Page 16 of Stars in Umbra
He exuded an immortal essence that never faded. His eyes, the color of storm-swept skies, carried centuries of memory and judgment.
‘War on Sacra,’ he rasped, ‘is not pursued for territory or treasure. It is contended for balance. For order. For ancestral reckoning.’
Fascinated, Rina’s brows lifted over the edge of her champagne flute as he continued.
‘Our soldiers are born of the crucibles, temples woven with sentient infernos. We are not merely trained in tactics, but in prophecy and spiritual synchronization. Each warrior is tethered to a flame-guardian spirit, an echo of one of the ancient celestial beasts who keep Sacra in alignment with the cosmic laws. Before we march to battle, we fast for seven days, enter the Caelastrum, and submit our intentions to the Judicator’s Flame. If our cause is unworthy, the blaze won’t burn. And if it does,’ he smiled, ‘Then the skies part for us.’
Sheba blinked. ‘You let fire decide if you’re allowed to engage?’
‘We don’t permit the sacred inferno dictate our actions,’ he murmured. ‘Still, we listen to it. Because combat without purpose is madness. Sacra has no room for mad gods.’
Rina sipped her drink, eyes gleaming. ‘So, how do you end a war?’
Zephyr tilted his head. ‘We return to the Caelastrum. If the fire is extinguished when we enter, the conflict is over. Those who continue to fight after that are considered Fallen. Exiled. Severed from the line of light.’
The soldier in Rina uttered a soft whistle of admiration laced with curiosity. ‘No wonder Issa carries herself like a blade wrapped in a star.’
Zephyr chuckled, the sound like distant thunder. ‘She was born in an astral body.’
Then he leaned closer to Rina, his gaze penetrating. ‘So is someone who is either meaningful to you, or about to be.’
A shudder went through her as his echoing, yet prophetic, words reverberated through her spirit.
She arched a brow as the General nodded, his eyes dancing as if he knew a secret she was not privy to.
‘What does that mean?’ she asked, speaking more to herself than him, but he’d already turned away to continue regaling his audience with more Sacran lore.
She was left flummoxed until she felt the fervor of a scorching stare run over her skin, crawling over her shoulder, down her back.
She sliced her eyes across the tent, heat-seeking, then her heart jolted, her chest clenching.
The source of the fever was staring at her with eyes so molten she flinched at their searing.
He stood with Mirage and Kage Sable, hand loose at his side, the other holding a tumbler of dark amber.
Kage was smoking a cigar, which he waved about, lost in a rousing discussion with the Rider’s synth-AI.
However, the third person in the group was focused on her; his unusual eyes, in shades of gray and gold, were mesmerizing.
His features were a sculpted surface, his aura still, unmoving yet at the same time devouring. Heavens above, he was beautiful. His honey-burnished skin was lined with jewel piercings at the temple, his beard neat, those lips, so lush.
Rina took a jagged inhale, her insides trembling, unable to move.
She was not the kind of woman who froze, not in a firefight, nor at a negotiating table packed with the galaxy’s fiercest rebel leaders.
Not even the time she’d had a knife at her neck during a recent mission in the Blue Marshes of Galicia.
Damn, this man had her by the throat as his gaze trailed along her nape, in an elemental, primal undoing of her spirit and soul.
He didn’t wink, smile, or even give much as a twitch. Still, she couldn’t stop feeling like she’d been marked, and now, her knees began to buckle.
Yet she couldn’t refrain from returning the stare.
Her eyes fell to the close-cut jacket that clung to his torso like a second skin, to the sculpted lines of his thighs, thick and honed beneath tailored obsidian. He was temptation forged into muscle and discipline.
His eyes burned with the coiled precision of a predator locking onto its mark.
However, she sensed hidden within that feral grace was a ruthless current of dominance that simmered just under the surface, like thunder in the bones of the earth.
