Page 12

Chapter 11

A zriel thumbed the three vials in his pocket. He’d carried them since Phulan handed them to him early in the evening—though not before she made him swear to report back his true experiences. More would be placed in the bags he planned to take on his travels to local clans. Just having them on his person, however, put him on edge, particularly when no one else around him knew of their existence.

Particularly after Ariadne, tucked close to his side as they broke their fast together in the great hall, had already asked for clear communication between them.

But he couldn’t tell her. Not yet. Not after she’d seen him back in Melia’s chateau. She’d seen the night Ada had taken advantage of him—witnessed just how distorted his mind became when under the influence of that drug. It’d made him wonder how many other parties he’d attended and couldn’t recollect, thanks to the illusion potion. The very thought made his stomach curl.

“Are you well, alhija ?” Ariadne’s soft voice tugged him from the desperate search through his memories to ensure nothing else had happened.

He pulled his hand from his pocket and looked down at her. Gods, she was perfect. That horrible bond seemed to hum in approval at the sight of her—the feel of her warmth against his side. “Always when you’re near.”

Those sumptuous lips curled in delight. “Does that mean you will take me with you?”

His heart dropped. He would be departing shortly after breaking his fast with her to travel to more clans some distance away. Even on Razer, the journey would take them into the daylight hours, and though he trusted the Noct to keep her safe, he couldn’t bear the thought of her in danger. He and his entourage would be gone for two full days, flying between the various locations in the southeastern reaches of the Keonis Mountains. Without knowing precisely where Ehrun was located, he couldn’t get past the possibility that he or his cronies could appear at any moment.

At least at Auhla , Ariadne would be surrounded by dhemons who’d already sworn their allegiance to him and, by extension, her.

Madan slid in across from them, saving him from responding to her inquiry right away. His brother’s marbled eyes bore into them both with a fresh intensity he hadn’t seen in quite some time. “We need to find Anwenja.”

Cocking his head, Azriel’s brows lowered. “What are you talking about?”

Too often, Madan spoke to him halfway through a thought as though Azriel could hear what happened inside his head at any given moment. Whatever he spoke of had sent him into a frenzy, so when he planted his elbows on the table between them and leaned forward, he didn’t drop his voice as he was wont to do when conspiring. “It’s a pilgrimage! We need the springwater and—”

Azriel waved a hand. “Slow down.”

“Does this have to do with the ritual?” Ariadne’s eyes flared with hope like her half-brother’s. She searched Madan’s face, their excitement growing in tandem. “To reconnect with Keon?”

“Yes!” Madan swung his eyes back to Azriel. “Brother, I’m so close— so close to getting the answers we need.”

He stared at his brother, shoving down the optimism that threatened to drag him into the same state of enthusiasm. Despite his and Ariadne’s promises to the dhemons, he couldn’t allow his path to be deterred by something as trivial as hope. “What are you missing?”

It was as though he’d squeezed the passion right out of Madan’s eyes. His brother glanced at Ariadne, then said, “There were missing pages. All I know is that there’s a cave with springwater that comes directly from the Underworld. It’s the first step of the pilgrimage.”

“So we know where to begin,” Ariadne said, not losing her own excitement, “and where to end.”

Azriel lowered his brows. “End?”

“Where the ritual should take place.” She looked from him to Madan and back, confusion in her ocean eyes. “The tree.”

Madan gaped at her. “How do you know about the Keonis Tree?”

A shadow passed in her gaze, and she looked at her hands, fingers twisting together. Tension built in her shoulders. After a beat, her eyes flickered at the doors. To the entry.

Toward the dungeon.

Azriel pried her hands apart and laced their fingers. He gave her a gentle squeeze. Of course that was where she’d heard of dhemon history. Ehrun had been obsessed with it after losing Rhana. As much as he hated the dhemon, Azriel couldn’t blame him. After all, he’d begged for death when he thought Ariadne had died, even when he wasn’t certain they’d be together in the afterlife.

“Where do you think this…Anwenja is?” Azriel asked before pressing his lips to the back of his wife’s hand, never taking his gaze off her as she closed her eyes. Her lips moved silently as she inhaled and exhaled in a steady rhythm. He lowered his voice and said to her, “ Sabharni , alhija . I’m here. You’re safe.”

Madan, too, watched his half-sister with concern. “After visiting the clans, I’d like to go to Rhuvensk .”

Heart sinking, Azriel snapped his attention back to Madan. “Are you out of your mind?”

