Everything.
To save her, he must make her whole.
He and Iora were both long-living creatures, true, but the potion he’d consumed was stealing his life. If he could uncover how to transfer what remained to Iora, it might be sufficient to wrench her into the realm of the living.
’Twas said the bonding melded lives together, so one mortal being would live as long as their immortal counterpart. That was it. They must bond.
But how?
Alder peeled aside one hand and frowned at his upper left bicep. Though his flesh remained unmarked, he sensed the bonding mark there, beneath his skin, waiting to break free and proclaim his devotion to her.
He dropped both his hands to his sides and studied her. She paced the cell, stopping and shaking her head every few feet. He stepped to her side and seized both her hands. “Bond with me. If we have only one more moment together in this world, I would spend it as your mate.”
“Alder.” She tilted her head at him, tears pooling in her eyes. “I don’t even know how.”
He shrugged. “We’ll do it as centaurs. Satyrs and centaurs are not such different beasts. Perhaps we bond the same.” He coaxed her forward and clasped her face in his hands. “If it doesn’t work, I wish to die knowing I spent my last breaths in devotion to you.”
She closed her eyes, tears spilling through her lashes. He bent forward and kissed them away, the salty tang popping on his tongue and igniting his resolve. Lowering his mouth, he claimed her lips and drank in her soft moans.
They switched into their human forms, both nude and moving in unison to this dance of love they performed together.
He shifted his hands under her bottom and hefted her up, impaling her upon his rigid length and stroking inside her, while his teeth and tongue teased her bare breasts. She angled her head back for an instant, before bringing her focus to him and flashing a dagger in her palm.
No timid female, she sliced the blade across his flesh, and he roared into her neck, pumping harder as the flash of pain rolled into an eruption of bliss.
His ballocks spurted forth his essence inside her. She screamed into his ear, her sex fisting him in a relentless milking.
Chests heaving and their bodies glistening with perspiration, he slowly returned to the reality of their imprisonment, and of the black band spreading across his arm. “It worked.”
“Of course it did,” she murmured, brushing aside a damp lock of his hair. “We are mates.”
He cast her a wistful smile, sorrow and joy mingling in his heart. If the bonding worked, any coming moment would be their last together. “You are mine, Iora. No matter which world we’re in, my love for you will never fade.” He closed his eyes briefly and sensed his life draining, the tendrils floating toward her.
She pulled back and narrowed her stare on him as he set her on the ground. “What are you speaking of? Oh.” She planted a hand on her belly, her eyes widening in panic. “What did you do? Alder?”
“Shh, my love. All will be well. Go and save the centaurs, and know I will always be with you.” He pressed his hand to her cheek, her form fading even more.
“No, Alder,” she squeaked as though tears clogged her throat.
It was all he could do to nod in reassurance, keeping his expression as composed as possible.
While her form flickered and vanished.
Gone from him forever.
***
Iora whirled around, hands grasping for what she knew they wouldn’t seize. No. The room spun around her, and as it settled, she viewed her father’s Great Hall.
“No.” The word rasped from her lips and she sank to her knees, hands fisting in the lush silk of her skirt.
“Iora?” Kyme hurried to her side, but she slumped onto the ground, no words on her tongue.
“Come here, sweetling.” The strong Amazon hauled Iora to her feet and walked her around the corner to a stone bench.
She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Alder’s limp body stretched across the stone. Yet, as she peered harder, his chest rose and fell ever so slightly. She broke free of the Amazon’s hold and rushed to his side, throwing her arms around him. “Alder? Please, wake.”
A pale blue hue tinted his lips as he lay, unmoving. He was leaving this world. She was losing him.
No, this couldn’t be. She restored lost things for others. She didn’t lose them herself.
Shuffling ruffled from around her. She twisted and caught sight of her brothers and their mates, all gathered with somber expressions, hands held above hearts, to witness her lover’s death.
