Chapter 13
Aimee
The Temple of the Desert God is a blackened cave, devoid of any adornments or light. Its suffocating emptiness engulfs me as I cross the gates and step into the vast space, still holding Killian’s wrist.
Kahlya and Celine are in front of us, bowing deeply to nothing in particular. I wonder for a fleeting second if we should pay our respects in the same way, before an ancient, gravelly voice wraps around my mind like thickened honey.
“Omri…” the husky voice whispers in my head, “it really is you.”
My pulse quickens as my body freezes in shock. I already know whose voice I’m hearing. Somehow, a part of my soul knows him, just like it knew Killian.
“K’haram.”
The thought floats from my consciousness to his as he blinks his eyes open, and I get lost in the most predatory viridescent gaze I’ve ever encountered.
“I spread my life and my worth under your feet, always, Omri.”
My fingers twitch on Killian’s wrist. I realize with a start that I know what that word means, even if I’ve never heard it before.
Omri.
The mystic way a dragon calls his soul-bonded.
“Umbra, what’s wrong?” Killian asks, panic rising in his voice. But he has nothing to fear; I know it in my bones.
“K’haram, he’s—umm, he’s talking to me. I can understand him.”
Dead silence weighs between us for a heartbeat before several things happen at once.
Kahlya and Celine whirl on the spot, eyes bulging as they take me in.
“That’s impossible,” Kahlya says in a hushed voice, awe bleeding through her words.
Killian tugs me into him, wrapping an arm around me possessively, while glaring daggers at the humans.
“What the fuck is going on here? You said we can’t hear him without your blasted drugs.”
K’haram unfurls from the shadows like a cat awoken from an afternoon nap.
“Your vampire seems as belligerent as ever,” he purrs amusedly in my mind.
“He’s not my vampire,” I respond out loud, drawing everyone’s attention back to me.
“Umbra, what is he saying?” Killian asks in my ear.
“Well, if you’d shut the fuck up, I could find out, no?”
Killian grumbles his disapproval, and I feel the rumble of his chest seep into my back.
“We should consume the Cistanchea now,” Celine says, raising the vial to her lips.
A puff of hot steam flows from K’haram’s direction as he commands, “No. I don’t want them listening to our conversation, Omri. You can translate for them.”
I shake my head at Celine.
“Don’t. He wants to speak only to me.”
“Absolutely the fuck not, Aimee,” Killian interjects, his voice frantic as he squeezes the vial in his hand.
The look etched into his onyx eyes, crinkled in worry and fear, is something I never expected to see in the Vampire King’s gaze.
“Killian, please trust me,” I whisper as I gingerly grab the vial from his fingers and let it fall to the ground together with mine.
They shatter into a million shards, the golden liquid spilling on the ground.
I intertwine my fingers with his, squeezing gently.
“I’m right here, Killian. But I’m not asking for your permission to talk to K’haram. I need to understand what’s going on.”
He sighs, the sound carrying the weight of the realm, before letting me go with a nod.
I return my gaze to the beast before us.
He emerges from the shadows, the faint flicker of light from the antechamber gliding against his obsidian scales that look like they’re made from sharpened glass.
He’s a creature of surreal predatory beauty, drenched in dangerous darkness.
Yet, his jade stare is gentle and intelligent, and I catch a glimmer of longing in the depths of his eyes.
He lowers his head to my level, revealing a crown of bluish-black horns that circle his skull, blending with the ferocious blade-like scales that go down his neck and spine, resembling a broken silhouette of deadly knives that reaches the tip of his tail.
His wings are tucked in at his sides, gleaming with shades of aquamarine and teal.
He’s truly an embodiment of dominion and ruination, yet I can’t help finding a sense of peace and belonging in his terrible appeal.
He’s a magnificent weapon of mass destruction, but as I extend my hand and caress the soft scales on the side of his powerful jaw, I don’t feel an ounce of fear in my body. Instead, a possessive thought takes shape in my brain.
Mine.
K’haram nuzzles his giant head against my palm, purring like a well-fed cat. The intimate gesture tugs at my heartstrings, my mind begging to remember a distant time when we might have shared such moments.
But nothing comes to me.
“Speak,” I urge him softly. “How do you know me? Why can I understand you when the others cannot?”
“Omri,” the dragon rumbles sorrowfully. “A soul bond can never be broken. It withstands the darkest magic, the sands of time, life and death itself.”
“So you were soul-bonded to one of my ancestors?” I ask, trying to make sense of his words.
“Your ancestors,” he repeats in a hollow tone. Pain swims in his emerald eyes before he blinks it away. “I guess you could say that, yes.”
“Who?” I ask in awe. I studied my family lineage in my formative years, as all noble Fae offspring do, even the disgraced ones, but I encountered no mention of a predecessor that shared such a powerful connection with a mythical creature.
Yet again, dragons were just a fairytale to put children to sleep until yesterday.
“I’m afraid I’m not the one who can grant you the answers you seek, Omri,” K’haram answers cryptically.
“Why not? I don’t understand. You clearly know more.”
Anxiety prickles at the edges of my brain as I force myself to remain calm. I’m so fucking tired of being kept in the dark.
Killian senses my distress and takes a step closer, resting his hand on the curve of my back. I welcome his fortifying touch, although there’s a part of me that hates how I still find solace in him after everything.
“There’s a blood oath between us, Omri, one I didn’t condone but couldn’t refuse, that forbids me to shed light on what remains buried. Only she can unravel the past.”
