Chapter 10 #2
The meadow was a pocket of impossible beauty nestled in a fold of the cliffs on the land side of the caves.
She hadn’t known it existed—hadn’t known that anything so soft could survive on this harsh coast. But here, protected from the wind by towering walls of stone, a carpet of purple and white flowers spread across the ground like a fallen sky.
Tall grass swayed in the gentle breeze, and somewhere nearby, a freshwater spring bubbled up from the rocks, filling the air with the clean scent of minerals and earth.
“How did you find this place?” she asked, helping Valrek spread a worn blanket across the soft ground.
“Lilani found it. She has a talent for discovering hidden things.” He shot a fond look at his daughter, who was already racing through the flowers with her arms outstretched, spinning in circles until she made herself dizzy, then turned to look at her. “In a way, she even found you.”
Her breath caught at the heat in his eyes, but she settled onto the blanket and watched the child play, her heart full of a contentment she couldn’t quite name.
He sat beside her—close, but not touching.
She was acutely aware of the heat of his body, the way his thigh was only inches from hers, and the way his hand clenched on his knee like he was fighting the urge to reach for her.
“I want to teach you both something,” he said after a moment. “A Vultor skill. If you’re willing.”
“What kind of skill?”
“Tracking.” He lifted his face to the wind, nostrils flaring. “My people hunt by scent. It’s not something humans can usually do, but you’re not fully human. And Lilani…” He shook his head. “She needs to learn. She’s half-Vultor, but she was never taught the old ways. I’ve been… remiss.”
The guilt in his voice was unmistakable. She reached out before she could stop herself, laying her hand over his.
“You’ve been surviving,” she said softly. “That’s not the same as being remiss.”
His hand turned beneath hers, and suddenly their fingers were intertwined, his claws resting gently against her wrist. The contact sent a shiver up her arm.
“You’re generous,” he said.
“I’m honest.”
“That too.”
They stayed like that for a moment, hands linked, the flowers swaying around them. Then Lilani came bounding back, breathless and grass-stained, and threw herself onto the blanket next to them.
“I’m ready! What are we doing? Papa, you said you’d teach me something. Is it fighting? Can I learn to fight?”
“Not fighting.” He reluctantly released her hand and turned to face his daughter. “Tracking. Do you remember what I told you about how Vultor warriors find their prey?”
Lilani’s face scrunched up in concentration. “With their noses?”
“Exactly. We can smell things that other species can’t. Fear. Sickness. Prey that’s hidden in the underbrush.”
“Can I smell things like that?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.” He stood, pulling Lilani up with him. “I’m going to go hide in the meadow. Close your eyes, both of you, and try to find me using only your senses. No peeking.”
“But Papa—”
“No peeking.”
Lilani threw her hands over her eyes with a dramatic sigh, and Ariella closed her eyes as well, feeling absurdly nervous.
She was a diver, not a hunter. Her senses were tuned for the water—for pressure changes and temperature shifts and the subtle vibrations of movement through the deep.
On land, she felt half-blind, stripped of the abilities that made her special.
She heard Valrek’s footsteps moving away through the grass, growing fainter until they disappeared entirely. The wind whispered through the flowers. Lilani shifted beside her, making small frustrated sounds.
“I can’t smell anything,” the child whined. “Just flowers. And… and dirt.”
“Try focusing,” she said, though she was struggling herself. The meadow was full of scents—green and growing things, the mineral tang of the spring, the faint salt carried up from the sea. But Valrek’s scent? She didn’t even know what she was looking for.
Except… she did, didn’t she? She remembered it from yesterday, pressed against him in that narrow crevice. Woodsmoke and leather and something wild, something that made her think of predators and moonlit hunts and the thrilling danger of being caught.
She tried to find that scent now, but the wind was wrong, carrying everything away from her. Frustrated, she let her awareness shift to something more familiar—not scent, but sound.
The Song rose in her throat before she consciously called for it.
It was the same ability she used for diving—a low, subsonic hum that traveled through the air the way it normally traveled through water.
It was different on land, weaker, but it was still there, still hers.
She let the sound pulse outwards, feeling it bounce off the rocks and the grass and the slender stalks of flowers.
And there—a shape in the sound. A disruption. Something big, crouched in the tall grass to the west.
She opened her eyes. “He’s over there. Behind that outcropping of rock, in the tall grass.”
Lilani’s eyes flew open. “What? How do you know?”
“I… heard him. Sort of.”
She was already moving, following the echo of her Song towards its source. The grass parted before her, and she found him crouched there with an expression of pure astonishment on his face.
“You found me by sound,” he said slowly. “Not scent.”
“My song works differently on land, but it still works.” She couldn’t help the small smile of pride that curved her lips. “I told you—I was born for the water. But that doesn’t mean I’m useless on land.”
Something shifted in his expression. Something hungry. Before she could react, he was on his feet, closing the distance between them in a single stride. His hand cupped the back of her neck, tilting her face up to his, and she gasped at the intensity in his golden eyes.
“You are far from useless,” he growled. “You are extraordinary.”
Then Lilani crashed through the grass, and the moment shattered.
“Papa! You didn’t hide very well! The Star Lady found you in like two seconds!” She tugged on his arm, oblivious to the tension crackling between the adults. “Hide again! Hide better! I want to find you this time!”
Valrek released Ariella reluctantly, but his hand lingered at the small of her back as he turned to face his daughter. “Alright, little one. But this time, you have to actually try to smell me. Not just guess.”
They played the game for what felt like hours—he hid while she tried to help Lilani learn to quiet her mind and open her senses.
It wasn’t easy. Lilani was distractible and impatient, racing off after every butterfly and interesting rock.
But by the time the sun reached its zenith, she’d managed to find her father twice without help, her small face glowing with triumph.
“I did it! Did you see that? I smelled him!”
“I saw.” She caught the child in a hug, lifting her and spinning her in a circle. “You were amazing. A natural tracker.”
“Papa says I’m going to be the best hunter ever. Even better than the warriors in his old pack.”
“I said you had potential,” he corrected, but his voice was warm. “Now come. Let’s eat. I didn’t carry all that food up here for nothing.”
They settled back on the blanket, and he unpacked the provisions he’d brought—strips of dried fish, fat purple berries, and chunks of dense bread that he’d somehow baked in his sea cave. Simple food, but more delicious than anything she had eaten at her father’s lab.
“You made this bread yourself?” she asked, tearing off a piece and savoring the rich, nutty flavor.
“I had to learn.”
“Where did you get the flour? No one in the village has ever mentioned trading with a Vultor.”
“That’s because I never go there. But there is a family of fishermen who live just to the north of here. I helped them when they were troubled by bandits and they were… grateful.”
“I like Miss Martha,” Lilani interrupted. “She makes the best pancakes.”
He must have seen the surprise on her face because he shrugged. “She has watched Lilani a few times when I had to be away. They also procure the supplies I cannot produce. Lilani can’t survive on fish alone, no matter what my beast thinks.”
“Your beast wants her to eat only fish?”
“My beast wants everyone to eat only meat.” He tore into a strip of dried fish with his teeth, and the savage ease of the movement made something flutter low in her belly. “It’s difficult sometimes. Balancing what the beast wants with what’s practical.”
“What else does your beast want?”
The question slipped out before she could stop it, and molten heat flooded his gaze as his eyes met hers.