Seraiah let her reins hang loose, trusting her horse to follow Kai’s without her guidance while she tugged off her cloak and tucked it away in her saddlebag. The snow had disappeared, and they’d gradually returned to the warmth of late summer only two days outside of Baromund.
Kestrel had gone off to scout for a campsite for the night, leaving them to travel at a leisurely pace until she returned. As much as Seraiah enjoyed not having to worry about falling off her horse as they flew over the ground, there was something to be said for the distraction it provided.
She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what Kestrel had said about her mark. She hated the idea of Ren using the mark to somehow control her. He was a necromancer. His power was over the dead, not the living. It shouldn’t be possible.
Sterling might think his intentions were good, but Seraiah couldn’t bring herself to feel the same way. When she’d agreed with Sterling’s plan to find him, she hadn’t been thinking about the thing he’d left on her skin. She’d been thinking about their unanswered questions surrounding Sterling’s rescue, and the idea that he might be able to fill in the gaps.
Kestrel’s words had changed things.
Now Seraiah had no desire to get any closer to the necromancer and learn what else he could use the mark to do.
You’re paranoid, Sterling’s voice whispered from her memories.
No, no, she didn’t think she was. Not about this. Anyone—madness or no—would be able to see going along with the necromancer’s summons would not end well.
She’d contemplated the idea of splitting up the other day as a way to help Kestrel. It had seemed reasonable then, but now, with the threat Ren posed, the idea was even more appealing. She could avoid Ren and whatever plans he had for her and work toward their goal of finding allies. Kestrel would be more than happy to join her at the prospect of learning what was going on inside Nyrene.
Most importantly, Seraiah could make inquiries about the madness.
If there was anyone who might know if the madness was real and how to avoid it, Seraiah had no doubt it would be the Summer King. The trick would be paying whatever price he asked for the information.
Seraiah stared at the back of Sterling, where she rode on Kai’s horse. She was saying something to him, gesturing with one hand.
Sterling might be upset if Seraiah suggested they go separate ways, but she thought her sister would forgive her quickly. It had been Sterling’s idea to go to Daralis, after all, and she would still be able to do so.
No, if there was anyone who might try to stop her, it would be Kai.
Seraiah shifted her gaze to the landscape. Clouds bubbled on the horizon to her west, promising a summer rainstorm. By her estimate, if she rode toward those clouds, she would reach the portal to take her back to the other world in a few days—maybe less. If they were going to split up, it would be best to do it soon, in order to waste as little time as possible.
She bit her lip and looked back at Kai and Sterling again. There was no way around it. If she wanted to avoid an encounter with the necromancer, she needed to talk to Kai. Tonight.
----------------------------------------
A rain scented breeze wafted over Kai as he lifted the saddle from his horse. Kestrel had chosen a relatively flat spot atop one of the rolling hills for their camp. When the rain came—for he was sure it would—it would be easy for him to shield the group from being drenched.
Kai set the saddle aside and began brushing out the horse’s coat. He was almost done when someone cleared their throat.
“Can I talk to you about something?” Seraiah asked when he looked over his shoulder. The fingers of her right hand played along the top of her dagger in a nervous way.
“Always.” He continued brushing the horse, expecting her to speak, but she didn’t.
By the time he had finished, she still stood there, playing with her dagger and not saying anything.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. “Is it about Sterling?”
“Yes. I mean no, not exactly. Can we walk?”
Kai let her lead the way, growing more curious by the second. Could it be she’d come to him about the same thing he’d been meaning to tell her?
Seraiah stopped when they were out of hearing distance of their camp, but still close enough that they could see Kestrel and Sterling working on something near the fire.
She stared at the oncoming clouds, looking ready to dump rain on their heads at any second, but still said nothing.
He was about to rescue her from her misery when she finally blurted, “I think we should split up.”
There was a beat of silence. Those were not the words he had thought she would say.
“I think in order for us to split up,” he said slowly, “we would first need to have been together.”
She looked at him in confusion for a moment and then color flamed across her cheeks. “That isn’t—I didn’t mean—I wasn’t assuming—”
He grinned to cover his unease. She couldn’t truly be suggesting what he thought she was. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That was a poor joke. Please. Continue what you were saying.”
Please, tell me I’m wrong, and you don’t mean to go off alone or with only Sterling. He needed more time with his sister to unlock her magic. Splitting up now when she was still unable to call it would be a mistake.
Seraiah leveled a glare at him, but forged on. “I think we should split up,” she repeated. “I think Kestrel and I should return to your world while you and Sterling stay here.”
His relief that she didn’t mean to take Sterling somewhere on her own was short-lived. This plan of hers meant he would still be separated from her, and he found he did not like that idea at all. He may have tried to send her off once for her own protection, but he wasn’t sure he could do it again.
“Kestrel and I could work on gathering allies and find out what is happening in Nyrene,” she was saying, “and we need to make sure it is safe for Sterling to cross the portals at all even if she doesn’t go directly back to Nyrene. Having been away for weeks, we don’t know what might be waiting for us on the other side. Kestrel and I could go first and then send word back to you.”
