“I can’t,” she said. “Not yet.”
“Because you might be taking advantage of me?” He curled his fingers around her shoulders. “Please take advantage of me. I’m begging you.”
Kyra let out a watery laugh and sniffed. She lifted a hand to Leo’s cheek and let it rest there.
Leo let out a long breath, grateful that she hadn’t pulled away but still frustrated at her stubborn sense of honor.
Even though it was one of the things he loved about her.
He loved her. Everything about her. It wasn’t just about her being his reshon, even though he was nearly certain of it. He loved her. Her goodness and her loyalty. Her quiet determination and pride.
The words were on the tip of his tongue when he heard a child running toward them.
Leo let Kyra go and stood, sweeping his eyes through the trees. There was something about the panicked breath of a child that put every instinct on alert. He brushed a thumb over his talesm prim and activated his magic between one breath and the next. His heartbeat slowed and steadied. His eyes became sharper. His hearing keener. Power rippled over his skin like armor.
“There.” Kyra stood next to him, pointing into the forest. “It’s Intira. She’s terrified. The others are already coming this way.”
Leo bounded down the stairs and toward the sound of the frightened child crashing through the forest. He saw her stumble over a rock and caught her as she fell. “What’s wrong?” he said, going to his knees. “Intira, what has happened?”
“It’s Prija.” Her face was dirty and tearstained. “They took Prija.”
Chapter Eleven
Terror tore through Kyra at the girl’s words.
They took Prija.
Anselm is gone.
Gina took some poison.
We don’t know where Sana is.
Barak killed Lazlo.
Diman.
Jarrod.
The mothers. Gone.
The brothers. Gone.
Her sisters. Gone.
Gone gone gone.
Kyra fell back into the nightmare. Someone caught her arms, and there was shouting. Voices pounded against her mind. Scraping pain along her arms. The careful shields she’d built around her mind closed in on her and she was left with chaos. Intira’s panic. Niran’s spike of anger. An inky black flood of power rippling from Sura. The bright flash of Alyah and Ginny’s magic like a flame in the darkness. Thoughts from every direction attacked her, and she felt herself falling inward.
And then…
Slemaa.
Two hands gripping her arms.
Slemaa, reshon.
A single voice, like a deep bell tolling in her mind.
Slemaa.
He enclosed her, lifted her. Kyra reached for him and pressed her face into his chest. She tightened her arm around his neck as he surrounded her. The silence gave way to white noise, which gave way to Leo’s voice.
“Breathe, Kyra.”
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Leo was carrying her toward the porch.
“Intira,” she said.
“The others are with her.”
“I collapsed?”
“I think her panic must have unraveled your shields. Everyone came running, and you collapsed when they got close. I can’t imagine what all our thoughts were, but they must have overwhelmed you.”
She nodded. “Someone needs to check on the other kareshta. They could be having similar reactions because of Intira’s fear.”
“Ginny is checking on them while Niran and Alyah try to find out what happened to Prija.”
“Set me down, Leo.”
“No. You’re white as a sheet. I thought you’d hit your head when you—”
“Set me down.” She wasn’t panicked anymore.
He stopped. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. His touch had wiped her mind of the sudden rush of voices, and she knew she needed to try something. “Set me down and step away. Just for a minute.”
Kyra could tell he didn’t want to do it, but he slowly set her on her feet. She held on to his hand as she calmed her mind and opened her senses. She focused on the memory of Prija’s voice. Not the silence of the woman, but the voice of her angry soul.
She closed her eyes, dropped Leo’s hand, and listened.
In her mind’s eye, Kyra soared into the night sky and over the forest, leaving the immediate voices in the background, white noise among the rustle of bamboo. She welcomed and sifted through the friendly cacophony of voices from the human village, veering away from it and searching for Prija’s voice when she found nothing familiar close by. She ranged over the mountains and through the trees, the wind guiding and whispering to her as she searched.
