43. Chapter Forty-Three #2
After several minutes, Ryker’s pulse slowed and the tension in his body eased.
The scales across his body began to shift back into his normal tanned skin.
Mavris breathed a sigh of relief and braced a hand against the wall as he let go of Ryker’s blood.
Ryker hung his head, shaking it back and forth, and I squeezed his hand.
“Hakoa…” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. I saw you on top of her and I just…”
Hakoa stepped forward and offered a hand to Ryker, helping him to a stand. I stood and stepped back to give them space. He patted Ryker on the shoulder.
“I get it. No hard feelings. If it were my mate, you would have been drowning in your own fluids.”
“And I probably wouldn’t have stopped him,” Mavris huffed a laugh which caused Hakoa to laugh harder with Ryker following.
I gaped in confused astonishment at how they could find anything about this situation humorous. Ryker turned toward me. Noticing my expression, he pulled me into an embrace.
“I’m sorry to you as well,” he said into my hair.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. I wasn’t even remotely upset that he had entered my mind. I tilted my head back to look at him. “And I’m not the one that almost died over a clumsy run-in.”
“No. But I did lose control when I tried so hard not to.” He brushed a hair behind my ear. “And you had to find out about Mav’s abilities in such an abrupt way.”
“I had planned to speak with you about it after you two were fully mated, hoping that you’d like me enough by then to not have me killed,” Mavris said.
Ryker turned so I could look at his brother.
“How have you kept it hidden all this time?” I asked.
Mavris just shrugged. “It’s a long story. And one for another time.” I took the hint and let the matter drop.
“And how many people know?” I looked between the three of them before settling back on Mavris.
“Just us plus Arra and my father.” Mavris stepped forward and placed a hand on Ryker’s shoulder. They both nodded to each other before he and Hakoa walked away down the corridor I had come from, leaving Ryker and I standing alone.
“Are you alright?” He traced his fingers down my arm, looking into my eyes with concern.
I smiled up at him. “Yes. I’m fine.”
“I was coming to find you to see if you were hungry yet. Where were you headed? ”
“To meet with Odarum then to speak with you. But now may not be the best time.”
His eyebrows creased. “How come?”
“We’ll talk later. During dinner,” I said as Ryker bent down to grab the book from the floor, checking it for any damage before tucking it under his arm.
“I can go with you.”
“No. I’d like to talk with him first, then you.”
He stared at me for a few moments. His lips were pressed into a thin line.
“Alright. I’ll see you soon then.” He kissed me on the forehead, then we turned and went our separate ways.
“That took much longer than expected,” Odarum said with his ears perked forward in interest as I entered the training area outside the palace.
“Sorry. Ran into some trouble along the way.”
The sun was just beginning to set over the mountains and I could feel the temperature dropping in the air, the sky turning a burnt orange color with hues of pink. Despite the cold, I was starting to love being here. Which brought my thoughts back to the matter at hand.
“I need you to take me and the other Roav back to Morah in the morning. Would you mind?” I asked.
“I do not mind.” Odarum relaxed his ears and lowered his head in a slight nod. “But first, I request that you practice more with your shifting. You assured me that you will work faster in honing your gifts.”
He had every right to call me out. I had promised him that I would work on it. He warned me that he learned that I needed to do it quickly. I was struggling to find the time for it all. But going back to Morah and getting the help from the Scholars would have freed me up so I could train more.
“Now,” he demanded.
“Cranky ass,” I accidentally said through the bond rather than thinking it to myself.
“We have had this discussion before. I am a horse. Now shift.”
I removed my jacket. My skin pebbled from the cold just before my wings emerged behind me.
Odarum walked around me to examine them, sniffing and nudging them with his muzzle before walking back in front of me. “Can you flap them?”
“I can try but the feathers—”
“What’s wrong with feathers?” He shot his head back in offense, ruffling his own wings.
“Oh nothing! They’re just…heavier than I thought.”
“Well, when they are all together they are, even though individually they are not.” He walked around me one more time, making a full circle. “Beat your wings up and down, like this.” He extended his to demonstrate.
I struggled to hold mine out to the sides like him, my muscles screaming as I slowly moved my wings up and back down, slumping them to the ground.
Odarum nodded. “Again.”
For the next hour, I tried and tried again, pushing my body harder in order to continue to beat them against the air. Despite the cold, sweat covered my body, dripping down my forehead and stinging my eyes.
“I have an idea,” he said as he extended one of his wings forward and craned his neck to the side, gently biting one of his feathers and pulling it free from his plumage.
“What are you doing?” I asked curiously.
Odarum placed the black feather, as long as my forearm, on the ground in front of me. “I want you to beat your wings hard enough to lift this single feather off the ground. Once you have done that, I will allow you to retire for the night,” he said before he disappeared from sight.
“Godsdamnit,” I muttered under my breath.
I closed my eyes and allowed my wings to slump to the ground, resting my back muscles for a few moments.
Taking deep breaths, I willed what strength I had left.
In and out. In and out. I opened my eyes and concentrated on the feather before me.
Cringing from the strain, I lifted my wings and thrust them forward and down as hard as I could.
Nothing.
Over and over for nearly an hour, I tried to pump my wings as hard as I could until I felt like they would fall off. I decided to give it one last shot before I went back inside. I lifted my wings again, at a different angle this time, and thrust them down.
For the briefest moment, I felt nothing through my terbis as my feet left the ground then landed back to the stone again.
I breathed a laugh of disbelief as the feather slowly glided through the air, in front of my face.
Holding out my hands beneath it, the feather landed in my palms. I tenderly held it between my fingers with a wide smile.
Shifting my wings away, I squealed with glee, hopping from one foot to the other in celebration of lifting not only the feather from the ground, but myself.
“Well done,” Odarum spoke through my mind from wherever in the realms he was.
I was so elated in that moment that I didn’t feel the aching pain of my muscles as I grabbed my jacket and ran back to the palace with a new-found wind in me, feeling exhilarated and awake, with Odarum’s feather in my hand.
By the time I got back to the bedchamber and bathed, it was dark. I quickly got dressed and rushed to the informal dining area, bringing the feather with me, to meet up with Ryker.
One of the Noavo warriors rushed out of the room when I arrived with a look of dread etched on his face. I saw Ryker as I walked in. The sight of him made my heart flutter. He was dressed casually, in a shirt and loose pants standing at the window looking out over the city below.
Smiling mischievously, I tapped into my magic and became invisible. Slowly, silently, I stepped closer and closer, creeping up behind him. Once I was close enough to touch him, I reached my hand out—
“You should really work on your heavy breathing, you know,” his tone was flat.
I scoffed, disappointed. I’d have loved to see the great Lord of Oryn jump out of his skin. I released my magic.
“Yeah, I guess I do,” I laughed. I craned my neck to the side to look at him, and my smile fell when I saw the sullen expression on his face as he read some kind of report in his hands.
“Ryker, what is it? What’s wrong?” I had hoped he still wasn’t upset about earlier, with Hakoa. His friend understood, we all did.
His eyes remained fixed on the single piece of paper. He took in a deep breath and I could feel his anguish through the bond—my worry only worsened.
“Helerie is gone. The Glaev took it.”