Chapter 57 #3
Towering walls of thorny vines erupt, caging the other combatants, weaving them off in a maze of blooming hypnosis flowers. Fenwick bubbles a shield of golden light around Flint, Eko, and Seraphina, protecting them from the floral hypnosis scent now permeating the air.
“Why stun just one when I can stun them all?” Juniper giggles.
Atlas sighs at his plan going awry, but luckily, Fenwick’s shield holds as our team quickly advances to the door of Rayea’s Fortress.
“Savaé, duck!” Vex screeches. My eyes snapping up to see Chet on his Poison Dart Draco hurtling towards us. A storm of venomous quills blot the air, raining in all directions to weed out the illusions.
Calais banks left to avoid the barrage of quills coming for us. Her new position leaves them aiming for her chest. A flashing memory skitters across my mind. The new, small scale on her chest, exposing her soft flesh below from giving me her old one to forge the greatsword.
I summon Dream Singer from my bracer with a tap, channel all the wind I can from around me through her blade, and aim it down on Calais’ wings, sending us spiraling right. I hear her snapping something at me, but I quickly slam the crescent-moon window of our bond shut in my mind.
I have to stay focused. Chet has already caught us off guard once.
Chet’s now fully aware of who his real target is, but instead of coming for me, he’s set on a new prize.
I follow his line of sight to S?las, whose previous position below me is now exposed from our new flight adjustment. His gaze is locked on me—like an idiot too focused on the survival of his mate!
“Shadowwalk now!” I scream down our shared tether. I glimpse the poisonous quill bead in crimson as it hits S?las’ face right as he and Scáil disappear into the shadows.
I frantically search below me, lowering my shields to figure out where he portaled to. The poison will disrupt his magic, rendering it hard to control, if he can at all.
I can’t see his velvet ribbons to lead me to where he is, but… I feel him.
I gaze down to my right to see him and Scáil tumbling out of control towards the Blackwood.
No!
This is fucking terrible. An absolute living nightmare.
Chet is hurtling right for them. Okay, worse than a nightmare. Why is he after him? My heart pounds into my throat. Did he somehow find out he’s my mate?
I send a gale-force wind ripping with ice daggers at Chet and his Draco. A curdled shriek frays the air as icicles shred its wings. They flail. The Draco’s tattered flesh beats frantically but fails to generate lift. They spiral off course, crash landing on the outskirts of the Blackwood.
“Kissa, think fast!” I chuck the Golden Pearl towards her, catching it in her talons as she blinks into a large white hawk.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she growls.
“Saving my mate… again.” A humorless laugh escapes me as I yet again put him in danger.
“Absolutely not! S?las and Scáil are strong. They will fight their way out or be lost to our Zenith,” Atlas commands.
“Your Savant is right. As long as they stay together, they will escape,” Calais barks, but her terror bleeds through the bond.
Before I can think about it, my mental shields thrust up, blocking everyone out as I dissolve into mist.
Every molecule of my being vibrates in the shattering roar Calais unleashes. I know she wants to save her mate too, but I’m still struggling with the guilt from almost killing S?las yesterday. I can’t fail him today. I won’t survive it. I can’t fail him like I failed Sully.
I float down to the patch of barren forest, ripped raw from where Scáil crash-landed. A lacerated wail rips from my throat as I combust back into my corporeal form.
Blood and feathers. So much blood drips down the snapped corpses of tree trunks, smattered in frayed and fractured raven feathers. My heart pounds, bludgeoning itself in bruises against my ribs. I worry my bottom lip, fighting the tears prickling at the back of my eyes.
This is bad.
Really bad.
My legs break into a sprint, following the path of caved-in, broken trees, slinging Dream Singer back to my bracer to pick up speed. I let my shields fall once more so I can feel S?las while stuffing my Rune Tech ring into my pocket. The team is already poised to finish their objective without me.
S?las’ velvet ribbons flutter distantly in my mind. I gasp in relief, knowing he’s alive.
“Savaé, get out of the Blackwood this fucking instant!” Calais roars.
“I’m coming, S?las. Just stay safe until I get to you,” I plead down our bond.
“Savaé! No! You can’t be here. Get out now.” His words are drenched in desperation. I have to tell him.
I have to make him understand why I came. The moment his perfect blood glimmered on that quill… I felt it. I knew it.
My world unraveling before me, all my dreams fading into grey pastel.
My heart was so lost, deep in a bottomless pit of darkness, hidden in a prickly maze of ice.
Yet he never gave up. Slowly weaving unconditional warmth and light between my ribs, curling it around my soul in his protective embrace.
Despite my protests that I could never be loved, he cracked my chest open anyway.
Showing me my limping heart still beats, still loves.
And when I held her in my hands—wrapped in a stringy, golden mess of S?las’ attempts to heal her—I gazed down to see she had been painfully waiting for him all along.
His icy moonlight eyes, the reflection of my soul, my other half looking back at me. While the gold in mine is his endless love for me.
I’ve always had to be strong, but with him…
He pinned my fears against the wall, creating a safe place for my soul to breathe, to rest. In the sanctuary of him, he stripped me of my armor and snarling mask, baring everything I can be, a version of me I never dared to dream of.
He’s shown me how to swim rather than drown in the darkness, wielding it to create my own light, shining even brighter.
He lets me know what it is to be loved. Unwaveringly and unconditionally.
To live rather than just survive.
I’ve had just a taste, and now I can’t imagine a better way to spend my newfound immortality, loving the darkness like only the stars know how. Endings and beginnings. Light and darkness. Shattered and whole.
I know now why I’ve always felt fractured, until I let him in. He is my missing piece, my other half, and with him, he shall have all of me. Silver tears stream down my cheeks as my lungs burn and ache, craving to be filled with the scent of amber and spruce.
To feel the home we share in one another’s arms.
To be blessed by his rapturous kiss on my lips.
“I love you. I promise all—”
The silent words fall from my mind as the Blackwood morphs and whirls around me, revealing a dense canopy of crimson strangling the light above me.
Oh no.
He’s fucking right.
I should not be here.