Page 10

Chapter 9

Clem

T he tether cooled as I put distance between us, untangling myself slowly from the emotions of my bonded mates. My emotions were dark and stormy, matching my environment as I leaned against a great oak tree and waited under the veil of moonlight, close enough to hear their moans but far enough that I could breathe without being suffocated by the weight of the tether.

Waiting … for what, I couldn’t put into words, but I suddenly, I just knew…

He was coming, scratching at the corners of my mind as if we were tethered, too.

I closed my eyes, licked my dry lips, suppressing my clicks, and focused on the pinprick of light taunting me. So close, so close and warm and dark and dangerous as tendrils of shadows fanned out from that spot in my mind’s eye. Like a portal opening wide and darkness flooding in, consuming the light, and transforming it into a void.

I shuddered as suddenly Nguyen’s voice materialized with the whistling wind, a gentle caress against my antennas and ears as a shadowy presence became solid on my back until his claws scrapped my neck.

“Greetings, weakling. I knew you would come to me eventually. Once you felt the pull,” he hissed, and I quivered, unable to open my eyes and turn to him.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Magic, of course,” he responded, but it didn’t even begin to answer my question.

“What do you want?” I asked instead because now I knew this wave of self-loathing and anger was brought on by the bond the nightwing had thrust upon me. And I needed to know why as much as I needed to know what this was.

“You’ve taken from the chosen one like a parasite, like a leech. A weakling like you honored as the goddess’s emissary. Pathetic!”

His dark feathers brushed against my body as he bent forward, and I shuddered. I still couldn’t bring myself to meet his hostile gaze.

Coward!

“Yes, you fucking coward,” he read my mind in a measured tone, and I shook, wondering if he could read all of my thoughts.

“It’s a wonder you dared to defy Daaku and had enough sense, enough power, to tether your soul to Sun’s might. A mothian, so unworthy of being born under that righteous star,” Nguyen gritted out, the outline of his wings eclipsing my body as I braced myself to peek. “But the goddess, our goddess, does not make mistakes. And if she intended for me to cross paths with one as useless as you, she must have trusted I would empower you to unlock all her secrets.”

“How do you know Sun and I were born under the same star?” I asked, knowing it wasn’t necessary in the grand scheme of things since he teleported his spirit across a great distance to speak to me in a way so real that I could feel him. I had more important reasons to fear him than his accurate sense of astrology.

I gasped as a rush of darkness passed through my body, reforming in front of my eyes. Eyes I couldn’t close like invisible fingers had pried them open against my will. He glared at me down his nose, folding his arms before his willowy chest. Nguyen looked to where my heart beat as if he could see something I couldn’t. And then, to my shock and horror, he physically seized the tether and yanked me forward!

“The same color,” he said.

“Wh-what is?” I asked, voice wobbling as all the color drained from my body.

Despite not ripping me to shreds back then or now, nightwings were second level predators, and I heard mothians had once been their favorite food choice.

“Your souls share the same color and tragic fate beyond the tether, Clem,” he mused cryptically, circling me with poise and grace befitting the stealthy nightwings, holding my end of the tether like a leash.

He had called me by my name. I straightened my shoulders, unhunching my body, trying not to buckle under his critical gaze.

“All that responsibility placed on such fragile shoulders. Surely, the gods are crazy after all,” he said, stopping in front of me so my forked toes pressed against his clawed feet.

Nguyen’s eyes suddenly flicked to the night sky as if anticipating a bolt of lightning, “Forgive me. You are righteous, and I was wrong to say that.”

Then, he stared at me. Something sinister lurked behind his golden gaze framed by dark, feathery hair that fell just past his narrow shoulders. He was graceful, elegant even, and I hadn’t taken a second to appreciate him earlier in the evening. With the tongue of the most venomous viper and fanaticism of the most fervent follower, Nguyen was an enigma. I could not read the colors of his soul while he read mine like an open book.

“Speaking of books, here,” he said.

I groaned as a heavy weight filled all four of my hands. I tilted forward as he stepped back so my face wouldn’t collide with his chest. Then, I whipped back as the black mass of swirling shadows solidified into something small and portable, able to fit in one hand.

