Page 11 of The Storm of the Empire (Flyers Of The First Kingdom #3)

TEN

LUKA

I ’d lost track of eggs when we got to port at Neilius. They’d vanished from the deck of the ship, but since this was where they brought the priests, I assumed the eggs were here too, and I was determined to find them. So I’d taken matters into my own hands, and an hour after we were left to rest, I was up.

I was alone in the sanctuary and had planned on checking out some of the doors we had passed coming in while all the priests were below during the storm. They had warned us not to venture out, but I would be inside looking around, so the storm wouldn’t affect me.

Then I heard footsteps behind me in the corridor. Ice ran through my veins. If I was confronted now, I could be exposed as an intruder. I couldn’t risk it, so rather than deal with a confrontation that would unravel my whole situation, I decided to ditch whoever it was. I hurried along the corridor to the rear exit of the temple. We had been brought in this way, so I knew I could escape to the outside and shake off whoever it was. The storm couldn’t be that bad.

“You should stay inside,” a female voice called out.

I tried to open the door, but a pressure from beyond it made it difficult. When I cracked it open, the weather was worse than it sounded. I hurriedly tugged the door closed again and eyed my surroundings for an escape.

“You should be below with your fellows,” the female said, much closer to me than before. My heart was pounding as I looked for any kind of escape, not turning to face my pursuer.

Did she sound familiar, or was that the wind messing with my ears?

“State your business,” she said with authority, and I knew I was out of choices. I shoved my way out into the storm. Staggering down the stairs, it was hard to stay on my feet. The wind battered me with rain so hard, it felt sharp like stones.

I didn’t have time to look for shelter before I was tackled and slammed into a wall. My head spun from the contact, and I blinked through the pain until a new horror became clear. I had a blade pressed to my throat.

“I said state your business,” the female growled, and even through the storm, the accent seemed familiar. I hardly dare swallow, but she wanted an answer.

“Don’t hurt me—I’m a priest!” I shouted to be heard over the wind. I prayed she would believe me. I could not die like this.

She moved then, and I was spun to face her. My hood was pulled back, and the tip of her blade was once again in contact with my tender throat.

“Luka?”

My eyes snapped from the hand holding the blade to the eyes of my attacker. “Hazel?” I croaked in shock, unable to move without risking my jugular. What in the Goddess’ name was she doing here?

Gasping, she pulled her blade. “By the Goddess, what are you doing here?” she yelled over the storm.

I opened my mouth to reply, but I was at a loss for words. What could I even say to her?

Before I could come up with something, a great world-ending crack echoed overhead and drowned even the suggestion of being heard. The temple walls shook with a wrath only the power of the Goddess could possess. I shrank back, never having heard anything of the kind in my life, but Hazel merely cast a glare to the sky as if annoyed at being interrupted.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked because she seemed so unbothered.

She leaned into my ear and, in a tone I could tell was a yell but could only just make out, said, “We have to go back in the temple, You’ll get yourself killed out here.”

I craned my neck. “It’s just a storm.” A loud one, but since when did storms kill people? Talk about overreaction.

“Are you kidding?” She looked at me like I’d misplaced the only brain cell in my head, and after the voyage I’d just been on, that might have been true, but it was still just a storm.

“What?” The ground beneath my feet shook until I thought it would split and open the gates to the underworld. Lightning lit the sky, rain cut through the air, and before I could even think, Hazel grabbed my hand and half dragged me back up the temple stairs.

My hair on the back of my neck stood, but not like when I was back home in the fields warning those still out to get down or risk being struck by the odd storm. This cut through my bones, almost like it would cut out parts of myself I wasn’t aware of.

Suddenly, I was ready to heed her warning, pulling her faster than she could run over the rain-soaked ground. When we reached the top of the stairs, I had to help her fight the wind for control of the door. Together, we managed to pry it open enough to fall inside, wind whipped and soaking. The door slammed shut behind us, and we collapsed against it, breathing hard.

I blinked at her. She was panting and looking as if this whole scenario was a huge inconvenience rather than what seemed to me more like the end of the world.

“What was that?” I couldn’t call it a storm because I knew in my gut it was so much more.

“We have to get underground.” She rose while I was still reorienting myself and began opening the doors at this end of the corridor.

I could see past her shoulder that the first was a storage cupboard, but the second was nothing but gaping darkness from this angle.“You can’t answer a simple question?” I asked, getting annoyed by her dodging.

“Do have a death wish?” she asked and took a step through another door. “Come on.”

“No. Where are you going?” I scrambled to my feet to join her and saw stairs leading below.

“Underground,” she said like I was daft.

“Wait!” I grabbed her shoulder. “You can’t go down there.”

“Well, you can’t stay up here. You need to get below,” she snapped.

“Me? What about you?” I snapped back. I could very well take care of myself. Why did I always seem to be having to prove it?

A crackle sounded and bright light shone from her hand as she turned to glare at me. Lightning. She had wreathed her own damn hand in lightning like it was nothing. How in the Goddess’ name did I not know she could do that? I don’t know what I assumed her magic to be, but after seeing her fight, I guess I’d assumed it had something to do with combat.

