Because I remembered now. I was a Drixonian. A legendary warrior. And my home was with the Night Kings. I wasn’t welcome there. I couldn’t remember why, but I knew with certainty that they wouldn’t allow me inside. However, they would help Merr-anda though. This I knew. The male I’d seen in the forest those many rotations ago had been a Night King, and he’d had a human female with him. They’d protect Merr-anda from the Kulks, which was a mission I’d failed to do. The Kulks had hurt her, made her bleed. Twice. I didn’t deserve her anymore.
The light of the fire highlighted the wet tracks on Merr-anda’s face. Her shoulders shook, and her palm covered her mouth as she stared at the fire with wide eyes. “Yerr hoam,” she cried as she turned to me. “O Drak, um sew sorree.”
The Kulks would be lurking near the fire, waiting for us to return. While I longed for their blood, to make them pay for lighting Merr-anda’s pretty blooms on fire and turning the roof to ash where I’d first entered her body, I couldn’t risk Merr-anda getting hurt. I turned away, gripping her hand, and tugged her away from the fire. She tripped over a root, and I realized she was favoring her leg again.
I picked her up, ignoring the pain lancing through my shoulder. “Yerr erm,” she said, and when she touched my skin, it came away sticky with black blood.
Shaking my head, I trudged forward. My feet knew the way, even if my mind wasn’t sure. My instincts took over as I traveled to the last place I wanted to go. But my feelings didn’t matter, not on this. Protecting Merr-anda from the Kulks after her was the most important, and if I had to walk through fire to do it, I would.
I walked while the stars overhead twinkled, until Merr-anda fell asleep in my arms, and still I kept going for many yoras until every step was agony.
My ears were ringing from the blow I’d received while fighting with the Kulks, but I still heard the heavy footfalls of several large figures just as they emerged from the dense forest. They were all Drixonian, like me, with their machets out. One stepped forward, his hair a shining blue, black, and silver. A ring was pierced through his septum.
This was Daz, the drexel of the Night Kings. The one who forced me out. I scanned my fragments of memories, but I knew he wasn’t the one who betrayed me. Neither were the warriors standing behind him as their identities came back to me—his brother Sax, and the two warrior brothers Gar and Ward. The latter held a length of chain in his fist.
For a moment, no one moved. I remained in shadow with Merr-anda a curled ball in my arms. One more step and I’d enter a patch of moonlight. I’d reveal the most precious thing in my life. In any of our lives. The phrase She is all wove through my brain like a growing vine. Where had I heard that before? It meant something.
My muscles tensed, eager to run away, to forget this mission and carry Merr-anda deeper into the forest so I could keep her for myself. But that wouldn’t be what was best for her. I had no shelter for her, and Kulks would be combing the woods looking for her. I needed Daz and his protection, even if it cost me my life. I lifted my chin, calling on all the dignity I had left, and stepped into the moonlight.
Gar sucked in a breath and on a roar charged me. I turned to protect Merr-anda, but my movements were sluggish, my lifeblood staining the dirt where I stood. She was ripped from my arms just as a blow slammed into my legs from behind. I fell to my knees, helpless to do anything but watch Gar carry my mate away from me. Chains lashed around my chest, wrenching my hands behind my back.
Daz stood above me, blotting out the moonlight, as he pressed a spear over my rapidly beating cora.
He snarled down at me like a beast. The spear tip pressed into my flesh. “Tell me in less than ten words why I shouldn’t strike you dead right now.”
Eight
Miranda
I came awake to shouting. I was jostled, and for a moment I was airborne. I flailed, and I jerked open my one good eyelid. The first thing I saw was Gar’s angry—no livid—face.
“Gar?” I was dreaming, I had to be, except his name came out garbled and my jaw hurt so badly I could barely open my mouth.
Suddenly, I was moved again, and Sax cradled me in his arms, his usual kind eyes now hard and laser-focused on something behind me. I tried to twist, but my ribs screamed, and I cried out in pain. A growl echoed in the darkness, following by a meaty thump.
“Don’t. Move.” That was Daz’s voice, but his tone was one I’d never heard before, laced with an unspoken threat.
“Please,” I mumbled to Sax. “Where’s Drak?”
His brows lowered, and he blinked at me. “Drak?”
I ignored the pain shooting daggers into my side and struggled in Sax’s arms. He finally lowered me, so my feet touched the ground. I whirled around and gasped. Drak knelt on the ground, a chain wrapped around his torso binding his hands behind his back. Daz stood above him, a spear aimed at his neck. My heart sank into the dirt with a thud.
Drak’s eyes were blank. With his head bowed, the wound at the back of his skull where the Kulk had struck him with the spike ball bled profusely, dripping down his face. The injury to his shoulder looked mangled like raw meat.
Drak’s aura was… something else. A large gap had appeared in the center like a heavy curtain had parted and beyond was a swirl of orange and yellow that raged and flashed. He’d had a flashback when the Kulk had called him a Drixonian, like the word jogged something loose. This whole time, had he not known what he was? If only I’d uttered Drixonian once in all the time we’d been together…
“Your betrayal of our race never ends. Now you harm a female? Daz should have killed you when he had the chance,” Gar growled with a tremble of rage in his words as he advanced on Drak. “We won’t make the same mistake again.”
“No!” I cried and rushed to Drak’s side. I didn’t get far. Gar’s arms wrapped around me and hauled me back. I screamed as he squeezed my ribs, and Drak went wild. He surged up to his feet only to be smacked back down by the flat edge of Daz’s spear. Blood gushed anew on his scalp, coursing down into his eyes to drip from his chin. I bucked in Gar’s hold. “Don’t hurt him, Daz!” I managed to shout from my swollen jaw. “He’s my mate. Look at our wrists!”
Daz turned furious eyes to Drak. “You beat your mate?”
“The Kulks did this!” I cried as my body bucked with sobs. “They attacked us and burnt Drak’s home and he’s trying to get us to safety.”
Daz went still, until only his head swiveled to face me. “What?”
I wasn’t a crier, but I couldn’t seem to stop the sobs from ripping out of my throat. This was so fucked up. My face hurt like a motherfucker, my ankle screamed in pain, and all I could taste was the iron of my own blood. I could only see out of one eye, and I couldn’t imagine what Drak and I looked like right now. My body shook from pain and fear and fatigue. “Drak would never hurt me.”
“Miranda, we saw him carrying your prone body through Nero’s eyes. When we confronted him, he said nothing—”
“Because he can’t talk!” I cried. “Look at his throat.” I inhaled sharply before getting myself under control. I pushed against Gar’s hold as I looked Daz straight in the eye. “He’s my mate, and I swear to God if you hurt him, I’ll launch myself off the cliff. Frankie would never forgive you.”