The end of the passage was no longer the end. The wall shifted, moving aside with a low groan, revealing a hidden room beyond the altar we stood on. Light flooded the room and spilled into the passage, making me squint against the sudden brightness.
When the door stopped and the way was revealed to us, Kamari and I exchanged glances.
"Well," Kamari said, clearing his throat. "At least that accomplished something."
Was there a deeper tinge of color in his cheeks or was my brain making it up?
"Yeah," I said, trying to keep my voice even.
I was secretly disappointed that kissinghadaccomplished something because I would've liked to keep doing it. Which was unusual for me. Every time I'd kissed an omega in the past, it was one and done because I never felt a spark.
This time, there was definitely a spark.
But... Kamari? Seriously? There was no way. First of all, he hated me. Well, he said he didn't, but his actions made it clear he wasn't my biggest fan. On top of that, he disliked alphas as a whole. He never once expressed interest in finding a mate, fated or otherwise. If he wanted one, wouldn't he have mentioned it by now?
Disappointment wormed its way into my stomach. Even if I did have a flicker of hope that Kamari could be my fated mate, it was never going to work out if he didn't feel the same way. Whoever heard of unrequited fated mates?
That one-sided shit wasn't going to fly with me. I didn't care if my heart was screaming at me to kiss Kamari again. I stamped the feeling down.
"Let's go check it out," I said, a bit more roughly than I intended.
I didn't wait for Kamari to keep up, even though it hurt to leave his side. I strode into the new room, blinking to adjust to the flood of light, then gasped when my eyes adjusted enough to see what was in the middle of it.
Kamari caught up with me and gasped loudly.
Light filtered in from a hole in the ceiling high above, illuminating the two figures lying on a bed of bird down in the center of the circular room. One of the figures--the one who was awake and staring at us in surprise--looked like a man at first. But then I noticed the fluffy blue hair and soft feathers on his cheeks that continued down his neck and covered the majority of his body. He had off-white wings instead of arms, except for the clawed hands at the end of them. It struck me that he looked alotlike my blood-related cousin Cloud, the harpy shifter.
The other figure--the unconscious one laying draped in his arms--was my grandfather Nautilus.
"Granddad!" I cried, running at him.
Before I could get close, the blue-haired harpy glared at me and swung his wing in an arc, blasting me with a gust of air that knocked me on my ass.
"Ow! What the hell?" I said.
"Zak!" Kamari cried. He kneeled by me with a worried expression. But my irritation melted away the second I heard him call meZak.
"I'm okay," I said, blinking at Kamari as he helped me to my feet. "Just startled."
"Good," Kamari said, quiet enough that only I heard it. He shot a return glare at the harpy. "Explain yourself. Why do you have the spirit Nautilus in your possession?"
Despite the situation, I almost grinned at Kamari's big boss talk as his naturally commanding aura radiated off him. He wasn't wasting any time getting to the point.
"Uh. Wait, did you say Granddad?" the harpy said as if having a delayed reaction. His voice was scratchy and slightly nasally, yet melodious at the same time, like an ancient, rusted wind chime.
"I did," I said, crossing my arms. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"
The harpy's chest feathers puffed out. "Well, excuse me! How wasIsupposed to know Nautilus's grandson would just waltz right up in our secret hideout! You could've been an evil intruder for all I knew. The nerve of these young mortals, I swear..."
Kamari and I raised an eyebrow at each other.
"Uh, so you and Granddad know each other?" I asked. "And wait, did you say mortals?"
The harpy sighed and gently laid Nautilus's head on the bed of down, brushed himself off and approached us. He was taller up close, about six and a half feet, and his legs were scaled and clawed like a bird.
"My name is Mistral," he said. "I'm a spirit of air, thank you very much."
My jaw dropped. "You're an air spirit? The same way Granddad's a water spirit?"
