Chapter 37 Erik
ERIK
Eislyn and Kiora appeared just outside the Sidhe capital with Iver, where our forces were quickly retreating into the forest. Both females were panting, wide-eyed, and startled, as if they were not expecting to be moved.
Kiora lowered her bow and arrow, twisting around and studying her new environment.
I changed my direction, running towards them while the retreating troops tried to avoid getting in my way. Our combined forces flooded through the forest, like fluid shifting around the terrain, heading towards the horses and the Bavadrin lands.
Iver vanished before I reached them.
Blood coated Eislyn, though I could tell by the scent it wasn’t hers. Both of the females appeared relatively unharmed.
“Ariana?” I asked when I reached them. Fear threatened to close around my throat at the fact she was not with them.
Eislyn and Kiora swiveled towards me.
“She was shrouded in mist. I assume she is okay as long as the mist was around,” the Sparrow answered, though the way her lips turned down it was clear she was nervous. “Kole was in there with her.”
“The Sidhe King?” Pain stabbed at my chest for the fact that she had to endure being near him.
“Also shrouded in that mist,” Eislyn said.
Ariana was with him. I was spared from imagining the worst when she appeared at my side with Kole and Iver. The relief was followed by a shock that stopped my heart in my chest at the sight of her. She stood before me, before all of us, completely bare of clothing.
“Our princess here turned herself into mist during that encounter,” Iver said before my shock could meld into something uncontrollable as he slipped off his wool cloak.
Soldiers around us tripped over themselves, running into each other, as they caught sight of her.
Fire erupted around us, as finally my mind worked enough to form a barrier between us and the rest of the warriors, to shelter her and warm the space.
Ariana’s eyes were wide as as she looked down, face instantly turning red as she realized the state she was in. Her nipples pebbled against the cold before she wrapped a hand across her chest as Iver draped his cloak around her.
“Thank the Spirit that whole thing is over,” Kole muttered, looking a little green from the travel methods. He awkwardly looked everywhere but at Ariana.
Ariana scanned the group at once, taking a quick inventory of all present while tugging the cloak securely around herself.
Kiora gave her belt to Ariana to singe the wool around her waist. “Once we get to the horses, I’ll give you some real clothing to wear.”
Ariana nodded, her face still flushed, her gaze lingered on me a fraction longer than the rest. “Soren?” She turned to Iver.
He shook his head. “He warned me that we had about thirty seconds to get out of there before the room flooded with backup. Said to leave him, that he would find a way to work the event to his advantage with Clause. That.” He stopped himself, eyes flickering to me like he was considering whether to say the rest in front of me.
“Finish that sentence,” I instructed my brother.
Iver frowned, turning to Ariana once more. “He said that he would like to remain so that you would have an ally when you returned.”
She stiffened.
“Ariana is not going back there.” My voice dropped, gaining a lethal edge. The thought of her returning there made my whole body turn to stone with horror.
The back of Ariana’s hand briefly brushed mine, as if in reassurance. “We are retreating?”
I let the fire receed so she could see. Ariana glanced at those moving around us, away from the Sidhe stronghold.
Though she tried to refocus, I caught sight of the dimming shadows in her gaze at Iver’s words.
The threat he spoke into existence. That there was an expectation that she would find herself at the monster’s mercy once again.
Her fear pathetically crippled me. My pledge to destroy the darkness threatening her did nothing to help her. For even though I controlled flame, Clause’s darkness was too profound. It would engulf the light. I needed to find a way to change that, to spare her from him.
I nodded, forcing my jaw to relax enough to answer. “I’ll explain, but we need to keep moving and get as far away from here as possible. Our horses are close by.” I needed to place distance between the Sidhe King and Ariana.
“Let’s go then.”
We took off, running till we reached our horses.
The Sparrow gave Ariana real clothing to change into, though Iver insisted she still keep his cloak.
Once she was dressed, I guided her to my stallion, and she did not protest when I told her she would ride with me.
Once mounted, we continued the sprint through the Sidhe land.
It did not appear as though the Sidhe’s chased, still we set a grueling pace. Not slowing till we crossed into the Bavadrin territory. Ariana relaxed then, her muscles loosening, her body leaning into mine a bit. I shifted my hold of the reins so that my arms better settled around her.
The fearful fist that held my heart began releasing its hold with the feel of her in front of me.
Leaving an aching in my chest. Everything she had seen, been forced to do.
Icy bitterness clamped down on my heart at the thoughts.
This astonishing, compassionate, clever woman did not deserve any of this.
The pain she now undoubtedly carried in her soul should never have been there.
She had a monster chasing her, nipping at her heels. Relentless. But I was the monster she chose, and I would not stop til I ended the Sidhe King. I would become her champion.
