Page 5 of Shadow Wings
“Where’d they go?” I went to stand where the three large men hadbeen.
“Look down, Rynnie,” Dyter saiddrily.
I glanced down and saw I stood in the middle of three piles of ash. I swallowed and, with my voice shaking, said, “You could’ve warned me.” Not so long ago, it hadn’t been Druman being burned to white ash; it had been two hundred rebels who had come to saveme.
I swallowed again and stepped out of the Druman remains, avoiding Tyrrik’sgaze.
Dyter was eyeing the stunning man with pointy ears. I turned to study him and found I couldn’t really blame Dyter’s blatant interest; I wanted to keep looking, too. The stranger wore hugging brown breeches and a loose forest-green tunic ornamented with golden buttons down the front. The curved top of his chest muscles peeked through the open neck of the tunic, and I cataloged the sight. A leather belt with two sheathed daggers hung around his hips. Another loop of leather was slung across his torso, holding three more daggers. I should have been scared of the newcomer, but I couldn’t figure out how to connect with my emotions after I’d just banished most of them. I was curious, so maybe that wassomething.
A growl filled Tyrrik’s chest as I continued to look myfill.
Rather than being put off by the ginormous Drae at my back—when hadIstopped being afraid of that, by the way—the stranger pulled his dagger again, stepped forward, and balanced it on the pad of hisfinger.
I watched the action, certain if I could learn that one trick, I wouldn’t need to actually learn to fight with a dagger. It’d be a greatbluff.
The air shimmered, warmth flowing over me as Tyrrik shiftedback.
I refused to look at the Drae even though his presence assured my safety from the strangers in the tavern. Instead, I folded my arms and asked Pointy Ears, “Who’reyou?”
The man sheathed his dagger and extended his hand. “I am namedKamoi.”
Something about the man called to me, and without conscious thought, despite the fact that physical touch with anyone but Dyter had given me a sensation of bugs under my skin for the last three days, I clasped his hand. I gasped as I stared into his eyes for the first time.Violet.The area where our hands touched flared, and a smoldering heat swept throughme.
“You’re Phaetyn?” I whispered, continuing to hold his hand though I knew the hand shake had officially gone on toolong.
“The rumors are true,” he said as he bowed over my hand. “My lady, I am glad to find you, anotherPhaetyn.”
Unease crawled over me with his words where his touch hadn’t bothered me. I couldn’t help where my mind went. I formed the words with a thick tongue. “We’re the only twoleft?”
A teasing light entered his eyes. “No, my Lady. I am merely one of our kind. I am the Prince of thePhaetyn.”
3
“I. . .”I inhaled sharply. “I thought I was the only Phaetynleft.”
Tyrrik spoke from behind me. “The only one inVerald.”
“You knew?” Dropping Kamoi’s hand, I threw the accusation at Tyrrik. There were other Phaetyn, and he’d kept that from me? I wondered what else he knew that I didn’t, and a seriously long list of questions ticked through my mind. “How did you fail to mentionthat?”
“I’m fairly certain, I told you to go to Zivost when I tried to help you escape the dungeons.” He tilted his head at me, and continued in a dry voice, “And somehow, the Phaetyn didn’t come up again in the last three days when you were pretending I didn’texist.”
I cleared my throat, refusing to dignify that with ananswer.
The stunning Prince of the Phaetyn peered past me, and I felt the heat at my back increase as Tyrrik neared. The Drae stood just behind me, and I shot a look at Dyter who wiped the smirk off his face in aflash.
“The emperor would have felt his three Druman dying just now,” the prince said. “You’ve just alerted him that things here may not be as calm as theywere.”
Tyrrik nodded. “Better that than having them carry back reports of what they saw here, or what they would certainly discover here in Verald. Even worse would be if they followed us on ourjourney.”
“I thought you couldn’t kill Drae,” Dyter said, joining the small semi-circle outside his sister’s ruinedtavern.
The old coot hadn’t said a single thing about The Raven’s Hollow being ruined. Dyrell wasn’t even my sister, andIwaspissed.
Tyrrik broke off his stare down with Kamoi and faced Dyter. Replying to the implied question, he said, “I cannot killDrae. Or my blood. They were neither Drae nor myblood.”
Druman were half human, half Drae. The emperor had a hoard of them, and Tyrrik had been forced to create a large number here in Verald for King Irdelron, the only way to keep him safe from the emperor’s Druman force in ourland.
The Drae’s comment about travel caught up with me. “Wait, wait. What journey? I haven’t signed up for a journey.” I surveyed the mess before me and in a voice trembling with emotion, said, “I willrebuild.”