2. Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Ryker
" L ittle gem?” I reached for her through our bond. “Kya?”
Nothing. There was nothing there. The tether to her was fractured, broken. I had tried over and over and over again after she fell into the Rip, hoping she wasn’t truly gone.
But she was.
The pain was unbearable. My soul felt as if it had been violently torn apart, and that feeling hadn’t lessened. It was a constant ache in the depths of my very existence. It took everything in me not to scream while my heart tore itself apart from the weight of her absence.
I didn’t know exactly what had happened at the time, but after Kya said goodbye, I felt our bond violently rupture, contorting into something unrecognizable. I had never known that kind of agony.
After flying non-stop from the moment I woke up in the cave, I had finally arrived at the small beach between the Rip and the sea to find Malina on her hands and knees at the edge of a small patch of Glaev. She looked almost dead, pale and weak, as she stared at an unconscious Nikan. Kya’s magic continued to slowly eat the plagued land away toward the Rip’s edge so Malina could get to her fellow Roav.
She barely glanced my way as I landed next to Nikan and lifted him from the small patch of cleared land. I flew him over the Glaev and laid him next to Malina, who scrambled along the ground to check him. His face was beaten and bruised, and didn’t seem to be healing. He’d been here for two days, and small injuries like that should have healed by now.
He’d live. Malina would too. But my mate…
“Tell me what happened,” I demanded in a voice dripping with lethality.
Malina didn’t respond. With her unruly hair hanging around her face, she continued to stare down at Nikan, pointlessly fussing over his clothes. The distant look in her bloodshot, watery eyes told me she was in a state of shock. I didn’t have time to push her past her grief so she could explain the events that occurred here.
Without hesitation, I entered her mind.
“Tell me what happened, Malina.” I tried to sound more gentle rather than demanding, hoping that would entice her to answer me.
Still, she didn’t respond. Her mind was filled with chaos and misery.
I went deeper, pushing further past the mayhem of her conscious thoughts. I rifled through her memories until I found what I was searching for.
Through her eyes, I watched as she awoke in the familiar room of Hakoa’s barrack. I moved on, finding her arguing with him, Theron and Kya standing off behind her. Hakoa was angry and pleaded with her not to go, but she did anyway. Theron Traveled them to Dusan. Kya ordered him to leave and to ignore me.
She had orchestrated it …
I watched as Kya cleared the Glaev, creating a path for them between Atara and the Rip in order to get to the beach on the other side. As they hid behind boulders in search of Daegel. I watched as they fought against him. How Malina tried desperately to get to Nikan while simultaneously wielding her light—worrying over the Glaev eating its way to him. How Kya held Daegel off and used her energy in an attempt to create a path toward Nikan for Malina. Everything happened so fast, and Malina’s mind was constantly torn between getting to Nikan and helping Kya. I watched as Daegel got his hands on Kya, holding her against him, as she pushed him back toward the Rip. Malina and Nikan shouted for Daegel to let her go. Kya screamed for Malina. The air left my lungs as Malina picked up the bow and a black-tipped arrow then drew it back. I watched through Malina’s tear-blurred vision as Kya mouthed, “For them.” I felt the shock as Malina begged Kya to reconsider, but she had to do it. The next second, the arrow pierced Kya’s and Daegel’s chests, and they fell into the Rip.
The last thing Kya had said to me was that she loved me. I hadn’t even told her how much I loved her back. I was screaming, pleading with her, knowing she was choosing her fate, choosing to do what she thought was right—what she thought would save the realm. And I didn’t tell her I loved her…
“I killed her,” Malina whispered hoarsely. Her voice pulled me back from the dark, stained memories.
Movement made me reach up to my cheek, and I felt the wetness there. I pulled my fingers back to see tears clinging to them, not realizing they had fallen.
“I killed her,” she said again, more sharply.
My eyes cut to her. Raw fury surged through me from the shattered bond. I had to hold myself back from tearing her to shreds for what she did. But it was Kya’s fault—she told her to do it. Malina didn’t want to do it. I had felt her heart breaking through her memory.
Malina was eerily still for a moment before her head snapped up to look at me.
“I killed her!”
I know. And I wish I didn’t.
I stared at her for several moments, taking deep, steadying breaths and trying not to lash out. I knew she had to. I knew she didn’t want to. But it took everything in me to not tear her apart where she stood for taking Kya away from me. I forced myself to hold back. Even with Kya gone, I knew she wouldn’t have wanted me to harm her sister because of her choice.
“She asked you to,” I said through gritted teeth.
Kya had left me. And that hurt worse than the splintering shards of our bond piercing my soul.
Malina held my stare but didn’t say anything. I turned and walked away to the edge of the Rip, glaring down into the misty chasm that had consumed my wife. Glancing back at the Roav, I watched as Malina kept blankly staring at Nikan’s unconscious body. I had learned all I needed to, and they didn’t need to be here anymore.
