Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Cotton
“Cotton.” Onyx stepped in front of me, blocking my view of anything but him and his beautiful fucking face.
I clenched my teeth and tightened my fists at my sides, wanting to punch something. Anything.
“Fuck her, okay?” Onyx said. “We’ve always known how much of a cold bitch she is. Don’t let her get to you.”
It was rare for me to lose control of my emotions. I’d learned after my mother’s death that showing emotion was ammunition for the king to use against me. But I’d just lost it, and Onyx had to pry me away from the cage that Royal was being held in and carry me out as I fought against him.
It pissed me off more that he seemed to be protecting her from me. I shoved him off of me, making him stumble back a few steps.
Onyx held his hands up in surrender. “Hey. I get you’re pissed by what she said, but we have to stick to the plan. It sounds like we don’t have much time to get Gray.”
My shoulders shook from the effort it took me to contain my rage, but Onyx was right. There were more important things than fighting for my pride.
“Fine. Let’s go find the farm buildings.” I shoulder-checked Onyx as I stormed past him in search of where the Mystics kept their animals.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Onyx’s shoulders drop in relief, and then he swiftly spun around to catch up with me. He didn’t speak this time, and for that I was grateful.
I followed the carefully manicured pebbled path that led to the town center. My little cottage was just down the way, but I remembered seeing a stable and fence in the open field near the row of guest houses.
I took the opportunity to use the walk to calm myself down, despite it not being a leisurely one.
Royal’s words struck a sharp chord. I couldn’t get the memory of my mother’s horrified screams out of my head, or my father’s pleas as my tongue was being sliced off in front of him. I couldn’t put him through that again.
My father had been an integral part of the insurgency back in the day, and our choice to enter it had been due to my mother’s death. We were lucky that Forest had never discovered his role in it after Chrome’s disappearance. I could only hope it remained that way.
Discovering that Onyx still lived all this time and dealing with the conflicting emotions that came with that whole fucked-up situation didn’t help. But I knew I needed to calm down before facing off with a Celestial beast.
Ten minutes later, we found ourselves near the farm buildings.
There weren’t many animals about, but I wasn’t too surprised.
There were cows, however, which did surprise me.
Didn’t expect such a normal animal to be in Arcadia.
I stared at them as I adjusted the bag of food and water strapped across my front.
“Well,” Onyx said, “I shouldn’t be surprised to see such a boring and normal animal, but after fighting a fucking Endarkened griffin, I totally am. Plus, how feral do you think the humans back home would go if they saw the lot of them roaming free like this?”
I chuckled, shaking my head at him as I searched the area for the massive bear described by Talitha. I sighed, feeling antsy as it felt like precious moments were slipping away from us.
“I know what we could do—”
I held up a hand, silencing him. The crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs sounded from the trees behind the stone stable.
Large footfalls shook the ground as it neared closer and closer to us.
The vibrations got stronger, making the earth unsteady beneath us.
A large shadow shifted over Onyx and me, despite the sun not having moved from its spot in the sky.
Together, we looked up. And up some more, finding an extraordinarily large brown bear with red eyes and shiny black horns emerging from the woods, taking branches down with it in its path.
“Talitha said she would be big, but I wasn’t expecting that,” I said in awe as I craned my neck back to gaze up at the beast.
“I remember you saying something similar once…” The quip slipped from his lips as he squinted up at the ceraber.
I glanced at him from the side, biting my bottom lip. Given everything that had happened, I was unprepared for the old memory his remark sparked. But I couldn’t let him off on it.
I cleared my throat and directed my attention back to the large creature ahead of us in an effort to recover from the flush rising up my neck. “At least I didn’t have performance anxiety.”
“You—” Onyx fumbled. “You weren’t supposed to remember that.”
“Oh, but I do. So, let’s get ready to ride the beast.” He’d started this, but I would finish it, because there was no way I could let him know he still got under my skin.
“Seriously. Could you not be so smug about that?” Onyx grumbled and turned back to look up at the bear approaching us.
“So, who’s gonna be top and who’s gonna be bottom on this ride?”
“For the love of the gods, Cotton, could you just…not…right now?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is serious. Neither of us has any training in riding wild animals.”
“Well, I may not, but you certainly do, if I remember correctly.”
