Page 5 of Dawn to Dusk
“Uhh.” He stared at the manith for a moment. “Great idea.”
I ran back towards the cave from before, our closest hope of escape. Edur stayed close on my heels. Thundering, ground shaking steps chased after us.
Quack. Quack.
“How the hell did I end up on this island with you and a quacking giant?!” He asked the universe.
We were not moving nearly fast enough. Maniths were wickedly fast and one of their steps equaled ten of mine. We needed magic, and Mirneax was tapped out. I glanced up, and the full moon called to me. A wild idea that the moon goddess would help us hit me.
“Goddess Bria! Lend me your strength.” I called out to her in the tongue of the gods. Whether she answered or not, I needed to pull some magic out of the deep reserves of my soul. I whirled around, throwing up my hands as the manith swiped at Edur’s back.
Something old, dark, and cold filled my veins. Painful tingles crawled up my arms, but a huge silver shield exploded from my fingertips. Those claws gave an awful screech as they collided with the energy shield, protecting Edur from losing his head.
My lungs constricted and failed to take in air. My sun-kissed tan skin turned deathly pale, and I could see where myveins turned black. The pain felt like electricity bouncing around my body, but I didn’t dare let the magic go.
Edur shifted into his yeti form and threw me over his shoulder, running towards the cave, backtracking our scent. This simple guard spell took a hefty toll on my body. Everything hurt; my teeth, my bones, my muscles. Nothing was left untouched by this strange sensation.
This magic felt like sitting alone in the darkness of your home and your mind starts to whisper those thoughts that break you from the inside out. No wonder no one practiced this magic.
I could feel Goddess Bria’s brief blessing waning, and I lost grip on it right as Edur cleared the wards of my cave. The manith ran into my wards, causing a horrible crash to echo through the small area. Edur sat me down, shifting back to a man, and studied my now colorless arms. His forefinger traced my veins.
My lungs were still too restricted to make any real noise, but a silent scream wheezed out of my mouth. I stumbled over to the fire pit, grabbed a match nearby, lit it, and dropped it on myself. My clothes fed the flames and warmed me until I could take greedy gulps of air.
“What do you need?” Edur asked, lighting a lantern. His eyes roved over the trunks of supplies in the cavern.
I sat down inside the stone pit to recover. My legs felt like jelly, and I was certain Goddess Bria almost killed me. “She gave me way too much magic. No one can handle that much magic.”
“What do you need, Sunshine?” Edur snapped his fingers, making me focus on him instead of Bria’s dark blessing.
“Silk thread, a needle, pliers, and more matches.”
He dug for a long while and brought the supplies to me, and the first thing I did was strike another match and toss it down on myself. Coming in contact with my latent magic gave the fire fuel it needed to spread through the pit and light theremaining wood from another stay. I grabbed the pliers to dig for that broken quill.
“Turn.” He commanded, and I moved so my side was out of the firepit. I shifted the fire to protect him from being burned. He dug in without fanfare and ripped it out. I winced, but sighed in relief. He remained silent as he sanitized and sewed my side back together.
I looked at my hand. The skin was back to normal and those vein lines were gone. “Luna witches are so rare and they never have much magic. I didn’t realize Bria held this much power.”
“It’s strange that she answered you at all.”
“Fair enough.” She was notorious for her silence, even to her own servants, and gods never loaned their magic to another’s servant.
“It’s interesting though.” Edur mused quietly.
“What?”
“You claimed it was too much magic, but sol witches supposedly have the most magic of all witches. Disowned or not, you are the best of them.” Edur referred to my position in the annual rankings where witches compete to be considered the best. He didn’t understand how my mother bent those for results she wanted. The whole thing was a farce.
“Maybe it was the kind of magic.” Something didn’t quite add up.
“You can say ‘I told you so’ whenever you are ready.” He told me as he cut the thread on my stitches.
My eyes stayed glued to my hands. “You did what you thought was best.”
“Horseshit, liar.” Edur scoffed at me.
“I mean it.” I settled deeper into the flames. “You don’t trust me, and I don’t deserve any trust.”
“I agree.” His icy eyes glared at me, then softened. “But you were right.”
