An abomination.
Just like my mate.
I could feel Shade, Zakkai, and Zeph inside me. Aflora, too. A collection of strength that shouldn’t be possible, yet existed nonetheless.
“Kols?” Aflora whispered, the feathers closing in around us. “What are your instincts telling you? Because mine are saying to run.”
“Hold on,” I replied, closing my eyes to focus on the beating wings. Where are you, Night?
Rather than focus on the sounds around me, I searched for the familiar strand of life—my life. Both new and old. Former and new. But the essences swarming through the air all blended together, masking the one I sought.
Minutes passed as I chanted the spell under my breath, demanding my familiar find me.
Yet nothing happened beyond the whirl of feathers, some of them slicing my cheek and arms like charcoal blades. Not feathers but metallic stone. Dangerous. Lethal. Cruel.
Come on…
Night had to be here somewhere. Aflora’s certainty washed over me, giving me the strength I needed to keep searching. She trusted me to find him. Which meant he was here somewhere, cloaked behind the mass of power created by the Dark Source.
Aflora’s palm wrapped around the back of my neck, her lips capturing mine.
It took me so off guard that I didn’t immediately return her embrace.
But as her tongue parted my lips, I realized her plan—blood. Her essence hit my senses, lighting my veins on fire with her power. I swallowed her heated kiss, her energy swarming inside me and grounding me in a field of existence beyond comprehension.
Mine, I thought. Aflora’s mine.
Some sort of barrier fizzled into ash between us, our connection smoldering to life. And in the next breath she released me, my mind suddenly clear and focused on my task.
There!I yanked my mouth away from Aflora, my gaze locking on a crow just a few feet above my head. “Come here.” The bird cawed in response, clearly agitated over being called away from the swarming array of feathers, but as he dove down, I felt the rightness in our connection. Night.
Aflora hummed in agreement, a spell warming her breath as she weaved some sort of Quandary Blood magic through the air. An invisible dagger sliced through my heart, stealing the air from my lungs, and on my next inhale, I felt rejuvenated with life.
Finally, she said into my mind. Constantine did something to our bonds. I figured out how to unfasten his hold on you, but the others are still quiet.
I frowned, attempting my link to Zeph and finding it closed off. I’d been so focused on Aflora before that I hadn’t thought to reach out to him. Having a mental link to him was still new, but so was my link to her. And yet, all my attention had been on finding her.
Odd.
A year ago, my first instinct would have been to reach out to him.
That didn’t necessarily mean I loved her more or him less, just that my priorities had changed. I supposed I’d also been consumed with the need to find her because of the ascension and my desire to help her.
Kols,Aflora said, drawing me back to the present. She looked up with her pretty blue eyes, a smile tugging at the edges of her mouth. I followed her gaze to find Night hovering above us, his wings spread wide as he soared in a circle around our heads.
I dropped my arm away from her back and grabbed her hand once more. “Lead the way,” I told him, confident in his ability to guide us out.
Night took off through the mess of feathers, creating a path for us to follow, and we sprinted after him into the sea of darkness.
A resounding hiss trailed behind us, the power vines sizzling and reforming into something new and dangerous. But I kept my gaze on Night, my hand firmly holding Aflora’s, as we ran… and ran… and ran.
Not once did she glance backward, no matter how much noise and chaos echoed through the air. Aflora was resolute in her choice, her faith in me a tangible kiss to my senses.
I’d known from our first meeting that she was an ideal mate. Royal. Beautiful. Strong. Feisty as hell. And now she was truly mine. For eternity.
She’d brought me back from certain death, claimed me with her power, and rooted herself so deep inside me, I would forever belong to her, and her to me.
I love you,I whispered, the words a stroke against my heart. I hadn’t said that to her before. I hadn’t really considered it entirely. But I knew with every fiber of my being that Aflora was always meant to be mine.