Chapter 36 #2
But as I lay in the dark, recounting tales of when I’d been the closest to happy and listening to stories about his own losses and loves in turn, I found myself considering the words he wanted to hear from me more and more.
They simply remained caught in my throat.
Crossing the border into Avanis had been the final marker for our journey by air, the clouds wrapping around us as we flew so high that Bastian’s wings clipped the magical barrier which kept our continent isolated from the rest of the world.
By doing so we managed to pass over the crackling boundary which parted Avanis from Stormfell but the air was thin at such altitude and even my shield wasn’t enough to keep the worst of the cold from biting at me.
Bastian landed quickly after that, dropping down into a valley in the heart of the Ramdale mountains to shift back into his Fae form and avoid the eyes of any Stonebreaker sentinels who would be watching the sky for signs of an attack from Stormfell.
It was night and the land was so dark around us that my eyes could hardly pick out the gaps between the trees but I didn’t dare risk a Faelight.
“Are you good?” I asked Bastian while he dressed in the dark clothing of his people, brown leather covering his huge frame and a fur-trimmed cloak wrapping over it once he’d finished lacing his boots.
My attire matched his, the Stonebreaker style fitting me in an unfamiliar embrace.
We hoped to pass for citizens of this land if we were spotted and as such I’d once again dyed my hair – this time a pale blonde which Bastian had joked made me appear more approachable, less harsh.
But anyone testing that theory would quickly be corrected on the false assumption.
“Yes,” he replied. “Better than usual. It’s good to be home.”
“Home,” I echoed, glancing around at the dark shadows of the forest. We couldn’t see much but the scent of earth and greenery was far richer here than in Stormfell.
“Did you live near Stone Castle?” I asked, wondering if I’d ever felt the same sense of belonging in my homeland as he clearly did here.
The snow and the cold were familiar to me, comforting even, safe.
But…I’d never called it ‘home’ with the same devotion he offered this place.
“Yes and no. I travelled a lot when I joined the army and spent a fair amount of time close to this mountain range. But my family hailed from Hallow Heath which is west of here. The mountains there aren’t so tall but are far more beautiful. I'll take you one day.”
“Promise?” I asked, wishing I could snatch the word back out of the air the moment it escaped my lips. But it was already gone and even in the dark I could tell he was grinning at me.
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” he swore, painting an X over his chest.
I reached out to halt the movement, flattening his palm over the steady tempo of his heart.
“Not that,” I said. “You’re immortal, after all.” I reached up to brush my fingers over the collar at his throat and he sighed.
“The moment I can rid myself of this thing I’ll gladly do it,” Bastian said. “I have no wish to linger in immortality. I only want to live a single lifetime. I’m just waiting for you to take me up on the offer of making it utterly unforgettable.”
“You don’t need me to provide you that,” I scoffed, turning away but he caught my chin and leaned in to brush the faintest hint of a kiss across my lips.
“But I want it, spectre. I want it so very much that I can hardly breathe for wanting it.”
I swallowed the words which knotted on my tongue and he withdrew a heartbeat later, stepping aside and looking out into the darkness.
I pressed my lips together, cursing my heart for racing so forcefully and curling my palms into fists to stop them for reaching out to pull him back to me.
I cleared my throat, focusing on the task at hand. “We need to move, put some distance between us and this place before dawn in case we were spotted in the sky or our arrival triggered some alarm,” I said.
Bastian shouldered his pack then dropped down to place his palm against the dirt. I still wasn’t used to that. Watching him wield his earth magic sent a tingle racing across my skin.
It should have been abhorrent.
It wasn’t.
“Fate may be favouring us at last,” Bastian remarked as he stood. “There are trails ahead frequented by some fairly large animals – bears if I had to guess. We can follow one to the foothills and avoid tangling our boots in the undergrowth and leaving a trail which might be found.”
I nodded, moving closer to him and letting him lead the way on.
Bastian found the path easily, the trail left by animals wide enough for us to walk side by side and though we moved in silence, my hand brushed against his, sending a jolt to my pathetic heart.
