Page 228 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Riven

Riven knows she’s gone.

He feels it in his bones. Her absence is beyond something physical. Her scent, the memory of her silken skin like a brand tattooed on his mind.

He can’t think about the bruises on her body, not to mention the other things he picked up in her scent. Not without wanting to set the whole Fortress on fire.

He slowly wanders through the halls when he can’t stand the seclusion of his room any longer. He drifts through the empty spaces and, without noticing it, winds up in her room.

He looks up. Black wings are dancing in the wind that streams in through the open window. Caryan stands there in the dark, as if he was born out of it, his white skin the only contrast. He doesn’t look at Riven. His gaze rests on the wall opposite her bed, where Melody had painted him, with his golden eyes so realistic it takes Riven’s breath away.

Riven stands there for an age, not trusting his voice or his own body next to Caryan. Not after what Caryan did to her.

Finally, Caryan turns his head and looks at Riven for a very long time, his eyes black as his magic swathes around his wings and shoulders.

Eventually, Kyrith teleports into the room, his green eyesnarrowed to slits. “The girl and the witch are gone. I can’t find them anywhere.”

But Caryan continues looking at Riven.He knows.Caryan knows already. But why isn’t he following her?

The angel turns and, without a word, vanishes through the window. Only then does the smell of angelic blood hit Riven like a solid blow. Drops of it shimmering like dark ink where Caryan stood.

The realization hits Riven like another blow, aimed at his ribs. Caryan can’t follow her, or he would have already. Because he iswounded.

Dread sluices through Riven then, raw and ugly. Whatever Melody did, she harmed him, with her magic. Badly enough that even Caryan’s runes and the curse can’t heal him instantly; her magic obviously weakening his.

The last time he saw Caryan bleed like this, the wound had been caused by Ciellara. Melody’s mother. By her light magic.

The only magic that could stop a creature like Caryan.

73

Melody

We fly for most of the night, the wind up here no longer warm but icy and cutting under my thin clothes. We sit wedged between the huge, dark scales of the dragon, soaring high over desert lands.

And as I look down, I wonder whether past events robbed me of my primal fear of heights, because I find it strangely beautiful and peaceful up here.

As if nothing could touch me.

Blair behind me stays silent the whole time, and there is only the boom of the dragon’s powerful wings under the stars and my own, wild thoughts.

I hold on tight when the dragon suddenly soars higher, closer to the moons and towards the clouds that have gathered over the ocean. A storm, ready to break loose. When they part, I spot outlines of an ivory city perched on the coast, surrounded by houses, safely enclosed by massive walls. A huge tower protrudes from its middle like a warning, a fire burning on its top so big I can see it from here. The city, so much larger than Niavara.

A real city.

“What is this?” I ask Blair, twisting around to look at her.

She still looks bad. Pale and thin now, her muscles protruding, her face sharp and angular, accentuating her piercing, golden eyes. Her long, white hair streams unbound behind her as if she’sunderwater. Her torn clothes hang on her, some scraps that must have been a red cloak once, now soaked with blood, fluttering in the wind like a flame. How she survived Caryan’s prison… it must be her fae blood, because right now, she looks more dead than alive save for the fire in her eyes.

Those eyes zero in on me, and I can see the hunger guttering in them, reminding me that she is still a predator. And that a part of her would love to see me die.

Preferably violently.

She drawls, “It’s Avander. A harbor town, where Caryan’s fleet lies. Like Niavara, Caryan rebuilt it from elven ruins.”

Indeed, as the clouds below us part further, I spot huge ships anchored all around, surrounding the town and the coast. Hundreds of them, their silvery sails tinted bone white beneath the moonlight. And on them, two moons, one white and one gleaming red, with black, angelic wings spread out in the back.

Caryan’s signet. The Kingdom of the Two Moons.

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