“Were you always a warrior?”
A flicker in her eyes. “No.”
And that was that. There was clearly more to the story, but Leo wasn’t going to get it out of her no matter how cheerful and up-front she found him.
But the conversation about convention gave him an idea. “I want to ask you a question. Please know that, despite having three new sisters in my house with whom I talk frequently, I am ignorant of most Irina magic.”
She smiled at the corner of her mouth. “What makes you think we’d answer your questions if you asked, scribe?”
“Nothing.” He raised his hands. “Obviously it’s none of my concern.” He glanced at Kyra. “Except when it is.”
Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
The reminder of Kyra’s mortality felt like a punch to his solar plexus. “How old are you, sister?”
“Ah,” Ginny said. “I think the more important question is, how old is she?”
“Too old. And she fears… She doesn’t know how long she has. I know it frightens her.”
“With good reason,” Ginny said. “If kareshta are anything like Grigori, they don’t have that much longer than humans without help from the Fallen. They don’t age like humans do, but one day they’ll just snuff out. Like they’ve got an expiration date or something. I’ve seen it happen. A Grigori fell to dust in front of my eyes without me lifting a finger. Weirdest thing I ever saw.”
He stood—wanting to rage, to hit something—but then he sat again. There was nothing he could do to prevent it. Kyra was clearly not open to mating with him solely to save her life, even though Leo was willing. For some reason, he’d thought they’d have some warning. To hear Ginny say Kyra’s life could be extinguished like a candle flame filled him with fear and anger.
“Will she know?” Leo asked.
“I don’t have any idea. Maybe ask Sura or Niran? If you love her, why don’t you just—?”
“She’s not willing,” he said. “Not right now. She’s probably right. It’s too early. She knows we mate for life, and she’s not willing… I mean, we’ve known each other for three years, but we’ve only just—”
“She’s not sure of her feelings,” Ginny said. “Or yours.” She nodded. “I can respect that.”
“Can you?”
“Yes.” Ginny tapped an ash off her cigarette into a small brass ashtray. “It’s better than rushing into something to save her life and then being miserable for eternity.”
“I don’t want her miserable. I don’t want her trapped,” Leo said. “But I do want her alive.”
She tapped her finger on her knee. “I don’t think your feelings are in question, are they?”
No. The rage-inducing thought of losing Kyra was enough to make Leo near-certain Kyra was his reshon. He didn’t care that she wasn’t Irina. Ava wasn’t technically Irina either. The Creator wouldn’t continue to set them in each other’s path if they weren’t. His touch wouldn’t give her so much comfort and his voice wouldn’t be so clear.
His heart wouldn’t feel raw at the thought of her death if she wasn’t meant to be his life.
“I don’t want her coming to me out of obligation or fear,” he said, his voice rough. “Is there anything you can do?”
Ginny pursed her lips. “I could sing some magic for her. It wouldn’t be anything long term, but it would give her a boost. Give you two some time.”
“Can you teach her the spells to use herself?”
Her eyes went wide. “What?”
“She’s powerless, Ginny. The Irina teach the kareshta to shield their minds, but everything else? They’re on their own. They have nothing.”
“Leo, you’re asking me to give Irina magic to Grigori sisters.”
“I’m asking you to trust Kyra,” he said through gritted teeth. “Are they our allies or not?”
“You tell me.” Ginny’s voice was brittle. “You tell me if they’re our allies, Leo.”
“I can’t believe you’re asking that. You know—”
“I know what?” Ginny stubbed out her cigarette in the grass. “I know… They say the right things. They have sympathetic stories. I’m open to listening. I’m open to believing they could be more.”
“But you don’t trust them?”
“You think I don’t have reason to doubt?” Ginny asked. “Did you see your sisters slaughtered by Grigori? Have you seen whole families wiped out from their savagery? I’ve felt their blood spill hot on my hands after they raped and killed my sister, so you tell me. Should I give them magic that could make them even more powerful? I’m glad it’s so easy for you to know.”
Leo heard movement at the edge of the garden. Sura and Kyra stood near the pond, clearly having overheard Ginny’s devastating words. Sura’s eyes were wet with grief. Kyra’s face was stricken.
Ginny stared at them, then she stood and walked toward the temple without a word.
“Kyra.” Leo stood.
She was shaking her head. “It’s not going to work. It’s not fair for anyone, Leo. We can’t ask them to accept—”
“We can!”
“No.” She turned and walked toward the forest path.
Leo started after her, but Sura grabbed his arm. Leo was surprised at the iron grip of the smaller man.
“Wait,” Sura said. “Think about what she’s saying before you go to her.”
Leo wrenched his arm away. “Do you think she’s right?”
“No. I think union between Irin and Grigori brings healing. But healing can be painful.”
Leo could still hear Ginny’s footsteps on the gravel. He could hear Kyra walking through the bamboo.
“I’ll try to talk to Ginny if you think it will help,” Sura said quietly. “I don’t want to cause her more grief.”
“I don’t know her well enough to know what is right. Perhaps you should talk to Alyah.”
Sura nodded and walked toward the dining room.
Leo took a deep breath and headed toward the cottages. He wasn’t willing to give up. Not when she was finally giving him a chance.
