The Tears of Elios (31 page)

Galen buried his face in his hands. He knew he was to blame for that.

“It worsened after the news of her Master. I even went so far as to follow her yesterday to make sure she didn't do anything reckless. After all, human women are more fragile than elvan women.”

“She didn't think about killing herself?”

He stood and rested his hand on Galen's shoulder. “If she truly is your Ruheshi, be gentle with her. And don't waste any more time asking yourself if this is right or wrong. Like Paleah said, she
is
just a human, and her life is short compared to ours. I'll go see if I can calm down Paleah.”

“If anyone can, it's you.” That was one benefit of being an empath. “And thank you for not judging me too harshly.”

***

Some of the color had returned to her cheeks by the next morning, and he smiled as he stroked her hair. She was recovering faster than he had anticipated. He untangled himself from her, taking care not to jostle her too much, even though he knew it would be difficult to rouse her. She’d cast magics stronger than her skills, and she wouldn’t awaken until she had restored herself.

It was late in the afternoon before Kira stirred. He rushed to her side and covered her hand with his. Her eyes fluttered open, and when she focused them on his face, they filled with confusion. “Am I dead?” she asked softly.

The warmth of her fingers comforted him. “Why did you cast the ritual? You must have known it was too much for you. You almost died.”

She tried to rise. “It needed to be done, and I was the only one who could do it.”

“I told you it wasn't worth your life.” He wrapped his arm around her to steady her. The overwhelming urge to protect her grew stronger.

“Why should you care? I’m just a human.”

“You're more than that.” He lifted her chin so her eyes met his. The silver haze filled his vision and started to solidify, pulling him closer to her. The silver cord. “Why do my emotions mirror yours? Why is my happiness dependant on you?”

Because she is your Ruheshi
, his mind answered.
The other half of your soul
.

She tilted her face to the side and lowered her eyelids as she leaned closer to him. Her breath warmed his lips.

“Am I interrupting something?” a sharp voice asked them.

Kira jerked away.

Galen turned just in time to see Ranealya morph into her normal form. She lowered a set of saddlebags to the ground and stalked them, her green skirt swirling around her ankles like the tall grass of the plains. She grabbed Kira by the arm and pulled her to her feet. “Run along, little girl,” she said as her eyes narrowed. “We have grown-up it matters to attend to.”

Galen’s fist tightened as he began to intervene, but Kira waved him off. “It's all right, Galen. I'll find you later.” She smiled and blushed simultaneously. A warm glow filled her brown eyes, erasing the dull and lifeless light that had filled them the day before. It helped soothe his anger over his sister’s rudeness.

Ranealya's gaze never left Kira until she was out of the tent. Then she opened the saddlebags and presented two miniature orbs. “Two of the Tears of Elios, as requested,” she boasted. “Gregor should have the third one by tomorrow.”

“Why are they so small?”

“Gregor cast a shrinking spell on them so they would be easier for me to carry. You should be able to restore them to their normal size.”

“Or keep them small so they will be easier for a dwarf or faerie to use.” Satisfied they weren’t damaged, he placed them in the trunk with the other four they had recovered so far. “You've done well.”

The corners of her mouth twitched. “Glad to hear praise, for once.”

“I hope the mission was otherwise uneventful.”

“Not exactly.” She lowered her gaze and trailed her fingers across the table. “I learned a few things about Gregor I didn't expect. And then Anilayus sent one of his creatures after us.”

“You were attacked by an Azekborn?”

A feral glow lit up her eyes, and she flashed her fangs. “Don't worry, I took care of it.” She laughed, but there was only cruelness in her voice. “He's going to run out of them if he continues to hunt me. That's four I’ve killed so far.”

He shuddered to think his sister was capable of killing Azekborn, and she noticed his discomfort with the subject. “But enough on that. What’s going on between you two?”

“I will answer that after you tell me about you and Gregor.”

She played with one of the feathers in her hair. “Nothing will ever come of it. I'm far too dangerous for him.” Her voice sounded empty, and he knew better than to ask more.

