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My cheeks flushed hot, the memory of those mischievous pale blue eyes spearing straight through my mind.
A breeze picked up through the trees, rustling my hair forward, and I watched his nostrils flare, his wings twitching. His gaze fastened straight on me, though he couldn’t possible see me hidden in the darkness.
“I know you’re there,” came his deep voice, tinged in something darker.Pain,I realized. “I would know your scent anywhere, little witch.”
He was sitting with his back against the trunk of an ancient tree, towering high overhead, its canopy disappearing into the night.
His skin was a lighter gray—almost silver—than other Kylorr I’d seen, and his features resembled the Allavari’s sculpted elegance. High cheekbones, sharp enough to slice; a sloped nose I’d envision pressing my lips to more than once; and pointed ears that were decorated in silver piercings. His jaw held the unforgiving sharpness of a blade, and his lips were set in a small pout, his fangsjustpoking into his bottom lip since he sensed danger near.
The black horns that jutted from his temples curved around the crown of his head, sloping upward at the ends. His hair, silky black and long, hung below his shoulders, nearly to the middle of his back. The ends that covered his right shoulder looked wet.
Blood.
That was when I saw it.
A silver-tipped metal arrow was lodged deep in his chest. The shaft was glittering blue. A blue I recognized as trepidation made my belly lurch.
The Kylorr male had been shot with a poisoned arrow…and left to die in the Black Veil alone.
Chapter
Two
“Show yourself,” came the Kylorr’s voice, cutting through the foggy haze in my mind.
Night nettle poison.The most beautiful of blues, shimmering like a sunlit ocean, and the last color many saw before it took their life quickly.
Ignoring his words, though unknowingly obeying them, I scurried from behind the tree. The Kylorr’s eyes fastened on me, his jaw tightening. As I approached, his head tipped back against the tree he was propped up against so he could keep my gaze.
His long, finely muscled legs were sprawled out before him, and I sank down beside his right side, peering at the wound.
“There you are, little witch,” he said, his voice warm and husky, even in his pain. “I hope I didn’t wake you this night.”
“Hush and let me think,” I admonished, already running through the antidotes I had prepared. I always liked to have the antidote for night nettle in my storage chests—I just couldn’t remember if I’d sold the last of it at the prior market day. I’d been waiting for the next crop of brightbell in my garden, but they grew twice as slowly as all the rest, even with the glowflies’ magic and perseverance.
I saw the flash of his sharpening ivory fangs out of the corner of my eye. When I looked from the wound to his face, I wondered if I should be more frightened of him. Hewasa Kylorr, or at the very least, he had a lot of Kylorr blood in him. Their berserker natures were fearsome enough…but it was their bloodlust that had always given me greater pause.
He could drink me dry right here and right now, I thought,and no one would know. No one would hear my screams in the Black Veil.
A shudder raced down my spine, but I didn’t move away. His pale blue eyes flickered over my face, settling on my lips…then the column of my neck.
The Kylorr and the Allavari were a strange blend, but they’d nearly always lived in this place together. For centuries, their blood had mixed.
But three hundred years ago, a strong hybrid male named Veranis Sarin had begun to practice a darker form of blood magic. His followers rose to power, practicing ancient sacrificial magic and spells that the Allavari had already banned for thousands of years. And so…unease spread throughout Allavar. Kylorr and Allavari hybrids were driven out from their villages, their homes. Hatred flowed through the valleys and fear tinged the air, so acrid one could choke on it.
Or so the stories went…
By all accounts, Veranis Sarin had been a power hungry and ambitious monster. He severed his soul—and those of his followers—from the living realm to open the portal to the Below. And the Allavari had banished them there.
Severs.The name of Veranis’ followers, though innocent hybrids had been driven out with them, discriminated against for their mixed blood and nothing more.
Even now, though hybrids were commonplace in the villagers once more, there were Allavari who gave them a wide berth, who whispered under their breath when they passed.
“I may have the antidote for night nettle,” I said in a quiet rush. His gaze snapped up to mine and held. I saw his stomach dip, sucking in a sharp breath. I’d heard the pain from this particular poison was unfathomable. No wonder his pain had led me here, like a beacon in his dark forest. “But you’ll need to come with me. Can you manage it?”
“Yes,” he said. “Help me up.”
I pushed to my feet quickly, rounding to his left side so I wouldn’t jostle his wound. As I helped him to stand, he leaned into me heavily. I’d forgotten how large he was. I was tall for a human, and even then, he towered over me. His body was leanly muscled like an Allavari hunter, but I knew the Kylorr could morph into hulking beasts, given the proper stimulation. His wings hung limp, the ends dragging on the forest floor as I led him forward.
