Chapter 29

T he grand hall at the center of the Ilki and Katánian encampments at KySyene was filled with the clamor of celebration.

A state dinner was in full swing, a feast to honor the Ilki warriors for their bravery in the recent battle.

The air was thick with the scent of roasted meats and the sweet tang of spiced wine. The atmosphere was jovial, a stark contrast to Kaxim’s brooding mood.

He stood on the fringes of the room, his sharp eyes never straying far from Liana.

She was resplendent in her ceremonial robes, her tone warm and genuine as she conversed with the Ilki warriors.

Yet, Kaxim was engulfed in a growing unease as he observed her.

Something felt off, a maleficence in the air.

His senses went haywire when a tall, handsome Ilki general approached her.

RyKin was the image of a broad-shouldered war hero with a confident stride and a disarming smile.

As he spoke to Liana, leaning in closer than Kaxim deemed necessary, a prickling of possessiveness flared up inside the Katánian Commander.

He was across the room instantly, moving with the silent intensity of a predator stalking its prey.

Kaxim came up behind Liana, his presence looming over her.

Without preamble, he scowled at RyKin and muttered in a menacing growl. ‘You’re flouting decorum, General. Standing too fokkin’ close to my wife!’

RyKin was caught off guard.

Glancing at Kaxim, he was met with a glare that might have wilted Khiron, the Great Eagle, at the height of battle.

The Ilki commander, despite his valor, courage, and budding working relationship with the man glowering at him, found his limbs cowering.

He stammered an unintelligible apology, bowed, and excused himself, retreating into the throng of revelers.

Liana rotated to Kaxim, her eyes narrowing in displeasure. ‘Was that necessary?’ she asked.

She kept her voice dipped but sharp, and her eyes glowered in warning.

Kaxim’s lodestone flashed in defiance. He grunted an unfathomable response, grabbed a beer stein from a passing servant, and took a long drink.

She turned from him, her exasperation apparent. Pissed off at yet more of his freakin’ broody alpha-hole conduct.

He sensed her mood and questions about where the master kísími , the patient trainer and wise, disciplined commander, had disappeared to.

Fokk if he knew.

He was spiraling out of control with his freakin’ obnoxious behavior, driving her up the wall.

For example, she caught him staring down at a younger, well-regarded Ilki Council member who dared to approach her with a policy query.

Kaxim’s expression clouded even more into a blend of brooding ice and barely contained fury.

It was enough to send the Ilkanite scrambling.

Liana bristled and sucked her teeth. ‘ Djuik ,’ she clipped. ‘What the fokk? You can’t just scare off anyone who talks to me. This is a meet-and-greet event for the people I serve. Speaking to me is part and parcel of the affair.’

He refused to meet her gaze, taking another swig of his beer. ‘I don’t trust them,’ he muttered.

‘But you’re collaborating with several of those in this room to train our soldiers.’

‘Doesn’t mean they can invade your space when they want, Kwen? .’

‘Why in Devansi hell are you so paranoid?’

He scowled. ‘Like I said, woman, I don’t trust the lot of them.’

Before she retorted, K’Aran appeared out of nowhere and sidled to the couple.

A warning ripple charged the air, and Kaxim braced in alert mode.

‘Fancy seeing you here,’ Liana said. ‘Last I saw, you fled my k?lajan through its roof.’

‘Like a fokkin’ dickcissel coward,’ Kaxim growled under his breath, hand over his hilt.

The Shadowing’s eyes, sharp and suspicious, bore into Kaxim.

K’Aran turned his head with a sneer and leaned in to address Liana in a low hiss.

‘How can you even sleep next to this Katánian, Kwen? ?’ he spat, his tone laced with contempt. ‘An enemy, one of those who tried to vanquish us for years?’

Liana’s back stiffened at his words, but she kept her composure. ‘The war between both nations has been over for years. We are allies now, and Kaxim is my husband, strengthening our partnership.’

K’Aran’s lips curled into a sneer. ‘Trade partners, perhaps. But trusted allies? I wouldn’t trust him to pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel.’

