The Centaur Queen (The Dark Queens #7)(53)
Rayale looked at the silvery, perfectly-shaped tear within, and her jaw trembled. “This is the tear of the Gorgon.” Her words were choked with astonishment.
He nodded. “Gifted to us by her.”
Almond-colored eyes rose to meet his before turning to me. “You are right, Tymanon. The power is within me. But any flute other than this one can only be used once. What is it you seek?”
I shook my head. “I’m not quite sure yet, but I suspect that without your lure, I would never discover it.”
Clutching the vial to her breast, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. I was happy for her, but I also felt it prudent not to give her false hope.
“The Gorgon’s tear turned your lover to stone, and only the Gorgon’s tear can heal him. But understand this, Rayale. The curse has come and gone, but the effects linger still. Many of the couples the fairies put together are now no more. Some are dead. Some are missing, the repercussions of which have been—”
Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. “If the couples are no more, then their children cease to be.”
I nodded, knowing she fully understood. I knew I’d liked the Piper for a reason. Blunt and brusque she might be, but the female was fiercely intelligent.
“And Lleweyn’s family? What of Red and Wolf?”
Petra was the one to shake his head. “Last we heard, they’re both missing. The other children are gone. Lleweyn was petrified in stone, essentially locked in place and overlooked by the curse. He lives only because he was rock.”
Minutes ticked past, and she didn’t move. But I knew she’d heard us. Her throat worked hard as she swallowed repeatedly.
“For so long,” she began slowly, “I cursed the gods for sending me here, vowed vengeance on them all, knowing there was nothing anyone could say to me that could ever make this right.” She thrust out her jaw as she rubbed her upper arm.
I nodded in understanding. “Being turned to stone was the only thing that saved him from his family’s fate. And you being here, for us, is monumental, more than you could possibly know. We need your flute to succeed, and you need the Gorgon’s tear to awaken your mate.”
“And there is the irony,” she snorted. “Without our suffering, I’d have lost him anyway.” Another tear dripped down her cheek, which she swiped at with an angry, jerky movement.
“I am sorry for your suffering, Piper.” I reached out and gripped her shoulder, squeezing once.
She sniffed, but didn’t move out of my grasp as I expected her to. “If you get me out of here, then I’ll make you your damn flute. I’ll make you as many as you want.”
“One will do.”
She nodded.
I turned to Petra.
“Time to go,” he said, but his words echoed with a hollow sadness. He had no idea what I planned, what came next, but I wondered if maybe deep down, he sensed that everything between us was about to change.
I nodded and walked toward the one statue that was unlike the others. Made of dark black stone, it wasn’t a depiction of a sentient creature, but the image of an hourglass.
The gateway to Time literally stood before us.
I pushed at its center, and the sculpture crumbled at our feet, turning into a swirling tunnel of endless yawning and spiraling darkness, a Milky Way galaxy brimming over with starlight and nebulous clouds the colors of the rainbow.
Petra held onto my arm and shook his head as I made to move forward.
“We’ll go through together.”
He was right. We should stick together. It was entirely possible the tunnel would lead us nowhere, or toss us all to separate planes of reality. So long as we held on tight, we’d stay together.
I leaned forward and gently stole his mouth with my own. “I love you, gída.”
He smiled back at me.
“One. Two. Three.” We all clasped hands, and then we jumped.
Chapter 17
Petra
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Rayale had left us many hours ago after carving Ty a simple wooden flute. My lovely centauress sat before a campfire of green flame, admiring its design.
“She is really quite skilled,” she murmured, more to herself than me.
I grinned. “Yes, she is.”
Tossing me a smile in return, Ty placed the flute down and moved toward me on her knees. I leaned back, watching her with a lazy curl of my lips, eyes lidded and heart pounding violently in my chest with my rising awareness of her.
Her scent of flowers surrounded me when she crawled over my thighs, straddling my waist. Tymanon was already nude. She had no shame when it came to her body. I was glad of it. Humans could be so very prudish, and though my female appeared as one of them, in her heart she was very much a centaur. Biting the corner of her lip, she twined her fingers through the tips of my hair.
I sighed, leaning into her touch like a man dying.
“I hope she finds him,” she murmured sweetly, even as her hands began a sensuous caress of my muscle.
I swallowed hard, blood rushed through my veins, filling my cock, making me hard and desperate and manic for a taste of her.
The second we’d returned to Gnósi, the desires that had been so dulled in Time suddenly roared to life with a quickness and fierceness that stole my breath. I wet my lips, keeping my hands firmly on the ground. If I touched her now, I would lose what little control I possessed. The rising tide of my satyr’s wild desires rose high within me. I wanted to bite her, wanted to suckle her and shove so far deep inside her that she cried out in ecstasy just shy of pain.