As she turned to leave, Galen asked, “Could you take a less intimidating form before you go out into the camp?”

She looked back, and for the first time, he noticed her eyes were the same blue color as his.

Then he saw the pendant around her neck. “Sepharium?”

Her fingers caressed it as she nodded. “Gregor made it for me.” She changed into a brown-haired human woman. “Will this do?”

“Yes, and please promise not to make any more trouble.”

“You're the one who told me not to lie,” she said as she disappeared onto the other side of the tent.

He closed the trunk and secured the latches with protective spells so no one could retrieve the orbs but him. He wondered what kind of trouble his sister was trying to get herself into now and remembered Kira.

Galen ran through the camp as quickly as he could, but Ranealya had been faster. He heard her voice as he stood outside Kira's tent.

“Why do you insist on tormenting yourself? Can't you get it through your idiotic human mind that nothing will ever come of your feelings for him?”

He moved forward to come to Kira's aid, but her reaction made him freeze.

“Back off, Ranealya,” she said as she got in the taller woman's face. Kira kept her back to him, and Ranealya appeared too stunned by the small human to notice he’d entered the tent. “Do you think I haven’t heard all this before? You’re not the first person to remind me that he's an elf, and I'm a mere human. I know I'll grow old and die while he stays the way he is, and my entire life will pass before him like a day. I know you think I'm not good enough for him. And I know better than to have these feelings for him and that I'll only get hurt in the process. But that still doesn't change the way I feel about him. I love Galen so much it hurts to breathe when he's close to me—my heart aches for him that much—and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to change that.”

Ranealya spied him, and her eyes widened.

Kira realized at that moment someone was behind her and froze with her head turned halfway in his direction. All the color drained from her face. Her hands began to tremble. He braced himself to catch her in any case she fainted, but she darted to the other side of the tent, keeping her back to him the entire time.

He stood in front of Ranealya and glared at her. Her bottom lip quivered. “Galen, I didn't—”

“You’ve said enough, Ranealya,” he said. “Now leave.”

She opened her mouth to say something, to try and justify her behavior, but not a single muscle moved in his body. She admitted defeat and crept past him without another word. She knew she’d gone too far this time.

Galen followed her until she was out of the tent and then approached Kira from the side. Her face turned scarlet, and she covered her mouth with one of her hands. She tried to keep her back to him.

He reached out, scared to touch her. “Did you really mean what you said?”

An odd noise choked in her throat, so she only nodded. He grinned as he turned her around. She had no problem yelling at Ranealya, but now it seemed she had lost her voice.

He lifted her face so it angled his. “Good, because I feel the same way about you, Kira.”

There was no resisting the silver cord that pulled him to her now. He heard her gasp just before his lips touched hers, and then he closed his eyes to savor the moment. An ancient magic electrified his whole body, filling the emptiness of his soul and driving away any doubts that lingered. When he opened his eyes, he saw a silver ring around her pupils. “Was that always there?” he whispered.

“The silver ring?” she replied. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again, this time with more passion than before. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer to her, and she sighed. The wall in her mind crumbled. He began to see himself through her eyes. Every memory she had of him from the moment they met raced through his mind. Every touch. Every word. Every emotion. He was amazed that she could find the beauty in his flaws and clung tighter to her as he lowered her to the floor.

Kira pulled back and brushed his cheek with the back of her hand as she searched his face. “So this is real?”

“Yes.” He kissed her forehead and then the tip of her nose. “This isn’t some faerie trick.”

She grinned and lifted her head, pressing her lips tightly against his until he lowered her back down. Her sweet mouth opened for his exploration. He now understood the meaning of desire and remembered Arlisle’s plans for Kira that one night.
So far, this was better than the Highmounter had imagined
, he thought as her teeth tugged on his bottom lip.

Then Galen remembered Kira's words that evening. She had wanted to save this moment for her husband. It took every ounce of strength to pull away from her and stand.

Kira looked up at him, her brows knitted together. “What did I do wrong?”

