Page 44 of Lera of Lunos
“Lera.” Salt streaked down Tye’s face as he dropped to his knees beside her, his body pulsing with emptiness and agony. No. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. Tye’s tiger purred, the animal desperate to offer what comfort he could. Tye could hear the tiger now, but Lera’s loss snuffed all joy from that. From life.
No.Tye had found his mate. He could not lose her. The stars could not do that.
Kneeling beside Tye, Shade laid his hand on the lass’s, summoning strength from stars knew where. The silver of Shade’s healing magic cocooned the girl’s body. Glowed once. Faltered. Then slithered away like a sheet, the male shaking his head. A moment later, a bright light flashed and Shade’s wolf curled up next to Lera’s body, whimpering.
River loomed over them all, unspeaking—but not unfeeling. Tye could feel the tortured pain rolling off him in waves, see it in his wide gray eyes.
“My magic.” Pushing Shade’s wolf aside roughly, Coal took the shifter’s place, pulling Lera toward him. The warrior was so large beside her that Tye couldn’t understand how the two ever sparred. How Coal could face her on the sands, knowing how easily she could fall. Hurt herself. Die. Then he understood that it was Lera’s spirit that made her seem to take up more space in life, her flashing eyes and quick laugh and stupid, ceaseless bravery.
Tilting Lera’s head back, Coal locked his mouth over hers.
Tye’s chest tightened in scant hope, his heart quickening. Yes. Coal. The magic that the dark warrior evoked in Lera turned inward just like his, giving her the strength and healing gifts of the immortal male. “Come, lass,” Tye whispered, watching Coal’s mouth cover Lera’s cold lips. “Answer Coal’s challenge and I’ll never begrudge you a single moment you spend with this bastard. I’ll even stop stealing if you want me to. Anything. Just fight.”
A heartbeat passed. An eternity. More.
Coal’s face lifted from Lera’s, his blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. Twisting violently, the warrior slammed his fist into the stone floor hard enough to fracture bones.
Tye’s throat closed, sobs he could not control choking him. When he could finally force air down his throat, the scent of lilac came with it. The moss itself smelled of it, as if paying homage. In the Gloom, where nothing smelled or tasted how it should, Leralynn’s lilac scent filled the air.
His face wet, Tye stumbled to the wall of moss, pulling a whole armful into his hands. The flaming pain it sent along his skin was welcome. Returning to Lera’s side, he laid the bouquet on her chest, closing the lass’s arms over the strands. “She thought it was pretty.” His voice was thick, his vision blurring. “She liked it. And it...” He couldn’t finish, his hands falling limply to his sides.
For a moment, they all looked on, silent. There was nothing more they could do.
“Your moss is wilting,” Xane’s voice announced from beyond Tye’s world.
Rage flared through Tye’s blood. Twisting around, he grabbed the cowering princeling by the neck, pulling him upright. Tye’s fist cocked back. Of all the things the wee bastard had said and done, this was the last line Tye would let him cross.
Xane raised his hands, warding off the blow. “The moss absorbs magic,” he croaked, speaking as quickly as Tye’s grip on his neck allowed. “If it’s wilting, the magic is goingsomewhere.”
Tye’s fist paused. “What the bloody hell are you babbling about now?”
Xane motioned to his neck, gasping when Tye released the hold. “I may not be the athlete or warrior or military strategist that Blaze bloody wants, but I do knowsomethings.” Stepping toward the wall of purple moss, Xane took a fortifying breath and ripped off a small clump. “Look,” he said, showing it to Tye.
Tye stared at the moss. The exact same moss that it was a moment earlier, coiled strands of phosphorescent purple. “I’ll kill you.”
Xane shook his head. “Look at the moss you put on Lera.”
Tye glanced over. River and Coal looked too, crouching closer to Lera’s body. Even Shade’s wolf raised his head. The lush bouquet that Tye had laid on his Lilac Girl’s chest was now dull and limp.
“The moss balances the Gloom,” Xane said, throwing down the fresh moss to rub his reddened palms. “I’m immortal, so the moss takes my magic. Humans are magic neutral, so the moss ignores them. And then there’s Leralynn, a weaver with the ability to manipulate magic yet who possesses none of her own. In her last moments, your matedonatedpower to the moss, and I think that formed a negative in the balance, in the form of her body... a colossal negative, given the amount of power in quint magic.” Xane paused. “So now the moss wants to even the scales.”
34
Coal
Coal had hoped Tye would snap the princeling’s neck. Now, he was uncharacteristically glad for the male’s restraint. Something was happening, brushing against Coal’s magic. A whisper of a challenge that had not been there moments earlier. A tiny spark that fizzled to life for an instant and dimmed just as quickly.
“What did you say?” Coal demanded, unwilling to turn his gaze away from Lera’s limp body, draped in bloodstained silk. “What did you say about the moss?”
“It’s wilting.” Xane’s voice shook, the letters tripping over themselves. When Coal turned to glare at him, the prince seemed to shrink into the stone floor.
“It’spartiallywilting,” River corrected, crouching beside the girl. “Look here.”
Coal followed the path of River’s finger. For some stars-only-known reason, the mortal had dressed for battle in a green silk gown, held up with a tight bodice that left her neck and shoulders bare. River pointed at the juncture of fabric and skin—the moss wilted only where it touched Lera directly.
“Rip her dress,” Coal ordered River, and he shoved past the others to tear away a great armload of moss. His heart raced, sweat beading on his temples despite the chill. Returning to Lera, he spread the burning purple strands across her gray skin and held his breath.
Waiting. Hoping. Gasping as another spark of defiance poked his magic, another tiny prick that flared and died just as the moss withered. “More,” Coal demanded, not needing to explain what he meant. Or why.
