Page 127 of A Trial of Two Worlds
The end of the camp rested along the base of a small hill that dipped into the landscape before the borderline of the wilt. Reaching the top of the hill, Inoted Zola at the border, listening as Shaw spoke to her in a hushed whisper.
I didn’t envy the male.
When Zola shadow-jumped into the center of our camp this morning, she called out for Nyssa, who was enjoying a peaceful moment with me on the outskirts of the boulder field after we finished our breakfast. I was furious about the intrusion, but when she met Nyssa’s stare, a silent understanding passed between them that I didn’t dare intrude.
Well, almost.
They didn’t venture far from where Nyssa and I were sitting. I leaned back and focused my fae hearing on Zola’s questions, picking out keywords related to the topic:mate bond,Shaw,fallen attack, and thewilt.
I forced myself to pull away. Nyssa would have answers for Zola, but I wasn’t privy to Nyssa’s responses—not yet, not until she shared them with me herself.
I empathized with any male foolish enough to try and seek more than a single night with Zola. She’d looked after me when Daxton couldn’t, raising me as her ward after Minaeve took control of our land. Her shadows and daggers guarded a heart hardened over centuries. Only a handful were ever granted access to witness her less prickly side. I’d never known her to take a long-term lover, let alone desire a mate bond.
The wilt had changed her. It marked her in a way that darkened her soul, which was difficult to understandand relate to. Yet—then again—I knew of the violent history Shaw was forced to endure as a youngling from Skylar’s brief account.
Hmm, perhaps the mate bond held validity. But, at the very least, I empathized with the shifter.
On cue, I felt the familiar tug at my center that I could not deny or turn from if I tried. And trust me, I did try. With every fiber of my being, I tried to ignore this primal call, but in the end, I could not.
All right, gods-dammit, I didn’t want to.
I glanced over my shoulder, scanning the clusters of boulders to our left, where a High Fae female patiently waited amongst the debris. I gazed ahead at my brother as his eyes locked on Nyssa before turning to me. Daxton’s expression softened as he wrapped his arm around Skylar, silently granting me his approval to answer the call he knew all too well.
“Wait a second,” Daxton whispered to Skylar.
The first part of her reply was inaudible, yet the final words were as clear as day. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
And now she also knew.
“I assure you, it is not a joking matter.” My brother chuckled softly, pulling his mate to his side as the sun above their heads highlighted them in a natural spotlight.
Daxton intertwined their fingers as he held Skylar. The world around them disappeared for the moment. My brother’s touch, so often steeped in menace and violence,softened in her presence. Skylar was the one who pulled him back from the abyss that had turned him into a shell of his former self.
Their palpable devotion to each other, regardless of a sealed mate bond, was clear. It was… Well, beautiful would still be an inadequate way to describe it.With a tenderness I thought he reserved solely for books or his beloved plants, Daxton tilted her chin upward and kissed her.
“But—” Skylar stammered.
Daxton’s toothless grin was his only response.
I gave Skylar a playful wink before turning on my heels and marching toward the one soul who silenced the call of death and destruction, bringing me peace I never thought I would find.
Chapter Sixty-Four
Castor Aegaeon
“Nyssa.” I spoke the name that would forever linger on my lips, dwelling in the confines of my scheming mind and eternally branded into my dreams.
Her dark oval eyes snapped open, stopping me in place. “Did you eavesdrop on my conversation with Zola?” she signed.
Shit.
“No,” I answered, in a half-truth.
She narrowed her eyes at me and tilted her head. Gods above, she held a gorgeous, calculating intellect that dared to match her beauty.
“Not all of it,” I admitted.
“I appreciate your honesty,” she signed, her expression softening. “I knew you could hear her questions. I was unsure if you knew my answers.”
