Sky Stitcher, page 10
“Stop! He’s good! He’s with me!” The words burst from me of their own accord, erupting before my mind had the time to consider them. But now that they hung there, uncomfortably out in the open, I questioned them, wanting to pull them back and bury them beneath the rest of the feelings I did not care to inspect. Why did I wish to protect him? It would be so easy to let the soldier kill him and free me from this bond. To run away to Rashii with these soldiers and forget this mess ever happened. To enlist their help to uncover what had happened to my Sisters. But something twisted inside of me at the thought. The ruffian had just saved my life after all, and…perhaps by some unguided impulse I did not understand, I needed him.
The guard locked eyes with me, coldly calculating, excavating every morsel of truth he could uncover from my stare. I shifted beneath the intensity of his gaze. “You are certain? I swear by Halah…if he has harmed you, or if he means you harm, I will flay him navel to neck. You have my word, Daughter. I will protect you.”
“No, truly. He’s harmless. He’s…protecting me.” The soldier’s eyes narrowed with an air of skepticism, sending my heart into a new flurry of erratic beats before I continued, spinning a wild tale without time to second-guess my sanity. “The Daughters hired him to protect us from Prisha’s monsters…so we could…safely dedicate more time to prayer,” I added quickly. Perhaps he would buy the partial truth. I avoided chewing the side of my tongue, holding so still to keep from fidgeting that I probably gave away my discomfort with the unnaturalness of my rigidity.
The guard’s nostrils flared, but he relaxed his grip on the hilt of his sword and nodded. “Forgive me, Daughter of Halah. There’s been much unrest in Rashii…talk of war with Khazdra and now this attack upon the Daughters. It is hard to know who to trust. But I honor your judgment.” He paused, settling on my moonlit braids and moonsilk skin, and his expression softened, jade eyes freckled with flecks of gold, slightly creased at the corner with the hint of a smile. My breath hitched, betraying my unsolicited attraction as I noted his square jaw and the way his muscular frame enhanced his commanding presence. “What is your name, Daughter?”
“Zara,” I managed, in a voice too foreign and weak to be my own.
Recognition flared across his face like sunlight. “Zara? As in…Zaraya Avasya?” He crossed the remaining distance between us and wrapped his hands around mine. “It cannot be. Zara, it’s me, Rali.”
I balked, shivering at the brush of his hands around mine. Wait. This is Rali?
I reconsidered his appearance, my stomach fluttering with a sudden rush of sand wings. This soldier—this man with tousled hair and streaks of honey through his jade eyes—this was the one who had inked his soul into poetic words to share with me? Who had bared his heart in the dozens of letters passed between us? I’d imagined him as someone…completely different. Not this handsome, perfect specimen of a man before me.
Perhaps the union the elders had arranged would not be as terrible as I’d once feared.
“What are you doing here?” A crescendo clamored in my heart, jolting it back to life. “Did you see who did this? Have you seen my Sisters?”
Rali’s chin jutted toward the flames, his face twisting with remorse as he shook his head. “The city guard sent us to check on the smoke. At first, we assumed it was merely travelers from Haldratha or Zunar crossing the desert to visit for A’i Halajan, but when the plumes expanded, we knew something was wrong. We thought it was Riders…perhaps Khazdruki scouts pillaging the travelers’ camps…but I never expected it to lead me straight to the heart of the Daughters’ clan.” His tone dropped with an almost reverent appreciation before he turned his attention back to me. “By the time we got here…it was too late. But I promise, whoever did this will pay.”
My breath stilled with uncertainty when he rubbed his thumbs over the tops of my hands in a tender motion. Warmth flowed through his palms and through his gaze, but it was tinged with something prickly. Perhaps sadness? Pity?
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Zara,” he said softly. “You must be…” His voice trailed off, unable to produce a fitting word to describe the irregular shards of emotion deconstructing me from within.
