Crown of Crystal Flame (62 page)

It wove around her in intricate plaits, the notes shimmering red, blue, white, green, lavender, and black. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Spirit, and Azrahn, that much-maligned magic so essential to them all. Azrahn, the soul magic, the Shadow and the Light, the Maker and the Unmaker. The song showed her the pattern and urged her to embrace the magic of the Change.

The notes saturated her senses, wrapping her tight in glorious flows, invading her flesh and setting her body aflame. Pleasure so intense it could scarce be borne flooded her body and unmade her. She flung her head back and cried out, a cry of joy and surprise that deepened to a sound no mankind, human or Fey, called their own.

With a roar, Ellysetta found her tairen form.

Fur sprouted where flesh had been. Her limbs grew long, and her fingers curved into lethal claws. Fangs lengthened in her mouth. Wings unfurled, their undersides shining gold in the fading light of day.

Ellysetta took an experimental step in her new, unfamiliar body. She felt the earth beneath the pads of her feet, claws sinking into dirt and rock. And then, because she could, she rose on her hind legs and breathed fire into the sky, laughing at the hot rush and searing taste of it.

«Shei’tani.»

Her great head swung round to meet her mate’s glowing pupilless tairen gaze. She saw herself in his mind, sleek and powerful, with fur the color of cinnamon and flames, eyes whirling with bright rainbowed radiance of Tairen’s Eye crystal that was even now calming to vivid, crystalline green. Ellysetta breathed deep, marveling at the acuteness of her senses. Scent, taste, sight, sound: All were clearer now, sharper, and visible radiant flows of magic overlay everything, giving the world a constant, shifting glow.

Tairen song
—her
song—hummed through her veins, resonating in every cell. Not separate songs as once they had been, but one song: the bright, fierce blaze of tairen forever and inextricably tied with the deep, cool well of feminine Fey power. And through the wholeness of her song, tied in bonds that would last all eternity, every part of Ellysetta’s soul was joined with the majesty, the honor, the fierce strength and the limitless, everlasting love of Rainier-Eras, Tairen Soul, King of the Fey.

«Will you dance the skies with me, beloved?»
he asked.

«Yes! Yes! Let us fly!»
her tairen half cried with sudden eagerness.

Rain poured images into her mind, directing her new tairen body in the age-old intricacies of tairen flight. She gave herself over to him without reservation, and her body processed and followed his instructions without conscious thought.

She crouched, great muscles bunching in her hind legs, magic gathering, then sprang. Her wings shot out, fully extended, and Air swept up to fill them, snapping the membranes taut. She pumped her wings, gaining loft and speed, propelling her tairen body higher and faster until the air grew brisk and cold, and the ground raced far, far beneath her.

«Rain!»

«I am here, beloved.»

And he was. He always would be.

Together, Rain and Ellysetta, truemates and Tairen Souls of the Fading Lands, raced across the sky, their mighty wings spread wide.

C
ROWN OF
C
RYSTAL
F
LAME
Q
UEEN OF
S
ONG AND
S
OULS
K
ING OF
S
WORD AND
S
KY
L
ADY OF
L
IGHT AND
S
HADOWS
L
ORD OF THE
F
ADING
L
ANDS

Rain knew loss. He knew what it was to wish for death. Ellysetta traced a pattern across the skin of his chest. She ran a hand down his torso, fingertips stroking the silky-smooth skin. All she had to do was touch him to set her world to rights. “Rain…”

“Aiyah?
”

“About what you said earlier to Dorian. The bit about my leaving if the battle grows grim.”

He caught her hand, stilled it. “I’ve already commanded your quintet to take you to safety when the time comes.”

She rolled away and propped herself up on one elbow so she could see his face.

“Lord Hawksheart said we should stay together,” she reminded him. “‘Do not leave your mate’s side,’ he said. ‘You hold each other to the Light,’ he said. And he said we could only defeat the Darkness together.”

“He said many things. Most of which I don’t trust.”

“The safest place for me is at your side. Whatever happens, we face it together.”

His eyes closed and he nodded.
“Doreh shabeila de.”
So shall it be.