24
What We Carry
Melody
I find myself jogging. Running . It was one of the things that kept me alive throughout my childhood and later. Always running—that grounded me. Tethered me. Saved me from Lyrian’s horrors.
I’m weak, though. Too slim. My muscles are still there, but I lack strength.
I run anyway, just slower, until I cross the vast space in front of the campus.
I find a path that winds through a meadow strewn with lilac and blue wildflowers, snaking along the temple hill and then into another valley, where the turquoise water of the springs runs through the grassland like veins in a body.
When my strength finally lets out, I pause and bend down to put my hand in one of those streams. The effect is instant. I feel better physically, as if the water is recharging every cell in my body. I sink down next to it, stretching out my legs.
Something sharp and cold presses against my neck, and I draw in a sharp breath.
“Could be your last breath. You’d be dead by now if I was someone else,” Blair hisses too close to my ear.
“Then it’s a good thing that you just ate,” I say, smelling the blood on her breath. I hold perfectly still though. I know that she is mad at the world and strangely wild.
She draws her sharp nail along my neck, and I hiss as I feel blood dripping down my skin. “You know it’s dangerous without your little pet,” she snarls, her voice not quite her own.
My heartbeat kicks up in answer. Hells, whatever she is right now, she’s not entirely in control.
“Don’t tell me you want to kill me now, after you could have done so the whole last year,” I say, shoving her hand away, showing no fear, although my heart is pumping fast.
Then I get to my feet and twist to her. Her amber eyes gleam in the midday light like spilled honey, wild and otherworldly.
More predator than sentient being the way they snare on the blood pooling in the space between my collarbones.
Maybe I should have called Aris. Maybe I’ve been foolish to think that the human world has rubbed off on Blair, because the way her eyes shine, she looks ready to devour me whole.
She licks my blood off her nail, her eyes never leaving mine. I briefly wonder whether Blair felt the change in her too. Whether being back in the fae world made her wilder, half-feral, because Blair in the human world sure was different than she is now.
Or maybe it’s just the taste of blood. And her anger at everything.
“You betrayed me,” she snarls when she’s done cleaning her nails with her tongue. A vicious sound. Half-animal. “You made me come here to be humiliated.”
“I made a bargain to save you too,” I say, keeping my voice as neutral as I can.
“You could have warned me before you called the arrogant elfling and made a fucking deal on my behalf.”
I swallow hard and hang my head. “You’re right. I should have,” I admit, allowing all the dread I stored away for later to swamp me.
“Then why didn’t you? I was happy in the human world! I had everything I ever wanted!”
“Did you?” I ask back. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but before I can add more, she comes for me.
She knocks me down with her shoulder. Hard.
I think I hear one of my ribs cracking again.
Make that twice a day and a new record. We land on the ground with her on top of me. I’ve gotten too weak to shove her off.
“Take your claws off her, witch.”
That voice. High, but stern. Someone who knows who she is. What she is. Authority lacing every word.
Blair’s head snaps up, and a menacing growl works up her throat. “Careful, healer. It takes some guts to come here unarmed,” she hisses.
“Who says I’m unarmed?” Meanara counters coolly.
Blair’s eyes roam over her gray robe, her full lips tearing into a sneer. “If you’re carrying a weapon, you hid it well, healer. Alas, you would be too slow to draw it in time anyway.”
Meanara doesn’t even blink, her posture straight, every inch of her radiating natural authority. “Huh. Who tells you that I’m not a weapon myself, witch? You’re not yourself. Get off her. And let me heal the bones you just shattered.”
“You don’t give me orders.” Blair is still half feral, the way she bends over me, like a huntress defending her kill.
Meanara just lifts her beautiful chin. I’m not sure if I find her courage admirable or reckless. No one speaks to Blair like that. But her voice is clear and calm as she says, “I do. And I strongly suggest you obey.”
“So do I!” Aris growls in my head the second before his massive form casts a shadow over the valley.
The healer quickly glances up, but there is no fear of Aris on her face. She doesn’t retreat or flinch as he slams into the ground, shaking it like an earthquake. The huge dragon-like creature writhes, snapping his four-horned head toward Blair.
