Bonus Chapter 5 – Sølas #3
Her skin is olive and sun-kissed, so simple compared to the starry heavens I’ve seen gleam upon her flesh, ensnared by gold markings as if they are holding her corporeal form together.
I find myself jealous of the wind weaving its breeze through her iridescent hair, imagining my idle fingers lazily twirling through it.
Her eyes are softer than the golden supernova gaze of terror in my dreams. Younger, not yet deep with wisdom.
The way she looks at me like a stranger cleaves my soul in two. The Fates have always been cruel in the games they play.
Ache gnaws at my heart. I gasp in the undercurrent of the crash of my warring emotions.
Pain in her lack of recognition. Hope in all the chances we now have to know one another.
Every precious moment I’ll gladly spend unraveling her story, soaking her up, drowning in every hidden corner of her soul.
Her confident perusal undresses me, leaving me barer than I’ve ever been.
Can she see the obsession carved into marrow, me kneeling at her feet, offering her my bleeding heart, my soul, everything I have to give?
Can she hear my silent words whispering to her, written on the seams of every timeline, of every universe?
You are the female from my dreams, whose screams haunt me, devour me. You’ve threaded into me, across space and time. A connection transcending the rules of reality, forever intertwined, two parts of a whole. Have you felt my shadows searching for you, calling for you between each beat of my heart?
And now after all these years, here you are.
Drowning me in the golden pools of starlight shimmering in your obsidian eyes.
I gaze over the gilded flecks along your cheeks, lingering like echoes of kisses I left there in another lifetime.
If only I could graze my finger across your soul, drawing you to our love story permanently inked along my aching bones.
My groaning bones, bowing under the resistance to run to you, take you up into my arms, and never let you go.
A smile kicks up on your lips, a fleeting glimpse, some deep part of you flickering in recognition of me. Your soul speaking to me. And, just like that, everything clicks into place.
My mate.
My love.
My sacred light.
I will always love you, even if you do not love me.
No other has meant anything to me because I have always been waiting for you. Now so close… closer than you’ve ever been. Yet so far away.
Farther than you’ve ever been.
You no longer know me, the love in your eyes gone, replaced by so much darkness. Darkness I will cast away with my shadows as I wrap around you with all the love and light you are worthy of.
Searing pain etches across the side of my neck as I impossibly pull my gaze from hers. My attention ripping towards the creaking gate. Not before sending her a sly wink filled with promise.
First, I survive this trial, then I find her.
Find you.
Celestials, the way she looked at me after I slayed the Bone-Thresher fills me with hope the female I love is hidden somewhere within her, hidden behind a maze of walls she’s built to protect herself.
From what, I don’t know, but I will find out and wage war against every demon who has ever harmed her.
My nostrils flare. A feral need to protect her boils over in my blood.
A name is called overhead: “Savaé Entropaé.”
My heart stills as she stands up. I swallow her name like it’s holy, weaving it into my marrow. She walks like someone who’s never been allowed to fall. Every cell in my body acutely aware of her presence.
Her face softens, flickering with light as she hands her cloak to a giant male with a beard, beaming at her with pride. As he turns, his glare stakes me to the spot with warning fury. I blaze in recognition of his face, ex-Commander Sully Stonewall.
His hatred boring through me, recalling his heroic defeat over the last Shadowmancer.
Yet this is more than the loathing people usually spit at me when they think I might be Wuvon spawn.
It’s a deep-seated knowing, like he can see the pitch that mars my soul, the dark corruption I struggle most to control.
I rip my eyes from his to focus on our shared affection, moving with the grace of a warrior, no doubt thanks to Sully’s training. He may hate me, but he has all my gratitude for being the one who taught her how to defend herself. Bringing her here today.
I grapple with the heat rising in my blood. The potential of my mate getting hurt prods my powers into a ravenous beast, nipping for release, to shield her. My knuckles go white under the strain buckling my spine, resisting this new, incessant need to protect.
I tremble, heat quickly shattering to ice as the fourth gate creaks open, the one out of place. My shadows pour out, sinking between the beams. Exploring, investigating. Frost shivers down my spine. The shape they reveal can only be one thing.
Ritherin.
Its talons might as well be wrapped around my heart as visceral fear slithers along my marrow. How am I supposed to sit here and watch my mate die?
“Fated mates can talk to one another through the tether that connects their soul. Find it, and use it, young one,” Scáil urges.
My eyes slam shut. I race deep inside myself, scouring my soul for the bond that connects us. She may not have accepted it or even know it exists, but something stronger than gravity led me to her.
There!
My shadows are thickly braided, shimmering like velvet ribbons attached to a beautiful iridescent silk that glimmers with pastel rainbows. Her starlight.
