Chapter 22
Something was wrong.
I knew it before I even opened my eyes, before I fully came back to consciousness. As my eyelids slowly fluttered open, multiple sensations flooded my awareness.
One. Maren, still asleep, soft breaths slow and deep.
Two. I had fallen asleep when I hadn’t meant to.
Three. Heat, wonderous, intense heat that I hadn’t felt in years filled the air, even though that should have been impossible.
Four. Red light surrounded the tent. Bright and burning.
Speaking of burning…something was on fire. The smell of burning fabric tickled my nose.
And that was when my eyes snapped open, understanding instantly forcing me awake.
Our tent was on fire.
A lungful of smoke filled my mouth as I gasped, which sent me into a coughing fit as I tried to free myself from the bedroll.
Maren was slow to wake, my magic attempting to keep her asleep as she blinked blearily up at me. The heat was quickly growing unbearable. If we didn’t get out of the tent right now, we’d be a nice meal for the Scorching Rivers.
Dread encompassed me so completely that for a moment, I stood frozen, unable to move. How did this happen? Was my magic finally at its end?
Move, Rhydian!
The lava was seeping through the end of the tent. If it had fingers, they would have been stretching to grasp us, like the long tendrils of death itself.
Without giving it another thought, I tugged the bag full of supplies over my shoulder and picked up Maren.
The tent flaps were ablaze, and I covered her body with mine as much as possible as I rushed outside, coughing and gasping for fresh air.
There was a large rock down the path that I headed for, my lungs aching by the time we reached it and I set her down.
That was when I glanced back at our campsite and felt the blood drain from my face.
The tent was gone, entirely consumed by the lava, which was still creeping slowly toward us. My golden ring of magic that I had set to protect us from this very thing was gone.
How could that be? The Scorching Rivers had never made it past my magic before. Why now? Was it strengthening while my magic was weakening? Had warming the tent used the last of it? Or had I just let it fall while I slept?
Whatever happened, we had barely survived. Had we spent a few moments longer in there, we would have died. I shuddered at the thought of what would have happened had I not woken up when I did.
At the sight of the Rivers creeping toward us, I tried to summon my magic to push it back.
But nothing happened.
I tried again. And again.
The light remained absent. I had no magic.
“What…happened?” Maren asked, and I turned to find her rubbing the side of her head as she looked around, her body trembling once again from the cold.
If we hadn’t slept in our winter clothes, they would have been burned to ashes.
I shuddered at the thought of trying to continue to Mount Kharos without them, especially for Maren’s sake.
My throat felt hoarse from breathing in the smoke as I replied, “The Scorching Rivers happened.”
She glanced in the direction of our campsite, her breath hitching. “Where’s the tent?”
While part of me knew it was a valid question, I didn’t have time to stand there explaining. I couldn’t explain.
“Gone.” I started walking down the path toward Mount Kharos, not even waiting for her to get up and follow me. Anger burned through my veins, and I needed to move. How could I have no magic left? Was the last petal about to fall before we even made it to the first task?
“What do you mean gone?” she called after me.
I kept walking. “As in, burned to a crisp.”
Some sort of alarmed cry erupted from her mouth, but I ignored it and continued down the path, the ice crunching beneath my boots.
“You’ll join it soon if you don’t hurry up,” I called after another minute when she still wasn’t following me.
This human has a death wish. Or death follows her. It honestly could be both.
She did get kidnapped twice in a matter of minutes after all.
Never mind that I was involved.
Maybe I was the death following her.
The telltale signs of her too-large boots crunching and scuffling on the path met my ears before she arrived at my side.
“I thought you said I was safe with you,” she spat.
Blinding fury had my hands clenching automatically to keep the magic from lashing out, but nothing happened. No golden light, no magic.
“I said I’d keep you safe,” I retorted. “There’s a difference.”
Maren scoffed. “We almost just burned to death!”
“But we didn’t. I saved you.”
She quickened her steps to get in front of me and then stopped, forcing my feet to skid to a stop.
“I thought your magic kept the lava at bay.”
I scowled at her, hating the reminder that my magic had failed. Again.
“It does.” It did.
“Then what happened? How did it reach the tent?”
My throat still burned from the smoke I inhaled, and I sucked in a slow breath, careful to keep another coughing attack from starting.
“I don’t know,” I finally answered.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” her voice rose another octave.
Stepping into her space, I lowered my head until it was inches from hers.
Fear widened her eyes, but she didn’t move even as I ground out, “I. Don’t.
Know. My magic has never failed to hold back the Scorching Rivers before.
I don’t know why it failed this time.” I held out my palms. “There doesn’t seem to be any left at all. ”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, finally rendered silent for once.
Her entire body shook from head to toe. I may have spent my entire life living in these conditions, but it didn’t mean I was immune to the cold, and tonight was particularly frigid.
Even I was having a difficult time staving off the shivers.
Though I was likely being ridiculous, it sure felt like Eroth was doing its best to keep us from reaching Mount Kharos, from completing these tasks.
As if in answer to that particular thought, the wind kicked up even more, ripping at our hair, our clothes.
Maren glared at the sky. “Seriously?”
My sentiments exactly. I grunted my agreement.
Eroth was about to crumble into dust as soon as the last petal fell. One would think that it would try to help us along rather than hinder us.
The Scorching Rivers had grown too strong, and there were powers at work that wanted to ensure we didn’t break the curse. Though with the Beast going silent all those centuries ago, the source of Eroth’s life and magic, it was no wonder the land was confused. Punishing.
My hands fisted at the reminder.
“What do we do now?” Maren asked through chattering teeth.
“We keep moving.”
She glanced at the moons, and I could tell she was trying to understand how they worked.
