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I didn’t care that he was covered in blood or that the smoking remains of hundreds of wights filled the air with a putrid sulfuric smell. I held him close, needing the sensation of his warm embrace. He seemed to need mine, too. We remained there for quite a long time, my husband holding me and me holding my husband.
Sometime later, he lifted me into his arms, keeping his cloak tucked around me as he carried me out of the bailey and into the field where Drak waited, chomping on the bones of one of the fresher wights.
I sniffed. “So King Goll is going to change the laws again. He’s going to have a wife, not a mizrah or a concubine.”
He looked down at me as he carried me closer to Drak, who rumbled a pleasant growl at our approach. The gray light of early morning lit his face.
“Something I’ve come to understand about Vix and Mizrah. They may not have been bound in the formal sense—as husband and wife.” He stopped before Drak, still holding me tight, his fierce gaze on mine. “But she was his world.” Those dragon eyes flicked between my own, holding me captive. “As you are mine,” he added, voice gravelly and rough. “There will never be any concubines. But the title Mizrah means more than mother to my children. She was the most precious treasure Vix ever held in hisarms.” He squeezed me tighter, reminding me I was still in his. “I understand that now.”
We climbed up onto Drakmir’s back. I sat sideways on Goll’s lap. He wrapped me tight against him, cocooning me in his cloak and his protective warmth, his possessive arms.
When I pressed my hand against his chest, wanting to feel the strong beat of his heart beneath, I noticed the threads of our moon-binding shimmering brighter along my hand and wrist. As Drakmir lifted us up and up into the clouds, the kiss of dawn brightening the sky, the threads glowed.
Goll took my hand from his chest and laced our fingers together, aligning our bare forearms, the sleeve of his tunic having risen. The threads of our union actually moved and entwined like they had when we stood in the Moon Temple with Elder Lelwyn. He marveled at them as did I, then he marveled at me as I did him.
“I love you, Una,” he said with such sincerity and certainty that my heart beat harder, a knowing sinking into my soul.
I smiled and tucked my head in the crook of his neck. “As I love you,” I whispered as Drak carried us through the golden morning sky.
Chapter 44
GOLL
Three days later,we stood beside Solzkin’s Heart, staring across the small circle at the two shadow fae. I kept Una close to me. Perhaps too close. She kept glaring over her shoulder since I hadn’t removed my hand from her waist and allowed her to greet Prince Torvyn and his priest properly.
I knew I was being overbearing since the shadow fae hadn’t demonstrated any threat, but my will was no longer my own when it came to Una. My need to keep her close and safe defied rational thought. And I didn’t quite fucking care what anyone thought about it.
Much to her protest, Hava had remained behind at the encampment with a few Culled and Morgolith, who was nursing a wounded leg from the wight attack. I wanted no distractions with this encounter, and as much as my Una loved her handmaiden, her friend, Hava rarely kept quiet or still.
It had been a somber few days. We’d had many funeral pyres to burn. The wights had killed four of my Kel Klyss. Then therewas Meck. When they were preparing his body for his pyre, I’d inspected his back and found exactly what I thought I would.
His demon runes had traced over his shoulder to his back as some often did. One of the marks was the sign of the raven wing, given to him by Gozriel, and the sign of one with the gift of neklia. His brother surely bore it as well. I’d incinerated Ferryn’s body after I was done with him, not thinking of anything else but wiping him from this world.
It still galled me I’d never known they were nekliam. It was a rare gift and one that could’ve helped their king. But it seemed Ferryn had ulterior motives from the moment he and Meck presented themselves to be considered for my Kel Klyss. And Meck was more loyal to his brother than his king. I could understand that. Still, if Meck had confided in me, he might still be alive.
And finally, there was Dalya. We’d found her in the cave where Ferryn had taken Una, strangled. It broke my heart that she’d come to such an end.
Even knowing she’d betrayed me, for what Una had told me of the conversations in that cave, she must’ve been Ferryn’s lover. She’d betrayed her king in not telling me about the plot against me and my mizrah, but she’d betrayed her vows to Vix as my soul-seer. I’d never know what led her astray, but I could imagine.
Like me, she’d been born into a role. Her magickal gift had marked her by the gods for a life as an oracle, a priestess of Vix’s Order. That also meant forsaking a life of family and embracing one of isolation, no mate or children to come.
Then Ferryn, appearing to be a strong, honorable warrior devoted to me as she was, appeared in her life. I could guess he had seduced her rather than the other way around. Una had said he was sick with some kind of black magick madness. He could’ve entranced Dalya against her will. I didn’t know when orhow it all had happened exactly, and those who had the answers were now all dead. It didn’t matter now.
So I let it go as my mate had advised. No good could come from dwelling on my mistakes or the betrayal of those close to me. And I refused to let my heart fill with bitterness when there was so many more reasons to fill it with joy.
As we’d watched Dalya’s pyre burn high, I forgave her for any wrongdoing. I did the same for Meck, a devoted brother who’d tried to correct Ferryn. And failed.
Una had sworn there was dark magick inside Ferryn, guiding him to do its bidding. I berated myself for never having seen or sensed it. Never noticed anything at all. Their expedition to the Solgavia Mountains had brought us the gold we needed. But apparently, Ferryn had brought something else back with him.
I leaned down and whispered to Una, “Do you sense anything?”
We’d discussed the fact that Ferryn most likely encountered this infection of darkness when he was on this expedition. I was more than a little paranoid of the shadow fae. I didn’t question why the gods had touched Una with the sight to sense this darkness when I hadn’t been. The gods did as they chose, and I accepted that.
“No,” she answered quietly. “Nothing at all.”
I wondered what it was and where Ferryn had encountered the dark essence. But now wasn’t the time for that discussion. There was a far more pressing matter.
Prince Torvyn stood the same height as his priest, Vallon. However, his black wings arched higher, and they shimmered in the afternoon sun with a red sheen. His golden hair was braided in tight plaits along the sides, falling to the wild mass of wind-whipped hair that fell past his shoulders. Four smooth horns curved back in a regal swoop over his head.
