Page 22 of Wrath Of Suns And Shadows (The Osparia #2)

Chapter Twelve

Shay

“ G o, Emeris!” I shouted over the roar of the pouring rain.

The skies were so dark one would think it was dusk rather than midday.

If we flew at full speed straight through the rest of the day and tonight, we could make it there before morning.

I blew out a breath that sounded more like a sob as grief racked through me.

Ember might want Emelyn alive, but I knew Valla was a wicked woman who would do only that: keep her within an inch of her life, making her wish she were dead.

I didn’t have time to wallow. I needed to get to Atreya to come up with a plan about what to do next.

A warmth coated my mind, calming my racing thoughts.

“I’ve missed you so much, love, but I can feel something has happened.

Your emotions are coming through the bond.

What’s wrong, Shay?” Baron spoke through our bond into my mind for the first time in a while.

With the barrier on Magni, it made it difficult to feel or speak through our bond, especially with me trying to glamour parts of myself from him, but now that I was beyond the island’s protection, he could feel me, all of me, and I was sure my emotions were slamming into him in waves.

Gods, the sound of his voice made me choke down another sob.

I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed him.

“It’s Emelyn. I’ll explain everything once I return. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I responded, and emotion stirred on the other end as if Baron wanted to say something more but was holding back.

“Baron,” I whispered down the bond. “I love you.”

“Come home to me, Shay,” he called back before I let the bond between us go quiet.

I closed my eyes and breathed as I focused on all the places the rain was pelting against my skin.

Glamouring my pregnancy from him had become harder the further along I’d gotten.

Even when he’d spoken down the bond, I’d had to keep a part of myself hidden from him, and it made me feel sick and brought back feelings of a time when I was full of deceit.

I never wanted to go back to those days.

There were only two things I knew for certain.

One: Emelyn would stay alive until we could get to her.

She had to.

Two: I had to tell Baron about our child, no matter how frightened it made me about bringing a life into the world we lived in.

I slapped my hand on the side of Emeris’s neck, egging her on to go faster as her wings carried us through the spring storm.

Emeris roared upon our arrival, and I noticed people wandering out of their tents in the wee hours of the morning, while some had already started their day.

Exhaustion riddled me, but I didn’t have time to stop.

I swung my leg over and slid down Emeris’s side.

The motion and the heat of the sticky, humid day made my stomach churn with bile.

Was I to be sick this entire pregnancy? Did it ever go away? I hoped so.

I leaned against Emeris a moment before regaining my posture.

Ace saw me and made haste toward me, using his wings to carry him faster than his feet could.

His eyes volleyed around Emeris and me, as if he thought Emelyn would jump out and scare him after being separated for as long as they had.

But the moment his azure eyes met my hollow brown ones, he knew something was wrong.

His face fell, all excitement melting away and shifting to worry.

“Where’s Emelyn?” he signed, and all I could manage was a sad shake of my head as I turned my tear-lined eyes away from him.

I couldn’t handle the look on his face. If only I would’ve been able to hold on to her and pull her back up, we could’ve gotten away.

Baron pushed past him and tackled me into a rib-crushing hug as he buried his head into the crook of my neck.

His scent engulfed me, and I felt a moment of solitude.

Ace moved him aside and grabbed my shoulders. I winced, the pain coming from my dislocated one that was still healing.

“Shay, please, where is she? What happened?” He shook me with desperation, and Emeris snarled right when Baron grabbed him and shoved him to the ground and away from me with a growl of his own.

A crowd began to form, and Baron stilled as he looked down at Ace.

I watched his shoulders stiffen as if the man couldn’t breathe.

I watched as the truth washed over him. He shifted on his feet and turned toward me again.

His eyes pleaded with mine for a moment, as if begging me to tell him it was actually true.

A faint smile curved my lips as I looked down at my growing womb that had started to show.

“Shay . . . are you, are we having . . . ? I-I’m going to be a father?” His words were breaking with emotion before he rushed me and wrapped his arms around me, tugging me against his hard chest. “Gods, Shay, how long? How long have you known?”

“Since the week we went to Westwell.” He pulled me back and his eyes volleyed with mine.

“Why?” he asked, and I knew he needed a reason, but nothing I could say would ever be enough of a reason to not tell this man about our child.

“I knew you wouldn’t let me leave your sight if you knew, and at the time, the rebellion needed our full attention.

I didn’t want us getting distracted,” I said, and he shook his head, palming my face as his thumbs roamed over my cheeks, wiping away the stray tears that I hadn’t even realized were falling.

Baron’s hands were trembling, and I couldn’t tell if it was from happiness or frustration.

I held my breath, waiting for the reprimand that never came.

Instead, he pulled me against his lips for a kiss that started slow and languid but quickly shifted to something desperate and full of passion.

When he pulled away, I had to suck in a breath of air.

“I’m only glad that you are safe. But you’re right, you won’t be leaving my sight from now on.

” He said it with a hint of a smile that I had missed more than I cared to admit out loud.

It would only add to the man’s ego with how obsessed I was with him.

“As soon as today is over, I’m going to make all those sweet promises I made to you through the bond while you were gone a reality, love .

