Air's Mark (Lords of Krete Book 3)

by Rachael Slate

  The midday sun shone hard upon her, warming her, while the snow beneath her feet swirled around her ankles. This place was less than paradise for one such as herself, but the giants were content here. They had to be, since they couldn’t escape their prison. While this place had once been their chosen home, now, they were unable to leave. Ever since Commander Kalais’s mate had opposed the sun god and met her untimely end. So, the giants were cursed here, too.

  Many times, they’d attempted to transfer the nymph trees to where their warm gardens grew, but their attempts had been futile. The trees would not be moved.

  The cold bite of frosty air stung her cheeks and nose, burning a path through her lungs. Airla trekked across the vast snowy field toward the shelter of the mountains. The moment his presence appeared behind her, she sensed him. How could she not? Yet she kept her focus ahead.

  A new kind of wind twirled about her ankles, trying to latch on, but she ensured it couldn’t. Finally, it relented, and crunching footsteps thumped behind her.

  “Will you not speak to me? Give me a chance to explain however it is you believe I’ve wronged you?”

  She stiffened at the torment in Lycus’s voice. He was a man now, no longer a lad, and yet they still played games. Well, she’d had enough. “Fine, explain to me why you made the decision to curse my family and condemn us?” Whirling around, she clenched her fists at her sides. Her mouth dropped open and she gaped at the formidable centaur standing before her. Surrounded by giants, she was accustomed to massive males, but Lycus was an entirely different sort of beast. His robust human half joined at the waist with an equally strapping horse body, creating an impressive frame against the brilliant fields of snow. Shadows of blue and gray danced across the sleek, polished white of his horse hide.

  One shaggy front hoof stomped, the vibration traveling up her legs. “Firstly, I did not curse you.” He mimicked her tense stance, crossing his arms over his brawny chest and revealing tempting glimpses of muscled, bronze flesh through the tears in his clothing.

  Ugh. Airla mimicked him, stamping her foot to shove aside her carnal hunger. “You don’t consider this a curse?” She thrust out her hand toward the endless miles of white nothingness. “We are a tree people, which means we require a temperate forest to survive.”

  The muscles in his thick neck flexed. “I never intended to send you here.”

  She tossed up her hands. “I thank you for your good intentions. They keep us warm at night.”

  “Like the giants do?”

  Ooooh. He flamed her fury. “No, they do that much, much better.”

  “Well,” he leaned forward, those white eyes gleaming, “mayhap they should have moved your trees inside their warm, cozy castle.”

  “You thick-headed imbecile. Don’t you think we tried?” She gritted her teeth in frustration. “What does ice do when you push it too hard?”

  He straightened. “It breaks.”

  “No, Lycus,” she whispered in painful memory. “It shatters.”

  Chapter 4

  Words stuck in Lycus’s throat. Oh, gods. “Whose tree?”

  “Morea.” The fight seemed to depart Airla, her shoulders deflating. “She’s not the only one. The trees are failing. Freezing. None of us have much time remaining.”

  Her revelation froze his muscles, but the urge to fix this fired through his body. “Nay, that won’t happen. I won’t allow it.” He raised his hand, forming his wind across it. “I’ll move you, right now.”

  “Don’t you dare.” She knocked aside his hand. “I told you, it can’t be done. You would kill us all.”

  “I uprooted you once.”

  “Yes, from warm, moist earth. You can’t wrench us from this, not after a century of growing here. We wouldn’t survive it.”

  He bunched his brows together. Was she right? If so, he truly had condemned them. Cursed them. He hung his head. “How can I make this right?”

  Her eyes narrowed on him, as cold as the air around them. “You can’t. You can only leave us alone.”

  Lycus stared at his hand, at the tremor coursing along his left arm. “I can’t do that, either.” He’d finally reunited with his mate and the instinct to be with her was greater than any enemy he could battle.

  “Listen,” she hissed, “no one knows the truth about that day. If they found out, they would blame me, and they’d retreat to their trees. I can’t let them do that.”

