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The Wind used to tell him that once a man was marked, the aniive hi soht
For years after he was marked, the hawk had demanded more freedoiven hiain Not after what happened to Aren
The last echoes of the fury slipped away, leaving hirets There were so s lost to him now
He’d been born with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and had studied the natural world extensively, but there was so much more to learn So s every year, every day, and he wanted to know theain of the dream he’d held close for decades A dream of a mate of his own He’d never been like many of his brothers, who’d been deterh, of late, four of them had fallen to that fate, hadn’t they? It was often like that Watching that kind of love in another had a way of softening ahim wonder what it would be like to know that kind of contentment
He’d alondered, always hoped he’d someday find the one th and intelligence, and turned liquid with love when she looked at hihts
The other animal spirits, too, cried or roared with distress Were they really in pain, or ainst the loss of more Feral animals to the trap?
Were they even there at all?
They were like ghosts in the roo were the echoes of their death cries froo
Chapter Sixteen
Ariana paced the solar in the Crystal Realht to her steps Why had she expected anything to go right? She’d re stored in the jewel-encrusted box that sat upon one of the bookshelves that lined the walls of the roo Earden as she paced, trying to coht have been moved
Of all the rooms in the Crystal Palace, the solar was perhaps the most Earth-like, with its rows upon rows of books, brown velvet sofas, and plush, vibrantly colored floor rugs It even boasted a ith real glass Only the floating crystal lights ht have looked out of place in a ift to Brielleher friend’s insatiable appetite for books, an appetitethe palace inside out looking for the crystal while she sorted through the ju to h, she went to stand beside Kougar, looking out on the grounds behind the palace, a sea of rocks and waterfalls She called it the garden, but no plants, no trees, no floould ever grow there It was the Syphian Streaar’s hands gripped the sill until his knuckles had turned white
Ariana slid her hand across his back "You’re thinking of war, aren’t you?"
"I’ to kill that sorcerer"
"I know that waiting to go after hirowled
A sharp pain pulsed in her te her head broke through She groaned at the revelation
Kougar lifted a brow
"We can’t kill Hookeye, not while I still hold the poison It will absolutely ensure I’ar pushed away fro si to his back as he paced away "The queen sent her mist warriors to destroy the sorcerer But the poison killed her the moment the sorcerer died I’m afraid if you kill him, you’ll kill me, and possibly yourself, too If I die, the poison will escape and infectaround to face her "You can’t know that It ht not be the same poison"
"No, I can’t know for sure, but what she suffered was hauntingly sih except that the poison she’d taken never spread to her ht you said the Mage had never attacked your race before ere mated"
Ariana frowned "I didn’t think they had I didn’t remember" She made a sound of frustration "There’s so much I don’t re the insides of her skull like bats fighting to be free All she could do was hope the ansere already in her head, because returning to the te to snare her, body and mind
What she needed to do, as she had in the teh the newit fast-forward style It would take tihts to filter into her brain and beco she didn’t have
Kougar had given her twelve hours to come up with an answer, and only ten reain at any time, if he hadn’t already She feared that his insidious poison in to guess How long did she have before it blooht terrified her But she wasn’t without warning this tio, she hadn’t knoas happening She hadn’t known she was under attack until far too late
And by the tiar by her side
Her gaze caressed theleft in her world And she knew she wouldn’t h she had no illusions that his pri himself and his friends, she knew deep down he wouldn’t turn away froth, her rock
"They’re lighting the festival lights," he murmured, back at the"They think you’re on your way to beating this thing"
"Brielle’s no fool, Kougar She knoe’re far froet Beautiful lights,All feed the Ilina, body and soul, and we’re likely to need all the strength we can co for an excuse, and my renewed memories serve her purpose We have the possibility of victory locked inside my head And that’s worth a celebration, a badly needed lift of spirits"
He turned to her, his gaze pensive Thoughtful Slowly, his pale gaze moved down her body, a physical caress "Will you dance?" In those eyes, she saw a memory of another time and the echoes of that pleasure
"Perhaps Once I find the Crystal of Rayas"
"Once we find it"
"I thought you o" He closed the distance between therace of the cat he was inside, and came to tower over her, a solid wall of muscle and willful male He closed his hand around the back of her neck "Who knohen you h he said the words without inflection, a gleam shone in his eyes