For a man who had produced so many poetic, heartfelt letters, it seemed strangely contradictory to see him stumble over his words in person. Perhaps if he had ink and paper, he could find the right ones. Yet something about his state of speechlessness endeared him to me, and the gates holding back my emotions ripped from their hinges.
I screwed my face into a grimace, banishing the last tears slipping past my lashes. “I have to find my Sisters. I’m…lost without them.”
He brushed a stray lock of my hair, taming it back into its braid. “I will help you. We will send out a search party.” He waved a gesture of command to the riders behind him. Half branched off in response, racing into the dunes and dipping out of sight. “You don’t have to do this yourself…you shouldn’t be alone. It’s not safe. Come back to Rashii with me.”
“She’s not alone,” a snarling voice protested.
Rali’s attention snapped over my shoulder and his teeth clenched, jaw muscles twitching. His fingers flexed at his side, straying dangerously close to the hilt of his sword again. “Zara, come with me,” he repeated in a slow rumble. “I can protect you.”
My gaze drifted over my shoulder toward the enemy I’d unleashed from the sky, his arms crossed over his chest, his distaste evident in the way he glared at Rali. A sudden pang of reservation lodged itself in the muscle of my heart, piercing and hot. If I left with Rali, would Prisha’s creature follow? And what if he didn’t? Would the bond between us stretch until I doubled over with pain and begged to be returned to him? How could I possibly hide the bond from Rali if I allowed distance to wedge itself between us?
Perhaps I could convince Rali to allow him to come with us? I caught the tension in Rali’s posture from the corner of my eye, his possessive stance creeping between me and the creature. Probably not.
Venom and hell, I cannot believe I’m saying this, but…“Rali, I need your help.” Under ordinary circumstances, I would never entrust the Eldress’s safety to anyone but a Daughter, but these circumstances were anything but ordinary. And I trusted Rali. Or…I wanted to trust him. Or maybe I simply had to.
Don’t be ridiculous, Zara. Rali seemed a bit different from the picture my expectations had painted, but this man had bared his heart and soul to me in letters over the past year, convincing me to accept our arranged union. He was not a stranger…not really. I could trust him to get her to safety.
I nodded, mind made up. I just needed to convince him to leave without me so I could be free to deal with this monster alone.
Rali lifted his brow, but I gestured for him to wait. When I turned my back to him, I glued my eyes to Prisha’s monster instead, warning him with an unwavering stare as I walked past him to scoop the Eldress from her bed of sand. Her body slumped between my arms when I lifted her, and I carried her carefully toward Rali.
Rali’s eyes widened with alarm. “Zara…is that—”
“The Eldress,” I answered in confirmation.
“The Eldress? The—” He floundered, too flustered to produce words in the moment of awe. “What happened?” he finally managed. His eyes raced over her body, landing on the dark stain at her shoulder and the deathly pallor of her complexion. “She’s injured? Zara, she needs a healer’s attention! Immediately.”
“Take her,” I commanded, shoving the frail body toward Rali, trying not to grimace at the sight of the Eldress in an outsider’s arms. He’s not an outsider, Zara, I corrected myself. He’s Rali. He’s yours.
“Take her? You mean…without you?” he asked, his eyes turned down with worry. “No, you must come too.”
“You’ll be faster without me. I’ll follow.”
Rali’s gaze darted between me and the Eldress, torn by some internal battle. “I’ll have my men accompany you. For your safety.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I opposed, perhaps too quickly. Of course he had offered out of kindness, and it would be unusual to refuse such a gesture. I swallowed the sandy dryness in my mouth. “They should go with you,” I amended, the words sticky on my tongue. “The Eldress needs all the protection you can offer. I’ll be safe with—” I motioned vaguely toward Prisha’s creature, realizing I did not even know what to call him. “My Guardian,” I finished lamely.
Rali looked as though the decision to leave me behind ripped a piece of his soul free from his chest, but he nodded grimly. “If any harm comes to you…if you do not show up in Rashii…”
“I’ll be fine, really.” I smiled, but no part of me believed that. Sighing wearily, too exhausted by stress to convince him, I continued, “I promise I’ll follow. But you must get her to a healer. Fast. The Eldress is…everything.”