  He whipped his gaze to hers, searching. “You never told them, not even about the Minotaurs?”

  She shook her head and tears misted in her eyes. “I couldn’t. If they realized their true home is gone, they’d have no reason to live.”

  His brothers’ plans popped into his mind, but he bit his tongue against sharing them. An uprising was likely a fool’s dream, anyway. No reason to give Airla even more false faith. “What is your great plan, hmm?”

  She exhaled a slow, long breath, the frosty air swirling about her delicate lips. “King Zethes has an idea. If he can break their curse, then we can both leave together.”

  Bloody Hades. They were trapped and their only salvation depended upon a giant, also cursed? How cruel were the Fates. He whistled low. “How are they cursed?”

  “That’s a long story. Zethes can tell you himself, if he chooses not to execute you for your crimes.”

  “Fine. You can wait on your giant, but I know someone who might be able to help.” Demoleon, his bloodsworne brother, commanded the element of Fire. But how to thaw the ground without setting the trees ablaze?

  “You do?” Her eyes rounded with hope. “And you can leave this place.”

  “Well,” he scraped a hand across the back of his neck, “leave, aye, but find my way back? Not without something strong enough to pull me here once more.”

  She seized a step from him, perching her hands on her hips. “If you presume this is how you can share my bed, centaur, know this. I’d rather remain in this frozen hell.”

  Airla rubbed her hands together and blew on them, then placed them above the warm flames of the fire. Lycus was as untrustworthy as she’d feared and she’d be a fool for believing in him again.

  The only thing he sought was a way into her confidence, and into her bed. While she couldn’t fight the attraction between them, she could deny her impulses. Better to place her faith in Zethes. That, somehow, he would manage to break his own curse before her time ran out.

  Around her, the cheerful hum of the other nymphs filled the cavern. Despite every hardship they’d encountered, her people possessed a great strength of heart—so long as she never gave them cause to lose their faith.

  When she’d mentioned Krete, Lycus had held back truths from her. What that was, she could only guess. Even more reason not to trust him. Whatever he didn’t disclose might be the key to saving her people.

  He understood nothing of the torment they endured every single day. The time they had remaining could be counted on the leaves not yet frozen on their trees. Some had more and some less. A handful had already succumbed entirely. Those nymphs had walked into the embrace of their trees, bravely facing their fates.

  If she couldn’t save her race, Airla would follow them, too.

  She sighed, concentrating on the flames, which suddenly flared even higher.

  Lycus. He blew onto them, feeding the fire.

  In more ways than one.

  “Tell me how I can earn your trust once more.” In his human form, he sank onto a boulder across from her, piercing her with those striking eyes.

  “Trust is like ice,” she intoned. “Once shattered, it can’t be pieced back together.”

  “Perhaps not.” He prowled forward, lowering to his knees before her, and seized her hands. “But it can be melted and made whole again.” The heat from his hands coursed along her arms, making her shiver, not from the cold. Could she trust him again? Simply because her body did?

  “Let me show you something.” She rose, their hands drifting apart, and lifted her hood over her head. E
merging into the icy winds outside, she led him to the grove. A hundred trees soared proudly tall, their branches grown thicker and more robust despite their frozen roots, from the last time he’d viewed them.

  “Do you remember which one is mine?” The first time she’d met Lycus, he’d been a youngling napping against her tree’s trunk. She’d given him a scolding and told him her tree wasn’t a bed. A smile tugged on her lips at the memory. From that moment, they’d spent many hours exploring the forest together, reading, fishing, and indulging in those forbidden naps.

  Now, the male before her was grown from that lad, but was the youth yet inside him?

  She paused in the middle of the grove and watched as Lycus prowled through the trees in search of hers. A stutter thumped in her heart the moment he stopped in front of her tree and placed his palm on the bark.

