Читать онлайн «A Strange Hymn»
Автор Лаура Таласса
“We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side. ”
—Kahlil Gibran
Mighty Nyx came,
Mighty Nyx sought,
All that he could,
Of his dark lot.
In the deep night,
His kingdom rose,
Beware, great king,
Of that which grows.
Easy to conquer,
Easy to crown,
But even the strongest,
Can be cut down.
Raised in the shadows,
Reared in the night,
Your child will come,
And ascend by might.
And you, the slain,
Shall wait and see,
What other things,
A soul can be.
A body to curse,
A body to blame,
A body the earth,
Will not yet claim.
Beware the mortal,
Beneath your sky,
Crush the human,
Who’ll see you die.
Twice you’ll rise,
Twice you’ll fall,
Lest you can,
Change it all.
Or perish by day,
Perish by dawn,
The world believes,
You’re already gone.
So darken your heart,
My shadow king,
And let us see,
What war will bring.
Chapter 1
The black iridescent feathers glint under the dim lights of Des’s royal chambers, now black, now green, now blue.
I stand in front of one of Des’s gilded mirrors, both horrified and transfixed by the sight. Even folded up, the tops of my wings loom well above my head and the tips brush the back of my bare calves.
Of course, wings aren’t the only thing different about me. After a particularly nasty skirmish with Karnon, the mad King of Fauna, I now have scaly forearms and claw-tipped fingers too.
And those are just the changes you can see. There’s nothing—except maybe the wounded look in my eyes—that I have to show for all those parts of me that were altered in different, more fundamental ways.
I’d spent the better part of a decade fighting the idea that I was a victim. I’d done a damn fine job of it too—if I do say so myself—before I came to the Otherworld. And then came Karnon. A small shiver courses through me even now as I remember.
All those cleverly crafted layers of armor I wore were shucked away in a week of imprisonment, and I’m not quite sure how to deal with it.
To be honest, I really don’t
But, as bad as I have it, the Master of Animals got it worse. Des vaporized the dude so completely that all that’s left of him is a bloodstain on the remains of his throne room.
Apparently, one does not fuck with the Night King’s mate.
That’s another thing I’ve acquired recently—a
But even that—matehood—is more complicated than it appears.
I still have so many questions about our bond, like the fact that I never knew I was a soulmate until a few weeks ago. Other supernaturals find this kind of thing out back when they’re teenagers and their magic Awakens.
So why didn’t I?
There’s also the fact that most soulmates can feel the bond that connects them to their mate like it’s a physical thing.
I place a hand over my heart.
I’ve felt no such thing.
All I have is Des’s word that we are soulmates—that and the sweet ache in my bones that calls for him and only him.
