“You must be an accomplished fighter,” Galen said to Kairos. “You should teach me how to wield those scimitars.”
Kairos shrugged and held out his arm, and Osmost swooped, making Galen jump. Osmost grabbed Kai’s covered wrist, then hopped to his shoulder, opening his mouth and giving Kairos an affectionate kik-kik-kik noise that almost sounded like he was laughing. “Me? I’m not much of a fighter,” Kairos said, his smile turning sly. “When you have four older brothers who could pound you into the ground, you learn different skills.” Kairos held out his hand with a thick leather glove to guard against the bird’s claws, and Osmost jumped to it, letting Kairos bring him in close to pet his feathers as Osmost glared at Galen. “But a scimitar is just a big sword, really. Watch out for the pointy parts.”
I expected Galen to be insulted, but instead his eyes narrowed at Kairos, and I wondered if he understood the truth—with four older brothers who could pound anyone into the ground, Kairos was by far the most dangerous.
Osmost’s head cocked, and Kairos winced as his claws dug in. Osmost leaped into flight, winging fast and high, and Kairos reined in his horse. “Stop,” he said sharply, looking around. “Shalia, go there,” he said, pointing to a break in the rocky wall on one side of the road.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The hawk’s letting me know there’s danger,” he told me.
“What kind?” Galen asked.
“He’s a hawk,” Kairos snapped. “He’s not specific.”
“Go with your sister,” Galen ordered. I still hadn’t moved, and I looked to Kairos, who didn’t come closer. “I’m not leaving her alone by the side of the road.”
Kairos nodded at this, wheeling his horse over to me. No sooner did he turn than a cry rose up, and men started flooding out of the trees around the road. My horse reared, but I held on, locating a break in the rocks and urging him toward it as Kairos followed close behind, shouting at me.
I practically leaped off the horse to get lower and deeper into the small space, and Kairos moved in front of me, his gleaming scimitar drawn as another row of guards closed off the break in the rock.
Beyond the guards, men were rushing at each other, but they all seemed to look the same, their uniforms indistinguishable to my eyes. I didn’t know how the soldiers could tell good from bad.
And then a man came perilously close to the line of guards, and I saw a green dragon stitched onto his coat.
And the dragon looked frighteningly like the symbol for my family.
Then I saw only red as a knife slashed across his throat and blood poured out. He fell, and Danae stood behind him with a knife in her hand.
She met my eyes for a moment, and I saw no fear there, no hesitation.
“Shalia, back!” Kairos yelled, and I saw the guards fighting, someone breaking through and raising his sword to my brother.
Kairos was a force to be reckoned with when he had a blade in his hands, but it didn’t calm the fear rising in my chest. The dust from the road rose with the fervor of so many moving bodies, and it was hard to tell who was coming for whom.
The man Kairos was fighting fell, but two more sprang on him. In wartime, desert men carried two scimitars—and knew what to do with them—but Kairos was only wearing one today.
They set upon him viciously, and his sword flashed as he fought them both off.
Then a third appeared, brandishing a knife and heading for my brother.
“Kai!” I screamed, launching forward, everything else vanishing in my need to protect him.
Kairos turned as the man made his move, and one of the others raised his sword.
A cracking sound boomed above me, and I looked away from Kairos to see where it came from. Then the mountain moved, blocking out the light as a boulder sheared off the rock overhead and came crashing down.
Kairos dropped his scimitar and dove for me, hitting my body and dragging me down as the rock crashed, too large to get into our small corner. Everything shuddered, and more rocks swept down over us as the boulder slammed into the road, stilling before it rolled and fell off the other side.
The sounds of the fighting were loud, but no one was near us now. Dust rose thick around us, and I couldn’t breathe, coughing against Kairos as he kept me down and away, and it felt like he was sheltering my thundering heart as much as my body.
A dense curtain of dust hid us away from the fighting. The men who had been attacking him were broken on the ground, their bodies still and red.
Almost like the rock knew what I wanted.
I sucked in a breath, and it was thick with dust. I coughed it out as my heart pounded and I fought to get in any clean air, my chest tight with panic.
My hands were tingling, and it was more than the rush of fear—I had felt this before. On the bridge, when the veil had been removed and the shiver seemed to start inside me and end on the rocks.
The earth had answered me. The earth had reacted to me.
I used Kai’s scarf to cover my mouth as I desperately tried to breathe without coughing, black spots dancing in my eyes as all my thoughts and fears stormed inside my mind and I still couldn’t breathe.
Kata had told me, she’d told me for years—she always thought I had an ability. A power. Like her, but she could control water. What if I could control earth?
Foul sorcery.
No. No, I couldn’t possibly. If I could control earth, if I was like Kata, I would be a traitor to my new country. Peace would be broken before it was even real.
The scarf helped, and I finally got in a full breath, then another one. A cough came quick on the heels of the third, and the spots burst across my vision again.
Which was worse? Dying here for lack of air, or living to break the peace and betray my new husband with a power I couldn’t possibly have?
“Kairos,” I said, my voice shaking.
“Stay quiet, Shy,” Kai said softly, moving off me and pulling me farther into the alcove.
I nodded, trying to repress my cough as I followed him.
“Are you all right?” he asked quietly, looking up, watching the mountain like it was about to attack.
Was I? “Can Osmost get word to Kata?” I asked.
His eyes met mine, confused and questioning, always seeing more than I wanted them to. Then understanding sparked, and his head jerked up, searching the cliff again. “No, Shalia. I know she always said—I know it’s possible—but of anyone, you cannot have that power. Not with your husband.”
“Kairos, can he get a message to her? I have to see her. I have to …” I trailed off, looking up at the cliff. “Kairos, please.”
Something clamored closer in the dust, and he huffed out a breath. “Yes,” he said. “Don’t breathe a word of this, Shalia. Don’t even think about it.”
I nodded, gripping his hand and pulling myself up.