“I am still a Lord’s daughter!” I hissed at his back. “You cannot treat me this way and expect no repercussions. As a citizen of New Earth, I am protected by the United Alliance.”
His laugh filled the room like a rumble of thunder. He didn’t even turn to face me. He gave me his flared wings, and behind them, I heard, “You gave up your citizenship when you signed your name in blood, wife. You belong to the Uranian Federation now. As such, you belong to Krynn. To me.”
His smirk was dark and mocking when he gazed at me over his shoulder. Acid burned the back of my throat.
“As for your father,” he spat, “he was only too happy to let you go.”
I reared back, the unexpected words hurting more than I’d ever thought they might. It wasn’t anything I didn’t know already. My father hadn’t fought to keep me. He had betrayed me long before this Kylorr had ever made his terrible offer to Mr. Cross.
“Clean yourself up,” he ordered me again. The voice of a High Lord. Cold and detached but forceful. He knew I would not refuse him. Could not refuse him. “We’ll land on Krynn within the hour.”
Chapter 6
Azur
Rivin was staring at me. Hard. I recognized the look. I saw it very rarely, but I knew what he was thinking.
He had his arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the ship’s corridor. Putting more weight on his left wing instead of his right—an old injury from long ago. A bone that had never quite set right from when we’d been young.
“Do you have a grievance?” I challenged, never deviating from my path. I hadn’t been away from Laras for long, but I never liked to journey off planet. Not with the Kaazor testing our borders again as of late. I needed to be home, back in my territory of the Kaalium.
Only, this journey was necessary, I thought, grinding my teeth together, feeling a prick on my bottom lip. When I pressed my fingers there, the roughened pads came away black with a small bead of my blood.
Forgetting I’d had them extended, I retracted my fangs so they wouldn’t cut my lip, licking the blood away. For a brief moment, I thought of her. The fear she couldn’t quite mask, though she’d valiantly tried. The pleading waver in her voice when she’d begged no. She feared my bite.
She should, I thought, steeling my spine, a shiver of satisfaction zipping through me.
“Are you sure this is wise?” Rivin asked. Again. “Kythel said—”
I growled, “This is my responsibility. Not Kythel’s.”
“Azur,” Rivin said softly, pushing off the corridor right outside her room. My room on board my ship, truthfully. Considering I couldn’t stand the sight of my new bride, I’d bunked in the common quarters with the crew. “I—I haven’t seen you like this in a long time. I’m worried that—”
“What?” I asked, rounding on him, flaring my wings until he was forced to take a step back. Behind his shoulder, I saw the closed door of her room. I could still smell her in my nostrils, taste her on my tongue. She’d smelled divine. When I’d bitten her neck in warning, I’d almost been tempted to take my first feeding right then, my claws curling at the want. Her scent unsettled me. The ferocity with which hunger had gnawed at me was surprising, considering looking at her made me feel vaguely nauseous. “She is owed to me. She is owed to us all.”
“Then your brothers should have a say in this, don’t you think? And Kalia?” Rivin asked quietly, his blue eyes flickering between mine, his head narrowly bowed, a symbol of respect and deference. But my friend knew he could push boundaries with me, boundaries I wouldn’t let others ordinarily cross. There was safety nestled in the folds of our long friendship, despite the fact that I was the Kyzaire of Laras.
“It is my responsibility. For Aina,” I told him again. Quietly. Keeping his gaze. “We will not speak of this again, do you understand?”
Rivin’s lips pressed.
I was the eldest son of House Kaalium.
Rivin—an only child—couldn’t possibly understand the weight. The burden. But when I closed my eyes to sleep at night, all I could see was Aina. All I could hear were her wails. All I could think was that she was trapped in a dark, endless place, cursed to live out the remainder of her immortal life in Zyos.
I hadn’t slept properly in over a month, and the fatigue was beginning to pull at the edges of my mind. This was about family. It was always about family. The heart of all Kylorr. The heart of all great Houses.
Turning from Rivin, I continued on my way to the helm. I itched to get off this ship. My wings hadn’t stretched properly in nearly a week. I hadn’t felt the icy wind in my face, the caress of it against my wings, hadn’t touched the clouds of Laras, nor looked upon the Silver Sea in nearly a week.
It had been much too long, and I vowed that I wouldn’t return to space unless my father requested my presence.
Thinking of my new bride, I clenched my fists at my sides, navigating through echoing hallways, Rivin trailing me.
She is owed to me, I told myself again. And I can do whatever I please with her.
I smiled.
Nyravila.
A Kylorr concept, a right. To wrong a member of our family was to wrong us all. And balance must be restored. For Aina’s soul.
In my bride’s human terms, it meant…
An eye for an eye.
Nyravila.
That beautiful word filled my soul, and I vowed to Aina that I would see her safe.
I was the eldest son of House Kaalium.
And there was vengeance running hot in my blood.
I’d saved House Hara only so I could watch it fall once more.
This time, it would be at my hands.
Chapter 7
Gemma
I expected endless screams into a perpetual night. I expected a dark, shadowed keep with high walls and barbaric, bloodied, red-eyed soldiers standing at the ready, fangs glistening, marked chests bared.
I expected shackles and chains. I expected downcast gazes and sunken-in eyes. Hollow cheeks. Hunger and desperation.
Everything I’d ever heard about the Kylorr was that they were beastly, soulless, violent creatures who thrived on pain and torment.
Only…I’d never expected this.
“Come,” Azur ordered me, narrowing his gaze on mine before walking forward into the ivory courtyard from the darkened transport tunnel.
Blinking into the bright sunlight, I followed, Rivin trailing behind me. We’d landed not even a half hour ago in a private docking bay and taken an underground transport here. Judging by the flutter in my belly, the transport line had been blazing fast, and we’d arrived at our destination in mere moments.