“What are they?”
“They are Polemus, Peinea, and Loimus,” Nektas answered.
I frowned. “Those’re their names?”
“Well, they’re more of an embodiment of who they are than actual names,” Nyktos shared. “It’s Primal language.”
“And they are…” Nektas said, shrugging as he glanced at Nyktos. “Well, I suppose you could call them riders.”
My brows inched up as Nyktos snorted. “Of what?” I asked, definitely creeped out. Other than their shrouds, none of them had moved. Not even an inch.
“Oftheend,” Nyktos said, and I stiffened. “Their names mean war, pestilence, and hunger. And when they ride, they bring about the end to wherever they travel because death always follows them.”
“What the fuck?” I whispered, my eyes widening as we neared the three riders.
Nyktos laughed again, the sound rumbling against my back, and I was so glad that he found this amusing. “Luckily, they can only be summoned by the true Primal of Life.”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Luckily.”
The three riders lifted their heads as we slowed and then stopped before them. I couldn’t see anything within their hooded cloaks, and I didn’t want to. I didn’t need to be haunted by whatever nightmare surely existed inside.
Then the horses moved, lowering their shrouded heads as each bent one front leg. They and the ridersbowed.
“Huh,” Nektas murmured, his head cocked. “Haven’t seen that happen in a while.”
I glanced back at Nyktos. He stared at the riders, his eyes slightly wide and luminous. Taut, pale lines bracketed his mouth. “I’ve never seen them do that.” He blinked several times, and some of the brightness faded as he looked down at me, clearing his throat. “The entrance to the Vale is only a few feet to our right.”
I saw absolutely nothing but swirling, silvery-white mist.
“I cannot go farther in that direction,” he said as his hand left my hip and his arm loosened around me.
I turned as Nektas rode in front of the riders, who had returned to their eerily still positions. Nyktos swung off Gala’s back. He unstrapped the two short swords he’d brought with him and secured them to Gala’s side. “Just in case.” Then he passed the reins to me, but his hand remained folded over mine.
Dark silver eyes locked onto mine, and I felt that same sweeping motion in my chest and stomach as he said, “She’s very important to me, Nektas.”
“I know,” the draken responded.
I thought that was a strange thing for Nyktos to say, but he’d said thatIwas very important. To him. Not the embers. Me. And maybe that was why I blurted out what I did.
“I want to be your Consort, Nyktos.”
The moment those words left my mouth, I was this close to diving headfirst beneath the riders’ shrouds. My lips parted, but no air was getting into my lungs. My heart had stopped. The entirerealmhad stopped as I stared down at Nyktos.
What in the hell was wrong with me? Had I not decided to keep my big mouth shut?
Nyktos was completely still as he looked up at me. Seconds passed, and in that time, I felt the blood draining rapidly from my face before flooding back. My chest started to squeeze and ache.
He moved, lifting his other hand to my cheek. “Breathe,” he whispered.
I sucked in air, shaking.
His thumb drew that line over my chin, just below my lip, and my heart was beating too fast for someone who was sitting. Because the way he stared at me, the wisps of eather beginning to spread out from behind his pupils, it felt like…more. Which I knew was impossible, yet…
He lifted the hand he held to his mouth and pressed a kiss against my knuckles. Then, slowly, he turned it over and pressed another kiss to my palm. He never took those now-heated, quicksilver eyes off me. “I’ll be waiting for you,liessa.”
Chapter 27
Sunlight.