Page 81 of Heart of Night
“Well, that took long enough. I thought you’d break free from the drug when you… You know…” Her gaze bounces to me, one brow crooked, then to the window of the backyard. “I don’t need to repeat what the two of you did out there, do I?” She grins and flips her fingers, ice crystals appearing above her palm where Myron’s magic doesn’t reach. “Can you shield, Crow King?”
Myron’s forehead creases as he seems to be trying. “Emotion does seem to help with bringing the magic back faster, but not necessarily with regaining all the control needed to use it.”
“It worked with Clio,” Kaira chimes in, and suddenly, all her annoying of the fairy princess makes total sense. She did it on purpose to help the female regain her magic.
“My powers flooded in most whenever you brought up Tori, so I thought I’d return the favor.” Clio shrugs, more back to her old self than I’d hoped for. It’s not even a full day since we ran, and she’s already freezing over the room. Myron is mere hours behind, so there is real hope we’ll be setting out to the palace before the new day ends.
Rays of morning light pierce through the clouds, breaking up the night’s terror and bringing back the hope that’s so dangerous. I embrace it because, with Myron at my side, I feel braver and bolder than I have in years. He’s the wind under my wings and the sun on my skin, and the wrath that will destroy my enemies—if I don’t destroy them first.
Thirty-Nine
Myron
After the number of rounds Ayna has been pacing in the limited space, an oval trail should be appearing on the ground Clio has been freezing and unfreezing for the past hours while I’ve resorted to watching my mate. The lines of her body are too hard after weeks under the influence of the drug, of not keeping down her food. It painfully reminds me of the first day she arrived at the palace in the Seeing Forest, straight from prison.
Rubbing my hand across my sternum to ease the heaviness in my chest, I rest my head against the dusty wood making up the wall. The sun is declining, painting thin streaks of gold and orange along the packed earth floor. Under different circumstances, I’d have bemoaned my fate: home gone, power gone, what’s left of my family locked up… But I have Ayna, and the tingling in my shoulder reminds me this isn’t a dream.
“Any changes?” Kaira wants to know, rummaging through her satchel where all her food supplies have been used up.
I shake my head, the same response I’ve given her the last seven times she asked. My power hasn’t stirred since Clio taunted me about my intermezzo with Ayna between the bushes. Thankfully, she hasn’t tried again, or I might have accidentally torn the shed apart with an onslaught of the erratic magic I can’t yet control.
“It will come,” the Flame promises, and I choose to believe her. I’ve watched it happen for the fairy princess and Ayna, so it’s only a matter of time until it happens for me. Time Royad and Silas don’t have if Ephegos is to be believed. They don’t have a purpose for the King of Tavras or for the Crow traitor. It’s me on whom he wants to exact his vengeance. And I have to admit, it’s a good plan. Using Erina to draw out my pain by sitting by as he marries Ayna.
Not going to happen.
Magic surges into my limbs so fast I need to clench my fists and push my feet into the ground so I don’t allow it to burst out of me and accidentally harm one of the females waiting with me. If only I could create a shield, then what little power I already have control over would be useful to wrap it around Ayna so whatever assaults of my power may break down this place eventually won’t harm her.
The thought alone is enough to make my hands shake all over again.
It’s foolish to promise myself I’ll never see her hurt again. Ayna will fight at my side when we free the others, and only a mad person would believe she won’t find her path into harm’s way.
So I wait, resorting to studying Ayna, learning her movements, her tells and shows when she’s nervous, the way her hands rub over her stomach when it growls in demand of food we no longer have available, how her hand keeps drifting back to the side of her biceps when she finds my gaze every other moment and our bond tears at the center of my chest, tugging me toward her.
I stay on the floor, no matter how strong that pull. I will need to keep my hands off her during our rescue mission as well, so now feels like a good time to practice, even when all I want to do is rip her clothes off and take her right here on the dusty ground.
Ayna’s eyebrows rise as she meets my gaze, heat shimmering in hers as if she can sense the direction my mind has taken me, and I press my mouth into a tight line so I don’t tell her exactly all the things I want to do to her.
“For fuck’s sake, Myron,” Clio complains, stopping her own pacing in the path between Ayna and me, blocking my mate from view. “Could you be any more obvious?”
My growl is as involuntary as it is menacing.
“I know it’s been a hot minute since you claimed her, but we have other problems right now, like mastering your fucking power.” She waves her hand at me as if that’s all the explanation I need.
“How much time did you have with your mate when it all started?” I don’t want to ask, but it comes out anyway. There’s so little I know about mating bonds that, even though I have a few centuries on Clio otherwise, I feel like a novice next to her.
Clio’s gaze turns mock-deadly. “You don’t ask a lady such unspeakable questions.”
But both Ayna and Kaira are listening intently, probably eager for an answer as to when that initial frenzy will wear off.
Clio grinds her teeth, wiping away her mask with a sigh. “Never. It never wears off. You just learn how to balance things.”
I blink. Because that’s not the answer I’d hoped for.
“Deal with it, Crow King.” She turns on her heels, flicking her fingers and releasing a flash of ice at me.
I dive out of its path at the last moment.
“Focus on your magic instead of on Ayna’s curves, and you’ll find that balance a lot faster.”