Chapter 8
Finding my little fugitive again was almost too easy. Ilae clicked in my ear, conveying Sylaira’s location some thirty minutes ahead of us, curled up in a small cave.
I cooed to him, stroking the feathers behind his antlers so that my fingers wouldn’t rip on the sharp vanes. He preened under my praise, silver eyes momentarily disappearing.
The sun hadn’t yet crept over the peaks of the Skala Mountains ahead of us, but every passing minute brought more light to the forest. Which would make hiding from us impossible for the Seer.
Disappointment curled around my heart, and I wasn’t sure why.
I jostled my shoulder, and Ilae took flight, hovering and waiting for instruction. Dragging in a breath, I dove into my well of magic and tugged white wings to my back.
“Lead,” I told Ilae as I lifted off the ground. He hummed low in his chest and twisted toward the canopy.
I had a duty to fulfill, and the sooner I returned with her and the others to Sivy, the better.
Sylaira’s pack bumped against my back as I leveled out, fingertips brushing the lush green treetops. With it brought a whiff of ghostflower.
That fucking scent…it did things to me. Things I hadn’t allowed myself to want in a long, long time. So focused had I been on keeping my sister’s position secure—on serving my realm—that my desires, my needs, had long gone unfulfilled.
As we flew, the first moment I glimpsed her played out over and over again in my mind. The flash of her silvery hair, nearly the same color as Ilae’s eyes. The pop of white that had rendered my magic ineffective. The graceful frame and lush feathers that carried her away from me.
My cock hardened against the tight buttons of my trousers.
Something about this female brought all of my suppressed desires roaring to the surface, impossible to ignore. I cursed myself for allowing the crack in my control to appear. Yet I couldn’t seal it, no matter how hard I tried.
Ilae clicked, drawing me out of the haze of lust. I blinked, and there was the rock wall he’d pressed into my mind.
Flaring my wings, I slowed my approach, scanning the ground for any sign of the Seer.
My bird dipped, a spear of crystal diving toward the ground.
I followed, trusting his keen sight over my own.
The fall imbued me with the will to hunt, to chase, to claim. Wind screamed in my ears. I squinted against the rush, focusing on Ilae as my vision blurred.
He hummed again, leveling out sharply. I sailed past him, my frame much more difficult to slow. A clearing appeared ahead, along with an indent in the side of the mountain offering a semblance of shelter.
And at the fringe, silver flashed into the trunks. Ilae followed, sailing through the thick web of branches with ease.
“Do not lose her,” I snapped at him.
I needed to be closer to give him a mark. I needed to see her face so I could press it into his mind. A body, a few colors, an approximate size, those features were enough to get him halfway there. But for a truly accurate track, I needed a full, unique picture.
A feminine cry shattered the wood’s silence. Birds burst from their perches ahead of us. I redirected my path toward the disturbance.
But then a deer exploded out of the underbrush and headbutted me.
“Fuck,” I swore, crashing into a fallen log.
With a strangled cry, she moved on, a fawn bounding after her.
The Seer must have spooked the pair with her flight. I braced a hand on my ribs to support them, willing my innate healing magic to kick in faster so I didn’t lose Sylaira.
I scanned the treetops for Ilae, and when I didn’t spot him, I nudged his mind. He sent back an image of a doe—probably the same that had assaulted me—and her fawn, bounding through the forest.
But no sign of the Seer.
I slowed my pace to a walk, listening for labored breaths or low whimpers. Snapping branches had me whirling around. Silver flickered in the rising light.
I stalked toward the strand of hair. When ghostflower caressed my nostrils, I knew without a doubt it belonged to Sylaira. My blood heated.
“This way,” I growled to Ilae, a thrill sweeping down my spine.
The hunt was on again. And I hadn’t been this excited about one since…ever. My senses were on high alert, prepared to note the slightest change in the air, movement in the distance, or shifting of the sun overhead.
Ilae hummed from somewhere close by—and then I heard it. The frantic breath. The pulse of fear that was unmistakable in the stillness.
