Page 109 of Shadow Kissed

“I’ll take care of her, I promise. You know where she will be,” I reassure the beast before my shadows take us back to the valley. I decide to weave to my private quarters first, and I carefully place Reya on my bed. I then weave to the infirmary and hand Saveya over to our head healer. I ask for total confidence and advise him she was bitten by a mutt but that she is clear of the venom. Our healer reels in shock at my words but swears he’ll keep his silence.

I then shadow weave to the Obsidian mines in Trynn, almost scaring to death the poor night watchman who’s nodding off when I appear out of nowhere.

“Lord Commander. Is it inspection day?” he asks me, hurrying to his feet and wiping the drool from his mouth. “I thought we weren’t due one for another month?”

I shake my head in response as I stride past him and into the vast warehouse that stores all the mined crystals waiting to be shipped out.

“I need a large supply of obsidian, and I need it now,” I advise him as I scan the rows and rows of crystal slabs until my eyes fall on the familiar black crystal. My shadows flow out of me and grasp hold of a large slab, and I bring it towards me.

“I can have it cut properly and delivered to you, sir,” the watchman offers, chasing after me as I head out with the large crystal slab floating behind me.

“No need,” I inform him, reaching into my pocket and placing a bag of gold coins on his desk. “This should more than cover it.”

“Yes, thank you Commander, this is very generous,” He bumbles as he looks into the bag of coins and sees just how generous I can be.

I nod my head in response as my shadows cloak me in their magic and we weave back to my bedroom. I check on her immediately, placing my hand against her forehead and checking for any fever. I am clueless as to how the Night Borne are able to heal those bitten by the mutts, and I don’t know what the aftereffects are for the Night Borne either. When I heal others, I ingest the poison and while it doesn’t affect my body, it does deplete my energy. Eretreya has never used her powers before, so it will drain her energy resources completely.

I turn my attention to the slab of obsidian, wrapping it in my shadows and shaping it into a half cylinder shape that will lie over her on the bed and hopefully help to restore her energy. I place it over her and then I lie beside her on the bed and wait. What were they both doing out in those woods, and why did the mutts attack Saveya if she was with Eretreya? I feel an idiot for not joining all the dots sooner. The way the mutts were behaving after her presence in the woods, the way they followed us back toTerleigh and the attack on the village. I think because it was so nonsensical that there could be a Night Borne living undetected on Asen that even with the all the evidence mounting it seemed crazy. The remaining question is, was her mother of night blood as we suspect, or was it her father? And more importantly, how did they survive and make it to Asen?

A knock at my door jerks me awake and I glance out the window to see the sun has risen. Glancing to check if there has been any change with Eretreya, I climb off my bed and stride over to the door. I pull it ajar to find Jasiel there.

“Come in,” I tell him, urging him inside and closing the door firmly behind me.

Jasiel pauses mid-stride when he sees Eretreya on my bed. His eyes taking in the obsidian tomb like structure she sleeps under.

“So, she is Night Borne then?”

“She is,” I reply as I come to stand beside him at the foot of the bed.

Jasiel nods his head as he processes this. “Her mother moved about a lot. When I asked about her in Hesden where Reya had said she was from, no one knew of her, apart from a very old lady of ninety turns of the seasons, who says she remembers a girl of that name as they were in the same class at school together.”

I blink. “Ninety?”

“Ninety,” he replies.

“So that would mean-”

“That Reya’s mum came to Asen around the time of the Night Realms collapse,” Jasiel says, finishing what I had been about to say.

“She would have had to possess some power to create a gateway into another realm and survive here long as she has.”

Jasiel looks at me and his expression confirms where my thoughts are heading. “Like those of a royal.”

I frown. “The princess—the Dukes betrothed.” I shake my head in disbelief. “How ironic.”

We both stare at her sleeping form. My mate wasn’t just any ordinary Night Borne. She was the heiress of the Night Borne throne. A queen without a kingdom to rule. If there’s a slight possibility that the realm is still there, and the sunstone crystal still grows there then she is a threat to our people and the king wouldn’t hesitate to use her to destroy the Night Realm once and for all and her with it. If she knew who she was, she’d hate me and my kind even more than she already does. She’d see us as the reason her family and her realm are gone.

“What are you going to do?” Jasiel asks me, no doubt understanding the weight on my shoulders.

“She’s my true blessed mate, Jas. There is nothing I won’t do to protect her. I’ll destroy worlds for her if it keeps her safe. Nothing is more important than her now. I’ll claim her at the reaping, wed her and give her my mark and then no one can touch her, including our king.”

He nods his head and sighs. “She’s going to hate you even more when she finds out the truth, you know?”

I smirk. “Don’t I know it, but if it keeps her safe, I’ll handle her anger and her hatred. Better that than she isn’t safe. Besides, she might hate me, but she feels this thing between us, and she craves my touch just as much as I crave hers.”

Jasiel places a hand on my shoulder and grins. “I couldn’t think of a better woman to keep you on your toes and put you in your place, brother.”

“I’ll take her kicking and screaming rather than hand her over to the mercy of the king. She’s mine now, and no one will harm a hair on her head and if anyone tries, I’ll strip the flesh from their bones, slowly and painfully. How are the two females?” I ask him, remembering that when I’d left her here last night, it was to rescue two of her kind.

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