Kaxim glowered at the insult, setting his tankard on a nearby table to grasp the hilt of his sword. ‘If you have a problem with me, dark wing,’ he growled, ‘say it to my face. Outside. I’ll tear your krest from your freakin’ skull.’

K’Aran smirked at a scowling Kaxim, and the pair locked in a stare-off.

‘Hey,’ Liana warned, laying her drink aside and stepping between both men before the argument escalated further. ‘Can cool heads prevail, please? We’re in public.’

The standoff continued.

Neither of the royal couple took note as a second, inky Shadowing ghosted unnoticed behind them, so focused were they on their nemesis. Nor did they perceive a small vial emptied into their drinks.

‘Fokk off,’ Kaxim growled.

K’Aran stepped back, his eyes flickering with something unreadable. ‘Enjoy your evening,’ he said with a mocking bow before disappearing into the crowd.

Liana sighed in relief, turning to her husband to give him a pointed look as she rubbed her temples. ‘Let’s just get through this night,’ she said, raising her drink to her lips. ‘Without any incident.’

Kaxim jerked his chin in assent. Still seething, he followed suit, draining the rest of his beer.

Almost at once, he was overcome by an unusual heat that spread through his body and pooled deep in his stomach.

He glanced at his Queen, seeing a sudden flush in her cheeks.

‘Woman,’ he growled, his voice tight with concern, ‘something’s wrong.’

She gazed at him, her eyes vast with confusion and rising panic. ‘What’s wrong?’

Kaxim discerned what had happened—a poison, subtle but potent, had been slipped into their drinks.

‘Fokk,’ he hissed.

With a snarl, he grabbed Liana’s hand. ‘We need to move, now!’

He half-lifted her into his arms and charged from the banquet hall.

Outside, he banded a hand around her waist and leaped into the skies, his wings beating with might as he raced through the darkness.

What’s happening?

She called via their soul bond.

Even then, her neural voice was slurring, succumbing to the poison.

‘Later. I don’t have time to tell you,’ he growled, reeling under the poison’s lethal sting.

He slammed into rather than landed at the steps of his k?lajan .

His two sentries stared at him, but he lifted a hand to stay them as he dragged his woman inside.

The guards grinned and exchanged glances, and he ignored them.

They had no way of knowing the Queen was in mortal danger.

Flinging Liana onto the divan, he bent over her and took her mouth, folding with urgency over her soft folds.

At first, intoxicated and dizzy from the intoxicant, they stumbled into a comical wrestling match of kissing and heavy petting, each trying to maintain control but failing in spectacular fashion.

Liana pulled back with a saucy twist when he tried to suckle harder. ‘Oh my! About fokkin’ time, lover.’

‘Liana, this is not time for games,’ he growled, pushing her lips back to his, siphoning as much of the poison into himself.

He closed his eyes as their mouths melded, summoning his Kaldean k?tu to dilute the contaminant he was taking into his blood.

He sensed the insidious tendrils of the dark magic flood into his mouth and leak into his body.

Shaking as he continued to kiss her to get every last drop, he was hit with a scorching fever as his k?tu battled to neutralize the toxicant.

He was on fire, and so was she, the maliciousness in their veins driving them wild.

Sweat dripped off him as Liana melted against him, melded to him, her hands twisted in his hair, small moans escaping from between her sensual lips.

His cock sprung to life, and he ground his pelvis on hers instinctively, even as his mighty bulk fought the winds of death.

In minutes, the tide changed, and the tendrils of deadly íkan imploded in his bloodstream. The effects lingered, inebriating them both.

He sagged on her, relieved just as the heat they shared intensified. Kaxim’s restraint, which at most times was ironclad, was unraveling at the seams.

His hands were on her, pulling her close, and she didn’t resist, her own body responding to the lingering potency of the poison and their unresolved tension.

Kaxim’s lips found hers again and again, raw and desperate, and Liana’s arms clung to him, need ratcheting, emotions spiraling out of control.

