Page 105 of Shadows and Flames
Was that what these years had been? Duty? When she chanted prayers to the aether and encouragement over me as she pulled my babe from my body? When she lay amongst the tall grass of the Ralthan meadow, pressed against my back and crying with me after I scattered Soleil’s ashes in the wind?
When she buried with me Elián’s medallion in the soil, where I’d felt our son move within me for the first time?
Duty. The way.
“Right. Okay,” I croaked, any fight draining out of me faster than I could hold onto it.
More footsteps approached, but I averted my gaze downward, unprepared for Tana or any passersby to see whatever unrest was visible on my face.
These did not skirt around us, but stopped some paces away. Which, in the raw state I found myself in the face of my cousin’s words, only made me angry. My head pulsed with the fast pinging between emotions, and I snapped my head toward the ones staring.
Of course, I picked up on the scent right as my mind homed in on the armor of guards surrounding a figure cloaked in flowing fabric.
Instead of the gray steel, however, the yellow glow of lights overhead highlighted the golden plates armoring the six standing before us. Violet jewels adorned the gleaming vambraces and spaulders, and the breastplates were damascened with more gold decoration, in the likeness of scales.
At the front, presumably leading the group, a guard with bronze skin and plaited pink hair moved to the side. The remnants of a name pulled at my memory, but when the center of the procession was revealed, my jaw opened in more shock than when I’d watched a male walk out of a tree.
“Hello, Mamba.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
TANA
“Hello, Mamba.”
I’d been shaking, trembling with frustration and barely keeping confused tears at bay. The air I breathed wouldn’t fill my lungs, no matter how many inhales I took. From where I stood, unable to look at my cousin any longer without succumbing to the irritation and panic, I’d watched droves of people congregate at the epicenter of the art’s district.
At that voice, though, I flinched and turned.
I had not lived on the island, but I visited it plenty in my youth and during my initial training. I would recognize Rhaestran armor anywhere. And Idefinitelyrecognized that sarcastic voice anywhere.
My cousin, for once, was stunned into silence, which appeared to please Cera to no end. A thick braid ran over her shoulder and between her breasts, and gold beads sprinkled amongst the midnight strands.
She raised a brow, looking between my cousin and I, and drawled, “Is that how you greet your High Priestess?”
The provocation cleared the paralysis of my cousin’s shock, and she huffed, very much refusing to salute. I, however, followed the compulsion singing in the aether lingering in myveins, in my soul. After experiencing a world where its familiar song was silent, I’d never again take it for granted.
I bowed deeply, thumb and first two fingers at my brow in the traditional salute of Rhaea. Never mind the last time I’d seen the High Priestess of Rhaea, we’d traded insults over a meal in the bountiful gardens of the Temple.
Cera gave me quick, perfunctory salute back before snarling at my cousin, “Can’t bother to greet me after you fucked off without a word? I almost thought you dead, if not for the phantom thorn still poking in my side.”
Meline advanced a step, and the guards around Cera tensed, closing more tightly around her. My cousin paid them no mind. “A better question would be why you are terrorizing Nethras andmewith your presence. Though,” she waved a gloved hand, marks from Rhaea now hidden, “I am unsurprised the people of Rhaestras have grown tired of you.”
A serpentine smile grew on Cera’s face, flashing fang and the delicate gold clipped around them. The grin was vicious,delighted, and Cera shot past her guards, exiting their wall of protection. As infuriating as she could be, I could never forget her skill with the blades sheathed at her waist.
Cera crashed into Meline, hugging her fiercely, slapping hard claps on the backs of her shoulders, as if assuring she was whole. Real.
An understanding,my cousin had called it. The resolution of her last encounter with her longstanding rival, stretching back to their childhoods. The way they brought their brows together almost angrily, palms clasped against napes, spoke of more than the tentative truce I’d assumed they reached.
This was—this was sisterhood.
“What happened to you?” It came out as censure, but Cera hadn’t pulled away, and neither had Meline.
“I—too much.”
The High Priestess stared into my cousin’s eyes, unflinching, and in a tone devoid of any jokes or slights, she whispered, “You are changed.”
Meline had nothing but a nod in affirmation, and to that, Cera shifted them into another embrace, whispering assurances I couldn’t hear. And I watched my cousin’s shoulders relax with a speed I’d never been able to elicit. Meline clung to Cera with a fondness I’d never seen between them.
