Ryon recognized Felix’s voice—the only reason he didn’t try to incinerate him. “She . . . was running away from you?”
Felix dashed over to the pile of silver dust on the ground and breathed it in. “Which direction?”
Ryon pointed north. “She took . . . Aunt Deirdre. She’s posing as the queen.” He struggled to his feet. His body felt as if it had been tossed off a hundred-foot cliff. “How can she do that? Can you . . . shapeshift into a human?”
Felix’s eyes flashed. “Can you make it to Jadenvive?”
Ryon watched the last of the silver mist disappear into his fur. “You can’t sense her if she dumps her syn like that . . .”
“I’ll worry about her. You get to Jadenvive now and report to Brooke before she lists you as missing in action.” Felix dashed off in the direction Ryon had indicated. “No more detours!”
32
KIRALAU
Slender yellow-speckled leaves crackled and fractured under Kira’s footfalls. She lost track of how long they’d been walking along the riverbank.
Ryon hadn’t breathed a word the entire time. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. The ghost of his aunt, apparently.
That crazy elemental seemed intent on forcing him to marry his cousin, so Kira didn’t blame him for being in shock. She couldn’t imagine being in the same situation.
But Ryon acted like he’d known the elementals were real his entire life. First Felix, then Zamara. If lesser elementals—or trai’yeth, as he called them—were actual physical creatures, did that mean the four greater elementals were as well?
And if that were the case, how could a physical creature hear her prayers any more than her mother could Kira’s thoughts about her from countless miles away?
Kira hurried her pace to catch up with Ryon, and the break from her musing revealed a change in the forest around them. Ryon didn’t have to use his machete anymore—the layer of eye-level brush was somehow gone. The girth of the white-barked trees had ballooned into insane widths, some as wide as her father’s barn or even greater. She felt like a branch runner beneath their canopies, unable to even discern the treetops above the massive leaves wider than an ox’s yoke.
“Ryon.”
He didn’t turn or speak, just continued onward as if he were oblivious to her and everything around them.
Kira jogged to come alongside him and noticed a dark patch in his hair. “Hey, I think there’s some ash in—”
“Did you just call me an ashen?” Ryon gave her a sharp sidelong glance.
She jerked back at the sudden heat in his aura. “N-no, I think there’s some ash in your hair.” A streak on the side of his head went from silver to gray to black char. Maybe they hadn’t escaped unscathed from Zamara’s rage after all. “What’s an ashen?”
“Sorry.” Tension drained out of Ryon, slacking his shoulders and drooping his expression. “I was just . . . thinking of other things, and I didn’t mean for it to vent onto you.” He gave her a weary smile. “It’s kinda funny if I actually do have ash in my hair.” He swiped at the wrong side of his head. “Before my ancestors were driven out of Kioa and set sail to come to this land, the Kioans called us Illyrian tribes ‘ashen’ because of our silver hair. It was supposed to be an insult, like we were just the cold dust beneath the fire.”
Kira frowned and reached up to gently brush the dark spot. The singed tips of Ryon’s hair crumbled and smeared on her fingers. “So only Illyrians have silver hair?”
“Before age fifty, at least. And not all tribesmen have silver hair, obviously.” Ryon paused and dipped his head closer so she could continue her work. “We don’t call ourselves Illyrians anymore. Illyria was the name of our land, which is now Kioa’s.”
“Oh.” Kira knew where Kioa was on the world map—somewhere south of the Rift Ocean on the southern coast—but she didn’t recall where Illyria was. She wiped her hand on his leather-clad shoulder instead of ruining her new tunic.
She rustled his hair until it was back to its platinum shine, minus a half-as-long streak. “Well, it’s not bad, but . . .” She made a face. “You probably need a new haircut.”
“Not bad, huh?” Ryon lifted an eyebrow and smirked.
Kira pulled her hand away and opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came to mind. Instead an unfamiliar tingle hummed in her chest.