“When I could be sure my intervention didn’t carry a price others would pay.” He paused. “I wish you didn’t even have to think about that or be in this position.”
I nodded, forcing my grip to loosen on the railing. “I’ll be able to do whatever is necessary.”
“Because you’ve killed upon your mother’s request?”
Unable to speak, I gave a curt nod as I opened my eyes.
“Just remember, no matter what happens, a part of you is good. That cannot be tainted by what may come. You are not a monster. And you will not be one when we return.”
That damn knot swelled once more in my throat, replacing the sour taste of bile. “Maybe I’m not a monster, but I, like you, am capable of monstrous acts. And when I really think about that, I’m not sure there’s really a difference between the two.”
“Then all of us, those good and bad, are a little monstrous,” he said.
Preparing myself, I turned to Nyktos. “I’m ready.”
He took my hands in his, and the charge of energy danced up my arms. He fitted me to his chest, and the contact sent a startling rush of sensations through me that I ordered myself to ignore.
“Hold on,” he said, his voice roughening.
Inhaling sharply, I placed my hands against the front of his tunic, breathing in the scent of citrus.
His cool breath skimmed my cheek. “A bit tighter than that, Sera.”
“I don’t remember being required to hold on tighterbefore.”
“You held me as if your life depended on it before,” he remarked.
“I don’t recall doing that,” I muttered.
Nyktos chuckled as he folded an arm over my lower back. His head dropped, and his breath touched the curve of my neck, eliciting an unwanted shiver.
The air charged, and Nyktos’s body hummed against mine with power. The white mist I’d seen in the Great Hall in Wayfair didn’t come from the floor this time. It came from Nyktos, heavy and thick. It swirled around us, laced with dark shadows. My chest tightened as the swirling mist reached my hips. I locked up.
“Breathe with me,” he said, dragging his hand to the center of my back as his chest rose against mine and held for a count of four, then exhaled. I matched his next breath as the mist churned at my shoulders. “Breathe.”
Nyktos’s lips touched the same spot Jadis had kissed as the mist swallowed us. The Shadowlands fell away, taking me with it.
And I held on.
I blinked.
That was what it felt like this time.
I simply blinked, and when I opened my eyes, we were standing under a shimmery canopy of golden leaves. The branches above our heads were so heavy with them that the glow cast upon us didn’t come from the patches of blue sky but from the sun reflecting off the leaves. I’d never seen anything like them.
Cool fingers touched my cheek as I heard the soft trill of birds calling to one another, a sound I hadn’t heard since arriving in the Shadowlands. Nyktos drew my gaze to his wide, swirling eyes. “Sera?” he whispered.
“Yeah?”
He was quiet as he stared down at me, and I began to grow concerned. “You barely went unconscious.”
I hadn’t realized I had gone unconscious at all. “Is that a bad thing?”
His jaw flexed. “We need to get those embers out of you,” he said, still whispering. “Soon.”
My heart tripped over itself as I stepped back, looking around. The trunks of the cluster of trees we stood in glittered with specks of gold. “They’re beautiful.”
Nyktos’s hand fell away. “They’re called trees of Aios.”