“Come, let’s visit Amaya.” Nazrin stretched beside Essa the next morning and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Although his raptor bellowed in triumph at having claimed his mate, he also screeched that Nazrin must bond with her. Now.
After leaping from the bed, he threw on an ivory shirt while she donned her dress. He needed to speak with Aedre and Gaven about how to explain his immortality to Essa. Never had spoken words terrified him so. They also must discuss the fulfilment of the prophecy. Essa had cleaved Halcyon, but she hadn’t joined Hades’s cause yet. Nazrin feared she might never.
And then his immortal soul would be forfeit.
Shuddering, he concentrated instead on how to persuade his mate to bond with him. She chose him, but did she want him for an immortal lifetime? What was the best way to reveal everything to her without enhancing each of the truths he’d omitted? What weighed most heavily on his soul was the deep fear he’d carried since the moment he first beheld her. The dread that had augmented with each piece of his heart he’d entrusted in her hands.
What if he lost her forever?
***
A thick fog clung to the air around them, swirling and caressing the rocks and tree stumps as they proceeded to Gaven’s cabin. Essa wasn’t able to view more than five feet around her, so she let Nazrin guide them.
He rapped at the door. She shuffled her feet. Were they intruding? The child and her parents might be asleep. As the door opened, however, the mingling of laughter and small stomping footsteps greeted them.
“Uncle Nazrin!” The child barreled for the door, flying up and into his waiting arms. Essa padded into the house behind them, but Gaven and Aedre accosted her, ensnaring her in their arms. Gaven placed a loud kiss on her cheek, causing her to blush. Soft dolls, wooden toys, and books were strewn about the cozy cabin. A fire burned brightly in the hearth. Though Amaya’s parents appeared exhausted, the lines of worry on their faces had vanished. Their beloved daughter was safe at last.
The girl squirmed from her uncle’s arms and bounced to Essa’s side demanding, “Up, up.” Laughing, she embraced the child. Amaya’s eyes sparkled and a healthy blush clung to her cheeks.
After she deposited the girl to scamper off and play, Aedre pulled her aside and they had tea together, away from the males. “I cannot find the words to thank you, Essa.” Tears pooled in the turquoise ocean of her eyes.
Essa pressed a hand to her mouth. “Don’t thank me. Just love her.”
Nodding, she took a contemplative sip of tea. “You’ve mated with him.”
She jolted and blushed beneath Aedre’s sharp scrutiny. “Ah, yes.”
A flicker of something like relief passed across Aedre’s features. “The Tide approaches. Will you try for a child?”
Essa sputtered on her tea. “What?”
“Oh dear, has no one ever spoken to you of this?”
Her mind conjured a fertility lesson with Cassandra and she snorted at the absurdity. “No. Indeed, no.”
Aedre pursed her lips. “The Tide follows the cycle of the Moon and signals our breeding season. Those maidens who’ve, ah, well, lost their innocence are affected. You will be too, Essa.”
She fought the heat searing her cheeks. “How so?”
“When the Tide strikes, Water Borne females experience an overwhelming instinct to breed. With any male, mind you.” Aedre dabbed her mouth with a handkerchief. “ ’Tis the water gods’ insurance of the continuation of our race. If you don’t wish to become with child, you must abstain, though ’twill be difficult.”
“What if I did wish for a child?”
Her lips curved in a slow smile. “Then you’d best be with the male you’ve chosen.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean.” She wiped her damp palms on her skirt. “Ah, that is, not now.” Shifting in her seat, she cleared her throat. “Perhaps someday.” She cringed at her statement. When? The Pythia didn’t have children. Certainly not with bonded mates. As a descendant species, her term of servitude would last centuries, well beyond her childbearing years.
One night with Nazrin, and she’d forgotten her goals, her dreams. Her heart had reached for the clouds, when it should have been firmly planted in Apollo’s temple. Despite her elation from healing Amaya, Nazrin was wrong. He had to be. Her place was not in Halcyon, was it? Her mind spun, the room closed in on her, and the air became too thick to breathe. She must remove herself from this false future she had no claim to.
“I, ah, thank you for the tea.” She sprang to her feet, the teacups and spoons clattering on the table.
Aedre’s voice rang toward her, but Essa blocked out her words. Stumbling into the main room, she grabbed onto the doorframe as her legs buckled. She staggered for a moment, her breaths strained. Her vision blurred in and out, and she focused on the wooden planks of the floor, then her gaze drifted to the two gaping males before her.
Nazrin. She tossed her head and spoke into his mind. I can’t do this. Her heart thumped in a painful jerk and pumped hot blood into her veins. She pushed off the doorframe and bolted past the men, out of the cabin.
***
Nazrin lurched toward the slammed cabin door, but his brother held him back.
Gaven tipped his chin at Aedre, who slipped into the room.
She wrung her hands in her skirts. “I fear I may have spoken too much, too soon.”
His raptor growled in unison with him, deep in his throat. Gaven’s grip on his arm tightened. Nazrin pried it off and took a step back. It would do no good to reproach Aedre with her mate present. “What did you tell her?”
Aedre clucked, “We spoke of children. Of the Tide.”
A snarl escaped his lips before he had the chance to check himself.
Gaven shoved in front of Nazrin, blocking his view of Aedre.
“She asked me, Nazrin. I didn’t realize it would unsettle her so.”
“What should I do?” He hung his head, whipping it. Dismissing their wide eyes and stuttering lips, he stormed out of the cabin. Coming here had been a mistake.
He hadn’t been able to stop staring at his brother’s bonding mark.
A mark Nazrin would never wear if Essa didn’t accept him.
His wings opened and he sprang into the sky. The hard flapping of his wings soothed him.
