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No one moved.
Runa looked to where I’d been standing—to where I still fought—and her entire body stiffened. Her gaze shot around the camp as Zetas grew more and more unsettled.
She gasped as she looked to the heavy-swaying heads of the grasses, as if I’d disappeared and had no plans on coming back.
“I’m right here, Runa!”
A tear rolled down her cheek, heartbreak bright in her glossy stare.
“Runa!” I fought and fought, but she sucked in a thin breath and rolled her shoulders as if protecting herself the only way she knew how.
“Runa! I haven’t gone. I would never!”
She looked away from me.
She didn’t hear.
I was as invisible as the air we breathed and as silent as fallen snow.
I gasped past the dread curdling in my lungs.
Solin spoke in a loud, commanding voice, “As with all families, we have traditions and troths. Every mated pair within our clan began their matehood with the ashes of the fire that burned on the night of their first bedding. Their love was blessed by the flames, and the ashes of that blessing are stored for future happiness.”
Throwing a look at Tiptu, who clutched her son extra tight, Solin continued, “In this bowl are the ashes from the night of Tral and Tiptu’s mating ceremony. The fire burned a full day and night, and have brought many years of joy to the clan they watch over.”
Solin paused and looked around at the many watching faces. Slowly, the crowd shed their nervousness of Runa’s blinding power, and were swept back up into the magic of ceremony.
The girl on fire had extinguished, and the man who bled shadows had vanished.
The strangeness of the evening and the brightness in which Runa had glowed only added more to her mystique, her newly adopted value increasing with every strange phenomenon.
Turning to Runa, Solin smeared his ash-covered thumb over her forehead. He whispered something to her before saying loudly for the clan to hear. “You are now heir to the fire’s true calling and my adoptive daughter. You are touched by Quelis, and have been gifted this responsibility because your heart is pure. Are you prepared to die for your people? To think of them first? To always have their wellbeing in mind?”
Runa seemed to struggle, her hands trembling as she looked to where I’d been standing.
I fought with violence. “Runa! See me! I promised I would never leave you, and I haven’t.”
My words never travelled past my tongue, snatched by whatever force held me, silencing them into nothing.
Shaking hard enough to be visible, tears tracked down her cheeks as she glanced toward the grasslands. She seemed to choke on something before her head moved jerkily up and down. “I...” She moaned in pain. “I...I am.”
Her voice sounded despairing, unwilling.
It tore my heart into shreds.
With a stern nod, Solin accepted her vow before dipping his thumb into the ash-filled bowl again and turning to Aktor.
The clan vibrated with anticipation.
“And you, Aktor, son of Tiptu and Tral...” Solin’s voice changed from warmth to chipped with cold. With a harsh swipe, he drew oily ash on Aktor’s forehead as the Nhil male bowed his head, looking contrite and humble.
“You are touched by Quelis, and have been gifted this responsibility because your heart is pure. Are you prepared to die for your people? To think of them first? To always have their wellbeing in mind?”
Pure?
His heart wasn’t pure.
It was defiled. Rotten. Filth.
Aktor raised his chin, his gaze flicking to Runa who stood so close. Too close. The symbols on his chest glistened in the firelight as he sucked in a breath. “I am.”
Solin stiffened before nodding and turning to face the clan. Males and females, younglings and elderly all watched with rapt attention, their multihued skin catching the flame’s light differently.
Holding the bowl aloft, Solin announced regally, “By the fire and its light, you Runa and you Aktor, are bound within its might. You were asked and tasked, and now you serve the greater good.”
Runa tried to step backward but jerked on the spot as if she something prevented her from moving. Her eyes blazed with panic. “Solin, please. Stop—” Her back arched as if something crawled down her throat and silenced her.
The Spirit Master’s head hung as he trembled.
For the longest moment, he didn’t move, but then the fire billowed with a loud pop, and his chin came up, his eyes shimmering with apologies. “I’m so sorry.”
I twisted and thrashed, fighting, fighting—
Urgency bled through me as Solin once again raised his voice, his tone subdued and burdened. “Here stand your future rulers. Both have pledged to put you before their own life and desires. Their lives are entwined in service, and now they must be bound by blood.”
Grabbing Runa’s left hand, he winced in sympathy as she cried out from the still-sore tattoos.
He whispered something.
