by Erin Raegan
“She is yours, brother, and so she is my sister,” Ohta said gravely. He stepped forward as the first of our enemy landed in the courtyard.
Hylg bowed beside me. “With my life.”
Together, my brothers and I unleashed our rage on those that sought to harm my mate.
16
Lydia
It was dark inside the ruins. So dark I couldn’t see anything.
I held my mitted hand against the ice and felt along the wall, carefully stepping into the darkness. This stone was not toyl stone. It didn’t glow like toyl stone did. It was dark and old. I hadn’t seen anything like it anywhere on Home World. But then, this was the farthest I had been from the castle.
Shouts and clashes of steel echoed through the ruins from outside. I tried not think about what was happening in the courtyard. Three against two dozen were not good odds. But those Dahk were not Tahk’s army. They weren’t Uthyf’s palace guards. I had to have faith in Ignyt’s and his brothers’ abilities. I would lose my mind thinking anything else.
Deeper and deeper I went into the stone tower. My feet bumped against wooden and stone structures. Maybe furniture? It was too dark to tell.
Eventually I tripped and fell on a slick set of stairs. The steps were so deep under the ice that each step nearly melted into the other. Hesitating, I set the bundle of linens down. If anyone found me in here now it wouldn’t matter if I was holding a fake Sym. We were past that now. They would have figured it out by now and I couldn’t protect myself holding on to it. My hands and feet slipped on the ice and I fell several times, but I managed to climb until I reached another floor.
Staying on my knees, I crawled toward a faint light. A tiny window allowed the toyl stone light from the mountains to filter in. Once I reached the wall, I stood on my toes, trying to see outside, but the window was too high for me to reach. I sighed and sagged against the wall, pulling Ignyt’s dagger from my pocket.
I looked at the blade and my mitted hand around the hilt. If I had to use it to protect myself, I wouldn’t be very effective if I could barely hold it. I brought my wrist to my mouth and tugged at the mitt’s ties with my teeth, then I tore it off and shoved it inside my coat.
I faced the window again when a Dahk’s shout filtered through it. It didn’t sound like Ignyt or his brothers, but it was full of pain and rage. I grabbed the ledge, trying to pull myself up, but the ice was too slippery and the window had been so packed with ice, only a small sliver of it was open. I grunted and slid down, my hand freezing on the ice.
That was when I saw it. The frozen tapestry on the wall. It was a pale silver, but the stitching had been done with various vibrant colors. It shimmered under the ice, and I could just barely make out the images from the sliver of lavender light streaming through the window.
It was torn in places, frozen as if it had been floating in the sea. There were beings in the pictures, aliens similar to the Dahk but also so very different. They were dark grey more than purple, and their noses were more prominent, their ears less pointed. If not for the thick round ridges poking from their skulls, I wouldn’t see much of the Dahk in them at all. Not one of them had wings. Instead, they had spikes protruding from their spines like stubby spears. From the tips of their shoulders all the way down to their bottoms, the spines angled out and toward the ground.
Their eyes were much larger and more round. They looked so different from the Dahk I knew. They were standing in a colorful field, looking at the sky. Above them hung a bright sun, so red it looked like blood. Crude stitches stuck out from the sun, depicting bursts of light or rays. Several Dahk had their clawed hands in the air, shielding their eyes from the sun’s rays. Some had their mouths open in terror. Others looked so forlorn. They were gazing at the sun in despair.
I stepped back, strangely moved by the tapestry. It was beautiful but so very sad. Depressing. Their sun had betrayed them, and they’d told the story with silk and needles.
I looked around, seeing if there were more, but it was useless. It was too dark. What other tales did these ruins tell? The Dahk hardly spoke of their ancestors. Only to thank them, to worship them. They rarely spoke about what had happened to their sun. It just was.
A clawed hand reached through the icy window and I yelped, stumbling back. There was no way the Dahk could reach me through that small hole, but still I staggered back and away from the window.
