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‘Let us not keep you,’ Killen murmured, escorting her to the edge of the kíota.
She donned her mask and unfurled her gilded wings with a slight wave, leaping into the air. Soon, her silhouette was but a speck in the obscure sky.
‘What did she have to tell you?’ Kione drawled, stepping close to Killen as the golden koel winged away towards the glitter of Kos far below them.
‘Of an evil most fowl.’
When the King’s Second Armourer narrowed his eyes at Killen, he gave his commander a wry smile. ‘She shared dark secrets laced with twisted chaos and sheer wickedness. It is amazing how much light she holds when she was brought up around such darkness.’
Kione’s lips twitched. ‘She is luminescent.’
Killen gave his companion a thorough once-over from head to toe. ‘I’d pegged you as a lady’s man. Now I realise you’re a one-woman man.’
Kione flashed his lodestone at Killen and scoffed, a sadness lingering behind his usually joy-filled eyes. ‘I’ve no chance with her. She’s a royal and K?'nere of the highest order. So all I can do is look and never touch.’
‘One day, these archaic customs will need to be scrapped,’ the Kíríga rasped, annoyed.
‘And you’re the King for it,’ Kione threw back. ‘Get to work.’
Chapter 21
Later that night, Killen sought solitude in his room, where he parsed the texts and manuscripts Kultur had provided him for insight on creating a firestorm incision.
There was nothing in the old books.
Exhausted, he tried to close his eyes on his pillow but couldn’t sleep.
His thoughts were unceasing. Over and over, he turned the words Kamilla had shared of Kalila’s deep and long-standing betrayal.
Dejected, he knifed out of bed, nabbed a small book in his hands from his bedside table, and left his chamber to wander the halls of the mystical kíota.
His feet were silent on its marbled, intricate tiles, going nowhere in particular until he found himself in the gardens and vaulting onto the roof of the hovering structure.
The cool night air brushed against his skin, causing a slight shiver to run down his spine.
He sat into a crouch and gazed at the night sky’s deep black canvas, dotted with sparkling stars and a bright full moon. Killen’s eyes traced the constellations and meteors, like crystal barbs, embedded in the velvet fabric of the night sky.
His thoughts wandered to his mother, K’Elisa, with whom he’d loved stargazing.
He wondered how she was doing on Eden II, back in the arms of his newfound father, Riv Sable.
A stab of sadness hit when he thought of the news he still had to break to her. Of her aunt’s ongoing betrayal.
He extended his hawkstone’s reach, which connected to the íkan that floated through the atmosphere, extending to the universe’s farthest reaches. Even across Pegasi, his hawkstone sensed his mother’s lodestone resonance.
Their connection was strong through time and space’s vastness and eternal movement.
His soul was suffused with love for her, and he discerned her soul return the sentiment as he stared at the endless expanse above him.
After a beat, he lost himself within the pages of his book.
The words inside comforted him, drawing him back into memories of his loved ones so far from Katáne.
Suddenly, Killen froze, his muscles locking.
A presence, luminous and potent, was tracking toward him.
He reached out to it in his mind.