He marched to her cottage and paused before he knocked. He didn’t want to barge in like the tank his brothers joked about, but he wanted to take some action to make everything better. Fight something. Break something. Get everyone laughing. He was good at those things.
Leo knew this wasn’t a problem that could be fixed that way.
Think about what she’s saying before you go to her.
Kyra had lived in secrecy, watching her brothers killed by those of Leo’s kind, often after they had already turned away from preying on humans. By all rights, she should be terrified of him. Irin law had been black-and-white. Irin good. Grigori bad. There had never been any nuance allowed.
With good reason, from the Irin perspective. Grigori had slaughtered their families, wiping out eighty percent of their women and children in the Rending. Irin society had been torn apart for hundreds of years and was changing now only by increments. Layer upon layer of trust had to be rebuilt. Between Irin and Irina. Between free Grigori and wary scribes. And trust between free Grigori and Irina?
Did you see your sisters slaughtered by Grigori? Should I give them magic that could make them even more powerful?
Perhaps they were asking the impossible.
Frustrated, Leo turned and sat on the top step of Kyra’s porch. He sat there, looking at the moon and feeling the weight of Kyra’s sorrow in the back of his mind. He didn’t know how he felt it, but he did. He could feel her pain. Feel her hopelessness.
He tangled his hands in his hair and gripped hard, wishing he could take her pain into his own body and knowing that every moment that ticked by could be her last.
The thought of it pushed him toward madness.
Her door opened, and Kyra came and sat beside him, being careful not to touch. “You aren’t shielding your thoughts very well.”
“I have nothing to hide from you.”
She drew in a long breath. “
Leo, what were you asking Ginny?”
“To give you the spells you need to save your life.” He paused, kept himself from looking at her. If he looked at her, he’d want to hold her, and he didn’t think she wanted to be touched. “It seemed like a reasonable request at the time.”
“Irina were targeted for centuries,” Kyra said. “Hunted down. Forced into hiding. They have reasons for their secrets.”
He let out a rueful laugh. “Trust you to be understanding about someone withholding magic that could save your life.”
“It’s not about me.”
“It should be!” He couldn’t help himself. Leo turned toward Kyra and cupped her cheeks in his big hands. She was so small. So delicate.
Like a fairy princess, Ava had once said.
“It should be about you,” Leo whispered. “Because you’re kind and wise and beautiful, inside and out. You deserve more than to have your life taken away just as you’re beginning to really live.”
Tears fell down her cheeks, and Leo’s heart went to his throat as he brushed them away with his thumbs.
“It should be about you,” he whispered. “Hasn’t anyone told you that before? You deserve that. You deserve everything.”
“Leo.” She closed her eyes.
“Please don’t stop looking at me,” he said. He kissed her cheeks, felt her tears hot on his lips. “Please stay with me.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “Be my mate, Kyra. Let me give you my magic. Let me give you everything.”
“I can’t,” she said. “Not yet.”
“Because you might be taking advantage of me?” He curled his fingers around her shoulders. “Please take advantage of me. I’m begging you.”
Kyra let out a watery laugh and sniffed. She lifted a hand to Leo’s cheek and let it rest there.
Leo let out a long breath, grateful that she hadn’t pulled away but still frustrated at her stubborn sense of honor.
Even though it was one of the things he loved about her.
He loved her. Everything about her. It wasn’t just about her being his reshon, even though he was nearly certain of it. He loved her. Her goodness and her loyalty. Her quiet determination and pride.
The words were on the tip of his tongue when he heard a child running toward them.
Leo let Kyra go and stood, sweeping his eyes through the trees. There was something about the panicked breath of a child that put every instinct on alert. He brushed a thumb over his talesm prim and activated his magic between one breath and the next. His heartbeat slowed and steadied. His eyes became sharper. His hearing keener. Power rippled over his skin like armor.
“There.” Kyra stood next to him, pointing into the forest. “It’s Intira. She’s terrified. The others are already coming this way.”
Leo bounded down the stairs and toward the sound of the frightened child crashing through the forest. He saw her stumble over a rock and caught her as she fell. “What’s wrong?” he said, going to his knees. “Intira, what has happened?”
“It’s Prija.” Her face was dirty and tearstained. “They took Prija.”
Chapter Eleven
Terror tore through Kyra at the girl’s words.
They took Prija.
Anselm is gone.
Gina took some poison.
We don’t know where Sana is.
Barak killed Lazlo.
Diman.
Jarrod.
The mothers. Gone.
The brothers. Gone.
Her sisters. Gone.
Gone gone gone.
Kyra fell back into the nightmare. Someone caught her arms, and there was shouting. Voices pounded against her mind. Scraping pain along her arms. The careful shields she’d built around her mind closed in on her and she was left with chaos. Intira’s panic. Niran’s spike of anger. An inky black flood of power rippling from Sura. The bright flash of Alyah and Ginny’s magic like a flame in the darkness. Thoughts from every direction attacked her, and she felt herself falling inward.
And then…
Slemaa.
Two hands gripping her arms.
Slemaa, reshon.
A single voice, like a deep bell tolling in her mind.
