Page 67 of Heir of Ashes

I leaned my head against the rough bark and closed my eyes. From behind me, a melodious voice said, “He is grateful. He’s waiting to grant you a favor.”

I jumped up with a reserve of energy I didn’t know I had and spun around.

A woman sat on a branch behind me, a woman I was sure hadn’t been there when I arrived. Even my befuddled brain would have registered that.

She looked just as out of place in that land as I did. She stood slowly, the branch she sat upon miraculously not cracking under her weight. It didn’t even bend.

The first thing I noticed about her was her height. She was taller than my six feet by a few inches. The second thing was her glow. Like the planets, she seemed to be radiating an incandescent glow from within. Her long, lustrous red hair cascaded down her back in soft waves, her green eyes and alabaster skin contrasting perfectly. She had on a green medieval dress with layers of teal-green taffeta and a small brooch of gold and emerald at the heart-shaped neckline. Her red lips matched the color of her hair, and her cheeks had a natural pinkish hue.

She was barefoot.

Her aura … it was a bright, shining silver. What the hell had a shining silver aura?

And here I thought I was an aura reader.

“Who are you?” I squeaked through a parched throat.

“My name is Leon Ora Maiche. You may call me Lee,”.

I only stared at her, stupefied. Where the hell had she come from? Instead of asking the question out loud, all I could do was gawk.

Eyes twinkling, she inclined her head, pointing her chin at the creatures behind me. “They are grateful to you. They are waiting to grant you a favor.”

I looked behind me at my troop of followers. “What? Why?”

“You fed them. They are grateful. They want to return your kindness. Ask them for something,” she ordered, clasping her hands together in excitement.

I glanced at the creatures and then back at her. “I’ve been talking for hours. I don’t think they understand me.”

“I heard. I have been watching and listening ever since you appeared with the other mortal. He deserved what he got.” She added the latter with a guileless smile.

“I didn’t see you,” was all I could say.

“Of course not,” she scoffed. “You only see me now because I wish it so.”

Something in the way she said that raised my suspicions. “Wait, are you the reason I can see now?”

She inclined her head. “I reckoned you needed the aid.”

It was a sign of how weary I was, that I didn’t know what to make of her.

“If you have been watching all along, why appear now? Why not show yourself before? Why not help?”

She rolled her shoulders in a shrug, the movement fluid. “I suspect you could use the company. Besides, I cannot stay forever and am profoundly curious about what you shall make of your favor. They have not granted such a boon in ages.”

I glanced at the creatures again. They crouched and waited. “I thought they wanted a free meal.”

Lee chuckled softly. “They do not wish you harm. They do not attack those they favor. Ask them for something. I’m eager to see what you’ll choose.”

“They can’t attack me?”

“Not until they exhaust the favor.”

The qualifier in her answer registered loud and clear: after the favor was spent, I would be fair game.

“Why? I mean, why do you want to know?”

“I have been restless. The mortal who brought you had no permission to cross-drag you, and there were disturbances to the Leeway. I was sent to coordinate and supervise the punishment.” The gleam in her eyes made me wonder if Dr. Dean had been better off with the creatures.

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