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Breaking the news toTan’yi’nug had been a lot easier than Phoenix had expected, mostly because the dragon refused to accept the outcome. Determined to find that shard, he insisted they start looking the next day. Helius had a hard time convincing them they would need an extra day to rest. Phoenix prayed they’d find it quickly, and that she and her mates wouldn’t have to go down to level three. She would do it, though, for she didn’t want her mates to be separated from their mother for too long.
Overwhelmed with fatigue, they dragged themselves back to the castle just as the phantom sun was coming up over the horizon. They didn’t make love. They slept for what felt like an eternity. It was dark outside when hunger forced her out of bed. Her mates were still soundly snoring.
The table in the adjoining dining room was laden with all kinds of meats, fruits, and cheeses. She didn’t think, just ate, barely registering the taste of the food, though she did stop to savor the warm, buttery cinnamon rolls.
Afterward, she poured a tall glass of wine, grabbed her mother’s lantern, and went outside to the garden terrace. She welcomed the cool breeze that crept under the thin silk of her nightgown and chilled her flushed skin after sleeping between four sweaty demons.
The soul fragments in her mother’s lantern added more ambience and light when she set it in the center of the iron table. She squinted at the lantern. There were several more orbs already. At this rate, it wouldn’t take long for her mother to return.
Ivy with white, fragrant flowers grew along the walls and wrapped around the marble balustrade, framing the night sky and city below like she was living in a painting. She alternated between watching the orbs of light bounce off each other in the lantern and watching and listening to the activity below. All kinds of scents and sounds wafted up from the bustling city. The lamplights cast a soft glow along cobblestone streets and stone and brick houses. Guitar music and the beating of drums played somewhere in the distance. That pyramid in the heart of the city loomed larger than ever, disappearing beneath low-lying clouds as it stretched into the sky. This place was beautiful.
Her home.
Her mates.
She could hardly believe it. She should’ve been happy that she was reunited with her mates, that they were safe, and yet a dark pall had cast a shadow across her heart, and not just because she was worried about the upcoming quest or that she’d lost her mother. She smiled at that lantern, knowing one day her mother would be back. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Cadmus had said to her, that she’d been created by their mother like Frankenstein’s bride.
“Admiring the view?”
She looked over her shoulder. Damon leaned against the doorframe, his eyes still heavy with sleep and bread crumbs stuck to his lips.
“I am.”
“So am I.” He stared at her as if she held the moon and stars in her eyes.
Biting her lip, she motioned to the chair next to her. “Will you sit with me?”
His smile, so full of love and promise, made her heart do backflips. “I was waiting for you to ask.”
A zing went through her blood when he sat next to her, his knee grazing her thigh.
He tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “Are you worried about going back down there?”
She shrugged. “That’s part of it.”
“What else is wrong?”
She swallowed at the sincerity in his eyes, remembering this was the mate who had refused to make love to her in that cavern, not because he didn’t want her, but because he wanted their first time to be special. She wondered if he wanted her now.
Unnerved by the intensity in his gaze, she felt compelled to look away. “Cadmus told me how I came to be. That Elria created me like Frankenstein’s bride.”
He arched a brow. “Whose bride?”
“Never mind.” She dug her fingers into the iron tabletop, tempted to wipe those crumbs off his lips, but she knew once she started touching him, she might not be able to stop. “If she created me like she created you, why isn’t she my mother, too? Why aren’t you my brothers?”
“She didn’t create you the way she created us. Cadmus didn’t explain very well, did he?”
“There wasn’t much time.” She elbowed his side. “We were trying to catch a zombie wolf.”
Recognition flashed in his eyes. “Oh, thanks for that.” He leaned across her, invading her personal space while snatching her goblet of wine. He winked at her before taking a sip. “The creator made you and Daeva after we asked our mother to help us find a mate. Our mothers relinquished a bit of magic to make you, but not their blood as they did with us.”
She stared at him a moment, absorbing his words. “Who is the creator?” Amara hadn’t explained it very well.
“The one who made the dimensions,” he said casually as if they were talking about the weather.
She gave him an expectant look. “And?”
He took several more sips of wine. “That’s all we know. We haven’t heard from the creator since you were made, but that’s okay.” He paused, taking her hand in his. “Because you were all we wanted.”
