Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
I’d thought my human would wake sooner than this, but she was still unconscious.
After an hour of walking with her in my arms – and fighting the forest no-handed to forge a path – my patience shattered and I tore a couple of vines from a tree and tethered her to my back.
Her head rested on my shoulder, her breaths brushing my neck, assuring me she hadn’t passed from this world.
I’d pulled out the broken glass that had struck me in the back when the conservatory had been destroyed, but they would heal soon enough.
The pain of her body pressing to the lacerations was far preferable to battling the forest without a blade.
So with my sword in hand and her pack in the other, I made quicker work of putting distance between us and the castle.
The Dragon had made such a commotion that anyone nearby would have immediately come to investigate, and I’d decided the best course of action was to disappear hastily.
I preferred to remain anonymous a while longer and the knowledge that Ferris had the Dragon was not going to pass to anyone else while I could help it.
A root caught my ankle and I went stumbling forward with a curse.
I could have sworn the forest was full of wrath today, making my journey far more difficult than it should have been.
My arms were covered in scratches while Ferris was somehow entirely untouched by the brambles I was carving my way through.
I had seen the way the forest bowed to her, and now the Dragon itself had marked her with silver hair.
I was no fool. There was more to this human than there appeared to be.
I’d seen it in her eyes when I’d first met her, and the forest had only offered more evidence since.
It made me all the more curious as to why she had come here at all.
What could a creature such as her desire between these cursed boughs?
What was worth risking her fragile life for?
To add to the discomfort of my journey, the storm hadn’t relented since leaving the castle and the rain was only growing heavier.
I could barely see my hand before my face as I took a muddy animal track down a steep bank, nearly tripping straight into a rocky chasm.
I leapt over it instead, scrabbling up the hill beyond it through waterlogged dirt and a thick mass of thorn bushes.
The forest was laughing, striking at me with all it had while I gritted my teeth and never gave in.
At the top of the hill, I found mercy in the shape of a cave and hurried into it, pushing my sodden hair out of my eyes with a growl of frustration.
The forest would be able to claim us here if we stayed the night, of that I was damn sure. But the day was wearing thin and I couldn’t keep moving endlessly without a plan. It was getting us nowhere.
Ferris murmured a wordless sound in my ear and I released a breath of relief. My human was waking up.
I untethered her from my back and she stumbled into me as her feet hit the floor, my hands moving to her waist to steady her. Her palm pressed to my chest as she looked up at me, confusion marring her brow.
“What happened?”
“What didn’t happen?” I grunted.
“Hendrix,” she insisted, touching her temple as if pain thumped there. My mood turned even more sour.
“Your summoning skills need some work,” I gritted out, taking hold of the back of her neck and tilting her head back further so I could examine her. The irises of her violet eyes were full-blown and she looked far too pale. “Can you see straight?”
“Tell me what happened after the Dragon destroyed the castle,” she insisted.
“Any nausea?”
“Hendrix,” she bit at me again, and I sighed, releasing her. She was clearly well enough.
“Your Dragon collided with you and you’ve been passed out ever since. And as our little refuge is now shattered into a thousand pieces, I’ve been searching for another one.”
She looked around at the tiny cave we were standing in and wrinkled her nose in assessment of it. “And this is what you found?”
I glared at her in answer to that. “Obviously we will not be able to sleep here.”
“How late is it?” she asked, disconcerted.
I gestured to the pouring rain which veiled all glimmers of sunlight. “You tell me.”
“Haven’t you been keeping track of time?”
“Forgive me, princess, I was too busy hauling your ass through the forest – a forest which did not want me taking you anywhere it seemed.”
“Well which direction have we journeyed in?”
“Southeast,” I offered, knowing that much.
She glanced at the thorny marks lining my arms, then huffed a sigh, taking her pack from me and dropping down to sit on the floor and rifle through it.
“You’re going to consult a book, aren’t you?” I guessed dryly just as she produced the diary she’d found in the castle. “Wonderful.”
“It led us to the Dragon. Who are you to question it?” She arched a brow at me, and I was forced to admit that she had me there.
