Chapter 12 Rhianelle #2
Instinct overrides thought and reason. My hands find the railing and I climb the cold stone quickly.
One of my gloves catches on the carved edge as I scramble up, the delicate silk tearing.
I yank my hand free, leaving the ruined glove behind.
Wind whips my gown around my legs as I teeter on the narrow ledge.
"Wait." Landon lunges forward, hand outstretched. "Don't—"
I leap into darkness.
Landon screams.
The sound is terrified and full of an anguish that cuts through everything. He thinks I just threw myself to my death because of him. The ground rushes up toward me. For a moment, I wonder if he's right.
Feathers beat against the night air.
Coinneach catches me in his massive shadow owl form. His talons close around my waist firmly without breaking skin. Relief floods through me. I wrap my arms around his legs, pressing my face against his feathers.
"Thank you, Ken," I whisper.
We soar across the glimmering woods, away from the celebration and away from Landon with his impossible claim.
I don't look back.
The fae realm blurs beneath us. Coinneach flies low and fast, weaving between ancient trees.
The music from Calanmai eventually fades to nothing.
I carefully pull myself up along his leg.
His feathers are thick and soft under my hands, giving me purchase as I climb.
I swing my leg over and settle onto his broad neck.
I need to find Blaire.
"Ken," I call him, raising my voice to be heard above the rushing air. "Blaire is in the town. Can you get to her?"
He adjusts his flight path immediately, banking smoothly and angling toward the cluster of lights in the distance. The town spreads out below us like a scattering of stars against the darkness. He circles lower, his wings beating slower now as he navigates between buildings.
Then suddenly he dives.
My stomach lurches as we plummet toward a narrow alley tucked between two buildings. Blaire stands in the shadows. But she's not alone. A massive figure looms over her.
Prince Vayne.
My hand moves instinctively toward my summoning chalk. But before I can act, I see Blaire's expression.
Her cheeks are pink and her eyes bright as she looks up at him. She's... flushed.
This doesn't look like a confrontation or a threat. It looks like a conversation. An intimate one. I hate to interrupt them but I must get to Blaire.
Coinneach lands on a nearby rooftop with barely a sound, setting me down gently on the still-warm tiles.
"Blaire," I call down softly.
She spins immediately, her hand going to her waist where I know she keeps a knife. Then she sees me and her posture relaxes. I wait until Vayne steps back and drop down from the rooftop.
"I found what we need." I study her face carefully, searching for any signs of distress or fear. "We can go home now. Are you okay? Do you need—"
"I'm fine," she answers swiftly and glances at the prince, then back to me. "I have issues to settle here… with Vayne."
The orc hasn't moved from where he stands in the shadows but his eyes are on me now. I meet his gaze steadily, letting him see the promise there. If he hurts her or harms one hair on her head, I'll find a way to make him pay.
Blaire notices the exchange and steps between us, breaking the line of sight. "I'll find my own way home. Don't worry about me."
I don't want to leave her here. Every instinct I have screams at me to insist she come with me right now.
But she's a Maiden of Arawynn.
Blaire is trained to survive situations far more dangerous than this. And more than that, she's my friend. She's asking me to trust her judgment.
I shouldn't interfere. Whatever is happening, this is between them.
"Be careful," I finally say.
Her lips curve into a small smile. "I will."
I back toward where Coinneach waits on the rooftop and climb onto his back. I grip his shadow feathers tightly as he lifts into the air. The powerful beats of his wings send dust swirling below.
Blaire watches me go, one hand raised in farewell.
I hope she knows what she's doing.
We rise higher into the night sky. Every moment I delay is a moment closer to war.
"Ken. I need you to go to Aelfheim and find Aelfric and Garrett. I want you to deliver this message for them," I instruct, before feeding him every morsel of information I gathered from the war chamber. "Find my uncle Rainer. He'll know what to do."
