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Darro stiffened.
My voice remained cold as snow. “I can’t mate Aktor, Solin. I won’t.”
Solin stepped forward, Natim’s ears bouncing with his every footfall. “You don’t have a choice. Just like I didn’t. I’ve seen a future where death rules. Every heart will stop. Every life will end. Runa...you have to believe me...I never wanted this to happen. The thought of betraying you and binding you to Aktor makes me wish I could turn my back on the fire and all its doomsday whispers. I didn’t ask for this gift. I didn’t ask for the task of breaking not just one heart but two.”
His gaze landed on Darro as he bowed his head in respect for the shades billowing behind him. “The fire struggles to see past your shadows, but they have shown what will happen if you continue down this path. It’s a path with no end. A path of nothing but destruction. That was why the blood bind between Runa and Aktor had to be invoked. We rarely use it anymore. Not since Karfe lost their chief to a scorpion sting and his mate—healthy and heavy with their second youngling—died beside him. It’s a curse to have lifeforces bridged into one. To always have to be near. Always have to be aware of the other in case your actions end up killing them.”
Darro looked as deadly as a wolf. “Please tell me you’re lying. Please tell me you didn’t just condemn her to a lifetime—his lifetime—of misery.”
“It was the only way to keep you from—”
“From what? Falling for her? Remembering who we are? Learning how to control the powers we were born with?” Darro bared his teeth. “It’s too late for any of that. I’ve already fallen. I’m starting to remember. And as you can clearly see...I know how to use my powers.” A wall of blackness rose behind Darro, rustling like black wind through the tall grass.
Solin bent down and let Natim go.
The fawn immediately bounded toward me. Ducking, I gathered the tiny creature, needing to touch him, hug him, use him as a bandage to stem my bleeding heart. Syn came to my side too, nudging my thigh with her nose.
I couldn’t speak.
Words were as thick as the clouds Darro had summoned.
“You might know how to use some of your strength, Darro, but that is just the beginning.” Solin clasped his hands together and inhaled a fortifying breath. “Just like Runa has only just begun to dabble with her potential, your power is beyond imagining.”
Straightening his spine, he raised his chin again. “Tral has offered to let you stay. Leca has opened his lupic to you. If, in a moon’s time you wish to learn if you are Quelis, I will invoke the fire’s trance to reveal which element you wield. If you are Quelis, you may stay and mate a willing female—”
“Runa is mine. She is my mate. No one else. Vision or no vision. Warnings or no warnings. Her. And only her. Nothing will change that. No binds. No threats. No—”
“It’s not a threat but the truth.” Solin kept his tone cool, even as his eyes churned with pain. “If you take Runa farther than she already is from Aktor, her heart will start to fail. If you try to kill Aktor and succeed, she will die the moment he takes his last breath. If you try to bind yourselves together—like I saw when I first arrived—it will only make her sick. Her body will refuse the blood—your blood—because she is already bound to another. Her heart now beats with his. They burn with the same flame that needs each other to stay alive. Nothing you do will change that.”
“You can,” Darro hissed. “You cursed her. Uncurse her.”
“I told you. I do not have that power.” He sighed and pinched his brow before lowering his hand. “If I could revoke the blood bind, I would. If I could bless your union, I would do it without hesitation.” His eyes landed on mine, tight with honesty. “I only want you to be happy, Runa. I want you safe and—”
“You want her to be you,” Darro interrupted. “To carry your burden as Spirit Master.”
“I want to protect her from suffering. And the suffering I have seen...” Solin’s face blanched. “It gives me nightmares. I can’t get the images out of my head. If you care for her the way you say you do, you will let her stay with the Nhil. You will watch over her as a friend. You will love her as a sister and nothing more—”
“Sister?!” Darro laughed with black dripping ice. He stalked forward with Zetas glued to his hip. The wolf revealed her fangs, her back rippling with aggression.
Standing to his full height, Darro loomed over Solin. Shadows whipped around the two males, circling them like a night-frothed hurricane. “You will soon learn, Fire Reader, that I do not do well with commands. I won’t accept what you say, and I will never settle for Runa as my sister. For you to even suggest that shows how much you don’t understand. You don’t see what’s before your very eyes. No matter what binds and curses you place between us, I will break every single one. I will find a way to kill Aktor if he lays a single finger on her. I will find a way to take Runa far from the Nhil where the only hearts that matter are our own.”
