A Whisper in the Woods (Fated Folktales #1)

36. Chapter 36

Chapter thirty-six

Leena

I t was harder to walk than I would have thought, but Bratan helped me whenever I lost my balance and almost fell. At this height, falling would be tragic for the forest and anything within its reach. Bratan said it would be better to look for Melora at human height, but I had no idea how to change back. He said it would come with time, but he’d been born in this form. A part of me was afraid I’d never be able to turn back, or at least not be able to control when I did.

Bratan’s grip tightened, and in my mind, I heard the words he didn’t speak.

Something’s coming.

A great gust of wind nearly knocked me over, and my husband’s grip tightened even more. I had a new appreciation for his control in this form. I blinked, steadying my awkward new way of sight; I didn’t see colors in the same way I had. Things were a little off—the trees and sky were various shades of gray and black, and the warm-blooded animals in my field of vision below were little drops of red and orange scurrying beneath shades of muted leaves. It was so starkly contrasted; it would surely make my job of protecting things easier in time. I could spot the forest’s creatures from miles away.

“Do you see that?” Bratan’s voice was both a grumble and a cry. I looked up, finding a sheet of white tumbling over the tops of distant trees. A humming accompanied the approaching mass. It looked like a field of snow drifting closer, but when it was near enough for my vision to properly focus on the individual forms clustered together, horror replaced curiosity.

The clacking of spindly legs with bony, unnatural feet joined the appearance of the creatures that were barreling toward us. It was an army of the same creatures that appeared the day I almost died.

“What—” I let go of Bratan’s hand, trying my best to remember any sort of defense tactic he’d taught me, but maneuvering in this form was completely different than moving as my human-like self.

The creatures approached, snapping with those seeping rows of teeth and clattering limbs. At least five of them pounced on my legs. I lifted an arm to swat them, but that moment was when my magic faltered, changing me back to my usual self.

“No, no…no no no no!” Shrinking, I stared at my hands. I felt the demons getting knocked off my minimizing body and heard them being torn apart at my side. I landed on the ground flat on my back, the clattering demons bounding toward me at unnatural speed. I forced my eyes to stay on them as I got up an d practiced a defense spell Bratan had taught me while I was still healing. It was a simple spell—one anyone whose life was not human could perform.

As a wall of skeletal arms approached, a surge of power gathered from my feet and shot into my hands. Strange words filled my mind. When I uttered them, a great burst of light ignited from my palms, obliterating each monster and turning them into piles of ash. I gaped at the settling dust, turning to Bratan with a shocked, triumphant smile. He transformed back into his human form, returning my smile, impressed.

“You’re amazing,” he said. The words were slow and deliberate, and the way he looked at me sent my cheeks blazing. He was so busy looking at me that he didn’t see the creature’s claws reaching out behind him.

“Look out!” I cried. He dove to the ground and lifted a hand to the beings, but before he could attack, I did, and it was even more successful than the last. Maybe it was the fear of losing him, but my powers shot out in every direction, save for where he lay, destroying every enemy in sight.

There were still more approaching—beasts of various demonic forms taken from nightmares, but I’d taken out at least two hundred, buying us time. Bratan got to his feet, dirt caked on his face, mud running down his neck.

“Remind me to properly thank you for that later.” He looked around, and when he found that no more creatures were in sight, he stalked to me. “Actually…” He grabbed my face and kissed me deeply .

“I didn’t even know they were there at first,” I laughed.

“I won’t tell if you don’t.” He kissed me deeper, sliding his tongue into my mouth and sucking on my lower lip before leaning back and sending one of the outrageously large hellhounds bounding toward us flying away with a morphing arm.

“You’re so sexy.” I leapt on him, sinking my fingers into his back as he grabbed hold of my thighs. Our flurried kisses were stoked with a heated passion that had been pent up for days. He pulled me up until my legs were high around his waist. We kissed passionately. Feverishly. He pushed me into the dirt, my body bare from transforming. He’d always made clothes appear when he transformed, but I suppose that came with time. He quickly helped me tear his off as we kissed and moved and moaned.

Mud caked my body; it was cool on my back as Bratan’s warm body pressed hard on mine. We tasted each other more fully than ever before, senses heightened, power throbbing, only stopping every couple minutes when we sensed a threat, and one of us either swiped it away or turned it into nothing but dust in the wind.

He bit my chin and licked down my throat to my breasts. I sucked in a breath as his tongue trailed over them, and I pulled him closer, begging for him with my body.

“We have one more thing to take care of, little dove, and then I’m all yours. ”

I grumbled,grumpily relenting and letting him sweep me into his arms.

“Melora can’t be too far from here,” he said, placing me back on my feet. “Once she’s gone, we won’t have to worry about her nasty demons haunting your nightmares or tormenting us ever again. She won’t have any strings to pull.” He bit his lip as he drank in my body. “Would you like clothes while we fight?”

