Page 98 of Fate and Flame
I crawled to Rhogan, the sand scraping my arms, my muscles protesting each of my movements. There was only a small bit left. Just enough for his wings, I hoped. My eyelids weighed a thousand pounds. The exhaustion threatened to take me before I could get to him, but I fought as hard as he had, as hard as Greeve had, until I stretched my hand out far enough for one finger to gently graze the top of his head. He moaned as I moved that last bit of magic forward, avoiding the final drop that called to me. Spots filled my vision and I felt him shift just before the world faded away.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ara
Of all the places. Of all the places in the whole fucking wide world, we had to come here.
“I don’t see anything,” Gaea huffed, searching the horizon.
And of course, she didn’t. Because the barn that used to fill that view, the warm cottage that used to sit in the background had been burnt to the ground. The ash of the buildings, of my parent’s bodies, nothing but a memory as the green grass filled the ever-evolving land. I knew we were there to hunt an ancient creature, but my heart called me in a different direction. Home.
“The forest.” Kai drew his sword.
That gods-damned forest. I’d nearly died in there once, and because we had not one, but two creatures to kill, we would probably come close again. I turned my back on the memories that haunted me and followed the rest of the group into the dense forest. The sun quickly vanished as the canopy of leaves and branches grew above us. Even the air was familiar here—the smell of the woods, moss-covered ground, and rotted bark a staple from my childhood. A low, murky fog crept along the terrain like veils of haze slithering along the forest floor.
Though Gaea’s eyes were that of a feline, so were her movements as she silently walked beside me.
Kai and Fen used hand signals to guide us forward. I’d seen them navigate a forest, had formed a friendship with them in one, but this was different. Dangerous.
“Stop,” I whispered, my face tightening.
The air had gone still. The forest that had always felt aware somehow was now completely silent—not a whisper of wind rushing through the fallen leaves. As they all looked to me, I pointed to my ear.
Something’s here.
The hair on my arms rose, invisible fingers trickled down my spine, and my senses screamed that someone, something was watching us. I looked over my shoulder and saw nothing. Still, I pulled two throwing knives from the band across my chest, relishing in the comfort they brought to my callused hands. I hardly dared to breathe as we stood, four hearts beating, the only sound in the reticent forest.
Movement out of the corner of my eye gripped me. As slowly as I could allow my coiled muscles, I turned my head. The three of them did the same. There was nothing there, but I knew I had seen something. I kept my hands loose and my feet shoulder-width apart as I continued to rake my eyes over the scene. It could be anything. I looked back and forth, searching frantically for anything that felt out of place, something that felt like a violation to the world.
I hadn’t seen a thing, but Kai did. In a single swift movement, he yanked an arrow from his quiver, drew back his bow, and released.
“A vysa?” I asked out loud as the creature separated from the tree it was camouflaged against.
The woodland sprang to life. A flock of startled birds shot from the forest ceiling as he moved.
“A what?” Gaea asked.
“Secure your minds,” I demanded.
I strained my neck to look up at the tall, lanky creature that reminded me of a stilted festival performer. His face was like an unfinished sculpture, featureless apart from two obsidian stones where his eyes should be, the lack of a mouth more unsettling to me than the long skeletal fingers. Swaths of moss draped over his bony arms and hung between his limbs like a blanket crafted by the forest itself. Between the deep canyons scored across his bark-clad shoulders, small mushrooms and seedlings sprouted from deep within. He moved leisurely, the wooden crust of his skin cracking as he stalked forward. A shield of magic surrounded him, dragging along the ground until the forest floor began to swirl below him and the weight of his magical shield ripped the roots of hundred-year-old trees from the ground, filling the forest with the sound of its own desecration.
“He’s incredibly strong and exceedingly magical,” I yelled.
“I didn’t know the vysa was a real creature,” Fen answered, pulling his own magic forward.
“Looks like you were wrong.” Kai strapped his bow to his back and pulled out a sword, as if that would do any more damage to the behemoth than an arrow.
“We’re fucked if we can’t get past that shield.” Gaea spirited behind the vysa and back again. “It surrounds him.”
Should I use my magic?
No. You know what happens. If the power of the destruction incapacitates you, I’m not sure what we’ll do for the next fight.
He was right, of course. It was too big of a risk. The cost was too great.
“Uh, guys?” Gaea snagged our attention.
We both looked in her direction as Kai lifted his sword and moved toward her.
