“Rayne,” he started softly, and something in the low tone made Drayce’s heart skip a beat with dread. “If I can’t do this, we need to make sure we have other avenues open to us and quickly. Should I fail, the High Aspect might force us to leave Temit.”
“Understood. I’ll see what I can do to get in touch with Yash.” Rayne turned and headed off to the other bedroom with Eno following close on his heels. The bodyguard seemed worried, but Drayce knew there was no way he was going to slow Rayne down when he was on a mission for crown and kingdom.
Their new desperation made sense, though. They’d come so far and were standing just a few miles away from their ultimate destination. Caelan was not going to let anything stand in the way of him going to the godstone and waking the Dead God.
The idea of it might make Drayce sick to his stomach, but he was still going to do everything within his power to see that Caelan succeeded. Even if he had to break his final vows to get it done.
TWENTY
Rayne Laurent
The hotel bar was a busy place now that the sun had set. People strolled in, dressed in all their finery, to drink and laugh with their friends and possibly even total strangers. Music played in the background, adding to the jovial atmosphere while people chatted. Everywhere Rayne looked, the customers were smiling and relaxed.
If the world were ending tomorrow and they all knew it, he suspected the bar would appear exactly as it did now.
He struggled to wrap his mind around this way of life. It was all the more difficult to comprehend when he and his companions were fighting so hard to stay alive and to protect all of the people of Thia.
But as he watched them laughing and living as if it were their very last moments, his mind still conjured up the image of the man they saw when they’d first entered the hotel the previous day. His brow heavily lined and lips pursed together as if he were just barely holding in a broken sob as he released the hand of the dead woman. His religion told him to rejoice that his wife or sister or friend had gone to join the Dead God, but he was left behind, his life emptier without her there.
Maybe the laughter—well lubricated by vast quantities of alcohol—was a little too high-pitched and frantic. Maybe it was just a mask for the loneliness and the pain of being left behind in a world where the people were chasing death.
Rayne frowned at the glass leaving a wet ring on the shining wood tabletop in front of him. He’d picked a booth near the rear of the bar because it gave him a good view of the place, especially the entrance. As he’d expected, when he’d entered the lobby, he was immediately spotted by a man lounging on one of the tufted couches. He’d been wearing a uniform similar to the man who’d driven them in the carriage to the hotel. Their eyes met and then Rayne pointedly stared at the bar. The man nodded and he headed for the door, returning to his employer.
Yash and Kamal had far too much riding on this proposal to leave them on their own. No, she would need to be sure they didn’t escape with that dangerous information. She must have either their agreement or their silence.
So now he waited as the minutes steadily ticked by. One hundred and twenty-three of them, to be exact. He’d known this wasn’t going to be a quick thing, but he was starting to get impatient and hungry.
Eno wasn’t pleased about it either. The warrior had entered once already, surveyed the room to locate Rayne, and had a single drink at the bar before leaving again with an even deeper frown on his face. Rayne didn’t need any gift from the gods to know that his lover hated the idea of him dealing with Yash alone.
But the other alternative was sending Caelan with him, and that was out of the question. If this deal went as Rayne suspected it would, he didn’t want Caelan linked to it in any way.
Reluctantly, he picked up his drink and sipped it, trying not to wince against the harsh burn that scorched his tongue and scalded his throat. He didn’t care for Zastrian whiskey, and getting it on the rocks in hopes of watering it down had not helped. Yet, it was a safer option than the wine. He loved a good red, but he couldn’t risk becoming inebriated on wine, thanks to his too-empty stomach.
Luckily, Yash Magar breezed into the bar before he was forced to place yet another drink order with the server making rounds. The delicate woman was wrapped in a flirty lilac dress while her hair fell in an almost liquid cascade over one shoulder. Rayne watched as she made slow progress through the room, stopping to chat here and there with people she knew. She laughed, kissed cheeks, and even accepted a flute of what appeared to be a golden sparkling wine on her way to his table.