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“Aye,” Zai confirmed.
“Rules are meant to be broken. The Truth of Destined Mates trumps all.”
She gestured to the Mirror Pond, looking between Ben and Zai.
“Then, step forth, warriors. Until we meet again…in time.”
Without further ado, Ben and Zai jumped and disappeared into the magical pond.
Chapter Nineteen
“The truth of dragons is that when they are created, they are blank slates. Pure, unsullied and without guile. They have the potential to be nothing and everything, to destroy as much as heal…”
—From the lost oral fables of Immortals
First Cycle of the Dark Queen Ashlu, sixth millennium BC. Five years later.
Sin plodded through the forest with a leisurely stride, one ear tuned to his surroundings for signs of danger, whiskers twitching, but mostly he was lost in his own thoughts.
After all, since the Dark Queen Ashlu took her Consort, the annual hunts of animal spirits had suddenly ceased. Danger remained prevalent, but as it related to Beasts in particular, there was no formal persecution.
No, that “honor” still belonged to Pure Ones.
In general, it seemed that Ashlu was more interested in consolidating borderlands and expanding her empire than wasting good soldiers on culling an already sparse Beast population. Moreover, since the disappearance of the Tiger King and Eagle King, there were no ruling clans to target, no looming threat from that quarter against Dark One supremacy and control.
Very few animal spirits lingered in the center of the Dark Empire. Goya’s clan had relocated to a faraway place, far enough that the Tiger King’s pull on Sin grew weaker each year. Sol’s aerie had migrated as well, somewhere north in the ice mountains where civilization wouldn’t reach. The serpents had disappeared beneath the seas long ago.
Only rare stragglers like Sin remained.
To stay as inconspicuous as possible, he should take human form more often than not. He knew this. There were almost no ligers in the wild; tigers and lions didn’t mate naturally as animals. By taking liger form, he was practically painting a target on his spotted and striped hide, declaring himself an animal spirit to whoever might cross his path.
But Sin avoided human form as a rule. Not only because Beasts only took the form with Mates, but also because he wanted a reprieve from the emotions that bombarded him as human.
It was much easier to focus on getting through each day and night, losing himself in the familiar routines of hunting, eating, shitting and sleeping while he was animal.
Sometimes, he varied his experience by aiding a Pure One or human in need, or rescuing animal spirits from traps and imprisonment when he caught wind of them. For the most part, he embraced his solitude and lost himself in the beauty and bounty of nature.
It was simpler to be an animal. It was the only way he could continue to exist without his one true Mate and not lose hope.
Hope that someday, no telling when, he might meet his Hunter again.
If it was far,far, into the future from whence Ben came, then Sin would have to be prepared to survive and live with loneliness for millennia. It was too daunting a possibility to contemplate. Hence, he took the form least likely to think too much about it.
At least, Zai was alive.
Sin knew it. He felt it. Knowing it was a balm to his wounded soul, the kernel of hope that kept him plodding on.
In the first weeks after Zai disappeared, Sin focused on getting the Eagle King back to health while keeping him hidden from the Dark Queen’s spies. When Sol recovered, they’d traveled for a brief time together in human form, gathering information about the aftermath of the Tournament and keeping a close watch on Ashlu’s moves.
As the landed and aerial animal spirits gradually disappeared into hiding, their duty to protect their people became less urgent, and neither of them wanted to continue on in human form.
In animal form, however, it no longer made sense to travel together. Sol wanted to get as far away as possible from the Dark Empire, while Sin needed to stay.
Just in case Zai returned one day, Sin had to be here.
Just in case… Zai wanted him too.
It was not clear whether the Hunterdidin fact want Sin.