This was why Barak had kept Kyra and Kostas together. Her father had been a Guardian of Heaven, the bearer of a Guardian’s blade, and Kyra and Kostas were the strongest of his children, the most gifted when they listened for danger. When the twins held hands, Kyra’s range was nearly as powerful as their father’s had been. Alone, she could still hear for miles.
“What are you doing?” Leo’s voice came to her as if he were talking from beneath the sea.
Kyra ignored him.
Voices of humanity. Voices she’d never understood. The same, everywhere in the world. Over hills. Through forests.
There.
Kyra focused on the familiar voice and tracked it.
Prija’s soul was spiked with anger. She was headed north. Directly north. Her thoughts were blood-red and wavering on the edge of violence. Kyra tried to listen to the voices closest to her. One Irin. Two… Grigori?
What did it mean?
She opened her eyes and grabbed Leo’s hand. The weight of silence made her head swim, and she took a deep breath. “Prija is with an Irin scribe and two Grigori. She’s headed north. Fast enough that I think she must be in a car. She’ll hurt them if we don’t find her soon, and I doubt she’ll stop with her attackers.”
Leo’s eyes went wide. “How can you hear that far?”
“My father was a cardinal angel,” she said. “I am not without power of my own.”
“I’m going to have more questions about that later, but for right now, we need to get back and let Niran and Sura know. Are you steady enough?”
She squeezed his hand and began reciting the spells Ava had taught her. Her battered walls clicked into place. The door she’d flung open in her mind eased shut. After a few moments, she nodded. “I’m fine.”
His brilliant blue eyes were wide. “That is amazing.”
“I’m sorry I collapsed before.” She swallowed, trying to rid herself of the tightness in her throat. “Intira’s voice was so panicked, and the memories…”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” She could tell by the set of his mouth that the answer didn’t please him. “Maybe… not now.”
He nodded, and the tight set of his mouth eased. He was so open. So expressive. But he hid deep feelings behind that happy facade. She was beginning to see him now.
As they walked, Leo kept her hand in his, and Kyra remembered the words she’d heard from him when he held her, the voice of his mind that sang like a crystal bowl.
“Leo?”
“Hmm?”
“What does slemaa mean?”
He frowned. “Slemaa? It means peace.”
“Peace.” She smiled. “You were thinking that when you were carrying me.”
He smiled. “That’s not what I remember thinking, but I’m glad that’s what you heard.”
“And what does reshon mean?”
He stopped in his tracks. “What?”
“Reshon. Your voice was very, very clear, and you were thinking that too.”
Leo’s jaw dropped.
Kyra was adept at reading expressions, but she couldn’t read his. The closest she could come was picturing a paper lantern glowing from the inside. She’d seen people lifting them into the air at the lantern festival in the city. That’s what Leo’s face reminded her of.
“What does it mean?” she whispered, her stomach in knots.
She didn’t know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t for the giant man to drop to his knees before her, kneeling on the forest floor. He took both her hands in his and pressed them to his forehead, whispering words in the Irin language she didn’t understand. He pressed her palms to his face, and she felt tears on his cheeks.
“Leo, I don’t understand.”
He lifted his face, and she had no trouble interpreting his expression then.
Pure, incandescent joy. His smile lit the night.
“What does reshon mean, Leo?”
He rose before her, pressed her hands over his heart, and took her mouth in a fierce, radiant kiss. “We don’t have time right now, but I’ll explain later. I promise.” He started jogging through the trees, Kyra forced to follow.
“That’s not fair.” She tried to keep up with him. “Leo, you need to tell me now.”
He lifted her in his arms, picking up the pace as if she weighed nothing. “After we get your sister. I promise you.”
Leo’s elation had been tamped down by the time they reached the others. Someone had cleared the dining table and a map spread across it. Alyah was talking on the phone in rapid Thai while Sura, Ginny, and Niran examined the map.
“Kyra found Prija,” Leo said. “She listened for her and heard her.”
“How?” Sura didn’t look anything like a laid-back college kid anymore. His expression was blank, but Kyra could feel the slow-burning anger in him. She could even see his tattoos lighting up like Irin tattoos sometimes did. They had a silver tinge she’d never seen before.