“Tell the witch to take her claws off you.” Aris’s head swivels in that snake-like motion that puts even Blair on alert, because she lets go of me and straightens, taking a step back as Aris bends his head low, baring teeth still dripping with blood, smoke curling between them.
With her remarkable eyes wide, Meanara just stares at him. Then at me. And I might be imagining it, but I think I see a flash of pride in her aura. Weird. Still no fear.
She looks at Aris and slightly inclines her head. “How may I address him?” she asks, to my surprise.
“Aris Kahir’ach Manazh, son of the nine hells, Abyss-born, forged by the nine fires at the beginning of the days and—”
I roll my eyes at him rattling off an endless list consisting of hissing dragon sounds and honestly, quite funny titles, before I look back at her.
“Aris. His name is Aris,” I say before he can finish his rant in my mind. I get up, gritting my teeth against the pain of my shattered bones. Aris angles his head in a curious way after he grunts something not too kind at me in a demon language.
“Can’t understand you,” I say.
“Liar. A silver elf understands every tongue,” he counters, too damn pleased with himself. Or he would be, if not for his fury. I know he’s one second away from biting Blair’s head off.
“Got me. Although I’m not entirely sure how to interpret slithering, thick-tongued, and smoke-whispering…dinosaur.”
“Sizzling reptilian is a metaphor for storm-dragon, not dinosaur. And they are known to be moody and rude and mean. And the thick means tall and refers to your body in an insulting way, not to the tongue. You should spend more time studying Old Infernal,” he growls chidingly, as if I indeed should know all the terms.
“Yeah. I should really spend time studying some fancy slang terms of stone-age Old Infernal no one speaks anymore.”
“I speak it,” he argues. “And it’s older.”
“Because you’re also a dinosaur,” I tease.
“But I do like her manners,” he rumbles, fully ignoring my remark and looking back at Meanara with his one, golden, reptilian-slitted eye.
As if she’s heard the last part, she gives him a tentative smile. Then she says gently, “Aris. May I ask you to shift into a less menacing form, or I think the great priestess will not be amused. Lucky for us, no one else saw you. Then come with me, please. All of you.”
“I won’t be going anywhere,” Blair snaps, crossing her arms.
“Oh yes, you will, Blair Alaric. I want to have a word with you once I’ve healed Melody.”
“Then make me, healer.” Blair jumps to her feet, turns on her heels, and runs off toward the wild, her white hair streaming behind her like a veil.
Meanara stares after her until Blair is just a shape on the horizon again. “Come now, Melody,” she says, unruffled by Blair’s behavior.
I glance at Aris. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for not telling me that you ventured out alone?” he rumbles sharply. “Or sorry for not letting me make Kyrith suffer a long and painful death ending with a pyre and a demon breathing blue fire?”
“I wanted you to have…some space.”
“I will tell you if I need space, little one.”
He shifts into his baby-dragon form, although I know he doesn’t like it.
Guilt roils in my stomach, mixing with dread.
I look back from him at Meanara and follow her up to the temple, Aris trailing us.
When I turn to him again a moment later, just to make sure he’s still there, I swear I find him sniffing the flowers.
“I might not have,” he rumbles.
“Ha, you can’t lie. So you did sniff them.”
“Is one not allowed to admire nature’s beauty?”
“Of course. Now I know which scene I’m gonna paint next,” I chirp against the sharp pain in my side. “It’s going to be a beautiful painting. And I’m gonna call it dinosaur and flowers ,” I tease. But honestly, I really am going to paint him like that.
“How original. So you’re going to paint again?” he asks, and only then do I realize what I just said. The hopeful tone in his voice catches me off guard, reminding me just how long I haven’t touched any colors.
“Maybe,” I answer evasively.
I’m glad that we arrive at the temple right as the sun sets, offering us an incredibly beautiful view, and saves me from having to give a better answer. It gleams as a red ball behind the rolling hills, dipping the white town down in the valley into a rich, molten gold.
We all pause for a second to admire the sight before Meanara takes the few steps up to the temple and I follow her.
Inside, it is even more beautiful than its white, artistic outside. My eyes widen at the hundreds of lanterns that dangle from the ceiling, illuminating the dim space, fragrant with smoke from the incense burners.