It was marked deeply, by three black scars that could only have come from the claws of a monster.
She was a survivor.
She was small but she was strong.
Kinlear needed, desperately, to know her name.
But he never got the chance to ask it, for the image faded, pulling him away again until he was falling once more. Alone, in the dark sky again, where he wondered if he would ever land...or if this was to be his new fate.
Not to fight a monster, but to fall.
To tumble into the beyond.
To never find a safe landing place.
No sooner had he thought it, that he heard a shrill cry come from behind him.
Beat.
Beat.
Beat.
The sound of something winged.
He gasped as he landed,hard, upon a creature of blackest night.
One that was dark and feathered and carried on two dark wings. Six. The raphon from the cliffside, with a jagged white scar on its beak.
And he wasn’t alone.
There she was again...the mysterious woman with a trio of glittering black scars on her face.
Kinlear was in his future body. He had his arms around her, and she had a blade of her own, black with a hilt of raven wings, upon her delicate hip.
He rested his chin on her shoulder, holding her close. And so, so perfectly...she fit him.
He heard a voice – his own – saying, “Because of you...I’ll slay the Acolyte.” The raphon banked, and he held tight to the woman in his arms.
She was his. He was hers.
He knew it, every bit as much as he knew Soraya was gone. She’d left him, as Magus did. And Kinlear, older and wiser...had found someone else to fill the void in his heart.
“I’ll bring glory to Lordach,” he said. “We’ll be remembered forever, the prince and the raphon rider.”
She leaned against him, warm and right.
His.
She was his.
Together, they soared into the darkness, right through the veil of storms and living shadows...right into the domain of the Acolyte.
12
Prince Kinlear Laroux limped into the frozen night as fast as his broken body could carry him. The war had begun hours ago. Rumbles split the night, flashes of both Sacred and Darksoul magics echoing across the sky.
His breath was heavy in his lungs. His leg ached with each step he took across the snow. He was exhausted tonight, freshly released from another one of Alaris’ healing treatments he used to despise.
