Page 42 of What Blooms from Death

“Not at all,” Aleksander interjected, attempting another step forward—which the woman again put a stop to, this time with a quickly summoned javelin of dark shadows that she sent flying toward him with a swing of her staff.

Aleksander sidestepped the attack—barely.

And I liked this woman a little more, all of a sudden, despite the way she kept her other hand raised threateningly in my direction.

“I’ve only been traveling through this realm for a short amount of time,” I told her. “I stumbled upon him without meaning to.”

“He was frozen. Sleeping.”

“…How did you know that?”

Instead of answering my question, she narrowed her eyes and took a step closer to me. “So you are not apprehending the Beast. You were the one whowokehim. And now you’ve led him here.”

“I… Well, yes, in a way I did, but—”

“And are you aware,” she said, slamming the tip of her staff against my chest, “that the penalty for such a crime isdeath?”

Chapter Eleven

Nova

A dozen explanationstried to tumble through my lips.

It was an accident.

I don’t know how I did it.

I’d send him back into that cursed sleep, if I could.

Nothing coherent made it out.

The woman spoke again before I could utter so much as a whimper. “For seven years, we have been trying to finish him off.” She dug her staff deeper into my chest. “We have kept him confined to his forest—kept him and his magic from wreaking more havoc here, at least. Who are you to have woken him up? To have freed him? To have led himhere, so close to Erebos?”

“…Erebos? I don’t even know what that—”

“Quiet.”

Phantom circled the two of us, snapping threateningly at the woman’s heels. Her eyes darted his direction several times, but she didn’t so much as flinch at the sight of his fangs, even as his body shifted and swelled into a larger size and his eyes glowed to a haunting shade of white.

He let out an otherworldly snarl that made even the hairs on the back ofmyneck stand on end. It finally, fully caught her attention; she looked as if she was considering spinning her staff around and pointing it at him instead.

Before she could move, Zayn arrived as well, along with the remaining two soldiers of our company. He exchanged a quick look with Aleksander before striding toward me without hesitation. The situation must have seemed like pure chaos to him as he blindly walked into it from afar, but he met it all with his usual, easy smile and simply said, “I suggest you point your weapon at something other than my friend. Now.”

The pressure against my chest relaxed a bit as my attacker calculated her odds.

Aleksander stepped to his cousin’s side, his hand balanced threateningly upon the short sword at his hip.

The woman finally relaxed her stance and let her staff drop. My breath followed the movement, a slow exhale of tension that left a pain in my chest and had me feeling lightheaded, as if I’d just had all the air stomped out of my lungs.

“Quite the traveling party,” the woman remarked, her gaze sweeping over us all before returning to linger on me.

“We’re not so foolish as to travel alone,” Aleksander said, gripping his sword tighter, “as it seems you are.”

“The shadows heed my beck and call. I am not as alone as I appear.”

Despite her boast, I didn’t sense any of those shadows building around her anymore. I kept this to myself, though, as I stared at her, trying to make sense of who she might be. How she had found us, and why she seemed to be so knowledgeable and concerned about me waking Aleksander. I had so many questions…

But all I kept coming back to waswhat she was.

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