‘Liana,’ he growled, trying to push her away even as she dragged him closer. ‘We, we shouldn’t.’

But her words were lost as his mouth licked and laved her neck, his breath hot against her skin.

With a herculean effort, Kaxim pulled back, his chest heaving as he fought for composure. ‘Liana, I can’t,’ he grunted.

He panted, his voice rough with emotion.

She locked her gaze with his, hers glinting with tears of frustration and confusion. ‘Kaxim, what’s happening to us?’

He shook his head, guilt and regret warring within him. ‘It’s the poison. I diluted it, but there’s still enough to fokk our shit up.’

Liana nodded, understanding dawning on her. ‘Fokk,’ she whispered, her utterance so husky it sent more jolts of desire through him.

He looked at her, studied her, and a barrier inside him broke.

The emotions he had been trying so hard to suppress came crashing down.

All he managed was to pull her into his clasp, holding her close as if she were his lifeline.

They didn’t speak, didn’t need to.

They spoke through their bond, in silent glances and soft brushes over each other’s body.

At one point, she stirred, slurring into their khamana .

There’s something you need to know. K’Aran is my half-brother. He intends to murder me for marrying you. For tainting the royal line and aligning with the enemies he wants to vanquish.’

Kaxim’s heart rate picked up, wrath washing over him as arms tightened around her. To what end?

He has a wild plan to use my powers against Katane and the entire Pegasi universe in some fokkin’ apocalyptic dystopian fantasy where wings will rule over all.

‘Over my fokkin’ body, Kaxim growled out loud, sucking his teeth.

Eventually, the poison’s effects faded, leaving them both exhausted but closer than ever, their khamana even more entwined.

Kaxim’s heart roiled with wrath as Liana drifted off to sleep in his arms.

That someone had dared to rip her away from him, to destroy her so they’d control her and Ilkan, enraged him.

He locked his gaze on her sleeping, vowing revenge on the creature who’d defied his wrath by attempting to snuff her kemí .

Two nights later, the skies over the wilds were ink-black, the faint shimmer of stars visible through the swirling clouds.

Kaxim flew with silent, lethal grace, his wings slicing through the air as he soared higher. His sharp eyes were fixed on the jagged cliffs ahead.

His destination was a desolate region to the west of KySyene.

It was a bleak, jagged expanse of towering black mountains clawing at the sky like primordial, crumbling giant leviathans.

The air was thick with an oppressive stillness, a profound silence that appeared to press down on the land.

Shrouded in perpetual twilight, the peaks were cloaked in shadow, their rough, obsidian surfaces slick with an oily sheen that reflected the dim, blood-red glow of a distant, dying sun.

The ground was scarred and uneven, a wasteland of sharp, broken rock and deep fissures. Caves of varying sizes pockmark the mountainsides, their mouths gaping like the twisted, toothless grins of forgotten gods.

The occasional faint rustle or eerie echo came from these dark, yawning caverns, the sounds of unseen creatures that stir within the depths.

The air was acrid, carrying the scent of sulfur. It was a place forsaken by light and warmth, where even the earth whispered warnings to those foolish enough to venture into its heart.

Few dared cross this barren wilderness, for Ilkanite Silkanth myths said that in the heart of these mountains, a dark malevolence watched and waited—ancient, patient, and hungry for the souls of the living.

The Shadowings’ caves were carved deep into the rock, hidden from all but the most driven seekers.

Tonight, Kaxim was that seeker.

He had not slept since the poison attempt on Liana.

The ash of betrayal still lingered on his tongue.

K’Aran had crossed a line, and there was no coming back from it.

Kaxim burned with fury. His mind focused on one thing—vengeance.

For his Queen, for his wife. He had to protect her at all costs.

As he neared the caves, his body shifted mid-flight, feathers dissolving into sinewed, muscular limbs.

Within moments, Kaxim had transmuted back into his humaniform, landing on the rocky terrain in stealth.

He prowled forward, his senses sharp, his purpose pulsing with a quiet, deadly rage.

K’Aran was nearby.

The energy of kízakan magic hummed in the air, thick and oppressive.

