“I’m sorry,” she whispered, jerking her hand away.

“Mmm,” I growled. “No, it feels good, wife.”

“Oh,” she whispered, her eyelids going half-lidded at the purr in my voice. She smiled, and I didn’t think she knew how seductive, how beautiful it was to me.

“Any other questions?” I teased, tracing the tip of my nose against her temple.

“Let me think,” she said, her tone relaxed and languid. “Hmmm…what does Zaridan’s name mean?”

I chuckled. “What made you think of that?”

She shrugged her shoulder, her hand returning to my back to explore more of me, tracing over deep ridges of muscles and raised edges of scars. “You said I could ask you anything.”

“That I did,” I said, huffing out my lazy amusement. “Her name comes from a word that means shadow. Zarikin.”

“That seems fitting,” she replied. “Did you name her?”

“No. She was first seen over a century ago,” I told her. “I read the records in Elysom myself. A horde traveling to the Arsadia from the north. They typically pass over the Zarikin Mountains on their way here. That’s where we believe she lived before I bonded with her.”

“She lived there with Lygath?”

“Yes,” I answered. “Or so the stories tell. The Elthika are nomadic by nature, much like your Dakkari hordes. But they do tend to return to one location more often than others, where, more times than not, they choose to nest. To hatch their young.”

“But Zaridan never took a mate, right? Or had hatchlings of her own?”

“Not yet,” I said. “The Vyrin are particular and stubborn, like I told you. As such, there are not many left.”

She went quiet, processing the information.

“And Lygath?” she asked.

“What about him?”

“What does his name mean?”

“Ah,” I murmured. “It means ghost. Spirit. Wraithling. If you ever saw him, you’d understand why. He’s so quiet. He appears out of thin air sometimes. You never hear or see him coming unless he wants you to know.”

“What?” she whispered, frowning, pressing up from my chest. Even I sensed the sudden, startling change that went through her. “Quiet, you say?”

“Yes,” I said. “Why?”

“He’s silver? A little smaller than Zaridan?”

I stilled. Silver-scaled Elthika were rare. “Yes.”

“I—I think I may have seen him.”

My heart leapt in my chest.

“Where, Klara?”

There hadn’t been an actual sighting of him for years. He’d hidden from Zaridan, even.

“At the Tharken cliffs. That night, just as we were leaving. I⁠—”

She cut herself off, looking down at her own lap, unseeing. She shook her head.

“What is it?” I asked, sitting up to cup her cheek with my palm, lifting her face so I could see her eyes. “You’re sure you saw him?”

“Ever since she marked me, I’ve always seen Zaridan in my dreams,” she told me. “But I’ve always seen another too. For even longer than Zaridan.”

I jerked. “What?”

“I saw him in my dream when I went over the cliff that night in Sarroth. There was an Elthika flying over the heartstone forest, and I was running, trying to chase him down.”

She shook her head as a knot lodged itself into my chest.

“I never imagined it was him,” she confessed, looking at me. “But if that was Lygath at the Tharken cliffs, then that’s the Elthika I’ve been dreaming of since I was a child. How can it be that I dream of both of them? Zaridan, I understand, if she was leading you to me. But Lygath?”

Karag who’d had gifts similar to Klara’s had always said they’d seen their intended Elthika long before they ever claimed them.

Realization churned in me, but I didn’t want it to be true.

“What does that mean?”

I couldn’t lie to her. Not when we’d just begun anew.

“It means there’s a very high possibility that Lygath is the Elthika you have a chance at claiming,” I said. A fierceness rose in me. “But Klara, there is always a choice. Do not choose him. If you see him at the Tharken cliffs, choose another. Lygath might be Zaridan’s brother, but he is dangerous and highly unpredictable. Most believe he cannot be claimed. Countless have tried. And like most Vyrin, he has no hesitation about killing riders if he thinks them unfit.”

Her face went a little pale at the words. “You think he’s meant for me? How is that possible?”

I shook my head. “Please, Klara. Tell me you’ll be smart about your choice, that you’ll keep a level head when the choosing comes. It draws near. I need to know you’ll stay away from him.”

If she felt the claiming bond with Lygath…I didn’t know if anything I said would sway her. It was a powerful feeling and an undeniable truth.

“There has to be a reason I’ve dreamed of him for so long,” she said softly. “Maybe this is it. Maybe Zaridan marked me not only for you but for him.”

Fuck, it was entirely likely. The Elthika could see more than we could ever hope to see.

I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead to hers as I took a calming breath, to slow the sudden thundering in my heart. “Promise me you won’t choose him.”

“I can’t do that,” she said, honesty threading through her voice.

“Klara—”

“But I can promise I’ll be smart. I’ll listen to my instinct,” she said, and I felt the warm press of her lips on the corner of my mouth. “Besides, if I fall, you promised you would catch me. Right?”

Suddenly the choosing loomed, distracting and menacing.

“Of course I will,” I answered after a brief silence. “Of course. You never have to fear that.”

I just wished I would never need to.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 34KLARA

“Acolyte.”

When I turned, running my arm over my forehead to wipe away the sweat, I saw Kyavor was looking at me as he lubricated the mechanisms on his practice mount, knee-deep in the river.

“You did well today,” he said. I blinked, freezing for a brief moment, and Sammenth nudged me knowingly beside me.

“Thank you, Kyavor” was what I said in reply, inclining my head toward him.

Kyavor had put us through endless riding drills today on his Elthika, the blue-scaled one I’d seen the first day of training on the landing field. For the last few days, I’d been cramming in information on maneuvering the tethers—the leads—and practicing how to loop the tethers around an Elthika without a harness, which would be necessary during the choosing at the Tharken cliffs.

Wild Elthika were not trained…yet. Though there were many nonverbal cues that Sarkin used with Zaridan—like tapping her wing or thumping his fist against her flank or calling her with his cuff—those things were learned over time. Sammenth was still training with her Elthika. The horde—the warriors and scouts for Sarroth—had to work meticulously to train their Elthika. I’d learned it took years, even with some of the Elder Elthika’s guidance.

Me? I just had to get the basics down. I was no warrior, and I never would be. Just staying on the back of my Elthika was what I was most concerned with now. Well, that and actually claiming one.

Kyavor went back to working on his practice mount, which we’d done a run on before the end of the session. It was nightfall already. The torches around the villages were already lit, smoke wafting up from many of the dwellings as families cooked their meals for the evening. But training had been going on longer and longer this last week.

It had been a week since the starfall shower, since Sarkin and I had watched the Elthika migrate west. And every day since, there was a new sense of urgency in Kyavor and my peers. In me, most of all, because I was behind the young riders in instruction time, even with my supplemental nightly lessons with my husband.