I nod and take a deep breath. Well, here’s hoping he can find something, because I have the sinking suspicion I’m going to need it if I want to help the Gryphons.
“Wakanda Forever,” I exclaim quietly to myself, like I’m hoping somehow the words will pump me up and prepare me for what may or may not happen.
Both options suck dirty dick, because if he finds a thread, I know this is going to hurt. I can recall the memories of when I first got the markings when I was little and what my dad did to take them away. I’ve never felt anything like that kind of pain. Well, not until Zeph knocked me out of the sky and smashed me into the ground.
If Wekun doesn’t find hints of my magic, then everything I’ve been planning and striving for is about to get a little more impossible. I hope for the sake of the Gryphons who are about to destroy one another that I can find a way to put a stop to it.
I scoot over and lie down in front of Wekun. His Narwagh-pant-clad knees rest against my side, and he bends over me with his hands outstretched. He closes his eyes as though he’s centering himself or perhaps praying. Maybe he’s whispering his own Wakanda Forever.
My eyes trace the lines of the cream-colored tunic he’s wearing and watch as he takes a deep breath, releasing it slowly. I try to relax and stare up at the ceiling of the tent as his warm palms move up to rest on my chest. He pauses for a minute and then moves down my sternum, like his hands are a metal detector and he’s trying to listen for the right cadence of beeps to tell him he’s hit the jackpot.
I become all too aware of my breathing as he skims slowly over my body. I’m nervous. Worried about what happens if he finds something, worried if he doesn’t. Pigeon sends me a wave of reassurance, and I give her a grateful smile. We’ve been doing so much better together; checking in, taking the other’s feelings into account. I haven’t been able to let her out to stretch too much, but as soon as Wekun gets us sorted—one way or the other—we’ll start training again.
I try to go through the list of things we need to do in my head as Wekun’s hands roam over my arms and then move back to my stomach. Pigeon and I need to find the words to break the Vow. We need to convince the Ouphe and the Gryphons here to help us. And then we just need to win the war.
No pressure.
My heart picks up a little as Wekun’s searching palms dip lower down my abdomen. His skin skims the fabric of the thin tank top dress I’m wearing, and my body wakes up and heats, regardless of the platonic way my brain is saying it should react. He stops suddenly just above the apex of my thighs, and I try not to snort.
Who doesn’t want a magical vagina?
The rapacious little shit has gotten me in enough trouble though, and I don’t know if I’d trust whatever Wekun is obviously feeling to be the guiding light for Gryphon salvation.
“Got it,” Wekun announces calmly.
Fucking hell. Well, this just got infinitely more awkward.
Pigeon makes that chuffing sound that she does when she’s amused, and I roll my eyes at her. I swallow down the wisecrack I have for Wekun, because he’s clearly concentrating so hard.
A jerking sensation hooks through me. Thankfully, it doesn’t come from my crotch, but rather my chest, but I’m all at once overwhelmed by the feeling that something is being threaded through me. It’s as though each cell that I possess is the eye of a needle and Wekun is carefully fitting a warm, stinging string of magic through each opening simultaneously.
I gasp as the slight burning sensation goes from uncomfortable to agonizing in less than a blink. My back bows off the large pillows I’m lying on, and just as I feel the bloodcurdling scream claw its way out of my throat, I’m ripped away from my body.
I scramble to try and hold on to myself. I feel Pigeon’s talons scrape down my arm as she tries to reach for me, but I’m suddenly hurtling back through the star-filled sky as though I’ve been lassoed and I’m being drug to fuck knows where.
My body crashes against stone, but surprisingly it doesn’t hurt. I work to pull oxygen into what I’m pretty sure is my incorporeal body and look around. Shock slithers through me when I immediately recognize where I am. I’m sitting inside the gazebo that Nadi brought me to, surrounded by the overgrown and long abandoned Ouphe city of Vedan. I’m back in the heart of where the Hidden used to live.
Only it’s not Nadi glowing green and sitting next to me.
I stare at the man for a moment and try to make sense of what I’m seeing. It’s impossible, and yet there he is. Black hair and lime green eyes take me in, patiently allowing me time to recover from the bewilderment he must know I’m experiencing.
“Dad?” I whisper, still not trusting my eyes or the words spilling out of my mouth. “Am I dreaming?” I ask as his eyes light up with a familiar light and his lips spread into a joyous smile.
I look around again, wondering if this is just another memory my conscious has become aware of, but that can’t be it, I’ve never been here with him before.
“How?” I breathe out, barely audible, my heart hammering in my chest, and tears prickling my disbelieving eyes.
He opens his arms and leans in to give me a hug. My first reaction is to flinch back away from him. I hate that my body immediately reaches for protection away from him instead of toward him, but I’ve seen
