Page 1 of The Zagorath
Chapter
One
The Zagorath had slept and dreamed, and the things he dreamed fed the life in his woods. It crawled over him, rested upon his bones and flesh, and he was content to dream. He could forget his loneliness, despair and his hunger when he slept. He could ignore his purpose.
The forest’s call of blood and flesh was muted when he slept. Everything was nothing more than the endless night that he had known since the moment of his birth. He was older than all things in his world, but he rarely set eyes on them and never enjoyed them.
When he was summoned and awoke, as invariably happened from time to time, he rose as a spirit of destruction, feeding the hungry woods their due. He knew naught but their hunger and thirst and so was a reaper of civilizations and of men. The ancient forests made their demand, and he answered as he was bidden, and not once was he granted relief from the appetite that never waned. His hunger consumed him and destroyed him over and over, no matter how he wept in the aftermath when nothing remained but ruin and blood… and him.
He awakened. He destroyed. And then he was alone again. It was his fate.
So, he slept, he dreamt, and he waited to be called. And in that vast void of senseless dreams, something changed. A voice whispered in dulcet tones like a sigh from an imagined lover. He trembled with desire for it. He wanted to draw it into himself and consume it. He yearned for it more than he yearned for any other thing.
The earth trembled, and the birds rushed into the air from the trees, a cacophony of cries, as he twisted, restless in his sleep. The voice called to him, a scent on the air rushed through the fissures and deepest caverns of the earth to him. And then the call came and drowned out that voice, it overwhelmed that perfect scent with a heavy, foul musk.
In agony, he roared, madness clawing through his mind. His heart hardened. The surrounding stone twisted as he prepared to rise. He would destroy all in his path and feed the earth with the scythe of his claws so that he could return and seek that sweet presence once more deep within in the night of his slumber.
Liv sat hunched on the log, her elbows draped over her knees, her hands dangling loosely between her legs as she watched the boyish one-upmanship at work between the men crowded around the grill. They barely seemed to be able to refrain from jostling each other, each with a beer in hand. She shook her head, not entirely sure if she should be disgusted or impressed. Some of them were on their third or fourth since they arrived at the cabin.
Disgusted, she decided as a tall, lanky individual nearly tripped over their own feet, the fumes of beer overwhelming her as he teetered too close to her. Definitely disgusted.
Liv bit back a groan. She couldn’t believe she allowed herself to be talked into a weekend in the woods. She loved nature... safely outside of a window where she could look at it from a place of comfort. Preferably while sipping a double latte. That would have been what she could have been doing if she had gone to spend the holiday with her mom like she usually did. Instead, she was spending summer solstice in the middle of nowhere being eaten alive.
Idly, she smashed a mosquito that landed on her shoulder and flicked it away. The air was humming with the little bloodsuckers. Even going inside really didn’t escape the fuckers when they seemed to find their way inside in droves every time the door opened. Not that going inside was a great option, anyway. It was still too muggy to suffer being anywhere that had unreliable electricity and no AC. Hell, it didn’t even have a refrigerator. They were lucky it had running water.
Fuck, this was as bad as camping, and she hated camping.
The only thing worse than camping was being stuck in the middle of the woods with a bunch of people she didn’t know. That was what she got for allowing herself to be talked into a weekend trip with “the coven” by her best friend. Liv snorted to herself. She could see exactly what “magic” attracted her friend. While there were some couples among the group who Jessie introduced her to, the coven was overwhelmingly populated with single guys. Which was impressive considering that covens were typically skewed in the other direction with a higher population of women, but they were quickly losing their charm. Maybe it was the way they had spent the last hour boasting of their particular powers and talents—throwing energy balls around in a way that had Liv rolling her eyes and searching forsomething more interesting to divert herself with. Or perhaps it was how everything was rapidly being turned into a half-drunk competition. One thing was apparent; Jess’s coven was a sausage-fest and not even an interesting one.
And Liv had no idea why she allowed herself to be talked into the mess to begin with. The solstice was a powerful occasion and one that she observed typically with solemnity, not...a…a weeny roast and beer. So far there was nothing sacred being observed at all as far as she could tell. At most, the only thing spiritual that was mentioned was from a few individuals who were repeatedly and vaguely referring to random “disturbances” they felt from the woods. Claims that honestly bordered on the absurd given that they were being discussed in the hushed voices of someone relishing a good ghost story.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in such things—she did. She believed in a very rich spiritual world that was inhabited by all manner of beings, some of which she knew she had felt the presence of. She just wasn’t one to play along with whatever they were entertaining themselves with now.
When it came right down to it, all anyone in the coven seemed interested in was partying and playing with energy as they talked spells, told stories of their particular brand of woo, and randomly making out to the point of making her uncomfortable.
I can’t believe I gave up celebrating the solstice with Mom in her beautiful mosquito-controlled garden for this.
But Jessie had begged. She had been trying to get Liv interested in her coven for a while saying that they needed the energy balance. Liv was of the opinion that they were in need of a lot more than that to be even remotely attractive to her if this “festival” was of any indication. And it wasn’t because of the feasting and celebration...that was normal, it was just the lack of reverence in any of it. What was worse, her best friend seemedto be determined to set her up with one of the single coven members.
Liv snorted silently to herself. Not a chance. There was not one guy among them that she had even the remotest interest in. She loved her bestie, but not enough to take one for the team in this particular situation.
Rolling her eyes, she looked away as another noisy burst of laughter rose from the grill, and one of the women squealed as her boyfriend or husband—Liv wasn’t sure which—snagged her and devoured her with a kiss. Liv was clearly the odd man—er, person—out. She wondered if she could talk Jessie into driving her the forty minutes it would take to get back to civilization. There was still time to take an overnight bag and head out to her mom’s.
Craning her neck, she looked around until her eyes landed on her best friend. Jessie looked her way and excused herself from the two other women she was talking to and made her way over to Liv. Dropping onto the log beside her, Jessie nudged Liv’s shoulder, a smile curving her lips.
“Hey, I invited you so that you could get to know other witches...you know, be social. And here you are sitting by yourself. What gives?”
Liv shrugged and gave her friend an apologetic smile. “This really isn’t my kind of thing.” She hesitated, her tongue swiping over her lips, the astringent taste of bug spray that had accidentally gotten onto her bottom lip making her instantly regret it. She grimaced. “I hate to ask this since I know you are having a good time, but do you think....”
Her friend’s eyes shot upward, and she let out an exasperated sigh. “Absolutely not. You are not bailing on me again. I finally got you out to one of my coven’s gatherings, don’t you dare ask me to take you back home now.”
“Jess, come on,” she groaned.
Her friend nudged her again, a wicked smile curving her lips.
“Just give it a little bit. I swear you are going to have a good time. We will be doing a ritual tonight, as I promised. The guys have some great ideas for what we can do. I think Brad even wrote the invocation.” She waggled her eyebrows. “He might be a good time for some post-ritual energy raising to give back to nature, if you know what I mean. As for all of this, we are just having a good time right now. So please, just try to have fun.”
She leaned over and squeezed her hand only to let go the next moment when one of the guys called for her as he headed toward the grill, his arms laden with a small cooler full of meat. Predictably, she abandoned Liv to hurry to his side. Older than several of the other guys, Gray—she wasn’t sure if that was his real name given by some really eccentric parents or just his coven name—appeared to run the coven. Sporting a neatly trimmed beard and mustache and arms that bulged with nicely defined muscle from beneath his short-sleeved shirt, as well as being super nice, it was no wonder that Jess had a not-so-secret crush on him.
