AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Images of what he’d done to me by that river returned.
The pain of his blade.
The strangling pressure of his fingers.
No.
My breath came faster.
I needed Darro.
Without thinking, I tapped into the hot vastness within me and poured all my desperation into it. My heart clenched with desire to find him. To ask him about the monsters he’d manifested and if the Halcyodon was a blend of our powers. A blend of something that shouldn’t exist. Just like we shouldn’t exist because I had an awful, horrid feeling that whatever we were weren’t born but—
“Runa? I see Natim. He’s too big to hide.” Aktor’s footfalls sounded so close. Too close.
Bringing my knees up, I hugged myself, wishing I could vanish.
“Darro...where are you?”
A gentle wind gathered around me, licking through the stalks.
“Darro...” I called to him in my heart. I threw myself into the heartlink and leaped off the cliff in my spirit, falling willingly into the endless power that coiled as bright as the sun.
The wind blew harder, whipping my hair and rippling over Syn’s spotted coat.
Please...
“You wish, you summon.” Rivoza’s airy whisper sounded so pure after the fire’s condemning smoke. “You’ve used us twice, Life Bringer. You may use us again.”
I froze. “Twice?”
I frowned, watching the eddies dance.
I remembered flying to Natim’s side, when Hyath said he was dying—grateful to be graced with such swift speed—but I couldn’t recall another. “When was the first?”
“The night of your first trance.” Rivoza laughed breezily. “Your heart craved another, like it does now. You wanted him, even though you didn’t remember him. You wanted him enough to fly you from Quelis’s hold.”
“That was you?”
“We answered your summons and Vetak obeyed your wishes to be seen. Without its storm and raindrops, the Moon Master would never have seen past those ash symbols on your flesh.”
“Runa. Stop being rude and answer me!” Aktor’s temper reached its limit, cutting through my shock that even when I didn’t remember Darro, I’d been drawn to him.
Drawn so much, I’d flown on air I didn’t know how to wield to go to him.
“Runa, for fire’s sake! I’m speaking to you!” Aktor’s shout interrupted my racing thoughts.
“Can you take me to him?” I whispered quickly.
“We will take you wherever you wish.” Rivoza blew softly on my face. “You are us. We are you. Always were, always will be.”
My mind collided with implications of things far too big to unravel.
Footsteps thudded closer.
Natim let out a soft huff.
The wind funnelled around my throat. “Decide, Life Bringer. Do you choose the mortal or the Moon Master? Are you prepared to claim happiness at the cost of everyone?”
“You won’t stop me like the others?”
“It’s already too late. You welcomed him into your heart and flesh. The consequences are already on their way. They come for you, even now.”
I shivered. “What comes?”
“Events that will leave you broken. But...that was always your Destini. You know that...in your heart.”
The grass broke apart to my left as Aktor stepped into the small glade.
Our eyes met.
My heart pounded.
“There you are.” His face clouded with annoyance. “I’ve been calling—”
“Do it. Take me to him.” There was no decision to be made. No choice between the visions of carnage I might cause and the memory of life I’d conjured.
“Ru—”
“Darro. Take me to him. Now.”
The air didn’t reply.
It merely wrapped me in a thickened web, cradled me in its invisibility, and granted me wings to fly out of Aktor’s grasp.
My vision blurred.
My hair snapped and crackled.
My skin broke out in chill-sharp prickles.
Upside down, inside out, tumbling, tumbling...falling—
And then, it was all over.
The wind vanished.
Silence reigned.
And I blinked back the dry-eyed scratchiness of travelling by air.
For a moment, I recognised nothing.
But then, I blinked again and slowly recognised where Rivoza had brought me.
I smiled as four wolves clambered to their feet, their fangs bared at my sudden arrival.
Their auras glittered silver and bronze. Their growls low and earthy.
Movement to my right as the huge alpha leapt off his favourite sun-drenched rock, the thud of his massive paws shaking the earth beneath me. Yellow glowing eyes met mine. Horns as sharp as spears coiled toward the sky. He growled, shaking out his silver-black fur.
His protection of his pack slipped quickly into pleasant shock. His warning snarl vanished, becoming a welcoming whine. It took no effort whatsoever to cast my awareness toward him, shivering with delight as the russet, autumn shades of his aura braided with mine, feeding me images of healthy cubs, sated mates, and successful hunts.
I stepped into him, wrapping my arms around his giant neck. “Hello, wonderful wolf.”
He huffed once, bringing his head down to embrace me. The solid weight of his jaws on my back made tears full of gratitude spring. Images filled my mind, given to me by Salak, deciding here and now to give me a truth I might never have known.