“Travel-sized, just for you. All the secrets and spell work I have gathered over the years. All my notes from audiences with Tsuki, and all the ways a weakling like you can outwit the powerful, to bring to heel the strong with her gift,” he pointed to the moon. “Magic most pure. Now, I must return. It is hard to send my avatar this far, and frankly, you’re not worth wasting another breath. The least I can do is honor the chosen and the goddess by making you less of a noose around their necks.”

With that, his body began to break apart.

“Leaving so soon?” I said much too forcibly.

“Why not?” he asked, cocking his head to the side at a near-full tilt, “We’re done here. Go back to play with your heathens.”

Mirth danced in his eyes now, and laughter, too. I knew he was laughing at me that I dared speak angrily after receiving such a gift.

“Well,” I began quietly, “It feels as though you have more to tell me.”

“Perceptive.” he clapped, the mockery grating now. “Maybe that’s why Tsuki made you her emissary,” he said, and the jealousy in his tone was undeniable now.

“Alas, I wouldn’t want to bear that weight either, so feeling betrayed is foolish,” Nguyen murmured, examining dirt underneath a perfectly curved nail.

“But I want to help m-more,” I whispered in a small voice, clutching the book a little too tightly. Too small, too insignificant. I raised my chin a hair and said a touch louder. “If you teach me more, I can help Sun. Help the goddess, Tsuki, too. The nocs. The humans. Peace. Surely, if you can do all this, your avatar can teach me more before we reach the capital city.”

Nguyen sneered, but there was no malice in his eyes this time. There was something like affection almost. Oh! No, I knew that look, that slow smirk over sharpened teeth and dilated pupils paired with fluttering breaths and flaring nostrils.

Madness. Hunger. But not for food. Not for sex either. A sadistic sort of glee I hadn’t even seen on Bracken’s face directed towards me. Bloodlust. But why?

“You will help by sacrificing greatly, little moth. Tell me, emissary, are you willing to do whatever it takes to keep that light shining bright? To suffer beyond what you can bear for the greater good? Be a hero, Clem, to nocs and humans?”

He lifted his dark wing skyward towards Tsuki in his purest form, moonlight, and sighed, enraptured by visions of my suffering that somehow I could see in my mind.

I hesitated and then said as forcefully as a mothian could to a nightwing, “Yes, of course.”

“Goood,” he purred. I would’ve mistaken him for a panthera in that heated moment.

I shuddered as Nguyen’s claws scraped gently against my chin before piercing ever so slightly as he snatched me by the fur around my neck. His tongue darted out to lick my tears–when had I begun crying?–and I forced myself not to wail in fear. I knew enough now to know it would only excite him more. Despite his mission to help Tsuki by arming me, Nguyen may yet rip me to shreds.

Then, just as quickly as his assault began, he went rigid. His head hung at perfect tilt. Before swiveling around completely, his neck twisting and flesh bunching at the base. I grunted in fear and wondered if this was the same revulsion Sun felt the first time he saw the unnatural angle of my noc neck snapping to and fro.

A figure emerged.

“Get. Away. From my Clem,” Bracken breathed through flaring nostrils, suddenly gripping Nguyen’s arm and then sliding down, allowing his claws to shred his robe. “Before I gut you and string you from a branch with your intestines, loathsome filth.”

He stood up to his full height, towering above Nguyen, who didn’t flinch as he turned his neck back to me. Instead, he yawned and waved his free hand dismissively. But I saw it, that brief moment of surprise, of confusion.

It dawned on me that a grandmaster of magic wouldn’t have left us unprotected. I hadn’t heard the sounds of Sun, Kiar, Bracken, and Hadi mating, even though they were so close to me. Had Bracken smashed through some invisible shield to get to me when I hadn’t returned quickly enough? I didn’t even know how long I’d been gone. And my eyelids were heavy and misty, as if he’d cast a mirage and trapped us in another mirror world as Tsuki had before.

I beamed at my master. The bruising pressure he was applying to Nguyen’s wrist was a far cry from snapping it in two, as he would’ve done not too long ago, making me watch as he used the bones as toothpicks. He was being diplomatic, as much as a batbeast could, because he too could sense the importance of the nightwing’s presence, though he didn’t display an ounce of shock on his face.

“You brutes bore me to tears,” Nguyen snapped. “Let go.”

“You forget your station, wretch,” Bracken growled, and Nguyen huffed.

