Page 123 of The Horde King of Shadow

Then he was walking back toward his Elthika, leaving nearly as quickly as he’d come.

Sarkin asked, “I should have told you. About Dakkar.”

“I didn’t ask,” I said, looking at him. Even in front of his horde—because I could still feel their eyes—he cupped my face in between his palms, tipping my chin up so I could meet his eyes fully. “I’d been a little nervous about theilla’rosh,” I admitted.

“I didn’t want to distract you,” he admitted. “But we decided at the last meeting in Elysom.”

“And I can go?” I asked, wanting to be sure.

Sarkin’s lips quirked. “Like you would have stayed behind,aralye?”

“Good point.”

“You’ll take Lygath. Your first flight. To show him your homeland.”

My lips parted. “It doesn’t… Lygath won’t…”

“What is it?” he asked, brows furrowing.

“After Haden…” I said. Realization dawned over his expression, a frown dropping into place. “I didn’t know how you felt about Lygath being among the horde now.”

“Whatever came before…it happened. I cannot change it. And so we must start new. We have to. That isalsoa choice, and it is one that I have already decided I will make. For us. For you.”

I love him,I thought quietly. The sacrifice he was willing to make for me pulled at my chest.

Then his expression changed. A flash of sadness.

“I just realized that Haden has been gone for more years than I ever even knew him. Isn’t that strange?” Sarkin asked.

“People come into your life, and they change you forever,” I said. “It doesn’t matter how long you knew them—they’ll always be there.”

Just like Sarkin would always be with me.

For evermore.

Chapter 42

KLARA

One thing I’d learned riding on the back of Lygath for nearly four days on end?

New harnesses took ages to break in.

That and the fact that my husband was a hoverer—literally—especially when it came to me. He kept Zaridan firmly behind us so he could keep me in his view at all times. Feranos had taken lead at the very front, flanked by Samryn, Alaryk’s bloodred Elthika.

Sarkin might’ve decided to accept Lygath’s presence within the Sarrothian horde and as my bonded. That didn’t mean he trusted him yet.

The relationship and bond with an Elthika was one established over years. Lygath and I were still getting used to one another. He didn’t know the basic flying commands I’d learned in instruction, and there hadn’t been enough time for any training before we’d left the Arsadia to make the long journey to Dakkar. Zaridan had communicated with her brother when necessary, allowing us to fly relatively smoothly. But the harness made him itchy, just as it rubbed against me in all the wrong places. He had some breaking in of his own to do.

But there were moments on our flight when Lygath seemed almosthappy. When he caught sight of Zaridan, or when we happened to fly low over a place he’d never been before, his head swinging wildly to observe what he could. When we flew over Sarroth on our way farther south, he roared, as if he knew where his new home lay. Perhaps Zaridan had told him. The Elthikan language was impossible for us to replicate, and it was a great mystery still among the Karag. But they still communicated. Riding with Lygath, with his sister close by, they’d beentalking.

And I’d been utterly fascinated to find that the other Elthika in our travel party seemed to eavesdrop every now and again, until Zaridan snapped her jaws and they floated farther away, chastised by the Vyrin.

There might always be mystery when it came to the Elthika. No matter how long the Karag had assimilated with them.

One other disadvantage for traveling for nearly four days without reprieve?

I missed Sarkin.

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