I was sliding down the stairs when a big crash came from the other end of the room. I turned on my bottom and gaped at the ice raining down from the window. There was now an enormous hole and a Dahk was fighting his way through it. It was Mantu’s spiderweb window all over again. The Dahk growled and snarled and then there was a thump and I knew he was inside.
I slid all the way down the stairs, hit the bottom floor, and scrambled back to my feet, tripping over frozen boxes that might have at one point been a chair or a table but now were just hindering my escape.
A voice growled in the dark.
I panted as I smacked into a wall, careening off it and toward the door Ignyt had sent me through. I peeked out and saw Ignyt in the center of a circle, four Dahk attacking him. Ohta and Hylg were somewhere else. I didn’t want to scream and distract them.
An arm dropped around my chest and dragged me back from the door before I could even decide whether it was worth running out there. I choked as the arm cut off my breath.
The male spun me around and shoved me to the floor. “Vile human.”
I crawled away, gasping and coughing. Claws tore into my coat and flipped me to my back. It was so dark in the room all I could see were the Dahk’s silver eyes.
I looked into his shining eyes and watched them squint in anger, snarls of rage echoing in the tower. He lunged as I rolled to my side, reaching into the deep pocket at my waist and pulling the dagger free. As he fell on me, I swiped at him with it and he hissed, backing away.
Claws caught my arm and shredded my coat, tearing into my skin from my shoulder to elbow. I screamed in pain and swiped at him again.
A roar outside shook the building, and the Dahk lunged for me again. As he came down, I hammered my knee into his pelvis, bruising my knee. I sobbed and rolled away as he fell next to me. Then I scrambled to my knees at the back of the room, screaming Ignyt’s name.
The Dahk cursed, and I heard him coming for me. My cheek bumped off of something icy and sharp and I grabbed at it, pulling myself behind the short structure. But hands grabbed my ankle and I was dragged backward, my stomach scraping the ground, my hands slapping at the ice. I gripped the blade and twisted, swiping at him again.
A snarl, low and filled with menace, came from the door before the hands were ripped from my ankle. I scrambled back up and behind the frozen structure, huddling there. Something cracked in the room. A Dahk howled. Another crack and the scream abruptly cut off.
I sat in the sudden silence, panting and shaking, clutching my knife so tightly my hand shook.
I heard a noise, a scrape, then a warm breath washed over my face. I jumped and screamed, swiping at the air. Hands trapped the dagger, taking it from me.
Then Ignyt was there, whispering to me. “Just me, little song. It’s just me.”
I crawled onto his lap, sobbing into his chest.
“Quiet now,” he whispered, lifting me. “I’ve got you, my sweet, brave Lydya.” He walked out of the door and into the courtyard, holding my face to his chest with a palm at the back of my head. “Don’t look, love.”
I nodded, my hands clawing into his shoulders. I felt the blood on his skin, the sticky warmth of it.
“All dead?” Hylg asked somewhere over my shoulder.
Ohta grunted. “They’ll know we’re heading to Frydun and track us from there.”
Hylg sighed. “Good.”
“Baby blanket,” I croaked.
Ignyt dropped his mouth to my ear. “What?”
I turned my face from his chest and into the side of his neck. “I dropped the baby blanket.” It was stup
id, but that was Sym’s first blanket.
“You’re bleeding,” Ignyt rumbled heatedly.
He prodded at my shoulder, and I yelped, pulling my face from his neck. My eyes snagged on the ground over his shoulder, and I sucked in a sharp breath. There were bodies everywhere. The ice was stained and the air smelled tangy. I covered my mouth, gawking.
Ignyt cursed and spun around, walking under the arches leading farther into the courtyard. I couldn’t look away from the bodies. Ignyt and his brothers had done all this? Just the three of them?
Not one body was moving. Not one Dahk was left alive.
“Don’t look,” he growled again.
But I couldn’t stop. I kept my eyes on the ground until he turned a corner and walked behind another icy tower. There he stopped and dropped my legs to the ground, waiting until I had my feet under me before pulling my ripped coat down from my bleeding shoulder.
