The Centaur Queen (The Dark Queens #7)(38)
He scoffed, and his eyes filled with a shimmering wetness that broke my heart. My chin trembled as I fought the large lump now trapped in my throat.
“Tymanon.” His voice cracked. “I would not believe those words coming from any other, but I think that if anyone could find loophole, it would be you.”
With an inarticulate cry of gratitude, I kissed him sweetly, causing our tears to mingle and merge. Maybe Petra and I could never exchange the vows of Veritas, but I felt him move through my soul.
I would do anything I could to spare him this pain, but I would not lose him like that. There had to be another way. There was always more than one way to solve a puzzle. I simply needed time to think things through.
“We have less than an hour before we must leave. Sleep, Ty. Please. Even if it’s only a catnap. You’ll need your rest.” His words were tender, but full of sadness.
So I kissed him again, and one more time too, until he smiled for me, until that sadness lifted just a little. But deep down, I was very, very afraid that I might fail for the first time in my long life.
Petra must be free, Myra must be saved, and Kingdom needed its answers.
I was smart enough to figure this puzzle out.
I hoped.
Dear gods above, I hoped.
Chapter 11
Petra
“Gnósi,” Tymanon said as we stood at the demarcation line between Kingdom and the gateway to the worlds.
The island was surrounded by a body of water on all sides, and the only way to reach it was by a land bridge comprised of nothing but twisted vines and blooming, multi-colored flowers.
The gray domed structure of the Fates’ temple stood like a beacon ahead of us. We’d reached the very end of Kingdom. The land beneath our hooves cut off, and below us was nothing but jagged spires and algae-tinted rocks. Waves crashed like a roar against them, drowning out the rapid beating of my pulse ringing in my ears.
Memories of my only other time here barreled through my head. I’d come to beg for my sister’s freedom, but I’d never even made it through the challenges. The bitter sting of loss filled my belly like hot lead, and I clenched my hands tight.
But then Tymanon’s hand was in mine, and she was staring down at me with her pure, warm eyes. I swayed toward her, pulled without thought closer to her side.
“We will prevail this time, Petra. You and me. Fear not, my gída.”
Despite my misgivings, I smiled back at her. Last night had been amazing and wonderful. This morning, when I’d woken after my pitifully short nap, I’d been terrified that she might have regrets, that she might have been awkward or strange or shy with me, but she hadn’t been at all.
Releasing my hand, she briefly brushed her knuckles down my now lightly-bearded cheek, causing me to break out in a heated wash of prickles and my body to grow hard and needful of her.
One tussle with a nymph was usually enough to break her spell over me. But with Tymanon, my desire for her was a daily-growing need.
“I can do anything with you by my side, álogo.”
She nodded before turning her gaze to the wooden sign that’d been pounded into the earth long ago. I didn’t need to look at it to remember what it said.
Here There Be Monsters
Patting the leather strap of her bow, Tymanon didn’t look back at me as she took the first step onto the land bridge. The earth beneath her feet rumbled, and with her next step, a glowing aura of white flashed around her.
She was now well and truly on Gnósi lands, and there was no turning back for her. The only way out was by going forward.
Swallowing my fears and the plethora of what-ifs, I followed a step behind. The glow of the Fates’ magic washed through me, stealing my breath for a moment as their collective power flashed like molten metal within me. A scream grew in my throat at the pressure, and just when I felt I would burst from it, an instant flooding of cool waters rained over me.
Sweat broke out on my back and forehead, and I shook, remembering how very unpleasant that experience had been the first time I’d come here.
But Tymanon had picked up speed, and I couldn’t be left behind. We’d crossed Gnósi’s threshold at nearly the same moment, so the magic recognized us as one rather than two separate challengers.
Keeping tight on her heels, I ignored the panic beating in my chest as the temple loomed closer and closer and the scent of jasmine grew thicker and thicker on the breeze. The light of Apollo blazed bright the nearer we drew to the thick slabs of gray stone.
Bells chimed like angelic song all around. The breeze stirred with waves of gold powder, dusting us in it, coating Ty’s hindquarters until she gleamed with it. My heart beat harder and faster at the beauty of her.
And then we were turning a corner, moving not toward the temple proper but the garden behind it.
A river of dappled blue water sparkled in the noonday sun. Multi-colored fish swam in hypnotic circles within its clear depths. Water lilies floated lazily upon its currents. The air was thick with the scent of exotic flowers.
Trees, filled to bursting with golden apples, teased me. My stomach rumbled. Hunger consumed me.
But those apples belonged to the gods themselves and were forbidden to anyone else. My fingers twitched, imagining their sweetness and their crunchy tartness. My mouth flooded with desire.
The apples were said to give one immortality, total and complete. In Kingdom, everyone could live forever, so long as they didn’t meet up with a monster or fall off a cliff’s edge or drink poison... or any of the other nasty ways of winding up dead.