I let one of my black ribbons twirl along her silken light, following it to Savaé’s mind, just like I followed it north, to her, to my Fated mate. I’m met with a thick wall of golden light. I cast my shadows out, cloaking the orb, searching for a way in through her mental shields. To no avail.
Yet, somehow, I hear a single thought escape her shields: surprise or distance.
I pour my power, my inexplicable love, my very soul down our connection, urging her to pick surprise.
I pray to the Fates and the Celestials that she can feel me.
I open my eyes, gaze fixed on her, unable to blink, forgetting how to breathe in wait to see what she’ll do.
Savaé darts for the side of the gate, choosing surprise.
My rigid posture unravels, air filling my lungs once more.
A brief reprieve before the bond claws through my muscles, ripping at my sinew, begging me to be closer to her, to protect her at all costs.
I send my shadows trickling out, subtly expanding the shade she’s cloaked in, deepening them, easing the raving pain tearing through my being at resisting the bond.
“Fated mates are equals in every way, but I can sense her power from here. It is sleeping beneath her veins, waiting to be awoken. Do not risk yourself to save her. I know it is hard to resist the bond, but if she needs power to defeat the beast, it will awaken to protect her. I promise you.” Scáil's ancient voice curls around my mind, easing the burden.
He’s always right; never once has he lied to me. I rub my chest, gritting my teeth. The pain mincing through me is more than I’ve ever experienced. An aching, a longing, a feral rage to protect and be united with the other half of my soul.
The Ritherin prowls out of the gates. My hands dart out, grasping the wooden bench beneath me, holding me in place, my umber knuckles blanching under the force threatening to shatter my soul.
Each click from the monster’s mouth, another dagger dragging across my skin, scouring me in marks of my every failure to protect her.
Savaé leaps from the shadows, timing her steps effortlessly with its clicks. Undetected, a predator of her own making. My boiling blood turns to molten lava, smirking as I watch the lethal beauty before me meld into a weapon unlike any other.
She soars, swinging her arms up like wings with dagger-like edges, stealing the breath from my lungs once more.
Her shifting force through the air signals to the Ritherin something is behind it, twisting towards her as her eyes go wide.
She misses her mark, her grasp landing in the zone of a thousand mouths, nipping at her beautiful flesh.
Each bite burns into me, branding me each time I don’t protect her from pain, a tally of all the things I will spend the rest of my life making up to her.
Smoky shadows curl up from my shoulders and pool at my feet, taking all my focus to rein them back from reaching for her.
They no longer feel as if they are my own; it’s as if all of me belongs to her, even my magic.
And I will gladly give it all to her. But if I help her now, she’ll be disqualified—and with the way she moves like a wraith among the shadows, I know she’d never forgive me for saving her life.
She is darkness incarnate. Yet all I see is hidden starlight shimmering beneath glacial ice, begging for someone to break through, setting her free to shine.
The sound of claws ripping into flesh shreds me from my thoughts.
I stifle the growl serrating my throat as the Ritherin’s claws dig into Savaé’s back.
The muscles in my legs flex, bow strings ready to be released.
I start to stand, set to sail to her just like an arrow, but Calais’ sharp growl cleaves my head in two.
“Sit. Down. Now. She does not need your help. You must resist the bond. She is no damsel. Did that bond searing into place spoil your brain? If she rejects you, it will kill you. To be fair, if she dies here, it will also kill you, but I know she will survive. I have overseen her training from afar. Despite what she may think about the Fates, they will not let their champion perish.”
“How do you know her thoughts already?” Realization spews my blood into liquid fire. “You fucking knew where she was the whole time and didn’t tell me?” I have always known Calais to be the icy lightning to Scáil’s grounding calm, but I never believed her capable of such cold, striking betrayal.
“S?las. We know a great many things, but when it comes to the games of the Fates, we are not allowed to intervene. I swore a blood bargain many years ago; the cost of the deal seals the fate of our eggs. Calais can Dreamweavve; she has been guarding Savaé’s mind while she sleeps.
She is destined to protect her, just as I am destined to protect you from the dark voice that calls to you,” Scáil responds, his voice always a soothing balm to my storms.
The snap of the Ritherin’s neck is music to my ears as they tumble forward. My anger is forgotten as relief melts over me.
Celestials, she is beyond beauty, victory cascading off her like ribbons as she stands.
Black blood is splattered across her face, but she shines with a subtle white light when her gaze meets mine.
I sense her shields are down. My shadows instinctively slink along the bond in a warm caress as my eyebrow kicks up with pride and amusement.
She didn’t need me. Maybe she never will.
But I need her, like life needs breath.
I will have all of her or die in the beautiful pursuit of her.