“Oh, great deposed prince of the Noc Kingdom. I only serve one master. A mistress, in fact. My avatar must return, lest Atlan, and I fail to liberate Black Lantern, and your human chosen one wouldn’t like that, would he, beast? Now be a good pet and let go.”

He was either crazy, stupid, or both, but I couldn’t help but admire him too. Nguyen was strong in the face of power, while I always cowered behind my master’s wings and claws and then Sun’s sword and fist.

Bracken’s upper lip curled, and the faint rumbling he emitted was now a vicious snarl. His patience had snapped.

“No!” I shouted just as he lunged, but to my relief, Nguyen melted into mist. Our heads snapped up as a branch shook above us, and he was hanging from it, grinning too wide, lips pulled over sharp teeth.

“Bye bye, beast. And be well, emissary. Don’t you dare disappoint her. Tsuki watches over loathsome creatures like you, too. Bear her blessing well, Bracken, and you too, Clem. Her will is just and absolute.”

“Shut the fuck up before I pummel you into tears. And stay away from Clem!” Bracken shouted as the nightwing disappeared with the wind.

Bracken was furious, but he didn’t even attempt to give chase. He could sense the danger I could, something psychic and mystic still lingering in the air.

“Bastard! I should’ve ripped some feathers from him as a warning. Fanatical nonsense. If only he knew his moon princess was mad, a mere shadow of her former glory. I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough to protect you.”

I wanted to say I didn’t need him to protect me, that if Nguyen had wanted to kill me, he would’ve. But it was silly to say I didn’t need his protection, so I swallowed my protest and let it die before it reached my lips.

I cradled the book of shadows and secrets. The magician had ignited a silent longing in my soul that was loud and furious now. I wanted to change. I wanted to…

“Protect,” I whispered.

“What?” Bracken squawked as he tried to drag me back to camp.

“N-nothing. Um, is everyone…” I trailed off, and he grimaced.

“No. Sun got queasy when we turned him upside down to take turns with him. So, there is no mating tonight. Just a babbling bundle of joy reminiscing about old stories we weren’t a part of. Damn, that insufferable, gorgeous bastard. My cock is throbbing.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t find release,” I offered, waiting for his order to help him right here in the woods before we returned.

But Bracken just eyed me quizzically, like he couldn’t figure me out. Then he knelt so we were as close to eye level as possible.

I could count how many times my master had kneeled before me on my fingers. And it had only ever been for the rare occasions he got it in mind to pleasure my cock. It had never before been to talk to me.

“I’m sure you’ll take care of me in the morning, Clem, when you are feeling better? And tomorrow, I will find some berries for you, even if they’re the smallest stragglers left behind in this brutal cold. Whatever is troubling you, worrying about it more won’t help,” Bracken said with a level tone laced with concern.

“If I can’t, you have my word that I’ll… I’ll even put you into my mouth and suck you until you can’t walk. Whatever you need to return to normal. I do not like this nasty shift in your mood. Smile for me, hm? The road is long and hard, and I cannot focus on protecting Sun and worrying for you at the same time. You’ve always been too strong to need that.”

I was stunned. So stunned that I couldn’t speak, not even squeak, as his tongue flicked out to lick my lips before capturing them in a long, searing kiss. Just as quickly as it began, it ended, and Bracken stood, brushing off his knees, and I stood there trembling, in a stupor.

It wasn’t phrased as a question, but I heard an unmistakable lift in his voice, master wondering if I’d pleasure him in the morning. Asking me, not ordering, as if I could say no. Then it slammed into me abruptly and brutally, he said I could say no if it would make me feel better. And I wouldn’t be reprimanded.

Master—no— Bracken was asking me what I needed and wanted for once.

“Why?” I breathed, refusing to move, knowing he allowed me to stay as he tugged on my antenna to leave.

Bracken shrugged.

“I suppose… since we all… I mean you, Sun, Hadi, and Kiar, and I, are more like… don’t spout any unusual ideas again about unhinging jaws. Loathsome,” Bracken spat.

“We’re bonded?” I offered.

“Yes,” he said immediately, with absolute certainty. “I didn’t understand it fully until recently, but I know we are all bonded now. We have eternity together after we win this war—no need to rush the smaller details of our union. After the tether is broken, we have time to figure everything out. Until then, we must stay united, alright?” Bracken said as unbothered as usual.