I dropped down beside her and waited while she began reading, the only sound between us the thundering rain.
She began to shiver, goosebumps marking her arms and her silver hair sticking to her shoulders.
I shifted closer, offering her the warmth of my body, and she didn’t move away when my arm slid around her and clamped tight.
But she did glance up at me with those big eyes, the shimmer of them pushing a lump into my throat before she went back to reading.
A lock of her silver hair brushed my shoulder and I lifted it to examine it, noting the pearlescent quality of the silken strands and wondering what it meant.
She tugged it out of my grip, gave me a hard look, then went back to her diary again.
I couldn’t win with her. She always seemed halfway between despising me and liking me, oscillating from one to the other as unpredictably as the wind.
Despite the glare she’d given me, she leaned even closer, and I was surprised at how eagerly she took the heat my body offered.
It had been a long time since I’d been touched like this.
She no longer recoiled from me like she once had, and I couldn’t deny how familiar I was becoming with her company. Or how much I enjoyed it.
But how quickly this familiarity would shatter once she discovered the truth. So I had a mind to keep it for as long as possible, for her ignorance was my gift.
“She mentions a mill a few times,” Ferris murmured at last, and I glanced over at her, nose close to the page and concentration pinching her brow.
“From comparing the description to the map she’s drawn…
I think it must be to the south. If we can find a narrow stream and follow it downhill, it should take us right to it. ”
I listened for a stream, but there was no whisper of it beyond the torrential rain.
“Lead the way then, trail-finder,” I taunted, gesturing to the stormy forest, and Ferris cut me a look for my dry tone.
“Scared of a little rain?” She got to her feet, tucking the diary into her pack and shouldering it.
I didn’t get up. “The rain dampens our senses. We can no longer hear an enemy approach, nor smell a fire on the wind, nor see very far beyond the veil of water – this is especially true for you, human. It is the perfect way for the forest to disorientate us so I, for one, am staying here until it passes.”
“Then you’ll be here when night falls. Besides, you possess the spirit of the Bear, so maybe it can lead us to the stream. It might even deal with this rain for us.” Her eyes glinted with the idea as it struck her.
Damn. That was too smart of a thought for me to have a sharp comeback to it. I wanted to refute it, but she was right. Why hadn’t I come up with it myself?
“Of course. I thought of that already,” I lied in an offhanded drawl, feeling her gaze burning against my face as I turned to glare out at the forest.
“Bullshit.”
“I still believe it’s not worth the risk of travelling in a thunderstorm of the forest’s creation. It is likely a trap.”
“Better a trap we can work to avoid than remaining here to die at dusk,” she quipped. “Release the Bear and let’s at least attempt to survive. I’m not planning on dying today. I don’t have nearly as many years under my belt as you do, grandpa.”
I rose to my feet, anger raking through my veins. “Who do you think you’re giving orders to?”
She didn’t back down under my scrutiny but I noticed her shoulders tensing beneath the weight of my stare.
I could so easily make her fear me. I could make her eyes light up with terror with one simple truth from my lips, and it was so fucking tempting to share it at last. But I took a breath instead, forcing myself to focus on what was really important right now.
I had to put my pride aside. But it was a weighty task.
I said nothing as I summoned the Bear, calling it from the amulet in a swirl of water.
It landed beyond the cave, the rain splashing against its liquid form and becoming one with the spirit.
What a thing to behold this spirit was. Water embodied in animal form, yet its teeth looked razor sharp, and its might was beyond words.
“Lead us to the nearest stream,” I commanded.
“Can you part this storm for us too?” Ferris added, and the Bear looked to her with intrigue.
“It will not obey anyone except-” The words fell dead on my lips as the rain parted like curtains, creating a dry passage between two raging downpours. The Bear turned and began leading us onward and Ferris took the lead with a smile dancing on her lips.
I scowled at her back as I followed, irritation flashing through me at her smugness. How did this mortal creature wield so much power in this forest? It bent to her will in ways I could not begin to fathom.