” His words caressed my mind down our bond, and it sent a shiver down my spine and made a throb course to my center.

It had been too long since I had had him last, and my body and hormones were begging for him now.

Baron finally moved to the side and interlocked his fingers with mine as Ace stood idly by, but now Atreya stood next to him with crossed arms. She had known I was pregnant, which I believed to be the only reason she was granting us this touching moment together.

Ace’s emotions were palatable on the wind. He was desperate for an answer about Emelyn, but I was sure he already knew the truth.

“What happened? Where. Is. Emelyn?” he signed, and the defeat that was painted on his face sent another wave of pain through my chest.

“I-I’m sorry, Ace. I tried but I—” I couldn’t form words, and nothing I could say would help him.

“Ember took her. Valla surprised us and almost shot us out of the sky. Emelyn saved me by letting go, and I couldn’t hold on to her—the rain was too much.

I—” I choked over my words as tears streamed down my face.

But one thought kept racing through my mind.

I couldn’t hold her. I knew she’d chosen her fate by letting go, but I should have gripped tighter. Held her firmer. Refused her decision.

I couldn’t imagine the things Valla Corvus would do to her. Emelyn wasn’t just the Peacebringer. She had become one of my closest friends, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe at the thought. Baron wrapped his arms around me and held me up on shaky legs.

“That’s enough,” Baron commanded, and Ace let out a snarl as he ran his hands through his dark hair. I could tell he was trying to hold himself together, but he was doing about as good a job as I was—and I clearly wasn’t.

“Shay, I know it’s difficult right now, but do you know where they’re headed? Did you see which direction they were going?” Atreya asked, and I shook my head.

“No, I don’t know where they’re going, but I know Emelyn put up a fight. She took out some of Valla’s warships, even damaged Valla’s. She’s advanced since being on Magni,” I said, and Baron began urging me forward, readying to leave.

Atreya nodded, and I watched her as she began configuring a plan, all the gears shifting and twisting in her mind.

Leading was something she had always made look effortless, and I hoped that this time would be no different.

We needed to save Emelyn. Atreya came back to the present and held out her forearm for Baron to grasp.

“Meet in my quarters tomorrow. Shay needs her rest, and it’ll give you both today to have together. Congratulations to you, brother.” She said it with a side smile, mixed with the blended emotions of what the day had brought. The celebration of one life, but the possibility of losing another.

Darkness exploded from the trees to the left of us, and Crow emerged from the shadows. Everyone looked at him with sad, broken expressions. Some couldn’t meet his gaze.

“I can’t feel her anymore.” His voice was graveled, trembling with emotion and . . . fear? I had never seen the man of shadows fearful of anything in the time I had known him.

“We will get her back. I don’t know how yet, but we will. Ember wants her alive. All we can do now is plan our next move,” Atreya said.

“I say we go now, before they make it back to their homeland,” Ace signed, and Atreya shook her head.

“This needs to be thought out carefully. Valla is precise and cunning. She would have planned and knows Shay would’ve let us know about what had happened. She’ll see us coming from miles away if we attack now. We need to wait.”

“No. I’m going. I’m not leaving her with them a moment longer than she needs to be. If I get caught, they can take me too—”

“Ace, you’re thinking with your heart instead of your head.” Atreya spoke and signed sternly, trying to convince him to change his mind.

“I’m going. I’ve decided,” he signed, and it went deathly silent.

Ace looked to Cyran. “The question is, will I be going alone?” He glanced around the area, his stare lingering on those he considered his comrades—friends.

The ones I had noticed he’d spent the most time with since arriving at the rebellion.

“Cyran,” he signed, but Cyran looked down with hurt eyes, his brow wrinkled with emotion.

A silent plea, asking his friend to stay but also denying him his help.

Ace’s eyes moved to the next person. “Sedrin? Maeve?” They couldn’t meet his eyes either. “Taryn, Nevara?”

“We can’t risk it, Ace. I think Atreya is right . . . . We need to wait,” Taryn responded with a stern, fatherly voice that made Ace turn to the only one left.

“Crow,” Ace signed, taking a desperate step toward Crow but stopping himself.

“I can’t.” His voice sounded bleak, almost as if he were trying to make his heart agree with his mind. “Atreya is right. We have to plan better for this.”

Ace scoffed and shook his head, taking the last of the steps to be toe to toe with Crow. He leaned in, and even though he was signing, his words were loud and meant to tear through flesh—a heart.

“When I save her, stay the fuck away from my sister. She deserves a man that will fight for her. Not one that hides in his own shadows.”

Crow growled, and it rumbled through the shadows surrounding us.

“Don’t be foolish, Ace. Going alone is a death wish.

Do not make her send you off over your thoughtless arrogance.

” His words were biting, the type that sunk their teeth into you and made you bleed.

I could tell they both cared for Emelyn deeply and only wanted what was best for her, and for a moment, I thought they were going to attack each other, but Crow backed down and turned toward Atreya.

“What’s next?” Crow asked as Ace stormed off, not waiting for any more disappointment from those he considered friends—maybe even family at this point.

“We wait, and we plan.”