Chapter 4 #2
The seraph slid calculated eyes to my right, where Cora peeked her head around me, and his gaze crashed quickly back to me. The corners of his mouth ticked upward, and he made slow steps toward us, sheathing his sword across his chest.
“You should not have come into our territory.” His deep voice changed into a haunting smoothness.
“I-I’m sorry.” Slowly, I backed Cora away a step at a time as he walked towards us, eyes locked on mine. A predator assessing its prey.
“But now that you have brought a youngling into the forest and broken a treaty, you two will make for wonderful negotiation tools with the crown.” Vines that wound around his arms unfurled down to his hands.
I pivoted, grabbed Cora into my arms, and ran.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins as Cora clutched me tightly and let out a small scream.
Five steps were all I managed before my ankle caught underneath a tree root, throwing us both to the ground.
“Oof!” Cora tumbled out of my arms a couple of feet away, and I sprang back onto my hands and knees, ready to shield her with my body.
I gasped. Tree roots were weaving up her legs, holding her to the ground.
Cora squirmed and tried pulling herself away but was held firmly in place, her fingers leaving scratch marks in the dirt.
I thrust my body upward, but my feet couldn’t move, and I slammed back to the ground. Blood seeped out of a gash on my palm from connecting with a jagged rock and rolled down my forearm in crimson streams. Nettles vined around my ankles, twisting and stinging with their stalks.
The seraph menacingly laughed, his deep baritone reverberating in my ears as he approached my side. “A woman protecting her youngling is so predictable, but fleeing instead of using enchants makes you markedly stupid. Or weak.”
The man knelt between us. The pungent scent of wood, mushrooms, and musk wafted off him.
I swung at his head, hoping in vain to give us a moment to escape.
He captured my wrist in his palm, cocking his head in a bird-like manner, staring inquisitively.
Blood rolling down my hand dripped onto his fingers.
His grip on me tightened, with piercing hunter-green eyes looking me up and down and landing on my rounded ears.
He blinked. “You’re… You are not… What are you? ” His gaze settled back on my ears.
The previous struggle I had in me waned, and my body trembled beneath the touch of his coarse skin.
He looked toward a cowering and sobbing Cora, examining her before quickly facing me with widened eyes.
“Please,” I begged. “Please don’t hurt her.
Let her go, and you can take me!” I swallowed.
“We didn’t mean to come here. I’m sorry! Please!”
“Mom, don’t leave me! You can’t!” The fear laced in Cora’s voice cut through me, sharp and piercing. Had I not felt my heart thumping against my ribs, I would’ve thought it had been torn from my chest. I would offer to let this seraph do just that if it kept him from harming my baby.
He gasped as he let go of my blood-soaked wrist, stumbling backward with his eyes darting between Cora and me.
The plants, still wound around mine and Cora’s legs, stopped moving and twisting to hold us to the ground.
We sat still on the damp forest floor, trembling, and I fumbled to reach Cora’s hand to comfort her in what limited way I could.
The seraph stood to his full height, speechless and eyebrows hiked up, creasing his forehead. My voice trembled in a desperate plea, “We had no idea we crossed the barrier. This was a mistake! An accident! Please let us go. Let her go.”
Cora sobbed and clutched my hand, tears streaming down her face and snot sliding out of her nose.
The seraph opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of a thudding impact made him jolt.
His wide eyes blinked before casting down at the arrow protruding from his heart.
Blood dribbled out of his mouth, the ruby color a stark contrast to his sun-kissed skin.
His confused eyes were set on mine, and distant footsteps approached from behind.
Cora bellowed at the sight of the violence before us.
Everything happened so fast, and yet it felt as if time had slowed to a crawl.
The plants binding our legs loosened their hold, and I flung myself on top of Cora, pushing her head to my chest and shielding her from the gruesome sight as the seraph crashed to his knees and then his side.
He lay on the damp forest floor motionless, eyes open but vacant, and rattled out one last breath.
The sounding footsteps slowly approached. I clutched Cora to my shaking body, my eyes transfixed on the man lying dead on the ground.
“Are you both alright?” asked a voice both calm and concerned, snapping my awareness back to my surroundings.
Through blurred tears, I tracked another large seraph approaching us.
His hands were held up in supplication, and worry etched his face.
He stopped several feet away, and I blinked away the tears, taking in his form, assessing if he was a threat.
This man looked unequivocally different from the seraph who attacked us.
Dark brown leathers and a green tunic covered his tall, muscular build.
His deep lapis blue eyes inspected Cora and me.
He paused at my ears, the rounded shape of them unlike his tipped ones.
Light brown hair was tied with a leather strap at the nape of his neck.
Three silver daggers glinted on his belt, and a bow peeked from behind his back.
Formidable and intimidating, yet he held no malice in how he looked at us.
“Please don’t hurt us,” I pleaded with him as I closed my eyes and braced myself for another attack.
His face softened. “I’m Gabriel. I’m here to help.”