“I understand,” I said. “He’s your only remaining family. Of course, you don’t want to kill him.”

Wylf’s voice grew stern, maybe even angry, with reproach.

“Skalla is not my only family.”

He grasped my shoulders and pushed me back so that I was forced to look into his serious face.

“You are my family now, Torrance. You are my wife. And I hope you know that if it ever came down to choosing between you and Skalla, between you and anyone else, it would be you. Only you, beloved. Every single time.”

He pulled me back to his chest, closing his arms around me and resting his chin on the top of my head.

“Do you understand?” he asked.

“Yes,” I whispered. I sniffed, then gave a shaky laugh. “I better get into this dress before I cry all over it.”

“Yes... yes, we should go.” His arms didn’t seem to agree with his words, and I had to pull myself away to get changed. As I peeled off my grey dress and slipped into the perfectly fitted black silk, I watched my husband as he prepared to leave. He apparently didn’t feel the need to change. The only thing he did was strap a long, shining sword to his back.

“Is that Sionnachan?” I asked, finger-combing my hair with one hand, the mask in the other. “The sword.”

“No,” he said. “It was my father’s, and it was forged by his father’s mother’s people, the Katanari.”

I paused, waiting to see if he’d continue, but he didn’t. A new tension had entered his wings and shoulders, and I wondered if wearing the sword, or maybe me asking about it, bothered him for some reason.

I decided to drop it, changing the subject.

“Care to help me put this on?”

I dangled the mask between us.

“Of course,” he said. He walked to me, coming in behind me, and tied the lace ribbons deftly at the back of my head. When it was done, I spun around, smiling.

“How do I look? Won’t embarrass you in front of the other gods, will I?”

I was totally fishing for compliments, but I didn’t care. Wylf didn’t seem to care, either. He dragged a knuckle between my breasts, making my nipples prick behind the silk. I wasn’t wearing a bra – impossible with this dress’ design – and Wylfrael’s breath quickened when he looked at my breasts.

“You look like perfection taken shape,” he murmured. He bent, placing a slow, tender kiss between my collarbones, dipping his tongue into the place where my heart beat. My thighs squeezed, and my spine arched. I knew we had to go, and yet I hoped he’d bring his mouth further down and tongue my nipples through the dress. This morning, I had been the one eschewing sex to get ready for this event. The tables had turned, and here I was begging with my body, now.

Though I could see the straining behind the crotch of his trousers, he pulled away. Not too far, though. He took my hand, and I squeezed his.

“Hey, don’t you need a mask?” I asked as he led me out of the bedroom.

“No. It’s not a necessity to attend. I just wanted to see you wear it.”

Flushing, I decided I’d keep it on.

Wylfrael and I ascended to the conservatory. Still holding my hand, Wylf pulled the lever that opened the walls. Goosebumps erupted all over me as the cold air hit my exposed skin, the silk doing little to conserve warmth.

“We won’t be out here long,” Wylf assured me. He scooped me up into his arms...

And took off.

My heart flip-flopped in my chest, and I threw my arms around his neck, holding on for dear life. Not that Wylf would let me fall, but I wasn’t exactly used to this. He hadn’t flown with me like this, high in the air, since the night we’d gotten engaged.

The sun was setting, nearly gone behind the mountains, turning their ridges the colour of wine. We went higher and higher, as if we were fleeing the sun’s light itself, launching up towards the stars. I shivered and clung to Wylf, my hair whipping around my face, kept only slightly in place by the lace straps of the mask.

Eventually, the ascent slowed.

“Ready?” Wylf asked.

“Ready,” I croaked. Here we go.

Wylf’s face darkened with powerful concentration, though his star map seemed to grow suddenly brighter. His eyes sliced through the night as he tucked me closer to his chest, holding me with one arm and raising the other.

I looked away from him, turning my attention to the sky, speechless when I saw solid matter forming out of the air. The sky was condensing and hardening into a wall before my very eyes.

Wylfrael raised his fist, then slammed it down.

The force of his action made my teeth chatter and my bones rattle. A massive crack had formed in the wall. The door.

I held tightly to my husband as he stepped through.

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE Torrance

It really was like stepping through a door. As instantaneous as breathing. One second we were in Sionnach’s sunset-smeared sky, the next I was scrunching my eyes shut against brilliant sunlight. Delicious heat kissed over my skin. Summer. Wylfrael had said it wasn’t winter here.

The mask provided some small bit of shade for my eyes, which helped me to open them, up in the air, to get a look at this new world we’d come into – the Shadowlands.

Only it didn’t look anything like what a name like Shadowlands would imply.

It looked like a Mediterranean paradise.

From up here, I could see a wide, glittering expanse of turquoise sea lapping up against flawless white beaches rimmed with lush foliage and flowers. Behind the beaches rose golden-beige cliffs, and on top of the cliffs, baking in the glorious sun, sat a sprawling white structure. A palace of connected white domes and wide cylindrical towers, all arranged in a horseshoe shape, open towards the sea. As we got closer, the beauty of the place fully struck me. Gold and pink flowers bloomed along the white stone, climbing on emerald vines, and trees heavy with fragrant fruit rustled in the gentle sea breeze.

We descended towards the open centre of the horseshoe shape, landing in a courtyard rich with sunlight, stone, and more trees and flowers. When we landed, Wylf let me down to my feet. I tested my strength, wondering if going through the sky door had had any ill effect on me, but it didn’t seem so.

“OK, this is not what I was picturing when you said Shadowlands,” I whispered to Wylfrael. The sound of waves hitting the shore below the cliffs washed over me in delicious strokes, punctuated by the sound of what I thought might be some kind of seabird.

“It wasn’t always like this,” Wylf said. “Naturally, it’s a world with very little sunlight. Not much grows.”

“Not much grows?!” I gestured to the flowers and trees all around us.

“That’s Sceadulyr’s work,” Wylf said. “His mother is from the Shadowlands, but his father had power over stone, not light or shadow. Sceadulyr learned to manipulate light and darkness and has focused the sun on this part of the world so that, here, it is eternally summer. The rest of the planet is as it ever was. Dark and cold.”

“Whoa.” I knew the stone sky gods were immensely powerful, but I didn’t know how varied their strengths could be. “Is there day and night? Or is it always sunny here?”

“There is day and night,” Wylf confirmed. “Just no discernable change of season.”

I shook my head in wonder, already trying to come up with a hypothesis on how Sceadulyr accomplished such a thing. I squinted up at the sky, theorizing. There was still day and night, which meant the planet still rotated on some sort of axis. But perhaps Sceadulyr had been able to turn this part of the world into an equator of sorts by focusing sunlight, the way you might through a magnifying glass.