He helped her to her feet and kissed her again. By the Goddess, he never thought he could love someone as much as her. He took her hand in his and led her out of the tent. “I want to do this the right way. Come with me.”

Her mind remained open to him. She was curious about where he was taking her, but she trusted him enough not to ask any more questions. Her thoughts then turned to him as she remembered how his lips felt against hers. She began to imagine his lips elsewhere, causing him to stop and stare at her. He never thought her capable of such thoughts, but his skin grew warm as he considered the possibility. She giggled when she realized he could hear her thoughts and began to shield them from him. “Later,” he promised her as they came to the Highmounte camp.

He stopped in front of the familiar tent, and Kira cringed. “Please don't make a scene.”

“Fergan, are you there?” he asked as he lifted the flap.

The old man struggled to his feet and hobbled forward to greet them. “Galen, Kira, what brings you here this evening?”

Kira's fingers tightened around his as they entered the tent but relaxed when she saw Arlisle wasn’t there. “You're a priest of the Mariliel, are you not?”

His gazed flickered between them. “Aye. What do you need of me?”

“I would like you to marry us.”

Kira gasped, and Fergan chuckled. “Shouldn’t you have asked her first?” He turned to grab the cloth for the hand-fasting.

“Why do you want to marry me, Galen?”

“Because that’s what people in love do, especially once they’ve found the one person who completes their soul.”

If she were capable of melting, he was certain she would have done so with his arms. It felt as natural saying those words to her as it did to breathe. The silver ring in her eyes burned brighter.

“Besides,” he added, whispering in her ear, “you said you wanted to save that moment for your husband.”

She flushed, as he expected her to do. “Are you sure? I mean, about marrying me?”

“I've never been more certain about anything in my life.”

“So I take it the lass said yes?” Fergan asked as they pulled away. “If that be the case, join your hands together in front of me.” He wrapped a green cloth around their hands. “Kira, repeat after me: I promise to love you, you and no other, till death parts us.”

Kira repeated those words to him. When Fergan instructed him to do the same, Galen grinned and said, “I promise to love you, Kira, you and no other, even after death parts us.”

Her eyes grew large when she heard this, and she inhaled sharply.

His thoughts were pulled away from her, though, as the green cloth around their hands turned into a silver rope, binding them together. It disappeared in a blaze of a cool metallic sparks, leaving only a ring on the fourth finger of their left hands behind.

Fergan scratched his chin through his thick gray beard. “Ach, I've never seen that before,” he said. “It must be some sort of special blessing from the Goddess.” He cleared his throat and added in a slightly louder voice, “That still doesn't change the fact I’m now without my hand-fasting cloth.”

Kira laughed as she held out her hand in front of her, studying the simple silver band.

“Fergan, I ask that you not tell anyone about our marriage just yet. There's so much about to happen with the ritual and the approaching army. I don't need anyone to be distracted by our marriage until afterwards.” He wrapped her hand in his. “Then you can tell the whole world, if you like.”

Galen led Kira back to her tent, and as soon as they were concealed behind the yellow wall of canvas, his lips were on hers once again. Now there was nothing to hold him back as his mouth explored hers. Her fingers unfastened his jerkin, then the buttons of his shirt. He let her remove them and then pushed her closer to the pile of furs and blankets that served as her bed.

“So, going back to your thoughts from earlier,” he whispered in her ear just before nibbling on the lobe.

Her cheek grew warm against his, and her hand rubbed against his bare chest. “You don't have to if you don't want to.”

“Oh, believe me,” he said as he loosened the ties of the red dress, “I want to.”

The dress doubled in size and slipped past her shoulders, forming a puddle around her ankles. She stepped out of it and blushed. “The dress was always too big.”

“That just makes it easier to remove.” He lowered her to the bed and removed the last remaining bits of his clothing before joining her, reveling in the sensation of her supple flesh pressed against his. He kissed her for what seemed like an hour. Then his lips traveled down her neck and chest, tasting the salty sweetness of her skin. He cupped his hands around her small breasts and marveled in their softness. And when she finally parted her legs to allow him inside her, he understood the meaning of the word bliss.