Sundamar bared his teeth. Galan’s wings expanded. If they were to fight now, it would come down to who was faster. “You’ll never win against me, brother, I’d still win eventually if we fought to our end.” He knew, no matter what happened, he would be the last one to die, the first to live and the last to die. The girl with raven locks came to mind.
She’s alone. Unprotected. Alone but for Quist.He sheathed his sword and left his brother, running a tense hand along the molo’s side as he descended the steps.
He would have the female one way or another, whether it was imprisoned away or by his side. The moment he had seen her holding his heart, she had entwined her destiny with his.
***
GALAN
He watched his brother glide down the thousand steps toward the dust settling on the crumbled ground. Galan wasn’t quick to follow, staying back to choose his actions carefully.
His body quickened at the turn of events. Where Sundamar had tried to restrain himself in a show of strength, leaving him only to build into a slow boil, Galan had chosen to ride the waves of the change.
The past span of continuous dawn had been the most exciting hours of his life since the Creator left, taking his lifeforce with him, and leaving his creations unfinished. Galan had been the first to feel the loss of Lusheenn, not his older brother; Sun had felt the Divine’s waning presence the longest, even after none of the other valos could, but Galan, second and gapingly detached, made not in Lusheenn’s image but in hisdesire,had succumbed to the vacuous silence first.
He watched with detachment when the other light valos wilted into nothing, until they became like him.
The flush that coursed through him was bliss, and when his eyes first landed on the female holding his heart, he knew where he belonged.
Which made watching Sundamar traverse the steps difficult.
He goes to consume.Galan allowed his wingspan to stretch behind him and sharpen into blades.I want to fight for him and against him in this.He relished the war. Existence had been easy, though boring, but excitement brewed...
The distance between Sun and Galan lengthened. He shook himself, releasing feathers into the air, their sharpness becoming silk when leaving his body. His hand shot out and snatched a particularly long one and studied it, running his thumb along one side and watching the many threads of it part.
A shadow fell across the ground and he lifted his gaze to the thickening clouds above him.Leave it to Sonhadra to blemish us with a cloudy day.A cold, lonely raindrop hit his cheek and slid down his face, causing a moan to escape him.
He couldn’t remember the last time such a simple action held so much of his attention. The droplet trickled over his usually sun-heated skin and he savored the tickle of it; it was heaven.
Galan closed his eyes and lifted his face, waiting for the rain to come, wanting to feel what it was like to be wet again.
A cooling breeze glided over his skin and through his short-cropped hair. It felt naughty and a little bit mischievous to enjoy something so unlike the sun and light. He wondered what it was like to be one of the valos who lived in the wind, the ocean, even those who lived on the ground and deep within the caverns of the world.
Each minute that passed, his connection and devotion to Sundamar and his people weakened. Doubt filled his mind and it was all because of an unassuming image of a raven-haired girl, so unlike himself.
Maybe Sundamar was right? Maybe they were being toyed with, tricked, and a trap was being set.
He didn’t know and he went through every outcome he could think of while the loose silk and cotton cloth that draped his hips dampened. The building mist signaled an oncoming downpour.
An unusual smell flooded his nose as the shadows deepened throughout the golden city. It was different and so unlike anything he had come across. Galan couldn’t put his thumb on it, but it was invasive, rather cloying, fabricated with the whiff of chemicals that had been carried from somewhere nearby.
The more he focused on it, the more it consumed him.
There’s no Sonhadra in this scent.It itched his nostrils despite the growing storm building around him.
He turned full circle until he found the direction it came from. The same direction the molo was facing, where Quist and the exotic beauty awaited him. He yearned to fly to them, to reach them before Sundamar would, to mitigate the violent situation that was sure to arise. But the devious smell did something that had never been done to him before: it made his head feel light.
If the dark-haired beauty has anything to do with it...the odds of it were growing, and he needed to know.
I want her.His jaw ticked, knowing Sundamar did too. They had spilled their seed in frantic need, both staring at the same female. He wanted to see her again—now. His body hardened into stone and his wings twitched to entrap the strange female. To press her against his body until he consumed every inch.
Although they had no females of their own, he was well aware of them and why some of the other Creators made them.
He also knew why Lusheenn never gifted his men with supple, reticent brides, because the Divine created only in his image, and Lusheenn was as far from feminine as any being could ever be.
Still, Galan had always been envious of the other valos who had females, feeling their loss and sure it was a loss neither of his brothers endured. He wanted one for his own, a soft, submissive counterpart to his steely edges, and it never shamed him to pump his member indiscriminately before his soul deadened.
Back then, he had imagined a golden-skinned female who would bow before him, as he bowed before Sundamar, treating him as her king. Sometimes she would have delicate wings and sometimes she didn’t. Sometimes his shaft stiffened to the images of valos women from other races. In his youth, in defiance of the light, he thought sinking between a foreign females legs would be worth abandoning Lusheenn’s law.
