Blood of Two Crowns (Hallowed Fates #2)

Chapter 6

Chapter

Six

MAREINA

L athrimos had proven to be a man prone to emotional outbursts. It was both endearing and, personally, a little unsettling. The two of us had been in flight for only an hour as he gave me a partial tour of my father’s realm, and already he’d been driven to tears. Twice. Not that I could blame him. If something happened to Malekai, I certainly wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation. Lathrimos promised he’d find someone to teach me how to fold but insisted that I strengthen and get used to my wings.

Easy for him to say when he only had two of them to lug around, where as I had four.

“Stop trying to fly against the current. You have to let it carry you.”

My heart gave a painful squeeze as Nakoa’s words returned to me.

“I’ve got you.I can carry us both - I only need you to let me.”

You are such a hypocrite, I hissed at myself internally.

Emotion burned my eyes, and no matter how I tried to blame it on our tether, deep down in the darkest parts of my soul that I never allowed to see the light of day, I knew my longing for him was so much more. Nakoa had basically taken a cleaver to my chest and inspected each dark and twisted part of me with a fucking magnifying glass. The parts of myself that I had always hidden from Malekai. Or at least tried to.

As if to punctuate these thoughts, another air current slammed into us, sweeping us 30 feet higher before it abruptly disappeared, and I suddenly found myself plummeting towards sickle-sharp, icy mountain peaks intent on skewering me. Tumbling through the air, I flailed, screaming as I begged my wings to catch on to the constantly shifting currents of air.

Akash almighty, why aren’t we on a fucking warm beach?!

A stone wall crashed into me, forcing a whoosh of air from my lungs, as Lathrimos clutched me in arms the size of tree trunks.

At the same moment, darkness drew over us like a hood before being shirked, and we were suddenly unceremoniously flung onto wet sand.

“Fucking hells,” Lathrimos panted.

My hands trembled as I gradually tried to retract fingernails that I’d dug into the flesh of his biceps. “ Please … Don’t make me do that again.”

My gaze leapt around our dreamy, tropical surroundings. “I thought you said you couldn’t fold?”

“I can’t. That was all you.”

“I’ve never folded before.”

Lathrimos shrugged like it was nothing out of the ordinary. “Your power will increase exponentially here. This is your home. It boggles my mind you lived your entire life on only a minor percentage of it… How’d you know about this place, anyway?”

My adrenaline was still spiked from flying over those blasted mountains. Before we’d folded, my desire to be on a nice, warm beach had fisted my heart and produced an image in my mind. An image identical to the shore upon which we now stood.

“I don’t. I saw it in my minds eye when I was desperate to get out of the sky.”

Lathrimos frowned, taking in the secluded Kailuma beach surrounding us with palpable longing. “This was— is your father’s favorite place in all of Avernus.”

Another irksome burning sensation took residence in my eyes that I promptly shoved away. “I wish I’d gotten more time to get to know him.”

Lathirmos’ voice rose barely above a gruff whisper as he stared out at the sea which I noticed had several sets of eyes, some dark, some luminous, peeking above its surface. All monochrome in color. One of which was a fathomless black.

Like Nakoa’s.

My heart gave another painful lurch.

“He’ll be back… At least that’s what I keep telling myself.”

I had to remind myself Lathrimos spoke of my father.

Guilt twisted inside me at the sensation. Malekai and I had just claimed one another. We were betrothed. I loathed this bond to Nakoa. And no matter how I tried to resist, deny, and ignore it… I fucking missed him. I ached and yearned for him. There was a gaping hole in my heart that even Malekai couldn’t fill, even if he permeated every other part of me.

Lathrimos willed away his boots and took several steps forward, gentle waves sloshing around his bare feet and calves, enormous grey-ish wing tips carving the shallow waves. He was dressed solely in leather armor and some strange type of skirt made of wide strips of the same textile. I’d only seen illustrations of this impractical battle attire in books from Terrenea.

Unable to resist the water for a second more, I willed away my clothing and crashed through the waves, squealing my delight before diving into the water a few feet away from him. When I surfaced, it was to find a smile had taken over his formerly mournful expression. “Just like your father.”

Emotion pinched tight in my chest, and Lathrimos’ smile dimmed slightly. “He will be back. Don’t worry.”

I could tell the words were spoken aloud as much for himself as they were for me, and I was suddenly desperate to change the topic.

And for some reason, imposter syndrome was the first thing that popped out of my mouth.

“I’m terrified I won’t be able to take care of Avernus the way it deserves. I’ve fallen head over heels in love with this place in a matter of days, but I have no idea how to rule a realm and all I’ve ever been good at is killing. I hate it.”

Lathrimos was frowning again.

Fuck.

Treading water, I tried to return my attention to the magnificent sea surrounding us.

Lathrimos swam beside me, having liberated himself from his strange warrior attire. “Well, lucky for you, pretty much everyone here is already dead.”

I blinked at him, taken by surprise that he’d made an actual joke before my head tipped back with laughter. Lathrimos chuckled, looking a little relieved that I’d been humored. When our laughter died down, he grew serious again. “Ruling a kingdom in the living world is nothing like it is here. I think you’re under the very human assumption that ruling this place will have the same tribulations and obligations that those in the living world have.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Not even remotely. Let me remind you that this place is eternal. There is no poverty. There is no death in the way that you think of it. It is a place of rest for the soul between reincarnations and returning to Akash’s Source. Whatever a soul wishes they can grant themselves. Those who remain without or are in suffering, it is self-inflicted—from karmic debts and their misdeeds sewn in the living world—until they heal and grow from within. And that is something that your innate power helps sustain.”

Outside of the soft whisper of the gentle waves kissing the shore, silence hung between us as my chest constricted and the sensation of unworthiness deepened.

“Outside of death, I know nothing of my power, Lathrimos.”

Lathrimos’ brow pinched with concern, shaking his head as he searched my face in disbelief. “Death is only the beginning of your power, Mareina.”