Page 52 of Glass Wings
This wasn’t sinister. This was luck. This was an accumulation of what the universe owed to her for her grief and pain over the years.
You are a fool to walk away from this.
And yet, something still tugged in her gut. Some part of her still wanted to leave the estate, along with the envelope, behind. A pieceof her pleaded to not let this man own her, despite his dazzling smile, despite how he had come to her rescue.
She pushed that feeling away and focused on the weight of the bills in her hand.
“Now, do you still want to play poker?” Sheng asked, gesturing down the hallway she remembered leading to the opulent gathering room with the staircase.
“Well, I am curious what this place looks like in the daylight,” she responded and walked right past him, leading the way.
16
Arryn | Myrilosis | Late 1900s
Arryn’s blood simmered;the boiling had cooled as they entered the elevated cold air. The wings of all four kinnari looked closer to a group of pterodactyls with war paint than anything else; large, threatening.
He couldn’t quite place his finger on it, but there was something about Amis that he didn’t trust. It wasn’t that he killed newborn infants despite fathering them, that didn’t seem to phase him at all. It wasn’t his constant chatter about balancing magic. It had more to do with how his eyes shined when he heard Allienna was pregnant. Arryn’s possessiveness gripped hard when he couldn’t quite place the reaction.
Mine. She’s mine.
A grim look rested on Reign and Djoser’s faces anytime he could make eye contact with them in flight. He was confident that he wasn’t wrong on this. Every burning sensation under his skin pushed him tokeep going, though the expressions the others wore didn’t seem as sure.
None of the originals could be wiped out. Arryn just couldn’t allow it. They were his family; they all belonged to him, too. He couldn’t protect them during the first Vrae attack. He who had this special ability, this magic that couldn’t be matched, couldn’t do much more than freeze. He could only create childish things, unnatural creatures, things that oftentimes brought more danger than comfort. He wouldn’t fail here, he wouldn’t lose his love or his best friend. He would fight until he was utterly broken, since that’s all that he would be without either one of them.
The four kinnari landed on their familiar mountain peak, the snow crunching under the weight of their bodies while they made their way back inside the temple. Everyone had left them. Every single one of these Kinnari had left him and Allienna there by themselves, with little to no explanation other than the need to discover themselves. To grow. They were all selfish bastards. They didn’t know what it was to be a family.
“I will still take care of you all,” he mouthed, no sound escaping his lips.
Arryn didn’t get to grow. Arryn anchored the rage inside of himself as he gripped the fact that his existence didn’t belong to him. It belonged to the entire realm.
But she belongs to me. She’s mine, only mine.
Tension eased from his shoulders as he walked inside, through the wide stone floor hallway, and saw Allienna standing near the communal table. His pulse raced as he took in her beauty, only paralleled by constellations or the awe of a pink, vibrant sunset. He imagined her touch, her skin against his, the euphoria from her magic pulling him in and giving him his sweet, deserved relief.
“There they are,” Allienna said by way of greeting.
The two redheaded females that had gone briefly unnoticed stood up from their seats. Allienna walked up, arms open wide in welcome, and Arryn accepted her touch, her fingers caressing the back of his neck as they embraced. The pleasure and level-headednessfilled his body as his rage and pain seeped into hers. It was like breathing for the first time after being stuck in a sinking car. Arryn melted in her arms.
“I can’t say it’s a pleasure to see you, you . . . old . . . ugly thing.” Roksana’s low, devilish voice filled the room, and Arryn looked up to see a smiling Amis rising to the female’s challenge.
“When balance and instability reunite . . .” Amis growled, putting his hands on Roksana’s hips and pulling her towards him. Roksana dropped Precession's arm and left her twin sister to stumble.
“I can’t say that I’ve ever recalled a time that you left your sister’s side,” Arryn murmured to the twin, who seductively curved her body into Amis. The lust was palpable, and Arryn found himself suddenly quite thankful that both Amis and Roksana left the temple permanently before growing into sexual maturity. A faint blanket of passion covered the room, Roksana’s magic elevating everyone’s dominant emotion in the temple. It turned out it had been a while for most of them. Everyone but Amis and Roksana looked down awkwardly at their feet.
Arryn, looking for something else to focus on, could feel the haze of power being pulled from Precession. She always was tethering the moon to the Earth. The rotation from night to day, the tides, and the position of the realm’s axis were all dependent on this frail body which was supported and cared for by her chaotic and unpredictable sister.
“I could see that you would be ready for our support. You would have an irrational moment and enter Mrilyosis,with demands to confront our creators,” Precession said in her airy, breathy voice.
“Judged even by the best of us,” Allienna turned to Arryn and teased.
“How are you? Both of you?” Arryn laid his eyes back on his love; his hand caressed her brow and then slipped down to her stomach. A slight hardness existed where it was soft before.
Allienna balanced on her tiptoes to caress her lips against his and smiled assuredly as she pulled away. “We are good.”
Arryn felt a sudden emptiness as Reign tugged and pulledAllienna away, breaking the skin contact. He shifted uncomfortably, waiting for the burning under his skin to return.
“You are not coming with us. I’m sure Arryn will agree,” Reign said as Allienna fought against her magic before conceding. Her feet suddenly seemed stuck to the floor.
