Page 186 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

I know he could just pull free, send me stumbling, but he doesn’t. Instead a growl works its way up his throat, so menacing it takes all my will not to flinch. To run. His eyes are a black wildfire, his lips are fully pulled back from his teeth now, but I don’t let go. I flash mine right back, ready to rip into his flesh.

As if he could read my mind he seethes, “I dare you!” His eyes glitter dangerously.

“It is you who wants something from me. Tell me whatthisis. Why? How is this possible? How could yousee… me?”

“You think you have a choice.” He laughs, but there is no humor in the sound. “Do you really still believe that I need to be polite and ask? I could force you to reveal the location, break you, and leave you shattered when I’m done. It wouldn’t even take much. I see it all over you, in your eyes. You are so tender a breeze startles you.”

Every single word feels like the stab of a knife plunging into my soul. He leans closer, towering over me, speaking right into me, his breath mingling with mine, brushing my lips.

“Then why not just get it over with? Why bother?”

I try to ignore his dark power gathering around me, swirling and pulsing like a dark storm. My own magic is cowering and frightened.

“You would be useless to me broken. And you were too many nights on the brink already.” He says it ravenously, cruelly, his eyes on my lips.

“Why do you know that?” I push. My eyes are searching his foranything. Warmth. Truth. Malice.

“A bond, born into our bones,” he spits as if the sheer words disgust him.

Abond. I don’t know what to do with this information. What to feel. “But… why? What kind of bond?”

“Oh no, it is your turn. You’re going to lead me to the flute.Now.”

“No. It’s dangerous,” I say, ignoring his magic sizzling through the air around us. But that artifact is suddenlywhisperingto me, right into my heart. A warning. It’s warning me about its cataclysmic magic, its sinister nature. Its unholy power.

“I will not ask again,” Caryan says.

I feel the last string of his patience snapping. I make myself look at him regardless. He’s gone utterly still, only his power licks along my skin like hungry flames.

“Its magic,” I say, “is not from this world.” I shake my head,retreating as the flute keeps whispering to me in its foreign yet familiar tongue, clearer now that I’m close to it. “It might kill you. It should be destroyed.”

“Careful. I might just have the same thought about you.” At that, he turns on his heels and walks away.

“It says that only death is waiting up there, Caryan!” I call after him, my voice coming more desperate than ever.

At the sound of his name, he pauses and turns to look at me.

“Oh, I’ve been waiting to meet death for a long time,” he says. And I shudder at the bottomless pitch that yawns in his eyes. A reflection of what I just waded through. An ageless dark. “Let’s see what it has to say.”

On that, he strides away.

56

Melody

As we march on through the forest, Kyrith complains several times about food. I can’t shake the feeling that he’s glancing frequently in my direction, as if I’m the answer to his hunger.

I try to watch my steps. The forest has turned into a treacherous swamp, and it has become hard to find solid ground and not sink knee-deep into the insidious bog. Dead trees thrust upward on stretches of solid grassy land in between, cutting through the veil of mist like spears. Silence coats everything like a heavy blanket.

It’s as if the green paradise from hours before has been eradicated. Even the frogs have gone still a long while ago. Nothing lives here. Well, nothinggood, because I can feel a sinister presence hovering close, can smell death and decay. As we probe on, I can’t fight the dawning sensation that it’s been purposely made that way—dangerous and deadly—for all who want to cross. And that the only reason we don’t find our end here is because of Queen Calianthe, who fears Caryan’s wrath.

My eyes snare on a piece of blanched wood that protrudes out of the soil, and a cold shudder rakes through me. Not wood…bone. A human-like ribcage.

The silence grows even more oppressive, doing nothing to distract me from the gaping void in my very being, where just a few hours before there was that connection to Caryan’s mind. Only withit severed do I realize that it has always been there. Something dark and velvety, laced deep with my soul, buried in my very core. When I reach out to it now, those walls are still locked into place. Cold.

A bond…

A bond. We share abond.

---