Chapter 84
“Imust say. This is most definitely not what I was expecting. But I do love surprises.”
Krilene tossed her long hair over her shoulder. Quentin didn’t lower his dagger, body tense. “What are you doing here?”
A low growl rumbled from Delaynie, as if she were asking the same thing.
Krilene scoffed. She picked at the folds of her clothing with a long, pointed nail. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m here to help you.”
“Why the fuck would you do that?”
Krilene’s gaze moved past him, focusing on the cream and red wolf. The goddess cocked her head, seafoam eyes thoughtful.
“You don’t know how to shift back, do you, girl?”
Delaynie’s tail swished. Her ears fell back against her head, hackles lowering slightly.
Krilene nodded. “I can help you, if you will let me.”
“Delaynie, wait—”
The wolf was already padding across the streambank, steps confident as she approached the goddess. Quentin gritted his teeth but forced himself to lower his dagger, sheathing it back into his baldric.
It wouldn’t do much against a goddess, anyway. Her people had just betrayed them, but she’d said herself that she had little control. He didn’t trust her, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t help them in this.
Delaynie stopped about a foot from Krilene. The goddess folded her arms over her golden breastplate, drumming her nails against her skin.
“I know what it’s like to shift,” Krilene said. “Though my godhood is different from your gift. I set my beast free; you step into her skin. A similar magic, but not quite the same.
“Rulene, though…” Krilene smiled. “Rulene is my friend. Has been my friend for thousands of years. I know her gifts well. And I know how to help you.”
“Wait,” Quentin said. “How is it even possible for Delaynie to have a gift from Rulene?”
Both women—goddess and wolf—swung their gazes to him.
“Delaynie was born in Onita,” Quentin continued. “Both her parents are Onitan. How is it, then, that she can have a Kreah gift?”
Krilene smiled. “There is so little you mortals understand about your gifts,” she said.
“Yes, they tend to occur in greater frequencies in areas where the god’s powers are concentrated.
But the world was not always as sequestered as it has become.
People traveled, bloodlines mixed.” She leaned forward, narrowing her eyes.
“Do you mean to tell me, Armature, that you have never seen a fair-skinned shifter before?”
“I—” The words caught in his throat.
Because he had. He’d fought one, back on that night he was captured in Kreah and thrown into the pits. The feline shifter, Oralla, with her moon-white hair and pale, translucent skin.
Quentin snapped his mouth closed. Maybe Krilene was right. Maybe there was so much about this world and its magic they did not know.
Besides, did it even really matter where Delaynie got this power from?
No. It didn’t.
Quentin nodded sharply. The goddess smirked and turned back to Delaynie, the wolf’s icy-blue eyes tracking her.
“All right, girl. Do you want to shift back?”
Delaynie whined, dipping her head.
Krilene nodded. “Good. Your will is the first step.” She leaned forward, lifting a hand. Delaynie went rigid as the goddess’s touch sank into her soft fur.
“Your calm is the next,” Krilene continued. “I can feel your panic. Your stress. You must take control of it. It is causing you to fight this form, which is only going to lock you into it. You have to find peace in order to let it go.”
They held each other’s stares for a long moment—goddess and wolf, ageless and young, warrior and beast. Something passed between them, something Quentin felt tremble in the earth. He took a half-step back, fingers itching toward his baldric on an instinct that was as ingrained in him as breathing.
Delaynie’s eyes shuddered closed. She drew in a deep, rumbling breath, her flanks expanding beneath her fur.
She slowly released it. Krilene smiled, withdrawing her hand and stepping back.
“Now,” the goddess commanded. “Shift.”
Blue light flashed through the jungle, a bright spark beneath the vine-laden canopy. Quentin blinked, vision peppering, a hand flying up to shield his eyes.
He lowered it slowly. Delaynie knelt in the moss, panting, dressed in the same cream button-down shirt she’d been in that morning. Her auburn hair swept over her shoulders, creamy skin on display.
Human. She was so gloriously, perfectly human.
Quentin surged forward, dropping to his knees at her side, pulling her into his chest. She was soft and pliant, shaking slightly as she gripped his shirt and burrowed her face in his chest.
“It’s okay, little wolf,” he murmured, inhaling that perfect scent. “I’m here. You’re back. I’m here.”
The same words, over and over and over again. Gradually her breathing slowed, though the tremors in her body didn’t stop.
She went rigid, spine locking. With a sudden, violent shove, she threw herself from his arms, wheeling away to face a low, sprawling shrub.
And emptied the contents of her stomach.
Krilene chuckled. “Yes, apologies. The first shift back can be a bit of a shock to the system. I should’ve warned you.”
Quentin ignored the goddess, scrambling to his feet. He gathered Delaynie’s hair, holding it around the nape of her neck and resting a steadying hand on her back. She weakly tried to push him away, a soft “no” slipping past her lips.
“Sorry, Del,” Quentin said gently. “I just saw you rip the arms off grown men. This is nothing. Let me help you.”
She tilted her head to the side, shooting him a glare. Her mouth parted—
Her body heaved, and she doubled over back into the underbrush.
Quentin held her through it, murmuring soft words of comfort. Krilene lingered a short distance away, arms crossed, looking increasingly more impatient as the minutes ticked past.
