Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
LYRA
“Last one,” I murmured, gripping the rowan splinter carefully between my thumb and forefinger and withdrawing it from Kaden’s wing.
He hissed as the shard slid loose, and I rubbed my thumb over the small hurt.
The membrane was red and angry looking where the splinter had been embedded, but the other places where I’d removed bits of those wretched stakes had already begun to heal.
Kaden’s wings sagged onto the mattress as the tension drained from his body, and I found myself mesmerized by the way the early-morning light shone through the thin, dark membrane.
“Beautiful,” I murmured, gently caressing the velvety skin and admiring the patchwork of small white scars that stood out on his wing. With the light behind him, the membrane seemed to glow, and it was so soft.
Absently, I traced my thumb along the outer ridge where his wing met his back, and Kaden’s whole body went taut.
“Lyra . . .” he growled, though it was a different sound than the one he’d made when I’d had to push a particularly stubborn splinter through his skin.
He sounded almost . . .
My whole body heated when I remembered what an intimate act it was to touch a male’s wings. According to Kaden, his wings were just as sensitive as another part of his anatomy. But I’d been so focused on removing the splinters that I hadn’t considered how his body might react.
“Sorry,” I said, quickly withdrawing my hand and feeling like a fool. Kaden had barely touched me last night after his little declaration. He clearly wanted to keep some physical distance between us, and here I was fondling his wing.
“Don’t be sorry,” he rasped, the muscles in his neck clenching with self-restraint.
Throat suddenly dry, I leaned to one side to get a better look at his face. Kaden’s eyes were closed, his jaw tight, and his hands were fisted at his sides.
“It feels . . .” His throat bobbed as he swallowed, and he let out a moan of frustration. “Let’s just say that if you keep touching me like that, I’m going to have you out of your clothes in about five seconds flat.”
I sucked in a gasp, my thighs clenching as I imagined Kaden losing control and ravishing me right here, right now.
“Stop thinking,” he gritted out, though his tone was laced with amusement.
I tensed. Could he feel my desire through our bond?
My face burned, though my core ached with need. I longed to reach out and touch him again — to run my finger under the sensitive ridge of sinew and make this powerful male come undone.
But Kaden had made his intentions clear, and provoking him wouldn’t be right. So I rose to my feet, sheathed my dagger, and climbed down the ladder.
“Glad to see you two finally made up,” said Sorsha when I appeared on the stairs. “Here.” She tossed me a small linen pouch, which smelled strongly of the contraceptive herbal tea Kaden had made for me after our first night together at the Forest House. “You should probably take that.”
She waggled her eyebrows in a knowing fashion, and I didn’t bother to tell her I didn’t need it. Not yet.
I was also too relieved to feel embarrassed. Kaden’s mind might not have been his own, but he was still mine.
Adriel didn’t say a word, though I thought I caught a glimpse of a smirk as he lifted his mug to his lips.
Despite the awkward way Kaden had banished them the night before, the mood was lighter than it had been in days. Sorsha had some sausages hissing in a pan over the fire, and I found I was suddenly ravenous.
Despite my rumbling belly, breakfast would have to wait. Sorsha and Adriel had risked their lives to rescue Kaden, and he’d agreed they deserved to know the truth.
“Let’s go outside,” I said, jerking my head toward the door.
Adriel and Sorsha followed me out of the cottage, pulling on coats and moth-eaten furs to stave off the damp chill.
In a rush, I relayed everything Kaden had told me. How Velisara had opened the sire bond; the reason he had kept his distance since we’d rescued him from Dorthus; why he could not trust himself fully.
When I finished, all traces of smug amusement had faded from Adriel’s face. His mouth was set in a grim line, and his chaotic hazel eyes seemed to burn with fury. “Gods, that explains it,” he muttered, raking a hand through his messy locks.
Sorsha’s cheeks were stained with tears, but she merely shook her head.
“How do we break it?” I asked, looking from one to the other. “This connection between him and Semphrys.”
“I don’t know,” Adriel growled. “I’m not sure it’s even possible.”
My heart sank. There had to be a way. I couldn’t accept the alternative.
“It isn’t like your connection,” Adriel continued.
“A mating bond must be accepted by both parties and solidified through intimacy. A sire bond, like the one between Kaden and Semphrys, is rare. I’ve never even heard of a demon siring offspring.
