I’d always thought that fascinating, given that the Kylorr, at their cores, were berserkers. Unable to control their battle rages once unleashed. In a way, it made sense. Control would be viewed as an ultimate strength, considering the beastly power that lay dormant in them all.
Eriaan slid the red bottles, slim and tapered at the top with a wax seal, across the counter. “I’ll add it to Lesana’s account.”
“I’ll pay for these today,” I told her quickly. When she cocked her head, I said, “One is for a friend who doesn’t work at thedyaan.”
Eriaan inclined her head, and I transferred the credits to her, silently mourning their loss, feeling a little thread of anxiety pull through me, like puppet strings.
I don’t need them anymore,I thought. Well, not entirely true. I had a little nest egg of credits I’d been saving for the journey to Horrin. Now I could use them on things for the cottage,baanyefor the feedings, new clothing that didn’t have holes. Still, I wondered if every purchase would feel like a small defeat.
“We expect his proposal tonight,” came the voice, pouring into the shop from the bustling street. “At the moon winds celebration.”
“Lyris,” came a sterner voice, a warning. “Enough.”
A small sniff. “My apologies, Mother.”
When I turned, there she was, in the corner of the shop, perusing through selection of off-planet imports, expensive balms, and bathing salts, which glittered gold in the high morning sun.
“Eriaan,” Lyris called, and I turned quickly, facing forward. “Where are these from?”
“Hydroni,” the other female said, not even looking up. “Just received them this morning.”
I heard a bottle pop open. Then I heard, “It smellsawful. Why do Hydronis have such terrible scents?”
“It’s for muscle aches and strains,” Eriaan answered. “It’s not perfume.”
“It should be. They would sell more of it, certainly.”
“I need to retrieve something from the clothier,” came Lyris’s mother’s voice. “I’ll return shortly.”
“Yes, Mother.” Lyris waited a beat for her mother to leave the shop and then turned to her friend, a young Kylorr female whose father frequented thedyaan. A noble House, I believed the family helped with theloreproduction once it was harvested. “Once the contracts are drawn up, I expect I’ll be moving into Erzos Keep by the next moon winds.”
A tug in my belly. Kythel hadn’t lied. He wasn’t engaged to Lyris of House Arada…yet. But would likely be soon. That was what he hadn’t told me.
He must’ve made his intentions quite clear if the female in question was going around Raana bragging about it so openly. When I glanced up at Eriaan, Lyris’s words had caught even her attention.
The memory was unwanted, but it rose nonetheless. Kythel’s hot breath on my neck, the lap of his slick tongue. The way he’d pressed and rocked his hips into me, as if unable to stop. And me? I’d been just as desperate, clawing at him to drag him closer. Never before had I ever experienced something like his feeding. I likely would never again, if what I suspected was true.
A blood mate.
Akyrana.
I shook my head, a sharp breath puffing out of me.
And he would marry another. Not that I wanted to marry Kythel of House Kaalium. That was not a life I envisioned for myself—not that I even had the right to imagine it. When I thought of my future, I thought of…Rupon.
Of that perfect summer in our small cottage on the edge of a meadow. Of herbs drying on the windowsill, fragrant bread baking in the kiln, and sunlight dappled across my cheekbones. I wanted a family, children. I wanted a soft, quiet life, unburdened and simple.
Only…I’d promised my father I would stay on Krynn. I’d promised that I would tether my soul to this place so that in the after realm, I could find him again. Rupon was lost to me and whatever life I might’ve had there. My father was more important.
Looking up at Eriaan, I smiled. “Thank you.”
“Give my regards to Lesana,” she said, nodding.
I forced a small smile and backed away from the counter.
“So soon?” asked Lyris’s friend. “Why the rush for a marriage?”
“Now that the business with his aunt’s death has been settled and with his own brother married to that human noble, he probably feels the pressure from his father to secure Erzos,” Lyris answered, her tone distracted as she settled on a new display. “War is coming, you know. That’s what my father is saying.”
