Page 37 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

Emma relayed the man’s offer, and Gray pulled Lea tighter against him as his shadows snaked along the ground. He smiled darkly, every bit a king ready for battle.

"That is a promise that I can easily make you. I will wipe every fingerprint, every trace of him from this world, and not only that, but I will make him suffer while I do it."

Chapter 21

Gray

AnticipationcausedGray’sshadowsto coil tightly inside him as they approached the line between good and evil, his power crouching low like a wolf ready to spring forward in a vicious attack. He’d crossed over this magical barrier several times, more times than he wanted to remember, and the feeling was always the same. His skin would turn cold and his breath would appear in small puffs of white. The hair on his arms and neck would stand on end, and his hearing and eyesight would sharpen as his body sought out the threats that hid in the Wicked Wood waiting for them. Dread pumped through his veins as they crossed onto the rotting soil.

Shuddering, Gray urged Obsidian around a crater-like divot the size of a horse cart, likely a sinkhole. "Follow my path," Gray instructed the others as he planned out the best way forward. Whirling knots dotted the jagged black bark of the trees that seemed to reach out toward them like fingers. He’d always had a suspicion that those knots were eyes, that the very forest was watching every move they made. Lumpy, irregular roots spread from the bases of the trees like cancerous veins, spreading in large webs and connecting to one another. They twisted like a ball of snakes, so intertwined that the roots blended into a tapestry of death.

Fog floated unnaturally mid-air, long fingers reaching in every direction like smoke bubbling off a cauldron. The woods were as dark as ink. Despite not having leaves, the long, pointed branches of the trees seemed to cover the sky, causing a strange muted effect that made colors appear dim. But what was most unsettling to Gray was the utter silence. There was no other place in the kingdom he’d experienced anything like it, the air so devoid of sound that he could hear the blood rushing from his heart through his capillaries.

Gray felt Lea shiver and bent down to whisper in her ear. "You need to listen to what you’re feeling while you’re here. Any sense that something is wrong, anything that doesn’t feel normal, you tell me."

Lea nodded silently, and he wondered if she was too afraid to speak. He’d seen it before with soldiers that he had led on missions through these woods. They thought they understood the risk, but ultimately realized they had underestimated that this place had a pulse of its own, one that burrowed inside you and changed your very marrow. Yes, he’d seen many a soldier rendered speechless upon crossing the border between safety and doom. And even though that fear was something he’d experienced before, had tried to prepare himself for, he still felt it just as acutely in this moment. His eyes continued to scan the trees, his Fae senses on high alert.

"Emma?" he called out, unable to see her through the thick, dark fog as she traveled with Erik’s horse just behind them.

"I’m… I’m okay," she said, her voice trembling.

"Are the spirits too close to you?"

"They’re giving us space, walking behind us."

Gray felt a prickle along his spine and sat up straighter, the feeling of eyes on his skin intensifying.

"Let me know if you need my help, or if they warn you of anything."

Emma didn’t respond. He was about to ask if she would like to ride toward the front to avoid the dead's access to her back when Lea shivered.

"We’ve only just begun our journey, Little Flower. Let me repeat myself. I want to be abundantly clear. It's not too late to turn back," Gray whispered in her ear, praying she would choose this option. He had warned her of the dangers, butfeelingthe dark spirit of the woods was something different.

"I–It’s not that. I don’t want to turn back, it’s just…" She pondered for a moment. "I have a feeling that the worst thing I will find in these woods is that I’m not strong enough to face the answers we're looking for."

An odd sensation skidded across Gray’s skin, pushing inside his belly and settling deep in his gut. Uncertainty and self-doubt; feelings he’d never felt from Azalea before, and honestly, it shocked him that the strong-willed, stubborn woman the gods had chosen as his mate would be capable of feeling so small.

"It’s normal for you to be afraid, and it’s normal to worry about yourself and your friends, for all of our safety while we’re in this place, but do not for a second think that you are not capable of facing anything, or anyone."

"You saw me last night, Gray, how much effort it took to control my magic."

"Yet did you control it? Did you do exactly what Erik said you could and heal yourself?"

"You were about to slaughter Erik because you thought I wasn’t capable, that it was too much," Lea sighed.

"I was about to slaughter Erik because watching you struggle, feeling your pain, is the worst punishment I have ever faced. Because all my soul wants is to take you as my mate, to protect you as I protect my own life, and the fact that I can’t? It drives me to insanity. I wouldn’t have risked bringing you here, into this evil place, or risking your life in a war that will likely drown the kingdom in blood if I thought that you were unable to protect yourself. If I truly thought that you didn’t have it inside you to be the most powerful warrior among all of us."

"But why would you think that, Gray? I know I have both day and night magic, and I know I’m the first to have both since Queen Emmaline. But I can’t call a devastating storm without even trying, and I can’t set a field aflame like Alaric can. My powers didn’t even reveal themselves until recently. Didn’t you say that normally they appear in childhood?" she asked.

Gray tried not to show that her words had struck a chord of uncertainty. It was something he’d spent a lot of time thinking about once her power had revealed itself. One would think the most powerful Fae descendent born in hundreds of years would have come from the womb calling rain clouds with their tantrums, and yet it hadn’t been until that night after the fenrir attack that Gray had suspected she had magic coursing through her bloodstream. She should appear Fae, not so fully and wholly human. But the resemblance combined with having both day and night magic? It was something he hadn’t figured out yet. Was he wrong about who he thought she was?

She was almost a mirror of Queen Emmaline in the paintings Gray had seen in his father’s forbidden books that he and Erik had found in the deepest depths of the castle archives. They had similar hair, similar bone structure of the face, but it was her eyes that struck him the most. It made him question his abilities as a soldier that he hadn’t noticed the similarities between those eyes the moment he’d seen her. It wasn’t until Lea had shoved him away with shadows she shouldn’t be able to command that he’d realized she had the eyes of the long lost beloved queen. Fear had paralyzed him in a way it never had before, because the consequences of possessing the blood of the gods within her, when she had no training and no clue what his father would do to possess that kind of power… He wouldn’t even allow himself to think it.

Thunder rolled in the distance as he tried to push down his temper, violence coursing through his body at the thought of his father discovering who his mate may be. It was likely he knew now, or at least suspected. Thank the gods they were married, that she now held the name of his family that would prevent his father or brother from killing her, and yet also prevented her from killing them. To win this war, Gray would have to do the unthinkable. He would have to end the very spell—or was it a curse?—that now protected his mate from death at his family’s hands.

Lightning flashed around them furiously, and Gray clenched his jaw, attempting to tamp down his fear. Azalea was his wife. His mate. The other half of his soul, contained in a fragile human body. He would burn the world down if that’s what it took to protect her, and as a plan started to form in his mind, Gray wondered if that was exactly what it would take.

Chapter 22

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