“Will you answer me now?” I asked Theron with a calm I didn’t feel.
He had ignored me for days—had left the realm and refused to answer my call, my pleas, as I begged him to take me to Kya. To save her.
The Spirit dragon appeared a moment later. His black scales, the same ones I shifted from him, shimmered in the dying light as he stood before me with his wings at his sides. At one point, I had feared his massive form, knowing I was but a mere speck in comparison, a single foot large enough to crush me completely. But that was a long time ago. Right now, he should fear me.
A cold rage flooded my veins, and I welcomed it. Bathing in the agony and fury that filled me, I unleashed it in the form of fire and shadows with a roar. The Spirit countered with his own fire, but only enough to keep the flames from his body. Not that I had expected to hurt him, but I was so angry I wanted to. I wanted to hurt anyone, everyone . I needed to inflict the pain I was feeling on others, no matter how wrong I knew it was. But I wouldn’t.
I drew back my elements, still seething at my Guardian.
“Take them to Morah,” I demanded, gesturing to Kya’s brother and sister.
Theron didn’t hesitate as he stepped over and touched Malina and Nikan with his nose, and they all disappeared. A few moments later, he returned alone.
I paced back and forth, glaring at him, fighting the urge to wreak havoc on the entire fucking world.
“Do you want to explain what the fuck your problem is?” I clipped.
“I did my duty,” he snarled, making a show of his teeth.
“What duty? You led Kya to her demise—you brought her here. This is on you!” I made no attempt to hold back. I blamed him. This was just as much his fault as hers. If he hadn’t brought her here in the first place—had consulted me or tried to warn me—none of this would have happened.
“Do not chastise me, Worthy.” His jaws snapped with his words. “My duty is to protect you, and I did so by keeping you away.”
“Fuck your protection. What about Kya?”
“I am not bound to her. I am bound to you. I am your Fylgjur,” my Guardian growled.
“Exactly!” I screamed through our bond. “You are bound to guard me from harm. What about my bond with her? It will drive me to the point of insanity. It will kill me. You allowed her, and our bond, to die. How is that protecting me?” My hands balled into fists, and I breathed heavily through my nose as I willed myself to remain in control.
“Did she?”
My eyes narrowed. “Did she what?”
“Did she die?” Theron articulated each word.
I froze. “Are you saying she didn’t?”
He bent his horned head down, bringing his large, fire-filled eyes level with mine. “You are her mate. You should know.”
After finding Malina and Nikan and sending them back to Morah, I spent days flying up and down the length of each side of the Rip, searching for Kya. I had gone to the towns nearby, desperately hopeful she had somehow emerged along the edge and was taken to a healer. Something. Anything .
I knew it was pointless. If she were here and unconscious, I would know. I would feel her, sense her. The bond would lead me to her. But I still couldn’t help myself, and I needed to exhaust every possibility. Theron had to stop me from going into the Rip multiple times now. The bond, and beyond it, was driving me to madness to find her. To follow her.
Was she dead? How would I know? She was shot with a poisoned arrow—she should have died from that alone. Not to mention, the fact that she fell into the Rip, the grave of Odes—an endless, inescapable chasm.
Our bond was so maimed I hardly recognized it. And it didn’t extend to her anymore. Rather than the continuous thread between us, it was frayed, spewing from the end like a river meeting the sea.
Yet, it was there. Which meant… She was alive. I gasped at a thought.
The Trial.
The Rip wasn’t just a pit of death. During the last Trial, the Gods somehow Traveled the contestants to the Woltawa Forest. And if Kya hadn’t died, then maybe she was somewhere else.
The scenario was too similar to ignore. Too familiar to the story I had heard so many times over and over no matter how unbelievable it seemed.
Perhaps he isn’t crazy after all, and has been telling the truth all these years. All fifty of them.
“Where do people go when they go into the Rip?” I asked Theron.
“Most die,” he said.
“But not all.”
“No. Not all.”
“Where do the rest go?” I pressed with a tone of annoyance. Fucker just had to be less than helpful.
The dragon hesitated before responding. “I do not know. The Rip is a void for Spirits, just as it is for mortals. What happens to them when they are there is unknown to Spirits, even to a Fylgjur such as myself.”
I was stunned. Not just by the information, but also because I rarely heard him speak so much at one time. No one knew the Rip was anything other than a bottomless pit of death.
“I can’t feel her. Our bond… Where could she have gone that I can’t sense her?”
It wouldn’t have been Hylithria. Though it was faint, I remember feeling our bond even when she was there during her Trial. It could have been the Woltawa Forest—I hadn’t felt her there. Then again, her fate hadn’t been sealed, and our bond wasn’t enacted yet. Though some believe it’s one of the Drift Islands, others think it isn’t even in this realm. So it’s possible .