“Dude.”
“Okay, I’ll stop now. But you make it too easy.”
Onyx snorted. “You’re easy.”
“Don’t be a child.”
“Says the man making sex jokes like a teenage boy.”
A roar erupted from the ceraber, the wind coming from its maws knocking our hair back.
Once it stopped, I cleared my throat, sobering from the petulant moment I’d just had. Leave it to Onyx to bring out the most childish parts of me.
“Uhm, hi,” Onyx started, speaking to the beast before us. “We were sent—”
The ceraber roared once more in our faces, silencing Onyx.
We looked at each other apprehensively, unsure of Talitha’s suggestion to befriend this beast. She didn’t seem so friendly. But I figured I’d give communicating with her a try.
I closed my eyes, clearing my mind. If I could connect with Valik, a being from gods knew where, and withstand his power, then surely I could with the ceraber.
After all, I was a Kinetic. That meant I had descended from the Celestials at some point in my lineage, even if there might’ve been some Druid mixed in there, as well.
I searched for the cord connecting to the spot between her eyes, and once I found it, I latched on.
“I’m sorry to intrude on you,” I began uncertainly. This was such a new thing for me, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt.
The bear’s ruby red eyes turned to me, a huff coming from her maw.
“We’re here to ask for your help. We’re looking for your queen. I believe she’s in danger and needs to be saved, but in order to get to her, we need safe passage through the landscape, and rather quickly.”
The ceraber whined. I assumed it was at the mention of her queen being in danger. My heart tugged for her. She’d never even met her queen, but it was clear she was loyal through and through to Gray.
“Would you be willing to help us get to her, to bring her back here to safety?” I asked.
Another whine careened from her throat just before she lowered herself onto her front paws and then hind legs until she lay flat on the ground.
Onyx looked at me, bewilderment on his face, just before he nudged me forward by my shoulder. I staggered forward, unsure if this was what she meant. I assumed if she didn’t want us sitting on her back, then she would have no qualms in letting us know.
The bear appeared at peace, breathing softly as her red eyes softened. I glided my palm gently over her coarse fur. Her body was solid, and the hair felt almost impenetrable. “Thank you,” I said to her mentally.
The beast cut her eyes to me where I stood at her side, longing and sadness sitting heavy within them.
I continued to slide my hand from her shoulder to her side. Even with her lying down, she was still too large to climb, and I was six feet tall. I shot Onyx a look that said, “How the fuck am I supposed to get up there?”
He joined me at the bear’s side, gently stroking the same spot on her shoulder before he turned me. “I’ll give you a leg up.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Do you not remember the rooftop fiasco? I feel like this won’t be much different.”
Onyx rolled his eyes. “Shut up and give me your foot.”
“All right then, I see your tastes have changed.” I lifted one leg while Onyx squatted down, laced his fingers together, and cupped the bottom of my foot in them.
“Bend your other knee when I get to three, and I’ll give you a boost as you push back up. Just don’t jump,” Onyx said.
“I don’t even want to know where or why you’ve learned something like this.”
“Blame Chrome,” was all he said before he started to count to three.
I did as he suggested, believing I’d live to regret it, and bent down at the count of three and pushed off afterward. With the momentum, he pushed me up, and I used the ceraber’s back as leverage as I swung my free leg around to straddle the top of her.
Relieved I made it up without face-planting, I then pondered how the fuck we were to get Onyx up next.
Leaning down, I reached my hand out for him to grab onto. Onyx shook his head. “Nah, I’ll just get a running start.”
Once again, I got flashbacks to the time he attempted to leap rooftops when we were teens and nearly missed.
“It’s fine. I mastered the art of jumping and utilizing my power since the last time you saw me.” He waved me off as he spun around and strode away from the bear and me.
I sat back, relaxing onto the ceraber’s spine as I narrowed my eyes, waiting to see if Onyx would embarrass himself again. Many years had passed, and if he’d been Chrome’s second-in-command to the Elementals all this time, surely he would’ve improved his skills since I’d seen him last.
Once Onyx had apparently deemed that he’d given himself enough distance, he shook out his arms and puffed out a breath in preparation. With no warning, he bounded toward the bear and me, running at full speed. The look of concentration etched onto his face made me grin as he neared.