He prodded the wounds, and I winced. Four deep marks ran from the tip of my shoulder, breaking and meeting again until they stopped at the crook of my elbow. Ignyt ripped a piece from the end of my coat and wrapped it tightly at my elbow around the deepest of the marks.
Hylg walked around the corner with a clump of linens and the baby blanket. It was a mess and looked nothing like a baby. He shot the clump an aggravated look and handed it to me.
“These will scar,” Ignyt muttered.
I looked down at them sadly. “I already have so many.”
Ignyt stiffened and searched my eyes.
“Ice storm is coming,” Ohta called from the courtyard.
Ignyt cursed and looked up. Dark clouds were forming in the east. I’d only witnessed one ice storm since coming to Home World, and they were not fun. The temperatures dropped to unbearable degrees. Enormous chunks of hail fell, along with icy rain and streaks of highly dangerous lightning. Not even the Dahk wandered outside during a storm.
Ignyt lifted me and I watched the blood stains and bodies as we flew. They would be frozen solid in hours. Who were their families? Would they come looking for them? Would they be able to find them?
All of this and for what? To kill a baby? That was pure evil.
How many Dahk on Home World could whoever was behind this possibly rally to that kind of cause? What did it say about the Dahk that so many believed in that kind of horror? I had thought things were starting to settle here.
I trusted Uthyf, Tahk, and so many others. I trusted Ignyt and his brothers. They had proven that my trust was deserved. They threw their lives in the line of fire not only for me but for Sym. They didn’t question this crazy plan that I’d concocted under duress. They immediately went along with it without a single care for their own safety.
But would it always be like this? Would we always be fighting for our lives here? How was that any better than being back home? I had given up going back, afraid it would be for nothing. That my parents wouldn’t have survived. That I would return only to find that there was nothing left for me. That Earth was now a husk of what it used to be and I would find nothing but danger and death.
But though Home World had had its amazing moments, it also had darkness and threats.
What had I given up my world for?
17
Lydia
Something had broken inside me after the ruins. I was depressed and worried. I was also feeling needy.
I had been clutching Ignyt just a little bit tighter since we left the ruins.
We flew into new Frydun quietly, as we had Tybyn, not drawing any attention to ourselves. I was sure the inhabitants of Frydun knew we were there. Someone had to have spotted us flying in from the ruins. But they most likely didn’t know who we were or what we were doing. And if they spotted a suspiciously human-sized female covered in fur in Ignyt’s arms, no one said anything.
Just before we landed, the ice storm caught up to us and pelted us with freezing rain.
I didn’t think Ignyt and his brothers trusted anyone here because we flew right to a cave home and snuck along the back balcony. Ignyt had his brothers search the cave as we waited under an overhang on the balcony. When they came back out, he sent them for food and ushered me inside.
It was empty and had been for a while. The air inside was stale and cold, the stones holding a thin layer of dusty ice. It was a much smaller cave than Dyrn’s. Massively smaller than Peyton’s and Vivian’s homes. It had two bedrooms and a small gathering hall. The kitchen was out in the open and was bare.
I followed Ignyt around the cave, shivering and wringing out my hair. I stayed so close to him, I tripped over his heels more than once. He lit fire bowls around the main hall then ushered me into the bathroom.
He tried to leave me there to gather towels, but I wouldn’t let him and held onto his hand as he searched the rooms. The small bathroom had a tub that would have been normal-sized for me before I’d experienced the castle’s swimming pools. Ignyt turned the lever on the wall and heated water slowly chugged out, filling the tub.
“Undress,” he grunted, walking back out into the bedroom. I made a small noise of distress and he stopped in the doorway, stiffening. “I cannot watch you, love. I am not at my best.”
I looked at my fur booties. “Your best?”
“My control is slipping.”
I looked up, shocked. He hadn’t shown even the smallest amount of struggle since this morning. But then again, maybe that was why he had been so stiff during the flight. “I’m sorry.”