She lifted the light in her palm up to my face. “I’m a storm dragon, genius. You are not. Now follow me before you get your arse fried.” Without further discussion, she descended the stairs, and I scurried to keep up with her in case she met the priests who were all gathered below for prayer.

“What does being a storm dragon have to do with the storm and—what I felt.” I didn’t know how to describe it.

“Because we are born with storm magic in our blood, we can tolerate it. Other fae cannot.” She didn’t elaborate further.

“We really can’t go down here.” I could blend in in these robes, but she could not, and I hadn’t come this far only to be outed now. Let alone, I didn’t know what they’d do to her if she saw something she wasn’t supposed to.

However, when we reached the end of the stone staircase, her light revealed nothing but a small cellar. “It’s just a cellar. What are you going on about?”

I exhaled in relief. “It’s a temple. I don’t need to be cursed for seven years because I got on their bad side.”

She located a lamp on the shelves at the back and ignited the wick with her light, then shook out her hand, leaving us in lamplight. She set the lamp down on some crates, and turned on me, folding her arms. “Now are you going to tell me why I don’t see you for days and then find you in my home kingdom dressed as a priest?”

I cocked my head back in surprise. Was she sore about not seeing me? I felt my lips quirk in a smile. “Miss me?”

She rolled her eyes. “Answer the question.”

“Listen, I had assumed from your demeanor the next day that our night together was a one off, and that was okay. If I had known you wanted more, I would have?—”

She held up her hand. “Stow your ego in your pants with your dick. This is not the time. What I mean is that you begged entry to my class, went quite beyond propriety to secure a place, then attended a couple of times and never returned. I should be insulted.”

“Should be?” I tried to keep it playful because I couldn’t answer any of her questions. I didn’t know how much she knew about what Nyx was having me look into, my gut told me to keep my mouth shut, so I did.

“Don’t push your luck.”

A kernel of disappointment was sown in my chest, knowing she was more bothered by my absence from her class than her bed, but I ignored it.

“So you came looking for me?” I swallowed, realizing that had never happened to me before. No one ever came looking. I was very much alone.

She scoffed, quashing my hope. “No, I didn’t come looking for you. I’m home visiting my family, and I find you scurrying around the temple up to who knows what, dressed in priests’ robes, when you should be sheltering during the storm hours like every other fae here. Do you not have any sense of self-preservation?”

The lighting, the storm magic—it all clicked. How had I thought she was here for me? I winced internally. “That’s a good question.”

“Which you’re going to answer.” She wasn’t giving it up.

I glanced up the stairs, fearing intrusion, but all I heard was the raging storm above. “I was not scurrying.”

“That is exactly what you were doing. Masquerading as a holy guardian no less! Have you no shame, or do you expect me to believe you’ve taken the oath in the few days since leaving my bed?” My chest tightened, and I knew I shouldn’t care what she thought, but I realized I did.

There was that hint of something in her tone again when she mentioned me leaving her bed. Maybe she felt something more than apathy about it after all.

“I’m investigating—a hunch,” I said in a lower voice. Storm or no, I could not risk being discovered.

She frowned. “The thing you’re doing for Nyx?”

“Yes.” I needed to tread carefully because I didn’t know how much she should know. I was meant to report only to Nyx or Jaxus, but I couldn’t have her thinking ill of me.

“So Nyx sent you to the Storm Kingdom? To investigate in the temple?” She narrowed her beautiful brown eyes.

I hated her doubting me.

I cleared my throat. “Not exactly, no.”

She shifted her feet, clearly not happy with my lack of information.

“I was looking into something for Nyx, and that put me on a trail that connected with the priests in Amaya. I wasn’t sure how or why they were connected, so I needed to do a little looking around. In order to blend in, I um, borrowed this robe. And it turned out I blended in really well because the next thing I knew, I was traveling with them. I felt like doing so might give me some answers…and I ended up here.”

“So Nyx just has you full on spying in our sacred temples now?” She sounded disgusted. I knew all too well how seriously some took their faith in the Goddess.

Not all were as jaded as me.

“No, no, that’s not the case.” I held up my hands like I could stop the path her mind was going down. “Nyx doesn’t know I’m here. I was just looking around and followed my nose to see where it led me.”

“Across the Middle Sea?” she gaped.

“Yeah.”

Her tightly woven dark curls shook as she expressed her disbelief.

“Look, I know it sounds a little farfetched, but I just go with the flow and follow my gut. It usually serves me well, so if something brought me here, it’s worth looking into. Trust me.” I was sure it wouldn’t make any sense to her, and I didn’t expect her to believe me, but I wanted her to.

“Trust you? Seriously? You’re in a stolen robe, impersonating a priest—someone everyone is supposed to be able to trust—and digging around a sacred temple. And I’m supposed to just trust you? I almost slit your throat out there!” Her voice rose. “That should tell you what I think of anyone doing ill deeds in the temple of Kalilah.”

I stepped towards her, and she went on alert, taking a fighting stance. I held up my hands to show her I meant no harm, then winced as the earth shook with thunder. “Please lower your voice,” I begged curling my hands into fists trying to contain some of my emotion.