The finality of his fate flickered across their frowns. She tore her gaze off them and instead concentrated on her mate’s beautiful face, on those lips that had quirked with such mischievous intent. His eyes were closed, but if he opened them, he would wink at her, a wicked seduction promised in those russet depths.
He had to open them. She clutched his hand. “Alder. You can’t leave me. I love you.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. “Stay with me, and I will love you for the rest of my life, for each and every beating of my hearts, for every breath that I take.” As he remained motionless, panic and dread clutched her stomach, and she grew desperate, seizing his hand tighter. “I don’t want to live in this world without you.” She tossed her head, hot tears streaking down her cheeks. “I don’t know how to.”
“Iora.” A gentle hand rested on her shoulder and she angled her face toward Petraeus. “Forgive us, for ever doubting your love. Alder is the best friend I’ve ever had and there is no one more worthy of you.”
“Aye, lass.” Oreius strode forward, hands linked in front of him. “I’d take back every foul word I’ve ever spoken about the lad, if I could.”
“We were wrong.” Hector joined their half-circle. “None of us deserves your forgiveness for opposing you.” He sank to one knee and bowed his head.
One by one, her brothers, and their mates, copied him.
“This.” She bit her lip as the word squeaked in her throat. “This is all he ever wanted. To be welcomed among the most loving family he could ever imagine.”
She inclined her head at them before focusing once more on Alder. His inhalations shallowed, his color paling further. “I don’t know how to say goodbye to you.” A sob shook her shoulders and Nysa placed a soothing hand on her arm.
“You never have to,” Nysa murmured gently.
Iora hovered above him, brushing her mouth across his once more, her hearts shattering into a thousand broken pieces.
And the last breath passed from Alder’s lips.
***
“She’s strong, because you love her,” a feminine voice chimed across Alder’s ears.
Dazzling white walls flashed before him, blinding. He blinked and grimaced.
Ah, so this was death. He prodded his hands across his body, feeling solid, then staggered to his feet, squinting into the brilliance.
Lady Persephone posed before him, her slender hands clasped together as she regarded him with keen perception. “No, you’re not quite dead.”
Not dead? His ears perked.
The corner of Persephone’s lips lifted. “The potion will paralyze your body for a while yet, before you are truly dead. Although, to all around you, it may appear that you already are.”
His heart dropped. Iora. He couldn’t bear that he’d put her through so much agony. “If I’m not dead yet, why am I here?”
“Ah, well.” Persephone tilted her head at him, assessing. “There’s someone you must meet.”
If that was blood in his veins, it grew chilled.
“Follow me.” The goddess led him through a set of ornate ivory doors and down a corridor, out into a sprawling garden.
Imagine, a garden in the midst of Hell.
His gawking gaze was torn from the field of flowers as he spotted a figure in their midst.
His jaw dropped and he gaped even harder. He rubbed his eyes, not believing them.
Oh, sweet
gods, it couldn’t be.
The females led Iora from Alder’s body. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done, to wrench herself from him. From the last trace of his vibrancy.
A shudder rippled through her as she passed into the Great Hall. Dozens of centaurs swarmed the chamber, buzzing about like bees torn from their hive.
Lykon’s threats jabbed into her mind.
War.
Oh, gods. Were they too late?
She searched their midst, her scrutiny landing on her father and Hector. The scrolls she’d collected remained inside her satchel and she removed them. “There isn’t any time to waste. The Lapiths will be marching on centaur lands at any moment.”
“What do you mean?” Hector scratched his jaw.
“This is the quest Persephone tasked me with. We can prevent the war, but it will come at a great cost. Yet, we will save lives. Everyone’s lives,” she added. No one would die, if they followed her plan.
“What must we do?” Hector leaned forward, studying her bundle of scrolls.
“Do you trust me?”
“Aye, Iora.” He inclined his head and swept his arm across the chamber. “We all do.”