He sighed and looked at me over his shoulder. “Don’t apologize, little song.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “But if we just completed the bond—”
Ignyt sucked in a breath and walked back to me, then took my face in his hands. “I will have you when you are ready and not a moment sooner. Understand?”
I nodded, my cheeks flaming as he whispered his lips across mine.
He sighed and turned again, stopping at the bathroom door and leaning his shoulder against the frame. “I’ll be right here, love. Bathe.”
I sighed too and went about untangling my wet coat. It dropped to the floor with a splat, my tunic and pants following. My booties took a little while to unknot, and they were so soaked, I hung them on the edge of the counter to drip dry. My hair was a tangled mess and no amount of running my fingers through it would get the knots out. I felt the water’s temperature once the tub was full, then I stepped out of my torn panties, blushing when I thought about how they’d gotten torn.
I couldn’t contain a groan of bliss from escaping as I sat in the burning water. The gashes on my arms stung to high hell, but all my other aches and pains were immediately soothed. Flying in a guy’s arms for hours on end was a lot harder than you’d think. My legs had cramped and my arms were exhausted. The moment my feet touched the ground, I’d felt little stabs of pain all over. I couldn’t even imagine how sore Ignyt must have been from carrying me all that time.
I laid my head back against the lip of the pool, my knees bent and resting on the side, and I aimed my eyes at the doorway.
Ignyt was no longer facing away from me. His eyes were roaming every inch of me. I felt everywhere they touched as though they were his hands. My knees came up to my chest in a rush and I wrapped my arms around them, blushing. He heaved through his nose and curled his hands into fists at his sides.
We watched each other in silence. It wasn’t until the slam of a door echoed outside the room that Ignyt stepped fully into the bathing room and slowly shut the door. He walked to the edge of the tub and crouched beside it. His palm slowly came to my bare shoulder, and his thumb ran underneath one of the long claw marks there. They had stopped bleeding, but I would need to have them treated soon. Then his thumb moved up to my face and lightly pressed on my cheek bone. I winced and jerked away from him, cupping the soreness there. I must have bruised it when I hit it in the ruins.
He ran his nose up the side of my neck and moved his palm to my back before running it slowly down my spine. His other hand cupped my knee
. Blood flaked off his skin onto my pale skin and he frowned, pulling away. He moved to the foot of the tub and scrubbed his hands and arms in the water. I watched as he stood and rummaged through the cabinets for soap and a dry cloth.
In the low light of the blue toyl stones, he gently washed my back and shoulders. His claws combed through my hair, easily untangling every knot. He watched me discreetly clean myself, then he held out a towel for me as I stood from the tub. Wrapped in the cloth and sitting on the counter, I watched him strip down and step into the tub, briskly rinsing all the blood and death from his skin.
I tried not to look, but there was just so much of him to look at. All of it beautiful and fascinating and tempting.
My face was tomato red by the time he wrapped his waist in a towel and carried me from the bathroom. My feet weren’t broken. I could walk. But Ignyt seemed to like carrying me, and it had been so long since someone had taken so much care with me that I craved his attention.
I had to put my dirty tunic back on because there was nothing but male leathers in the cave. It looked like a warrior had lived here. There wasn’t one feminine touch in the whole place. Everything was sparse and functional. Forgoing my wet pants, I followed Ignyt into the hall.
Ohta and Hylg were at the small table in the kitchen, silently watching a stew cook over the fire stove. I sat next to Ignyt, and Hylg pushed a mug over to me. Ignyt snatched it from him before it got close and set it in front of me. I sniffed it and smiled at Hylg gratefully before sipping the warm tea.
Ohta watched the fire, his stoic features seemingly lost in thought while Hylg watched Ignyt watching me.
I tried to sit still, but it wasn’t long before I was squirming. “So are you guys actual brothers? Or you know, bros?”
Hylg looked at me and blinked. “Brothers.”