I stopped.
Kye stiffened in my mind, and I felt his jaw tense and his muscles stretch taught, though when I stole a glance back at them, he simply stood watching us climb, the picture of cool arrogance.
Do you know what fate you’ve sealed her to, human?
I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.
A common Naiad has a lifespan similar to that of a human. We age slowly, so the vigor of youth never quite leaves our bodies, but around eighty years, our time is up. But yourcordaeis not a common Naiad, is she?
Kye didn’t respond. I felt him lean a hip to one side, adjusting his weight, then replant his opposite foot on the log. Thoughts zipped through his mind too quickly for me to catch.
She is not,Nori answered her own question, her voice a slow and piercing sting.She is a Naiad queen, and her life will extend hundreds of years beyond your own. Inevitably, human, you will abandon her to a life without you. And as a Naiad, she will never take a second mate. It is we, through which she will find strength. We, who are her colony, her Domus, her family. So, you may seethe into the distance as I stand here reminding you that you are worthless—
Nori, I snapped, the warning in my mental voice igniting the air around me.
—But the truth remains that you are a mortal who took the one and only bond of a deity you do not understand and, with that one selfish act, cursed the rest of her days. Your life will run its course, while hers will continue on. And do not think she has not thought of it every day since she realized who she is. And what you are.
Nori, that’s enough,I snarled, suddenly irritated and hot enough to yank my furs off and throw them away.
Her mouth snapped shut. She stalked away from him, trailing the last of the Naiads, now at the foot of the ascent.
My fingers curled into tight fists, my mouth twisted to the side. A vein throbbed in my forehead. I ripped off the stifling armor Kye had strapped to me, the silk pants too, careless about the fact that my feet were bare in the snow. Anger simmered within me, seeking the reaches of my body as it spread and grew into a low boil, and I sent Nori a glower laced with smoke andbrimstone, deciding that maybe it would beherI’d imagine at the base of the mountain when the Riveans fell into our trap.
He deserves to know,Nori spoke, softer with me than she’d been with Kye.
Yes, he does.I rolled the thoughts out to her, each one bursting with icy flames. But it was not your place to tell him.
She grew silent, weighing the rage in my words.I’m sorry, My Queen.
I’d all but deserted her. She reached for me with words of consolation that hit the walls of my mind. I blocked her out, each one growing a bit louder, a bit more desperate. My attention had shifted, scaling down to the man standing completely alone in the snow.
Kye,I said, as gentle as a quiet rap of knuckles in the middle of the night.
But he didn’t answer. Our eyes met, and he stared up at me, the doors of his mind shut tight. A heavy weight sunk into my chest, guilt and regret that I knew would linger long after these next few hours passed. As though something fragile broke within our souls. And even if I tried to forge it together, nothing I could say would seal the crack that remained.
The wind gorged itself on all the nearby sound, but silence stood between us, words that died before they could bloom, heavy and unspoken.
And then he turned away.
First, the sharp rotation of his head. As though he’d heard a branch snap behind him.
Then his body followed.
And time held its breath as Kye reached for his sword, his bones familiar with the urge to fly, wind snaking through the black fur across his shoulders.
He dropped into a crouch as a blade swerved clean over his head.
The sword of a man wearing crimson armor.
And a second Rivean came around Kye’s side, the soldier’s arm arcing as steel narrowly missed Kye’s throat. Kye rolled to the left, dodging out of the man’s path. Missing his swipe.
A third slammed into him, sparks flying as their steel clashed, but Kye parried quickly enough that he missed that one, too.
But the fourth.
The fourth man didn’t miss.
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