No!“Camping does not leave much dignity. At least let a female relieve herself in peace.”
That earned me another growl, less sleepy this time. But he did not stand.
“I will be back,” I promised, careful not to append the word ‘soon’ out of habit.
The Ancestors must have decided to pay attention to me for once, because Arran did not move again as I slipped out of the tent.
Barkke had taken Lyrena’s spot just outside. He sat in his huge hound form, hind legs folded behind him and front two straight, his proud head on a constant swivel, ears perking now and then at distant sounds.
I forced my hand to remain at my side. I’d never asked whether terrestrials found it offensive if you stroked their beast forms. I had simply touched Arran because from the very beginning, he’d belonged to me, no matter what form he took.
Giving the same excuse to Barkke as I’d given to Arran, I headed for the small gap between our tent and the one Lyrena was sharing with Isolde. Though I doubted I’d find the white faerie inside; she’d been busy with the other healers when I’d come into camp earlier. While the terrestrial healers were skilled in their use of plants to create tinctures and salves to treat the ailments our soldiers would eventually heal from, only Isolde possessed the true power of healing. She was invaluable in battle, and even more so after it.
I waited a few more steps, for the darkness beyond the camp to swallow me fully, before stepping into the void.
The temptation to linger was stronger each time I stepped into that glorious swirling dark. Without the pull of Arran, the golden thread that connected us through all the realms of creation, I knew I would have given in a long time ago.
The witch in the Spine had told me the price of my magic was already paid. But there was an element to the power of the void which she did not understand. The power itself had built steadily since that first time I’d been flooded with it in the moments after my Joining to Arran. First my own ability to move through the void, then to take another along with me, until it culminated in the portal rifts that allowed me to move entire armies from one realm to another. It was a mighty gift, and I did not face a coma like Lyrena or aches like Cyara in the wake of using my power.
But it was not entirely without cost.
To have access to so many realms, beautiful and dangerous and infinite, but be unable to linger in them for as long as I desired—that was a cost all its own. To be constantly saddled with the knowledge that there were worlds beyond the ones I knew, to see them and taste them, but never fully experience them, because there was the tether, always pulling me back.
Unless I brought Arran with me.
That was not a choice.
Or… I supposed it was. But I was prepared to pay the cost the prophecy required of me to save my kingdom. Even if my mate was not ready to let me go.
Tonight was not for that.
I slid out of the void and into a world of endless golden sand. Two suns hung in the sky, rather than one. They glinted off of the turquoise blue water, more vibrant than any natural color I’d seen anywhere in Annwyn. I laid in the sand, letting the tiny granules fill the space between my toes, soaking the heat from those suns into my delicate skin. When the heat began to burn, I slipped into the void once more.
This time I emerged into a world drenched in rain and mist. But unlike the cold gray that had enshrouded us during the battle with the succubus hours before, this world was made wholly of light. Rainbows formed all around me, curving and swirling. I reached out into the mist, eager to feel if it was cold or warm. It was neither—it wasalive. I trailed my fingers through the haze, leaving furrows that turned to rainbows in that glorious ever-shifting light. But I did not remain long in that realm, either.
Back to void. Enjoying, savoring. But always searching for the one realm I had not yet found.
57
VEYKA
Fully healed, fully dressed, and fully ready to draw blood. Just another morning.
Arran walked at my side, the tension of barely contained violence wafting off of him like it had an actual scent. Not an hour before, he’d had me on my back, moaning loud enough to wake the entire terrestrial army camp. But his edges were just as sharp as they had been upon waking. If I was lucky, he’d point them at our new allies.
As much as I hated Evander and mistrusted Agravayn and Gaheris, the picture of the battle had become clear as reports came in over our evening meal. We had not defeated the succubus on our own. Pale blue bodies littered the western half of the Crossing. There were dozens of reports of fire being wielded against the succubus. The elementals and the water fae had foughtwithus.
Water fae?Ancestors, I thought I’d dreamed it. But as we approached the midpoint of the Crossing, halfway between our camp and theirs, reality insisted on smacking me right in the face.
Agravayn and Gaheris stood side by side, the former still in warrior’s armor. Where was their third brother, Gareth? The laughing one who’d looked so much like Gawayn that my stomach flipped just at the memory.
Sleep appeared to have done nothing to improve Evander’s mood nor his opinion of me. He wore his shortsword and a dagger, tucked into his belt. The dagger shimmered with swirled amorite. They understood how to fight the succubus.
At his side stood Mya, looking every inch the queen she purported to be. She’d dressed in shades of aqua and silver that complimented her pale blue skin as well as the delicate sea glass crown she wore perched atop her dark hair.
As we approached, she jabbed her husband in the side with her elbow. I was inclined to like her.
I leaned into Arran as we walked, hoping the casual contact would dull the need that hummed constantly along our mating bond.
