Page 499 of Kingdoms of Night

“Destroying the greatest temple she has left on the Moon.”

“A tempting idea.” I rose up, and he leaned down, meeting me in a kiss. “Go.”

As if letting go pained him, he stepped back with a groan and spread his wings to their full breadth.

Despite the obscured details, I was awed by the wingspan and the power in them as they carried him up and away.

Flying faster than we did atop Iltani, he shot off the halo and into the night like a black comet. I could only watch with my freezing hands tightly clasped over my overworked chest, heart and lungs one scare away from collapsing.

“Please,” I prayed. “Please work.”

Dark as he was, the distance had grown so great that I soon lost sight of him, amplifying my anxiety. I searched for him, along with anything familiar to grasp my attention and keep me calm.

Constellations took new shapes from here, I could draw the connecting lines that gave them names, but not recognize any save for, perhaps, the Plough. If only I had been brought here under sweeter circumstances, a romantic night as newlyweds, or a chance for me to chart these foreign skies.

A sudden flash from the corner of my eye had me on the verge of delirium. I spun towards it, ready to see him flying back down to me unveiled and unbound, but instead I found nothing.

At least, at first it appeared to be nothing of note until I caught one star up ahead, closer than the rest. Bright and unblinking.

The Evening Star.

Its shine expanded, blocking out the closest competitors, and dread tore through me like a harpoon.

“TAMUZ!” I screamed to the sky. “TAMUZ, HURRY!”

There was no sign of him, and Ashtara’s heavenly abode had grown unavoidable, advancing to cast its yellowish glow like a smaller, oncoming sun.

She was coming far faster than I anticipated, and it was all my fault.

A comet cut through the unnatural dawn Ashtara brought, and for a crucial instant, it collided with the source then shot towards me.

I shook with worsening nerves, anxious to welcome him back in time for the barrier to block her.

He returned at a breakneck speed and I couldn’t keep steady, practically dancing in place as I prayed to whatever would listen, an obsessive litany of ,“Please, please, please!”

When Tamuz crossed the edges of the halo, it wasn’t in triumphant speed. He fell right past us, backwards and hidden by his wings.

No!

There was no time to think of anything else. I scrambled onto Iltani and we dove after him.

It didn’t matter that the plummeting body had remained pitch-black, all that did was that I caught him before he crashed like a meteor.

The flight down felt too much like crashing. It sickened me, worsening my state so my tears flew off my lashes before they could hit my cheeks. I fought to remain on the saddle, my arms and legs too weak to keep me from flying off, bound to thebashmu’s back by the grip of the reins.

“Catch him!” I yelled to Iltani. “Do it! Catch him now!”

The sky lit up around us as Iltani opened her jaws, and I couldn’t trust chance. I had to make sure, check over my shoulder to watch a burning body crash against the halo.

Thunder cracked at the impact, a blinding burst of venomous green spreading from the collision point.

I held on long enough to watch Iltani’s jaws capture her master.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

Somehow, we made it back to Daraqamar in one piece.

The effects of our voyage took a day or two for me to recover from, taking deep breaths proved strenuous still, so did remaining awake.

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