Page 61 of Of Nightmares & Fire (Elusive Umbra #1)

Chapter forty-seven

Astraea

My breath gets caught in my throat. All of my agitation over being dumped into the tarn is forgotten when I spin around to swim away and I see where we are.

The mountain takes up my vision. It stands tall, like a jagged tooth in a monster's mouth.

Behind it, rows and rows of sharp points reach into the sky like a beast's maw open in a mighty roar.

Lush greens, reds, oranges, and purples paint the trees that crowd the water's edge, and not far off, a thin dark waterfall feeds the small body of water we wade in.

“Welcome to Diemos.” Kyros’ breath puffs out at my ear, and the heat of his body presses into my back as he slinks his arm around my waist, pulling me flush with him.

I’m at a loss for words, so I say nothing at all.

I lean into his embrace and let him hold my weight as I rest the back of my head on his chest and fully take in the vision of it all.

Never did I imagine I would see such a sight.

Its beauty is breathtaking. It feels like we wade in the center of the rounded pool of water for hours, but I know it could only be minutes.

Kyros says nothing and leaves me to bask in it.

Only when he begins tracing small circles on my stomach where my shirt has risen do I come back into my body.

“Why did you bring me here?” I finally ask.

I know it's where we are heading with the others, but something about this place feels almost sacred. I lift my chin so I can see his face. He does not look at me but instead looks out over the water, too. The sun is now fully crowning the mountain, and its shadow is beginning to shift, exposing more of the water. I thought the water was dark because of the shadows, but even now as the rays from the sun shine down on it, they don’t penetrate the surface.

The water is black as onyx, and the ripples created by our wading and the trickle of water coming from the nearby waterfall cause it to glitter in the sunshine.

“I could tell you needed a little escape,” he says, bringing his gaze to meet mine.

The black waters reflect in his nearly black eyes and are just as breathtaking as the scenery.

His words bring heat to every inch of my skin, and he seems to notice.

“Do you want to see my favorite spot?” He asks, and I give him a coy smile.

“I think I would love that.” I tell him, and he nods before starting to push us closer to the shoreline.

As we get further away from the center of the tarn, I notice more details of the land.

Early morning birdsong fills the air, and small animals frolic through the bushes and patches of tall grass.

The wooded area is similar to where we were before Kyros rendered a portal, but the air here is thinner.

Cooler. Sun filters through the multi-hued leaves, lighting them like a prism of color, and their shadows dance across the deadwood of the forest floor.

When we reach the area where I can touch the tarn’s rocky floor, Kyros lets me out of his hold.

His hand stays steady, pressed to my low back.

I know he said that he brought me here because I needed to escape, but as I watch him out of the corner of my eye, I can see the tension that holds his shoulders tight too.

“Is everything ok?” I can’t help but ask him. He takes a deep breath before responding.

“Just thinking.” His voice is deep and low, and the crease between his eyes flattens as he gives me a small smile. It doesn’t reach his eyes and falls away as quickly as it came.

We are a sopping wet mess when we emerge on land.

My blood-drenched clothing is washed pink where it was stained crimson, and it clings to me like a second skin.

Kyros pulls his tunic off as I am wringing the bottom of mine out.

I feel the blush crawl over my skin as he looks over his shoulder, and I quickly avert my gaze.

Heat blazes in my cheeks, and he smirks.

Turning to face the woods that seem alive with their own kind of magick, he keeps his back to me.

He is silent for minutes just watching nature.

Something about him feels different, like he’s lost in his own mind.

I leave him to think. I know how it is to have so many thoughts stirring through your mind; you feel as though you are lost navigating the endless static.

Sometimes it's best to be left alone to find your way through it.

If I am going to have any semblance of dry clothes when we return, I suppose I too need to hang things to dry.

Peeling the fabric from my body, I wring the borrowed tunic out further and then hang it on a low branch.

The tree’s leaves are like paper gold. A breeze rustles the leaves, and they nearly glisten just as the precious metal would in the sun.

A chill rolls over my exposed skin, causing gooseflesh to pepper my arms and stomach as I turn back to face Kyros, with only a band of fabric covering my breasts and the already exposing breeches Cole put me in.

“I was twelve the first time I came to this forest. A year after I lost my parents.” Kyros doesn’t turn to face me as he begins talking, but I keep my eyes on his back where he stands close to the treeline.

The muscles of his shoulders flex in time with his fists at his sides, like the words themselves have caused him pain.

I stay silent, letting him continue in his own time.

After a few moments, he reaches up, plucking a deep green leaf with orange around its edges, making it look as though it is on fire.

He brings it in front of his face, his fingers pinching the stem, and rolls it between them.

The leaf spins back and forth, blurring and appearing like he is holding a black flame at his fingertips.

It’s as beautiful as it is magickal. “Mavros and I lived in Aithne and explored the border but were forbidden to go too far into Diemos. The forest held magick and creatures that we were not yet old enough to protect ourselves against.” He drops the leaf, and it flutters to the ground at his feet .

After another moment he turns to face me.

His lips part as he sees that I have shed my tunic too.

I realized a while ago that Kyros makes me feel seen, but right now, I feel like more than just my skin is exposed to him.

I feel like he sees everything—right down to my battered soul—and he is giving me a glimpse through the window at his.

“But you found this place?” I ask, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip as his eyes skate down my body and land back on my eyes.

