Chapter 51
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
DRYSTAN
Set aside your pride. Your matron would have wanted our alliance to keep.
– Unanswered correspondence from White Hawk to New Dragon.
Drystan – Gilded Fortress, Lotrennia
The king of Lotrennia’s dark brows knit together as he stared at the white múritinne ring on the shining table.
Tiny bits of rainbow light reflected off the wide band, dancing with the orange evening light filtering in through the window of the Gilded Fortress.
One elbow perched above the other arm that crossed in front of him, and he placed a fisted hand at his mouth as Isla finished explaining the process and the spell we’d used to create the mind armor.
My friend’s delicate, pointed ears cut through her silky black hair. The tiny pink rings adorning her bronze skin caught in the light. Isla’s small hand slapped over the ring and slid it closer to Bayne, her head shaking slightly as she looked to the captain of the Evecta with raised brows.
“Take it.”
I tracked the words from her lips, and my eyes cut to Bayne. Wariness hunched in his features, and he slid his gaze to mine.
“How do we know we’re not doing exactly what they want us to do?” he asked, signing the words as he spoke.
“Because Lyvia said Tynan is also trapped,” Isla explained, her temper flaring as she popped her fists on her hips. “He wants to stop Sintarrak as much as we do.”
Bayne’s brows narrowed. “Lyvia could have misunderstood. She’s always been too trusting,” he murmured.
A surge of irritation hit me despite the truth in his words. She’d been too trusting of Bayne, I wanted to say, instead clenching my fists to keep the words from forming.
“I don’t trust the God of Death,” Bayne continued.
Isla’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. “But we trust Lyvia—”
“Do we?” Bayne interjected. “Do you trust her after traveling to hell? She brought a man back from the dead… That shouldn’t be possible, Isles. And she was… changed… when she returned.”
“Then forget about Lyvia,” Isla cut in. “Do you trust me? Or Drystan?” She threw her arm out to where I stood a few paces back. Her brows rose even further, if that were possible. Her amber gaze landed on me, and she waved me over as if the request was obvious.
I took a few tentative steps, wary of the power emanating from the king of Lotrennia and how quickly Isla’s face was turning red.
“We read the texts,” Isla continued.
I gave a firm nod, feeling she simply needed the support here.
“The spell we used was entirely of our own making. If we had to use one created by the Starlings or some other beings, maybe that would be questionable.”
“I do not doubt your skill,” Bayne explained. “I merely think we should be cautious when taking direction from one of the beings that are trying to enter our world and kill us.”
“Tynan cannot leave Hell!” Isla cut in, her arms slapping against her side as frustration built in her posture.
“We don’t know that—”
“We do! Because two of our own saw it with their own eyes!”
“Lord Astraeus is not—”
“AGH!” Isla gripped her loose hair as she shook her head. “I am sick of this, Bayne! I have followed you for decades! I fought for you. I killed for you. I have always trusted you,” she snapped, her small finger pointing up at Bayne’s tall form.
His green eyes cut to mine, and I took a step back.
“I have lied for you,” she growled. “I lied to Lyvia for you in those days after we took her from Mount Telum, and I continued lying for you in the weeks after we rescued her from Kayj.”
Bayne opened his mouth to speak, but Isla shushed him with a quick flick of her finger.
“I lied to Drystan,” she paused, and her face went slack as if she just realized it. The crew had also withheld the truth from me those days after they’d found me in Stynguard. She cut a quick glance at me, and her lips fell.
“Everyone lied for you,” she continued, turning back to Bayne.
“You want to talk about people changing? Look what you have become since your soulbinding. You are mistrusting. You are bitter. You are pulling your own insecurities into a discussion of critical protection in a war against the fucking gods—”
“That is exactly what I’m preparing for!” Bayne shouted, a flush rising up his neck from below his deep maroon tunic.
A flicker of power ebbed off his form, and I inched closer to Isla without thinking. Isla’s nose crinkled, and her brows narrowed as she shook her head.
“Because of what you saw at the Waters of Ascendiel?”
“Death is coming,” Bayne said after heaving a sigh and straightening his jacket. A calm mask of confidence and control fell over his features.
“You think you saw Tynan?” Isla asked, her face softening in consideration.
The king of Lotrennia’s eyes closed for a moment as he shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what it was that I saw. But something is coming. It’s coming here, to Lotrennia. I need every ounce of power I can muster. We all do.”
Isla crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Has it been worth it? Do you trust her?” Isla asked as she scanned Bayne’s tall form.
