Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
LYRIANA
My heart was hammering, the pieces of the puzzle all coming together. The silence of the akadim, Aemon and Morgana’s plans, and the green shard being hidden in Korteria. That was why Rhyan had been made Arkturion.
I eyed Auriel carefully, my body tensed. “We should leave now,” I said, ready to run, ready to race toward the shard. Toward Rhyan.
But Auriel shook his head, and pulled out a map we’d acquired on one of our outings. “The mountain is at the westernmost Lumerian border, as far as you can go before leaving the Empire.” He pointed.
Even more conveniently closer to Vrukshire than we were now. My heart pounded.
“Shit. That’s why we haven’t heard of any attacks,” I said. “Because they’re in the mountain.”
“Exactly. And more than that. Akadim can survive a month without feeding. They can outlast starvation by years if they have to.”
“You think Morgana and Aemon are starving them?” I asked uneasily.
Auriel nodded. “They would have to, to keep them on schedule, to dig as deep as I buried the shard.” His mouth tightened.
I frowned. Akadim were insatiable. Morgana and Aemon might have them under their thrall—but they were still a horde of starving akadim. They’d riot. They’d mutiny.
And if there was food nearby, then they were feeding. They were just doing it quietly.
I pointed beyond the border, feeling sick to my stomach.
“They’re going to the human lands—where there’s no magic.
That’s who they’re feeding from, who they’re …
attacking. And killing. And … Fuck—they’re probably also building their army with them too.
Using them to dig.” All these innocent people, losing their lives, being turned into monsters, all so they could be enslaved and used by Aemon in his war.
Auriel nodded grimly. “Damn.” His eyes reddened and he shook his head. “Lifetimes pass. Some things never change.”
“They did this last time?” I asked.
Auriel’s gaze met mine, and there was something heavy in his aura. Like a rain cloud that needed to burst. “You still don’t remember?” His voice shook.
I shook my head, my eyes watering. “I’m sorry.”
He exhaled sharply. “This was exactly how they gained the advantage over us back then. Numbers. They sent ships beyond the continent, ships that were completely empty. They’d return with humans. Food for their army. Food that became the army.”
My stomach twisted.
Nostrils flaring, his aura turned from something sad, to something more fiery and more determined.
Auriel dragged his finger across the map from the border mountains to where we were now in the Mouth of the Wolf.
The border mountains were known as the Wall of the Prince. We were only a few miles away from it.
Auriel cleared his throat, considering. “We can take the horse there, or we can go by foot.” He glanced toward the mouth of the cave; there was nothing but darkness beyond it.
“But I really don’t like the idea of us going at night.
If they are feeding—even if they have day abilities—they’re most likely still attacking in the dark.
When people are asleep, vulnerable. They may be going over the border.
They may not. They may have a watch to the east of Korteria.
We don’t know what we’ll encounter. But we need to find out everything. And I’m not risking you at night.”
“You’re not risking me at all,” I snapped. “Nor do you get a say in what I do.”
“Meka, please. Am I not allowed to look out for you? To care about you? To,” his voice cracked, “love you.”
I held his gaze, and that feeling came over me again. The one I felt in the Moon Court. The ghost of a memory of him looking at me. His face was full of love. And an almost animalistic passion. One I saw nearly replicated from time to time when our eyes met.
“You mean Asherah,” I said.
“No.” He shook his head. “You. I love you. When will you understand? It’s the same thing.
” He swallowed roughly, his jaw muscles tensing.
“There’s nowhere you can go where I won’t find you.
No face you can wear that I won’t recognize.
No form you can take that I won’t love. Because I know you.
I knew what Asherah was to me the first moment I saw her.
It was the same with you. Since I’ve been with you, my love has grown, expanded. I love you, Lyriana. As you are now.”
My throat dried. “I … I didn’t realize.”
His mouth tightened, his gaze cloudy and distant. “I’m on the other side of things. I see all of Asherah, all her faces, all her lives. And I see you.” His eyes met mine. “But you only see Rhyan.”
My heart sank at his words. “Auriel.”
He shook his head. “No, no. You don’t have to say anything.
It’s as it should be. I think I miss … I miss her, too.
You’re a temptation that’s hard to resist. Because I see her in you, see that you are her.
And yet, you remind me constantly that you’re different.
” He coughed, and stared down at the map again.
“I think we should go in the morning,” he said, finality in his voice.
“Find a place to stay nearby. We need a base, and we need to investigate first. Seek out the mountain. The Prince’s Wall.
Find out what numbers we’re facing. And when we know, when we’re ready—we’ll strike. ”
We’ll find Rhyan. My heart pounded. I could feel it this time. We’d figured it out. We were really going to find him.
I went to bed not long after that. Auriel took the ashvan out for a ride—he was getting antsy, missing his hourly patrols. And then I felt Auriel standing guard over me, so I could fall asleep first, in peace.
We didn’t discuss his outburst or his confession. That he’d fallen in love with me. Not just because I was Asherah. But because I was myself.
I remembered loving him as Asherah. Stronger than any feelings I’d had in this lifetime.
But nothing like what I felt for Rhyan. And if I was honest, I simply wouldn’t allow myself to feel anything more.
