Page 89 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

My right hand curls into a fist as I try to ease the burn within my palm.

“I spent my whole life running from you,” Thyra whispers, her faded blue eyes pinning me to the spot, the scent of roses filling my head even as I loom over her, her slight form anything but fragile next to me. “Now fate has forced you into my path and you’re the one who wants to leave.”

My response is a low growl. “By standing so near to me, you’re inviting death, Oracle.”

“I don’t fear death.” Her lips press together in the forbidding line I was expecting earlier. “I fear loss, and I want no more of it.”

Goddess help me, I believe her.

The absence of fear in her eyes is intoxicating while her deep grief is biting.

Without taking my eyes off her, I address my aunt. “Miriam. You will explain where you’re going.”

I don’t expect a straight answer even now that I’ve demanded one. My aunt is a mystery unto herself, the carrier of the Mothers’ secrets. My mother’s secrets, whichever of these women my birth mother might be. Miriam will protect the Mothers above all else and I respect her for it.

Even so, her response unsettles me.

“Into the darkness,” she says. “Where truth waits.”

Chapter Thirty

Thyra

Stepping into the dark channel is like accepting the cold fingers of death wrapping around my heart.

The silence within this space is oppressive, but in the far distance, I make out shrieks I recognize as those of hungry vampyrs.

Only the serpent’s slithering body breaks the quiet. The golden beast stays close to Maxim’s side where he steps into the dark a beat behind me. Still keeping his distance.

“Thyra,” Miriam murmurs at my other side. “Do you see that white glow in the distance?”

“I do.”

“You must go to that light.”

My brow furrows. “You said there was someone I needed to meet and something I needed to see.”

“Both are within that light.”

The furrow in my brow remains, but I move forward, only for Miriam to stay where she is. “Miriam?”

“We would not have let you face this alone,” she says. “But now we can see that Maxim must be the one to go with you.”

“Without you,” I say, drawing conclusions.

“It is as it should be.” She takes my hand. “We’ll be here waiting when you come back.”

Maxim has already made it farther ahead of me, but now he pauses, his serpent sliding to a stop beside him.

The heat waves wafting around Maxim’s muscular back and chest create a glow around him. Not that I need his fire to be able to see. Antony’s powerful eyesight is mine to use and with it, I can make out every detail of the uneven ground, along with the shape of the mountain range ahead of us and the white glow originating from a point behind those mountains.

A source of light that I’m being told to head toward but is making my skin prickle even from this distance.

Another quick assessment of Miriam tells me her heartbeat is calm, her gaze reassuring.

“Whatever that light is—” I begin.

“You’re strong enough to face what lies within it,” Miriam says. “Thyra, I’ve known you for only a few hours and already I understand how much weight you carry on your shoulders. I ask only that you trust me in this.”