42
Raiden
Raiden blinked rapidly, his fists clenching so hard he drew blood. Kora had been wrapped around him, her scent enthralling him so completely his body cried for violence towards whoever interrupted them.
A hound barrelled past, breaking Raiden’s trance as its drool splashed against the cherry hardwood floor, one of its tails flicking Raiden’s legs as it shoved its face into Kora’s lap.
Her gasp returned Raiden to reality as an unfamiliar male followed, his striking blue eyes and black hair a contrast to the female at his side.
Her honeyed locks and orange irises caused Raiden to still, and he sensed power lurking beneath.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” the male yelled, and a growl ripped from Raiden’s throat as the Huntress’ eyes narrowed on the male.
“Me? I was looking for you until you disappeared. I thought you were dead,” Kora spoke with familiarity, and it was enough for common sense to ricochet back into Raiden’s mind. He rubbed his forehead, blinking away the primal haze that’d consumed him.
“You had your clan hunt me down!” Kora stood, brushing the hound’s head as she squared up to the mystery male. He did what?
The male froze. “How do you know that?”
“John, she discovered the clan back at the tavern. Digs told me as much.” The fiery female rolled her eyes. “Not exactly the most secret hiding place.”
“The doors are enchanted,” he hissed back. “We can choose who we let in.”
“Well, she still managed to get in and nearly destroyed the tavern whilst doing it.”
“John? Circe?” Raiden whipped his head to Skylar as she approached. John’s eyes widened as he dropped to his knees, pulling Circe down with him, causing her to grumble.
“Your Highness,” John spoke with reverence, and Raiden’s attention shifted to his sister. Skylar waved him off, helping him to his feet. “I haven’t seen you in over ten years.”
“Skylar . . .” Raiden stepped forward. “What’s going on?”
“You know each other?” Kora followed. Her chest visibly heaved, her brow furrowing as those astute eyes flicked between them.
What in Haizea was going on?
Skylar sighed in response, absentmindedly touching the scar on her forehead before puffing her chest.
“I took matters into my own hands before the Mist,” Skylar said quietly, yet her voice echoed in the empty arena. “Barron’s advance was too great, and we needed allies everywhere. In case . . . in case we failed.”
“The Mist was a freak accident,” Raiden replied, confusion clouding his thoughts. The way Skylar’s hooded eyes glanced away, her lips thinning made his gut twist. “There was no way we could’ve prepared for what happened.”
“Perhaps,” she dragged the word out. “But Barron was strategic. I can’t explain it, Rai, I just knew we were going to fail. That our efforts would be for naught. I reached out, using my gift, across the islands. Seeking those who opposed him.”
“You created the clan,” Kora interrupted. Her eyes wide like saucers, her face pale, and she took a step back. “The Skytors. It’s in the name.”
“Aye, and we gladly serve,” John added, anger radiating from him so much, it thickened the atmosphere. “Without us, far more would be dead. We’ve sheltered hundreds of mages and humans alike, away from the corruption of the empire. We’ve become our own army. We continued what Galen couldn’t.”
The last words stung and Raiden internally flinched, pushing down the large wave of memories in revolving darkness, the fear of being trapped once again.
Kora glanced at him curiously, and he internally probed, seeking that thread between them, wondering whether he’d just sent that fear down the bond.
“But you,” John bared his sharp teeth at Kora. “What happened to my husband? Is Finlay truly dead?”
Raiden stumbled in time with Kora, their synchronicity increasing each day, as her breathing quickened, her hands trembling.
He distantly recalled the snap of a sailor’s neck, as he’d begged Kora to save him before he’d choked to death.
The death in his eyes haunted her, and even now, she sucked in a breath that he suspected disguised a whimper.
“He was murdered,” Kora lifted her chin. “Blake betrayed me, setting two pirate captives loose, knowing Finlay was a spy. They killed dozens.”
“Blake Marwood,” John audibly snarled, his fists clenched. “I’ll kill him. He stole my entire life from me! My ayterni!”
“Get in line,” Aryn snorted.
“You were in the tavern.” Circe’s scowl landed on Aryn, her bloodied finger raised. Death and destruction caked the two of them. How had they even gotten here?
