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Chapter thirty-two

Black Diamond

Ayla

The tether told me nothing. There was only a dark fog where Zayne was supposed to be. He wouldn’t leave me like this, not without warning, not on purpose…

“By Teyr,” I cursed.

The black diamond sparkled in his clenched hand. He’d collapsed right after the shards had combined. If Gloom had summoned his spirit, how long would he be gone?

My senses heightened with alarm.

Whatever was happening, we had to wait it out. Without his shadow-steps, my only alternative was to carry him out.

Straining to hear past my pounding heart, I determined that nobody moved in the rooms beyond.

The door was still closed, hiding us from the hallway, but if Zayne’s shadows had been intermittent before, they were entirely gone now.

I had to find a new hiding place, and the desk filled most of the room.

A dull, determined light ebbed from my hands as I got to work, shifting Zayne’s body until he was hidden from the view of the hallway behind the large desk. Satisfied, I settled beside him.

He would return to the Living Realm soon. He had to. I needed him. But as the seconds passed, he didn’t rise.

Again, I tugged at our bond.

Nothing.

Searching deeper, I gained the vague sense he was somewhere on the other side, so far away that our connection sagged like a loose thread. Where I’d once been afraid to acknowledge what had grown between us, I clung to what remained of our tether as my stomach hollowed out with fear.

“Zayne,” I whispered, rearranging so his head lay in my lap. Unbidden, my memory snapped to the last time it’d been like this—when he’d fallen so far into death I’d awoken my magic to help him rise. When we’d first created the tether.

I clung to him, running my fingers through his long black hair, determination tightening my throat.

If I’d done it once, I could do it again.

Except last time, Ninti had been at my side, sharing her power. I glanced at my ruby ring. “Ninti, if you’re there, please help,” I pleaded and closed my eyes.

I settled my body and focused my mind.

I was torn asunder, in ways I hadn’t had time to process. The Starlit King was still that to me—a king , one who negotiated with my stepfather . The knowledge of our relationship strained my being with dissonance. My jaw tightened as I acknowledged the confusing, conflicting ache.

I dug deeper.

My bond with the Starlit Throne was fresh and newly made, undeniable all the same. The isle’s deity persisted on the fringe of my awareness, as hesitant of me as I was of them.

Even deeper. Even darker.

There.

My bond with Zayne lay beneath it all. I trailed after it, tugging on the tether’s thread as I followed it further into the space between us. Finally, a labyrinth formed in my mind, the path edged by thorny roses.

Guided by the string that bound us, I journeyed into the maze’s abyss.

Left, right, left. I began to run, and when I rounded a corner too tight, my shoulder caught on thorns.

Ignoring the pain, the blood, I ran faster, but with each step my feet grew heavier with doubt.

The string between us seemed infinite, hanging limply in my hands.

Where is he?

I took off at a race again, but too soon, I was desperate and overwhelmed. The tether had grown so thin I could barely hold it.

At the next juncture, I fell to my knees, uncertain where to turn. Over the beat of my racing heart, I almost missed it.

A howl.

I spun on my toes and found myself eye to eye with Ninti’s astral form, translucent and barely present in this place that wasn’t one.

I swelled with relief as her expressive green eyes bloomed with life, fighting the urge to wrap my arms around a shape that wouldn’t hold. She bowed her head as if she would nuzzle my shoulder.

Words choked in my throat. Hope billowed in my chest.

She looked to the sky and howled anew. The sound rattled in my chest, leading me to follow her gaze.

The stars.

They shone overhead, bright even in this confusing place.

Now that I’d been taught how to listen, it was easy to hear the stars sing. Their voices wrapped together, ethereal with elongated tones, their chorus an invitation to draw down my strength. Power streamed into me, collecting in the center of my heart, a malleable silver light.

At my chest, I grew a little star of my own. I gripped the tether tight, flooding it with all that I knew of my shadow prince. Every detail of his past, every moment we shared, and every imprint on my skin. I filled the star with his being.

“Zayne.”

The light collected and grew, and finally satisfied, I sent it above the labyrinth hedges. The starlight shifted and bounced. The hedges around me changed, the path growing wider as the light led the way.

Renewed, I hurried after, Ninti racing at my heels.

Zayne

The darkness was complete, and it swallowed me whole.

Whoever Zayne was, he wasn’t me, wasn’t this.

This. A shell, a spirit without a soul.

Time lost all meaning as I drifted again.

Gloom was stagnation, the end of vitality.

She was a darkness more complete than death.

Her mind too stunned by its mending to notice me.

My purpose to her spent. There was no more.

Her mists became my entire world.

Everything became nothing.

Drifting.

Lost.

Gone.

A light.

I knew that star.

The mists thinned.

The star invited me closer.

It tugged at my chest.

It told me who I was.

“Zayne.”

That name.

I tried to reply.

I swallowed fog.

Yet the star shone.

Brighter than before.

Words failing, I acted.

I wound my essence tight.

And then, I followed the light.

Ayla

Abruptly, the labyrinth ended in nothing.

I scrambled for footing, nearly falling off a ledge.

A vast, thick black fog filled everything beyond.

In the distance, my dim star shone.

I focused upon it.

I fueled it as Ninti fueled me.

Like when we failed on the beach.

We powered it, and light grew again.

“Zayne!” Stars sang through my voice.

Ninti’s howl echoed across the chasm.

The power felt right, our souls aligned.

But this time, we did not burn out.

Attuned, we burned brighter still.

A figure formed from the mists.

Our star shed it with light.

Texture gathered next.

And then color.

Becoming…

“Zayne.”

Zayne

We slammed back into our bodies, and I claimed myself. Air, free from mists, filled my lungs. The sweet evidence of life brought water to my eyes, and I rushed to clear it, desperate to see the world I had almost lost.

Ayla loomed over me, looking down, her chest heaving, a curtain of her red hair tickling my chin. Her green eyes glinted with relief.

Wasting no time, I sat up and kissed her.

“My mate,” I declared, my tongue entering her mouth and hungry for more.

Ayla hesitated, leaning back. “What is that?”

I frowned, certain I had heard her voice in my head.

She shook her head. “I imagined it.”

I sat up straighter, shock coursing through my veins, and I intentionally directed my next thought through the tether. “I don’t think you imagined it.”

She pinned me with her eyes. “That’s really you?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“The tether—it’s…”

“Changed again,” I agreed. The threads binding us had thickened anew. We were mates, undeniably so.

I needed to celebrate, to kiss her and claim her again, but…

I gripped the black diamond in my fist, reminded that responsibility over Gloom was now in my hand. The deity’s negligence may have almost killed me, but I’d never let the Starlit King have this sort of power. “We need to get out of here.”

“Quickly,” she agreed.

Pinching the shadows, I wrapped my arms around her and—

The darkness didn’t obey.

The door to the study clicked. It creaked.

“Stop right there!” he called.

I tightened my grip on Ayla. There was only one voice that could make my skin crawl that way.

The Starlit King had arrived.