Chapter 7 Heidi #2
Those quickly prove to be a dangerous combination, because when a few of the other fae manage to rush toward us despite the magic now distorting reality, all Nivarrah has to do is look at them before they begin screaming.
I don’t know what reality she’s making them see with her magic, but they turn on each other at once.
I scream and leap away as one of the fae excavators throws some kind of spell at one of his comrades that beheads him immediately, his head bouncing away.
Another one of them begins throwing attack spells at Brahm, who cries out in alarm and dives out of the way just in time.
“Heidi!” I hear Everett shouting again from what feels like miles away.
Ice begins encapsulating the sarcophagus that Nivarrah is sitting in, but she lurches out of it before my brother’s element can trap her.
More ice starts forming, but it’s several yards away since the ancient fae’s magic is clearly making it impossible for my brother to see what’s going on.
A flash of bright red blood magic lights up in the distance, but other fae begin shouting in alarm before I hear Silas cry out.
I see Nivarrah leaning toward one of the other sarcophagi like she’s about to push the lid off.
Uh oh.
I want to move toward the ancient fae woman to stop her, but the air around me is wavering and bending like heated air creating a mirage in the desert, despite the lingering spring chill.
The world seems to twist and dip as colors shift, the blue sky overhead turning green and everything else turning into various hues of purple.
The shouts of everyone else at the excavation site are warping before they reach my ears like we’re all underwater.
Nothing feels real. I’m getting wildly dizzy, so I shut my eyes and try to focus on one thing I can count on when the rest of my senses are being magically meddled with.
My empath abilities.
I still can’t sense the emotions of anyone wearing mytherun, but I can sense Nivarrah. She’s still terrified and panicked about her new surroundings, but there’s something new. She’s filled with a nauseated kind of dread mixed with obedience and a slight sliver of hope.
I’ve felt something like this before, growing up. Usually, I got this feeling when I was about to do something my mother told me to do, even if I wasn’t sure if it was right. Even if it terrified me or if I hated it, because I was too scared not to do everything the Frosts told me to.
Then I feel another one of the sleepers wake up, but this one isn’t surprised, or frightened, or even confused.
Instead, he feels vaguely satisfied. As if something he’s been expecting has finally been fulfilled.
There’s slight relief from waking up, a glimmer of odd smugness toward Nivarrah, and an alarming dose of lust wafting in my direction.
But even as his emotions curl around me, there’s something stilted about them. They're not full emotions, but they're not muffled the way I now know siphons sometimes choose to feel.
They’re just…empty.
Lust without the fire. Relief without solace. Curious indifference.
The only thing real about his feelings is the sharp, sadistic malintent radiating off of him.
“Veld has awakened,” Athanis’s voice warns me. “You must release my friend from his slumber and then flee for your safety, Elise! Please!”
My eyes open as I take several steps away from the waking sleepers. Nivarrah is looking at Veld with unmistakable trepidation, but the winged, tailed incubus turns his attention on me.
And smiles, showing off all his pointed teeth.
"Sibin toilethas a'than. Thae, tam volutlathem,” he purrs over the distorted echoes of fae still shouting nearby.
I have no idea what he just said, but from context, I think he just hit on me because Nivarrah is pissed.
Despite the reality-warping magic that makes my vision swim with what looks like millions of bees, the air swells with jealousy, hurt, rage, helplessness, and something that feels a lot like the feeling I have when it’s the last straw.
She’s murderous—but I can’t tell if it’s toward me or her fated one, as Athanis put it.
Either way, I’m not staying to find out.
Run, my inner animal agrees.
I will, but since all hell has broken loose anyway, I’m going to get Athanis’s friend out first. Veld hasn’t moved yet.
I may not be much of a legacy, but I’m pretty sure siphons aren’t as fast as shifters—and I’m faster than most shifters.
Nivarrah has only been using illusion magic to turn the others against each other.
I can still hear screaming and shouting from the chaos she’s creating with the other fae at the warped excavation site, but so far, she hasn’t thrown any magic at me.
So if I’m fast enough to get away, maybe…
Darting forward despite my inner animal crying out for me to go the opposite way, I shove the lid off the top of the third sarcophagus. I’m expecting it to be hard to move for my not-particularly-strong shifter body.
But to my surprise, the lid slides smoothly away, dropping off the top of the distorted coffin. Everything else around me still doesn’t feel real—until the sleeper's scent hits me.
It’s surprisingly fresh and crisp, the untamed scent of pine and sunlight that reminds me of shifting to run through the woods around my home, wild and free.
That scent fills my inner animal with unexpected elation just before I turn and run for my life.