Page 12

I was worried, when Luken settled me tight between his legs, that the flight was going to be awkward. As soon as Bain took off into the air, though, thoughts of how close Luken was and how much of his body I could feel against mine disappeared.

I clung to his arms wrapped around my waist, my fingers digging into him. Below us, the ground whirled by in a flurry of wings that made my head spin. The wind whipped in my face, sending my hair into Luken’s face. He pressed his cheek to mine, his arms possessively around me as he laughed. Damn him! How could he be having such a good time? My stomach swooped with every slight movement. I was sure any moment, I was going to be pitched off to fall to my death.

“I’ve got you,” Luken purred into my ear.

“I never liked heights,” I admitted, heart hammering in my chest.

Luken’s arm tightened. “Then close your eyes.”

He used his body to push me forward, spooning me. I closed my eyes, obeying him. When I was practically flat against Bain’s back, I was pinned between Luken and the wolf-dragon shifter. All of a sudden, I felt much more secure. The little shifts and turbulence weren’t nearly so jarring. Luken had me. He was keeping me in place. The pressure of his weight was oddly soothing and exhilarating.

Not so exhilarating as to make me forget that we were hurtling through the air miles above the ground. But enough so that I could actually breathe again.

We pitched suddenly down, and I screamed. Luken whispered reassurances in my ear but I couldn’t feel them. He pushed at the bond; I felt him, trying to get in to soothe my worries. I shoved him back. I’d take the fear over that any day!

Bain landed roughly, jostling us both. Luken slid easily from his back, but my hands and legs were numb from gripping so tightly. Luken had to pick me off Bain’s back and hold me to his side. The shifter retook his human form. We were on a bare hill from where we could see the forest sloping down before us.

“This is as far as I dare take you,” he said, running a hand through his hair.

“It’s not the train station,” I said, looking around wildly.

Bain winced. “There’s some sort of barrier. I could see it as we were approaching. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s elvish. I’m not going to risk tangling with them. It’ll only be a day’s walk that way to the city,” he said, pointing. “Good luck.”

“We don’t have the time—” I protested, but Luken took my hand, squeezing softly. When I glanced at him, he gave me a significant look.

Trust me, he said with his eyes.

I hesitated. I’d trusted him enough to touch him last night. I trusted him enough to believe he was going to help me save Thessa and Darcie. I tried to give him a message back. You have to tell me what your plan is.

Bain nodded. He hesitated a moment longer before he retook his winged form and launched himself into the air. He took off, heading back the way we’d come. I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d just put extra time on our journey, rather than cutting it down.

“We had best get moving,” Luken said. He adjusted his pack and started to walk.

I followed him, noting the tension in his shoulders. He walked slower than was usual for him. Had he been injured during the fight, and I hadn’t noticed? I studied the way he moved and realized that, no, it wasn’t due to injury or physical impairment. He was moving cautiously as he watched our surroundings, ready for an attack at every moment.

I quickly moved to his side and kept a good grip on my staff, ready to turn it from walking stick to weapon at a moment’s notice.

We walked in silence for some time until we reached the edge of the forest. It cut off abruptly, as though it had been clear-cut. Right along the edge was a shimmering sort of light that lifted up toward the sky.

“And here we are, at the border of elven territory.” Lukan dragged his hand through his hair. “What do you see?”

I squinted at the shimmering. “A field. It looks like it stretches on until the horizon. It’s very… flat. Unnaturally so.”

“That’s because it is unnatural. Everything within the bubble is an illusion. The elves are secretive. If we went through their territory by train, even the images out of the windows would be false. Bain was right to set us here. As soon as we’re in elf territory, they’ll know we’ve arrived. Our glamour won’t do us much good.”

I turned toward him. “Then what is the plan? If we weren’t going to jump on a train and go all the way to the temples in the first place, why haven’t you told me what we’re really doing?”

Luken grimaced. His fake face was handsome, but not nearly as good-looking as his true form. “Because I’ve been hoping for another option. There’s only one elven queen who will help us, or even let us into her kingdom. The queen of the Silver Forest.” He turned away from the shimmer and stared back at the thick, green forest. “Her name is Donelle and she’s Draven’s mother.”

“The fuck?” I gasped.

“I suspect he might go to her help. Even if he doesn’t, she will be best suited to intercept him and his mercenaries before they can take Thessa to the temples,” Luken said quickly. “Then we can send her back to Taimarah and focus on saving Darcie without worrying about another complication.”

I shook my head slowly, unable to fully wrap my mind around this. “I thought his mother was dead. Like—” I cut myself off.

“Like mine?” Luken pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. Elves live long lives. And Donelle was very… fond of my father. She’s often expressed an interest in a closer alliance with my kingdom.”

Wouldn’t that give her more of a reason to kill Luken, so her son could be king? He wasn’t telling me something. I didn’t need the bond to know it. He turned back to the shimmer and frowned at it.

“This is new,” he said in an obvious attempt to change the subject. “Normally, elvish magic merely turns travelers around. I wonder…” he reached out, a slight glow in his palm. He touched the shimmer, and a crack like thunder boomed. Light flashed at the point of contact, and he was thrown back into a tree. The tree cracked, and Luken slumped to the ground, gasping.

I raced over to him. “Luken!”

“I’m alright. But that’s some strong magic.” Luken grimaced as he rubbed his chest. “I’ll have to think of the best way to get through that. For now…”

He looked at the sky.

“For now, it’s getting dark, and we need to camp for the night,” I finished.

“We need a place that I can shield and have natural defenses,” Luken said. His mouth pressed tight as his gaze swept over me. My skin prickled, and I automatically drew back and grabbed the staff with both hands. Luken’s eyes flicked back to my face, and amusement entered them. “We don’t have time for a sparring session right now, Elara. As much as I would like to.”

