When a moth loved a bee, p.46
When a Moth loved a Bee, page 46
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.
His entire body looked ruined.
But he didn’t let her go.
She tried to fight but something was wrong with the way she moved. Sluggish and tangled, bound just like me.
Keeping her locked in his hold, Solin reached for Aktor’s left palm, tugging the chief’s son closer. Aktor’s hand glistened with blood, a design carved into his flesh, awfully similar to the one I’d seen on Runa.
My heart hurled itself against my ribs.
No.
He wouldn’t.
“Don’t!” I snarled. “Runa!”
“She is not yours. She can never be yours. Now, she never will be.”
The voice blew through my mind like an arctic hurricane.
I stiffened, panting hard.
I’d never heard the harsh whip before.
The unseen power added another lash of magic over my back, gagging me with ropes of unseen force. I choked on the sickly presence of ice and strength, turning feral as it covered my mouth and nose with dense silence.
“We are doing you a favour. Doing what you asked.”
My tongue was useless, my lips muzzled. I spoke in my mind, replying the same way it had. “I didn’t ask for anything.”
“You did. You made us promise. Made all of us promise. Mortals, animals, elements, and entities. We all had to promise. Promise. Promise.”
“Promise what?”
“To protect.”
“Protect who?”
“Us. Them. Everything.”
“From what?”
“From you. And her. From you and her together.” The voice dipped and dived like a feather caught in a breeze, cool and melodic while nasty and grim. “Quelis failed. Lokath failed. Vetak failed. Rivoza succeeded.”
I went cold.
“Rivoza…”
The dead language for air.
I shifted in its invisible binds. “You’re an element?”
“We are the element. We are breath and life, like her. We are suffocation and death, like you. We are the only element that matters—without us, nothing exists. With you, nothing survives. But with her, everything flourishes.”
I stopped struggling.
“We will let you go, Moon Master. It is almost done.” Its wintery bluster pressed up against my chin, raising my head, forcing my eyes back to Runa and Aktor still held in Solin’s grip.
The fire had called me that too.
Moon Master.
It tugged at a memory, but my head ached with sudden distortion.
Solin hadn’t moved. He hadn’t spoken another word. Runa stood in the exact same position as she had when the voice first came to me.
I blinked.
It felt as if I’d fought for an age, yet my argument with the element didn’t follow the usual pattern of time.
How?
“Because of us.” The wind gusted and played, pulling on my hair, seeming to read my mind. A tinkling laugh that sounded like shattering ice. “Time is air. Air is time. Wind speeds, fog slows, thick and thin, quick and—”
“Enough.” I yanked my arms, trying to get free from its binds. “Let me go.”
“Soon. Soon we will. Soon.” The finger of air holding my head up pushed higher, making my neck scream as time continued in its normal rhythm.
Runa struggled as Solin tugged her closer. Aktor gritted his teeth as he stepped to meet her, their bare feet almost touching.
“Watch, Moon Master. Watch us obey you. Watch us protect you. Watch. Are you watching?”
My heart hammered as Solin brought Runa and Aktor’s hands together, his face unreadable and eyes miserable.
Runa shuddered as he pressed her still ash-bleeding hand to Aktor’s.
I snarled as Aktor wrapped his fingers tightly around hers.
Runa tried to pull back.
He wouldn’t let her go.
Rage.
Fury.
My vision feathered black as my shadows siphoned out, clouding around me in the cocoon of air, trapping me, hiding me. The shades had nowhere to go, blinding my sight.
“You’ll want to see this, Moon Master. So you know all is lost.”
Yanking my shadows back, I bared my teeth at the icy voice just as Solin placed his hands over Aktor’s and Runa’s joined ones.
With his legs braced and bare chest gleaming with fire flames, he spoke to his clan with a heavy voice. “I condemn Aktor for his recent, unforgivable act toward my newly adoptive daughter. His mistrust and doubt caused unnecessary pain and for that he must atone. Physical punishment has been served but with his blood, he is bound by a far greater task. The task of loving what he fears. Of protecting what he doesn’t trust. Of learning to see instead of doubt.” His voice cracked. “Her pain is his pain. Her life is now his life. This bind is commanded, not by me, but by Quelis who knows far more than mere mortals. Something is stirring. Something is coming. And the fate of all of us hangs in the balance.”
Runa struggled.
Both Aktor and Solin held her firm.
The Fire Reader didn’t look at her, almost as if he couldn’t.
“See, Moon Master? See? Do you see?”
I fought again, sweat pouring off me. “Let me go. Before it’s too late.”
Because I did see.
I saw, and I couldn’t breathe.
“LET ME GO!”
The air merely bristled and blew, stinging my eyes and making my skin prickle with horror.
Runa looked in my direction, eyes wide and panicked. She searched the spot where I’d stood with Zetas. Another crack of heartbreak bled in her stare. Biting her lower lip, she dropped her head, white hair cascading over her cheeks, hiding her tear-brimming eyes.