To forget my mission. Or slow down. Because anything he felt for me, or that I could possibly feel for him, wouldn’t matter once Rhyan was cured.
I woke up in the middle of the night. I couldn’t remember my dream. Only that Rhyan had been in it. An ocean between us. Yet I could still see his face clearly. His green eyes had turned red, and his teeth had grown into fangs. He’d opened his mouth, and the waves took him. Again.
I wiped the tears from my eyes, and shivered. My body was so cold. The fire we’d built had gone out.
Auriel stirred beside me, still asleep, blissfully unaware of the drop in temperature.
I rolled over to him. He reached for me instantly, his arm wrapping around my waist, pulling me close.
His hand found my belly. The place that Rhyan’s normally occupied.
Something softened in my chest, and on instinct, I snuggled closer to him, burrowing into his warmth.
My heart pounded with the sensation, the sense of safety that I’d been missing, the familiarity I’d craved.
I peered back at his face. He was smiling as he dreamed.
I’d never seen him do that before. He looked peaceful.
Content. He’d been missing Asherah as much as I’d been missing Rhyan.
We both needed this. For a few minutes, I listened to the sound of his heart beating.
The sound I had listened to as Asherah a millennium ago.
A sound that had been imprinted on my soul.
Proof he was alive. So alive. And finally, warm again, my eyes closed.
In the morning, Auriel gathered food, and I practiced with the shard until he returned. We packed up what little belongings we had—mostly weapons—and coins we’d stolen during our outings. Then I went through the routine of glamouring our appearances before climbing onto the back of our ashvan.
We kept to the woods and the hills, until we’d reached the small town beyond the mountains.
Once there, we found an inn with a spare room.
Auriel paid enough to allow us to stay a week.
The inn provided a lunch which we took advantage of, and then with the rest of the day open, we began our hike to the mountain range.
We let the horse go then, releasing him from the post we’d hidden him at before entering the town.
There was nowhere to keep him in the town.
Not without drawing more suspicions toward us.
It was known throughout the country that one of the patrol ashvan had gone missing.
So we went the rest of the way on foot, fully armed.
There was a field leading into a valley, one that led right to the mountain range.
We hiked around the outskirts, and saw nothing. No akadim. But no ashvan either. No seraphim. Nor any kind of birds at all. It was eerily, disturbingly silent.
“The animals sense their presence,” Auriel said. “So can I. There’s a heaviness in the atmosphere. They’re definitely here.”
A shiver ran down my spine. I recognized an unwelcome sensation I was all too used to. I was being watched.
“How do you get in?” I asked, craning my neck up at the structure. It looked like pure stone all around. No openings.
“There’s a way,” he said. “But,” he shrugged, “it’s been a thousand years. Things shift.”
I bit my lip, but my heart was pounding as we moved closer, Auriel touching the mountainside.
Yet everywhere we looked, it was the same.
Just rock. No sign of life. No sign of entry.
Hours passed, and the sensation of being watched never left me.
But with the sun setting soon, Auriel dragged me reluctantly back to the inn.
I dreamt of nothing that night. My thoughts on endless rocks, and Rhyan.
We returned the next day, no longer glamoured, retracing our steps, searching for an opening, for any signs of activity.
We decided to climb higher—to get closer. The sensation I had the day before returned.
“We’re being watched,” I hissed.
Auriel nodded. “Stay close to me.” He reached for the hilt of his sword, his green eyes blazing with determination.
We climbed higher, coming to a small rock landing, and again Auriel touched the mountainside. He gasped, almost as if in pain, and his tan skin paled, the green light of his eyes going out.
“Auriel?”
His chest heaved, and then suddenly he looked like himself again. “Sorry, I’m all right.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
But then he stepped back, and stumbled. He’d never stumbled, not on his own. Not like this.
A pit formed in my stomach and the hair on the back of my neck lifted, and a shiver ran down my spine. Something was wrong.
“I just felt—I can’t explain it.”
I took his hand in mine. My heart was beating faster and faster.
“Was it the void? Did you sense Rhyan? The shard?” My heart hadn’t warmed, hadn’t heated the way it did for the others once my magic was revealed. But … I couldn’t shake the feeling, or the fear running through me. We weren’t alone. “Auriel, I—”
A growl sounded behind. And then another one came from above. And an akadim walked out onto a short cliff near where we stood.
We didn’t have time to react, to grab our swords. The akadim leapt, flying up into the air and then soaring as he fell. He tackled Auriel, rolling him down the hill.
I screamed and turned around, only to come face-to-face with another. The sun shone behind him, the light glaring and leaving me momentarily blind to everything but his silhouette. I blinked, stumbling back. He moved, blocking the sun, and my vision cleared.
“Hello, lover,” Rhyan growled, his voice low.
I reached for my sword. For the red shard. But Rhyan was faster. He wrapped his hand around my neck, and squeezed, and squeezed, my feet lifting off the ground.
Auriel yelled my name, the sound faint and fuzzy. And then my vision blurred, my breath coming short. I was aware of something clattering to the ground, something falling. Metal. Crystal. Light.
Rhyan’s lips, now large and fanged, turned up into a cruel, monstrous smile. My eyes closed, and then I knew nothing.