Chapter 21 #2
Petrina spun about and took Selene by the wrists, forcing her to meet her intense gaze. “Find Augustus. Find happiness. Live your lives over and over again. Have a family together. Don’t risk losing that because you’re too curious for your own good. That woman you used to be left for a reason.”
Selene shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She wanted to trust Petrina and agreed she should go. Augustus was home, and a life with him was all she would ever need.
Petrina gripped Selene’s head and brought their foreheads together. “Listen to me. This place… It isn’t going anywhere. If you must have answers, at least come prepared. Let’s get to the mainland and find help. And later, if Augustus thinks it’s a good idea, return with him. All right?”
Hadn’t that been the plan to begin with? This was her journey with Augustus. Dragging Petrina along against her will wasn’t fair. And she was right—this place wasn’t going anywhere.
Selene released a breath and nodded. “Yes. All right. Let’s go.”
They took their next step as one—
Wait.
Mother.
Selene paused, palm over the gnarled knot of a tree. If the air could form a fist, it had her by the chest. She could hardly breathe.
“What’s wrong?” Petrina asked.
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
“I don’t know. The voices. They— I feel strange.”
Petrina dragged Selene across the treacherous ground, nearly tripping every few seconds over one of the many roots.
“Eva!”
Selene spun at the man’s voice, recognition stealing through her. Her legs felt torn between running and rooting all at once. And that name… It reverberated through her ribs and spine and time itself, a hook.
Petrina scanned the forest with a tight grip on Selene’s wrist.
Wait, the forest wind said.
“Wait,” Selene whispered back.
Petrina stilled.
A man burst through the forest ahead, then came to an abrupt halt upon seeing them. His bare chest heaved on a massive inhale.
“Eva,” he said, and the leaves trembled overhead.
Selene eased forward only a step, almost desperate to follow the ache beneath her ribs, once caged and now trying to get out.
The man was physically striking. His walk fluid. He moved, and every muscle shifted with him beneath his tanned skin. The nearer he drew, the more evident the details. The sharper his features, from his strong jawline to his high cheekbones to the glint in his deep-set eyes.
A faint beard stubbled his face, and his dark brown hair was short and tousled. His mouth, full and slightly curved, lengthened with a smile almost wolfish in nature, though it was also guarded. Careful.
“Don’t come any closer,” Petrina warned.
Selene startled and blinked, and her next breath eased the burning in her lungs.
Petrina stood half in front of her, and the man on the other side peered around, his hands raised.
The first time Augustus ever looked at her, it was like being struck with knowing. He was the sea and sun and wind, and his eyes an endless blue sky and fresh earth. He was the moments before the storm.
This man was the storm that struck.
The moment after rain met ash.
Smoke curling off scorched cedar.
Earth that remembered fire.
Roman, the wind whispered.
Selene shrank at the sound, and his name slipped like a faulty noose from her tongue. “Roman.”
Petrina shot a look over her shoulder. “Do you know him?”
Roman smiled. “Of course she does.”
“No, I don’t. But…”
Selene knew his gentle hands. His kind, penetrating eyes. Knew he would put his body in front of hers.
She knew—
Nothing. She didn’t know anything. Where he’d once lived in her long memory, there was nothing but the bottom of a deep, endless ravine. And she was lost there.
Selene didn’t know when he’d gotten past Petrina’s defenses, or why she’d deemed him safe.
Only that he was there, his fingertips grazing her cheek.
Firelight on stone.
Lips promising forever.
A knife glinting in her own hand.
Selene startled, newly alert following the flashes.
“It’s okay,” Roman said, blue and brown eyes filled with unshed tears. “You’re okay.”
“I don’t know you,” she said, voice catching.
“You will, my love.”
His hand curled around hers, a lock finding its key.
And somewhere inside her, a part of her soul clicked open.
The vast emptiness of Stoneheart Hall was a rare thing to witness. Sometimes, when Kai wished to be alone—to the point of vanishing completely—this was her sanctuary. No one had a reason to be here outside clan meetings and ceremonies. The hall was cold and dark and eerie otherwise.
