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I had planned to make some comment about working together, about joining forces with him, but the second our hands made contact with each other that glittering light from the forest, from the altar returned in a rush. It consumed everything until we were sitting in nothing but white, the blaze burning into everything. The carriage fell away in the intensity of the burn, leaving streaks of yellow and white everywhere in my vision, leaving us sitting in a different world.
Buildings taller than I had seen sprouted around us, a blazing sun shining overhead, but then, with one blink it was gone, leaving me to think I had imagined it all.
Except, with one look at Caspyn, I knew he had seen it too.
“What was that?”
Chapter 52
Aeinya
The exhaustion hadn’t left since the second day of the pilgrimage. It was the morning after the first night, when I had been forced to sleep alone. There was no Elara to sneak her warm cloak, no sign of the usual warmth that my Catalyst Carry had always brought on so many cold nights in the high desert. There was nothing but cold. The ache that settled into my bones was proof of that. It was more than a cold ache of sleep that I couldn’t shake, however. The exhaustion lingered with each step, it pulled at my mind until everything was foggy, my magic sluggish, and everything ached.
It was when my magic stopped responding to my prods to make the ground softer that I realized exactly what it was, and why the world felt slow and painful. I had never been apart from Carry since the day of our oath when we bound our magic together. She had always been there, the two different parts of our magic needing to be close to the other half. Without her there… I couldn’t even think straight enough to know how I was feeling.
“My darling,” Batian whispered from behind me, his hand soft as it traced over the lines of my back, the billowing wedding dress I still wore barely covering anything anymore. “You seem preoccupied.”
“Yes… I…” The dress swayed as I turned, the sound of the fabric loud in my ears as I tried to think of what to say. We had only arrived in our marital tent moments ago, my hand aching from the cut of the binding, my body sore from consummation.
Batian stood there, dressed head to toe in his white and gold tunic, every inch of him bright and shining, made worse thanks to the golden light of his magic that illuminated the tent and all the furnishings that were just as white, just as gold.
It was too much and was causing a spot above my eye to throb.
“Darling?” He asked again, his voice so soft, so worried. He stepped around to face me, his fingers tracing lines over my shoulder, my neck, over the curves of my breasts.
It was making it infinitely more difficult to concentrate and think of words or anything when he did that.
Thankfully, I was Spryv born, we were fighters, trained on a high desert to protect our lands. I could use those same skills to fight through this fog, to fight through the growing throb of pain. His touch was intoxicating and I wanted it, just as much as I wanted Carry. As I wanted to escape this ache that was taking over everything.
“Everything feels wrong, slow. I need Carry.” My head ached and I pinched the bridge of my nose, as if that would banish the fog that was creeping in again.
“Carry?” He asked, the softness in his voice suddenly sharp as he came round to face me, the brightness of his clothing burning my eyes.
“My Catalyst.” Using the preferred wording instead of her name for someone that meant so much to me was nearly as painful as the drum that was now beating against my skull.
“Ah yes.” His hands were back to tracing my collar bone, making it harder to think. “I think I might have something that can help with that.”
As much as I wanted to get lost in the soft sensation of his fingers against mine, something prickled over my skin, something familiar and needed that was growing closer.
I forced the fog away, pushing myself to focus on Batian, his perfect features revealing every bit of the Ramal he was about to become.
“Consider it a wedding gift.” He stepped to the side, the curious guards that were posted there moving as he did. The white snakes on their tunics seemed to slither over the black fabric as they lifted the heavy fabric of the entrance as another set of snake guards dragged in a hunched and weak body, the figure dressed in red and covered in dirt.
I only recognized who she was from the way the tingling pull of my magic slinked up my spine and yanked me toward her, because of the way all the fog in my mind vanished. Seeing her had chased it all away, only to have it all replaced by pure panic as the guards dropped her to the ground, her whimper sounding more like a scream in my ears as she crumpled. I fell to my knees alongside her.
“Carry! What has happened!” My hands shook as I gripped her head, her skin so cold and damp as though she had been sweating. No, not sweat. Blood. Each touch left bright scarlet streaks over her bruised and swollen face as I tried to push her hair out of the way.
“Carry?” She only moaned in response. “What happened?”
I turned to Batian, already pleading with him for help, for answers. He simply looked down at me in disgust. No, not at me.
At her.
“I wish you would stop calling her that. She’s nothing but a Catalyst, Aeinya. If you call that much of anything.” His lips curled in disgust as he spoke, the furrow burrowing as I pulled her into me.
“She’s more than a Catalyst to me.” Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as I inspected her face, trying to find any cuts or wounds that would be the source of all this blood.
There was so much blood.
