Page 85 of What Lurks Between the Fates

I followed him as if in a trance, making my way down the steps.

He lowered himself, leaning onto a front leg that he bent. The other straightened in front of him, his head hanging forward into a bow.

I gaped at him, not understanding as I walked forward slowly. His wings lowered to the ground, feathers spreading across the grass and rock. The sight of them drew me forward, tickling at the vestiges of a memory.

The arrow thudding into his withers snapped me out of the moment. He reared back with a neigh, lightning erupting from his horn as I darted forward.

Another arrow came, heading straight for his neck. I drew my sword, arcing it through the air to deflect. The arrow bounced off as I grasped the one still planted in his withers andpulled.

The horse screamed as I tore it free, his furious golden eyes snapping to mine as Mab and her guards emerged from the tree line.

“Go,” I ordered, shoving at the horse’s side. I pushed against the point of his shoulder, shoving him away from the threat.

He whinnied, flapping those massive wings and taking to the skies. I watched in horror as Mab’s arrows flew for him, falling just short as they brushed against his tail.

“Stupid, foolish girl!” the Queen of Air and Darkness grunted. She strode forward, one of her arrows in her hand as she stabbed it down toward me.

Not a hit meant to kill, but to maim.

It came for my cheek, striking against a golden boundary that sent her spiraling backward. Lightning cracked through the sky once more, a reminder of the creature that had once stood in this spot.

Mab collided with the ground, lying upon it before she pushed to her feet and began to prowl toward me once more.

“I do not suggest that, sister,” Rheaghan said, stepping out of the tree line. “Theaonnaighshowed itself to her. Even you are not fool enough to harm her after that.”

Mab scoffed, turning on her heel as Rheaghan came closer. I sheathed my sword as Mab disappeared into the tree line to go hunt something else, allowing the God of the Sun to take my hand.

“Let’s find your mate, and find you something to kill,” he said, guiding me toward the woods.

I summoned a star to my free hand, allowing it to drift in front of us and lead the way. The others had faded in my panic to save the horse—theaonnaigh.

“What’s theaonnaigh?” I asked, stepping over a particularly large root from a tree. My soul felt heavy, such a contrast to the lightness that had claimedme when I frolicked through the woods in my semblance of freedom.

How quickly the cage walls had come crashing down, watching the winged horse fly to freedom while I remained.

“A creature crafted from the darkness itself. All the stories state that Khaos crafted it from the night sky to be a gift for his wife, Nyx, when he created her from the stars. He meant it to belong to the one true queen,” Rheaghan explained, guiding me forward.

“The one true queen of what?”

The woods seemed less alive than they had when I’d danced through them earlier. Whether it was the near death of such a beautiful creature, or the shift toward danger, I couldn’t know.

Rheaghan’s stare felt heavy on the side of my face as we walked. “Everything.”

I swallowed past the implication in those words, wondering if I really wanted to face the reality they may present. That thread in the center of my chest pulled, as if Caldris knew I was looking for him. I could imagine his smile while he engaged in battle with some horror of Tartarus—feel his teasing thread of humor pulse down the bond.

“Then why would it show itself to me?” I asked.

“The Primordials have been missing for centuries. Perhaps they’ve hidden themselves within human vessels,” Rheaghan said as he swept a tree branch out of the way. He’d clearly been speaking with his sister following the revelation of the night before—her accusation that I was somethingimpossible.

Caldris stood in between the trees, his armor and leather covered in blood. Already at his side, three creatures lay in pieces, the heads severed from their bodies. They were similar to the arachni that haunted the caves in Mistfell,but their bodies were even larger.

They were larger than I—their legs standing tall even as their bodies collapsed upon them. One shrieked, charging for my mate as he swept the legs out from under it with a clean cut of his sword.

The legs flung through the air as he shoved his hand up, snapping through flesh to grasp the creature’s heart and pull it free. It was still pumping blood upon the ground when the creature collapsed at my mate’s feet, the God of the Dead turning to strike me with a brutal smile.

Blood was splashed all over his face, adding to the brutality of his features. Only the gleam of his white teeth shone from beneath all that red as my star floated toward him, guiding me forward. I reached him, flinching slightly when the warm press of his blood-soaked hand touched my cheek.

We didn’t speak of the creature that had shown itself to me, or Rheaghan’s theory that I was somehow the embodiment of Nyx. Caldris reached down, grasping two of the spiders by the head, cracking their necks, and wrenching them in a circular motion until they came free. Then he opened the shadows, allowing Rheaghan to walk through first with one of the spider’s heads.

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