Page 163 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Three hours later,at the edge of a cliff and cloaked by Garrik’s shield, white flame and shadow whorled.

Alora’s aching muscles screamed as she flexed her back, carrying unfurled wings of starfire.

When Garrik had mentioned training, she hadn’t expectedthis.

One powerful flap of his wings of night and Garrik spurred into the air, so high he appeared as a grain of sand against the intense heat of sunlight. It was an effort to not feel envious. Those wings carried him gracefully across the skyline, curling when he spun through clouds and shot out the other side, splaying when he maneuvered into a smooth glide, tucking in tight as he dived.

It would probably be ages before she could do anything more than hover.

Alora frowned as he landed, flexing her back and flickering a flame along her shoulder.

“What is that look for, clever girl?”

She studied him, the way he unfastened his battle leathers and tossed the jacket onto a fallen tree. The wings flared tendrils into the sunlight like ink in water. His hair glistened in the breeze rushing from the forest behind.

Suddenly defeated, Alora was tempted to turn and sulk.

Garrik stepped forward, the shadows receding a bit, and admitted, “It took me months.” Frustration burned her eyes, so she angled her head away, but he lightly clasped her chin and drew her back. “You are hovering on your first day. I could not do that.”

He’s just saying that to make me feel better.

“I would,” he broke in. To make her feel better—he would. That softened her mood some. “But that was not a fabrication. Thalon was forced to pursue extreme measures for my powers to agree.”

Alora heavily sighed and rolled her shoulders, sinking her palm into the soft spot below her neck.

She should’ve stayed with Ezander—because finding Blood was more important than embarrassing herself on this cliffside. And after spending the morning floating down the river and stopping at every shop that mildly interested the princeling, it was evident Thalon and Aiden had no such luck finding the sister gemstone in the tunnels last night.

“What did Thalon have to do?” Alora rolled her eyes to the clouds and shook her head. “Maybe we can skip the months of training and go with that?”

Garrik huffed a laugh and trailed his eyes over the ledge. “I do not think you want me teaching you as Thalon did.” He pointed with his head over his shoulder, toward the trees, and added, “Come. Keep hovering.”

But she didn’t want that. “Do what Thalon did,” Alora insisted on it.

Folding his arms across his chest, Garrik scratched a palm down the perfect planes of his face, considering for a moment.

More than a moment.

It seemed as if he was weighing the next several years of his life before he speared her with a critical gaze, nodded, and spoke in that royal tongue she had yet to fully master. “Exirtse maiez coerpus.”

Smokeshadows burst from his body.

Alora recognized two of those words enough that she could guess the command.Leave my—she was certain of. But the last…Existence?Flesh? Body?She’d either ask Eldacar or search the book she’d borrowed.

In the very few times she’d seen Garrik without the darkness, she never noticed that emptiness that settled over his features. On the dais when Thalon was commanded to—a sickening feeling twisted her gut, remembering the watery slap of bloodyleather fringes that tortured her High Prince’s back. Then, in the wintry barn … but, of course, she couldn’t fully see him then. It was too dark.

But now, it was as if half his heart was missing—dying. As if an ancient longing gripped him, left him unsteady. Incomplete.

Instead of wondering why he sent them away, Alora asked, “Are they coming back?” Hating how half-lifeless he looked. Knowing how warm his skin would feel if she brushed against it.

“Eventually.” He shrugged.

Alora bunched her brows. “What doesthatmean?”

A suggestive smirk twisted his lips. “It means …stop me.”

The way he said it …

The way his boot stepped backward, toward the ledge. He didn’t stop moving, just inched sososlowly until he teetered on the edge.

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