She presses her lips together and nods without looking at him. I feel a bubble of her protection surrounding us, and then she takes a deep breath and steps through. Xander goes through next, and I make wide eyes so I don’t miss anything as I go in.
Warm magic tickles my skin so strongly and a smell like mangoes and papaya makes me hungry.
And then there’s light—so much light that it could only come from the summer sun.
Chapter 97
Aurelia
It was with a hope and a wish that I walked through the glittery portal. I wanted to find my mother’s people. That was the only thought in my mind. How perhaps if she’d known others like her, she might have had the courage to stand up for herself against my father.
Walking through the portal felt like walking through a cold tornado. My insides and outsides felt like they were mingling together—a harsh pressure and then a release.
Into daylight.
The air is humid, with a light breeze cooling my skin and filling my nose with sea salt. There are summer flowers like frangipani, and dense jungle. I blink against the glare of the sun, putting up my arm briefly as I walk forwards to allow my mates through behind me, my bare feet finding soil and grass.
Cicadas chirp as my eyes adjust to see a jungle. Tall palm trees flap in the breeze, and green ferns border a worn stone path. In the distance is the breaking of ocean waves, and right before me is the back of an old stone building, covered with climbing vines and bright flowers. I strain my ears for any sign of humans or animalia.
Xander breathes heavily behind me, also surveying the stone path and where it might lead. Savage comes through the portal noisily and with great exclamation. It’s then that I turn around to caution him and stop dead in my tracks because the portal, on this side at least, appears to be a mausoleum—a square black building that is one of four, lined side by side.
Looking at them gives me the creeps, and Xander turns to look at them too. “That’s a language I don’t recognise,” he says, indicating the runes carved into the stone arch. Lyle, then Scythe, come out of the portal, still rippling a magical green, just more faint in this bright light.
Voices sound in the distance, and I hear the step of a heavy foot. I whirl around, and Xander tries to shove me behind him, but I don’t let him, and we end up pressed side by side.
The stone path looks like it leads around this old building, and down it strides a man. But not a man at all, and I know that in my marrow. He’s as tall as Xander, broad-shouldered and muscled as I can see from his lack of shirt, brown-skinned like my fifth mate, with inky black hair worn loose down his back. He’s covered in ink and wears a black sword earring dangling from one ear.
And his eyes, set in a handsome face that would make most women sway where they stand, are a bright and magical blue. He halts in his tracks, hard muscles tensing. My eyes burn, filling with tears I never anticipated. One word resounds in my head, clear and high.
Kinsman.
This creature is a Boneweaver.
There must be something about my expression that gives me away because he narrows his eyes in confusion, quickly assessing me, my pack, and the door we came from. He says something in a language I cannot understand, with a deep and commanding tone that tells me he has authority over this place.
I take a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
A woman’s voice, irritated and impatient, sounds from behind him. He holds out a hand as she appears by his side. Immediately, we all notice that she is heavily pregnant, her brown face smoothing out from irritation to wonder. She too has black hair, but hers is piled on her head in a messy bun for the heat, and she has the most brilliant emerald green eyes that make me wonder what the hell she is. Her gown is a richly embroidered deep pink, made of a light material with short cap sleeves. She is poised and controlled, confidently eyeing each of my mates with interest, doing a double take at Xander’s eyes before looking expectantly at me and raising her brows.
“We need to find a way to communicate,” I say, glancing at Xander.
“Should I draw a picture?” Xander mutters darkly.
The woman smiles before elbowing the Boneweaver male. “They speak Lobrathian common, husband.” She nods to me. “Good day. From where do you hail? Friend or foe, tell us quickly before one of us tries to kill you.”
My mates bristle, so I know I have to act fast.
“F-Friend,” I stutter like a complete idiot, my voice heavy with restrained emotion. “I am sorry, I thought I was the only one.” I nod to her husband. “There are none of us left where I come from.”
Her dark brows shoot up. “None of what?” she says slowly, and from the way she stares into my eyes,atmy eyes, tells me she already knows the answer.
My vision is blurry, and it comes out as a choked whisper because I cannot manage anything more. “Boneweavers.”
She smiles at me, and it’s a brilliant thing that stuns me out of my downward spiral. “Did you hear that, Zale?”
“I did,” the male says slowly, eyeing me with a slight crease between his brows. Hearing his voice in English makes melightheaded. “This is unexpected. We did not expect a portal at the back of Yasani temple.”
“We didn’t know where it would come out,” I say, glancing at my mates. “I just…thought about my mother.”
