Page 14 of Of Serpents and Ruins
My Brandt.
My love.
Elias crushed a gooey purple berry against my shoulder and pressed a bottle to my lips. "Drink this," he murmured, his other hand against the back of my neck. His bracer pushed down farther on his wrist, a dark circular tattoo peering up from the wavy leather cuttings of his protective armbands. A pungent but sweet scent like currants filled the air and my lungs, masking his cedar, raspberry, and vanilla cologne. "The medicine will help you heal and counter the effects. The berries will mask your scent."
A guttural roar followed.
Had Brandt made that sound?
I pushed the bottle away, my gaze snapping back to him. That sounded reptilian rather than human.
Brandt leaped back up, his boots crunching on the soil. His face distorted with rage. The words staggered out of his mouth with great effort, his body lurching to the left. "You condemned her!"
Another roar tore through him as Kine crouched into a stance that reminded me of wrestling. Brandt doubled over then, snarling. The veins and muscles in his body strained and contorted.
Then like boiling water poured onto ice, Brandt's body tore apart and lengthened. His eyes bulged and became large as mugs, his arms and legs fusing to his body. The black and red ofhis leather garments vanished into black scales with red stripes running the length of his body. Another reptilian roar, deeper and angrier this time, broke from his now massive body.
He'd turned into an enormous red and black serpent with a broad, spiked crest and long red whiskers.
Kine's muscles tightened. His brow furrowed, fear flashing through his golden eyes. He clenched his fist, then struck the silver ring on his left hand against his palm. Blue light arced briefly over his fingers, a burning scent similar to electricity filling the air. He dodged, rolling as his shoulders struck the ground.
Brandt lunged. His blunt snout struck the rocky soil. He didn't even react. He just snapped back, hissed, coiled, and struck again.
Elias gripped me tighter, his muscles tensing. "We may have to run. Something's off with Kine's shifting. Everything's off tonight."
I struggled to my feet. "We can't leave Kine here," I managed hoarsely, my throat still burning.
Elias held me back, his arms tight around me. "If you go in there, Brandt will focus on you. He'll catch your scent again, and then he'll try to kill you. Do you think you can survive if he goes after you like that?"
My heart sank. No. No, this was wrong.
"Right," Elias said firmly. He thrust the bottle against my lips again. "Now drink this. It'll help you heal. If we have to run, you need to be stronger."
He dumped some of the amber liquid into my mouth this time. A salty, bitter flavor choked me. Drawing back, I covered my mouth, spluttering. It burned all the way down, but the pain in my throat eased, along with my breaths and the tension in my chest.
I couldn't tear my gaze from the fight before me. Kine lunged and jumped. Each time he hit the ground, he rolled or spun and struck the ring on his finger again. Each time, energy burst forth. Occasionally, his features twitched. His arm almost fused to his side.
Brandt attacked again, eyes blazing. The roars mixed with words, but none of it made any sense. It was too garbled, or maybe I just couldn't hear.
The thunder intensified, the ground shaking as the sound drew closer. Not an earthquake but like hundreds of horses stampeding.
My heart clenched, squeezing with agony as I watched. It was like a rattlesnake going after a jumping mouse. Did Brandt have venom? It felt like maybe he did. He kept striking within a hairsbreadth of Kine.
"We have to help him!"
Elias was unrelenting. "You need to hold still and stay back. Kine is guiding him away and keeping him occupied. Movement will attract him more than sound when we've got your scent masked with the punji berry. If we have to, we'll run. The others are almost here, though. So just wait. We can't risk drawing his attention. The curse has taken over, and, no matter what he wants or intends, it will make him kill you!"
Brandt lunged at Kine again. This time, his jagged teeth nipped Kine's indigo sash. Kine kicked Brandt in the snout with a broad sweep of his leg and struck the ring again, and as if a light had suddenly come on, Kine's body elongated and poured into a blue and silver serpent form with gold eyes and gold speckling along his chest.
Brandt buried his fangs into Kine's side.
A long, loud snarl of pain tore from Kine as he squeezed his gold eyes shut.
I clapped my hands over my mouth. Elias held me tighter, one arm around my waist, the other around my shoulder.
Brandt opened his jaws and then bit down again. Blood ran down Kine's silver scales, but instead of lunging away, Kine twisted around and bit just at the base of Brandt's neck.
An enraged growl erupted from Brandt's jaws, his teeth still stained with Kine's blood. He recoiled just enough for Kine to shoot away from him. He narrowly escaped Brandt biting him again. The wound in his side started to heal from left to right in uneven surges like a ragged heartbeat.
