The fog stilled around me once more. I spied a shadow within, watching me. Waiting. Her figure was familiar to me. Achingly so.
“Jiria,” I ordered. In the universal tongue, I said, “Come. Come to me,kalles. I mean you no harm.”
On the edge of my vision, I saw the fog begin to travel towards me once more. Slowly. Creeping.
What was happening? I’d never seen it react like this before.
The fog swirled and the human female stepped into the clearing. Over my head, my hand flexed on the hilt of my sword, my gaze dropping to the ceremonial dress that did nothing to conceal her body, my jaw slackening.
Like most of their race, she was bony and thin. Under-nourished and lacking in apparent strength. And yet, her skin was luminous, her eyes seeming to glow a light green, the color of which I’d never seen before. Her hair hung in a dark, wavy curtain around her, as black as night, like my own. Her small lips were parted as she stared at me, though her expression was unreadable.
Underneath the translucent Dakkari-made dress, spun fromUlloisilk, her full breasts were tipped with dark nipples. Large enough to fit within my palms perfectly. Her ribs were prominent, as were her hip bones, though her hips flared wide. Between her thighs, dark curls hid hermelirfrom my gaze.
My blood began to rush, my heart speeding at the mere surprising sight of her. Slowly, my hand dropped from the hilt of my sword and I saw her straighten slightly, which caused her breasts to tip up towards me. I preferred my females with lush curves, with evident strength that could handle the lusts and attentions of a horde king. Not small little creatures who I could break in half.
But there was no denying the heat in mydeva. The fog in my mind, my slack jaw, my bated breath.
I shook my head. Was this another hallucination? I thought I’d spied a figure in the fog a couple days prior. But surely it hadn’t been her? This waif of a creature.
Nik. With the exception of the white-hairedMorakkariof Rath Drokka, no humans were immune to the fog. Yet, this female was not buckling under the weight of it. Her chin was lifted, her eyes bright. With fear? With interest?Lysi. But certainly not with pain.
“You’re not real,” I murmured, my gaze rapt on her. I couldn’t look away. I neverwantedto look away from her.
She didn’t say anything in response, though she took a step towards me. The fog billowed behind her. It began to close in around me once more. I felt the shadowy caress of a tendril against my clenched fist.
“Who are you?” I rasped, my brows furrowing. Her eyes were a shimmering green.Mesmerizing. Looking into them, I realized that I felt the sensation of spinning. “Are you her? The one I heard speaking?”
The ancient being in a human form? But why?
Nik. It couldn’t be. None of this was real. The fog could conjure beings, voices. I needed to tell Valavik and the other horde kings—
“Lo rune tei’ri, Vorakkar.”
A gruff sound escaped my throat, my eyes going wide at the tempting, bold words that fell from her lips.
Her voice was…vok, like I always imagined Kakkari’s voice. Pure and lyrical. Clear and sensual, given the words she offered to me so freely. Otherworldly.
Powerful.
Her steps towards me were hesitant. Though her last one, which brought her within a hand’s span of me, seemed purposeful. The fog closed around us, though it didn’t touch me or her. Like a cocoon.
The top of her head came up to the middle of my chest, though she was tall for a human female. Up close, I saw swirls of gold in her eyes. Kakkari’s gold. She’d been blessed by the goddess. Dark lashes rimmed those eyes, long and thick. A smattering of small, brown spots were dotted across the bridge of her nose and the tops of her cheeks.
Enthralled.
I didn’t want to look away from her, especially when her eyes captured mine so completely.
“Who are you?” I murmured, though my voice had softened considerably, an edge of wonderment creeping into my tone. My hand flexed. Ineededto touch her.
“Lo rune tei’ri,” she told me, those full lips forming those perfect words.
I am yours.
My bloodthrobbedat the rightness of those words. They broke something free inside of me. Something forbidden, something ancient and ancestral that continued to course through my blood, after all this time.
A knowing, arightness.
I wondered ifthiswas what theVorakkarof Rath Kitala felt when he stole a human female from her village and made her his queen. Hiskassikari. His fated one. A gift from the goddess herself.
