63. Raea
Raea
I wake before sunrise to Ryker kissing his way down my spine. I’m so tired, but in that delicious, thoroughly shattered way. I groan, rolling over to face him.
“Any more fantasies you have before we leave this room? There are still a few surfaces untouched, and I believe that tub will provide some excellent angles.”
I chuckle sleepily, kissing him. “I have another idea,” I whisper against his mouth. “I want to watch the sunrise with you. It’s been too long. There’s a trail that takes us to the top of the waterfall.”
He smiles against my mouth. “That would require clothes.”
I hum, nodding as I roll on top of him. His cock twitches against my thigh.
I lean down, kissing him deeply, my hair creating a curtain around us.
The scent of the waterfall mixed with the lingering scent of our mingled desires fills me with contentment.
Ryker attempts to adjust me over him when I pull away, hopping off the bed with a giggle.
“Get dressed and stop distracting me.”
He lifts to his elbows, the sheet draped across his shins, leaving his whole body on display as his lips pull into a smirk. “I believe you were the one doing the distracting, Princess. Insatiable, are we?”
I roll my eyes but don’t bother to hide my smile. “Don’t make me miss the sunrise, Prince.”
The halls are silent save for a few servants preparing for the day ahead. We remain silent, Ryker tense and alert beside me until we leave the estate.
He looks around, studying the grounds, his concentration on something. His emotions ripple with unease, sharp and restless, and I don’t know why. Maybe he’s worried we shouldn’t be sneaking out?
“What’s wrong?” I ask, leading him through the gardens.
Lush green plants and flowering bushes that I don’t have names for are thoughtfully planted in a design I can’t make out, though I’m sure if I were to stand on one of the balconies overhead, I’d be able to see it.
Ryker wraps a protective arm around my waist. “Where are all the guards?”
I look around, back toward the estate, then around the small village center where life happens. I shrug. It’s not like there were many here to begin with. Maybe one or two. I assumed they were for Lady Serathiel. “Why would she need guards at night? Maybe they’re sleeping.”
Ryker shakes his head. “Every place we’ve visited has at least two guards stationed.”
I run a hand across his back. “We’ll be okay, Ryker. It’s not a big deal.”
Dawn is quickly approaching, so I hurry my steps, taking his hand in mine as I lead the way to that trail I spotted yesterday. I had seen someone hiking up it, so I know it’s doable.
Letting my Elven instincts and smaller magic take over, I’m able to find the path easily enough and then summon a small flame to hover in front of us to light the way. I smile at how easy it feels to use these smaller, basic instincts.
Very quickly, I realize how steep the path is and how sore I am. I asked him not to hold back. I asked him to be rough, to make me beg. I never paused to consider that it was another test. Another part of me, of him, that needed to be exposed to each other, shared with each other.
My legs burn with every step up.
Ryker slips his hand into mine as he coos, “Sore, Princess?”
I would shove him if I had the energy. “Yes. Finn worked me hard yesterday.” I last about half a second before I can’t hide my smile, so I look away instead.
Ryker pauses, turning to stand in front of me. “Oh really?” he says, amusement lacing his words. “It has nothing to do with that standing position with your leg pushed up against the wall beside you? Or maybe it was that position where you were hanging—”
I shove my hand over his mouth, silencing him. “Shh…” I whisper, looking around. He smiles beneath my palm. My eyes narrow before I can’t fight the giggle. “I hate you.”
He shoves his hands into his pockets beside me. “I beg to differ, Soraea.” He chuckles. “I distinctly remember you telling me just hours ago how much you love me. How much you love the feel of my hard cock inside of you.”
“Arrogant bastard,” I mutter, but then pause my steps.
“Fine, yes. You made me sore probably from every position.” I take another step until our bodies are pressed together.
I tilt my head back to meet his gaze. “And yes,” I say with a sweet smile spreading across my face.
“I love this cock.” My palm runs over him through his pants, where he’s still sporting a semi.
How? No clue. I’m drained, but the Fae male anatomy and drive match the rest of him.
He shudders beneath my hand, and I grin, pulling away. “Keep up, Prince.”
He curses behind me before catching up in two strides. The world feels quiet, save for the rush of the waterfall. I’d think animals would begin waking by now, but then again, I’m not usually up this early. The last time I was up before dawn was when we were home.
I used to run before dawn. Pushing my human body to its limits made me feel alive. It’s something I need to get back to.
Off to the side of the trail, I see something move in my peripheral. A leopard. It looks identical to the one I saw that day back when I jumped off the cliff. The one that watched me fall. The same animal I had played with in The Drift. The little fuzzy cub. But this one isn’t a cub.
It tilts its head, studying me.
“Ry,” I say mind to mind. “Don’t be obvious, but do you see that cat looking animal?”
He bends down, kissing the side of my head in what I can only assume is his way of not being obvious. I swear the cat’s eyes lighten in amusement.
“Don’t see anything, love.” Ryker stands, wrapping an arm around me.
I blink, and it blinks back. I’m about to head that way when it vanishes.
Gods. I must really be tired. I’m imagining things again. We reach the top with minutes to spare. From up here, we can see over the tops of the trees. Before us is an endless, dense forest.
In the distance, I swear I can see an ocean with a small village on the edge.
Ryker moves behind me, pulling my back to his front as he wraps me in his warmth.
The scent of salt and citrus and sandalwood mingled with sex and masculinity fills some part of me as I rest my head back against his chest.
The first hint of pink softens the light of the horizon.
Another day. Maybe we can do this. Whatever lies ahead, we can tackle this together.
