Page 40 of Crown of Ellova: Vol 1

“Will you swear it in blood?”

CHAPTER 18

He is taken back momentarily, clearly not expecting the cost, but his voice is steady when he straightens his spine. “That I will, Izadella.”

Ellova’s grave, I love the way he says my name. After years ofArra, my real name is magic on his lips. That familiar flutter blooms low in my gut at the reverent tone. TheAat the end is drawn out when he says it, making it sound like music, like worship. I yearn to hear him moan it, scream it, say it a thousand times more. Over and over again until his voice is nothing but a broken whisper of devotion.

My voice, however, breaks, and I stutter, “G-Good. I shouldn’t bring you to where we are going. The loyalty you are swearing is to me too. This isn’t an ordinary blood oath. Once you pour your blood on Ellovian soil, it will bind you to it.” I take a deep breath. “I shouldn’t trust you, but somehow I do. There’s a pull towards you that I can’t explain.” I slowly pull out the dagger that is strapped to my thigh. Farren weaves in and out of my legs, looking up at us.

With a determined expression, Leon watches the morning sunbeams glint off the blade. “I feel it too, whatever is between us,” he whispers. “I’ve felt it since the night we met.”

Something shifts at the acknowledgment of something deeperthan a frivolous crush or temporary lust. The feeling of something dangerous and beautiful. “Hold out your hand to me.”

He thrusts his hand forward, palm open, before I even finish speaking. “I trust you, too, you know,” he says in a lover’s tone.

For a moment I get lost in his green eyes before focusing on his hand, tracing the lines on his palm. My fingertips graze his rough ones, the touch electrifying.

“Each tree in this forest stands sentry. Guarding and protecting, ever since the war. Only those who seek to harm Ellova are dragged beneath its soil, their flesh a feast for the things that crawl under moonlight. With your blood spilled here, it proves you walk with me into Ellova without evil intent.”

Leon doesn’t even flinch when the knife brings forth his lifeblood. We wait together as the crimson pools in his palm before I continue. “Now press your palm into the ground at my feet and tell me what you vow.”

He lowers himself, his eyes never leaving mine, hand plunging into the soft soil. “I vow no harm to Ellova, but furthermore, I vow to heal you, protect you, and defend you, Izadella of the Merawood Forest. You said my previous oath was fulfilled, so I vow a new one. Ellova has my blood, but you have all of me.”

He says those last few words in a tender tone, and I suck in a harsh breath. The heart he just vowed to protect beats so rapidly it could burst free of my body with my next movement.

A faint glow rises from the ground where his fingers grip the soil, his blood mixing with dirt and clovers. The glow brightens and light flashes under the soil before darting out like bolts of lightning beneath us. The light fades as quickly as it arrived, and when Leon stands, holding up his hand, the scar is a thin faded line. Hope bursts within me.

I take my finger and softly trace the evidence of his oath. He gently pulls my hand to his lips and places a lingering kiss on my knuckles.

He can follow me into Ellova, meet my family and friends. Just a little more time with him.

The pain in my head lessens. It must be the excitement that he will get to meet Nueena by night’s end.

“Are we ready to depart?” he asks.

My silent nod is all I can offer. Perhaps I should remind him he will only be able to stay for a short time, but he’s looking at me like I’m holding the sun in my palm, and somehow I doubt that would have changed his mind.

The forest is a fierce protector, but it is also an enormous gossip.

When we turn to head east, we find ourselves surrounded by every possible creature that calls this place home. Rabbits, foxes, and deer sit among the bushes, and a blue jay flits about above them. Birds of all types fill the trees, along with soft white opossums and squirrels, the branches leaning towards us. The grackles, my personal favorite, have iridescent feathers that gleam in the sunlight, and they are the first to take their leave, realizing the early-morning entertainment is over, and the rest follow, scurrying off or taking flight.

Some sections of the woods are thick and we must wind our way around the broad trunks. While I walk unbothered by the forest, Leon trips over everything the forest puts in front of him, much to his growing annoyance. I cannot help the snicker that escapes me as another root rises up to meet Leon’s boot.

In one particularly dense part of the woods, two trees cross over each other that certainly weren’t there a second ago.

As if he were speaking to someone of great importance, Leon politely inquires, “Excuse me, may we be permitted to pass, please?”

The two trees uncross themselves, letting me walk through them, but the moment before Leon tries to follow, they launch themselves forward, crossing again. “They don’t seem to like me much, or have developed a taste for my blood and require more of it,” Leon says through gritted teeth at the trees that separate us. He tries to go around, but two trees near him cross over their branches to delay him.

I can only shrug at this, placing my forearms on the branches to lean on something for a short rest. “The trees within the Vergedon’t like outsiders. It goes against their protective instinct.” I give the branch an affectionate pat. “It’s not them; it’s the protective enchantment using the trees to express itself.”

“Did my blood sacrifice not suffice?” he grumbles, and a short branch whips out, smacking him upside his head. Something not unlike a growl escapes his lips.

I’m still giggling when I put my forehead to the branch.

“You are doing a wonderful job of protecting Ellova, but we need to travel quickly to Nueena. I promise he means no harm.” Something brushes my cheek and I look up to find a vibrantly deep-yellow flower hanging from a branch at my eye level. “Oh, it’s lovely, thank you!” I pull it free of the branch and place it behind my ear, watching the trees uncross themselves to allow Leon to pass unbothered.

“Why, exactly, were these trees not inclined to defend against Grayden’s guards?”

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