“It seems like I am destined to find happiness in things that are forbidden.” He says solemnly, taking a step toward me.

There are feet between us, but it feels like we have never felt closer.

I swallow hard. “This way.” He offers me his hand, and I place mine in his.

Warmth spreads through me as he threads our fingers together and guides me away from the water’s edge and further through the trees.

The ground is mostly flat, but as we continue to walk, it does seem to slope upward.

The sun filters through the leaves and illuminates the dust particles we stir in our trek.

While I watch the glittering specks dance around in my vision, swirling only when my body or Kyros cuts in, I can't help but smile. This whole journey is opening my eyes to so many things I didn’t know beyond the castle walls.

The world that I always felt was small is now more vast than time and space itself.

“It was the first time I learned I was a render.” Kyros’ voice startles me out of my reverie, and I stumble over my own feet.

He looks back. The hand that he has securely threaded with mine doesn’t allow me to fall, and I smile sheepishly as he looks down at my feet.

He doesn’t comment on my clumsiness. “Mavros and I have always been different. Twins, but polar opposites in everything but the genes we share. We had an argument, and being young near-adolescent men, anger was our outlet. We came to blows. It was the first time we made each other bleed. I caused him to fall down a sharp embankment, and he broke his arm.” He stops, seemingly lost in the memory.

“Anyway, after that, seeing him in the infirmary and remembering he was the only family I had left…

I felt like something inside me needed to know what it truly felt like to be alone.

I needed a reminder not to take advantage of being blessed enough by the divine that my brother and I escaped what was meant to be our fates.

I walked further into the forest than I was ever allowed. Mavros and I just recently learned of our magick. The elders in town were worried about the attention that our markings would bring.” As he says it, I look at the black shadows that vibrate along his skin—tattoos when he wants them to be.

“The magick was charged by my heightened emotions, and when I reared back to punch a tree, I unknowingly let the shadows uncoil. When my fist was meant to hit the bark, the shadows whipped out, and my first portal was rendered right there.

I knew of renders, having learned about the magick before my parents passing.

It was magick that was said to run in my family, as were the black shadows that mark my skin.

It had been generations since all the elements of our magickal line passed to one person.

It seems I was the one destined to carry it all. ” He swallows and looks down at me.

“Mavros doesn’t have the same magick? I thought you both had the shadows?” I ask.

“We do. Mostly the same. Much to Mavros’ dismay, he is unable to rend portals.” He smirks when he catches my lips curling.

“I’m sure he was hell to be around after that. I can't see him taking the news well.” I say.

“His ego was big even back then; it could take the hit.” He chides, swapping our hands and placing a hand on my low back.

He helps me climb as the path we take becomes steeper.

“When I rendered the portal there, right in the middle of the woods, I knew that things were about to change. I felt a shift in the air. Almost like I knew my purpose was about to find me. I stepped through the dark arch I had created, not knowing where I was going to come out.”

I didn’t realize how far up we had climbed until we reached a particularly steep edge, where Kyros had to lift me before he followed behind.

My breath catches as I turn around to face him, and I am instead left wide-eyed at the scene beyond where he pulls himself over the ledge.

He comes to a stop at my side and slides his arm around my waist. He pulls me in front of him, his arms draped around my body like they were always meant to be there, and leans in so his breath brushes the shell of my ear as he continues his story.

“This is where I stepped through that portal. All this time, I thought that was the moment that the divine deemed me worthy of something greater.” I lift my gaze at the same moment that he spins me in his arms. Our gazes collide, and that familiar warmth bursts in time with the fluttering wings in my chest. Like wind making a flame on a candle flutter and crackle, my soul seems to do the same dance.

My skin is on fire as the sun crests overhead.

The sun showers us with golden light and makes Kyros look like one of the gods given form.

“I was wrong.” He says, lifting his hand to cup my face, he brings his mouth to hover over mine.

My breath stalls in my lungs, waiting for his next words, his next move.

I cannot breathe as my thoughts twist and turn into one another, every thought losing meaning. I can only see him.

“The moment you crossed my path in the streets of Eathian, I felt the fault line of my reality shift. Not just the air around me, but the very ground I stood on shook, and every moment since then I have been trying to catch my footing. Trying to get back to where I thought I was meant to be. I don’t think I can do that anymore.

Watching you with my people, my brother, Zinya?

I realized.” His thumb brushes strokes along my heated skin, sending prickles of energy through my entire body.

I close my eyes. A coward, unable to see his face as he says what I think he is going to say.

“ Don’t, ” I say quietly. All my life has been mapped out and ruled by men. He can’t be just another. I can’t be feeling the same way that he is, just as I have found my freedom.

“Look at me, Shula.” I clench my teeth, my brow pulled down taut, and feel tears prickling at the back of my eyes. While I don't want to do as he says, my heart seems to be peering out of the cage it's kept in. The wings that buzz with it are about to burst open the bars to my heart .

I swallow, taking a deep breath, and I do as he says.

When my eyes flutter open and they collide with his.

The scent of sweet honey and the bite of fire and smoke fill my senses.

He consumes my every breath. He rules my vision.

Blocking out even the masterpiece painted by the divine that makes up the scene behind him.

He is all that I see, smell, feel . The look on his face is like I have stepped right through the divine fire and into the embrace of Runerth.

“I am a falling man, and it’s only you that I want to be there when I finally hit the ground. ”