“Only the Gods know.”
I didn’t waste a moment as I lifted my head to the skies.
“Xareus,” I called to the God who had chosen me. “I beg of you, come down. Interfere and take me to the mate you chose for me.”
Nothing.
I tried again and again with each of the Gods: Udon, Cethar, Noxelia, and Ayen. All ignored my prayers. Even Kleio—silent as always.
Theron Traveled me back to the palace, which was almost fully restored by a team of terbis wielders when I returned. And it was empty. The refugees who used to fill the halls had been relocated to camps near the Noavo command station, and some were also placed in towns and villages throughout the Nation, distributing them where resources were available. I didn’t know where the staff was, and I didn’t care. I was in no position to speak to anyone in a civilized manner anyway.
I stormed down the corridor to my bedchamber, needing to rest before researching everything I could about broken mating bonds and the Rip. If that didn’t work, I would leave for Dolta. If there was one person who could relate to this situation, it was my father.
I had barely slept since I woke up to find Kya missing, and I hadn’t slept at all for the last few days. I stripped my filth-covered clothes and quickly bathed before returning to the bedchamber, where I found Mavris waiting for me.
I hadn’t seen my brother since I abruptly left Oryn to rush to my mate.
“What?” I snapped, storming across the room to the wardrobe.
He flinched slightly but kept his face neutral. “Did you find Kya? ”
“If I had found Kya, do you honestly think I’d be here without her?” I pulled out a set of clothes and put them on.
“Right.” He pursed his lips and nodded warily. “Then what happened?”
I scoffed. I really didn’t want to do this right now, but I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone until I did. “Daegel took her.”
His eyes widened. “Where?”
“I’m not in the fucking mood to play storyteller,” I grumbled, turning my back on him to face the windows.
Memories of Kya’s words and Malina’s thoughts replayed over and over in my head. I didn’t want to see them anymore. The constant nagging of ‘what ifs’ ate at me. What if I had woken up before she left? What if I went with her? What if I had stopped her? What if I had taken her place? What if…
The sensation of a hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my thoughts, but I was so on edge I startled when Mavris pressed again, asking what exactly happened.
Without warning, my overwhelming thoughts flooded into my brother’s mind. The dam of my psyche burst, the overwhelming grief and confusion rushing through that connection to him. With nowhere else to go, the overpowering agony forcibly pushed into his mind, siphoning away from me to the nearest extension—my mind’s way of keeping me sane.
My abilities grew to a level I had never consciously experienced before as I pressed Malina’s memories into Mavris, showing him all I had learned. Never had I crossed the line of that kind of personal invasion before. Especially with someone I was close to.
My gift from Xareus was a curse I loathed and used as little as possible. At least I did when I used to care, however the only thing I cared about now was getting my mate back. I didn’t bother trying to stop it.
Mavris stumbled back from the torrent of memories, gasping as his eyes darted unseeingly.
“Ryk…” He looked at me with horror and disbelief. “How are you even standing right now? They fell into the Rip. She’s…”
In the blink of an eye, I had Mavris pinned to the wall with my shadows. I stalked my way over to him and stopped inches from his face.
“She’s alive. And nobody will say otherwise.” I released my hold on him, and he stepped away from the wall.
He could have used his blood-wielding to retaliate, but he didn’t. As always, he was the more composed one. He didn’t look at me with ire as I would have expected. Instead, it was sympathy and understanding. Pity.
I didn’t need it, nor did I want it. I would have preferred he fought back so I could unleash some of my anger. Not that it would have helped. Nothing would. Not until I got Kya back.
I walked over to the restored floor-to-ceiling windows and gazed at the Eckterre mountains surrounding the Voara palace. Kya was supposed to be here with me.
But she left.
Not only did she leave me behind—going off alone rather than working with me—but she sacrificed herself, knowing what it would do to our bond. To me.
Had she known she’d go somewhere else? Or was she certain she was going to die? She had pushed herself into the Rip, ordered Malina to shoot her with the poisoned arrow. Seeing her tears through Malina’s memories… She had been willing to die.
I braced a hand on the glass, resting my forehead against it, and closed my eyes.
She had had enough time to say goodbye. Enough time to think about her actions. She had known what she was doing .
“What happened to Nikan?” Mavris asked slowly. “And Malina?” he added.
I opened my eyes. “They’re alive. I had Theron take them to Ilrek. Nikan is banged up, but he’ll live, and Malina…I think her struggle is just beginning.” When I turned around to face Mavris, he was shaking a perplexed look away, as if deciding not to voice whatever was on his mind.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
I glanced over my shoulder at the darkening skies.
I would keep my promise. My little gem would not escape her shadow. No matter how damn hard she tried. Nothing would stop me.
“I’m going to tear the realms apart until I find her.”