“Good, then we must make haste. We are out of time.” She plucked one scroll and handed it to Kyme. Another, she gave to Nysa. Yet another, to Eione.
To every pair, she bequeathed a scroll, each with a specific location—of the enchanted objects she’d planted. “You must travel to that spot, as quickly as you can. Once there, seize the object embedded in the earth and employ your powers. Search for the waves of energy on either side of you and connect with them. Together, we will stand strong. We will save our people, and we will live.”
She strode to Thereus last and handed him two scrolls. “You know what to do. One is for Aedre. And the other.”
“Aye, for Melita.” He nodded and if his brothers overhead his whisper, no one reacted. Soon enough, there would be no more reason to hide his mate.
Once each of her brothers and their mates headed off toward the locations on the maps, she held the last scroll in her hands. Their love would make them strong and would empower the females. What about her? Alder was no longer with her. Was she even capable of being strong anymore?
A screeching like rock scraping against rock shrieked across her ears and, covering them, she rushed to the window. On the horizon, a blazing haze flashed, closing in on the borders with the Lapiths.
“They are coming.” Cheiron stepped behind her, assessing his enemy’s approach with grim resignation. He peered down at her, love shining in his grey eyes. “You, my daughter, are so brave. So like your mother.” His smile turned wistful and he cast his gaze once more to the horizon. “Make haste. It is your destiny to save us all.”
Leaving his side, she swallowed thickly, waiting for fear or panic to flood through her, but instead, a calming peace ran in her veins.
“Oh, and Iora?” She froze at her father’s call. “Don’t leave us just yet. Even the most concrete truths are not always written how we perceive them.”
Her breath hitched. What did that mean? Did he guess at her plans to join with Alder, and hint at another solution? She frowned over her shoulder, but he’d returned his attention to the flaming horizon.
No matter. As soon as the centaurs were safe, she would be with Alder again. Because after everything, she’d loved and lost, and come out on the other side.
More determined than ever.
***
Alder shook his head, hoping like hell the Lord and Lady of the Underworld had thought this plan through. The situation was far worse than he’d realized.
Apollo, the sun god, hadn’t amassed a meagre army of bumbling giants and wretched satyrs.
No, those had been a false façade, a trick to convince the centaurs they were far safer than they truly were.
In this very moment, their enemy’s true army marched on the borders.
As the god of the sun, Apollo viewed everything the sun’s rays touched. He employed that blazing strength now, stretching a veil of hazy, flaming illumination over his army as it encroached closer and closer to the borders. Alder tensed as he scanned their masses. From his position atop a cliff near the border, he spotted the Lapith King, garbed in glinting armor, and his Queen, her matching attire gleaming in the sunlight. Between them rode another male, whom he could only take for the fiend Deimos.
Lykon joined them as well, roaming the satyr ranks, his neither alive nor dead form flickering in and out of corporeality.
Alder shuddered, not wishing to know what pieces of his soul he’d sacrificed for such an existence.
The satyrs snuffed out the borders, creeping forward like hounds, and behind them, the Gigantes—a hundred giants with snake bodies and human torsos. An assortment of metallic beasts fashioned by the god of the forge, Hephaestus, assembled next, and the giants came barreling after them. Above them, winged creatures, not Wind Borne, but mayhap harpies, hovered, catching the gusts.
Alder rubbed his hands together, praying Persephone’s plan worked.
Otherwise, the centaurs didn’t stand a chance.
They were far too ill-prepared for this kind of assault. He clenched his jaw, flinching as one giant flung a blazing boulder the size of a ship into the forest near Great Meteoron.
Scorching flames sucked up the offering, spreading faster than he could follow.
From the edge of the blaze, a blue-ish glow spread and snuffed out the flames. A Water Borne?
He didn’t have a chance to study the area, for around the other side of the borders, a brilliant illumination spread.
Persephone’s plan.
The amber glow shot outward, joined on one side by a blue radiance, and on the other by a violet one.
