Page 102 of Between Soul and Vessel
“Because I want to snap Kaleb’s neck for talking to her.”
I chuckled at that. “That doesn’t mean she’s your mate.”
“She is.” His tone was serious, yet another strange thing for the God of Chaos to be.
“Explain.”
“It’s like I said before—ever since we arrived here, I’ve felt this constant tugging. When she was falling, I didn’t just go to her because you asked. I physically felt compelled to do so. And when Sage asked me to set her down, it was like . . .” He glanced down at his hands. “My body had a will of its own and wouldn’t listen.”
“Like you couldn’t physically part with her,” I said, recalling the time when Sage had fallen unconscious and I had taken her to Ezra. Ezra had asked me to lay her on the bed, but as hard as I tried, my body would not comply. It felt as if shewere safer in my arms.
“Yeah.” Folkoln sighed. “And Imighthave growled at Sage when she tried to get close to us.”
That was something I, too, had done multiple times. Although, it had nothing to do with Sage getting closer to me; it was always because she was trying to squirm her fine little ass away from me when I wanted another taste of her.
“It does sound like the bond,” I admitted, rolling my neck and tipping my face toward him. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said as we passed through the last of the trees and stepped out into a clearing.
A rolling landscape stretched before us, the grassy hills bathed in the golden light of dawn. The group fell quiet, cut off from their private conversations, as the uncertainty of what to do next weighed on all of us.
“So . . . now what?” Soren asked, pressing his hands against his hips as he stretched out his back.
Artemesia rubbed the gryphon’s neck as she said, “Vatara needs to rest before she’ll be able to fly us anywhere. I also don’t think she’d mind if I washed her side, since Sage vomited on her. Again.”
“That’swhat that smell is!” Fallon exclaimed, batting her hand in front of her face.
“I wouldn’t mind washing myself too,” Kaleb tacked on, his gaze sliding accusingly to Sage, telling the rest of us all we needed to know.
“That’s so gross,” Soren said, unable to help himself from chuckling.
Sage crossed her arms over her chest.
“I could use a bite to eat,” Ryker tossed in, taking some of the heat off Sage. She shot him an appreciative look, and he gave her a wink.
“Okay, Weyfern is a small city, about a forty-minute walk”—Artemesia pointed to the west—“that way. There’s an inn I’ve stayed at before. Beds aren’t anything special, but the food is good, and the innkeeper doesn’t ask questions.”
“Will it be safe for us?” Harper asked, slinging an arm over Lyra’s shoulders.
“Definesafe,” Artemesia responded.
“Will the winged horse riders be there?” Harper clarified.
“Although I can’t guarantee they won’t be, I honestly doubt that they will. I imagine they’ll be rushing back to Avolonia, scrambling over one another, hoping to be the first to tell the empress what they witnessed today,” Artemesia answered, turning away from Vatara to face me. “That Nockrythiam has returned.”
Silence fell. Eyes shifted toward me.
Nockrythiam. The name wasn’t foreign to me, but the past it was connected to was.
“Von, were you fromhere?” Ryker asked, his tone full of wonder as he tried to fit the pieces together.
But it was Sage who stepped forward and said, “We both were.”
Ryker paused, examining this new bit of information. “Wait a minute.” His eyes shifted from Sage to Artemesia. “Are you two sisters?”
“We are,” Artemesia answered.
“I thought you were just helping Sage,” Ryker said with a gentle shake of his head, as if he couldn’t believe he hadn’t figured it out before. “Although now that I look at you both, I can’t unsee it. You two share resemblances. Namely the white hair.”