“Why? Are you concerned I will out you and wreck your plans, whatever they really are?”

“No.” I stepped into her space, placing my hands on her arms carefully. “I’m worried you’ll alert someone we are down here and we will have to run back out in that storm again. Goddess, what in the world is happening out there?”

She shook off my hands and lifted a shoulder. “Is that blackmail?”

“No, I’m being fully transparent with you. I cannot be revealed.” I hoped the tone of my voice convinced her. It was as real as I could be.

“They won’t find us. It’s the storm hours. Everyone heads below ground in the afternoon.”

I furrow my brows. “You mean to tell me this waking nightmare is a regular thing?”

“Yes, it happens every day. That’s why we call them the storm hours.” She rolled her eyes at me again as if I was truly tiresome. “Do you even do an ounce of research before trying to sell yourself as something you’re not?”

“I’m not usually in a place with lightning that feels like it could separate me from my body.”

“What did you think the Storm Kingdom would be like?”

“Some weather. I don’t know. So this”—I pointed at the ceiling—“really happens every day?” How was this not talked about more? I’d traveled across so many kingdoms and never heard a word of this breathed. Was it a secret?

Exasperated, she huffed and stepped around me, taking a seat on a crate and rubbing her temples. “Yes. The afternoon heat bakes the magic, lifting it from the ground to mix with the moist air blown from the Middle Sea, and it produces the storms. They usually pass in a few hours.”

“Goddess,” I muttered to myself. “Who can live like that?”

“We know of no else.” She lifted her head and glared at me. “The storm is a blessing from the Goddess. They used to call this the Blessed Kingdom before the Hundred Years War. It is thought that we are closer to Her here than anywhere in the realms as Her power charges the skies and gives Her people life.” Her face tilted towards the sky. “Being up there in the storm is the closest you can get to Her touch.”

“Who could even survive such a thing?” It seemed impossible.

“Storm dragons,” she replied flatly. “We’re made of the land, thus made of the magic given to us by the Goddess.”

I gaped. “You’ve—” I pointed up again. Had she really flown in this? Being out in it for only minutes made my skin feel like it was about to come off.

She blinked at me and a smirk graced her lips. “Oh, yeah,” she chuckled. “Surprised a little thing like me would dare?”

“Astonished any fae would be mad enough to even try! I was out there a mere moment, and I’m traumatized. You say everyone takes shelter underground, and yet you take to the skies?”

“Most do take shelter, yes. There are some who have to be out.”

I paced a little, processing all this new information. The idea of Hazel flying in weather like this turned my stomach. Some part of me wanted to demand she never did again, but I knew that would be fighting a losing battle. A dragon would never listen to a lowly fae with no magic.

“Can you take a seat?” she said, sounding weary. “It’s going to be a long night if you keep pacing.”

I snapped around to look at her. “Long night? I thought you said these things only last a couple of hours?”

“They usually do, but sometimes…” She lifts her shoulders.

“And there’s nothing to be done except wait?” I was growing restless. Every moment we stayed here was another moment to get caught.

“Unless you want to risk losing yourself.”

“What does that mean? You said there are some who have to be out. How do they survive if it’s that dangerous?”

“Those fae train for years to guard themselves against the ill effects of the storms.”

“I thought you said the people here are protected because they are born of the land with the magic?”

“Protected, yes. Completely immune, no. The storms are still volatile and dangerous. The winds alone carry as much force as a tornado, and a single bolt of lighting can flay the skin off a fae. But at least it doesn’t strip us from ourselves.”

“You keep saying that. What does it mean?”

“Do you really not know?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“How do you seem to know so little and yet so much?”

Something tells me to be honest. “I grew up in the Fringe. Zaria and I both did. We were sheltered from a lot of this world, including magic.”

“I’d heard as much from Zaria, but I still have trouble wrapping my head around such an existence. You really had no magic?” she said in disbelief.

“None. We were never shown its existence, and any whisper of such a thing was quickly quashed. We were told the Uriel created illusions to draw followers but that such nonsense would take us away from the Goddess.”

“How can that be possible when you seem so worldly at the same time?”

I shift in my seat. “I’ve lived a lot of life since my village was destroyed.” And more than one life it felt like at times.

“I might believe that.” Her annoyance seemed to have lessened some. Maybe being open was the path I needed to connect with her.

“The village I lived in grew Dragon’s Bane. I didn’t know it was that. We called it the sacred herb, but that’s what it was, and there is a sect in the priests we sold it to. I don’t know why. We were told they used it in their worship, but I don’t think that can be. Nyx has tasked me with finding out what’s going on.”

I didn’t dare tell her about the eggs. The bane was bad enough. Not before I knew what I was dealing with, or reported it to Nyx and Jaxus.

“Excuse me? You mean me to believe priests are involved in that nasty business.”

I locked my gaze on hers, everything in my chest pushing me to share this with her. “I don’t know if it’s the priests or a group pretending to be priests. What I know is there is a trade of bane in the kingdom and knowingly or not, the priests are part of its distribution.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because I have seen it with my own eyes.”