Page 76 of Kingdom Of Veil And Vow

“Ma’am!” A broad shifter with a bandaged arm runs up to me, hand lifted in the air as he draws my attention. “Can I help you?”

“I need an immediate audience with the king.”

“I’m afraid he’s a bit occupied right now.” He gestures around as if to say, as you can imagine. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Can you activate the spelled Mirror so that you can call out to another kingdom?” I ask, too tired and strung high with nerves to care about being polite.

His dark brows draw together. “Uh, no.”

“Then tell the king I must speak with him. Tell him my name is Siyala.” He hesitates, but I send him a look that I hope relays just how persistent I will be, and with a sigh, he leaves. I stand in place and watch the servants pass, their voices low as they bow their heads to talk with each other. So distracted by whatever happened here that they don’t even seem to see me. As it’s done every night since we separated, my mind wanders towards Xander, and I picture what he might be doing at this moment. If he is safe. If he might miss me as much as I miss him. Until next time, shifter. I push down the urge to cry. I had done enough of that on the trip here.

Pounding steps against the polished floors have me turning, and the male who greeted me earlier waves a hand. “He will see you.”

I school my expression, pretending my heart isn’t clamoring to escape my body as we make our way down a long hallway to a room with tall double doors, the sigil of an oryx emblazoned on the front of them. The male turns back to look at me at the clomping sound of my boots before my scowl forces him to face forward again.

“Just through here.” He opens one of the doors, gesturing with a hand for me to enter. The scent of iron is thicker in here, and my fingers curl into my palms when I detect three heartbeats. But then my eyes connect with Kai’s, his towering presence the same now as it is in my memories. Coming to a stop in front of him, I pull the hood of my cloak down before taking the other two females in. To his right is a woman holding a spear, her brown curly hair in disarray and face swollen. Gray eyes—like that of a mage—stare back at me, and confusion ripples through me before I turn and look at who stands to the king’s left. Jahlee. At the shocked look on her face, I quirk a smile, her eyes glittering in response. “Hello, cousins.”

Siyala

On a ship bound for the Mage Kingdom

The ship isn’t moving fast enough. Running my fingers through my hair, I braid the thick locks together, tying it off with a worn leather strap—the poor thing so frayed it’s hardly able to do its one function. Rubbing my thumb over the rough top of it, I let my eyes flutter closed, my chin falling to my chest. It is a silly thing to hold on to, one that I have no doubt has only made it harder for me to let him go. Xander. I drag a canine over my bottom lip, a knot sitting heavily at the base of my throat.

In the months that have passed since I saw him last, not a single day has gone by where I haven’t thought about him. His dark eyes and how they held such loyalty within them. The rough scrape of his calloused hands over the outsides of my thighs and how it felt when he slid them higher, over the softness of my breast. The way his body, broad and built with muscle, had burst through the door to that torture room, slaying Commander Miles as if there were no other alternative. His lips. The firmness of them. The tenderness. “Real,” he whispered before kissing me. Then there were those horrific scars…

Forcing my eyes open, I stare at my reflection in the mirror of the small bedroom Kai assigned to me on the ship before turning the sink on and splashing cold water on my face. It does nothing to get the image of Xander’s back from my mind. It isn’t that I can’t stomach the scars themselves; no, they speak to his strength. His tenacity. It is the thought that he had to endure that pain at all that makes it difficult to breathe past the memory of them.

Turning the sink off, I dry my face before tossing the towel on the counter. Faster. We must go faster. Magic pulses beneath my skin, pressing at every spare inch between my bones as it urges me to shift. To find Rhea. To find King Dolian. I have tried not to focus on how he got her back within his grasp, but it’s a question I keep returning to. Xander had sworn that she would be safe in the Mage Kingdom, and gods above and below, I believed him. Was this a failure on King Nox, then? Did King Dolian somehow infiltrate the Mage Kingdom and lure Rhea from it? The possibilities seem both endless and finite, and I hate not knowing if she is alright. Of course, she isn’t. The voice whispers that small truth from the back of my mind, and my nails dig into the countertop. In a few days’ time, we will be landing on the Mage Kingdom’s shores, and I will demand answers. Nothing and no one will stop me from rescuing her.