Atsadi’s silhouette appeared in the carved entryway and paused, backlit by torchlight.
Kai sat in the black shadows, untouched by the distant blue glow of the mountain’s bioluminescence, and watched him. Fala once referred to him as gentle beneath that tall, strong exterior.
Today, Fala flinched at the sound of his name.
“Kai?” he called into the dark.
Kai lit her lantern, providing a beacon to where she sat cross-legged in the section usually full of Silver Wolf families.
Atsadi lowered to her side, and the air filled with a familiar scent she normally associated with Fala. A healing salve with hints of sage.
“Are you hurt?” she asked.
“Why do you ask?”
“You smell of healing herbs.”
His mouth hinted at a smile. “Only tired and sore muscles. How are you? How’s Fala?”
Kai wished suddenly that the central fire pit was lit. There wasn’t much to focus on in the dark other than him, and he was the last thing she wanted to look at.
“How long do you intend to punish me?” he asked.
“Who said we were doing that?”
“We? Fala stays away from me all on her own? I thought—”
“You believe I have that much control?” A dark laugh sprang from her chest. “She has more sway over my actions than I do over hers.”
Silence pulled taut between them until he finally broke it. “I wish I knew what I’ve done wrong.”
“We saw you.” She’d thought of little else in the weeks since the clan meeting. Dozens of men had stood in this very room and called for new leadership—male leadership—but it was Atsadi her mind always went back to. “You and Usti Rising Moon are friends?”
Atsadi twisted to face her. “Is that what this is about?”
Kai started to respond—
His tattoo had changed. What had been a mere thought before the clan meeting, a promise of what it could be, was fully realized.
A pair of mountain peaks filled his chest, one to represent each of his wives.
One was sharp, rugged, and fierce. The other was smooth and round.
The river flowing between them was more than a connection, but a representation of life and sustainability.
“You added stars,” she said of the two above the mountain peaks. “You never said there’d be stars.”
He looked down, then nodded. “Stars symbolize an eternal connection and hope. Guidance.”
Much of the tattoo was in black and gray, but subtle colors had been added in places. Blue for the river and yellow for the stars.
For a breath, she forgot to be angry. She forgot the betrayal and unease. He’d carved into his skin for them—something permanent, while everything else around them shifted.
“It’s beautiful,” Kai said.
Atsadi smiled. “You know—”
The distant echo of chaotic voices reached them, and Kai burst to her feet, hand on the pommel of her sword. Atsadi angled his body before her as if prepared to face an incoming battle.
The shouts and cries mingled with calmer, questioning voices, and soon, the outer corridor filled with more firelight.
Kai released her sword. “Douse the lantern.”
As Atsadi plunged them into darkness, several matriarchs burst into the room like a storm, and a wave of torchlight and shouts crashed through the darkness.
Behind them, came females drenched with water and smudged with oil.
The two stacked diamonds on their foreheads indicated that these were Shadow Water females—they oversaw the maintenance and operations of the mountain’s pumps and aqueducts, among many other things.
“Shut the doors,” Shadi ordered, then threw a torch into the central fire pit, where a flame ignited a moment later.
“The system is failing,” one of the females cried. “What are we going to do?”
“Did anyone witness the attack?” the matriarch of Second Clan asked.
A stunned-looking Shadow Water female shook her head.
Atsadi shot Kai a wide-eyed look. His lips silently formed a question. Attack?
She put a finger to her lips. They hadn’t been noticed in the shadows yet, and Shadi would likely kick them out if she did.
“This was Usti Rising Moon,” Misae White Spirit said.
Inola Rising Moon stiffened. “We cannot know if my son had anything to do with this.”
“You would protect him even now?” Misae asked. “Many of the lower caverns are waist-deep with water, and we’re cut off from several of our mines—the pathways have become impassible.”
Inola turned to a Shadow Water female. “Is it as bad as she claims?”
