“No doubt—there is no maybe. It’s killing him to have to wait for today. He wants to do this more than anything.” Evander runs his fingers down the side of my cheek. And his lips hit mine. Softly, gently, his kiss deepens. His hand is on the back of my head. My fingers dig into his shoulder. When he pulls back, his eyes are dilated. I cock my head, trying to catch my breath.
“Raine, Kieren is... complex. Serious. He cares about Crest Wing and his family, but staying away from you these last weeks, waiting for the perfect time? For today? It’s been killing him. And then there’s all the problems with protecting his sister. It’s horrible what their parents are doing, but it does give him a great distraction, keeping him over there.”
“Protecting his sister?”
“The king and queen are nervous that we won’t be a match. They’ve made up some nonsense to keep Aisling out of the academy, saying it’s too dangerous for her to be there. But if she’s not there...”
“He was fighting to get his sister back in school?” My stomach twists. “Wait,isit too dangerous for her to be there?”
“Our realm hasn’t been safe for a long time. There’s no real reason for her not to be there. The academy is a safe place.” Evander smooths my hair back and then locks his fingers with mine. “Have I helped your nerves any?”
I hold my other hand up. It’s stopped shaking. “Yes, you have. It means a lot to know that I still have choices.”
“Yes, we always have choices.” Evander kisses the side of my head. “Any other questions?”
Kieren explained it to me yesterday over chocolate mousse—which tastes even better surrounded by three guys who are enjoying watching you savor it as much as you are enjoying eating it. “I think I have it. You’ll pull back the curtain, Kieren will open the portal, and the three of you will chant in your native tongue. I take my hood off, and Kieren puts his hands on my cheeks and neck, and then we wait.” They also said that normally they keep the curtain closed. That I’m the first candidate they’ve let see theThessari.
“Or we don’t,” Evander says.
“Or we don’t, right? I’m ready.”
I’m gripping the banister with one hand like I’m as unsteady as a newborn foal, and the other is holding up the robe. Falling down the stairs isn’t in my plan.
Kieren and Roark are already on the landing, or two other tall, broad-shouldered, hooded males are. I shake with a laugh to myself.
“You okay?” Evander asks.
“No, yes, maybe . . . I’ll be okay.”
Roark and Kieren are wearing light blue robes that match mine. Roark glances up, his blue eyes reflected in the hood. And it calms me. Another half laugh comes out, and Kieren lifts his blue eyes to me. He’s so handsome––handsome and serious. I’m glad Evander filled me in about things in Crest Wing. It makes more sense now, why he’s so intense.
I still don’t know what I hope happens when this is all over. Most of all, I’m looking forward to being able to talk toKieren more. Touch him. That’s so weird, thinking about three guys like this at the same time. But I am.
I’m slowly coming down the stairs with my robe trailing behind me, and it’s hard to not think of it as a wedding dress. Evander says I have a choice, but my heart is pumping faster than it ever has, and it’s pumped pretty fast in the past. Too fast. My rapid, beating heart jumps into my throat. When I step onto the tiled floor, near the eye of the dragon, it’s cool beneath my bare feet.
“Stand here,” Roark says. And not for the first time, I get the feeling that the guys just have a connection. They move and flow together.
Kieren’s next to me, his head bowed. Evander pulls back the curtain. Iron grate doors are in the open position. Beyond them is a stone wall.
“Are you ready?” Kieren asks.
“Yes.”
Between the gate and the wall, there’s an iron nail poking out of the stone. Kieren places his palm on it. Then he places his hand on the center of the wall. When he lifts his hand, there’s part of a red handprint. I’m shaking again. He bled on the wall. But it’s not a stone wall anymore. It’s vibrating, and the stones fade away into black inky nothingness. When I stare into it, there’s nothing.
Kieren clenches his hand and steps back. Roark produces a towel from his robe, like it’s no big deal that his friend, his thunder mate, has just stabbed a hole in his hand big enough to draw serious blood.
Kieren glares at Evander. Evander moves me from the side to the center of the dragon’s eye on the floor.
The hairs on my arms tingle. There’s no wind from the portal, but there’s a pull on me. A tug. I want to step into the darkness.
Evander’s voice rings out in a chant. A chant the other two join in on. Roark steps to the side, and they all slowly move around me in a circle. I don’t recognize the language of the chant. The rhythm of their words has my body shaking. Uncertainty bubbles up inside me. And my mom’s voice chatters in the back of my head,“Are you sure you’re not making a mistake?”
56
KIEREN
The energy from the portal fills my dragon. The draw of home tugs on me, controls me, making me want to step into the portal and return to my clan.