Once the Aethermark Bond is complete and all the runes are in place, we’ll be able to have the conversation of what our next steps are. I know that’s what they’re waiting for.
Ryker tenses behind me, releasing me as we both turn. The light in the sky is brightening with every minute, so I know I’m not tired or imagining anything when I look upon her face.
My face.
The sunrise should be pink and gold, but where Morana stands, the light dies.
She is a void in the shape of my sister, shadows coiling around her ankles like oily snakes.
“Hello, sister,” she purrs, and the sound is the slide of a blade against bone.
She looks at Ryker not with love, but with the hunger of a collector eyeing a prize.
My magic fumbles, my daggers stuttering into existence only to be snuffed out by the weight of her malice.
“Morana,” I breathe.
She’s dressed in black leggings with some sort of chains and a form-fitting black T-shirt. Her silvery-ash colored hair absorbs the light, making it disappear. Shadows swirl at her hands, wrapping around her and the mist crawling on the rock floor.
My stomach drops. I reach for that starlight, envisioning my blade being fashioned, but shadows wrap around me before I can even uncurl my fingers. I am thrown into darkness as Morana clicks her tongue.
“None of that, Soraea. It’s not nice.”
Not nice? I have some choice words for her, but my lungs constrict when the shadows pull away, revealing Ryker fighting a rope of shadow that is wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his body. Another band is wrapped around his mouth.
Overhead, the sky darkens, clouds rolling in thick and heavy. “Well, this is interesting,” she says, punctuating each word. She steps closer to Ryker, her sultry gaze roaming over him.
“Don’t…touch…him,” I grind out, fighting the shadows that are trying to wrap around my mouth.
She ignores me. “My, my,” she coos, running a sharp black fingernail across his chest, down his right bicep, and over the three runes. “Well, isn’t this just delicious?” she says with glee. “Oh, this is so much better.”
She looks up at the sky as fat raindrops fall. When I look up at Ryker, he’s glaring at Morana. Wind stirs around us.
“Well, you wouldn’t happen to know this, but I absolutely despise the wind.
It makes my hair a complete mess, and well, my shadows don’t like it either.
” She says it like they’re alive. “I guess I’ll make this quick.
Surrender to me now, and this silly game we’re playing can stop.
You can go back to your pathetic human life, though I guess it won’t be much of a life now that you’ve awoken…
no matter.” She gestures like it isn’t a big deal.
I tug at the spot in my chest, waiting for it to spread through me. Light.
“Or—” She pauses. “Actually, I think I’ll play just a little longer. Just to make sure you understand, sister.” She somehow curses the word. “I am power, and I will not share the throne. Soon, I will be the one every subject bows to.”
She steps closer to me, her face turning down in disgust. “Pathetic,” she spits.
My magic fills my fingertips, the shadows retreating as my light pours from my skin. When I look up at Morana, she says in that awful musical voice that haunts my dreams, “Bye, sister.” Morana grins as ice slides down my back.
I lunge, my starlight blade singing as it cuts through the dawn, my other hand reaches out, but my fingers close on empty air. The shadows rip away, answering to her call, taking Ryker with them.
The world folds, and the Mating Bond doesn’t just go cold—it fractures. Not broken, not gone, but violently disrupted, like a tether dragged through shadow and ice. Pain detonates through me as the connection collapses inward, severed from my reach, buried beneath something dark and foreign.
I reach across the void, screaming into the mind-link, but the shimmering blue of his soul is lost to me.
There is only the flat, echoing silence of the abyss.
Or worse—an echo where something should be.
A hollow space where his presence used to answer mine.
My heart screams against the sudden vacuum, the pressure building until I am certain my chest will cave in.
His last words—I love you—echo in my mind. Inside, my soul is grasping for its other half.
I hit the rock hard, my knees cracking against the damp soil. I can’t breathe. The sun—the beautiful sunrise we hiked for—bleeds over the horizon, painting the land in the exact shade of the blood I saw on Kuron. It mocks me.
"Ryker!" I scream his name over and over. “Ryker! Ryker!”
The name shreds my throat.
Hands seize my shoulders. Finn. Trysten. Kellan. Their faces are blurs of color—green and brown and worried hazel eyes. Kellan’s touch, once my sanctuary, now feels like static. He isn't him.
The despair in my gut hits a floor and hardens. It turns into the ruinous will the prophecy warned of.
I push out of their hold, my breathing leveling into a rhythmic, predatory thrum. I don't look at them. I look at the space where my mate was ripped into the air.
“Gone,” I say. My voice hollow and empty, but before—moments, minutes, hours—I had never felt so hopeful. “She took him.” The words break out of me as hot tears run thick streams down my face.
Distantly, I hear their gasps. Finn barking orders to someone. I hear his name being spread through the village, but my mind is still replaying those last moments. I hesitated. I took too long. It’s my fault. I knew what she was capable of, and I hesitated.
In the place where my hope used to live is now hollow, and in that hollowness, a cold sort of fire builds. The kind capable of wiping out entire star systems.
I dig my nails into my scalp, the starfire beneath my skin no longer a burden, a distant magic I’m unsure how to use.
No, it’s no longer a bystander as I watch someone I love once again, ripped from my hands.
It’s not a magic waiting to be crafted, but a weapon itself.
The Primordials have always known, it was me who needed to catch up.
I stumble to my feet. I’m going to kill her. I’m going to wipe her from memory. Kellan tries to stop me, his words disappearing into the void in my mind.
“Help me, or get out of my way,” I bark at them, the starlight in my eyes turning to molten gold. “I am going to burn her world to ash,” I whisper as the air ignites around me. “And I will start with the stars themselves until I have him back.”