Chapter 10
MORMO
Gavrel
Something was stinging my nose. Repeatedly. I swatted at the nuisance, figuring that would do the trick.
I was wrong.
“Bloody void,” I grumbled, not wanting to leave the dream we’d shared. I’d had her in my arms. I could still feel her. Taste her.
Fuck.
I adjusted the hardness within my breeches, yearning for my khorda’s touch once more.
I had to get to her.
She was here.
And alive.
For now.
And if she wasn’t alive when I found her, I’d—
A sharp pain bit into the pad of my thumb. Whatever had been poking me chirped agitatedly. A flurry of splintered rainbows zoomed past my face.
“Ow!” I leaped to my feet, shaking out my bitten thumb.
All at once, a pixie appeared in front of me and stabbed the tip of my nose with one finger. “What the—How are you here, little one?”
It came out more of a scolding than I intended, and the tiny beast propped its hands on its hips, four lucent wings beating at the air furiously.
My eyebrows rose, remembering the flickers of light I’d seen on the journey here. “You … you’ve been following me, yes? You’re quite a long way from home.”
It squeaked, copper eyes flashing, its seafoam-green cheeks turning jade before it tugged on a strand of my hair.
“All right!” I groused, recognizing that it wanted me to follow. I strapped my sword to my back and rushed after the pixie. It was the leader from the Reverie Weald who had helped me find the portal home all these turns.
The beastie who seemed to have a soft spot for Seryn.
It shouldn’t be here. Without its clan, it would be especially vulnerable in the Void.
But it must have stowed away. Tracked me here.
Or did it follow Seryn?
Was she close?
Was the pixie leading me to her?
I pushed myself faster through the twisting passageways, doggedly chasing the iridescent tail of the pixie’s chaotic aura.
It stopped abruptly, and I almost slammed into the beastie before it flew upward, jabbing a finger at the empty cell. The barred door swung open, and familiar manacles lay discarded next to an unconscious young man on the floor.
He was breathing, his pulse steady when I checked it. But there was no time to waste. He would be fine until he woke.
“Melina,” I spat her name like a curse before crashing through the tunnels, the pixie keeping pace.
We shot from the cave, my chest heaving.
The creature darted above the trees and disappeared. I ran in the same direction, clearing the nethershade illusion, not caring that night had fully taken root.
Melina would pray that a Void beast found her first.
She was to blame.
For everything.
Her deal with Phobetor cursed Midst Fall.
Destroyed countless lives.
Ripped apart families.
Why? So that she could live forever with immense power? So that she could control and torture others at her pleasure?
Bile rose in my throat. The burning sensation matched the ire and disgust I held within.
The Void umbras were nowhere to be found. I took in a long pull of air. The forest was quite tranquil when nothing was trying to steal your soul or eat you. I scanned the lattice of chalky branches.
Where was the pixie?
A flash of prismatic light zoomed past my cheek, and I paused, frowning.
“Get on with it, little one,” I demanded.
It landed on my shoulder, tiny claws digging into the leather strap and then pointing ahead.
“Melina?”
With wispy white hair fluttering, it bobbed its head excitedly.
“Well done.” It preened as I strode ahead, leaping off my shoulder and guiding me toward Elder Harrow’s hiding place.
It wasn’t long before we found her. She didn’t even try to flee when she spotted me.
I cornered her between a tight cluster of pale trees.
“Couldn’t stay away, Gavie?” she tittered, running her fingers up my biceps.
I gritted my teeth and pushed her away. With my sword in hand, I grabbed her wrist. If she were in my grasp, she wouldn’t have enough time to conjure her aura and attack without me knowing.
“Let’s go,” I barked, heading in the direction I’d come.
“Always in a rush, Commander. You used to take your time.” She cupped my arm with her other hand.
Disgust lined my tongue, and I shrugged her off, my grip tightening around her wrist. I wanted to snap the bone, but thought better of it. Didn’t need to give her an excuse to slow us down.
She did anyway, dragging her feet as we moved. Shadows moved at the corners of my eyes, and I pulled her behind me hastily, ignoring her rambling.
More movement. Fucking void. Were the void umbras back?
The crack of fallen twigs snapped nearby, and I spun, sword raised.
Melina yanked on my arm, pulling me off balance. A bulbous club whooshed past my ear. I twisted, steel flashing as I stabbed toward our attacker.
The strike clanged against an armored belly, reverberating up my arm until my teeth rattled.
“That’s just mean,” the creature grumbled, scratching his bulbous gut, his skin the color of gray-green mucksap. With a disgruntled snort, he swung again, the bludgeon swishing through the air.
Melina and I dove aside as it slammed into the pebbles, a spray of soot puffing around us. The ogre hacked, tongue lolling, wisps of pale hair fluttering along his ears.
“Enough, troll,” rasped a voice from the shadows, scraping down my spine.
The darkness thickened, and she stepped forward.
The ogre’s ears twitched. He scowled, slumping a little. “Ogre,” he muttered like a sulking child. “You’re no fun, Mormo.”
Mormo.
The name pounded in my head. The bogey whispered in children’s bedtime tales. Child-eater. Marrow-drinker. And here she was. Standing before me.
Fuck.
The sight of her induced a creeping sense of unease.
Two bent horns jutted from an exposed, ash-pale skull. Her skeletal face was sharp planes and hollows, nose flattened, and mouth pulled too wide, nearly to her cheekbones. Her pointed ears twitched. Despite the dark that filled her empty eye sockets, I sensed her stare as it raked down my body.
Her flesh stretched taut over every sinew, elongated muscle, and corded tendon. Bronze fissures glowed faintly like molten veins along her skin. Plates of the same metal fused into her shoulders, chest, and joints.
No need for armor when it’s literally grafted to her, I noted to myself. My Order training filed the details away on instinct, fingers flexing around my hilt. I tried to measure her weaknesses, but there were none. She was built to brutalize.
Seven feet tall, her legs moved with a predator’s grace. A tattered, dark strip of cloth hung from her waist like a funeral shroud, and her talons clicked against one another when she tensed her fingers around her scythe.
The ogre huffed. “But Master said alive or dead …”
“Preferably alive,” Mormo hissed. “What good are they dead, you brainless lump?”
He grunted, shackling Melina in embered cuffs with a lazy swat of his meaty hand. Mumbling, he dragged her struggling form and his club behind him.
I lifted my chin. “I’m certain we aren’t who you’re looking for.”
“On the contrary—”
I swallowed hard, shoving back and rolling out of her reach before she could finish.
I leaped to my feet and swung my blade. Sparks flew as metal met metal when she blocked it with her elbow.
I kicked toward her knee, and she hissed, sidestepping.
I slashed across her upper arm, and black bloomed along the bronze cracks.
Mormo clawed at me. Pain ripped across my palm from her counterstrike, but I slammed my shoulder into her side, forcing her to retreat a step. She growled, a wet, gurgling sound, before swiping her talons at me. I stumbled backward, catching myself against a tree; my blood smeared across the trunk.
Before I could strike again, the sweep of her curved blade cut the air and pressed against my nape, slightly nipping my flesh. Shadows coiled around her head like writhing hair, spilling from where her eyes should have been.
My pulse hammered. Even with a blade in my hand, my instincts knew the truth. Against her, instinct wasn’t enough.
Leaning down, her lips peeled back almost to her ears, exposing rows of sharp teeth. Empty eye sockets locked on me. “On the contrary,” she repeated, “You’re exactly who we’re looking for.”