She made a good point. They’d been cut off from all news of what was happening in the other world while they were here in the human one. A trap could have been laid, and it would spring the second they returned. It might not be a problem if Sterling was ready, but she wasn’t anywhere close.
“So while you and Kestrel are risking your safety, you would expect Sterling and I to wait here, doing nothing?”
“Not nothing,” Seraiah said. “You would go to Daralis like we planned. We still need to know if it is like the other cities and the people are . . .”
“Missing,” Kai supplied. “Vanished?”
She nodded. “Yes, that.”
Kai studied her face. He admired Seraiah’s will—her resolve to go on—even with the weight of everything that had occurred. Many would have stumbled or broken under the losses, but she had persevered.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Strength came in many forms, not just physical, and he did not envy any who came against her and her sheer stubbornness and refusal to give up. He’d watched her search tirelessly for clues in Ratha and push herself to bring on a vision that might tell her what had happened to the missing people. He would have thought she’d want to go to Daralis herself, unless she thought there might be another way. She’d said she wanted to gather allies, but Kai suspected that wasn’t the only thing she wanted to do.
“You want to go to the Summer King, don’t you?”
The way Seraiah’s eyes flew wide told him that he’d hit the mark.
“You’re hoping he can help you have a vision of what happened in Ratha and Baromund.” He ran a hand through his hair and half turned away. “After everything that happened the last time you went to the Seelie Court, you would think to do it again?”
Sometimes, stubbornness and stupidity went hand in hand. He would know.
“I have to,” she said. The roll of thunder almost drowned the words out.
Kai didn’t need to ask why. He already knew the answer.
“It’s not your fault.”
Seraiah lifted her hands to her face, scrubbed at her cheeks.
Kai took her wrists and gently pulled her hands away. “It’s not your fault,” he repeated.
“What if it is?” she whispered. “What if I could have warned them? What if I knew how to use my abilities better and could have prevented whatever it was that occurred? I can’t even summon a vision of them now. I need help.”
“There must be another way.”
She shook her head and tugged away from him. He let her go.
“It’s not just about the vision. I need to go to Metrius too. I have to tell them about . . . about Lonan. And it’s not like I would be alone. Kestrel would go with me.”
He cocked his head. “Was this her idea?” He couldn’t see Kestrel being eager to return to the Seelie Court, but then again, she’d become increasingly desperate for any news of Nyrene—and more importantly, Eryx. He couldn’t blame her. If he were the one separated from Seraiah, he would be the same. Or worse.
“No, I haven’t exactly told her yet,” Seraiah mumbled. “You’re the first one I’m telling.”
“Because you knew I wouldn’t like it.”
She nodded.
He huffed a laugh that held little humor. “You were correct on that account. I’d never want you to put yourself in danger by going back to the Seelie Court at all, much less with only Kestrel for company. She may be fierce, but she’s not invincible.”
Thunder rumbled again as they stared at each other. Kai could feel the moisture heavy in the air. The rain was imminent.
Seraiah pressed her lips together. The fading light made it difficult to read her expression. “That’s not the only reason I want to go. There’s something else. Kestrel has a theory about this.” She touched the mark on the side of her neck. The one the necromancer had left on her.
His eyes narrowed. “What about it?”
“She thinks he is using it to get me to go to Daralis.”
Kai listened while she explained the itching, and how it had stopped once they left Ratha.
“I think she’s right,” Seraiah said, “and I don’t want to find out what else he can do with it. I thought it best if I put as much distance between us as possible.”
“And you would let Sterling go even knowing she wants to find him?”
“He may have answers we need, and Sterling insists he was her friend. Besides, she wasn’t the one he left this thing on. I don’t believe he will harm her. I, on the other hand, do not wish to find out what he wants with me. He is, after all, still one of them.”
By them, she meant mages. She hadn’t forgotten about the way they’d tried to take her, and neither had he. He also hadn’t forgotten that they were instrumental in Sterling’s kidnapping. Ren may have helped them once, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t because it was for some larger plan.
“And if you’re wrong?”
Seraiah blinked at him. “If I’m wrong?”
“About Ren meaning Sterling harm.”
“Then she has you.”
----------------------------------------
As soon as she said the words, Seraiah knew they were wrong. Something in Kai’s expression shifted.
“I’m not sure that means anything at all,” he said. “You may not have been responsible for protecting the people of Ratha, but I was the one charged with the protection of Nyrene. I let an entire kingdom slip away. If I hadn’t spent so much time away—”
She cut him off. “If you hadn’t, we might not have met. I wouldn’t have found my sister.”
“Yes, you would have. You’re determined.”
“Determination wouldn’t get me that far. I knew so little of the world. I still don’t. I would have fallen right in the mages’ hands, and then where would we be?” She technically had fallen into the mages’ hands, but Kai had been there to rescue her.
“But—”
She leaned forward and pressed a finger to his lips, silencing him. “No, if I’m not allowed to blame myself for things out of my control, you aren’t either.”
She felt his lips move beneath her finger, curling into a smile.
“All right,” he said, the words tickling against her skin.
