Page 17 of Lera of Lunos
The expected bark of laughter didn’t come. Not good. Inside his pockets, Tye’s hands clenched into fists.
“You should tell them,” Elidyr said, flipping the horse’s reins into place and swinging lightly into the saddle. “At least that female of yours.”
Tye’s jaw clenched, his anger surging to the surface one moment before he would have been in the clear. “You and Klarissa did a fine job of running my personal business up the bloody flagpole for all to see. You’ll forgive me if I little want your advice on what else I should be doing.”
“Tye—” Elidyr started, but Tye stepped into the Gloom and drowned out the elder.
11
Lera
Ionly realize how tight my chest has been when I take my first breath of pine-filled freedom. Sprite’s saddle shifts beneath me as the silent hinges of the Citadel’s intricate metal gate close at our backs, the blindingly white wall rising above us. Despite being barely audible, the click of the lock reverberates through me like thunder. Through everyone.
I bite my lip, watching my males gather together a few paces down the uneven slope. The packed-dirt road winds down before us, lined with brilliant maples and ash trees, hidden birds chattering all around. It feels like only yesterday that the five of us wound our way up here, certain we’d be leaving in a matter of days to do as we pleased—not riding out weeks later to dethrone one of the most powerful males in Lunos.
Shade, traveling in wolf form, keeps his distance from the horses, but they stomp the ground nonetheless, huffing their anxiety to get moving. The males’ stallions are majestic in the late-afternoon sun, their heads held high, their powerful muscles vibrating with pride and energy. Just like the males sitting atop them. The males who went to the Citadel for me. Who lowered to their knees and bent their heads to accept runes and trials and humiliations that should have been centuries behind them.
Only now that we are leaving the Citadel do I truly feel the magnitude of their sacrifice.
“Is something amiss, lass?” Tye calls to me over the wind. The cool breeze clears his red hair from his eyes, green and mischievous and tinged with a sadness I can’t crack. The male appeared at the stable only moments ago, giving us all his cocky grin and a simple, “Well, what are waiting for?” I thought the thunder in River’s eyes might bring the building down around us; he’d been readying to search the Citadel himself.
I nod, surveying the rippling treetops and jagged mountains that surround us. And far below in the valley, the green meadows and dense forests spreading across the neutral lands toward Slait. Nature in its raw magnificence. Nudging Sprite up beside the red-haired male, I take his hand and bring it to my face, rubbing my cheek against his rough knuckles. “Tye—”
“Pick up your reins, mortal, or I swear I’ll take you on a bloody lead line,” Coal says, his voice wedging between Tye and me.
I give Coal a vulgar gesture but do take up the leather. With that, River picks up the pace and leads us toward home.
* * *
Just a few milesoutside the Citadel, River’s other reason for insisting we travel alone through the mountains becomes clear. As we enter the thick forest that blankets the mountain range, Tye reins in beside Coal and swings out of the saddle, handing off his horse to the black-clad warrior.
“Where—”
River shakes his head at me, a worried look on his face.
My chest tightens, squeezing more painfully still when, without so much as looking toward me, Tye disappears into the pines. A few moments later, a bright light flashes between the branches and the rustling of a great tiger loping through the trees reaches our small clearing. The spots of orange amidst the green flash by like stars in a night sky. I stare at the bright spots as they get farther away, realizing I’ve gone rigid only when the horse beneath me dances her discontent.
“Sorry, girl.” Eyes still on the forest, I swing out of the saddle to land on the hard-packed earth, my muscles whining in protest. After not riding at the Citadel, even the past hour in the saddle has taken its toll.
“Do you intend to walk to Slait?” Coal asks.
“Do you intend to be an ass all the way to Slait, or are you balancing some cosmic normal-being versus horrid-jerk scale that your kiss upset?” I shoot back at him, watching his sharply carved jaw clench at the kiss’s mention. At the dagger-sharp condemnation in the wolf’s yellow gaze, clear even from ten yards away.
Brilliant. Less than a day from the Citadel, and one male is prancing off into the woods without so much as an explanation while another is reverting back to walling himself off, probably in deference to some idiotic “protect Lera from myself” logic. I rub my eyes with the heels of my hands and focus on the gurgle of a nearby river. “Forget it. I’ll go fill the water skins while we wait. Do you want to give me yours?”
Coal snorts. “One, that’s salt water you’re hearing, running from a spring in the White Cliffs. Two”—he holds up his fingers as if concerned I’ll be too daft to follow—“Tye won’t be back for at least a week. And three, either get back in the saddle or walk, but we aren’t halting here much longer.”
“Aweek?” My mouth dries when River nods in agreement.
“There are few places safe for Tye’s tiger to roam loose,” he says, his attention on the forest. “And he’s gone too long without doing so. I think it might be one of the reasons he’s been so... not himself lately. Since we’re out here, we might as well use the time.” He clicks his horse forward, looking back when I don’t follow right away. “Come, Leralynn. The beast will likely stay in our vicinity as we move—roughly—but I want to put as much distance between us and the Citadel as possible before we bed down for the night, in case he strays.”
Now that we’re not within the high walls of the Citadel, I can see River pulling his commander’s cloak even closer around him. We’re loose in the dangerous neutral lands, and the weight of our survival here rests on his too-tight shoulders.
By the time River finally calls a halt, Shade’s prediction about the effects of Coal’s magic on my body comes true with a vengeance. I grip the saddle to keep from toppling over as Sprite walks, and I don’t fall on my face dismounting only because Shade lifts me off the horse—ensuring that Coal sees him do it. The blond warrior’s jaw tightens, and I can practically see the wall rising higher around him. The useless, punishing thoughts that I can’t make him un-think.Lera is hurt. My fault. My fault. My fault.
“Stop it.” I shove Shade’s chest. Lose what little balance my wobbling legs were granting me. Fall right in front of Coal’s boots, nearly re-twisting my ankle in the process.
I catch a flash of alarm in Coal’s eyes, which he shutters just as quickly. He bends to help me up, but Shade blocks him with an arm.