“I was on the wrong side of the Mist,” Aryn replied bluntly.
Circe exhaled, the fire in her eyes banking as she placed a hand on John’s arm.
“Lies!” a familiar voice wheezed.
Raiden turned as Hector limped into the arena, clutching a blood-soaked cloth to one eye.
His striped coat was torn and splattered with blood.
Dirt crusted every finger, every pore, matting his scraggly hair.
Leto supported him on one side and Mara soared into the arena, her grey feathers pristine as she settled into the overhead obstacle course.
“Pirates aren’t murderers!” Hector yelled as they approached. “She’s feedin’ ye lies again!”
“I saw it, Hector,” Raiden murmured. “Finlay’s death is true.”
“Ye visions cannot be trusted.” Hector spat blood onto the training ring floor as he halted at its edge.
The splotches of red joined old stains on the white mats.
Decades of training had been held in this room, and it would be a crime to wash away the blood of those who gave their lives for both wars. “Ye care for this monster.”
“Never doubt my brother’s power,” Skylar retaliated. “If Rai saw it, then it’s true.”
Hector’s single eye snapped to Skylar and she glared back at him, daring him to piss her off. “Thanks for the heads up, Your Highness,” he sneered. “If we’d known about your little secret, countless more lives could’ve been saved.”
Skylar’s lips pressed together, causing a drop of blood to ooze from the cut. “I had only known John a few months before the Mist. How could I have known that they survived? That they had grown in numbers? Gods, I’m not fucking psychic, Hector.”
Kora’s brow furrowed so deep as she wondered. “The pirates from Cannon’s ship didn’t know about the Skytors?” Her irises swirled and Raiden drifted closer to her.
“I didn’t tell anyone,” Skylar sighed. “What was the point when we’d no idea if the world existed anymore? I thought it was just false hope, to think we had allies across the lands.”
“Finlay joined us only a few years ago,” John added, his woeful stare piercing all of them. Even Raiden grimaced, despite not knowing his late husband. “The pirates wouldn’t have known. We didn’t know either, about your other alliance.”
“No! Cannon’s crew were the most loyal of them all!” Hector roared, every second he spent in Kora’s presence vexing him further. Leto cringed, his body also dishevelled, his black locks hanging limp around his face.
“What happened to you?” Raiden asked.
“Ambushed,” Hector’s stare narrowed. “I bet it was her. Ye sent a hawk didn’t ye? I saw it!”
Kora gasped. “I want the empire to fall just as much as you do!”
“Convenient for ye now, isn’t it?” Hector drivelled.
“The empire knew exactly where our next scouting touchpoint was. We’d gotten as far as Achlys Channel, ready to collect refugees.
They’d attacked just as we were leavin’.
We lost them in the Dead Islands, and raced back as fast as the wind could carry us. ”
Cries echoed from the castle, hordes of bodies limping past the entrance of the arena.
Sirona’s blonde hair flashed between, her team of healers guiding them to the infirmary.
Kora’s eyes shuttered, and the faintest hint of devastation swirled in Raiden’s mind before fading as quickly as it appeared.
“You have a rat,” she replied.
“No shit,” John muttered. Leto’s green and purple eyes flared, his grip on Hector weakening.
“Traitor,” Mara squawked.
“Impossible,” Skylar scoffed. “They could’ve been trapped here with us for ten years.”
“Aye, or it’s someone new,” Hector sneered at Kora.
“Give it a rest,” Raiden sighed. “Go get cleaned up. We’ll reconvene at sundown.”
The pirate lords limped from the arena, Hector’s grumbles echoing off the walls as Skylar gestured for John and Circe to follow her.
Aryn hesitated, his fingers curling at his sides, nodding to Kora before following Skylar.
Raiden faced her, noticing the tremble in her body, and the fact the hound remained at her side, its eyes pinned on Raiden’s every moment.
“They hunted you?” he asked simply, his tone level.
“I killed a lot of people. And a lot of people died because of me.” Her reply was vacant, as though she’d seen a ghost. “I don’t deserve anything.
Not even the concern in your eyes.” Her back snapped straight, and she strolled past Raiden, her shoulder a hair-width’s away from his own, causing a jolt of energy to shoot down his spine.
“Then show them you mean to make it right.”