“What is it?” Ariadne’s voice was eerily quiet, but she peered at them through her lashes. The firm squeeze of his hand told Azriel she’d navigated her way out of her memories.

“ Rhuvensk is a library.”

Her eyes flew open. “Where?”

Azriel glowered at his half-brother. The last thing they needed was for his wife to want to traipse halfway across the Keonis Mountains to find a new book to read. “In the south, but it’s dangerous.”

“It’s a library.” Her flat tone told him just how annoyed she was at his subtle refusal.

To his credit, Madan grimaced and added, “And one of Ehrun’s favorites.”

“It holds much of dhemon history.” Azriel squeezed her hand again as her shoulders curled in, the light in her expression dimming. “Knowledge from across millennia.”

“Which is why I need to go.” Madan looked up at Azriel again. “I need to find the rest. If Ariadne’s correct and we need the Keonis Tree as well, we need to know exactly how to find Anwenja and what we need to make this work.”

Shaking his head, Azriel said, “If the ritual was in Rhuvensk , someone would’ve reconnected us a long time ago.”

“Not if only part of it is there and the vampires had hidden the rest.”

When Ariadne didn’t reemerge from her thoughts despite their half-brother’s enthusiasm, Azriel released her hand and tucked his fingers into the hair at the back of her head, just along the roots. He gently angled her face towards him, boring into her with his eyes. “Come back to me, my love.”

She searched his face, expression softening. When he shifted his palm to her cheek, she leaned into it with a nod. “I am here.”

“I need to know you’re safe,” he said softly, “when I’m gone.”

“Let me come with you.”

Madan tensed across the table but kept his focus on the food he piled onto his plate. The sudden shift of Azriel’s attention was enough for him to not push into their conversation.

“I need you here.” His bond screamed at him in protest. The words were nothing but lies. Lies, which he’d promised to never utter again. The betrayal roiled in his gut. “I need Yvhaltrinja to welcome any newcomers. Can you do that for me?”

Fear flickered across her face, and damn him, the monster hidden inside yearned to burn the world to ash. The rage crashed through him in waves. He grit his teeth, beating back the urge to act on the roaring instincts. There was, after all, no threat to put down.

“If that is what you need,” she said, though the words didn’t quite meet her eyes. “I will stay.”

Azriel nearly choked on the next words out of his mouth. “Kall will be here to keep you safe while I’m away.”

It should be he who kept her safe—no one else. Though he spoke the statement with as much calmness as he could muster, he could trust no other to ensure her safety. Not when, each time he closed his eyes, he saw her dead and felt his soul threatening to shatter any time she was not near.

“Alright…” Ariadne turned her face back toward Madan. “I think you should go to Rhuvensk . Carefully. We need those answers.”

Whatever she had seen as she looked at him had been enough to break her out of the haze that so often descended since arriving in Auhla . Likely, she’d spotted the panic. The fear. The anger. The distrust. She knew as well as he that the only way to end those feelings would be to connect with Keon.

Before either Azriel or Madan could say anything more, Ariadne stood. She pecked a kiss to Azriel’s lips and murmured, “I love you. Come back to me.”

Then she was gone.

Azriel watched her disappear from the great hall, hurrying towards the front doors, where she was no doubt meeting up with the very same dhemon sworn to protect her. The two would take a run through the woods surrounding the keep, strength train, drill with swords, continue flying lessons, and—

He forced himself to stop imagining the two of them grappling before he could stoke the fire in his bond. The last thing he needed to do was follow her and cause a scene with Kall. There was a reason he kept his distance during their training.

“We should go.” Azriel thumbed the vial in his pocket again.

Madan gaped at him. “I just started eating.”

“Don’t be rude.” He stood and stepped out from the bench seat. “You know they’ll feed you when we arrive.”

Grumbling something under his breath, Madan shoveled another over-filled bite into his mouth before following suit, a hunk of bread in his hand.

They departed from the great hall together, but it wasn’t until they’d stepped into the moonlight that Azriel let Madan lead the way. He opened his mind to Razer, who responded in kind and took flight to meet them. With his brother several steps ahead, Azriel pulled a vial from his pocket.

His stomach curled. The red liquid clung to the glass as all blood did. He couldn’t help but think of what Melia had done to him with a very similar mixture—the nights he’d lost and memories that eluded him.

Madan picked up where he’d left off in the great hall, divulging all he knew from the text he’d read about Anwenja. Each word blended into the next as he described, in detail, what he’d learned. It faded into the background the longer Azriel stared at the vial in his hand.

