26. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kya
W hen I came to, I found myself sitting.
My back slumped against a warm chest, an arm around my waist, as I rhythmically swayed from side to side.
The creaking of leather and sounds of hooves stepping against the dirt roused me further.
I squinted at the blinding light piercing my vision as I opened my eyes and lifted my sagging head.
I felt like shit, but at least the burning was gone again.
“Damn Kya. You had us scared,” Malina said from her horse, next to me.
I turned my head and saw Nikan looking at me with concern, but I could tell that he was infuriated. I looked around and noticed that we were walking along a well-traveled path through sparse trees.
“How long was I asleep?” I asked, rubbing my eyes and stretching my back.
“A day and a half,” Nikan bit out through gritted teeth.
I knew he’d be pissed.
Malina pointed her thumb over her shoulder to Odarum. “Pony express here brought you back unconscious. I thought Nik was going to crush him under a rock. I would have paid a good amount of coin to see that,” she huffed a laugh at that last part.
“Care to explain what happened?” Nikan asked me.
I sighed heavily, still feeling tired and weak.
“We worked on honing my magic to discover what Kleio gifted me. I found out, but it quickly drained my energy.”
“What is it? Your magic?” Malina asked with interest.
“I can become unseen.” The side of my lips curved up.
“Unseen? Like invisible?” Nikan chimed in.
“Yeah.”
“You mean you can become hidden while in plain sight?” Malina asked in astonishment.
“As if I need magic to do that.” I winked.
“True.” She shrugged. “So, what does Kleio want you to do with this magic?”
“Uncover the truth about the Glaev,” I said.
Nikan and I leaned forward to duck under a low hanging branch.
“And how exactly does she expect you to do that?” Malina asked.
“She said that I already know.” I shrugged.
“Why do they have to be so cryptic?” she mumbled.
“The Gods can’t interfere. Neither can the Spirits,” I said.
She tilted her head and gave a questioning look.
I sighed as I continued. “Before the war, the Gods used fae as slaves and then during the war they forced magic into them and demanded they fight. That amount of magic in Taeralia was tilting the scales of balance to a dangerous level and the Spirits,” I gestured to Odarum who was looking off to the side, seemingly not paying attention.
“Warned the Gods that if they didn’t stop, then they would destroy the realm.
When Odes fell, the balance had shifted so violently that it literally tore our world apart.
The Spirits then had to intervene. They made some kind of divine pact or something with the Gods.
Part of that pact was the division of the lands, one to each God, with one being neutral in place of Odes, as well as forbidding the Gods to interfere with the natural evolution of fae. ”
I paused for a moment. “With the exception of the Trial, where they are allowed to grant one fae at a time great magic, the Gods aren’t allowed to interact with the fae.”
“Wow,” Malina breathed. “You need to get out more.”
Nikan snorted a laugh.
“You need to read more,” I retorted.
“Is all of that true?” Nikan asked over his shoulder to Odarum.
He bobbed his head and said to me, “A butchered summarization, but yes.”
“You were there during the war?” I asked him.
“I was.”
“That was thousands of years ago. How old are you?”
“Spirits do not have an age. We have always existed.”
“Like the Gods? ”
“Gods and Spirits are symbiotic. One cannot be without the other.”
“So did…Spirits die when Odes did?” I asked carefully.
“Many,” he said after a moment.
“And if a Spirit dies, do the Gods also die?”
“No. But they do painfully feel the loss.”
I thought for a moment. “You and I are bonded. If I died, you would feel that pain of loss like the Gods feel if the Spirits die. But what would happen if you died? Would I die?”
He was silent for several moments, and I almost didn’t think he was going to answer me. “I do not know. No Fylgjur has ever died before their Worthy.”
I still couldn’t pronounce that damn word. And I had no interest in finding out the answer to my question first hand.
Mentally drained, we made camp that night with another two days’ ride ahead of us to Morah.
I wanted to practice with my magic but decided against it, not wanting to overdo it and be unconscious for nearly two days again.
I felt fully rested and energized and I couldn’t sleep.
I stayed awake, leaving Malina and Nikan in the tent while I remained outside.
It was a warm night and didn’t require a fire.
