Chapter 26 Thayla #2
My breath hitches, legs threaten to buckle, and I flinch so hard I nearly go tumbling forward.
“Don’t stop, Thayla. Keep going. I’m here.”
Riven’s command pierces my ears as he passes me by and I mutter a curse.
My heart slams against my ribs like it wants to escape, but I force myself to pick my pace up as I watch his back continue to grow farther from me.
Go, Thayla.
You can’t let him win.
He wins, you have to face whatever version of reality this is.
My mouth opens to scream out a warning, but it’s too late.
He goes tumbling over a limb lying on the ground. He was too busy peering over his shoulder to make sure I was still following.
You should stop and check on him.
No, you should win.
I leap over his back and his laugh jabs through the rock around my heart. A small smirk crosses my lips as his magical melody echoes through the otherwise quiet forest.
His laugh and my painful pants.
Keep going, he’s coming.
The tree line thins and I push harder.
My legs pump faster and my lungs scream.
The towering forest gives way and opens up to nothing but meadow grass and victory.
I allow the glow stick to slip from my fingers so nothing weighs me down.
Nothing will stop me. Nothing will hold me back.
The knee-high blades flow across my skin in a much gentler caress. They soothe away the sting from the prickles the vegetation left behind.
“Better spread those wings and fly, angel.”
A gasp of outrage pours from my tight chest as Riven holds my glow stick high in the air, cheering as he rides on the back of Verlet.
“You cheater.”
That asshole. I was almost there. I was so close.
I could taste it like those cookies melting on my tongue.
I’ll never in my life outrun…
Feet that fall much heavier against the land than mine pound against the ground behind me.
“Seismet?”
His neigh breezes against my neck, and I choke out a laugh as he gallops to my side.
“Right here. I’ll always be here. Grab my mane.”
I twist my still sprinting body and tangle my fingers through his braids. With a leap of faith and a little push from his power, I glide through the air until I’m situated on his back.
He takes off at breakneck speed and his power cocoons me.
“Cheating little shit. Did he have this planned the whole time?”
“No. Verlet and I were supposed to follow you both through the forest in case you needed us. That was a last-minute plan on both their parts. Traitors.”
“Yeah, they are.”
“Do you want to win, Thayla?”
I swallow.
“Yeah, I do. Really bad.”
“Then let’s win.”
I hold his golden mane in a death grip as his front hooves come off the ground. The second they touch back down, we take off at the speed of light. A blast of power soars across the meadow and it washes across me in waves.
A shrill of pure, unfiltered adrenaline rips free from the confines of my chest as we gain on the other two.
They’re less than a Veilatara length ahead of us, and what looks like an actual finish line that Riven put together is about ten lengths away.
“Come on, Seismet, you got this.”
His neigh has Verlet returning one and picking up speed.
Their gallops thunder through the space and each powerful step pumps in my chest like a drum. Their strides send a ripple across the land and my senses.
“You got this, Seismet. Go, go, go.”
The second Riven’s arm is within my reach, I snatch my damn glow stick out of his hand and pump it in the air.
His laugh rings a warning in my ear and I continue to encourage Seismet on. He and Verlet trade the lead back and forth.
One moment, we’re a muzzle ahead, the next, they are.
You got this.
You can do it.
We can do it.
“No!”
My arms splay out beside me and my neck cranes toward the stars and full moon as a belly deep laugh pours through my lips. Riven’s roaring denial causes the noise spilling from me to grow louder.
Seismet’s victory trot bounces me all around, and I roam my hands up and down his neck as I wrap him in a hug.
“Fuck yes, Seismet.”
“That will teach the two of them about cheating against us again.”
“Hell yeah, it will.”
I grin and chuckle at the huff and stomp Verlet gives us. Seismet whips toward him, and I swear to the Valories, his responding breath sounds like a laugh.
“You’re getting slow in your old age, brother.”
“I’m most certainly not. Riven weighs more than Thayla does.”
“Pitiful excuse. You two even had a head start.”
That they did.
My Veilatara is a badass.
I lean forward and lay a kiss on Seismet’s cheek as he cranes his neck back toward me.
The smile on Riven’s face as he slides off Verlet’s back has my chuckle fading. He approaches my side with his arms stretched up toward me and I hesitantly lean into him.
My feet hit the ground and my knees wobble as they get used to holding me up once again. Between the run followed by the power that pulsed through me from Seismet, they’re as limp as a blade of grass.