When she moved to pull her hand away, he caught it, holding it tight. The callouses from his sword work were rough against her skin. She briefly wondered what they’d feel like elsewhere.
No. This was not the time for thinking about that. She needed him to agree to her plan.
“You trust me to keep Sterling safe?” he asked.
“Of course.” She looked down at their entangled fingers. His thumb stroked over her skin, distracting her again.
She ripped her gaze away. “There’s no one else I’d trust more. You care about her as much as I do. I know you won’t do anything to put her in danger, even if she is intent on putting herself there.”
He nodded and sighed. “I understand the need to separate, and I know I wouldn’t be able to stop you or change your mind, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Before you leave, though, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. The timing has never been right, and it’s still not right, but I realize I might be waiting forever for the perfect moment.”
Her heartbeat picked up speed, and suddenly she felt like she had a million butterflies in her stomach. The urge to turn and flee into the oncoming night was strong. She had a fairly good idea what he wanted to talk about, and it terrified her as much as excited.
With his free hand, Kai brushed a piece of loose hair the wind had pulled from her braid behind her ear. His palm cradled her cheek, and she unconsciously leaned into it.
“I know you remember that night.”
“What night?” Her voice came out high and breathy and sounding not at all like her usual self. She already knew exactly what night he was referring to—the one where she’d been bold and made a fool of herself. The one she’d thought they’d both forget.
“Eostre,” Kai said. “You had fun on the beach, but then came back to me.”
Was it her imagination or had he gotten closer?
“The one where we kissed.”
Her pulse was so loud in her ears now. It threatened to drown out any other sound. He’d said we as though he had something to do with it. As though she, emboldened by drink, hadn’t told him he wasn’t awful and then thrown herself at him.
“I was going to apologize,” she started to say. The first drops of rain hit her overheated skin, distracting her.
With a gesture from Kai, they disappeared. A barrier seemed to have gone up around them. Rain continued to fall outside of it, but none touched them. “I’m not looking for an apology,” he said.
“Oh,” she squeaked. “Then?” She felt like she was going to burst out of her skin.
“I’d like to try it again.”
Her heart skipped a beat.
“This time without the alcohol. That is, if you haven’t decided I am awful, after all.”
He had definitely moved closer, and his thumb was tracing her skin in the most distracting way. “Yes,” she said. “I mean no. That is, I don’t think your awful. In fact, you are very much the opposite of that most of the time.”
Kai smirked and leaned in, gaze flicking from her lips to her eyes. “May I?” he whispered, stopping just short of touching her.
“Yes,” she whispered back. Her lashes drifted down as he closed the last distance between them.
The kiss was soft and sweet.
Kai let go of her hand and wrapped an arm around her waist, tugging her closer until the length of her body was pressed up against his. The fingers in her hair tugged her head back, exposing her neck, and his lips moved from her mouth to her skin, tracing over the mark.
If this was his way of convincing her not to leave, he was doing a very good job of it.
Seraiah tugged him back to her mouth, her lips parting beneath his. What had started off as sweet now had an edge of hunger to it. As though her body knew this might be the last time she saw him for a long while, it wanted all of him it could get.
She made a soft sound in her throat as his tongue ran along hers.
Suddenly, she found herself drenched.
She pulled back, blinking in the sudden onslaught of rain. Some time in the moments they’d been kissing, the rain had gone from a light sprinkle to a downpour.
A shriek went up from their camp and a voice that sounded very much like Kestrel shouted, “What the hells, Kai?”
With a flick of his hand, the barrier was back. Although both of them were still soaked.
“What happened?” she asked. He still held her pressed against him.
“I lost control of my magic.”
She heard his unspoken words. He’d lost control because of her.
Seraiah grinned, and a bead of water dripped off the end of her nose. More water ran from her hair down her cheeks like tears.
“Now where were we?” His lips followed the trail of water, finding hers again.
Try as she might, she couldn’t suppress the shiver.
Kai pulled back enough to look at her. “You’re cold.”
Her insides felt molten, but she couldn’t deny that the rain cooled air and wet clothing weren’t raising goosebumps on her exposed skin.
“I’d get you out of those wet clothes in a different way if we weren’t in the middle of nowhere, but this will have to do.” Kai passed his hands over her and the water collected in the air before falling to the ground.
She remembered the first time she’d seen him do a similar thing after Kestrel had pushed him into the creek. It was just as impressive now as she watched him remove the water from his own clothing.
“Is it hard?” she asked.
Kai glanced up sharply. “What?”
“Holding the rain back,” she elaborated.
“Normally, no, but holding it back in two places takes more concentration, and if I’m distracted . . .” he trailed off, his eyes flicking to her mouth again.
“We should get back to camp then.” She was reluctant to leave, but sooner or later the rain would stop, and someone would come looking for them.
“Seraiah, before we go, if I wasn’t clear before, I care about you.”
She’d thought for a moment, he might say he loved her, but perhaps he didn’t want to scare her away.
She smiled and then pushed up on her toes and pressed her lips to his again in a lingering kiss.
When she pulled away, she said, “The feeling is mutual.”