“Sections of the stonework have been deliberately damaged—large cracks have splintered through the channels, and vital supports have been smashed.”
Shadi stepped forward. “The end result being?”
“A shortage of fresh drinking water,” the female began, to everyone’s dismay.
“The healing pools will dry up. We won’t be able to get water to the beasts in the upper chambers.
Key areas have flooded, and as the waters rise, we won’t be able to rescue anyone currently trapped.
If we don’t act fast, parts of the infrastructure could collapse. ”
Kai’s mind went immediately into warrior mode, and she strode into the firelight. “We need to secure the area around the aqueduct and set up further patrols to guard other vulnerable sections.”
Atsadi arrived at her side. “I can coordinate a team to assess the damaged infrastructure.”
Shadi, brows raised, silently took the two of them in. Kai knew her mother struggled between admonishment for eavesdropping and accepting their help. She also knew there was no time to deal with the former—not with their entire way of life on the line.
Shadi finally gave her assent. “Go. Speak to no one about what you have heard in this room.”
Kai and Atsadi exchanged a look, then bowed their heads to the Grand Matriarch before taking their leave.
Outside, Kai seized Atsadi’s arm. “Did you know this would happen?”
“No, Kai— Believe me or don’t, but I only wish to protect our clans. I never once believed him capable of something this devastating.”
Kai dropped her hold, suddenly cold. “You knew Usti would do something, though, didn’t you?”
His mouth drew into a thin line. “I didn’t know what or when. I’ve been trying to gain his trust, and I thought it was working.”
Kai had warriors watching Usti’s every move for weeks, but he was too good. All of them were.
“You should have reported this,” Kai said. “You should have told me.”
“Usti was already wary of my relationship with you, and to be honest, your distance lately has helped… If not for that, I never would have learned that Usti is the least of our concerns.”
Kai sank into her rear foot. “What do you mean?”
“He’s talking to someone on the outside.
Someone who has a much greater desire to see our people fall.
I’ve been trying to figure out who that is.
” Atsadi gripped her upper arms and bent closer.
“I swear on the life of my entire bloodline, once I learned a name, I had every intention of reporting them all to you.”
But he didn’t, and that was the problem.
“I thought I was helping,” he said.
“You could have helped me by telling me what you knew and trusted me to handle it. You should have left Usti and his men to us. I should report your actions to my mother—she’ll have our union annulled, and we’ll finally be rid of you.”
Atsadi drew back two steps, his mouth falling open, though no words came out.
“I will leave it to Fala to decide,” she said, “because, despite everything, she still wants to see the good in you. She wants to trust you.”
His mouth clapped shut, and he nodded. “She doesn’t trust me anymore?”
“She knows you’re Usti’s friend and his men—” The cold rage she’d felt for weeks on behalf of her wife rose once again. “His men spit on her in passing. They call her a whore and a bitch, and they push her into walls.”
A red tinge filled Atsadi’s face. “Who? Give me names.”
“I will give you nothing. They do this because you’ve let them believe they’re untouchable.
That your loyalty is to them instead of your wives.
” Kai paused, her anger deflating as she admitted the rest. “And they do this because I stood up to Usti. Fala doesn’t leave our home anymore, and that is our fault—yours and mine. ”
She had let this happen. Let Fala become a prisoner in their own home. The shame of it burned deeper than her fury.
“Tell me what I can do, Kai. I will do anything to regain her trust and yours.”
“Distance yourself from Usti and his men while I begin interrogations. Don’t get wrapped up in this any more than you already have. And if there’s a name to drag from him, I will tear it from the deepest part of his bowels if I have to.”
He nodded. “You have my word. I won’t speak to him or his people ever again.”
“If I hear one word to the contrary, Atsadi—”
“I will hand myself over to your mother’s mercy and request the annulment of our union myself.”
Kai studied him and… It was as if the bottom had dropped out as relief crashed against her. He meant every word. For Fala’s peace of mind, she hoped she wasn’t wrong.