“Are you okay?” I asked after a while. Neither of us had spoken since getting on horseback.
“We accomplished nothing,” she said with a sigh. Her shoulders even seemed to droop.
“I got you back,” I offered. To me, that was a victory.
“At the cost of how many lives?” Her voice seemed distant.
“We will learn from our mistakes, and next time will do better.” I thought we were better prepared, but we were not.
Conjurors we wished to free stood against us.
For some reason, we had not planned for that.
All of us assumed that in the chaos they would simply fall back, and then run once they saw the barrier opened to them.
She was silent a moment before saying, “Your sister.” Something sharp stabbed me in the gut at the mention of her. Last thing I ever expected was for Iona to choose the Sidhe over the Lysians.
“She made her choice,” I finally said. There was nothing more to do. I wouldn’t drag Iona from the place she claimed to want to remain.
Ariana and I fell into silence again until she asked, “Why did you retreat?”
I tensed at the memory that had snapped me out of my fury-filled rage. When I did not reply right away, she twisted to view me, green eyes appraising.
“I nearly killed a child who stood up to me. Protecting his home, and his family. Nothing but fear and determination in his eyes.” I shook my head as if that could shake some of the guilt that seemed to cling to me like a thick oil.
My hands were stained with a lot of blood already, not that I particularly minded that.
But not the blood of children. That was a line I would never be comfortable crossing.
“The citizens will need warning if we are to try to take the city again,” she murmured, turning back around.
“We should have thought of that. Considered that they would be afraid, not everyone will run from the danger. I was so certain they would want to be freed that we would be seen as liberators from a monster’s rule.
But some of them prefer to remain under his command. ”
“We will do things differently next time.”
“What we need is to force Clause to give up his control, or kill him by involving as few people as possible.” I could nearly hear her frown, as if troubled by not knowing how to accomplish this.
“I won’t give up until we find a way,” I promised.
We started further slowing. “Are we making camp here?” Ariana asked.
“No. We are going to rest for a few hours, but then keep moving. Best to put as much distance as possible between us and the Sidhe.”
She turned, so that I saw the profile of her face. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”
“There is nowhere we can go right now that won’t be overheard.” We couldn’t have privacy while out in the open and surrounded by Lysians.
She nodded. “When we get back home, then.”
We dismounted. Ariana left me to find Willis, the two speaking for some time before she returned.
Most were already dozing, trying to regain whatever energy they could before continuing on in a few hours.
Ariana lay down beside me on the ground, and I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close.
The touch made her shudder, and I couldn’t help but tighten my hold on her.
As if there were a chance she could somehow slip away if I did not anchor her to myself.
After several heartbeats, she ran her hand along my arm, then intertwined her fingers with mine. Her hand seemed so small compared to mine.
Despite all we had done and been through, she still smelled of wildflowers.
That perfume was one of the first things I ever noticed about her.
Nuzzling her neck, I breathed in the scent of her.
Her pulse spiked, and she shifted gently against me.
I had no idea how, after everything we had just gone through, she could maintain such a pull on me.
It was as if thoughts of her demanded so much space in my mind that little room was left for anything else.
“I missed the feel of you,” she whispered into the darkness.
Ashes. Her voice was the most seductive of songs.
If we weren’t surrounded by others, lying outside on cold, hard ground.
I would have ensured that the memories of the events we just escaped tormented neither of us.
Both of our minds would have been thoroughly preoccupied.
I would have shown her precisely how thrilled I was to have her back.
She shifted in my arms again. The movement exposed her neck to me. I couldn’t resist the temptation of the soft skin there. I ran my teeth along the edge of her throat. Her breath hitched.
“Ay.” Iver’s voice sliced through the otherwise stillness of the night. “If you wish for an audience, I am sure there won’t be a shortage of volunteers once we get back. Some around here need some beauty rest.”
“If they want to screw to release tension, then who are you to stand in your King’s way,” Kiora answered. Interesting choice of words.
“Mhh, you sound tense, little Sparrow. Perhaps you need some tension released?” The smile in Iver’s voice was clear in his tone.
The only thing that kept me from telling my brother to shut his mouth was the small chuckle that came from Ariana.
“In your dreams,” Kiora shot back.
“I’ll see you there,” Iver promised, no doubt winking in her direction despite the fact she couldn’t see him in the darkness.
“For the love of the Spirit. Will you shut your mouth? Some of us really are trying to have our beauty sleep, as you put it.” Kole grumbled.
Iver chuckled. “Alright, beautiful.”
Silence fell over the group once again, though the heaviness that had been with us this entire trip seemed somehow less. And for the first time in days, with Ariana in my arms, I briefly drifted off to sleep.