Page 23 of Feral Gods
The admission hangs between us, more revealing than I'd intended. Zephyr studies me with those unnervingly perceptive turquoise eyes, seeing too much as always.
"Fascinating," he murmurs, more to himself than to me. "The sanctuary magic that responded to her plea—I wonder if it created some form of magical bond beyond the simple breaking of our curse."
"This isn't about magic," I growl, irritated by his scholarly detachment. "This is about protecting what we've claimed."
"Whatyou'veclaimed," he corrects gently. "Though I notice you keep saying 'ours' and 'we.' Tell me, Ravik, have you considered that Thane and I might have our own feelings regarding our human ward? That your... possessiveness... might not be universally shared?"
The suggestion ignites an irrational surge of jealousy that catches me entirely off guard. The thought of Zephyr or Thane developing similar feelings toward Kaia sends a wave of territorial rage through me that I struggle to contain.
"She brokeourcurse," I counter, emphasizing the collective pronoun. "She is underourprotection."
"Protection, yes," Zephyr agrees mildly. "But possession? That's a different matter entirely. And one I suspect our Kaia might have opinions about, were she consulted."
Our Kaia.The casual phrase both soothes and inflames my territorial instincts. I open my mouth to respond when a new presence interrupts our conversation.
Thane strides through the temple doors, blood-spattered and grim, his crimson eyes gleaming with the aftermath of battle. Bits of frost cling to his iron-black skin, suggesting he flew high and fast to return, rather than using the tunnels as planned.
"We have a problem," he announces without preamble. "The main force is closer than we thought. And they've brought Morwen."
Zephyr's expression tightens. "You're certain? You saw her?"
"Better." Thane tosses a small object onto the stone floor between us—a neptherium amulet inscribed with curse-sigilsunmistakably in Morwen's distinctive style. "I took this from one of her apprentices. Right before I separated his head from his shoulders."
I kneel to examine the amulet without touching it. The magic emanating from it feels cold, ancient, malevolent. "Tracking spell," I identify after a moment. "Calibrated to human essence."
"Specifically to Kaia's essence," Thane corrects. "They had a lock of her hair. Must have collected it from her sleeping quarters in Liiandor."
The implications send ice through my veins. "If they can track her directly..."
"Then our sanctuary's defenses mean nothing," Zephyr finishes, his scholarly calm finally cracking to reveal genuine alarm. "They can pinpoint her exact location within the temple."
Thane's gaze shifts between us, his expression hardening. "We need to move her. Now. Before Morwen completes whatever ritual she's preparing."
"Where?" I demand, straightening to my full height. "Where in all of Protheka could we hide her from a tracking spell keyed to her essence?"
"The wildspont caverns," Zephyr suggests. "The ambient magic would disrupt the tracking. But it would mean risking encounter with the vrakken."
"Better the vrakken than Morwen," Thane argues. "At least against vrakkens, we stand a fighting chance."
Their conversation fades to background noise as a terrible realization dawns on me. There's only one truly safe option for Kaia, and it's one I find myself viscerally, irrationally opposed to implementing.
"We should send her away," I force myself to say, the words like acid on my tongue. "Alone. Without us. Our presence only draws more attention, makes her more valuable as a target."
Both gargoyles stare at me in shock, clearly not expecting this suggestion from the one who has been most overtly protective of our human ward.
"You can't be serious," Thane growls. "She wouldn't survive a day out there alone."
"She survived before she found us," I counter, though every word feels like a betrayal of the promise I made her. "And she wouldn't be tracked as aggressively without the complication of awakened gargoyles."
Zephyr shakes his head slowly. "It would be a death sentence, Ravik. You know this. Winter in Causadurn Ridge is merciless, and the dark elves would still pursue her for what she knows."
"And if keeping her with us means Morwen recaptures all of us? Returns us to stone sleep, or worse?" I argue, playing devil's advocate against my own deepest instincts. "What good are we to her then?"
The tension in the chamber builds as we face this impossible calculus. I am torn between my promise to protect her and the pragmatic recognition that our presence may be the greatest threat to her safety. The contradiction tears at me, exposing the irrational nature of my attachment to a human I've known barely three days.
"What if she doesn't want to leave?"
The quiet voice from the corridor doorway freezes us all in place. Kaia stands there, her slender form silhouetted against the torchlight behind her, chin raised in that now-familiar expression of defiance. How long has she been listening? Long enough, clearly, to understand the essence of our dilemma.
