43. Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Three
Kya
A fter we returned from meeting with Deres, Ryker and I went up to meet with Malina and Nikan in one of the larger rooms on the upper floor. It was the palace’s own library, and while it wasn’t close to the extensive collection of Morah, it was still impressive.
Beautiful dark marble shelves extended from the floor all the way up to the high ceiling, filled with books from every subject you could think of.
The center of the large room held several tables, one of which Malina and Nikan were leaning against, waiting for us to arrive with the dark book safely tucked under my arm.
I sat down across from them and placed the book on the table.
“I will leave you to it then. I have a few things to take care of, but I will rejoin you when I can.” He leaned down and whispered next to my ear, “Will you eat with me later?”
“I’d like that,” I said with a smile.
Ryker walked out of the room, leaving the three of us alone in the library.
“Well it’s not home, but it has the same feel. Let’s get into it then.” Malina gestured to the book.
“Kya, what did the Sage say?” Nikan asked. “Did you learn anything useful that could help us?”
I sighed and rubbed my temple. “A lot.”
I proceeded to tell them of our conversation with Deres, before we dug through the book and poured over Rolim’s notes as best we could—most of which didn’t make sense.
“I don’t understand any of this,” Nikan mumbled after hours of reading over the note pages inserted into the book.
He ran his hand through his hair and blew out a sharp breath.
“Kya, I know you want to stay here, but doesn’t it make more sense if we take the book back to Morah and let the linguist Scholars sort through this?
I mean, this is their area of expertise.
” I looked up at him. “I’m not just saying that to get you to leave.
Ryker can come too for all I care. But we’ve been at this for hours and neither of us even know what we’re looking for. ”
“He’s right Kya,” Malina said with one of the pages in her hand. “Just look at his writing. It’s like he used both languages but didn’t explain what the words meant. Even the context doesn’t help.”
I knew they were right. It did make the most sense for us to use the best resources possible for something this important.
No, I didn’t want to leave Ryker, but I wasn’t opposed to it if needed.
Not if it meant that I would ultimately understand what the Glaev was and learn how to stop it. That was more important.
“Yeah, okay. Why don’t we take a break from this and meet up later to discuss. We can leave in the morning. I’ll talk to Odarum and see if he’s willing to Travel us back to Morah,” I offered, thankful for the break myself.
“Thank the Gods. My head is killing me. I need a hot bath. And tea. And sleep,” Malina whined.
“With the amount of ale you consumed last night, I’m surprised you’re able to stand at all,” Nikan said before we both busted out laughing at Malina’s suffering.
“You’re just jealous that I didn’t end up sleeping alone last night. Or that I barely slept at all,” she crooned with a wink aimed at me.
“And exactly which of the dozens of males that were drunkenly drooling over you last night did you wind up going home with?” Nikan crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
I was silently enjoying the bickering, trying to bite back a humorous grin.
Malina tapped her fingers on the table in contemplation before she leaned in and whispered, “Let’s just say, I climbed a mountain last night—and I wasn’t disappointed when I reached the peak.”
I snorted a laugh. Nikan grimaced and shook his head before we both stood, the chair legs squeaking against the floor.
Nikan and Malina left as I bent over the table and collected the papers, placing them back in their respective places in between the pages of the book, closing it and leaving the palace library.
“Are you near? I want to talk to you and I need to train.” I reached out to Odarum. I wanted to speak with him and see if he would take us back to Ilrek. And if I was being honest, I just missed his presence. He had been so absent recently.
“I will meet you at the training grounds outside the Oryn palace.”
My steps were quick as I made my way down the corridor, eager to meet with him.
I was on the opposite side of the palace so I tried to hurry.
I wanted to get in as much time as I could before meeting up with Ryker.
I fumbled with the book as I tried to get my jacket on before coming around the corner where several corridors intersected, not paying attention to my surroundings.
Someone barreled into me as I turned down the hallway.
I dropped the book as a large body crashed down on me, taking me to the floor under its weight.
