Page 32 of Veiled By Smoke (The Nature Hunters Academy #5)
He had no idea how long they slept when a wave of cold ran through him so intense he felt his teeth chatter, jarring him awake.
He nearly sat up, but a warm weight on his chest kept him in place.
Kimba. His soul bonded laid over him like the softest blanket.
Osiris wrapped his arm around her tighter, pulling her closer in an attempt to chase away the voice he’d heard in his mind.
“You will never be free of this place. The darkness is absolute. It will cling to your soul for all eternity, and you will forever fight the need to return. Enjoy your reprieve, false king, it won’t last.”
He knew that voice. He loathed that voice and it was one that, for a time, like Kimba’s, he’d forgotten.
But unlike Kimba’s, this was a voice that he could go the rest of his existence and never want to hear again.
This was the feeling he’d described to his soul bonded earlier.
That he was off . Maybe he’d been hearing Lucifer in his dreams for days and was just now able to decipher who it was.
Maybe it was because the bond between him and Kimba had needed healing.
Whatever the reason, he knew now that Lucifer had a link to him, and that was not a good thing.
“You’re cold,” Kimba’s soft, sleepy voice, replaced the sound of the ruler of hell and almost immediately chased away the chill.
“Bad dream,” he said.
She pushed up on his chest so she could look at his face. Osiris felt her mind searching his, and he didn’t hesitate to let her in. Her eyes widened. “He spoke to you?”
He nodded.
“This is why you’ve been feeling off?” Kimba pushed up and wrapped the sheet around her nakedness.
He preferred that she didn’t, but that was the wicked side of him thinking.
A small smirk turned up her lips. “I don’t think that’s your wicked side, mate,” having heard his thoughts. “I think that’s your male side.”
He shrugged. “You’re a beautiful woman,” he paused, and then amended. “You're my beautiful woman. I like looking at you.”
“You can look later.” Her face grew serious. “We need to deal with Lucifer.” She said his name without fear, with total confidence that she could take on the king of hell and win. It was sexy. “Focus,” she snapped her fingers in his face.
Osiris held up his hands. “Focusing,” he promised.
“It’s time we tap into the darkness,” she told him fiercely. “That’s our job. Find it, heal it. If Lucifer has a line to you, then there is darkness that has seeped into this land, into the dragon realm, and it needs to be dealt with.”
Osiris sat up. He tilted his head and then considered the powers he used to have. He wondered if he still had any of them. Deciding there was no reason not to try, he snapped his fingers and suddenly they were both clothed.
Kimba glanced down at the low cut gown that fit to her every curve. “Really?” she asked dryly.
“It’s not see-through,” he pointed out, thinking that had been a fair trade.
She sighed and then took his hands. She got herself seated more comfortably and took in a deep breath.
Kimba closed her eyes. “Let’s try. Like we used to,” she whispered.
“Let’s see what’s out there. And not just the darkness,” she paused, her thoughts turning over what else she wanted them to search out now that their bond was complete again.
“I want to see if I can feel Aurora. If Rory is a soul bonded, maybe Aurora is, too. And maybe my bond through Rory will allow me to have access to Aurora.”
He nodded, closing his eyes, reaching for the bond. At first it was tentative, like touching an old scar, but Kimba was there, her magic a steady current. Together, they let their souls brush her light, his shadow, twining together the way they always had before everything fell apart.
Almost immediately, Osiris felt it: the thread of darkness running beneath the world, subtle but insistent.
It tugged at him, a cold wind threading through the cracks in his heart and mind.
With Kimba grounding him, he pressed deeper.
The rift was there, a wound in the fabric of the realm, pulsing at the edge of his perception. Underworld magic, raw and unhealed.
“There,” Kimba murmured through the bond, her presence a reassuring warmth in the darkness. “ Do you feel it?”
“I do,” he answered, mental voice rough with awe and fear. “ It’s opened wider than I thought it was. I can almost hear the voices—lost souls, anger, regret. And something else, something hungry. Lucifer.”
Kimba’s focus sharpened, her magic weaving with his. “ Let’s follow it further,” she urged. “ But not just the dark. Reach for what’s bright, too. Feel Rory inside of me. The thread of purple light is her magic. See if you can feel something similar to her. Maybe with our combined power, we can.”
They held the bond, magic stretching outward, seeking.
For a moment, all Osiris could feel was the raw pain of the world, the ache of wounds, old and new.
Then something else, a flicker of warmth, distant but insistent.
It was delicate, like a melody played on a single string, but it vibrated with a familiar longing.
Kimba latched onto it. “ That’s her,” she breathed, her voice filled with awe.
“ Aurora. She feels exactly as Rory did when I connected with her for the first time. She’s as broken as her sister was, but her wounds run deeper.
Even as a baby, the loss of her parents tore her apart.
The connection’s faint, but it’s there. She feels .
. . split. Like something is tugging her in two directions.
That’s the soul bond, Osiris. She’s tied to Rory, and through Rory, to all of us, and someone else, someone she will one day connect with.
” There was an ache in Kimba’s voice that broke his heart.
She felt so deeply for the ones she called her own, and she hurt on a level that most wouldn’t comprehend for the darkness that could consume people.
He could feel it too: the potential for darkness to take Aurora.
He let the realization settle, the hope and fear tangled together. “ If we can sense her, so can others. We need to keep her safe. But I don’t want to rush the group. They’re still not sure about me. About us.”
Kimba nodded, opening her eyes and drawing in a shaky breath.
“We wait,” she said softly. “We keep this between us, for a few days at least. Let Ra and Penny try to reach her. Right now, this rift is a good opportunity to train the group how to heal the darkness and close off its access to the light. We can kill two birds with one stone.”
Osiris managed a tired smile. “You’re wiser than I ever was.”
She squeezed his hand. “Just more patient. And a little less afraid of the dark, now that I’m not facing it alone. We’ll let them sleep the rest of the night, although there are few things in life that give me joy like waking up Rory before she’s ready to get out of bed.”
Osiris chuckled. “You two have an odd relationship.”
“She’s got a thick outer shell, but once you get past it, she loves deeply. I know it’s killing her not to be the one going after her sister. This will give her something else to focus on.” She glanced down at her clothes. “When we go, could you give me something a little more appropriate?”
“But you look so sexy.” He grinned.
“Do you want Liam, Elias,—”
He snapped his fingers before she could finish speaking, a frown marring his brow. “There.”
Kimba laughed as she looked down and saw that he’d put her in pants, boots, and a shirt that went up to her neck, with long sleeves. It was form fitting, but she could tell she’d be able to move in it easily. “I suppose this will do.”
“I could put you in a floor-length sack cloth,” he teased.
“I don’t remember you being a jealous mate,” she told him as she pulled him back down to lay next to her.
He let the vulnerability in him show, only for her. “It might take me some time to feel completely secure, in us. I don’t deserve you. But I’m not good enough to give you up, either.”
“Fair enough. I don’t plan on letting you give me up. Now, I prefer not to sleep in boots, and I could use a few more hours of sleep. Could you help a lady out?”
He snapped his fingers, and it wasn’t just the boots that disappeared.
Her laughter filling the cave wrapped around him, warming him better than any fire could.
Osiris vowed he’d spend the rest of his life making sure she laughed like that at least a few times a day. She deserved that kind of joy and more.