as a human, but bonding with you changed her to who she was destined to be. You saw for yourself her power. Do you think that it wouldn’t rise to protect her in an emergency? Or that those in the villages near your palace would have survived if her instinctive defenses hadn’t destroyed that creature’s tainted pets that he set loose upon your people?”
“I don’t know,” he growled. Turan threw her arms up in the air.
“Stubborn,” she snarled, the elegant lines of her face contorting into a fearsome form, revealing the terrible strength beneath the beauty of the goddess. An angry growl rolled through her, but just as quickly it disappeared, and she peered over at him evenly though her posture was rigid with disapproval. “Even your warrish brother who enraged men into battles for their adoration had to bond to the female who was his soul. Despite your snarking about Eru, he too required my intervention. That did not make his bonds any less true. Why, if I had never set the obstacles before his bride, he likely would not have united with her and would have circled around her helplessly as she cycled through numerous lifetimes more.”
“I am sure that they recall it the same way,” he said dryly.
She waved a hand and made a small, irate noise. “Children are never grateful for the best efforts of their parents. But yes, they know the purpose for my interference and that there’s reason to my methods.”
“Of course, you would claim such after all was said and done, regardless of what suffering she had to endure to ensure their bond,” he said sourly.
“I give up!” she huffed with an expressive wave of her hands. “Fine, chase your tail while what is left of your forest slowly withers away without you. I did my best to point you in the right direction, but even I know that sometimes children must work it out for themselves. A word of advice: follow your heart, and your instinct. They will guide you, and ultimately bring you home.”
His jaw hardened as he looked away. Females, bonding, and sentimental platitudes did not help his situation. He snorted. Use his instinct… It wasn’t as if he were not utilizing his instinct. It aided him in his hunt as much as it could, and it wasn’t being particularly useful. As for his heart? He rolled his eyes. Leave it to his mother to be concerned about sentimentalities and bonding over very real concerns like the fate of the cosmos. Although his earlier memories were still shady from the expanse of time, he knew very well that she’d been pestering him for ages about finding his uxorem, even before the war with the Tainted Ones.
A low sigh drifted to him as he felt her come up beside him, her presence warm like the sun. “Despite your suspicious, stubborn nature, I do love you. Please heed my words. You will not succeed otherwise.”
A waft of her scent surrounded him as lips lightly brushed his cheek. He turned his head, but a warm breeze whipped by him and Turan was gone, leaving him alone once again. The fountain at his side was silent and the water was absent without even a drop glistening from its basin. Even the doves had vanished in the breath of a moment. Desolated silence was once more his only companion.
Taking one last look around what had once been a city park, Selvans debated whether or not he should continue his hunt through the city. His mother’s concern was touching, but the hunt drove him. He had hoped that he would find some clue here. There were many places that prey could hide within the human underground systems. His nostrils flared as he scented the air, turning his face toward a sudden breeze.
Nothing.
No. It was time to move on.
Chapter 39
December
Light snow fell outside the tavern, and Diana watched it wistfully. Their part of the country never got much snow, so the sight of it always seemed a bit more magical, especially as the winter holidays neared. The trees stood as silent sentinels against the winter sky, their boughs laden with snow. Though the sight was beautiful, she missed the soft murmur of the hamadryads that, as Silvas had once promised, had roused near her cabin. All throughout the summer, they had been one link to her life in the Eternal Forest.
A few times, she was tempted to use the flute Aquilo gave her to see if she