Finally, Delaynie’s trembling subsided. She leaned back, bracing against Quentin, her already pale skin washed of color.
“Better?” he murmured. She met his stare, giving a short nod.
“Here.” A hand appeared above them, shoving a waterskin in their faces. “Drink. It will help.”
Delaynie quietly took Krilene’s offering, uncorking the skin. She sniffed it delicately, recoiling slightly. “This isn’t water.”
“No. It’s juice. Like I said, it will help.”
Delaynie hesitated but lifted the skin to her lips. She took a small sip, tasting the liquid on her tongue. Her eyes widened, and she took another gulp, then another, and another—
“All right. Not too much.” Krilene snatched the skin back. “Or else you’ll just make yourself sick again.” She pulled a dark material from her robes, tossing it at Delaynie’s feet. “And trousers, too. The jungle is no place for bare legs.”
Delaynie glared at the goddess, but already color was staining her cheeks. She shakily rose to her feet, snatching the soft brown pants from the ground and pulling them over her thighs. Quentin turned away, giving her a bit of privacy, but not before he caught the flush spreading over her cheeks.
“Thank you,” Delaynie said once she was dressed. “For your help.”
The goddess nodded. “I’m happy to—”
“But what the fuck happened back in the city this morning?” Delaynie’s interruption was sharp and piercing, stabbing through the jungle. Quentin fought back a smirk, even when his instincts flickered back to awareness.
Krilene, thankfully, didn’t seem to take too much offense. She simply rocked back on her heels, pale robes swaying around her toned legs.
“It is like what I told you before,” the goddess said calmly. “I am their patron, but they know they have free will. I have little control over Varyn’s actions.”
“So, you know nothing? You have no idea why we were ambushed and dragged out of our bed this morning?”
Krilene’s mouth tilted into a frown. “As I’ve said. I do not know Varyn’s reasons.” She hesitated, like she was about to say more, but instead snapped her mouth shut.
Delaynie’s eyes narrowed. “There’s more you know. Tell us.”
Krilene sighed. “Fine. Word reached our shores this morning from Vatha. Perhaps Varyn’s actions have something to do with what has happened there.”
Delaynie and Quentin exchanged a glance. Dread and concern sparked in Quentin’s chest. Sebastian and Ciana were in Vatha—at least, that’s where they’d left them.
“What word from Vatha? What happened?” Delaynie’s words were steeped with the same concern Quentin felt.
Krilene’s gaze softened, her expression turning apologetic, and Quentin almost wished they hadn’t asked.
“My Consort, Ydros, has decided to ally with Kol. I understand his reasoning, even if we do not agree.” She twisted a lock of pale hair around her finger, and for the first time, something akin to pain shimmered in the sea foam of her eyes.
“He will never admit it, but he is afraid. He does not wish to see any more people suffer through a war.”
“So, he chose the side of a bloodthirsty conqueror instead?” Gone was Quentin’s concern. All he felt now was fury.
Fury for his friends. Fury for his queen. Fury for this world that was simply choosing to roll over in the face of tyranny instead of fighting for a future of freedom.
Krilene’s eyes flashed. “You did not see the destruction the First War wrought. I did. Like I said, I do not agree with him, but I understand why he made this choice.”
Quentin growled, low in his throat. His feet moved, pacing a track across the forest floor.
“And what of our friends?” Delaynie asked quietly. “Two of them were in Vatha. What has happened to them?”
Krilene winced. “Ydros and the Vathan King have taken them both as prisoners, declaring Onita and its queen enemies of Vatha.” Her features softened again.
Quentin was a little shocked by how quickly her demeanor could change, as fickle as the tides.
“I am sorry. Truly. I am told they are alive, but that is all I know.”
Delaynie was silent. She slowly faced Quentin, grief stricken across her face.
He felt the same. He paused his pacing, gripping her arms.
“They will be okay. They have to be okay.” He couldn’t let himself believe anything else.
Delaynie nodded. She turned back to Krilene. “We have to go to them. We have to help.”
“No. It would be far too dangerous for you to travel back to Vatha now.”
“It’s too dangerous for us here!” Quentin’s anger exploded from him. “Everywhere on this fucking continent is dangerous for us. The least you could do is help us save our friends.”
“I will not fight my Consort.” Krilene’s voice was firm.
“Then you are useless to us.” Quentin turned away. He didn’t know where he was headed; only that they had to go.
“I will not help him, either.”
He froze at Krilene’s words, slowly glancing over his shoulder. “Do you plan to do anything at all?”
“Yes. And it involves you.”
He was still so fucking angry and scared and tired. But Quentin couldn’t deny his curiosity at the strange lilt to Krilene’s words, as if she wanted to say more but was holding herself back.
“Me?” He faced her fully. Delaynie stood a few paces away, watching with her piercing eyes. “What are you talking about?”
Krilene gathered her robes. She nodded deeper into the jungle. “Come. There is something you need to see.” She smiled, showing far too many teeth.
It raised the hairs on the back of Quentin’s neck.
“I want to show you something that could help your queen win this war before it truly begins. But only if you are strong enough to take it.”