He drags his hands away from me once I get my balance and his small smirk causes an ache to form in my chest.
“Nice flying, angel.”
“Thanks,” I say, tucking my hair behind my ear and glancing over at where our Veilatara are huffing and stomping at one another.
“You won. We can go back whenever you’re ready.”
I force my gaze to meet his.
He means it.
He won’t stop you this time.
“Can…is it okay if we just sit out here for a minute?”
“If that’s what you want to do.”
He tries to hold in his breath of relief, but I catch the way his words hitch.
Wordlessly, I lower myself to the ground and cross my legs beneath me. I stare at the stars while twirling the meadow grass through my fingers. He spreads out on his back with his hands behind his head.
For a long moment, we sit here.
A snap has me twitching, then glaring down at the plate of cookies that just appeared on his belly. He’s already shoving one between his lips. His groan has my mouth watering and my hand stretching toward them.
My lids drift closed as I suck the melted chocolate off my finger. The sweetness burst across my tongue, and I fight the searing burn that spreads in the back of my eyes.
This is the first time food’s had a taste in two days.
“You okay?”
I exhale.
“I…I don’t know what’s real or fake anymore, Riven. I don’t even know if this is actually happening. Maybe it’s a dream or another cruel imagination that’s about to go sideways.”
His hand lies against my forearm and a panicky breath escapes me.
“I’m really here. Everything that just happened, really happened.”
I blink my eyes open.
And immediately wish I never had.
Ice slithers through my veins as I stare down at the shadows around his wrist. Sweat breaks out across my skin and true, unrelenting terror takes hold.
No, no, no.
Not this again.
Please no.
I snatch away from him and crawl backwards as fast as I can.
“Thayla…” he pleads as he gets to his knees.
His attention falls to his own hands and the crushing look that crosses his face slows my retreat. His palms shake against his thighs as he falls back against his heels.
“Please hear me out. Hear us out. We can explain everything that’s happening to you. I promise this is real. I’m real. These…are real. I’ll swear it on anything you want me to swear it on.”
My mouth gapes open as I trace the plea on his features.
Somehow, me shaking my head turns into a nod once when my voice fails me.
My eyes widen when his brothers pop out of starshoots behind him not two seconds later. Confusion colors their faces for a breath before all their attention lands on me.
“Thayla,” Amick breathes as he takes a hesitant step forward.
Kyzen’s arm stops him.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
I fall into the depths of his navy irises as he lowers himself to the ground. The light blue rings around his pupils aren’t shining on their own with his power, but the glow stick lying by his knee illuminates his whole face.
I sit but keep my tense fingers in the grass and heels dug in, ready to shove me up.
“Hi.”
“Can we sit with you?”
“How did you know where we were?”
“Riven asked Verlet to tell us to come out here. This is the spot he likes to hang out with him at if he isn’t at the hot spring.”
My attention slides back to Riven.
He set our finish line up at his spot because he thought he was going to win our race.
I won.
That really happened.
“What’s happening to me?” I ask and let my gaze roam over each of them. Creed and Amick shift from side to side on their feet. “Sit down, please.”
They do. Cautiously.
I don’t know whether to be thankful or offended.
“I’m going to move behind you, if that’s okay?” Kyzen asks.
My muscles lock up. “Why?”
“Because you need touch. You need to feel the weight of something real. The pulse of a living being.”
“You felt a little better on the back of Seismet, right?” Riven asks hopefully.
That’s the most alive I’ve felt in the last two days.
“That sensation is drifting away now, isn’t it?”
“How do you know that?”
His lips tighten into a frown.
“I’ll be right at your back. If you want me to move, you just tell me that, okay?” Kyzen asks and I gulp. “We’ll explain everything.”
I nod.
He crawls toward me slowly, stopping only when he’s at my back. His legs settle on either side of mine as I reposition myself until I’m sitting crisscrossed. I tangle my fingers in the grass to keep from reaching for him.
The warmth of his chest against my back sends a shudder of relief through me, though my muscles stay coiled.
His arms slide around me, resting on my thighs, gentle and careful. The embrace that doesn’t trap me. I know I can break free from it the second I need to.
“What you’re experiencing, what you’ve been experiencing since you left the healing villa is what’s called the Shadow Shift.
It’s the phase after the God of Shadows’ power retreats from your mind.
That…hum you heard while you were in there was his power weaving through you.
It discombobulates reality and sometimes, it takes a while for everything to settle once again. ”