“That would be nice,” I said with a laugh, and he swept a quick wave over my body until a dress identical to the one I’d been wearing appeared over my muddied skin. Strings cinched my waist, and the skirts fluttered to my ankles. It was a strange feeling, but I had no time to comment on it. A loud, maniacal scream pierced the air like that disconcerting crack of thunder.

Bratan recognized Melora’s war cry before I knew what to think of the sound. “We need to kill the puppet master before she kills us,” he said, and grabbing my hand, he rushed us to the village.

As soon as we returned to the village, we saw what she’d done. The humans were tied up in the center of the village, and at least fifteen of Melora’s arachnid demons and hounds circled them. Ms. Tomlin was screaming something at the demonic woman, but I couldn’t make it out through the villagers’ cries and the monsters’ noises scraping at my eardrums. Melora didn’t pay any mind to the matriarch; her fuming expression and darkening eyes were focused solely on us as we met her .

“You’re more than a nuisance now, Bratan,” she cawed. Her voice was near-gone and her eyes were black, her skin peeling.

“What’s happening to her?” I asked. The woman limped forward, reeking of putrid flesh and burnt hair.

“When we kill her creatures, it kills a part of her.”

“And you!” she growled in my direction. “You were fun to toy with at first, but it’s time for this to end!” She commanded something to her demons in a language I didn’t understand. In unison, the hounds howled, and the arachnid creatures rushed in our direction.

“I won’t let you ruin everything I’ve worked toward for centuries!” Melora’s voice was melting, warping like she was falling underwater.

“What are you talking about?” Bratan dodged a demon and tore another in half. The fear grew in Melora’s eyes. But still, she grinned, and the unsettling chill of it froze me in place. I couldn’t look away. “Speak, Melora!” When she still didn’t answer, he took her by the weak shoulders, shaking her until she answered.

“Your mother was a good friend of mine, but she didn’t have what it took.”

Bratan effortlessly demolished another handful of demons and hellhounds, but his passion behind it faltered. When her fractured grin widened, I saw the horror on his face. He closed in and grabbed her by the torn collar.

“What are you saying?” The words oozed poison behind clenched teeth. “What did you do? ”

A chuckle rumbled from her chest and then burst into raucous laughter. “I can’t believe, after all these centuries, you still think the humans managed to destroy the forest and your mother by themselves.” Bratan’s fingers trembled, loosening just enough for Melora to slip away. Horror stretched across his face. “She never had what it took to rule this place, and neither do you. All you do is protect and keep humans away like a servant. True greatness comes from wielding your power and influence beyond the woods—to let the humans know who to be afraid of so they never come into the woods in the first place. You’ve been too soft.”

“You killed my mother.” The words were quiet, but then he repeated them in a roar that rattled to the sky. “You killed my mother!” He grabbed her with both hands, his grip so tight his knuckles were white. “She was your friend!”

“She was weak!” she hissed. Bratan’s eyes went black. He looked like he was going to kill her, and I waited, watching him, still frozen, expecting him to do it. But his rigid shoulders dropped.

“What did you set in place?” he growled through his teeth and shoved her to the ground.

She didn't answer at first, but then an impish eagerness flashed in her eyes, tugging her mouth into a crooked smile. “I suppose I might as well tell you," she croaked, getting to her feet and dusting off her demolished leathers. "It would be nice to get credit where credit is due.” She bounced on her heels in excitement and then leaned in like she was telling him a secret. “ I took her out, instilled fear in the humans, and ensured no maiden came to you." Horror struck Bratan as he staggered back.

Melora's face dropped. Suddenly, she was seething. "An heir was the last thing I needed to deal with. When I knew it was inevitable that you'd one day meet your mate, or at least someone who caught your fancy, I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

She rolled her shoulders back and scanned the captives, including the fuming matriarch. “When you came to me enraged about the humans in your forest, I met with this town’s leader and asked for a sacrifice. I didn’t think you’d actually fall for the girl, though, and by the time I learned she was your mate, it was too late to turn back." She cocked her head. "I haven’t seen you care for something since your mother died. I was surprised, to say the least. You fell very hard very quickly. You must have been desperate for love.”

Bratan was vibrating, furious, but I could tell he was keeping his head long enough to hear more. “If you kept maidens from me for centuries, why would you decide to let her in now?”

“She needed the control,” I muttered. “She wanted to be the one pulling the strings.”

“My soul may die today,” Melora said, “but I won’t let yours live on either.” The flesh fell from her bones, and her body grew as it pounced. I gasped as a bony claw seeping with green liquid grabbed hold of me. Bratan pushed Melora out of the way, causing her to fall back in a crooked heap .

“I have an idea,” he said under his breath. Taking my hand, he curled me into him. My body pressed against his so quickly, and with such force, I got momentary whiplash.