  Airla sensed his touch as though he’d set his hand on her throat. Through her connection to the tree, she experienced everything it did. Lowering her hood, she tilted her face to the sky. A gentle fall of snow fluttered around them and the winds stopped howling. Time stilled, frozen in this place.

  Lycus circled her tree, head bowed and his fingers lightly trailing on the bark. Airla squeezed her eyes shut while the sensation of his caress traced across her collarbone and shoulders. Suddenly, he was behind her, his fingers on her form instead of the tree’s. “Aye, I recall. How could I ever forget the fiery lass who accused me of thieving her tree for a bed?” Humor reverberated in his voice, but an emotion deeper and darker stirred in his tone, too. She swayed on her feet, weak from his caress and the heat of his respirations against her neck. “The moment I first beheld you, you stole the air from my lungs, the breath from my soul. I knew you were mine.” He leaned closer and swept aside her locks so that his lips feathered across her skin. “I never intended to curse you, or to betray the trust you placed in me. I was naught but a foolish lad with untried powers seeking to protect the most important thing in the world. You. My mate.”

  Airla trembled, his confession spinning in her mind. “Your mate?”

  “Aye, Aella, we are bound by the Fates themselves. I had to save you then, just as I do now.”

  “You’re wrong.” She twisted to face him. “I’m the only one who can save myself and my people.”

  Lycus observed the fire in Airla’s eyes and the determination in the tilt of her chin. She was truly convinced he’d betrayed her. Cursed her. “You don’t believe me?”

  “A mate is a fine excuse.” Her eyes narrowed.

  “Oh, lass, I know of one way to prove what I am,” Lycus purred.

  The challenge flashed in her eyes. “Indeed?”

  Growling low, he spread his fingers across her cheek and throat and stole her kiss.

  Sizzling jolts of bliss sparked through him at the press of her lips against his, making the bonded male in him howl for more. To erase her doubts and fears. To claim her. To possess her.

  With everything that he was.

  Her sweet air filled his lungs, the fragrance so tantalizing and addictive. He could require no other air than her breath for the rest of his existence.

  Savoring her, he slipped his tongue inside her velvety mouth, exploring every luscious inch. She clawed at his shirt, a mewl reverberating in her throat, while her body went soft and pliant in his arms. He inhaled the ambrosial scent of her need and rumbled in triumph.

  He’d waited a century for this.

  And he could have her, all of her, now. His left arm burned, the centaur in him demanding to mate and fulfill the ceremony which would bond them. The significance of this moment struck him, and he pulled back, heaving. Not like this. She was his mate, and he would have her, on his terms.

  As his wife, his mate, and his alone.

  Or not at all.

  “What’s wrong?” Airla gulped, shuddering. The quivers in her body were the result of their fated bonding. Only he could make her shatter like this.

  “Nothing, love, but that’s enough for tonight.”

  “Enough?” She arched one brow. “Don’t you want—”

  “Nay, I’ve waited a century for my mate, and I’ll wait another until you agree to be mine alone.”

  “A century.” She frowned. “Do you mean you haven’t…”

  “A bonded male will take only his mate.” He smirked at the confusion on her face. “You may consider yourself experienced, nymph, but I guarantee, nothing will have prepared you for the force of my lust.”

  He cast her a wink and transformed into a wolf, then stalked into the woods.

  Airla gawked after the wolf and pressed a curious hand to her lips. They tingled with awareness and deep-seated desires she’d never encountered. By the gods, she didn’t doubt Lycus’s claim.

  He’d never bedded anyone? Because he’d waited his entire existence for her, a maiden he didn’t believe he’d ever meet again. Incredulous, and yet, true. He’d left her body so shattered that she marched to her tree and prodded it to check if it remained intact. It did, but even her bark sang with a new cascade of thrills.

  That she couldn’t have Lycus made her crave him all the more. Damn him for withholding his virility from her. She was a nymph. She thrived on eroticism. Passion, whether her own or someone else’s, was like water and sunshine to her, feeding and nourishing her needs.