He glanced quickly at me and back at Isla, and I let my fists bump against my thighs, feeling entirely certain this was a conversation they should have in private.
“I don’t know,” Bayne finally answered. “And no, I don’t entirely trust her.”
Queen Antares, I realized, as Bayne’s eyes cut to the gilded chair at the front of the table.
“Enough to close yourself off to the others?” Isla asked, her face softening. “Nerissa… Aquila,” Isla stressed. “The Bellator and caeluma bond goes deep. You could all use it together—”
The jerk of Bayne’s head was sharp, and his lips drew a thin line. “No,” he cut in. “I won’t risk Antares getting access to any of them.”
“You don’t have to fight alone,” Isla said sadly. “Take the ring, Bayne.” She gestured to the mind armor on the table before her arms fell to her sides, and she turned to me.
I pulled the second ring from my pocket and handed it to the king.
“One for the queen,” I explained, “if she’ll take it.”
Bayne’s jaw clenched, but he reached a hand forward. I let the ring fall into his palm. He opened his lips to speak when an urgent wave of alarm slammed into me. My hand flew to my chest, and I staggered back as Aquila’s emotions punched through me.
“What is—”
A shadow cut over the golden autumn light filtering in through the wide window, and I snapped my face in his direction.
We rushed to the gilded balcony where Aquila’s massive gold and copper wings splayed out in a magnificent arc against the shadowed forest beyond.
His keen eyes were wild as his head snaked toward Bayne.
Panic and urgency streamed down Aquila’s Bellator bond to me, and I sent my own confusion back. Aquila wasn’t my caeluma. I couldn’t speak with him mind to mind despite feeling his emotions.
“What is wrong? What’s happened?” Isla asked, looking urgently at Bayne.
Color had drained from the king’s face, and he opened his mouth, as if to ask, and clamped it shut.
“Open your connection to him!” I signed urgently, my brows narrowing as Aquila’s emotions threatened to impede on my own.
Bayne’s lips fell open, and he stared at the massive hawk. Aquila was as much his caeluma as he was Nerissa’s. Their shared power and bond went back to the twins’ birth. And Bayne had chosen to block that bond since his soulbinding with Antares.
“Something has happened!” Isla shouted at him. “OPEN IT!”
Bayne’s mouth clamped shut, and Aquila bent his large head forward and screeched in his face.
The air from his shout blew stray strands of hair from the sides of the king’s face.
The force of the screech vibrated through my chest, something beyond his panic and urgency rippling through the ancient hawk’s roar.
A layer of pain and betrayal rode whatever command Aquila shouted at his Bellator. Bayne’s brows rose, and his chest heaved as he caught his breath. A rush of emotion swarmed from him—regret, fear, grief.
I averted my eyes, certain Bayne hadn’t meant for me to feel the pent-up emotions that poured from the gates he lifted as he opened himself to Aquila. Bayne staggered back, and Isla’s widened eyes found mine.
“They’re here,” Bayne barked, his hands moving quickly as he conveyed the message. “Ganmira and Renova. Nerissa and Kresida are tracking the Embodieds’ movements just north of here.”
Bayne’s green eyes were wide as Aquila spoke into his mind, and a small bud of a tear formed in the corner of one. Bayne had never allowed Aquila into his mind since his transformation, and the sudden connection that formed seemed to have shaken something out of the king.
“Get to the master of spells,” Bayne said to Isla. “I’ll rally the War Slayers and speak to the queen before Aquila takes me to where they were last spotted.”
He turned to me. “Bring back as many fighters as you can from Votruvia.”
Isla’s soft eyes slid to mine. Her ebony brows pinched up, and something flared in my chest. Her lips quivered, and I wasn’t sure why, but a deep-rooted fear slunk into me at the sight—at the thought of leaving her.
Isla was practically a mystic, but if the Embodied had taken out Carina…
A vice wrapped itself around my chest, and my hand reached forward out of instinct, but Isla had already moved.
She hurried to the stairs in search of Khato, and when I looked back, Bayne had already mounted Aquila. They soared around the nearest sparkling turret.
The Advetis swelled within me, its power rising through every fiber of my being and pressing against my skin in preparation.
My mind spun as I ran through countless scenarios on a plan of action, calculating the risks of who to bring back and how quickly, determining our best chance of surviving another attack from the twin goddesses.
An image of an onyx fireplace formed in my mind, and with a blink of an eye, my body succumbed to the twisting squeeze.