Chapter 10 #2
Darkness crept in, and my heart raced forward, like my mind was in the future.
Damn it, not now.
“Vision,” I rasped.
Lyriasthe twisted her fingers, light leaking from them. “I’m creating an Illusion. They won’t know.” She shot a furtive scowl over her shoulder at my keepers.
“Thank y–” but my words cut off as my power slammed into me.
Spine locking straight, eyes rolling back, chin tilted up, I Saw.
Garnet lakes. Pink waterfalls. Red mist. I climbed, climbed, climbed, until I summited Keleti, the spine of the continent spread beneath me. Fires burned in Sivy. Rain poured in Uzhhorod. The world had tilted on its axis until nothing was as it should have been.
With a gasp, I careened back to the present. My mare whinnied, sidestepping and nearly knocking into Lyriasthe’s horse. My breathing quickened until I was nearly hyperventilating. Dizziness overtook me, and I threaded my fingers into the horse’s white mane.
Lyriasthe caught my arm, grounding and steadying me amid the icy terror.
“I’m okay,” I said, mostly as a reassurance to myself, but my voice was hoarse. “I didn’t scream, did I?”
“No, you were only gone for a moment,” she informed me.
Less than a minute, and yet my being had been rocked to its core. Seeing was no less arduous now that I had accepted its necessity than it had been when I made virelthorn my religion.
“There wasn’t much.” Still, a shudder wracked my frame. With both realms facing destruction, I didn’t know how to interpret this new glimpse into the future. The Goddess only offered peeks at the three Fates’ weavings.
“Thank you for using your magic,” I added, fiddling with the studs in my pointed ear. The gentle twist calmed me, slowing my breathing.
“Are you ready for me to drop it now?” she asked.
I nodded, and the wavering incandescence around us fell away.
She grinned and tipped her head back like I’d just said something funny. I forced a giggle and gave her a playful shove. A performance for the two errand birds shadowing my every move.
But as I picked up my mount’s reins and faced forward again, my bond roared to life.
Because there, cutting through the current of our procession, was my mate, with Maelsar beside him.
A soul-deep yearning slipped through his otherwise stoic mask. Those glacial irises melted into pools of liquid longing.
My breath hitched as something brushed against the barrier in my mind. Something that felt a lot like concern. It had been one thing when it was etched on his face, but it was another to actually feel something from him.
I didn’t lower my walls. Didn’t look away. Like when my Sight took hold, the rest of the world disappeared until only we existed.
When we were parallel, the Issaraeth turned his horse, cutting through the line of people.
My heart beat a staccato rhythm.
He can’t come over here right now. Not when I’m adrift like this.
But I was boxed in, with a thick sea of recruits on my left and at my rear.
I swallowed and tore my gaze away, acutely aware of his presence and the keen attention at my back.
Had he come because he sensed just how much the vision had affected me?
I wished he didn’t care. It would have been easier if he didn’t. If all along he was playing me, manipulating me. Then, I would know in my bones that he was a monster and I could paint him as such for the rest of my existence.
Instead, he let me glimpse the mate beneath again—the broken, tormented male who had protected me despite the consequences for him, time and time again.
“Sylaira.” The way he spoke my name sent sinful heat straight to my core.
I turned my head to the side, seeking an exit. Our connection pulled taut as the people continued to part for him.
But not for me.
Lyriasthe fell back. I shot her a glare. Traitor.
Maelsar trotted into place beside her, their horses blocking us from the view of my keepers.
“Are you alright?” my mate asked.
My hands trembled as I tugged, hard, to steer my mare away from him. She tossed her head as I dug my heels in, urging her faster.
“Watch it!” a male shouted from the ground as she leaped forward.
“Sorry!” I shot back. Others dove out of the way as I angled myself away from the Issaraeth. But he didn’t remain behind.
Of course not.
With heartache slicing me to ribbons, he chased me—as fast as he could with the mass of people surrounding us. I ignored every whisper that followed us. The discord between us was no secret, and this panicked flight would only further the inescapable gossip.
The last of the throng parted, and I pushed my horse harder. She broke into a gallop, kicking up dirt and sand as we darted into the trees. But the black stallion my mate rode was faster. In moments, he’d snatched the bridle and slowed us to a walk.
“I told you once, little fugitive, that the only way I’d let you run from me again is if you were willing to be caught,” he crooned, looping the leather reins over his wrist to prevent me from fleeing.
The possessive edge to his tone fluttered desire low in my belly.
“I’ll never stop running from you,” I swore, chest heaving as I tried to contain the maelstrom of emotion. But I was far too small for such a tempest. It was only a matter of time before I broke and drowned both of us in grief and rage.
A muscle feathered in his jaw. “I know your visions have been severe. I only wanted to see if you were okay.”
“I’m not, and it’s all your fault,” I snapped, dashing the backs of my wrists under my eyes before tears could fall.
“That’s not what I meant,” he growled, clicking his tongue and leading us further from the battalion.
“I know, and I don’t care. You’re only here right now because of your duty to me, your mate.” I tried to take my reins back from him, but the harsh jerk on the leather only served to make my mare whinny.
“You know it’s far more than that.”
“Do I?” I hissed, his form blurring. Damn him for making me cry again.
His eyes turned glacial, and he pulled us to a stop behind a thick copse of pines. “I love you. You may not believe it right now, but I do. And that will never change.”
A scoff caught in my throat. “How dare you weaponize that word again.”
“Love? It’s no weapon to me. It is everything.” Stormwood filled my nose as he leaned closer. “As are you, mate.”
White detonated from me before I was conscious of what I was doing. The Issaraeth slammed back, falling from his horse and landing with a harsh thud against the ground.
The bond gnashed its teeth, biting into me, punishing me as I raced away. I didn’t look back to see if he was uninjured—I couldn’t. I had to flee as fast as I could, back to the safety of others. Because if I let him any closer…
He might just break me again.