  She could retreat to another giant’s bed, but… Not after Lycus’s revelations. He didn’t appear perturbed about her past, but she wouldn’t test the extent of his control. Bonded males could be infinitely dangerous beasts, or so the tales the giants told proclaimed. She’d never met one, had never dreamed she possessed one.

  Or that it was Lycus.

  Did this excuse his actions? At least, explain them?

  What if he lied to her?

  Bonded males carried a marking—a thin black band encircling their upper left bicep. Tomorrow, she’d insist on seeing his.

  As she strolled, contemplating this twist in her fate, the night grew colder and she shivered. Heading toward the cave, she sought shelter in its warmth, but the fire in her blazed now from her core, through her being.

  Airla plopped down onto her bed of furs and huffed at the flickers dancing across the cave ceiling. Lycus was keeping something else from her. He refused to speak of Krete, or why he was here. Indeed, he’d seemed as surprised as she to reunite.

  She tossed onto her side and shut her eyes, resolved to demand her answers in the morning.

  Chapter 5

  It had taken him the entire night, but Lycus had managed to scavenge a decent meal of nuts, berries, and a hare. Determination had thrummed through him, to show his mate that he could provide for her, better than the giants could. He roasted the hare over the fire, and sure enough, the savory scent brought Airla to him. Dawn crept across the horizon, mingling with dusk, into an eternal day. This far north, the sun only set once a year.

  “Good morning. That smells wonderful.” She settled across the fire from him and tucked her legs beneath her.

  “You must be hungry.” He quirked his lips at her and sliced off some of the meat, plating it with the nuts and berries, before handing it to her.

  As their fingers brushed, her gaze flicked to his, and another hunger definitely simmered in those green depths.

  He’d resigned himself to a life of chastity, of reconciling that his mate would claim others. She was a nymph, after all. Such was natural for a creature like her.

  Now, reunited, he was certain he could have her, and only one thing stopped him. A vow from her. The past was behind them, but if she ever took another after him, it would kill him. He’d rather not have her at all.

  Sharing had never been one of his virtues.

  “Thank you.” She nibbled on the meat, licking her tongue across those luscious lips. Forcing himself back, he ate with her. Curiosity consumed every glance she sent him.

  “If you wish to know, Aella, then just ask.”

  She set down her plate and worried her bottom lip. “When did
you know and why did you never tell me?”

  He cocked his head. “I knew the moment I met you and scented your sweetness. I never told you because I believed we had all the time in the world. Sending you away was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I searched for you, for a long time, but I couldn’t figure out where I’d sent you. And later, I determined you were better off, anyway. Especially with how things were in Krete.”

  “How are they?” She leaned forward, and he couldn’t evade the question any longer.

  “As bad as you can imagine. After King Minos had the Minotaurs ravage everything, he locked them away, and rules now with a cruel hand. The surviving centaurs hid in desolate caves on Mount Ida, where we awaited a sign from the gods. Finally, Zeus granted us permission to stir an uprising, and bade us gather ourselves an army. Four months ago, my bloodsworne siblings and I left Krete, each in a separate direction, with the hopes of finding our salvation. I never dreamed that, in heading north, I would come across you again.”

  His throat tightened, and for an instant, he viewed the young maiden he’d once known, sitting across from him. The trust and light in her eyes. The kinship and warmth in her heart. The possibility of every future together.

  “You shouldn’t have taken away our choice. One moment, you could have spared one moment to discuss the matter with us, and deferred the direction of our fate to our judgment. Instead, you stole that from us.”

  Her accusation snuffed out his vision, and he blinked, viewing now the fierce nymph in front of him, the one who didn’t trust, with no warmth for him in her heart and no possible future between them.

  “I saved you,” he ground, repeating the same argument.

  “We would have been better off. Now, all we have is the possibility of retreating to our other realm. All we have is the hope of dying. Of freezing when our trees do.” Her slender hands curled into fists in her lap.