The cave was gloomy, but Kaxim’s eyes had long adjusted to the dim light. His breath left him in silent puffs as he moved deeper into the heart of the Shadowings’ domain.

The moment he entered the principal chamber, the unmistakable presence of K’Aran hit him like a physical force.

The Shadowing was waiting for him.

‘You think you can just fly into my territory, Kaxim?’ K’Aran’s voice echoed through the cavern, a mixture of mockery and venom. ‘You, a Katánian, dare to challenge me?’

Kaxim’s deliverance was cold and controlled. ‘You tried to murder my wife, K’Aran. For that, there will be no mercy.’

A bitter, obscure chuckle rippled from the shadows.

K’Aran stepped forward, his form slowly materializing from the darkness. He was tall, his avian features sharp and angular, and his eyes glinted with malice.

His inky wings shimmered with the protective wards and ancient runes.

‘I did what needed to be done,’ K’Aran spat. ‘She is weak. The Shadowings deserve better than to be ruled by a Queen who consorts with our enemies.’

‘You overestimate your strength and underestimate mine,’ Kaxim growled, his fingers flexing, power rippling beneath his skin.

The aura around him crackled as he called upon his Kaldean k?tu , the force encircling him like a storm ready to break.

Without warning, K’Aran struck first, a blast of kízakan magic hurtling toward his opponent.

The bolt of energy seared through the air, but Kaxim was faster. His form shifted into that of a massive gyrfalcon, its feathers as inky black as the granite peaks of Mount Karth.

He dove toward K’Aran with blinding speed, claws extended, and they collided with a force that shook the cave walls.

K’Aran screamed as Kaxim’s talons raked across his chest, sanguine fluid spraying in thick arcs. But the Shadowing wasn’t finished.

He pushed back, evoking a shield of black force around him, forcing Kaxim to retreat mid-air.

‘You’ll have to do better than that,’ the Katánian growled, his form shifting back into his human body as he landed on the rocky ground with a thud.

K’Aran was panting, his wounds seeping dark blood, but his eyes blazed with fury. He sent another wave of kízakan lightning toward Kaxim, who countered with a roar, summoning the full force of his k?tu magic.

His power surged through the cave, bright and fierce like lightning, slamming into K’Aran’s protective shield with an earth-shattering crash.

The barrier shattered, and the Katánian wasted no time.

He lunged forward, grabbing K’Aran by the throat with one hand while the other plunged a blade of pure energy into his enemy’s chest.

K’Aran gasped, his eyes washed with disbelief, convulsing as the life drained out of him.

Above him, Kaxim’s face loomed, a mask of cold fury, his grip tightening as he hissed. ‘This is for Liana.’

With a final twist of his wrist, the gyrfalcon ended K’Aran’s life.

The body fell to the ground with a dull thud, the cavern silent except for Kaxim’s heavy breathing.

He stared down at the fallen Shadowing, his torso heaving with the exertion of the fight.

It was over.

K’Aran was dead.

A flicker of righteous justice settled inside him—he’d prevailed at his duty as Liana’s protector and husband.

He glanced up as he sensed other Shadowings ghost-in from the dark recesses of their home.

He eyed them, meeting their crimson gaze with his glowing obsidian wrath.

One floated toward him, and he raised his chin to it. ‘He died for trying to kill the Kwen? .’

‘We know,’ came the hissed response. ‘He acted alone.’

‘Tell that to the regent yourselves.’

‘We will, for we want peace after years of fighting a useless cause only one of us pursued with a vengeance.’

Kaxim simmered down somewhat, sensing the suffering in the wheezing sibilance. ‘She desires the same, so seek her forgiveness, and I’m certain she’ll let your people co-exist with the Silkanth in serenity.’

‘Tell her to expect me. My name is K’Atun.’

The creature dipped his head, shrunk back, and disappeared into the darkness.

With one last glance at K’Aran’s lifeless form, the Katánian warrior sucked his teeth and exited the cave; his heart hardened, his mind on one soul alone.

That of his woman.