Eons ago, Aphrodite decreed that descendent species were too impudent in their pursuit of her sacred patronage—love. She created the bonding. Once a male found his mate, he’d bond with her and the mark would appear. The female didn’t have to bond with him, but she would find unrivaled pleasure in his touch.
Wind Borne bonded not only their bodies, but their life-forces together. Nazrin was immortal. Essa was not. They wouldn’t be able to bond until they were the same.
He winced at his barren arm. What did Essa see when she looked at him? She must wonder why he bore no mark for her. His shame and his fears kept him from revealing the truth.
Gaven had agreed with him about the fulfilment of the prophecy—and also, that it wasn’t enough to appease the Lord of the Underworld. Essa’s fealty was the weight that would tip the balance of their bargain—from death to life.
Kai’s voice poked into Nazrin’s mind with sharp, persistent jabs. Nereus must be dealt with.
Circling to the lake shore, he swooped and landed a few feet from the myrman. “What does Nereus want?”
The male’s gaze narrowed on him for an instant. “His amulet, and Essa, of course.”
For the betrothal.
Nazrin’s raptor squawked, his talons drawn, but he hushed his beast. Nay, this was good. Kai’s secrets would be revealed. Surely, omitting a blood betrothal was worse than Nazrin’s undisclosed immortality. He grimaced. Even after he’d berated her for keeping secrets.
Once she wept her tears of fury from Kai’s deception, Nazrin would be there to console her. She’d cling to him, and when she was ready, he’d divulge his immortality. He’d grant her the choice he’d been denied.
Gods, he prayed she consented.
She was his mate, the female the Fates destined for him. If she refused him, it wouldn’t crush his pride, nay. It would annihilate his heart and soul.
“Lord Nereus has requested your presence as well.” The myrman’s reluctant tone broke through Nazrin’s ruminations.
He flashed him a smug grin. “Let’s fetch Essa then.” He sniffed the air and scented her. She’d followed the tributary out of Halcyon. His heart pounded against his ribcage. The notion of children with him hadn’t frightened her away, had it?
***
“Essa.” Someone trilled her name from behind her on the beach.
She spun toward the familiar voice. “Aunt?”
“Come, my child.” Cassandra lowered the hood of her dark blue cape, revealing dark hair and pale features similar to Essa’s.
“What are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same.” She passed her hands over Essa. “Fear not. None can see you now. I’ve cloaked us both.” Her aunt sighed. “You were assigned a task, child. A task which didn’t include giving yourself to the Wind Borne male.”
She flinched. “Why would you say such a thing?”
“I’m the Pythia. My powers are great.” She leaned in and clucked, “His feather is stuck in your hair.” She yanked on Essa’s tresses and produced the damning evidence, waving Nazrin’s feather beneath Essa’s nose.
“I haven’t come to reprimand you, but rather to set your feet upon your rightful course once more. Don’t allow this unfortunate lust to steer you from your destiny.”
Her destiny. Did it include Nazrin? “He told me—”
“That you are his bonded mate. Yes, I know. Surely, you didn’t believe him?”
It’s not true. Her heart sank, her blood draining to her toes. “He’s not?”
She clacked her tongue in pity. “No, my child. As I have always told you, the Wind Borne are deceptive beings. He would have told you anything to sway your allegiance.”
Cassandra jerked her chin toward something behind Essa. “Your Wind Borne is naught what he seems.”
Essa stared at Nazrin and Kai approaching them. They scanned the beach, their gazes passing straight through her. He can’t see me. Her heart clenched inside her chest, bleeding from Cassandra’s revelation. Enemy.
How foolish she’d been to forget. To hope.
Her aunt twisted her hand in the air. Sand kicked up on the beach and a windstorm rolled in, though the waves remained calm.
“What are you doing?”
“Watch,” Cassandra hissed, “and behold the many sides of your enemy.”
Nazrin and Kai shielded their eyes against the blasting sand with their forearms. “Essa!” they shouted as they stumbled straight into the wind.
At a thunderous crack, she whipped her gaze to the right. A branch of an arbutus tree snapped off. Its red bark sailed in the wind like a lance, straight toward Kai.
“No!” she screamed and leapt forward, but her aunt restrained her with surprising strength.
Nazrin perceived the danger before Kai and shoved the myrman out of its path. The branch speared straight into his side, knocking him into the ground and pinning his body.
Essa flailed against her aunt’s steel grasp, shrieking, “Nazrin!”
“Look,” Cassandra commanded.
Obeying, she covered her mouth with her shaking hands and sank to her knees. “No. Nazrin. Let me go to him, I beg you.” She tilted her face to plead with her aunt, but Cassandra nodded at the two men.
The winds retreated and Kai stumbled to Nazrin’s side. “Damn. Forgive me. This will hurt.” He grunted and yanked the bloodied shaft from Nazrin’s flesh.
Was Nazrin dead? No, gods, please. She squeezed her eyes, her tears falling onto the sand.
“No, you must watch.” Cassandra grabbed her shoulders and hauled her upward.
Nazrin staggered to his feet, peeling off his bloodied shirt. Kai clasped Nazrin’s shoulder, a grateful smile spreading across his face.
Her mouth dropped open. There was no wound, only drying blood smeared across the hard edges of his abdomen. No scars. She sucked in her breath. This was why he possessed no scars.
Elation at his survival warred with betrayal. Her heart seized in violent spasms inside her chest, floundering as a fish torn from water. How foolish of her to believe Nazrin could be her water. Despite each of the secrets he’d ripped from her, he’d never trusted her with his greatest. “He’s immortal,” she murmured, the words thick on her tongue.
Cassandra bent to whisper at her ear. “He is your enemy.”