Rali lowered his gaze, admiring the limp body in his arms. “Yes, she is. Without her…”
His thought trailed off, and we both shuddered.
“You must be careful with her,” I urged, shoving my remaining reservations aside.
“Of course. I will protect her with my life.”
He bobbed his chin, then bounded toward his horse to place the unconscious Eldress across its shoulders. Her arms swung limply over the horse’s ribs, and the beaded bangles stacked at the fullest part of her hand, barely held in place by the odd angle of her bony thumb. She looked like a corpse. Thin and deteriorated, like one who’d died from many moons of starvation.
“You think this is wise, Zara?” a voice whispered in my ear as I watched Rali fasten the Eldress to his horse, and I stilled at his use of my name. Of course, he had heard Rali use it. “You know it would be faster if I flew her to the city?”
An icy shudder ran down my spine, and I snapped my head to the left, surprised to find the monster so close to my side, though he no longer looked like one. At least, not anymore. His eyes still held a universe of power in their depths, but in every other respect, he looked like a standard mortal.
I wrinkled my brow in confusion, remembering how I’d watched his wings dissolve after he saved us from the falling mast. “The Eldress is safer with a guard of Rashii than a monster of the In Between. And…how did you make your wings disappear?”
He smirked, though he attempted to suppress his amusement, as though at odds with it. “They’re made of shadow,” he explained matter-of-factly. “I create and destroy with shadows, and so I can create and destroy my wings. Simple, really. But let’s keep that between you and me. I don’t trust him.”
“And I don’t trust you.” But I was glad he could hide the wings…that was better for both of us. He was right—Rali didn’t need to know what he was. Who he was.
Rali dusted his hands on his trousers after he fastened the Eldress to the horse, using leather straps to secure her unconscious body in place. His eyes darkened when he turned to me, glaring at the creature—the man—at my side.
“I’ll send someone back for you,” he promised, then his eyes darkened when he looked toward the monster. “If you so much as—”
Prisha’s creature interjected before Rali could finish his threat. “I’ll take care of her. She is safe with me,” he said firmly, standing taller so he towered over Rali.
“Very well,” Rali answered. He combed a hand through the rumpled mess of his hair. Smoke from the flames rose behind him. “And Zara?” he asked, walking toward me to take my hands in his, but pausing in a moment of hesitation. He shook his head, closing his mouth before attempting to speak again. “I’m sorry. I fear…I am flustered by your presence. So long have I looked forward to this meeting that now…in these circumstances…the right words seem to have escaped me.”
“It’s okay,” I responded, uncertain of the right words myself, but grateful that the fates had brought us together at the right time.
“I know I wrote it in my letters, but you must know it was all true.” He smiled at me, squeezing my hands gently. “You are the fire that consumes me…the flame that gives me meaning. The blaze that—”
Prisha’s creature snorted from somewhere behind my back, and the streaks of honey in Rali’s eyes sharpened to daggers. I held my breath, uncomfortable in the sudden tension, but he turned back to me. “I should very much like to kiss you,” he whispered, his throat bobbing.
I opened my mouth with surprise and stared back at him, reconciling the memory of his heartfelt letters with the handsome, hopeful man before me who felt like a stranger I could fall in love with, and I nodded.
A soft squeak caught in my throat as he pulled me toward him, finding my lips with his own. His eyes closed with the passion of his kiss while mine wrenched open, uncertain how I was meant to respond. Finally, I relaxed into his hold, letting him deepen his exploration.
A bored voice interrupted us. “Must you do this out in the open? You know...I’m right here. I can see you,” the cursed ruffian drawled in his disinterested tone that had the faintest hint of irritation laced through it.
Rali released me and smiled, his eyes sparkling with victory—smug superiority.
