Page 55 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

The stone, the ancient voice whispered faintly into the back of Emara’s mind. And then it was gone, like it had never existed at all. The thread had been severed from the ancient world to hers.

Emara grabbed the stone that lay on the sparkling fabric and pushed to her feet. She felt a little wobbly as she shoved the chair back allowing her to move from where she stood.

Torin was on his feet quicker than she could follow. “Emara, say something,” he called in the background, but her head was like ocean waves during a giant storm, droning him out.

Waves of information crashed into the coves of her skull; she couldn’t hear properly or even breathe. Leaving the vision and the prophecy behind, she bolted for the exit and headed for anywhere other than here.

Gideon found Cally alone in the middle of the dance floor, her head tilted back in ecstasy as she moved her body to the beat of the music.

Gideon hated taverns; the crowds, the dancing, the drunken idiots who weren’t self-aware as they barged about spilling anything they held—but somehow, he still managed to be in one. He’d only agreed to come to make sure Torin didn’t lead the girls astray. Knowing him, Torin would do it deliberately just to piss off his father and they would all be punished for it.

“Cally?” Gideon shouted over the music. “Cally?”

Another reason why he hated taverns like these—you couldn’t speak at a normal pitch. Everyone had to shout into the other person’s ear, still missing half of the conversation, anyway.

“Cally, why are you alone? Where is Emara?” He couldn’t hide his irritation that he would probably have to repeat himself in a few seconds.

Cally lifted her hands into the air and shook her hair around her face before looking up. “Emara was here, she might be at the bar,” she shouted over the music.

She wasn’t at the bar; he had just checked.

He looked around, trying to see if he could set his sights on Emara or Torin.

He knew he shouldn’t have left! But Breighly had caught up with him, asking him to help her shift a crate of sparkling wine, which he couldn’t refuse.

Gideon had known Breighly since he was little. She was a shifter,—half human, half wolf—and belonged to the Baxgroll Pack that lived close to the tower in the Ashdale forest. She was the daughter of the pack’s Alpha, Murk Baxgroll. Murk and Viktir had meetings at the tower regarding magical politics, so she had been around often.

They were the same age, only two seasons parted their birthdays. Therefore, they were normally left to entertain each other whilst the meetings took place. She had often teased him about being older and he had tried to unleash his new-found hunting skills on her, which he quickly found out was useless. Her supernatural instincts were far more superior than his and she always landed him on his ass.

Something Torin had always mocked him for.

As a young boy, he had crushed on Breighly hard. She was funny, bright, and strong. She was a beautifully independent badass. But no matter how he felt about her, she was in the pack and would find her mate within the pack. He had decided early on that there was no point in wasting feelings on someone who would be pulled in a direction—one which she couldn’t control.

She knew it, too.

When shifters mate, they mate for life.

And it was normally with another shifter.

Therefore, he hadn’t explored the idea of a future with her. Not in the way a relationship mattered, anyway. However, that hadn’t stopped them from exploring other things.

Just following their eighteenth birthdays, after a few months of kissing and messing around, they’d made an agreement to keep things purely physical. Nothing more.

He knew he was in a temporary position and that suited him. And her. She was not his to love and never would be. It didn’t help that he found her insanely attractive, and she’d seemed to be into him for a while, too.

But as life moved on and she was given more responsibility with the pack and La Luna— which was owned by the Alpha—the physical relationship had fizzled out, but they’d managed to remain good friends, catching up every now and then.

He scanned the tavern, pushing the thoughts of his first physical encounter to the back of his mind.

Where were Torin and Emara?

He pulled Cally from the dancefloor and ordered her a water at the bar.

“Drink this.” He placed the glass in front of her. “You will thank me in the morning,” he said.

“Where is Torin?” she mumbled into her glass. “He’s such an ass.”

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Gideon muttered to himself. The fact that both Emara and Torin were missing made him anxious.

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