Page 20 of Bound By the Vori

Kim’s tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth, but she shook her head, and she stumbled back from the vision of terror that the princess had become. Zana rose from her bench, her body looming horrifically, her crown coils weaving like a vicious net of serpents with snapping fangs as if she were Medusa or one of her Gorgon sisters incarnated. Kim wanted to scream and would have if her throat had allowed even a hint of sound to escape her. Instead, there was nothing that came from her except the strangled sound of air being forced through her closing throat. Her eyes fluttered closed as she crumpled to the floor. The pain that she must have felt on contact was such a distant thing that she barely registered it. She heard Rykaal’s name called, but she was certain within this nightmarish state there was a seductive note to it and a hint of laughter. What was going on? What had she done?

Large arms jostled Kim. A male’s voice shouted but the words were twisting too, becoming unfathomable hisses and growls as she drifted into a dark tunnel that closed everything out.

When she woke again it was in a sterile room with her mates hovering over her, concern stamped into their handsome faces. She was so relieved to see that they were no longer twisted creatures that she burst into tears, her hands scrambling to reach for them and reassure herself that they were whole and entirely as they should be.

“Kim!” Rykaal moaned, his large arms folding around her to hold her to him as if he were afraid to let her go. “What, in the name of the Father of Sentries, were you doing with a gyuli? Humans are severely allergic to them. You should have said that you wanted a plant for the tutoring room. We would have found something safe for you.”

Kim frowned in confusion as he continued to hug her to him, his lips pressing to the top of her head as Sijhord tucked in close at her other side, his hand running in a soothing motion along her arm. Twisting in Rykaal’s arms, she leaned back and peered up at him.

“What do you mean? I didn’t go get anything. I thought it was a gift from you to celebrate our first lunar cycle together,” she bit out miserably, suddenly feeling incredibly foolish.

His eyes widened, and he glanced over her head to Sijhord before meeting her gaze again, his expression sobering. He shook his head. “I would not leave anything in the tutoring room. I am selfish and would want to see my mate’s pleasure. Sijhord and I had made plans for a special meal for tonight as we wished to celebrate the first of many wonderful lunars together, but I did not think to get any kind of a gift. I did not realize that this was a tradition among humans,” he rumbled.

Kim shook her head and managed a weak laugh. “It isn’t really, except maybe among the young and extra dramatic. I just saw the gift and thought that maybe you had seen a bad teen drama or something,” she wheezed.

Sijhord’s mouth pinched as he peered down at her worriedly. “I do not think that this is a laughing matter, Kim,” he grumbled, his red eyes narrowing as he glanced through the room anxiously. “Whoever put that in the room clearly meant to kill you.”

“Or it was a young female who did not know better and perhaps thought to make peace with something pretty,” she pointed out. While it hadn’t occurred to her at the time, it seemed like the next logical conclusion if it wasn’t a gift from Rykaal or Sijhord.

Rykaal gave her a doubtful look but slowly nodded. “That is possible,” he conceded despite the way Sijhord scowled at him as if he would like nothing better than to object to demand they round up a posse to hunt down her would-be murderer. Fuck, she loved him. Both of them. And the rightness of the knowledge warmed her better than whatever medicine they currently had her doped up on to ride out the effects of the plant’s obvious toxins. “I will have a talk with her,” he added. “If she wishes to give you something, she will need to take better care.”

Kim patted his hand curled around her upper arm and leaned into him. “No. Let me do it. We don’t know if it even was Zana. Even if it was a mistake, we don’t want her feeling ganged up on. I will have a little talk with her.”

Although, both males grumbled unhappily, she knew that they would concede to her wishes. She just wanted to move past the entire episode without blaming or further shaming her pupil. Even if it was a misguided attempt at a gift, mistakes happened, but she would rather gently address herself without accusations being made. She felt like she was finally starting to get somewhere with Zana and didn’t want anything to backtrack her progress now.

Seventeen

Rykaal bowed his head, his jaw clenching as he settled on his coil respectfully before the Matriarch. This was the last place he wanted to be while his mate was still recovering, but he needed to inform her of what exactly had happened beneath her own roof. Kim seemed certain that it was an accident, but he was not convinced. Over the last lunar of carefully watching how hostile Zana was toward his mate, the more disturbed he became by her behavior. He tried to be compassionate in knowing that she was trying to adjust to a new change in the world she had known, but the more he watched her act out, the more he was convinced that this was not the same female he had watched all her life.

Sometimes he thought he caught glimpses of it when she was listening avidly to Kim while busily pretending not to. There was a glimmer of awe and excitement that he remembered seeing in her when she was a nestling and he had accompanied her in her explorations around the palace. It pained him to think that it was possibly just his imagination and that the female he had known was possibly gone.

He hoped she was not. He hoped that he was mistaken. Even if it was an accident, it was still a dangerous one. But he could not let it continue without at least letting the Matriarch know that there was potentially a problem.

“Rykaal? I am surprised to see you here. Should you not be with your mate?” Inkol glided out from an access hall from beyond the throne, his expression curious.

Dropping his chin slightly in respect to the male, Rykaal’s crown coils twisted and knotted together with the tension running through him. “I will be returning soon, but I needed an audience with the Matriarch.”

A frown marred the male’s expression. “The Matriarch is quite busy with some of her males. Are you certain that this cannot wait?”

Rykaal’s tail twitched with embarrassment. Rumor had been circulating that the Matriarch was frequently indisposed as of late because she had gone into season and was sequestering herself with a pair of males that she had chosen to accompany her. Apparently Inkol was not one of them. Not surprising. As far as he was aware, Inkol had never been chosen for breeding but that was not surprising.

Although the male was attractive, his scales a paler, more iridescent hue of green than Sijhord’s which gave him a certain recognized beauty, he was known to have an aggressive temperament that, while it made a good guard and protector over his mate, and desirable as a lover by the Matriarch, they were not qualities that were desirable to breed into nestlings. Perhaps that accounted for the male’s presence in the throne room, but usually that was Esheb’s duty. He glanced around curiously, expecting to see the other male come from some hidden quarter and was surprised when he failed to make an appearance.

His brows raised at Inkol. “Where is Esheb? He should be here as well since he is my superior.”

Did the male’s jaw tighten a little just then? Rykaal studied the male for a moment but, when he saw no further sign of it, decided it must have been his imagination.

“Esheb is entertaining the Matriarch,” Inkol replied woodenly.

Rykaal gaped at the guard. “Truly? He was selected for breeding?” He did not think there was a single occasion where a male of their coloring was selected to breed into the royal house. “I shall hope that the Mother of the Nests favors him.”

“If he sires a royal offspring, it shall certainly be one for historical record,” Inkol grunted, and Rykaal immediately felt a wave of sympathy for the male. No doubt he had taken comfort in knowing that he was not the only male set aside from breeding. Although not all of the males had sired offspring on the Matriarch, most of the other males had at least enjoyed the opportunity of trying and the frenzy of mating. It was something that Rykaal was looking forward to enjoying if his mate recovered enough from illness before her fertile period ended. If not, there would be other times and humans had far more frequent fertile cycles than the annual ones enjoyed by Vori.

“I shall tell them that you are here.” The male paused, his nose wrinkling faintly. “It may be a bit of a wait.”

Rykaal dipped his chin again. He expected that. “Understood.”

With a hiss of scales sliding against stone, the guard left, leaving Rykaal alone in the vast chamber with his thoughts. Most of them were focused entirely on his mate and his need to return to her side. He would inform the Matriarch as to what happened when she arrived and then he would leave.

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