I reined back my instinct to scream to Tyrrik for help with a shaking inhale and coaxed a single, thin filament, the veriest bit of my Drae power I could entice away from the rest to thread through Draedyn’s momentarily fissured shield. On impulse, as I pulled the vibrant-blue strand to me, I coated it in my moss-green Phaetyn veil, hoping my gut instinct would serve me.
“Need to hurry and call him.” Ryn gripped my arm, shaking me.
“Shh,” I hissed, pulling away from her. “I need you to be quiet so I can concentrate.”
Someone else said something, and I did my best to ignore her. I needed a moment of peace to make this work. I took a deep breath and ducked under the water. The silence was immediate, and I strained to follow the thread of my Drae energy snaking through the emerald-green shield of Draedyn’s power. He was distracted, but how wasn’t he feeling this? Was it because I’d cloaked my tendril in my Phaetyn veil? It had to be. Honestly, I hadn’t even reached for my Phaetyn powers because I’d been so focused on how to regain access to my Drae powers. But maybe I’d been looking at this wrong.
My wisp of power snaked free, and then, and only then, did I give over to instinct, throwing the wisp toward where I could sense Tyrrik. I sobbed aloud at the feel of him but pushed away all the panicked questions I wanted to ask him and focused on the single message I had to convey.
I could feel the exact millisecond I touched Tyrrik’s onyx bond. Tears squeezed from my eyes at the exquisite torture of feeling him again. I focused on the task.
Shh. Don’t yell. Just be quiet and let me show you, I told him. Love, like warm honey, coursed through my soul, and I pushed my love, my very soul back to Tyrrik as I continued. I’m in Draedyn’s palace, and he has a shield of power around my Drae energy. I’m concentrating right now, but I don’t think this will last.
I sent the images of how I saw Draedyn’s power, and what I was attempting to keep Tyrrik and me connected. Knowing time was running out, I sent him images of Kamoi and Kamini, of the female Drae and Druman, of Draedyn looking toward Azule and tracking their actions.
I see it, Khosana. I won’t try and contact you, but keep that thread covered by your Phaetyn veil all the time.
An image flashed to me, one of Tyrrik’s trembling fingers pressed to his lips, of him on his hands and knees as he listened to me speak for the first time in days.
I will, I answered him. Be careful. He’s worse than Irdelron, one hundred times worse. I suspected it was more like one thousand times. I need to go. I was blind to what was happening on the other side, to my physical body, but the pressure of holding my breath was starting to affect me. I miss you. I love you.
I love you. Be safe.
He pulled back, and it took everything I had to let him withdraw. But it was necessary.
I followed the thread of my Drae power outside of Draedyn’s shield back inside his ring of control, and as soon as my awareness returned to my body, I wrapped the thin wisp of blue thick inside mossy green until I couldn’t even see a bit of the lapis lazuli.
I broke through the surface of the pool, gasping for air. Chaos swirled around me in the darkness.
“Make her hurry,” Draelys snapped.
“Ryn,” Draenique yelled, “We’re running out of time. Make her—”
“They can’t distract him forever,” Draemyr said, the r turning into a feral growl.
My aunt grabbed my arm and yanked me to her. “Did you reach your mate? Is he coming?” Her voice was laced with panic, and her warm hazel eyes were wide. “You need to hurry. If you yell to him now—“
I wiped the streaming water from my eyes and slicked my hair back. With a shake of my head I said, “No. It won’t work.”
A low ache blossomed deep in my belly, vice-like pain seizing the organs of my abdomen, making my stomach turn. I glanced at the other Drae women, blinking in surprise when I saw not only their individual bodies but flashes of color in their core. Whoa.
This was their Drae power coated in the emperor’s emerald-green energy. Draelys, Draemyr, and Draesi, with pale violet, deep orange, and pale pink, respectively. The thick layer of emerald not only coated their power, but there were tendrils of the green seeping into the other colors.
Even if I could break them free in this moment, to do so would alert Draedyn and doom us all to failure.
The ache in my belly worsened. I grimaced with the pain, noticing the other Drae were also contorted. I sucked air in through my teeth and asked, “What is that pain?” While I really did want to know, I was also trying to change the subject.
Not a moment too soon either. The oily darkness of Draedyn’s power slithered through me. I did my best to ignore the one filament of hope covered in mossy webs, not knowing how easy the thought would be for Draedyn to pick up in my mind.
My aunt frowned, recovering from the agony a heartbeat after me, and then her eyes welled with tears. “You didn’t yell to him. You didn’t call to your mate?”
I forced my mind away from everything I wanted to tell her and pursed my lips, shaking my head. “I did not yell to him.” She hadn’t answered my question. Was the pain we’d all felt because Draedyn had been in pain? Because his power was inside our minds? Or was it something from the other female Drae?
Her beautiful face, similar to my mother’s, contorted in rage. The scar on her neck darkened, and she leaned forward, getting into my personal space as she gripped my arm and seethed. “You fool. You selfish, selfish fool. You wasted our sacrifice: mine, Lyz, Lys, Nique, all of us.” She flung my arm away and screamed, “All of it.”
I flinched with her anger, wanting to reassure her but hopelessly unable to. “I couldn’t yell.” That’s as close as I dared to go.
“Liar,” she said. “You are your father’s daughter.”
Ouch. I flinched. That hurt.
The emerald power around my mind intensified, and on the same whim as moments before, knowing I was onto something important, I stretched the green webbing of my Phaetyn veil to block a little corner of my mind, stretching the veil from where it was attached to my Drae-blue messenger thread, making a little private bubble. Inexplicably, I knew this bubble, this internal Phaetyn veil, was safe. Light and dark did not mix, not until me anyway.
Maybe I could keep this little area for all those stray, super-inappropriate treasonous thoughts, and to protect what I’d just done. Not that I was going to follow Draedyn now, at least not on everything. He needed to believe any changes were sincere. Small changes, turning toward him, would lead to more freedom eventually. A sudden change of heart, especially now, would increase his suspicion and hence, keep his attention fixed upon me.
“I was wrong.” Ryn climbed out of the water and grabbed her plane tunic, keeping her back to me the entire time. “You are nothing like your mother. She would be ashamed of you.”
Even if the words weren’t true, they stung. I sat in the water as Ryn gathered the rest of the female Drae together, whispering about my ineptitude and cowardice. Her cruel comments burned the back of my eyes.
“It’s not a whisper if I can hear everything,” I called to them.
You were right to refuse her, Draedyn said, his pride pulsing through our connection.
Get out of my head, I snapped. I hate you. Now the women are all against me.
I felt his chuckle at that, the greasy revolting pleasure he had in my pain and that of the other Drae. But I focused on my private bubble, holding my breath inside and out as I dipped under the surface to wash new tears from my face. Was it working? Surely the game would already be up if not.
“Ryn?” Draesi called from the doorway. “Come on. Your aunt will forgive you. We’ve all had a run-in with her over the last century. This place, our numbers, they are too small to hold grudges against one another.”
Seemed to me people should count to ten before hurling hurtful comments then.