Page 6 of War Of Fire and Fortune
I gasped, the air sweet and stinging as it filled my starving lungs. My fingers unclenched from the beast's flanks, and I coughed violently, expelling water.
I squinted, pushing my drenched hair back from my face to peer at my surroundings. The waters of Draynua stretched endlessly around us, but there, cutting a silhouette against the night, was Magni Island. The lynx moved with an elegance thatbelied its massive size, swiftly closing the distance between us and the shore.
Kade . . . He had Hollowed me to Magni, knowing I'd be safe here since it was protected, but couldn't fully breech the barrier.
The shore approached, and I slipped from the lynx's back, my body collapsing onto the sand. Tremors racked me, every fiber of my being weak and spent from the fight for survival. I lay there, panting.
And then, the lynx was by my side, its presence a strange comfort. It nudged me gently with its head before using its webbed paw to roll me over. A rough, warm tongue swept across my cheek—an affectionate gesture that felt wholly out of place in this moment.
"Thank you," I whispered, my voice hoarse as I reached out to touch the creature's whiskered face. "I guess we're even now."
Hauling myself into a sitting position, I stared out at the calm waters. Kade had saved me, yes, but at what cost? Ace, my brother, had been left behind in whatever hell Kade had deemed necessary for me to escape, but not him. He should have saved him too. And if not, then he shouldn't have saved either of us. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to him all because he’d been trying to save me.
And all the while, the secret Kade had kept from me festered like a wound: he was my mate. The revelation tore at me, fury and sorrow waging war in my chest. All this time, he’d known . . .
I screamed, a raw reaction that carried my pain and rage across the waves. Now that I wasn’t feeling both of our emotions, I had more clarity.
Tears streamed down my face, my sobs the only sound until another joined them—the ancient rasp of a voice I knew all too well. The night seemed to hold its breath.
“Oh, Emelyn.” He drawled out my name like he savored it. Each syllable rolled off his tongue with a weight that made myalready heavy heart sink further into the pit of my stomach. I could hear the water dripping from his slick body to the sand. The Kappa was behind me.
I stiffened, my hands balling into fists in the damp sand. My throat felt tight, constricted, as if his words were tangible things wrapping around my neck. I wasn’t scared, just angry.
"Kappa," I managed to say, my voice soft but steady despite the whirlwind of emotions inside me. "Why have you come?"
The air grew colder, the presence of the ancient being more palpable. I refused to let him see how his proximity unnerved me, how my skin prickled. So I remained still, waiting. There was a pause, a stretching moment where the world seemed to wait with me for his response.
Then the Kappa settled beside me with the ease of a creature both feared and revered. The lynx, still looming close, watched us with eyes that gleamed like moonlit pools. "The lynx thinks highly of you, and it was a returned act of kindness, so here I am," he explained, his voice a raspy caress.
He drew his abnormally long, lanky, slick legs to his chest, an oddly human gesture. With a long, taloned finger, he scratched beneath the lynx’s scaly chin, and the beast responded with a sound that vibrated deep in its throat, one that, despite everything, coaxed a fleeting smile onto my lips.
After a moment bathed in the serenity of our strange companionship, the lynx circled us once, an elegant animal bidding its silent farewell. It then turned and padded back into the embrace of the waters.
"I would offer you another truth, but it looks like you've found out all the most important ones," the Kappa mused.
"Are you saying there is more I still don't know? I'm not sure I can handle much more," I admitted, struggling to maintain my composure.
"I assure you, you can." He crooned the words.
"Of course," I retorted with a half-hearted scoff. "I've only just discovered my mate has been lying to me and is the enemy prince, and now I'm conversing with a Kappa on a protected island.Andmy brother has been left with the enemies. My threshold for what I can handle seems to be expanding by the minute."
He let out a sound that could have been a chuckle, a gurgling ripple. Was I joking around with the Kappa? A beast that no one else had ever survived an encounter with? I had expected something worse to come of the sarcasm.
“Remember, truth is like the ocean—it ebbs and flows, but it never ceases to be.”
"Very poetic," I said, arching an eyebrow. "But if you're done dispensing cryptic wisdom, I'd appreciate a straightforward answer for once."
"Where would be the fun in that?" He flashed a wide, sharp, toothy grin that had once been terrifying to me. But now it just seemed like a returned smile from a friend. "Besides, I find flustering those I meet entertaining. It is the only fun I truly get to have being aknow-it-all."
"Delighted to amuse you," I muttered, though the corner of my mouth betrayed me, curling up ever so slightly.
"Embrace the unknown, Emelyn. It's where the true adventure lies." He unfolded himself gracefully and stood to his full, impressive height, casting a long shadow over the sand.
"Easy for you to say," I shot back, pushing myself up despite the tremble in my limbs. "You’re all-knowing. You see what awaits you onyouradventure."
My hands clenched into fists at my sides, nails digging into my palms in an attempt to anchor myself to the present. "I don't know where to go from here," I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. "I don't know what to do."
The Kappa's eyes glinted with something I couldn't place. Pity?
