My Wild Beast-Chapter 91: The Cave of Wonder (2)

Coconut and cinnamon. It was a heady mix that wrapped around Nova like the silkiest of blankets. She felt protected. Safe. Loved. In his arms, she never wished to wake, wanting to sink further into this bliss for a while longer. Yet, she also wanted to wake so she could embrace him, feel him.

It was beyond anything she’d ever felt before, and it made the entire experience of staying on the island that much better. Besides work and a few friends, there was nothing left for her in the modern world, not even family. She snuggled into Yoa’s chest more, letting his scent smother her euphorically.

Nova didn’t want this to end, and she didn’t just mean staying in the hidden waterfall cave like this. Although things were utterly different to Chad and the other men she’d dated, there was still that tiny thread of doubt tugging at her, whispering that it might all slip away. It was so dreamy and every woman’s dream to be wrapped up like this with a hunk of a man that would protect her and listen to her. It was almost too good to be true, and that was where the doubt settled.

But waking up like this, after dreaming about the stars and of a being whose face she couldn’t quite recall, Nova easily pushed aside those thoughts, burying herself in everything that was Yoa. In this case, it meant gently sinking her fingers into his hair behind her.

That dream still lingered, though, and one image remained vivid, like it had been etched behind her eyelids even as they fluttered open:

The image of a constellation knot and two spirals intertwined, wrapping around each other like a double helix.

In the dream, they’d shone brightly back at her like constellations in the navy dark sky above the cloaked being she couldn’t remember the look of. She blinked a few times, and the two images faded away.

Yoa stirred beside her, one heavy arm draped over her waist, his leg tangled with hers. He was so damned chunky. And all hers.

Nova couldn’t help the smile tugging at her lips as she turned her head to see him clinging to her like a koala, his body curved protectively against hers. She shifted slightly, her brows furrowing as she registered the position they’d ended up in. It shouldn’t have been possible for Yoa to sleep like this without pain. Not with the state he’d been in just hours before.

Unless... Had the Miroth leaves numbed the area?

How was he in this position?

Before Nova could voice her questions, a small tingling sensation fluttered along her collarbone. She blinked and glanced down. Her breath hitched. The Nokari mark was gone. Not faded. Gone. As in... GONE, GONE.

As if it had never been there in the first place, and Vulcan hadn’t forced it upon her. There was no wound or scarring.

She sat up carefully and turned her attention to Yoa. In the soft light, his body no longer bore the bruises or scratches from his fight with Vulcan. His skin, previously torn and marred, was smooth. Whole. A soft gasp left her lips.

The leaves that had once clung to his body, bound by that strange healing paste, now lay scattered across the ground. The sticky substance had vanished, as though it had never been there in the first place. Some of the leaves were crumpled and torn, their colour faded to a brittle yellow-brown, like they’d withered overnight, drained of life, as if they’d gone without water for months.

Nova’s fingers traced the area that only hours before had been almost angrily glaring at her, vividly red and fleshy. Now it was completely healed. There wasn’t even a scar. Such was the magic of this island.

Yoa stirred at the sound, those golden eyes cracking open to find her staring. "You’ve healed," she whispered, her fingers pulling back, then glancing at her bare collarbone. "And the Nokari mark..."

Yoa reached up, tracing her collarbone, his lips curling up before he lunged for her, crashing his lips into hers. Nova yelped and giggled, her arms and legs wrapping around him in their glee as they became entangled with each other again.

Eventually, Yoa pulled away. Not wishing to claim his Serakai just yet, but there was enough of molten fire in his eyes to tell Nova there wouldn’t be much more waiting. Nova’s heart fluttered, then she sought out her feathery two-piece outfit. As much as neither of them liked it, and what it represented, there was no way she was going to run around naked.

While she changed, she focused on her feelings towards Vulcan and nothing pinged back to her. There was no pecking sensation like a bird’s beak was constantly dabbing at her. Any of those new feelings that had been forced on her had completely vanished.

Yoa kissed her shoulder, or nuzzled his head into her neck, coating her in his scent, and making the process of changing much longer. It was like he couldn’t get enough of her, and wearing the outfit made of Vulcan’s feathers probably wasn’t helping with her mixed scents, but eventually, he let her be.

Once she was dressed again in the ridiculous feathers, the pair walked deeper into the caves, not yet willing to leave their little bubble. Their fingers brushed occasionally as they walked side by side, like they couldn’t quite go without reaching for each other. Now that the Nokari bond had vanished, the Serakai one zapped between them like electrical currents, like sensation gradually growing stronger to bring them together.

Both of them fought it. For now. As Nova explained about the hunting and rite of passage, and how Vulcan ended up kidnapping her.

"Then out of nowhere, Vulcan swooped in like a vulture and snatched me. It was so fast, I barely had time to scream. It was how Atia and Aiyana had no idea I’d been taken..." Her hand glided against the cave walls, the colour of the pools reflecting waves along the ceiling.

Yoa’s hand curled into a loose fist at his side, his thoughts plagued with violence towards the man who’d fallen from grace after potentially becoming the island’s guardian. How wrong Tayun or the Kairan had been to mark that pompous peacock.

"Anyway, it was a mess." She added swiftly, as her gaze locked on something ahead that completely transfixed her. She didn’t know what it was, or why her feet moved quicker towards the wall like it pulsed with magnetic energy.

That was when she noticed the strange carvings ahead—old symbols etched into the stone like they’d been waiting for someone to find them. She stopped before them, marvelling at the symbols. They ran along the walls with different stories, but the one now staring back at her, whispering to her like her lover speaking beside her ear, had her spellbound, unable to look away.

Nova’s fingers traced the carved symbols. Unlike many of the others, these she could actually read. Yet it was odd, some markings made sense to her, while others remained a mystery. How could she question it, though, when she’d resurfaced in this world, speaking a language she’d never once learned? 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

She stared at the symbols, her brows pinching together at the cryptic message:

When harmony is broken, the wild remembers.

When the gifts are twisted, they answer.

"Who are they?" Nova murmured, forgetting for a single moment that a beastly man who towered over her stood behind her, his chest almost touching her back.

One giant hand moved over hers where it had stopped on the symbols for ’they answer’.

"Could be the Kairan or Tayun," he explained, voice low with thought.

"The Kairan?" Nova whispered, ignoring the flare of heat between their hands and the electrical shocks pulsing through her body from where they touched.

"Our Gods," Yoa murmured, bringing his lips down to graze against the shell of her ear. Her breath hitched at the contact, head turning magnetically into his touch more.

"And Tayun..." She whispered breathily. They were on the island, but he spoke of her like a living being or a god.

"She is a living entity. We do not know how she works. Even the guardians of Tayun."

Nova peered up at him, moving slightly, her hand falling from the wall, leaning against it as he closed the space between them, like it was impossible to be only a few feet away. "You would know?"

"I’m Yiska," he said huskily, his lips travelling along her neck, his hips pressing into hers. He kissed her reverently, speaking between each kiss. "All knowledge has been passed down to me through the guardians. The knowledge I have acquired is like memories from past lives."

Nova pushed at his chest, transfixed on his words even as her toes had curled from his sensuous kisses. "Explain," she whispered, unable to say anything more.

"I’ll offer you an example..." Yoa muttered, pressing his lips to her temple and leaning back to stare at her with those golden-red eyes that captured her and wouldn’t let her go.

"The vampiras have been spellbound in those caves for countless cycles of the sun and moon. It was around four guardians’ lifetimes ago that Makari and his Serakai, Kaia, Tayun’s Electa, sealed them away after a long, dark era. I can recall every detail of that ordeal as if it happened only yesterday."