“It’s two hours to moon rise.” I pointed at the moons.
“If you look closely, you’ll see markings on the moon.
The one with the mark that looks like a frown, that moon moves around the other.
That’s how you can tell the time of day.
Plus, during what you refer to as daytime, the moons glow a little bit brighter. ”
Maren glared at the sky. “That’s it? Constant night and tiny moon markings to tell you what time it is?” She blew out a frustrated breath, the air clouding in front of her face. “This place is ridiculous.”
Despite the anger that coiled my muscles into tight knots, I had to try my best to hold back a smile, lest she call me beautiful again.
We trudged along in silence after that, thankfully staying ahead of the lava for the time being.
Maren’s trembling grew stronger and more pronounced the longer we were outside, her face pale and lips blue despite the enormous coat she wore.
A pang of regret pierced through me. Maybe I should have done more to ensure her warmth.
The curse would never be broken if she died from the elements.
Her feet suddenly stumbled over a rock, and she flew forward again. I acted without thinking, wrapping my arms around her waist, and halted her fall. Alarm bells clanged through my mind to find that there was no heat coming from her at all.
She’s going to die if you don’t get her warm soon.
“Maren?” I asked when, despite her stumble and my arms holding her upright, she didn’t react at all.
That was when I looked at her face and realized she hadn’t just stumbled—she’d fainted. She was now an alarming shade of white.
Maren needed heat—now.
I glanced around, frantically searching for…
I didn’t know. What was I supposed to do?
We were in the middle of the valley with no shelter in sight.
We were too far from the castle to return now, and Mount Kharos would offer nothing in the way of a warm shelter—at least until we reached the top.
Our only tent was gone, not that it had done much to warm the air anyway.
Putting one arm behind her and the other beneath her knees, I hoisted her into my embrace, hoping it would offer some reprieve while I wracked my brain to come up with something.
If my accursed magic hadn’t vanished, then I could have warmed her up in a heartbeat.
But I could barely feel it anymore. It was a light trickle in my veins, like a dying stream moments away from drying up completely. Nothing happened when I summoned it.
The landscape around us held nothing, nothing that would help. Maren’s breaths were short and quick, and I felt each one like a stab wound.
I’d felt a lot of emotions over the past decades with the curse and the endless, and hopeless, attempts at breaking it, but the terror I felt at Maren’s life slowly draining from her while I could do nothing to stop it…
My legs ached as I burst into a run and desperately searched for shelter.
If I could just get her warm, everything would be fine.
Huge boulders and rocks and the only bushes that thrived in the cold and dark littered the landscape, mountainous terrain rising up on either side of me.
If there were at least trees on the mountains, we could take refuge within them, but this curse-forsaken land had killed them all off long ago. Our only hope was to find—
My feet tripped to a stop when I saw it. Tucked in between a grouping of large rocks—a cave.
Tightening my arms around Maren, I jogged toward it, silently begging her to hold on a little longer.
The moment we entered the cave, the wind ceased, though it continued howling just outside.
It wasn’t much warmer here, but at least we were out of the elements.
I set Maren on the ground, propping her head against the wall.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, though she was still unconscious.
Firewood. I needed firewood. I’d get a fire going and put Maren as close as possible to it. That had to help, right?
Since there were no trees, it was annoyingly difficult to find twigs and branches that would start a fire.
I found a few here and there but mostly resorted to pulling lichen and branches from the winter bushes.
When my arms were as full as I could manage, I hurried back to the cave and tossed everything on the ground before getting to work.
The smallest twigs went down first, then I covered them with lichen.
It was dry enough that when I rubbed two sticks together, a flame burst to life, quickly devouring the twigs beneath it.
I continued adding bigger sticks and branches until a roaring fire filled the cave, slowly heating the air.
Maren remained unconscious as I carefully moved her next to the fire, making sure her clothes weren’t close enough to catch flame.
Then I waited.
Waited for the color to return to her face, waited for the shaking of her body to cease, waited for her to wake up.
Ten minutes went by with no change. Then thirty.
Putting my hand to her forehead, I tried to see if she had warmed at all but still found it cold. I bent over her face to feel if she was breathing and was relieved to find that she was.
Maren was alive—for now.
How did I get her warm if the fire wasn’t helping?
A thought came to me, and I acted before fully thinking it through. Maren would hate it. But she wasn’t awake right now, and if I didn’t, she could die.
Pulling open her coat, I gently pulled her out of it and then lay down next to her, wrapping her into my embrace.
I left nothing to chance as I tangled our legs together and tucked her against my chest, holding her as tightly as I could manage, hoping it would infuse my heat into her.
Then I tossed her coat on top of us for good measure.
I couldn’t speak for Maren, but I was instantly warmer as I shared my body heat with her, the coat trapping it against us and the fire lending even more. This had to work, right? She’d wake up soon. She had to.
While I waited for her to regain consciousness, my mind spun in circles.
I’d never been concerned about a human before.
Dozens had come to Eroth, maybe even hundreds, and yet I’d never cared what happened to a single one of them—at least not like I found myself doing with Maren. I didn’t understand.
Why was she affecting me in such a way? I kept reminding myself that she was simply a means to an end, the best chance at breaking the curse that I’d ever found. That was all it was. She was giving me hope, and that was why I suddenly cared so much.
And yet that reason didn’t feel good enough.
I’d never felt such anxiety over a person’s well-being like this, besides Nico, but that was different. He was more like my brother than anything. Maren was definitely…not.
An hour passed as we lay on the ground, slowly warming up. Even as I drifted in and out of sleep, exhaustion pulling my mind into its depths, I never released the tight grip I had on Maren.