I crept forward on silent feet, not wanting to inform the fugitive of my approach.
The smell of her grew stronger, driven through the air by her panic. It was decadent. I inhaled it, intoxicated. So much so that I didn’t mind my step. A crack rent the air.
She bolted, not even five paces away from me.
Fuck.
I leaped, snatching for her sleeve, but she must have sensed my movement. At the last moment, she twirled. My fingers swept through empty air. Eyes shut, she faced me for the briefest of moments.
And I was struck.
She should have looked fragile. Naive, even. Instead, her expression was defiance incarnate. A challenge I’d waited centuries to meet.
If I’d been obsessed with her scent alone before, it was nothing compared to the possession that crawled into my soul then. A heart shaped face, complemented by plush lips and long lashes that caressed elegant cheekbones. Her throat, delicate and exposed, made me want to sink my teeth there.
And the way she spun…
Like this hunt was nothing more than a complex dance, where two partners glided across a stage, speaking with their bodies until they were finally united.
There was no doubt she was going to be mine once I caught her.
The agile little thing darted into some bushes, disappearing from my sight. I skidded in the dirt, sending earth flying, and pivoted to chase her.
Ilae glided overhead, keeping a close eye on her progress.
But the forest thickened as we worked our way south, overgrown and wild, like not even the animals ventured here. Nettles and thorny plants slashed my bare arms and cheeks, healing magic rising to soothe the stings as they accumulated.
The bramble broke a dozen paces from the edge of a cliff.
And there, silver hair blowing in a gust of wind, was Sylaira. Half-facing us, half-facing whatever lay below, her teeth dug into her bottom lip.
Of course, she’d rather fucking kill herself than be captured.
“Do not move,” I threatened, slowing my pace and holding my hands up like I was going to unleash my magic and capture her to me.
Her gaze tracked across the ground to my boots. It did not lift to my face.
I took a slow step forward. Ilae rustled his feathers and settled onto a branch, clicking.
“What’s your plan, little fugitive? Jump and die?”
She didn’t reply. But the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the scent of fear that dusted the air, told me everything I needed to know.
“I’ll catch you if you fall,” I taunted, closing more distance between us.
A sharp, derisive laugh slipped out of her. “I’d rather let the rocks do that.”
And she leaped.
No hesitation. No second guessing. Just freefall, no wings to guide her.
“Fuck!” I swore, careening toward the edge.
Beneath, a deep ravine waited, the waters rushing violently over jagged rock. Amid the blue, no red bloomed. Yet not a flash or silver nor a blink of white greeted me either.
Where has she gone?
Something glimmered through the leaves beneath a tangle of branches reaching for a drink. She’d gotten far in only a few moments. The Seer’s feathers stretched wide as she sailed low over the frothing water.
I opened my mouth to give Ilae the order to mark her, but I found myself hesitating.
One word, and she would be all mine. One word, and she’d never escape again.
I didn’t press the image of her defiant face into Ilae’s mind. Didn’t tell him to follow her.
Maybe I wanted it to continue, if only for a little longer.
What was a few more days in the grand scheme of my sister’s plans?
In my marrow, I knew it was wrong. The risk of losing her was great, especially in the wilderness.
I was crossing a line. One that had been seared into the core of my being long ago.
But I wanted her to run.
I wanted to savor the hunt. Wanted to feel something as I did it. Wanted to taste that decadent fear again. So rarely was I allowed to indulge in anything. There was always another group to find. Always someone else Iaoth wanted me to take care of.
When was the last time I did something for just me?
No answer surfaced from the depths of my mind.
White feathers shimmered into existence at my back. To Ilae, I said, “Lead.”
We dove over the cliff together, both our wings tucked tight. Anticipation thrummed in my veins as we chased after the Seer.
Nothing made me feel alive like freefall. And this female had awoken something else long kept buried.
Something dangerous.
Something better left in the dark recesses of my soul.
For there was nothing holy in me. Only the urge to speak one word and bring her to her knees. Only the craving to Command her.
And keep her.