Page 30 of Of Blooming Embers
“I know whom you seek,” the old woman replied, her eyes twinkling knowingly. Seryn snapped her mouth closed, looking at her expectantly. “And you’ll recover them once you embrace your Ancient-given gifts.”
Seryn winced, her fingers digging into her palms.
Chest rigid, I stood, the boat rocking against the thick muck. Frustration skittered up my neck. I was completely sick of all the obstacles thrown in our path as of late. “With all due respect, we don’t have time for your games. Do you have the information we seek? My brother’s life hangs in the balance.”
One of her eyebrows lifted as she focused on me. “As do all ofyourlives, do they not?”
My chin jutted forward, mouth smashing together so I wouldn’t say anything I would regret.
Fuck it.
Likely sensing the shift in my decision-making, Rhaegar coughed loudly into his fist. No doubt trying to get my attention. I pushed my shoulders back even more, my tunic stretching across my chest. “Indeed. But?—”
Her words, sharp and strong, belied her frail body. “It’s as I said. Embrace her gifts, or the ones you love cannot be recovered.” She looked at Seryn again. “Come to my home on the morrow, and we’ll begin.”
“Why would you help me?” Seryn asked, eyes narrowing.
The old female lifted her chin. “I help those who are vital to maintaining Kosmos—order and equilibrium. And who are important to … to the Fates.”
“Aren’t weallimportant to maintaining balance?” Breena quipped.
The Augur’s mouth curled. “Some more than others.”
Breena rolled her eyes.
“How will we find you?” Seryn asked.
“As the raven flies.” A barely visible shimmer blinked over her, and in a burst of billowing sparks, she was gone.
Breena muttered a string of curses, grabbing Seryn’s hand as they stumbled backward. Rhaegar jumped onto the moss and grabbed their hands before they tipped into the mud. “Shall we head …” He paused, bending to peek behind Breena.
I followed his line of sight as both women moved to his side. The fog was thickening a short distance away; the mist a breathing mass pulling the edges of itself inward.
“What the … Get to the boat.” His quiet words were almost lost to the sound of his battle axe brushing against its sheath and the wavering chirps of swamp crickets.
Instead of heeding his words, Seryn and Breena drew their blades. My jaw set, and I cracked my neck from side to side before readying my sword.
The darkened patch of haze pulsed a few times and then spun, drilling itself down into the muck with a splash.
The crickets quieted. A gelatinous ripple swept over the surface from where the throbbing cloud had disappeared.
“Uh, let’s get to the boat,” Seryn whispered, agreeing with Rhaegar. They jumped to the hummock nearest me as the sound of squishing and groaning rumbled under the surface of the peat.
All at once, the vessel lurched to the side, threatening to spill me into the bog. I grunted, swinging my sword upon the pallid, decaying hand clamped on the wood. An angry moan sank back into the water as the severed hand flopped at my feet like a fish.
“Gavrel!” Seryn yelped, darting toward me. Three sets of waxy bodies rose from the depths, their flesh and clothing in various states of bloated pallor. Jerkily, they lunged their torsos onto the mound, fingers creaky and stiff as they grabbed at Seryn. Hollering, she cursed.
Breena lunged, swinging the curved blade of her dagger into the creature’s ear canal. Its bulbous eyes rolled back as it collapsed, lifeless, onto the moss. “Well, butter my arse and call me a biscuit. The bog bodies are awake,” Breena tossed over her shoulder.
Rhaegar chopped his axe into another creature’s skull as it skittered toward him. And then another. “I can bloody well see that,” he retorted.
“Bog bodies?!” Seryn squeaked, jabbing her blade into a creature’s eye as it grabbed her ankle, chomping the few teeth it had left in the air.
I cut off the heads of two more bodies lunging for me. One’s graying skin was so puffy, it split like a grape up the center of its cheek as it toppled back under the layer of peat. “Fucking void. Get in the boat!”
Weapons slashing, they landed beside me, the small skiff dipping precariously low in the water. Hastily, Rhaegar and I paddled away as several more bodies lunged for us.
After several hurried minutes and no further signs of attack, Breena pointed at their raft tied to a tree. “Over there.”