“Runa!”
“She can’t hear. Can’t see. Can’t know.” The air wriggled through my ear like an icy worm. “She asked. You asked. Rivoza obeyed.”
“I didn’t ask you to stop me from protecting her!”
“You did,” air replied. “This is us protecting her. Protecting them. Protecting all of them.”
Solin cleared his throat, speaking in an even stricter tone as if his throat was closing over every letter. “Runa has been chosen by the fire. Aktor is chosen by birth. Together, the blood of our lineage will continue.”
Zetas whimpered as she shot out of the grasslands. Her nose skated over the ground, chasing my tracks, confused and lost.
My back blazed from the angle the air kept me bound in. My arms craved to wrap around the wolf and give her solace, but Solin choked. “The chief and Fire Reader have always been blooded, for that is how the fire communicates with its chosen.”
Runa turned as white as Natim’s ivory belly, and two fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked up, trying to catch Solin’s eyes. “Please, Solin. Please, don’t—”
But the Fire Reader wouldn’t look at her as he dropped his attention to her hand still trapped in Aktor’s. His voice broke as he chanted, “By blood, soot, and fire, you are trothed to become one. By bone, smoke, and flame, you share one heart as it is done. No other will break this bind, just as no death will leave a lover behind. Your rule will be rich and long, your mating blessed with two spirits who belong.”
No.
It’s not possible—
Aktor suddenly screamed, bending forward and tripping into Solin. His poultice-wrapped leg gave out beneath him.
Runa’s back snapped straight as her lips parted in a silent cry.
“No!”
Solin leapt back as Runa and Aktor fell together, their hands entwined, their fingers glowing red, locked together by magic weaving its awful spell.
“Runa!”
The clan’s voices swelled like a wave. “Blood, soot, and fire, they are one! Bone, smoke, and flame, it is done!”
I lost myself to violence.
I thrashed.
I bucked.
Pain I didn’t know I was capable of feeling sliced through me.
Aktor’s harsh shout wrenched my head up as he yanked his hand from Runa’s, looking at his palm where joint blood smeared. Holding up his hand with a mixed look of triumph and trepidation, he revealed to his people the ash-drawn symbol like the one that’d been carved into Runa’s.
Two bison horns with a flame transforming into a sun.
Cradling his bleeding palm with his other, he glanced at Runa as she stumbled to her feet.
She shifted away from him, nursing her own bloodied palm, her skin stained with what Solin had done. Shaking her head, she looked at the cheering clan. Her amber eyes were dull as ochre; tears dripped over her eyelashes as she shook her head again and again.
The clan hushed enough for Solin to cup her shoulders and murmur just loud enough for all to hear. “The betrothal blood bind now flows through both of you. Through the power of the fire, your hearts now pump to the same lifeforce. You aren’t just bound; you are one.” He shuddered; no signs of joy on his weary face. “It cannot be undone. You will be mated the night after the Aium festival.”
The roar that ripped through the clan hurt my ears.
They celebrated Runa’s imprisonment as if it were her throne.
I groaned as agony tore through me.
I’d thought the Spirit Master wanted her for himself.
Yet he’d pledged her to the very male who’d tried to take her without consent. The male who’d held a blade to her throat and made her bleed. The male who’d strangled her and—
I fought with everything I had.
I was a wolf.
I was fang and claw and horn.
“Soon, Moon Mast—”
“NOW!” I snarled.
Food was thrown into the sky in jubilation. Younglings were hugged and swung around in wild glee, and feet drummed the earth, rising dust amongst their ankles as they all celebrated the nightmare that had just been given.
My bones popped as I wrestled and no longer cared how I would get free.
I would kill anything that got in my way.
I would strangle the wind and rip out the throat of fire.
I kicked and rolled and snarled.
With tears streaming down her white-washed cheeks, Runa stared at the spot where I broke apart.
I froze.
I shivered violently.
I felt her despair from here.
Felt her fear, her grief, her pain.
I groaned as every part of me howled.
Zetas suddenly sat up and raised her snout to the moon.
She made the sound I couldn’t—her haunting call ringing out over the foot-pounding, happy-dancing crowd.
Runa glanced at Zetas.
And, with a tattered gulp and face-twisting sorrow, she turned and ran.
She ran on swiftest feet, white hair streaming behind her like starlight.
She didn’t stop until she disappeared into the grasslands, the summer-ripened grass swaying in her haste.
The second she was gone, the gag and air-ropes vanished.
“See, Moon Master. Free. You are free.”
Leaping to my feet, I balled my hands, summoned my shadows, and sprinted after Runa.
I was nothing more than blackened wind, scattering the pieces of my broken heart behind me.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
. Runa .
I COULDN’T BREATHE.
I can’t breathe!
I ran and stumbled and coughed and sobbed and
could
not
breathe!
