Chapter 21
ISLA
Shouts and gasps of awe, shock, and confusion echoed throughout the room, a backdrop to the roar of fire. Isla had narrowly avoided being singed by the blaze when Kai had shielded her, stepping them back and slipping onto the steps behind them.
An electric current surged through her blood, her entire body pulsing with energy, with… power.
With her breathing ragged and her bloodied hand soaking the fabric of Kai’s shirt, Isla peered up from where she had buried her face in his neck, wincing at the bright spots in her vision.
Wincing at how loud the world was. In a way she hadn’t experienced in nearly a month, but also in a way that was more.
Looking at Kai right then felt like looking at a god.
Striking and untouchable, the fire cast a dark reflection on the bends of his crown, the shadows dancing over his face, darkening his eyes that gleamed with the flame they looked upon.
She turned her head, unable to see beyond the fiery plume that stretched so tremendously it nearly brushed the high ceilings. It was beautiful, ferocious, and daunting. The crystals embedded in the walls around them seemed to quiver with a resonant lunar aura that could’ve only been divine.
“This didn’t happen last time. To my parents or me,” Kai muttered, and Isla met his gaze, a simmering red beneath his irises. Suddenly, his breath caught, his jaw dropping as his eyes locked on hers.
Isla gripped him tighter. “What?”
Kai cupped her cheek, his gaze glossing over as he fought a too-wide grin. The aura of his wolf overpowered her senses, dominating the room, and the mysterious power within him seemed to caress her bones with phantom hands, considering her in a way it never had before.
“Your eyes,” he whispered in wonder, in disbelief.
Isla blinked. “My eyes?”
Kai tilted his head to the side, and Isla followed to where the ivory marble of the altar had been so polished that she could see a blurred version of herself, her eyes now illuminated a deep shade of violet.
“Oh, Goddess.” The words fell on a breath, a near-choked sob.
She closed and opened them again. And again. Still, the color remained.
This was… real.
Tears sprouted too fast, and for a moment, she ignored everything else around her. With her eyes finally alight, her lumerosi burning, she had to see, to know. She tried to shift.
Her back arched, but not from the pain of her wolf taking hold, but from the agony of being dunked in an icy lake, her wolf trapped behind a patch of frigid darkness, like the bars of a cage of her own making.
“No,” she panted, her features twisting. “No, please.”
Kai placed his fingers beneath her chin, turning her head to him. “Give it time.” His throat bobbed, and his jaw tightened as she still glowed and burned. “You’re incredible.”
The rasp in his voice, the simplest truth of all this, washed away any disappointment Isla had felt.
She leaned forward, thankful for the altar that shielded them from the crowd, and for the fire that still burned, though it began to dwindle. “You’re not alone anymore.” She brought her hand up to his face. “Never again.”
“Never again,” Kai echoed, and the kiss they shared, the small sound she’d made as his lips moved along hers, as his essence dug into her skin, was less than chaste.
They weren’t in that throne room anymore.
They were somewhere else—somewhere more extraordinary and above the world—within themselves, crafted by darkness and cut through by burning light.
Eternal, ever-present, and powerful enough to rattle the realms if they wished.
The flames had ebbed to a steady smolder by the time they broke from their embrace, and when they rose, Kai offered Isla a hand while the room beheld them with reverence. Maybe even fear, puzzlement. Even the elders and priestesses looked surprised.
So, blood spawning a bonfire mustn’t have been common at all.
Isla watched the elders smother the basin, leaving nothing but blood and ashes behind.
Then, Kai’s hand left hers as he stepped back and up to the step just below the dais.
Isla remained where she was as a new priestess emerged from the antechamber.
The back of her eyes stung as she beheld what lay in her hands.
A crown crafted of silver and obsidian gemstones, as magnificent as the one Kai wore, sat on a velvet pillow.
Hers.
The final piece. The last adornment.
Isla bit back against another rush of tears.
The priestess ceased her steps a foot from Isla, bowed to her, and then shifted to offer the High Elder the crown as he stood at Isla’s back.
“May the goddesses take witness,” the High Elder proclaimed.
“May the wolves of the north, south, east, and west take witness. May the beings beyond hear this call.” He reached for the crown, holding it firmly between his spiderweb-veined hands, and leveled it above her head.
“Isla of Deimos, do you swear to give your life, body, blood, and soul to this kingdom and its people?”
Isla swallowed, her gaze fluttering to the crowd where she found her family. The boys were still smiling, maybe even glassy-eyed, and her father…
Her spine locked up.
The only way she could describe how he looked was distressed, as though someone had him pressed against a wall with a knife to his throat. As if he hadn’t truly grasped the reality of this coronation until the oath.
Isla of Deimos.
Their stares met and held, as they had throughout her life.
With every word of wisdom, every expression of affection, every admonishment.
They may have fought and disagreed, and she may have felt lost, trapped, and misunderstood, but she never questioned how much he loved her.
Never questioned that he was her greatest supporter.
She was his fighter, his little warrior.
Especially after her mother had… gone away.
She should’ve been there beside him. Her next words were her first step in rectifying the hell Cassius had put her family through.
“That is my vow,” Isla said, her voice echoing off the chamber’s wall. Steady. Certain. She pushed her shoulders back and kept her head high. “From this breath until my very last. I promise to nurture, protect, and guide Deimos and its people, my people, with all that I am and could become.”
“Then let it be so.”
Isla’s breath caught as the crown lowered onto her head, settling heavier than she’d expected it to be.
The High Elder stepped away from her, tucking his hands in the sleeves of his robe. “It is my honor to present Her Majesty, Luna Isla of Deimos. Long may she reign.”
“Long may she reign,” the words echoed back, and Isla found the rest of her family in the crowd—Davina wiping her eyes, a now-guard-uniform-clad Rhydian beside her with an arm over her shoulders, and a surprisingly smiling Ameera and Jonah. Their eyes drifted from her to the man behind her.
Isla turned to Kai, who waited on the final step before the dais. The dimples in his cheeks were visible despite his attempts to hide his grin. He subtly knocked his head to the side, possibly even tugged at the bond, urging her to hurry up.
Isla took hold of her dress to keep it out of her way as she ascended the steps. Her hand, the wound still fresh, slid into his, and together, they took the final step.
Isla didn’t look at her throne, though. Or him. Her gaze drew up to the goddesses etched into the stone, stopping on Fate, the beautiful deity with a thread woven between her hands.
That tapping was back again. The pounding on her skull. But Isla brushed it away and allowed Kai to guide her to sit.
She turned, facing the spectators, and lowered onto the thin, cold cushion, the high back making her feel so small. With her hands braced on each metal arm, Isla watched as Kai hesitated, giving the crowd a chance to appreciate her, it seemed, before he took his place.
Isla’s joy bubbled into a laugh as the cheering began, then a chant of her name, and more calls for a long reign. With cheeks hurting, she twisted to Kai, who seemed only to see her. Then the choir began and was joined by an orchestra somewhere beyond the walls.
As the world beheld the Alpha and Luna of Deimos.