The shadow familiar makes a low, mournful sound. Coinneach knows what I know now. He knows what's coming.
Tears blur my vision.
The lights of the town below smear into bright gold as I wipe them from my eyes.
Volundr. My hometown is going to be attacked first.
Seadragons will rise from the depths and tear through the harbor defenses. Three days from now, the docks where I used to play as a child will burn. The ships where I learned to sail will sink into the cold sea. The people I grew up with will die screaming.
A sob catches in my throat. It's impossible to contain this sadness. Everything will crumble to ash. I can see it so clearly.
Coinneach doesn't know what to do with my tears. His flight wavers slightly as if he's considering landing or turning back. He would do anything to fix whatever is hurting me.
"Take me to Svenn. Please."
He's reluctant. I can feel it in the way his wings beat just slightly off-rhythm. He wants to take me home where it's safe.
But I need Svenn.
After everything that just happened I need my mate. The eclipse is waning now. I can see the moon beginning to emerge from shadow, silver light spilling across the landscape. There's no reason to keep me away from Svenn any longer.
"I'll be all right," I say, keeping my voice steady. "Just take me to him."
Coinneach finally relents with a soft trill that sounds almost like a sigh. His wings shift, catching a different current. We change course toward the mountains. Somewhere in those peaks, Svenn is chained and waiting.
I press my face against Coinneach's feathers and let myself cry as we fly. The wind removes the tears from my cheeks almost as fast as they fall. I let the steady beat of his wings anchor me.
Soon I'll be with Svenn again.
We reach a cave high in the mountains. Coinneach sets me down gently at its mouth. He releases me with care before shifting back into his smaller form as Svenn's shadow.
He's inside, chained, Ken signs to me. But I doubt those chains will hold if the bond has taken over.
I need my husband right now.
I run into the cave, heart hammering. I pray he survived the eclipse madness without hurting himself.
The entrance opens into a small, surprisingly warm chamber. Wolf pelts are scattered along the walls and floor. I think it was an abandoned den once, claimed and remade. Despite its isolation, the space feels almost livable. Aelfric and Garrett chose well.
Lanterns hang from natural hooks in the rock, casting golden light across the chamber. A bed of pine boughs rests against one wall, layered with blankets to dull the chill.
At the very center, wrapped in enough chains to anchor a ship, kneels my husband.
"Svenn!"
He looks up at my voice. Relief floods his features despite the strain evident in every line of his body. "You're safe."
I rush to him, dropping to my knees beside where he's chained to the stone floor. He's shirtless and his hair is soaked with sweat. The blood moon's glow shines on his bare back through the cave mouth, casting him half in gold and half in crimson.
My hands immediately go to his face, assuring myself he's here and whole.
He pulls against the chains, making them rattle. "Coinneach said you were in danger. What happened?"
"Volundr," I say breathlessly, the words tumbling out in a rush. "They're attacking Volundr first, with seadragons. In three days."
I tell him everything I heard in the war room.
"Then a frontal assault on the capital with wyverns and mammoths," I finish breathlessly.
His eyes sharpen despite the red tinge creeping into them. "You're certain?"
"Kheirall and Ragnar were there. They saw me but didn't expose me. I think... I think they were trying to help."
"Those demon bastards always did play their own games." He shifts and the chains groan. "Coinneach has already delivered your message. Your knights will warn the court."
Relief washes through me but it's short-lived. Svenn's body convulses suddenly, a growl tearing from his throat.
"You should go." His voice is strained. "The eclipse isn't over yet. I can feel the bond starting to—"
Svenn cuts off with another growl. His control is rapidly fraying. He lurches toward the wall where a lever is mounted, using his limited range to pull it. The chains tighten with a metallic screech, anchoring him to the floor.
"Svenn?"
"Go. Now. Before—" He struggles to get the words out. "I didn't want you to see me like this."
