Page 30 of Wings of Snow
Breathing hard, I sensed that sensation again between my shoulder blades, and with a mental flick, I flapped my wings again.
I lifted a few inches from the ground.
My hand flew to my mouth as I quieted that feeling, and my wings calmed. I drifted back to the floor without a wobble as that instinctual warrior sense of balance and strength corrected any clumsiness in my limbs without so much as a flicker of thought. Sandus and Matron Olsander had been right. A warrior affinity had indeed been within me.
“Ilara!” my sister called again.
I swung to face her.
Cailis, Drachu, Tylen, and Priestess Genoova all stood outside of the temple’s columns. Genoova immediately dipped into a bow when I faced her, while Tylen and Cailis wore shocked expressions.
Drachu merely grinned as a knowing light hit his eyes.
“She’s been kissed by the gods,” Genoova whispered as shining reverence gleamed in her eyes when she lifted her head.
“Indeed, she has.” Drachu’s grin never faltered, but his eyes skated to the floor, to where I still stood in the temple’s divots.
I followed his gaze, and my eyes widened when I beheld a huge glittering gemstone between my feet. Gone was the simple tiny rock that had been placed there. A massive diamond sat on the ground, so large that it had to weigh at least a stone.
Drachu prowled toward me, and I immediately sensed his aura. It slammed into me as my affinities flowed strongly within me. Air, fire, life, warrior, and...my breath sucked in when I felt that other strange affinity that didn’t reside in my gut but instead swirled between my shoulders. My warrior affinity existed near the others, in my belly. It vibrated with leashed strength, but the other one?—
I had no words for what it was, but Mother Below, it containedpower.
I opened my Outlets more as a sense of electricity zinged along my veins, just as the Lochen king reached me.
He bent down and clasped the huge diamond, lifting it as triumph graced his expression. Before I could ask how a simple rock had been transformed into such a priceless gem, Drachu brought it to his necklace.
Similar to what had happened when he’d been in his room, the shining green stone of his pendant seemed to absorb the massive diamond.
Shock filled me when the Lochen king dipped his head back in rapture, and a flare of my affinities inside me tugged toward him. His necklace pulsed as enormous energy ripped through the air around him. When the large diamond had been fully immersed in his pendant’s green stone, he opened his eyes.
Blazing emerald irises assessed me as his canines glinted in the sunlight. His smile was so wide that it radiated joy and...something else. Something I couldn’t quite place as he gazed at me with elation in his eyes.
“And there you are, Krelahala. Born at last and ready to rule your domain. I thank you for the gift.”
CHAPTER 10 – NORIVUN
My guards and I reappeared in a flash of mistphasing magic on the beach of the northernmost shore of the Glassen Barrier Islands, the exact spot Ilara and I had been months ago.
I’d had to transport Sandus, Ryder, Nish, and Haxil here. Their magic was nearly tapped out since we’d been mistphasing extensively for most of the day as we searched for my mate, and I needed them to conserve what they had in case they needed their power.
We’d gone everywhere we could think of on the Solis continent without any clue as to where Ilara had gone. The only comfort I took was in knowing that if I couldn’t find her, my father couldn’t either.
But early this afternoon when we stood near the ice caves in Kroravee, as the black sand shifted beneath my boots, I remembered another black sand beach. A shoreline where a Lochen king had once told my mate she could seek refuge on his land.
Should you tire of the death warlord, my shores are open to you.
I didn’t know if Ilara knew of the trickery the Lochen king wove, or if she even remembered that offer Drachu had voiced, but it was worth a try to see if she’d fled this far south, especially given the implications of what would ensue if Drachu had indeed gotten his claws into her.
Magic rumbled in my gut just thinking about it.
“Ock, Nori.” Nish took a step away from me. “Calm yourself, my prince. We shall find her.”
My nostrils flared when I inhaled, and murderous thoughts swirled through my mind of what I would do if Drachu hurt her.
Wind whipped around us. I tucked my wings in tight as we all fanned out, walking along the beach. Afternoon sunlight shone down on us and glinted off the frost-nipped leaves of the fjord’s forest. I scanned the area and scented the breeze, but no Lochen fae were near.
“Pretty quiet,” Ryder remarked.