To the west, he spotted a familiar, delicate rosy hue. Alder hopped off his boulder and nodded at his companion. “This is our signal.” Iora’s signal. His heart pounded in his chest and he prayed this would work.
That he would live again to love her.
***
Iora gritted her teeth and cast out her glow, her powers spreading as far as she could see on either side of her. She jolted as another energy met hers in the east, and another in the west. Good, good. It was working.
Thunderous vibrations rolled beneath her feet. The giants.
She squinted and caught sight of the army in the distance. From her vantage point, she viewed the Lapith army’s approach—part of why she’d chosen this location as hers.
Ughn. Her body jerked backward, tossed onto the ground, a spark sizzling on her palms. No.
She scrambled to her feet. What was happening? Iora spread her powers out again, meeting with resistance that prevented her from connecting with Kyme.
No, no. The opposing army had determined how to interfere with their joining. If they couldn’t close this gap, all would be lost.
Her breaths grew rapid and shallow as she fought against the rising panic in her veins. They couldn’t fail. Otherwise, she’d lost Alder for nothing.
“My darling,” a lilting feminine voice called from behind her. “Why don’t you let me help?”
Iora tensed, almost not daring to turn around, but she fisted her hands and spun. Her lips parted in awe. Ten feet from her stood the most majestic centauress she’d ever beheld.
Kind, sparkling diamond eyes and a hide so pristine, it shimmered like the white caps of the ocean at sunset.
“Mother?”
Queen Atalante inclined her head. “My dearest daughter.” She stepped forward, arms extended, and Iora rushed into them, her hearts flushing with love and affection. Though they’d never met, her mother’s embrace was one of the most comforting she’d ever experienced.
“Sweet Iora.” Her mother kissed the top of her head. “I wish I could stay and be with you, but I’m needed at Great Meteoron. Fear not, together, we will repel our enemy.”
Iora leaned back, her resolve strengthening. “Indeed, we will.”
“To seize victo
ry, I sense you will require just a little more help.” She smiled toward the trees, extending her hand to them.
A familiar crop of ruddy locks poked forward, followed by broad shoulders, wickedly grinning handsome features, and those agile, cloven-footed and furred legs.
“Alder.” She broke free of her mother’s arms and sprinted straight into his, not caring how he could be here.
His strong, sure grasp closed around her as he spun her, and she clung to him, to the decadent fragrance of his male spice, to the bonding scent perfuming from him, and the rich love enveloping her in a blast of warmth and comfort.
He nuzzled his face into her neck, murmuring, “You’re not lost anymore, Iora. I’ve found you.”
***
The joy was too much. Alder’s heart threatened to burst right here and now. Embracing Iora in his arms once more filled him with pure content.
“My love.” He pressed a heated kiss to her soft lips, then pulled back and smiled at her. “I have missed you so.”
“Are you truly here?” Her lower lip trembled as though she were fearful of his answer.
“Yes, Iora, I promise I am. I will never leave your side again.” He tore his perusal from her to frown into the distance. “I’ll explain everything, but first, we have to finish this.”
She nodded, her body quivering in his arms, and focused on spreading her glow from her hands. He shifted behind her, his arms braced around her waist, and he concentrated every ounce of his strength on their love.
Iora’s glow blazed from her hands, brighter than he’d ever observed it, and soared to join the others.
A shrill warbling pierced the air above them and he craned his neck toward the sky. A brilliant cascade of light spread across the horizon, plunging around them and enclosing them in its canopy.
Queen Atalante’s powers. She must be at Great Meteoron, employing her strength and fitting the last piece into their puzzle. Locking the powers together in a giant invisible upturned bowl. Forming a wall so thick and mighty, no Lapith army could breach it.
In fact, it was an extension of the wards concealing Halcyon. The same enchantment that prevented Apollo from viewing inside the sanctuary now encompassed the whole of centaur lands.
Lost Lady of Thessaly (Halcyon Romance Series Book 7) Page 8