When Madan put enough distance between them, Azriel popped the cork free and tipped the contents into his mouth. It wasn’t the first time he’d tasted Phulan’s blood, though he had secretly hoped she’d managed to get some from Ariadne prior to her experimentation. Keeping such things a secret, however, would’ve put a damper on the prospect. He tilted his head forward, forcing the blood to his fangs so it could ascend through the hollows.

His heart pounded. The last time he’d done this willingly, he’d woken up in Melia’s chateau beside Ada. Vivid swaths of half-memories swept to the front of his mind, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Hot sand pressed against his face. Skin peeling from too much sun exposure. A pair of blue eyes that didn’t look quite right…

Air burned in his throat as he stared at a place in the grass just ahead of his feet. Green shifted to golden red each time he closed his eyes, and the cool night air turned dry and painful. Bending at the waist, Azriel covered his face, the vial dropping to the ground.

He was safe. He was free. He was home.

This is what you deserve .

No, no, no…

“Azriel?” Madan’s voice floated back to him, cutting across the memory of his own anguished screams. His brother sounded far off, but his boots appeared within his line of sight as he asked, “What’s wrong?”

With a shake of his head, Azriel waited for the numbing sensation to take over. Waited for that light-headedness that kept him stumbling over his own feet. Waited to lose all sense of himself.

But it never came.

Instead, a knot in his chest loosened, one that he hadn’t realized twisted so tight that it’s been strangling him. Tension leaked from his muscles, and an easiness took hold of the monstrous bond. Azriel sucked in a deep breath…and let relief spread through his limbs when he wasn’t met with the burning wrath he associated with being separated from Ariadne.

“Nothing,” he breathed, and for the first time in weeks, it wasn’t a lie. He straightened again, lighter and clearer-headed than he’d felt in too long, even compared to the moments tucked tight to his wife. “I’m fine.”

“ What did you do ?” Razer’s question rumbled in Azriel’s mind. Before he could keep the dragon from thumbing through his memories, Razer plucked the information free with an invisible claw. “ You idiot .”

“ I don’t need a lecture from you .”

“ Well, you’re certainly saying those words a lot lately ,” Razer chuffed. “ Perhaps it’s because you are, in fact, the most insufferable dumbass I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting .”

“ You chose me .” Ignoring Madan’s look of concern, Azriel started forward again just as Razer touched down and huffed hot air in his face. “ What does that say about you ?”

Brutis and Anthoria landed near the great blue dragon. Whelan sat astride the latter, a pack slung over Oria’s shoulders before him. He looked to Madan questioningly, and the distant look in both their eyes told Azriel they were communicating mind-to-mind through their respective vinculums.

“ I should make you walk to the clans ,” Razer grumbled.

Azriel glowered at him before swinging up onto the beast’s back. “ Just don’t tell anyone yet . I need to make sure this works first .”

Another huff of indignance. “ As you wish, dhomin.”

“ Fuck you .”

“ Or is it vhaltrinin now ?” A hearty chuckle filled Azriel’s mind after the dig.

Little King. It wouldn’t take long for Ehrun and his cronies to latch onto such a title and use it to demean him in the same way they’d used dhomin all those years.

“ I should’ve left you in the snow .”

Razer’s first appearance all those decades ago had at once thrilled and frightened him. After Oria nearly took Madan’s head off, they’d been convinced they were under attack from the strange beasts. Fortunately, they’d teased out the truth relatively quickly. Though they’d never completed the task that had originally sent them into the Irem Tundra, they’d returned to the Crowe in Auhla with something far greater than the location of Bastien’s lost temple: the start of a dragon militia.

It hadn’t taken long for them to realize that taking the flying cavalry into a full-scale battle was unwise. The dragons were massive targets in the sky, and they’d lost two when they flew against the vampire army. Breaking the vinculum killed the dhemons to whom those dragons had been connected. One of them had mated with another fighting on foot, causing them to spiral out of control and cut down anyone in their way, no matter the side for which they fought.

They’d been forced to call in more dhemons than they’d previously considered necessary to ensure every vampire was eliminated. If any of them lived to report back what they’d witnessed…

Azriel still shuddered to think how the tides of the war may have turned if vampires found the clutch.

By the time they reached the first clan almost two hours later, Phulan’s illusion-infused blood still held Azriel’s incensed bond at bay. He greeted the clan leader with a clear head and saw the mountain village for all the true beauty it held.

And it was as they sat down for the morning meal amongst the welcoming dhemons agreeing to join his cause that he understood the true danger of the potion: he’d found a peace he couldn’t even find in his wife’s arms.