“Would you care to join us, then? Or do you prefer to watch?” he asked, his tone chiding. “She is mine, you know.”
My lips jerked downward in a disgusted frown. Rali stood with his jaw jutted out, his chest flared like some strutting feathertrain bird, feathers splayed behind it with pride. Sure, I was meant to marry him, but I was not some playing piece on a caza board to collect. To own. He didn’t seem to notice my aversion to his statement.
The monster, however…he gave me his rapt attention. His eyes found mine with a fiery burst of stardust. This gaze sent a jolt of electricity through me, igniting something deep inside me, piercing my heart so acutely that my lips parted. The unwavering intensity of his gaze demanded my undivided presence—my full attentiveness—so the rest of the world faded away in favor of the small but inconceivable microcosm of existence that had formed between us.
Venom and hell, Zara. You just kissed your betrothed, and the sky ruffian is the one who sets the world off balance? Hasn’t your chaos messed things up enough already today?
He seemed to notice the way my heart began to race, the way I scolded myself for staring. His lips bent in a poorly concealed smirk, and his countenance darkened, pulling shadows across his face in a way that made me tremble.
“I don’t share,” he grumbled in Rali’s general direction, keeping his eyes firmly locked on mine. “I do not do halfhearted. And I don’t play nicely with others.”
“Charming,” Rali responded.
Oh goddess. A flurry of sand wings swarmed around my heart as panic set in. I had not failed to notice the way he glanced at Rali with enough ire to shred him with his gaze alone. Or the way my own body betrayed me, reacting to his possessiveness like a candle erupting into flame of its own accord.
It was…unacceptable. He was a monster. A curse straight from the In Between. A force that had eviscerated a squadron of men with shadows. Mere shadows. And he did not own me any more than Rali did—tether or not. But why did my body respond to him with such certainty, as if it were already his to own?
More than ever, I needed to sever the ties that bound us together. I needed to return him to the hell he’d come from, or be trapped in my own hell for eternity.
Chapter 13
Monster
We watched Rali and his company ride into the distance until they became only a blip on the horizon, then nothing at all when the swell of the dunes rose up to swallow them.
Take care of the Eldress, I prayed, though uncertain to whom I intended to direct my prayers. I was not on good terms with either goddess. Perhaps I should continue to pray to the stars. A band tightened around my chest. No. Last time I did that, I lost control of my power and found myself permanently attached to a monster. Maybe I shouldn’t pray at all.
Something warm brushed against my upper arm, and my breath snagged in response to the tickle of his words against my ear. “I really don’t trust him,” he whispered. “He reeks of arrogance and nobility.”
A short burst of laughter issued through my nose, but he merely cocked a brow, then recovered with a smirk. He paused, presumably waiting for me to explain what I had found so funny.
“If anyone here reeks of arrogance, monster, it is you. Perhaps it is merely yourself you’re smelling.”
“I am not nobility.”
“But you do not deny your arrogance.”
He shrugged, falling into silence for a few moments before he could not contain himself any longer. “Bit inappropriate, too, wasn’t he? ‘The fire that consumes him?’ Really? Given the circumstances? Ignorant ass.” He mumbled the last bit under his breath.
“He’s poetic,” I challenged. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that.”
He frowned. “I just don’t like him. Everything about him screams of deceit.”
“Well, forgive me if I’m reluctant to accept my enemy’s assessment of him.”
“So we’re still enemies?” he asked, shadows casting his glowering expression into stark relief.
“Are you still considering whether or not to kill me?”
“Are you still hoping to sever this bond and toss me back to Prisha at the first chance you get?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but snapped my mouth shut, folding my arms across the beaded band at my waist and trying my hardest to ignore the way his blasé expression boiled my blood. Pressing my forearms against the beads grounded me, and I finally continued, “Anyway, you’re wrong. He’s not nobility. He’s a guard. My guard. I think I know him better than you…we’re meant to marry at A’i Halajan this year. He loves me. And I only need one guard in my life.”
