Chapter 8
The Castle Shela
The King’s wing.
A wash of violence and darkness trembled on the air, the wraiths in the high mountains screamed their frenzy, and the beast inside Tehdra El Kyn stirred. As a Darkan she sensed all negative emotions—rage, hate, jealousy, and the darker, the happier the demon inside her was, for it fed on negativity. Yet what she felt trembling on the very air was not an emotion itself, but darkness that bespoke of fire. If she had not known better, she would have thought it was the rage of the Phoenyx trembling on the air.
She turned in the cage of her mate's arms, sliding her legs along his, brushing her mind against his. They had just made love, and his deeps thoughts were calm and sated. Ajali slept, his chest rising with his deep, even breathing. Now he appeared relaxed, and not the caged animal who had prowled in this very chamber for hours, flames crackling around him as the aura of the Phoenyx had made itself evident. The demon inside of her shied away at the display of power and had lurked in the cage of her mind, as she had approached Ajali and seduced him away from the torments of his thoughts.
She pressed a kiss over his heart. I love you.
“What is it?” her lover and mate murmured, his dark green eyes snapping open, instantly alert and calculating.
“I sense a force of darkness to the east. It is not the wraiths.”
He flashed from the bed, and within seconds he was clothed with his chained sword coiled around his forearm. With a single burst of darkness, she was similarly dressed and ready for battle.
“Is it a Darkan?”
“I cannot tell. This energy feels…unique. It holds a mystical force I have never sensed in another of my kind, but it is of my kind.”
Knowledge leaped in the dark green of his beautiful eyes. “Gavyn.”
She glanced through the windows of their chamber, toward the hills and mountains where his province of E'Bari resided. "I must go to him." She sauntered over to him and pressed a kiss against his mouth. "Do not say you will come with me. I know he is a beloved friend and you want to be there for him. But you must not leave the castle unprotected. The Phoenyx must be here in the City of Fire. I will protect your friend."
He framed her face between his hands and kissed her with such tenderness a lump formed in her throat. "Go," he murmured. "If you need me, I will feel it. I love you."
She nodded, and shiktred, moving with the shadows at unparallel speed to exit Adara toward the eastern provinces of Nurian. Using the taint of rage and darkness as her beacon, she arrived at the caves beneath his palace.
Acheron held his friend’s convulsing body, murmuring an incantation, and the air buzzed with powers.
She rushed over to them, and touched Gavyn’s brow, drawing back her hand as her flesh sizzled. It was then she noted the burn marks over Acheron’s body.
“I’ve used a spell to lessen the fire burning through him. I have never seen anything like it. It is as if his flames are eating him alive from the insides. Surely, he cannot survive it. Look at his back. It is a mangled mess. Wings ripped from his back, but the site is not healing. I must take him to the White Queen,” Acheron rasped. “Perhaps she will be able to help.”
Tehdra sent him a sharp glance. “She exists?”
He hesitated briefly. “She is my sister.”
“Ally or enemy of Nuria?”
“I know she has been helping Gavyn for some time now, but I never pried as to the nature of their relationship. It seemed he had been using her spells to keep the power of the demon beast and the cursed mark at bay. I have never seen him like this before.”
“What cursed mark?”
“Those.”
She stared at them, shock twisting through her. “I believe those are the marks of the Kagutsuchi dragon." She peered closer at the massive wings folded beneath Gavyn. "These swirling inks are the outline of its multi-hued wing…and a tail. But I have never seen a Cerja—the ink of our demon—manifested like this before. It is like it lies beneath his skin, instead of atop him like a tattoo that can be summoned.”
“Can you help him?”
She stared at Acheron. "I have never met a half-blood before. In our realm, only Darkans mate with Darkans, and there is always a fully inked tattoo of a beast on our body. At rare times, a Darkan might be born with two beasts, and he is considered an abomination by some and reviled. But I have never met anyone who only possesses half." She traced the outline of one of the most feared fire breathing dragons from her realm. "The beast inside of us is pure chakra, but our Cerja allows us to summon our beast to life when we have reached a certain age and unlocked most of our power.” She pointed at the swirls on Gavyn's arms and chest. "These are not manifesting into an actual shape or a beast. They are…just marks, but I sense the Kagutsuchi.”
"But they mean something," Acheron snapped, raking his hand through his hair. "We have been friends for centuries. Why would he not trust me with this? I could have hunted for the information years ago."
A blast of fire washed from him, the intensity of it, melting Tehdra's skin. Acheron grabbed her, spitting a spell with speed and covering them in a protective barrier. Gavyn snarled, shaking off the spell Acheron had tried to subdue him with and dragged himself up. The most beautiful wings of midnight darkness, with tips coated in blue sapphire and the purest of red, sprung from his back, stretched out and then flapped as if revelling in its freedom.
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