I wrinkled my nose, fighting not to show the way his words affected me. We headed back into the forest and found a lovely space in a circular outcropping of boulders. They formed a natural oblong shape that Luken could use to anchor a shield to, but inside was tight. There was barely enough room for us to both lie down.

It was a warm night, so there was no need for a fire, but the closeness of Luken’s body was… intense. I pillowed my head on my arm with my back facing him. I felt the heat of his skin radiate toward me in the small space. My mind kept drifting to the feeling of his breath on my neck, the sounds of his moans as I stroked him. My palms itched with the desire to reach around behind me.

Eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I jerked to my feet, snatching up my staff as I did so.

Luken lifted his head, glancing over his shoulder. His back had been to me, too. “Elara?”

“I need some air. And space,” I added when it looked like he was going to get up.

“Stay close. Only our camp is protected,” he murmured.

I quickly stepped away through the boulders and headed some distance away. With the full moon, the night was bright enough, but it could have been a cloudy day. I went far enough away that I couldn’t see the boulders, then set my staff down and wrapped my arms around myself.

Was this really just lust I was struggling with?

I had so many thoughts running through my head that I felt like it could burst at any second. But the strongest of it was the reluctance I’d noted when Luken told me about Donelle. He clearly didn’t like her, yet was taking me to her to get Darcie and Thessa back. If he was willing to make that sacrifice for me, would it be such a terrible thing to let him have what he wanted from me?

I closed my eyes, imagining the feel of his lips on my throat, of his fangs piercing through my skin. Maybe it would be best if I let him feed on me, let us fall prey to the desire we were both fighting against. I had repeatedly told myself I’d give Luken anything he wanted if he would only help me save Darcie. Now he was helping me, but I still hadn’t let him touch me. Not really.

If it wasn’t just lust I was fighting against, my reasons for fighting weren’t just anger and hate.

As I found a place to sit, a shimmer caught my eye. I squinted, frowning. That wasn’t where the elf barrier was. I took a step toward it but stopped. It wasn’t safe to go off exploring on my own. The pain from the orc warlock’s attack still lingered strongly in my mind, enough to warn me off being rash. Reluctantly, I opened the bond just enough to send a summons to Luken, then shut it down quickly again.

In a few minutes, he dropped down beside me, silent in his approach.

“What’s that?” I pointed at the shimmer. “More elf magic?”

Luken squinted. In his current glamour, I couldn’t see the glow of his eyes. “I’m not sure… oh.” He laughed. “It’s the ocean.”

“The ocean,” I repeated.

“The Selkie Ocean,” Luken corrected himself. “It’s a magical place only visible beneath the moon's light. The elves cast a protective enchantment over it centuries ago, when humans were continually raiding the sea and stealing the selkie’s cloaks.”

I flinched. My own selkie ancestor hadn’t been given a name in our genealogy. It was impossible to know what the story was, because it had never been recorded. “And the elves cast the magic to protect them?”

“Elves and selkies share a distant ancestral magic and have long been allies,” Luken answered. “Selkies are a gentle, peaceful people, and they provide the elves with things from the seas the elves crave, like pearls, seafood, and other things. My mother told me once that before the Gods intervened in our world, selkies lived forever, just as elves and vampires do. But then a selkie maiden refused one of the gods, and he convinced them all to curse the entire species for it.”

I wrapped my arms around my knees. “I don’t know many stories about the Gods. I never thought much about them until Darcie was taken. And then I…” I bit my lip, but I might as well say it. “I thought they were just an excuse for you to do what you wanted.”

Luken didn’t answer.

“But they are real. And you want to stop them.” I twisted my hands and blurted, “Did you know that your sash, the one you wore to our wedding, was embroidered by Darcie? Thessa told me. It was the same sash you wore when you opened the Blood Trials, and she recognized Darcie’s work. And you were wearing silk that Thessa wove.”

“I… knew it came from the temples,” Luken said slowly. “As part of the deal I currently have with the gods, I am to provide them with tributes, and they will provide me with finery. It’s just another way to put me in their debt.”

A soft breeze started to blow. Out here, in the more exposed forest, the night was rapidly growing cooler. “Do you think the elves would be more open to dealing with me because I’m part selkie—wait!” I straightened as an idea popped into my head. “What if there’s an entrance or something hidden in the water? It makes sense that the selkies would have a way into the Silver Forest, for trade and for the two groups to help each other out.”

“I doubt there’s an entrance. More like there’s a door in the barrier and a key hidden somewhere only the selkies know to find,” Luken answered.

“Then let’s go look,” I urged, getting to my feet.

Luken jumped up. “It will be too heavily guarded. The best thing to do is figure out how to force open the door with brute force.”

I narrowed my eyes. “We can at least try. I’m a good swimmer, and I know you are, too.”

“It would be mindless searching and wasting energy.” Luken grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to the camp. “Just once, listen to me. If you'd done as I said, you wouldn’t have been injured by the orcs.”

“I wouldn’t have been injured if you had done what I said,” I snapped back.

His grip was too tight for me to break free. So I let my arm go limp. I slumped my shoulders and faked a yawn. Then, I gave one more half-hearted attempt to free myself before I let him pull me back to camp. Luken looked at me suspiciously.

“If you can’t open the barrier tomorrow, we'll search the ocean tomorrow night,” I said as I lay down and buried my head in my arms.

“No, we won’t,” he answered.

But he lay down, too, thinking he won. I made myself go still, breathing deeply to feign sleep. As soon as I was certain he was sleeping, I crept up again. I wasn’t going to waste time. If there was a key in that ocean, I’d find it.