I move closer instead of leaving. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Rhianelle, please." The words come out strangled, desperate. "I can't control it much longer. The bond is breaking free, and when it does… He's everything I've tried to protect you from."
"I don't need protection from parts of yourself."
He goes still. Even the chains stop rattling.
"I want all of you," I continue, keeping my voice steady despite my racing heart. "Every dark corner, every part you keep locked away."
"You don't understand." His voice is deeper, more primal. Claws are beginning to emerge from his fingertips. "The hunger. What it makes me want to do."
"Then show me."
His head snaps up, eyes wide and wild. "You don't know what you're asking."
But I do know.
I step closer until I'm within arm's reach if the chains broke. "We can't keep doing this. I'm tired of you hiding from me, Svenn."
"Rhianelle." My name is a warning, a plea.
"The bond doesn't just want you. It wants to consume you. Possess you completely—" He cuts himself off with a snarl, his fangs lengthening.
A hairline crack appears in one of the chains.
His claws are fully extended now, shadows beginning to writhe around him despite the iron binding.
"I'm not some fragile flower, Svenn. I survived nine hundred years in Astefar. I can handle whatever you—"
"This isn't about what you can handle! It's about what I might do!" The chains shriek as he pulls against them. "The bond doesn't understand restraint. It only knows to take, claim, keep, and mark you."
"Go ahead and let it out." I reach toward him. "Let me see this terrible thing you're so afraid of."
He jerks back violently. Ice begins to spread where his hands grip the iron.
"Rhianelle… Don't come closer." There's panic mixing with the hunger now.
I take a breath, steadying myself. "Something else happened at the ball."
Everything goes still. Even the shadows stop moving. The temperature in the cave seems to drop ten degrees.
"What happened?" His voice is dangerously soft.
"I danced with someone at the Dawnroot tree," I say, watching the frost spread faster across the iron links.
See for yourself, I tell him.
I open my mind and let the memory spill across the connection between us. The dancing, the press of the crowd, the way the music pulled at everything. I trim the edges of it deliberately, giving him the feeling of it without the specifics. A partner, masked, faceless in my telling.
The ochre in Svenn's eyes turns purely red.
"Then he took me out to the terrace," I say quietly.
"And?" The word is barely more than a growl.
"The fae told me something fascinating." I meet those crimson eyes directly. "He said I'm his mate."
The silence that follows is deafening. I can hear my own heartbeat, the drip of water somewhere in the cave's depths.
Then—
CRACK.
The first chain crumbles to pieces. Shards of frozen metal scatter across the cave floor like shrapnel as Svenn's right arm comes free.
"He said what?" The voice that emerges isn't Svenn's anymore. It's something older, hungrier, infinitely more primal.
"He claimed me." I take an involuntary step back as another chain starts to splinter. "He said I was his."
CRACK. CRACK.
Two more chains shatter simultaneously. Svenn rises partially, no longer fully bound to the floor. Shadows pour off him like water in an otherworldly tide.
"Someone else… claimed my mate?" he says slowly, each word dripping with lethal promise.
The possessive words send shivers down my spine. It doesn't sound like Svenn's usual controlled, calm voice. Only two chains still hold and they're screaming under the strain of his pull.
"Svenn—"
"No, sweetheart." His form is shifting, becoming taller and broader. "Not Svenn. He's locked away now. But you wanted to see me, didn't you, little fawn?"
Cracks spread like spiderwebs across the remaining chains.
"Well, congratulations."
CRACK.
The first of the last two chains shatters.
"You're about to get your wish."
The final chain explodes into frozen shrapnel and suddenly he's free. Completely, terrifyingly free.
He stands to his full height, the shadows writhing around him. His eyes burn pure crimson and when he smiles, I see fangs that are longer, sharper, made for tearing.
"Run," he says, and it's not a suggestion.
It's the last mercy I'll get.
This was a mistake. Every instinct I have screams in agreement. This was such a terrible, terrible mistake.
I run.