Trepidation grips my insides in a chokehold.
“Who are you talking about?” I ask, knowing his next answer is the key to a puzzle I’ve been trying to decipher to no avail for a while now. I half expect him to speak in riddles once again.
“Ereshkygall.”
Blood rushes to my head all at once as hidden memories reveal themselves in a cacophony of broken images and sounds.
I grip the sides of my head, whimpering in pain as I fall to my knees.
Fractured pieces of a vision dance violently behind my eyelids, and I can’t control the full-blown panic attack that engulfs my senses.
I haven’t had one in so long that it becomes harder to withstand its vicious attack. My clammy palms shake uncontrollably, and my breaths come out in disjointed waves. It feels like I’m hyperventilating and not breathing all at once.
Killian crouches next to me, touching my face gently until I look at him.
“Baby, baby, breathe. In and out, in and out, slowly.”
I try to focus on his voice as I force my lungs to work.
“That’s it, little umbra. Tell me something you can see, something you can smell, you can touch.”
“The, uhm, midnight blue shade of your raven hair.” I take unsteady gulps of air as I pour every ounce of control I have left in my body into the grounding exercise.
“Your iron-laden scent.” It breaks my heart a little that he remembers the tricks that help me recover my mind from my demon’s clutches.
“The feel of the cold sand under my knees. The sound of K’haram’s scales brushing against the cave walls. ”
My breathing is returning to normal, and the dispersed puzzle pieces in my mind have formed a complete picture. I vividly remember my vision from when I gained my powers.
The Gods.
The prophecy.
Ereshkygall telling me to find her. To bring Killian.
“What the fuck did you do to her, you overweight lizard? I’ll rip your scales off one by one, do you hear me?”
Kahlya’s gasp bounces off the cavernous walls just as K’haram bares his monstrous fangs, a rising wave of heat coming from his scaly throat.
Did Killian just ensure we’ll die a gruesome death by dragon fire?
I hold my breath and close my eyes, facing the inevitability of my demise, but no purging flames emerge. Instead, a loud cackle, like a thousand brass bells clanging together, fills the cave. I wince in pain, my ears straining at thunderous dragon laughter.
On second thought, maybe death would have been better.
“Charming like a dirty claw. Some things never change, I see,” K’haram says between cackles. “But also fiercely loyal. That I can respect.”
The dragon bows his head to Killian, taking everyone by surprise.
“Are you unhinged, Vampire King?” Celine asks, recovering from her stupor. “You could have killed us all.”
“K’haram is not offended,” I interject before things can escalate further.
“Weirdly impressed, even.” I turn my gaze to Killian, who is still metaphorically throwing daggers with his eyes at the beast. “He did nothing malicious, Killian. He helped me unlock a memory I was struggling to recall. A vision I had in my comatose state after Aurora’s attack. ”
Killian frowns as he takes in my words. “What vision? You never told me this.”
“We weren’t on speaking terms back then, were we?” I ask ironically, raising my brow at him.
“Just more things you kept from me, then,” he grumbles under his breath as he lets go of me and stands.
The tentative softness between us from mere moments ago vanishes like a candle flame blown away in the wind. I’m prepared to give him an earful for being the same stubborn motherfucker as usual, when K’haram speaks again.
“Go find her, Omri. She holds all the answers you seek. It will all make sense once you both talk to Ereshkygall.”
“Where is she?”
“That I do not know. I was sent away to safety before the final moments,” he answers, guilt and shame heavy in his voice.
What crucial information does he harbor that he can’t share because of this stupid blood oath?
How are we supposed to find an ancient Goddess’ hiding place with no clues to begin with? It feels like we’re being sent on a fool’s errand while the looming threat of Morweena’s war grows ever so closer.
“And the alliance?”
“I give you my word, Omri, as my life is yours, so is the human’s allegiance. They will fight in the war. They will die to save this realm from its wretched fate. So shall I.”
I stare into his bottomless pools of jade wisdom and see no sign of treachery. Only ancient pain and loyalty. He would give his last breath for me, the soul bond avows that. I don’t fathom how or why I would ever deserve such fealty.
“Tell the humans to commence the trance ritual. I shall prepare them for the battle ahead. Their army is now yours, Omri.”
“Thank you, K’haram,” I say. I take a step closer to him and caress the side of his neck again, reveling in the velvety feel of his sable scales, smooth like a dream yet deadly like the most wicked blade if the need arises.
“After you unearth Ereshkygall, I will come join you in Wrahta. The humans will be ready to begin their journey to the continent. But I will not wait for them. My place is beside you, Omri. Always has been.”
He speaks in such a peculiar way; confusion coats my brain. But his allegiance is too precious to me, to us, for me to dwell on his oddities. There are so many aspects of this prophecy and the past that I still can’t grasp with my mind.
“How will you know when to come?” I ask.
“We are connected now, Omri. You are in my thoughts, just as I am in yours. No matter how great the distance, we shall feel each other. We will hear each other.”
I nod in understanding. “Farewell, K’haram.”
With one last look at the terrible beauty before me, I turn and address the humans.
“K’haram supports us, our cause, and vows his allegiance, and yours. He awaits you to drink your vials now. He will explain further. We will see ourselves out, as I’m afraid we have to return to Sangeries immediately.”
They silently accept my explanation with a slight bow of their heads, and I lose no time in leaving the caves, Killian hot on my heels.
“What the fuck is happening, umbra?” he asks, bewildered.
“We’re finally going to get some answers from a fucking Goddess, Killian.”