I can’t—
I can’t…
Tripping to a stop, I planted both hands on my thighs and bent over. My mouth opened wide as I sucked down lungfuls of burning air.
My spirit screamed.
The core of who I was tore itself apart with denials, refusals, disbelief…pain.
Pain of loss…
Of hope.
Of awful, awful truth that I was no longer free to make my own choices.
I’d never been free.
Always been forbidden and hidden and blind.
The ever-widening blackness inside me swallowed me whole. Every mistake, every heartache, every slip from whatever path I was supposed to follow leapt down my throat and choked me.
No one else had seen.
No one else had cared that the fire’s heatwaves had slithered out of the flames to tie tightly around my legs. My arms. My waist. My neck.
I’d become its puppet, its plaything, imprisoned by its whims.
No one saw me trying to get free.
No one saw me fighting an unseen foe all while Darro vanished, Zetas galloped around the clan, and Solin betrayed my trust by betrothing me to Aktor.
Aktor.
He couldn’t…he didn’t…it couldn’t be true.
Solin would never mate me to the male who’d almost killed me for his own twisted pleasure.
He can’t…
I can’t…
Tears rivered down my cheeks as I struggled to breathe all over again.
Why hadn’t Darro tried to help?
Why had the fire bound me in place and forced me to agree with pledges that destroyed all my faith and killed me with such sickening heartache?
I’d wanted to scream, but the fire put words in my mouth—made me accept the terms of servitude, of matehood, of a bind that ripped through my blood and stopped my heart for an excruciating, terrifying moment.
Why had Solin done this to me?
The half-moon above glimmered brightly, refusing to give me answers. Its sterling light dappled on the ever-moving river as it washed quickly downstream. Little flashes of night-glowing fishes broke the surface, leaping for the luminescent fireflies skimming the top. Jewelled dragonflies ate the bugs the fishes missed, and frogs hidden by reeds sang their croaky song, adding layers upon layers to the dark serenade of night.
It was all too much.
Too loud.
Too alive.
A wolf howled.
I froze.
Was that Zetas?
Has she found Darro?
Where had he gone?
Why had he gone?
What did I do for him to forsake—
“Runa!” A faint breeze thickened behind me into denser, darker night.
I spun around.
I no longer heard the lullaby of life.
All I heard was my heart slamming into my ribs and blood gushing through my veins.
Darro stood with his lean, muscular chest heaving, his wolf pelt hanging precariously low on his hips, and hands balled into weapons at his sides. Zetas stood beside him, sleek and silver, her horn-crowned head low as if stalking prey.
“Runa…” He raised his hand, stepping toward me with agony staining his eyes. “You’re safe—”
“Safe?” I couldn’t fight my instincts to get away from him. My heart still bled. My tears still flowed. He’d left. And he had the audacity to say I was safe?
I wasn’t safe.
I’d never be safe again.
“How am I safe? I’m betrothed to a monster.” I tripped backward, shaking my head. “You left. You let them mate me to—” I choked and swiped angrily at my tears.
Was it truly his responsibility to save me from the Nhil’s customs?
Could I blame him for tonight when I was the one who wanted to go back?
I was the one who let loyalty overshadow my heart.
I was the one who did this, not him.
This was my fault.
Yet I couldn’t stop the terrified, horrified blame from raging through me.
No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t forgive him.
I couldn’t forgive his disappearance all while my heart had pleaded for help.
He’d heard me when I’d glowed.
I know he did.
Our minds had linked. Our hearts had synced. We’d been one.
He’d felt my fear, and he’d protected me.
He’d cloaked me in his shadows, helped me snuff out my overpowering light, and his smoky eyes had etched with silver rings as he stared right into my spirit. It’d been a physical touch. An eternal promise that I would never be alone again.
Yet…he left.
He’d vanished when I needed him the most.
Another wash of tears choked me.
“Runa.” He winced and stepped closer, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip. “I’m so sorry—”
“You left me!” I scream-sobbed.
“I didn’t.” He shook his head, his black, tangled hair shaking free a grass blade. “I will never leave you. Never.”
“But you did!”
“I was right there. I never moved. I never left, Runa.” His voice turned raspy. “I was trapped. Imprisoned by—”
“And you think I wasn’t?” I hissed. “Do you think I agreed to sacrifice my life into service? Agreed to mate him?”
His eyebrows snapped down. “You were imprisoned as well? By what?”
“What do you think?” I bared my teeth. “The fire! It’s always the fire. I—” Tears clogged my throat as Syn suddenly appeared from the grasslands, the adolescent lynx once again chasing after me.
She was the one constant.
The only creature I could rely on.
She came straight to my side and nudged my thigh with her nose, making me flinch at the stinging burn on my upper leg. My sunburst mark had bled again when Darro touched me with his shadows. The fire holding me captive had screeched in my ears not to let him touch me. Not to let him walk in my mind. Not to let him blacken my heart.
