“I don’t want that,” Torrance stammered. “I don’t want you to fight him if it means you might die!”
I brushed my fingers along her cheekbone, and she closed her sad eyes.
“I can try to avoid battle with him, if he is even there. I can simply try to locate Suvi and see if she is alive, then leave.”
“But what if she is alive and in danger? What if he’s still mate-mad or going berserk or both? We can’t leave her there,” Torrance pressed.
“Beloved, if he remained mate-mad for very long after finding her, if he was in the same state as when I last fought him, she will not be alive. If she lives, then he has calmed.”
It was the scenario I hoped for, but one I considered unlikely at this point.
Torrance took a shaky breath and turned to her friends.
“Wylf says he might know where Suvi is. He can’t take her away, but he can check on her, make sure she’s alright.”
She looked at me then, whispering, “Please, please be careful.”
BOHNEBREGG WAS MOSTLY how I remembered it – wide blue rivers, bright sun, gold-tipped rushes, and green stalks of grass swaying in balmy breezes.
Skalla’s palace, though, looked different. It looked like half of it had been smashed to pieces, and only recently rebuilt. I could not tell if that was a good sign or not for what I’d find. I circled the palace in the air, my gaze tracking over its sprawling pavilion-like structure on the banks of this world’s largest river. Memories rushed through me. Memories of Skalla and me, and of our fathers, flying through this sky, bathing in that river.
I could see nothing useful up here. I’d have to land. On silent wings, I did so, stalking through rushes and grass taller than I was, heading for the back of the property, away from the river. The sound of water trickled everywhere, which told me the palace’s many fountains were still working.
I came across one of those fountains now as I exited the swaying plant-life. At the back of the property there was a large garden with stones to walk on. A huge stone basin with a carved statue of a Bohnebregg warrior pouring water from a barrel back into the basin below, creating the sound of water. I remembered that fountain, though there was a crack in it now that I did not recall.
Slowly, keeping my eyes moving at all times, I circled around the fountain, heading closer to the main house. Most of the walls were open to the air in this palace, so I’d be able to see inside much of the structure just by walking around it.
But I didn’t get that far.
Because, stretched out on a bed of river reeds cushioned with soft leather, lying between the fountain and the house, was a human.
A very obviously pregnant human.
She was small, like Torrance, though there was no denying the swell of her abdomen. She lay on her back, one hand flung over her eyes, the other resting atop her rounded stomach. She was nearly nude, wearing only a Bohnebregg garment comprised of glittering metallic threads that barely covered her heavy breasts and dark gold pubic hair. The hair on her head was a bright yellowed-silver, and it spilled across the bed and over the edge.
“Suvi.”
I said her name out loud, though I knew it was a bad idea. But I knew Torrance would want details. She’d want me to talk to Suvi, find out what had happened and how she was doing now.
Suvi’s hand ripped away from her face, and wide, light grey eyes met mine.
She tried to sit up quickly, but was impeded by her stomach. I stepped towards her, to help her, but she sucked in a huge breath and screamed.
“Skalla!”
I did not have time to decide whether to stay or fly. Did not have time to consider the fact that her calling Skalla’s name was probably a very good sign that he was here, sane, and that she trusted him. I spun, and prepared to fight.
Skalla slammed out of the house with so much power, so much rage, I was certain he was still berserk. His wings sliced like blades until his body slammed mine, knocking me to my back.
Instinctively, I brought up my hands to block him from gripping my throat, remembering how he’d nearly strangled me last time. He breathed heavily, growls ripping from his throat, scales rippling with aggression, his one remaining eye fixed on my face.
But slowly, slowly, something came into that eye. Something I thought I maybe recognized.
“Wylfrael?”
He knows me.
I was not prepared for the rush of emotion I felt at that. The affection. The relief. I’d lost my parents and all the Sionnachans I’d once known, and I’d thought I’d lost him, too.
“It’s me, cousin,” I said. “It’s me.”
Skalla got off of me, pulling me up with him. We both turned around to find the bed now empty, Suvi having no doubt fled inside.
“I’m sorry I scared her,” I said. “It was not my intention.”
“What is your intention, Wylfrael? Why are you here?”
“I am here because my own human mate demands that I make sure her friend is alive,” I said. My relief at finding him sane, and his mate alive, was rapidly being replaced with anger. “You are one to speak of my intentions,” I hissed, “When you yourself crashed into Sionnach and almost destroyed everything. You almost killed me twice.”
His thick, scaly tail swept over the stone, his snout tightening.
“I barely remember that. I remember when the madness started, and with my last bits of reason, I went to Sionnach, because I trusted that you would do whatever it took to keep others safe from me.”
“I tried,” I said. “We fought over many worlds. I nearly died, and spent eons recuperating in some foreign desert, under red mountains. Then, you crashed into that world, too. I took you to Heofonraed, but they would not help me.”
“They would not help you either?” he asked, sounding surprised. “Not long after I found Suvi and rationality returned to me, I went to them. Suvi wanted to find out what happened to the other women. But they would not open their gates or hear my petition for information.”
“There is much that I must tell you,” I said darkly. I filled him in on my recent trip to Heofonraed with Torrance. Unlike the censored version that Torrance had told her friends, I gave him all the details on how they’d fooled me into killing her and how I’d gone to Sceadulyr after.
“Ill tidings,” Skalla said, turning his head to look at the house that his mate had retreated into. If not for the mangled eye, he looked almost exactly as he once had. His hair no longer wild and tangled, but oiled and smooth, tied into a long braid. The beautiful Bohnebregg prince I’d always loved.
“Clearly, the council thought you’d die. It’s an easy way to kill a stone sky god, to target his mortal mate that way. Cowardly,” his voice hardened, fangs flashing. “Pathetic. What is their purpose?”
“I don’t know. But I’ve warned every stone sky god Sceadulyr and I have come across in our travels, told them not to take their mates there or try to join.”
Skalla ran his hand down his braid and hissed a sigh.
“This can mean nothing good. This is something we will have to address, and soon. His gaze softened, turned far away. “Right now, I have little room in my head or heart for anything but her and the babe.”
“I understand,” I muttered, already wanting to return to Torrance’s side and forget everything that was going on with the council. “Congratulations, by the way. I couldn’t help but notice.”
Skalla grunted.
“I am going to ignore the fact that you saw so much of my mate’s body just now. Otherwise, I’d have to kill you.”