“I love you, too,” I said.

Bracken was startled.

“Who the fuck said that? You need your ears checked.”

But I couldn’t hear him admonishing me. Over twenty-five years, had I ever said it? Of course not, but that didn’t make it less true. And wasn’t that what he was saying, more or less? That he loved me and cared that I wasn’t feeling myself and we needed to stick together as truly bonded mates, not just as master and slave?

Maybe I had always felt unworthy of anything more than the life and title of a slave. And now, with so much new knowledge, I was unhappy with that life. That could be the root of this little rebellion. Rather than possession, I felt an inkling of freedom on this long, uncertain road I desperately clung to.

I, too, had forgotten my station in life and now felt unsettled and unhappy, unlike the last quarter century with Bracken, Kiar, and Hadi. Sun had upset that delicate equilibrium between us, and I should thank him on my knees for this.

“And stop letting that false priest fill your mind with nonsense. You are important and worthy. That crazy bitch wouldn’t have entrusted you with the fate of the fucking world if you weren’t. He’s nothing, insignificant and jealous. Glean his secrets and discard that fool’s taunts, Clem. Be stronger.”

I kicked a rock to keep myself from throwing myself into his arms. We’d gone one step forward and two steps back, then leaped into another planet altogether. Master— Bracken was being so contradictory.

“I mean it, Mas—” I caught myself. “Bracken, I love you, and I love Sun, too.”

He rubbed his face, and I could not read his emotions again. What was wrong with me tonight?

“So, tell him. Why tell me?” he asked.

Now it was my turn to grimace, whispering ruefully, “I did.”

“Enough of this! You’re making my head spin, Clem. You used to look at me as if I hung the stars and set the moon into motion. But after Sun, you’ve changed. Don’t push your luck; come back to us now.”

And with that, he ended any chance of me conveying my more profound meaning. To be acknowledged as his equal, because being bonded was not the same as that. To say he loved me, to be worthy of that from Bracken, would mean more than a slave or a servant, or yes, even a bond mate would.

He stopped abruptly as we were about to step into our camp.

“I will protect you, Clem. With my heart and soul, I swear this to you. Now pull yourself together.”

But I was too lost in my thoughts to grasp his confession fully. I would be respected if I could unlock more power. I was sure of that. Respect was earned. Wasn’t that how it was in the human world where power was more equal? Only social customs and traditions differentiated them much. But in noc society, only physical power mattered.

Even a lowly crawler noc had crawled onto the throne because of power. Secrets he might have gleaned from an ancient book of spells like the one I clutched behind my back, under my wings, hiding them from my master as if he hadn’t seen it already, trailing behind his mighty steps.

I wanted to transform into someone new and different and feel worthy of the great cause thrust upon me.

Respect.

As we reached our camp, the word thudded in my mind like a drum. The tether was warm and inviting as we approached, shedding the overt lust from earlier.

Whatever ugly mood that had descended had lifted as Sun laughed, leaning into Kiar, who stroked his hair and breathed in his scent with tenderness in his gaze. And Hadi was close, kneeling, hands flexing, wanting to touch but content to be so close to Sun, who chatted with him as if they were old friends about stories we weren’t involved in.

Me and Bracken glanced at each other in unison.

Sun was… Sun was so very?—

“Happy,” we whispered.

“I don’t want to ruin that with whatever that was. So as long as that creep doesn’t come back, let’s keep that between you and me,” Bracken sighed, and I nodded in agreement, transfixed by Sun.

He had never smiled that openly before, and now he did, not because of us but because he had met Atlan and Jia again. His friends were alive and well.

And we had all been too jealous to soak in the bliss of seeing the center of our world so unburdened.

Of course, I’d do whatever it took to protect his light. Nguyen was right. I would read his book cover to cover, learn all I could, and be more than dead weight. I would be more than an idiot savant who had cast a spell he didn’t even understand. I’d master the dark magic fluttering like crystals in the air as Nguyen’s mirage was fully shattered.

Bracken and I rejoined our bonded.

I would harness new powers and command respect like Nguyen and Shizumi did, even though they were weaker than all the other nocs here.

I clutched the book of spells to my beating heart as Bracken drifted to sleep by the warmth of the campfire and willed this future into existence with all my might.