Chapter 47
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
LYVIA
Doors hidden beneath the water, unlocked with power passed from mother to daughter.
– Eghan Family Stone.
Lyvia – Borva, Votruvia
The giggling of children had at last quieted as Mother Eghan finished putting them to bed, and the doors of their rooms were all shut as I tiptoed down the hall.
My lower abdomen ached, and I grimaced, the first day of my time with the moons always the worst. While they only pulled from women twice a year, they were dreadful.
Kellan was due back any moment from the forge, and though I’d been relieved, I realized in an absolute panic what I’d been forgetting these past months upon the arrival of my blood. The barren tea.
I slipped into the warm kitchen and storeroom, quietly closing the door behind me. Blue moonslight filtered in from the small window, and I rolled my eyes.
Like I needed a reminder.
I opened various cupboards, searching for a tonic for the pain and the contraceptive herb I could begin drinking on a regular basis.
Isla reminded me that the Starlings had obviously been able to reproduce with elves if several of the original Bellators had been elves.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. I rapped my head with an invisible stick.
Footsteps padded outside the door, and I jerked upright, closing the cupboard partway as Kellan stepped into the kitchen. I blew out a sigh and he cocked his head, his lips quirking to the side.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
A flush crept up my neck, and I returned my focus to the rows of herbs and vials of liquid.
“A tonic,” I murmured.
Kellan tensed, his hand reaching for my arm. “Are you all right?” he asked as he moved closer.
“Fine,” I muttered, something warm slipping over the pain in my lower abdomen at his reaction. “Just my time.”
Kellan nodded, his eyes dipping to my lips before darting to the cupboard and plucking a small vial from the top.
“Here,” he murmured, handing it to me. “Mum usually gives this to the women who come asking.”
His fingers brushed against mine as I took it from him. I popped the cork with my thumb before taking a quick swig.
He moved to another cupboard below, reaching for a cotton sack of rice before placing it on the hot bricks nearest the dying coals in the oven.
“Does she have any barren tea in stock?” I asked after a moment, scanning the stacks of herbs.
“Yes,” Kellan answered, returning and reaching around me to pull out a sack of dried herbs. The loamy scent of sparkroot and goldleaf crinkled my nose as he handed it to me.
“I should have probably mentioned this sooner,” Kellan murmured as he crossed his arms. “But I’ve already taken the elixir this year.”
I tilted my head, my brows pinching.
“It renders me unable to father children, at least for several months,” he explained, a single brow arching. “The effectiveness wears off before the end of a year, or so I’m told.”
I blinked. “Oh. Well, that’s convenient. Can women take it?”
“I don’t believe so,” he replied, shaking his head. “Something about unwanted side effects.”
“I’ll probably still brew this then.” I nodded, examining the tea leaves. “Just to be certain.”
He nodded in agreement, and relief flooded me.
Kellan’s hand squeezed my shoulder, and he brushed a kiss against my temple before moving to the stove.
He heated some water and plucked a handful of biscuits from the counter before turning back to me.
I slid into the chair at the small table as he lit the few tapers in the center.
My eyes traveled over the handsome lines of his face, the marbled gray in his dark eyes glowing gold in the light of the flames.
His pinched brows formed two lines between them, and his shoulders remained tense as he shook off his blue coat and slipped it over a chair.
Skin peeked beneath his black shirt as he set the table for a midnight snack.
“What’s bothering you?” I asked as he moved through the kitchen.
His jaw unclenched as his eyes landed on me, and he paused, leaning against the smooth wooden countertop. He ran a hand over his face before pressing his palms against the edge of the counter.
“Aside from the fact that there are three gods hunting you?” he asked, cocking his head. The edge of sarcasm riding his tone did little to quell the anxiety in his gaze.
“Well, I think they’re hunting all of us,” I replied through a sigh, the ache in my lower abdomen deepening at the mention of the threat we faced.
“Sintarrak has been watching you for two years now,” Kellan said quietly. “Ganmira and Renova tried to kill you on Kayj. They are here for you.”
My stomach pitched as I recalled the battle outside of the arch, and a rush of nightmares swarmed at the thought… Their rage at Kellan’s attack… His face when they killed him…
“I’m here, Lyvia,” he said quietly as he moved to where I sat, kneeling on the ground. “You brought me back. And I’m not going anywhere.”
His fingers slipped a stray strand of hair away from my face, and the knot eased.
“Olienna said the Bellators’ powers are but a sliver of what the Embodied hold…
” I said quietly. “And it’s true. The power I felt from Ganmira and Renova was infinitely stronger than what we threw at them.
So why do they care so much? Why are they so focused on finding us and taking back that power, if it’s just a small amount? ”
Kellan’s frown deepened, and he shook his head. “There’s something we’re missing,” he concluded.
“They killed Carina.” The words felt unbearably small as they left my lips.
The corners of my eyes pricked, and I blinked to keep the tears from forming.
“I could feel their wrath on Kayj…” I shook my head as grief and fear collided in a paralyzing force inside my chest. “Their wrath is a river… It is a current, Kellan. I am so scared it will roll over any bridges we build…upend the vessels we sail in… I don’t know how we are going to—”
Kellan’s hand appeared on my jaw, his thumb and fingers gently turning my face toward him. His eyes skipped between my own as he leaned in.
“Their wrath pales when compared to the rage they’ve built within me, Bonscaíh. If their wrath is a river, then mine is the sea. And I will wash away their very existence when they come for you.”