I pulled my hand back but he caught hold of it, binding my fingers within his and smirking at the path ahead when I made a half-assed attempt to retrieve it.
“Really?” I taunted.
“Oh stop pretending you don’t like it. There’s no one here to judge you but me and I’ve already made up my mind about you anyway, spectre.”
“Is that so?”
“You know it is.”
“I don’t think I can recall. Why don’t you tell me again?” I pushed.
“You want me to tell you that I think you’re the most captivating creature I’ve come across in over two-hundred years?” he teased.
“Let’s not forget that you were trapped in an underground cavern for the vast majority of that time, Bastian. I doubt there was anything captivating for you to lay your eyes upon beneath the dirt.”
“You’re a harsh woman.”
“I’m an honest one.”
“You’re also impossible to compliment. You deflect and dismiss, you throw words like missiles and barbs, aiming to hurt in anticipation of any which might be aimed your way in reply. It’s exhausting.”
“If you’re looking to be exhausted by me, Bastian, I can think of far more entertaining ways to use up your energy.”
Bastian released a low chuckle. “Not yet.”
I sighed audibly. “You realise I never asked you to care about me, don’t you?”
“You realise you are worth caring for, don’t you?” he threw back in reply, his silver shot eyes fixing on mine. “Because I don’t think you do.”
“Everyone who has ever–”
“That’s just another wall you’ve constructed to hide behind, Vesper,” he growled, drawing me to a halt and stepping closer to me. “But I can see you. You know I can.”
I peered up at him in the dim light, my stomach knotting under the intensity of his scrutiny.
I didn’t like it when he made me study my own bullshit that way.
I didn’t want to admit to the truth of his claims. Because if I did then I would have to admit that I might have someone to care about again.
Someone who mattered to me. Someone to lose.
And I couldn’t afford for that to be true.
I almost bit back at him, almost cursed and baited him into an argument to escape the intensity of his expression. But as my eyes met with the silver in his I found I didn’t want to fight for what might have been the first time in my entire life. I was so very tired of fighting all the time.
“Bastian,” I breathed, shifting a little closer to him, my heart a riot of fear, uncertainty and expectation in my chest. “I–”
“I was told the Sky Witch would be hard to capture,” a cold voice jeered from behind me and I jerked around, magic flaring in my palms.
But before I could so much as attempt to strike the Fae at my back, he shot towards me in a blur of motion, a syringe in his fist driving straight for my throat.
I jerked aside, the needle grazing my skin, air magic exploding from me and hurling the Vampire back.
Bastian released a Dragon’s roar behind me and I spared a single second looking to him in panic. My eyes locked on the needle that another of the Vampires had managed to drive into his arm, whatever concoction lay within it now surging into his veins.
That moment cost me whatever chance I might have had to escape, the Vampires surging around me so fast that I barely even felt the stab of the needle as one of them drove it into my skin.
I threw my fist out, catching my attacker in the jaw and sending him stumbling away but more of them rushed me at once.
Blood flew as I swung my sword, curses coming from a Vampire to my right but as I tried to turn towards him to continue my attack, my knees buckled and the floor swept up to greet me.
Bastian was fighting furiously behind me, the pained cries that came from his combatants confirming it, but I couldn’t so much as turn my head to look.
One of the Vampires knelt down beside me as I lost all sense of feeling in my limbs, his cold fingers sweeping blonde hair out of my eyes so that he could look down at me with a cunning interest.
“Kaiser Brimtheon sends his regards,” he said, making my thoughts twist in nonsensical patterns because why the fuck would that bastard have anything to do with this?
“The Fury sent you? Why?” I growled, the words slurring as I forced them from my throat.
The sound of Bastian collapsing to the floor had my heart constricting in my chest.
“He believes you might be interested in a proposal we have for you,” the Vampire supplied.
“Then he truly is cracked in the head,” I sneered, fighting to tighten my grip on my blade but darkness was closing in around me and I could no longer feel the hilt in my fist.
“We’ll see.”
I parted my lips on a demand for them to leave Bastian out of this but the darkness swept in to consume me before I could manage it, my consciousness stealing away and my fate once again left up to chance.