Slemaa.
He enclosed her, lifted her. Kyra reached for him and pressed her face into his chest. She tightened her arm around his neck as he surrounded her. The silence gave way to white noise, which gave way to Leo’s voice.
“Breathe, Kyra.”
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Leo was carrying her toward the porch.
“Intira,” she said.
“The others are with her.”
“I collapsed?”
“I think her panic must have unraveled your shields. Everyone came running, and you collapsed when they got close. I can’t imagine what all our thoughts were, but they must have overwhelmed you.”
She nodded. “Someone needs to check on the other kareshta. They could be having similar reactions because of Intira’s fear.”
“Ginny is checking on them while Niran and Alyah try to find out what happened to Prija.”
“Set me down, Leo.”
“No. You’re white as a sheet. I thought you’d hit your head when you—”
“Set me down.” She wasn’t panicked anymore.
He stopped. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. His touch had wiped her mind of the sudden rush of voices, and she knew she needed to try something. “Set me down and step away. Just for a minute.”
Kyra could tell he didn’t want to do it, but he slowly set her on her feet. She held on to his hand as she calmed her mind and opened her senses. She focused on the memory of Prija’s voice. Not the silence of the woman, but the voice of her angry soul.
She closed her eyes, dropped Leo’s hand, and listened.
In her mind’s eye, Kyra soared into the night sky and over the forest, leaving the immediate voices in the background, white noise among the rustle of bamboo. She welcomed and sifted through the friendly cacophony of voices from the human village, veering away from it and searching for Prija’s voice when she found nothing familiar close by. She ranged over the mountains and through the trees, the wind guiding and whispering to her as she searched.
This was why Barak had kept Kyra and Kostas together. Her father had been a Guardian of Heaven, the bearer of a Guardian’s blade, and Kyra and Kostas were the strongest of his children, the most gifted when they listened for danger. When the twins held hands, Kyra’s range was nearly as powerful as their father’s had been. Alone, she could still hear for miles.
“What are you doing?” Leo’s voice came to her as if he were talking from beneath the sea.
Kyra ignored him.
Voices of humanity. Voices she’d never understood. The same, everywhere in the world. Over hills. Through forests.
There.
Kyra focused on the familiar voice and tracked it.
Prija’s soul was spiked with anger. She was headed north. Directly north. Her thoughts were blood-red and wavering on the edge of violence. Kyra tried to listen to the voices closest to her. One Irin. Two… Grigori?
What did it mean?
She opened her eyes and grabbed Leo’s hand. The weight of silence made her head swim, and she took a deep breath. “Prija is with an Irin scribe and two Grigori. She’s headed north. Fast enough that I think she must be in a car. She’ll hurt them if we don’t find her soon, and I doubt she’ll stop with her attackers.”
Leo’s eyes went wide. “How can you hear that far?”
“My father was a cardinal angel,” she said. “I am not without power of my own.”
“I’m going to have more questions about that later, but for right now, we need to get back and let Niran and Sura know. Are you steady enough?”
She squeezed his hand and began reciting the spells Ava had taught her. Her battered walls clicked into place. The door she’d flung open in her mind eased shut. After a few moments, she nodded. “I’m fine.”
H
is brilliant blue eyes were wide. “That is amazing.”
“I’m sorry I collapsed before.” She swallowed, trying to rid herself of the tightness in her throat. “Intira’s voice was so panicked, and the memories…”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” She could tell by the set of his mouth that the answer didn’t please him. “Maybe… not now.”
He nodded, and the tight set of his mouth eased. He was so open. So expressive. But he hid deep feelings behind that happy facade. She was beginning to see him now.
As they walked, Leo kept her hand in his, and Kyra remembered the words she’d heard from him when he held her, the voice of his mind that sang like a crystal bowl.
“Leo?”
“Hmm?”
“What does slemaa mean?”
He frowned. “Slemaa? It means peace.”
“Peace.” She smiled. “You were thinking that when you were carrying me.”
He smiled. “That’s not what I remember thinking, but I’m glad that’s what you heard.”
“And what does reshon mean?”
He stopped in his tracks. “What?”
“Reshon. Your voice was very, very clear, and you were thinking that too.”
Leo’s jaw dropped.
Kyra was adept at reading expressions, but she couldn’t read his. The closest she could come was picturing a paper lantern glowing from the inside. She’d seen people lifting them into the air at the lantern festival in the city. That’s what Leo’s face reminded her of.
“What does it mean?” she whispered, her stomach in knots.
She didn’t know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t for the giant man to drop to his knees before her, kneeling on the forest floor. He took both her hands in his and pressed them to his forehead, whispering words in the Irin language she didn’t understand. He pressed her palms to his face, and she felt tears on his cheeks.
“Leo, I don’t understand.”
He lifted his face, and she had no trouble interpreting his expression then.
Pure, incandescent joy. His smile lit the night.
“What does reshon mean, Leo?”
He rose before her, pressed her hands over his heart, and took her mouth in a fierce, radiant kiss. “We don’t have time right now, but I’ll explain later. I promise.” He started jogging through the trees, Kyra forced to follow.
The Silent Page 12