As his words settled in the space between us, the power in Kellan’s eyes seared away the fear and grief tightening my chest. It replaced it with a blade forged of love and vengeance. Because Ganmira and Renova weren’t just coming for me…
They were coming for Kellan.
He’d beaten them back in that cave on Kayj. He’d prevented them from entering our realm, from getting to me, because there was no doubt in my mind that if he had not attacked with the rubelline daggers, they would have destroyed us all then and there.
And now, a sea rose within me, a renewed determination and will to protect the man I loved, the family I’d gained, and the realm I called home.
Kellan read the emotions in my face as if he were reading a book, the fierceness in his eyes softening into confidence. The shrill whistle of the teapot snapped me back into the kitchen, and he stood.
My eyes wandered over the strip of skin where his shirt had parted, and he smirked, the white of his scar lightening and his dark brow arching.
My thighs pressed together despite the tormenting ache in my abdomen.
Heat slid to the center of that ache, and for a moment, I forgot it was there as Kellan’s tongue slid over his lips before he moved to the stove.
“What news from the forge?” I asked as my eyes snagged on his coat. Hanging on the chair across from me, bits of ash and soot clung to the lapels. The loamy scent of the barren tea slipped into my nose as he poured the steaming water into a mug. His eyes lingered on my lips as he turned around.
“They’re close,” he answered, handing me the mug.
Warmth seeped into my hands, and I took a deep inhale before bringing the cup to my lips.
Kellan’s lips stretched into a wide grin as he tugged off the ring he always wore on his pinky. “Close enough to ask for sizing requirements.”
Kellan reached for my left hand, sliding the dull silver ring onto my middle finger. He kept my hand in his, eyes soft as they lingered on the ring. He slowly dragged his gaze up to mine.
“This will not be the last ring I slip on to your finger, Bonscaíh,” he said into the dimness of the kitchen.
A powerful force surged forward. My stomach formed a pleasant sort of knot, and my teeth pressed against my lower lip as a smile tugged.
The Obscura and Transcindiel reacted, feeding off the emotion, and joined hands. A winged horse of shadows leaped from my right hand, making circles around our heads as bits of golden dust flitted from its wings.
“Don’t you need to ask me a question first?” I asked, arching my brow and leaning back.
Kellan’s lips quirked into a smirk. “All in good time, my love,” he replied, not letting go of my hand.
My chest heaved as I blew out a sigh, and he chuckled.
“So impatient,” he teased, his lips stretching into a genuine smile as he tapped the side of my nose.
I gave him a soft shove on the shoulder, and he stood, moving to the oven and grabbing the sack of rice. He returned and placed the warm sack on my lower abdomen. My brows tilted up, and I swallowed.
“Thank you,” I said through a groan as the warmth seeped through my oversized shirt. I loosened the laces of my pants as I slumped back in my chair.
Kellan tracked the movement. His nostrils flared, but he gripped my hand, giving it a squeeze. I scanned the air around Kellan’s head, Khato’s words of caution replaying in my mind, but I had to be sure before I said anything to him.
My vision blurred, and my breathing slowed as I pulled myself out of the kitchen and dove into that part of myself where infinite threads lived, focusing on that one, single braided thread. Darkness swallowed me, before hundreds of glittering lines lit up my vision.
I swam through the threads, easily following that gentle pull I’d grown accustomed to feeling until it came into view.
The braided thread pulsed. Silver and daring, it sparked to life.
I reached a strand of consciousness to it, and a small pop of power sparked into existence, before traveling down its line, further than I could see.
I blinked rapidly, pulling myself out of the threads and back into the kitchen, scanning the air around Kellan’s head as he peered at me with pinched brows. Power ignited in a subtle crackle around his body, and my heart squeezed in my chest.
Emotions surged forward—worry…love…anticipation…
Kellan’s dark eyes narrowed on me, concern tightening his features as he moved closer.
“Lyvia, are you all right—”
“Yes,” I assured him, pulling my gaze fully out of the threads and back into the kitchen. My throat bobbed, and I took a breath. “I’d say yes. I hope you know.” I scanned every movement of Kellan’s face. “To you. To marriage. I’d choose you always…”
I paused, an overwhelming certainty softening every tight and anxious piece of my being. “I’d say yes to more.”
Kellan’s face relaxed, the concern melting into something raw. It took me a moment to identify the emotion on his face… Some sort of meeting of desperation and adoration…of love.
The sight of him was all I needed to plunge ahead, to make the leap.
And I realized then, there had been a part of me too scared to tell him what I’d seen, what had connected us from the very beginning. Too scared to be doubted once more. But this was Kellan, and he was made for me, just as I was made for him. We had already chosen each other.
“A soulbinding thread links us, Kellan. I can see it right now. I can feel it.”
Kellan’s dark eyes sparked in the dim light of the candles, and his lips quirked to the side in the half-smirk I’d grown to love. His hands moved to the arms of my chair as he knelt on the ground and leaned in toward me.
“It’s always been there,” I continued as he dragged his gaze from my left hand to my face.
“I saw it first in the Waters of Ascendiel last year. I wanted to touch it, and I swear I could hear it calling to me… Like it was telling me you would see me soon. Then you found me in the Death Dunes. I had seen it again there, and then I’d woken up next to you.
I love you, Kellan. Would you…” I paused, my throat bobbing.
Kellan’s hand cupped the side of my face as he leaned closer.
“I would bind myself to you in every possible way, Bonscaíh.”