaken them from the induced state of slumber and restore some of what had been lost. She would need my blood, as well as blood from Felaf and Gregorios.
Sometimes, though, Blood Healing was done too late.