It isn’t supposed to be possible. The link between Kaden and his father was likely formed at conception. ”
I let out a huff of frustration.
“But when I kill Semphrys, surely that will sever the bond between them.”
The demon king might not have been mortal in the traditional sense, but surely he could not torment Kaden in death.
“If it doesn’t kill Kaden in the process,” the royal guard amended.
Fresh horror unfurled in my gut, but I shoved that possibility aside. It had started to drizzle, an icy rain soaking through my thin linen shirt and chilling me to the bone.
“There has to be a way to break the connection,” I muttered, wrapping my arms around myself to stave off the cold.
“If there is, it might be a matter of bargaining with the Three.”
“We can’t go to the Great Oak,” said Sorsha quietly. “Kaden knew of our plan to return. If he knows, then there’s a chance Semphrys knows as well.”
A low growl rumbled up Adriel’s chest, and he dragged his hand through his hair. I took that to mean he agreed.
“Then we’ll have to change the plan,” I said. “Do what he least expects.”
“We still don’t know how to restore Morta’s hands,” Sorsha added. “It seems like the sort of thing only a god could do.”
I frowned, turning her comment over in my mind. Something Kaden had said to me when we’d left Klod?sch drifted to the surface, and I turned to Adriel. “Kaden once told me that when his mother created you, she beseeched the old gods to give you life.”
The royal guard nodded, his expression wary, and I hoped I hadn’t offended him. Adriel was a Morkahlf — a child made, not born. According to Kaden, Queen Elowynn had formed Adriel from an ancient gold and green clay found along the banks of the Adraeis River to be a companion for her son.
“Kaden said she used an old, forgotten magic. H-how did she do it?”
“I don’t know,” Adriel murmured, looking pensive and a little sad. “Elowynn never told me the details of how I came to be.”
“She was Drathen nobility before she became queen, wasn’t she?” I asked Sorsha.
The princess nodded.
“Where would she have learned that kind of magic?”
“From someone old enough to remember it,” said Adriel.
“It would have been someone she trusted,” Sorsha murmured.
“Worshipping the old gods is . . . Well, it’s considered sacrilege.
They are not fae deities, and they do not usually concern themselves with the affairs of faeries or mortals.
They are the gods of the forest and the earth, the four winds and the sea.
If people learned the queen of Anvalyn — the Drathen queen, no less — was worshipping the old gods .
. .” Sorsha shook her head. “In any case, it wasn’t something she would have told just anyone. ”
“What about Fione?” I asked, remembering the nymph who had served the royal family at the Forest House. “Kaden told me he’s known her since he was a youngling.”
Adriel’s eyes widened. “She would have been around when Elowynn decided to call me into existence.”
A strange feeling skittered down my spine.
Though Kaden had told me how his best friend had come to be, this was the first time I’d truly considered the implications.
Adriel had never been born — had never been an infant.
Because he’d been formed as a youngling when Kaden was one, the royal guard had no memories of early childhood.
The thought made my chest ache.
“Then it’s settled,” I said. “The Forest House is the last place Kaden or his father would expect us to go. We’ll make our way there and talk to Fione. Maybe she will have the answers we need.”
Despite the flicker of hope in my chest that Fione would be able to help us, my heart felt heavy as we departed the safe house.
Kaden hadn’t touched me since I’d tended to his wings, and he’d carefully kept his distance from the others so he wouldn’t overhear any information that might prove dangerous in his father’s hands.
His shoulders were tense as we embarked, and I caught a flicker of darkness in his gaze as Adriel scooped me into his arms.
It had been Kaden’s idea for the others to fly me, since he didn’t trust himself not to hurt me. Although I knew it was for my safety, it felt wrong being in another male’s arms while my mate flew a short distance behind.
The only silver lining was that Sorsha seemed to have recovered from her vikkarni bite, and I didn’t dare broach the topic again.
The princess was also regaining control of her magic, albeit slowly.
She had successfully summoned her wings on the first try, and her joy was palpable as she flitted ahead, periodically darting in and out of the clouds and swooping down below.
The air grew colder as we ascended, and flakes of snow began to pepper our faces as we entered a swath of clouds. The safe house had provided thick, fur-lined leathers, boots, and weapons, though our clothes did little to shield us from the chill.