“What are you doing—” He grabbed my face and kissed me with soldering heat. Confusion melted into desire. My heart hammered in my ears as his hand moved down my spine; it was hot on my lower back. He crushed me against him, and suddenly, a surge of power ignited, flooding me and careening through my blood. Together, we transformed.

Above the town, we faced Melora in a haunting display of chaos. The devil leapt at us with a chaotic fury that grew clumsier by the second. She was getting weaker, but I knew it wouldn’t end easily.

Melora raised her voice to the sky, howling until it was a screech that split into many, and a flurry of bat-like creatures as large as men ricocheted through the air. Hounds gnawed at our rough ankles, and other creatures of various forms attacked, too, but it was too dark and frenzied for me to see what they were.

Bratan’s arm swung back, and despite its slow wind-up, it launched forward like a slingshot, his long fingers grabbing Melora by the bony neck. His other hand grabbed hold of her arm and successfully ripped it from its socket. She wailed, causing a violent quaking that almost sent me falling on the forest floor. Her bats stormed Bratan, clawing at his face and making him lose his grip on Melora. He staggered back. The world beneath us shook as he lost his footing, and I watched in horror as he fell onto a wide mass of trees. Branches and creatures below—some Melora’s, some our own—snapped and cried at his fall.

A painful ache formed in my chest. I felt each and every animal and plant die. Every budding leaf and trotting doe.

Melora only had to dodge us long enough to get us to harm the forest like this. She could win; she had an army. We only had each other, which included me and my lack of coordination in this new state.

Bratan got to his feet, reaching out as another swarm of bats attacked. I was too distracted watching him that I didn’t notice Melora move behind me until she took hold of me. I cried out that split scream as the skeletal creature of a woman threw me to the ground. Once again, I felt every living thing die beneath me as I crashed and skidded through the forest on my side.

Despair settled thick in my chest. Melora was unleashed and fully chaotic with an army of wild beasts from hell. We had each other, and that needed to be enough.

Melora’s back was turned when I rose into a crouch. I thought of what Bratan had said to me before—how we couldn’t surprise Melora in these hulking forms. So I closed my eyes and calmed myself, focusing until I felt my body shrink. It took longer than I would have liked to get there, especially since my excitement and anxiety throughout the process made me grow slightly every few seconds, but I finally managed to get to, and remain in, my human-like form. As soon as I knew I wouldn’t shift back, I ran through the trees, knowing exactly where to find my husband.

I must have had added strength and agility through my awakened powers because it didn’t take long to find them. And I couldn’t believe the sight when I did.

Melora tightened her fatal grip on Bratan, who was also in his human form again. The demonic woman was still in her enormous skeletal shape as she squeezed his neck. He mouthed a silent cry just before a loud snap splintered through the air. I gasped, my heart nearly stopping, but he was still breathing, still writhing in the air. I had to do something. Anything.

My eyes burned, my body a blade of fire, and in one quick movement, I grew twice the size of Melora, grabbed her by the throat, and snapped her head clean off her bony neck. The attack had happened too suddenly for her to react before it was over. She let out one quick, piercing cry before her body collapsed, her bones breaking and turning to powder as they fell to the earth. The sound was like a city crumbling and lasted long enough to warrant the fear of it never stopping. Panic was a thorn in my chest as I reached for Bratan. He’d started to fall as soon as her body fell apart, but just before he landed in the pile of what was left of her, I caught him.

Relief hit me like a wave; I let out a breath so heavy that it blew the massive wall of dust rising from Melora’s dismembered heap into the sky. Slowly, the air stilled, and the movement below us ceased, and the world was once again quiet. My body wasn’t strong enough to do anything but lie down, so as safely as I could, I did. My arm rolled out to the side, and Bratan trundled out of my tree-like hand. All I could focus on was breathing as I returned to my human-like state once again.

My husband crawled to me, instantly gathering me in his arms despite his own labored breaths. My body throbbed, and I could barely lift my head to look at him, but I was so relieved to be in his arms that I didn’t care. I curled myself in his lap and let out a relieved sob at the rise and fall of his chest and the stroke of his hand as it fell down my hair.

“You really are something,” he said. I couldn’t help but laugh, and in our state of sudden triumph and near death, it was infectious. Bratan’s laugh burst through the trees, probably reaching our realm as I nestled against his chest. My stomach cramped as I giggled harder.

Today was the first real day our lives would begin, and it happened mere minutes after I thought our souls would fade into whatever awaited the death of deities. No other form of happiness could touch this moment. Right now, anything was possible. Everything was right.

The moon was falling from the sky, dipping beneath the trees and making way for the rising sun. The breeze was a welcome coolness against our scraped skin, which only added to the joy bundled between us. Everything was settling into place for the first time in centuries. And as Melora’s demons either fled this world or died from their wounds, Bratan and I laughed, completely insane with relief and ready to go home.