The air was knocked out of my lungs when my back hit the floor and I groaned under the heavy figure.
The male lifted his head after having smacked it on the floor next to my shoulder.
Hakoa’s eyes widened when he realized who he had toppled over.
I felt it then through my terbis, those familiar steps that I could never forget. If he saw another male on top of me…
“Get off, get off. He’s—” My wheezed voice was cut off by a snarl.
Blinding rage rippled down the bond and I knew that Ryker’s primal instinct would snap seeing another male on top of his mate, pushing all logic aside and clouding his true nature.
Hakoa’s eyes bulged from their sockets. This situation looked very, very bad.
Hakoa tried to push himself off of me, but Ryker had lost all sense of control of himself.
I could feel the writhing chaos through the bond as he ripped his friend off me and threw him against the wall.
I jumped to my feet just as Hakoa grunted from the impact.
Ryker immediately gripped him by the throat and held him against the wall, his toes barely touching the ground.
Hakoa didn’t fight back, even as Ryker manifested his wings, splaying them outward in threat. He knew that Ryker was not in his right mind. What Ryker saw when he came around the corner panicked his bond, making him think that another male was trying to bed his mate.
Ryker’s shifting didn’t stop with his wings. Before my eyes, his skin turned dark as scale after scale appeared until his entire body was covered with swathes of rounded plates, each layer overlapping the one below to create a thick leathery hide of impenetrable armor.
I didn’t have time to marvel at his transformation. He was going to kill Hakoa over an accident, and it wouldn’t be him doing it. I leapt forward, ducking under Ryker’s arm, putting myself between him and Hakoa, and looked up into his eyes, the vibrant silver glazed over with fury.
“Ryker, I’ve got you.” I grabbed his face and the tether of our bond as tight as I could, hoping to reach through to him in more ways than one.
Hakoa tried to gasp for a breath.
But still, Ryker didn’t look at me, his face was twisted with ferocity.
Smoke and shadows pulsed from his body, encompassing us in near darkness within a second.
I could feel his body trembling with ire through the stone and my fingertips.
He was fighting with himself. Trying to prevent an irreversible mistake that he would regret.
Not knowing what else to do, I hoisted myself on him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his waist, filling his line of sight. Leaning my head forward, I brushed my lips across his ever so slightly.
It wasn’t a full kiss, but enough to get his attention. I knew it was wrong at that moment, but I couldn’t help the urge any more than he could control himself.
His entire body shivered and he blinked rapidly. His silver irises, free of the haze, glowed.
“He tried to claim what is mine,” he growled into my mind.
I took a deep calming breath, soothing the bond. I spoke back through my thoughts. “I belong to you and no one will take me from you. What you saw was not what you think. It’s — ”
Ryker was flung back away from me.
Hakoa’s arm held me steady against him so that I wasn’t hoisted across the corridor with him. He placed me down as he coughed heaving gulps of air back into his lungs.
Ryker’s body was tense where he lay against the wall, his chest rising and falling heavily while glaring off to the side where I felt someone standing.
I turned to find that Mavris had his hand held out toward my mate.
Muscles strained, sweat beaded at his brow that was furrowed in intense concentration.
He was controlling Ryker.
A blood wielder.
“Mavris…” I said cautiously as I slowly approached. “You have to let go, you could kill him.”
Blood wielders were forbidden for a reason.
With a simple thought, wielders could kill someone within seconds without leaving a trace.
When fae came into their abilities during adolescence and were found to be blood wielders, they were either killed or sanctioned under the control of the Sages in Bhara with the use of elixirs that tempered their abilities.
How Mavris had gone all this time without being discovered was beyond me.
“Mav,” Hakoa choked out a warning.
“I’m not going to fucking kill him. I’m slowing his blood flow and lowering his heart rate until he calms and can come back to himself,” Mavris gritted out through clenched teeth.
I looked to Hakoa who nodded in reassurance that Mavris would not kill his brother. I rushed over to Ryker and held his rigid, scaled hand. His pulse felt unnatural, and I cringed but refused to let go while he rode this out.