Malina created a small orb of light above me so that I could read, now that I finally had some time to do so peacefully, and I was glad for the escape.
It had been a few hours, and I was well into a wonderfully descriptive love scene that made more than just my cheeks heat when I felt a familiar distant thump through my terbis.
One that was large and heavy—the same one as that night in Torx.
And just like that night, the shadows in that direction were darker than the rest.
Shadows…
My heart plummeted, and my eyes widened with both excitement and dread. The swirls inside of me tugged and I gasped a breath.
My mate has been following me.
The pieces fell into place, and it all made sense.
The burning and swirling, that was the bond.
If he had been following me, then he wasn’t rejecting the bond.
But then why would he have told me to run?
And the shadows…he was a shadow wielder.
It dawned on me then that the calming swirls inside of me were like that of his shadows—the bonds representation of him.
I thought about reaching for it. Reaching for him. But I was…apprehensive. I didn’t know if this tug was the bond urging me or if it was him trying to connect with me. Either way, I wasn’t ready. But at the same time, I wanted it more than I had ever wanted anything.
Driven by instinct and desire, I stood, facing my mate where he hid in the shadows. Just as I took a step to go to him, I felt him disappear once again.
I waited throughout the night with my palms flat on the ground. Waited to feel him on the terra again. I knew he was near, the shadows inside of me were calm and soothing—comforting. I concentrated my terbis to feel everything around me, searching for him.
I could feel the horses standing behind the stone tent.
I felt Nikan and Malina laying on the furs, their breathing and heartbeats steady as they slept.
I felt animals slumbering or walking in the distance and I even felt every tree, every rock, everything.
But I didn’t feel him. Anticipation coursed through me, keeping me awake and alert.
But as the night bled into dawn, that anticipation turned to irritation.
Irritation at him rejecting me, following me, then vanishing—not to mention bewildered at how he could seemingly appear and disappear.
I was down right aggravated by morning. My past feelings of hurt and disappointment transformed to hot rage at my mate’s evasion. I was done waiting for him to appear. Disregarding any politeness, I woke up Nikan and Malina, roughly nudging them with my boot.
“It’s daybreak. Let’s go,” I clipped out, before leaving the tent and gathering the horses. Odarum had kept himself out of sight until now, and followed as we left toward Morah without saying a word.
Nikan sat behind me as we rode and I refused to let him take the reins. I fumed with anger all day, snapping at anyone who spoke to me or ignoring them completely. A few hours before dusk, Nikan’s patience wore out.
“That’s it. I’ve had enough of your shit.
” He ripped the reins from me and kicked the horse into a canter through the trees.
I jabbed my elbow into his side and cursed as twigs and leaves smacked me in the face, cutting into my skin.
He grunted when I kicked him in the shin, which only caused the horse to run faster.
Once we entered a clearing, Nikan pulled on the reins and the horse stiffened his back legs, sliding to a stop, causing dirt to spew into the air around us as we lurched in the saddle. He jumped off the horse, bending at the knees when he landed. I glared at him.
Malina emerged from the clearing behind us, ducking under a low branch, and slowed her horse to a trot.
“Get off the horse, Kya,” Nikan demanded as he removed his sword from its holster on his back.
“Fuck you,” I spat through gritted teeth. I was being irrational and I knew it, yet I couldn’t help it at the same time.
What in the After is wrong with me?
“Either get down or talk about whatever has you in such a pissy mood.” He crossed his arms over his chest and squared his shoulders.
I dismounted. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about anything.
My breath shook as adrenaline coursed through my body.
Nikan’s flicked his eyes to Malina behind me and he nodded his head once.
I knew what they were planning. This was what we did with each other.
Nikan understood that I needed an outlet for my pent-up frustration and was willing to take the brunt of it.
Malina threw something at me and I caught it before bending down to remove my boots.
Stepping my bare feet into the grass toward Nikan, I tied the length of cloth Malina had tossed to me around my eyes and removed each of my daggers from my thighs.
I took a deep breath and concentrated on the vibrations through the terra.
Through the combination of listening and my terbis, I could detect exactly where they were and their movements—even before they made them, feeling their muscles tensing just before they moved.
The blindfold forced me to narrow my focus.