The intensity with which the Drae studied me cocooned us, and the rest of the world disappeared.
“You can see me.” Tyrrik studied me, his gaze intense and penetrating. In a low voice, almost to himself, he murmured, “It can’t be.”
I blinked and then glanced around, smiling as I realized our location. We were in Verald, in the courtyard inside Harvest Zone Seven. This was the exact place where we’d first met.
I lifted a hand to my mate’s face. “Of course I can see you. And you can see me.”
He brought his hand up in tiny increments, his expression rapt as he circled the back of my neck. His warm palm connected with my clammy skin, and fire licked where we touched, the warmth spreading from where his hand tangled in my hair, sending tendrils of pulsing energy all over me.
I closed my eyes, basking in his onyx power. I sighed as his dark bands slid and danced over my lapis lazuli swirls, our energies twisting and binding with one another. This was right. This was how we should be. Together. I fell into him, pressing my body against his length.
He ripped his hand back and stepped away, glaring at his palm with a look of betrayal as I fell to my knees.
“Tyrrik?” I said in confusion, getting back to my feet.
He swore long and hard again in the guttural Drae language, shock tinging his voice. But he knew me. He knew me, and I knew him.
I squeezed my eyes closed. “What’s happening, my love?”
“Where are you going right now?” he asked in a different tone. Gone was the shock. Something very different took its place in his expression. His gaze darted behind him, and then he turned toward the fountain, scanning the dry space.
“Where am I going?” I asked, completely confused. “Don’t you mean where are we going?”
I blinked and the memory disappeared, swallowed in a heavy gloom, and Tyrrik pinned me with his dark gaze. He shook his head, his lips turning down in a sad look of pity.
I rubbed my chest, trying to rid myself of a hollow ache spreading through me.
“I know where I am,” my mate said.
My love. I reached for the bottom of his black aketon, fingers shaking. Why was he talking like this? “You’re here with me,” I whispered urgently. “You’re right here.”
He untangled my fingers, brushing gentle caresses over my skin as he removed my hold on him. I reached frantically for him. “Please.”
Tyrrik stepped back, and I followed. But every time, I made to close the distance between us, he moved away again, just out of my reach. Why couldn’t I reach him?
“Tyrrik,” I said, my voice rising as panic clawed up my throat. “Tyrrik, come back with me.”
“Oh, my love. I cannot. You know I cannot. I am here, and you are there.” Tears trekked down over the planes of his features.
My eyes burned, tears spilling over the brim, and I dashed at them if only to see him better. “What are you saying?” I asked, clutching my head. “Stop saying such things.”
“Move on, Ryn.”
“Stop!” I screamed.
“I’m already gone.”
I fell to my knees, raking my nails through the stone. “Stop,” I pleaded. “Stop!” I repeated my chant without break, rocking back and forth as I wept. “I won’t let you leave me. I won’t let you go.”
He reached for me, dropping to the ground to pull me into his arms.
Is that what it took for him to touch me? If so, I’d gladly repeat my anguish until my last breath.
He held tight, his long fingers encircling the entire width of my bicep as he pulled back to look me in the eye.
“Do you want to die?” he whispered. He leaned forward and traced his nose up the side of my face as he inhaled me. He pressed his lips to my ear and said, “You are not meant for death, my love.”
Shivers erupted then, and a fierce desire took the place of my shaking sobs.
“You need to be gone. Right now.”
“I’ll never leave you,” I swore. “Never.” I stared into his face that not so long ago, in this very harvest zone, I’d seen as stone-cold. But now I knew better. The wild edge to his eyes was fear. For me. Always for me.
My mate had always thought of me.
“Please, Tyrrik? I’ll . . .” I stared up into his face, tracing his skin with my fingers, my heart expanding. I had no quip. Nothing but raw honesty would do here. “I love you. There is no one else, and there never will be. I need you with me. I want you . . . Please?”
My throat clogged as he pulled away, my hands falling to my lap. But as I bowed my head in defeat, a thread of onyx power brushed against my palm. I closed my fist around the wisp of midnight, hope tickling within my chest, and I tenderly wove my lapis Drae power around the onyx strand and opened my heart to my mate.
The warm darkness swallowed us both.
“You’ve already left me,” my mate whispered.
And then fire erupted, encasing my body. As the blaze raged, consuming me, I wept. More painful than the physical burn was the realization that his flame was a myriad of yellows, oranges, and reds.
A normal flame.
Not the lapis lazuli blue that he’d always breathed in my presence.
Not our flame.
Yet I wouldn’t release the onyx tendril and let him leave me forever.
39
I flailed, fighting off invisible flame as I wrenched upright, sending black sand flying everywhere. The sand was hot, like Drae fire. Too hot.
Drak, I rubbed a hand over my stinging eyes and then reached for my nearby waterskin—a must in the desert at the very southern point of the realm. After a year here, I’d learned the wisdom at having one handy. I squeezed the remaining liquid into my mouth, swallowing painfully, one foot still inside the horrible remnants of my nightmare.
I sighed and got to my feet then hobbled to the top of a black dune. Looking out over the endless desert, my gaze fell over the tents spattering the area beneath me. The bohemian material was strung out to provide shelter from the beating sun, but all in all, the Drae liked minimizing the layer between them and the twin moons, especially at night.
I didn’t blame them.
I scoured over the area, and my attention snagged on a lithe Drae as he pulled off his aketon.
He leaned over and returned to his effort, digging what appeared to be a massive hole in the ground. His tall frame was all lean muscle, and his skin, the color of Mum’s burnt sugar, smoothed when he stretched. Although currently, he dug through the sand and rock with his talons. Sweat glistened and beaded, rolling down his back, disappearing into the top of his black trousers.
He was perfection.
Having a good look? Tyrrik asked.
I grinned, not the slightest bit ashamed of being caught. Well, if you’re going to put on a show . . .
Tyrrik wiggled his hips slightly, and I snorted, his antics chasing away the last remnants of my bad dream—as he’d no doubt intended.
Same nightmare? he asked even though he already knew the answer.
Yep . . . I wish you would’ve moved me out of the sand.
I wish you would’ve walked another six feet to our tent before you lay down for a kip, Khosana. I don’t like when you go flying without me.
I winced. Is that why you didn’t wake me?
No. He brushed his hand over my face, wiping off the residual sand. I was focused on our cave.
What he meant was he hadn’t noticed I’d fallen asleep until the nightmare was almost over. Otherwise he would’ve done something to help me. I eyed the hole he was digging. There was a natural entrance to his old treasure cave two dunes over, but apparently that entrance wasn’t big enough. Probably because he knew I wanted a sapphire the size of a Drae. Yep, yep. Keep digging.