Sweat glides down the back of my neck as I duck the swing of my cousin’s training baton, rolling on the wooden deck of the ship and springing back up a few feet away.

“Very fancy, Siyala,” Jahlee sings, taking a step towards me as she rotates her wrist, the baton spinning idly within it. “How are you feeling today?”

I really hate that question. My fox stirs within me, rearing her head as if awoken from a nap. But, in truth, the magic that causes me to shift has been begging to be used for so long now that I don’t know what it feels like to not have it so prevalent in my thoughts. In my blood. Shift. Shift. Shift. It’s an incessant hum along my skin. Hunt. Kill. Run. Track. The animal instincts that make up half of who I am are now suffocating me. But I can’t give in to them, not yet.

“I’m fine,” I say around a gasp, sucking in air as I ready my next stance. In the months since I left the Mortal Kingdom, my strength and balance have improved, but not by much. Kai tells me it’s because my body is too focused on not shifting, and he may be right, but if the trade off is that I’m slower to build my mortal form back up, then so be it.

Jahlee swings her baton, and air stirs the hair loosened from my braid. I lift mine up to block, the impact rolling down my arms and into my shoulders. “You’re a terrible liar.” She lunges for me again, and I’m too late to duck, the edge of the baton slapping the side of my ribs. I hiss out a breath, and a few of the crew members that have gathered to watch chuckle. Despite not being able to hear us—their ears stuffed with a thick cotton blend that is supposed to help protect them from a siren’s song—I still murmur an insult at them as Jahlee circles me. “Come on, Cousin, tell me what’s bothering you.”

“You don’t have to talk so much while we spar,” I snap, the ever-present anger flowing in my blood making my next attack sloppy.

“And you could remember that you have family that loves you and tell us what is wrong.”

Annoyance surges, and I swing my baton with all my weight thrown behind it, the arc of the training weapon massive as I aim it in her direction. Doesn’t she realize that the reason I haven’t told them anything is because I don’t know how to? I can’t relay any part of the past four years without first starting at the beginning—why I went to the Mortal Kingdom. I can’t even explain why I don’t want to shift or why I can’t stomach being in Honna without first telling them that the male everyone thinks is so kind and generous stole something that was never offered to him. Is it better to let them think I am a selfish creature or to earn their pity when they find out the truth? I don’t know, so I’ve kept my mouth shut, earning Jahlee’s well-meaning jabs and Kai’s less friendly grumbles of disapproval. Let them be disappointed for now while I focus everything on helping Rhea.

Jahlee spins on her toes, long wavy brown hair flying behind her as she easily dodges my anger-fueled attacks. Sweat drips into my eyes, and I blow out a frustrated breath.

“That’s enough.” Kai steps up to where the small crowd has gathered, giving them a signal that means it’s alright for them to take the cotton out of their ears. He then gives the command to ease the sails, none showing him anything but respectful deference.

“I don’t know why they are afraid of you,” Jahlee coos, grabbing a waterskin and taking a swig before handing it to me.

“It’s almost as if I am their king,” Kai answers dryly.

It had been… interesting seeing Kai in the role of king, one that I remembered he did not want. One that, from everything I learned happened while I was gone, was nearly taken from him by his own blood. But Kai, despite his upbringing and everything I know he endured from his father, is a good male. It’s admirable, really, to know that he wants to be a good king, not just a powerful one.

“We are nearly there.”

I suck in a sharp breath and dart for the bow of the ship, running past shifters both in their mortal and animal forms. While the crew is relatively small, Kai had included a mix of those affected by the blight and those who can still shift. I don’t know what benefit there is in having a shifter only in their animal form—like the gorilla currently letting out the line to the sails in order to slow the ship—but I have long given up trying to understand exactly what Kai is thinking when it comes to our trip to the Mage Kingdom. I believe him when he says he wants to help Rhea, but I know that his lover’s absence weighs heavily on his mind, and whether he is willing to admit it or not, I also know he’s been nearly as anxious as I have to finally arrive.