Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Clay
When the pain cleared enough that all that remained was a fog over my thoughts, I struggled up to my knees, panting and wiping a hand across my sweat-soaked brow. Even the beast inside me quivered as if he, too, struggled to regain his balance after being tortured so thoroughly.
“You...” My voice faded out as I pushed myself to turn towards Ayanna, the small movement taking far too much of my strength.
She had dropped to her knees beside me, bowing her head and pressing a single hand to her heart. With her head dipped so low, I couldn’t quite make out her facial expression, but what I saw was relaxed and... reverent.
The air shifted around us, that oppressive force of power that had radiated out of Thea retreating, and taking with it the burning heat of the flames. I looked to her, heart catching as I tilted my head back.
The fire had completely engulfed her, burning away all of her garments, but rather than searing her skin, it seemed to burn out of her.
Flames of blinding white and sparkling silver, shimmering against her pearlescent skin.
She floated above us, feet dangling two feet above the ground.
That beautiful hair was weightless around her, an unnatural golden shine shimmering all around it.
“Dear Gods,” I whispered, the words falling out of me.
“Not Gods,” Ayanna corrected, her head still bowed respectfully. “Goddess.”
I stared at her. I watched her stare at Thea.
And I realized she wasn’t a traitor at all.
No, there was no mistaking the devotion in her features or the wide-eyed veneration. Ayanna hadn’t betrayed us. She had just stopped me from interfering with whatever Thea had needed to go through on her own.
Ayanna might be the first of Thea’s true worshippers.
With her eyes still completely white and glossed over, Thea lowered to the ground, and I lurched to my feet, catching her as she touched down and instantly stumbled.
She thrashed in my arms, blinking wildly as her head darted from side to side.
“Where am I?" she demanded. “Where am I?”
“Shh,” I brushed her hair out of her face, helping her find her footing before tearing the shirt off my back to slide it over her naked form. “It’s okay. We’re in the cavern. It’s over.”
She shook her head insistently, eyes wide with fear. “No. No, it’s not.”
I slid her arms into my shirt sleeves as she continued to make sense of her new surroundings. The tunic only reached to about her mid-thigh, leaving her legs bare. Even her boots had burned away.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered, more to herself than to me.
Her scent was stronger than it had been in ages, the floral aroma almost overpowering. So overpowering in fact that I didn’t even have to question if the Forging had worked. I could almost smell the unrestrained magic rolling over us.
I took her hand in mine.
“Let’s go,” I suggested. “We’ll get you more clothes back at the compound.”
Thea glanced down at her bare legs, as if she hadn’t even realized the lack of garments at all, and gave a dismissive shake of her head, pulling her hand from mine with urgency.
“Clay!”
My brows lowered into a frown as I stepped towards her, holding the back of her neck. “What’s wrong?”
Wide blue eyes stared into mine with undeniable terror. Her fingers grasped my wrist so tightly that it was distracting.
“They’re under attack.” Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and I felt her pulse pounding insistently under my fingertips. “They’re going to die if we don’t help them.”
My gut dropped. I no longer needed explanations for the ways of the Gods. There were some things I would never understand—like how Thea could know that with such certainty—but I just had to trust in them.
And above all, I trusted her.
“Let’s go.”
Ayanna darted up from her bowed position, grasping Thea’s forearm. “Your Holiness!”
A snarl tore out of me as I pulled Thea behind me in an instant, shielding her with my body as Ayanna held up both of her hands in surrender. No fear flashed across her eyes, but she bowed her head in submission.
“What is it?” Thea demanded, her voice sounding clearer and more grounded every time she spoke.
“Where is your weapon?”
Time stilled. Thea stumbled backwards, looking around us wildly, as my jaw clenched.
No weapon. How was that possible?
Thea spun in a circle, eyes mapping over the cramped, cavernous space.
“No, no, no.” She lifted her hands to her head. “Where is it? I did the Forging! I saw the blade!”
My breath was coming in quick, desperate pants. The dragon inside me stirred to life, this time not in anger, but in response to the rush of anxiety that now poured through my veins.
We’d started the ritual, and she’d completed the Forging correctly, but we’d been wrong about one very important detail.
I reached out, running my hands over her shoulder. “This isn’t the seat of your power.”
Her eyes met mine, that same dawn of realization against her features. Her lips pressed tightly together.
“If we don’t help the rebels, they will die.” There wasn’t a hint of doubt in her words.
“We can’t allow anyone else to get their hands on that weapon, though,” I finished her thought, hating what needed to happen next.
History had a sick way of repeating itself, it seemed.
Her head tilted to the side, and she reached for me, taking my face in her hands and forcing her lips against mine.
It was a burning kiss, a push and pull that said more than we ever could with our words. I gripped her tunic in my hands, holding her tightly against me.
“Hyrax will be with his forces,” she reasoned. “I can get the sword and be back in an instant.”
I nodded. “You will come back.”
This would differ from last time. She had her powers now, and they were stronger than ever before. She was going to get her Godly weapon and return to me, not choose to stay there.
I would not lose her.
“You need to be a king,” she whispered against me, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth.
“And you need to be a Goddess,” I agreed, even as my heart felt as if it were splitting in two.
Still, this would be different. This was a decision we were both making. This was not a separation forced upon us, but a shared choice we were equally making as rulers of our people.
I needed to go lead my army, just as much as I needed to trust that she could protect herself.
Behind me, the air shifted, a rush of blinding light and magic surging to life.
The roar of battle sounded out from the portal she opened.
Over my shoulder, her eyes flicked to it and back, that momentary fear in her face enough to tell me that we were running out of time.
There would be no drawn out goodbyes. I needed to leave now.
Ayanna cleared her throat once before bowing her head at Thea. “Upon your leave?”
“Go,” Thea ordered, and Ayanna quickly jumped through the portal, still clutching that book to her chest.
“Is that an order for me, too?” I joked half-heartedly.
She gave me a lopsided grin, her fingers playing with the hair at the nape of my neck. “Would you listen if it were?”
I sighed, humor fading away as I kissed her again, savoring her taste, her smell, her. “I am, and always have been, yours to command, Theadora.”
My words sent a shudder racing through her, and for a single moment we stared at each other.
But then, with one final press of her lips to mine, she backed away, a second portal opening behind her.
“Save our friends,” she ordered.
“Come back to me,” I echoed. “I love you.”
Thea’s face lit up, happiness briefly bursting through the terror and urgency. I memorized that grin, held it close to me as my skin began rippling and preparing to shift into my beast form.
“And I you,” she promised.
And then we each stepped through our portals—her being whisked away to the remains of the castle and me soaring into the chaos of war.