Chapter 4 Astraea #2
My magick sliced through the wings of a nightcrawler, and my blade plunged through his throat, cutting off his piercing cry. He was the last body to fall before all became silent save for the harsh breaths of me and Drystan.
“Let’s go,” I said, not waiting for him as I made haste away from the blood-painted snow.
We ran through the woodland, letting the icy air spear down my throat and set fire to my lungs. Soon the pain subsided, though I knew that blessing in the moment would be punishment to my body later.
I didn’t stop until I broke out of the tree line and came to the familiar hill overlooking the glowing central city of Vesitire. It was so beautiful I forgot about the corruption that had spread within.
“What’s your great plan to breach the heavily guarded wall?” Drystan muttered dryly, surveying while we kept to tree shadow cover.
“There’s a blind spot between guards. Small, but if we’re careful…”
His scoff dismissed that idea. “You’re lucky I came.”
He began heading down the hill, and his smug attitude was feeding my ire irrationally. Muttering curses under my breath, I hastily caught up to him, but he was heading away from the opening I’d indicated.
“Are you disregarding my way in because it wasn’t your meticulously crafted plan?” I grumbled.
“Petty arrogance isn’t really my thing.”
“You’ve known of a route in all this time?”
My steps marched after him, but Drystan was so calm and composed.
“You might have ruled from this city for a century, but you were never locked inside. Being a prisoner breeds a particular obsession to discover every inconspicuous way out.”
“You weren’t locked inside,” I argued. Though as I said it, I realized I’d never learned about Drystan’s life with those walls after I was gone.
He said, “Nyte was the one with the freedom. He was useful to our father, especially with how destructive he became in your absence. I think my father knew that Nyte would turn on him and the city if he tried to keep Nyte by his side. Instead that was my role. The perfect prince, always poised and pretty in the castle, the one who would take over his throne someday and for whom he’d arrange a marriage for political advantage. ”
My heart sank for him. “I’m glad it never came to that.” It was a pitiful statement, but I didn’t have much else to offer.
“It nearly did. He desperately wanted me to wed one of the elder vampires to gain their allegiance.” He chuckled in reflection, though it was bitter-coated humor.
“She never would have agreed, so my father made me try to court her, make her fall for me. It wasn’t the first time he suggested I win people over that way.
Nyte was his weapon as good as steel, while I was his weapon as good as a courtesan.
I guess you could say we’re both very good at what we do. ”
I’d stopped walking with the terrible upset that hollowed my stomach. I stared after him with pity, though I knew he would despise seeing it. Drystan was so beautiful, and the way he could speak and lure someone in with carefully mastered stares alone made the realization slam into me.
“We don’t have time for rest,” Drystan said, turning back to me with hard eyes.
We both knew it wasn’t why I stopped, but he didn’t want to talk further on the matter.
“When you found a way out of the city … where did you go?” I asked; the question hung between us as fragile as glass.
“Anywhere. I couldn’t get far, of course, but you’d be surprised by the many wonders that can be found somewhere you think is too familiar to be worth deep exploration.”
It was the first time I’d felt a spark of inspiration for anything other than my rage and retribution. I wanted him to show me, to go with him and explore what he’d found, and then when the war was won … we could go anywhere.
I followed when Drystan turned and walked again. The tension between us felt thick, but there was a light I wanted to reach for.
“You wouldn’t go on these ventures and not take note of them,” I said, offering a token of conversation that might add a stitch or two on the cracks of our friendship. “Is that what you write in your journals?”
“Among other things.”
I envied his ability to slow down enough to take in his surroundings and findings, then make sure he could revisit the memory anytime he liked.
“Would you ever show me?”
His brow hooked as he peered back at me. Then he drew a long breath.
“If we make it out of all of this, I might consider showing you. Or better yet, taking you.”
I broke a small smile even though he didn’t see it. I held onto those words as a promise, which added more determination to triumph in this war.
Drystan led us, ducking cautiously down the hill and around the city wall. A distant noise caught my attention, like the wind was on fire heading straight to us. Instinctively, my sight tracked up and my eyes widened.
“Shit,” Drystan swore, taking off in a run, and I didn’t hesitate to follow.
“The stars…” I trailed off in a panting breath as the snow made our retreat so much more laborious.
“The wrath of your parents, perhaps,” Drystan deduced.
We’d only seen the fireballs from afar and sometimes felt the ground quake with their impact. This was the first time we ran from being the direct target of one.
With gritted teeth of frustration, sweat began to trickle down my spine as I thought we wouldn’t clear the blast radius in time. I cast my magick out with heat, melting the snow beneath our feet, which allowed us to push our legs faster.
“You shouldn’t have done that; your light is like a beacon,” Drystan hissed.
“Would you rather we become buried a hundred feet under?” I snapped back.
I hoped anyone who might have seen the flare I tried to keep small would believe it to be related to the flaming ball hurtling toward our land.
The red hue cast over us from the crimson moon along with the falling stars turned our world into a land of blood and fire.
I didn’t know how long we had before the destruction started to lay waste, leaving nothing for us to salvage if we managed to defeat Auster then the gods.
At least this star seemed small and would land outside the city where thousands of citizens lived.
The crackling from the meteor grew louder, and the heat grew against my back. Panic bubbled inside me, but we reached a cave near the river shore surrounding Vesitire’s main city.
Drystan grabbed my hand, hauling me inside.
I gripped him just as desperately as we huddled into ourselves right as the blast into the river shook the ground, trembling from my feet through my whole body.
I threw out a shield of magick over the cave entrance, hoping it would provide some protection.
The star pummeled into the water, which would have drowned us in an instant if it flooded into this cave. My body tightened at the force battering against my magick, and for a moment I thought it would shatter through. The crashing against it felt endless, pushing and pushing against me.
“You can hold it,” Drystan said, his voice a soft encouragement barely audible through the chaos.
He held me tightly, and the firm assurance of not being alone gave me strength enough to keep holding on with everything I had.
“I can’t … hold it…” I said between strained breaths.
“You can let go now, but brace yourself,” he said.
I didn’t need to be told twice when magick was burning through my veins. I only managed one breath of relief before my next held as water swallowed us. Neither of us anticipated the low wave would still be enough to knock us off balance and send us drifting deeper into the cave.
The water wasn’t high enough to swim, and I could only let the shallow current take me until it ran out. Or, as our unlucky streak would have it, until we slammed into a wall and the remaining wave continued around the bend.
The water only lapped up to my elbows and thighs as I was on all fours, drawing breath with sharp adrenaline as I feared more water could come crashing through the cave at any moment.
“I’ve never enjoyed swimming,” Drystan said; the pain in his voice drew my attention to him.
His boots sloshed through the mercifully shallowing water toward me before he leaned down and I accepted his aid to stand. Drystan studied me head to toe.
“Your head is bleeding,” he said, not in concern but like that was a hindrance to our plan.
“Don’t get any ideas,” I muttered, pulling away.
Drystan chuckled dryly. “Believe it or not, I don’t turn into a bloodthirsty beast at the scent of a little blood. Even yours.”
“Good to know.”
“Though it does make me irritable to crave it.”
“I’m not offering,” I grumbled, touching the wound past my hairline at my temple.
“Fine. I’ll just have to find a snack when we get out of here.”
I tried to focus my hearing, but my pulse was still erratic and loud. Every sound of water kept my adrenaline on a razor’s edge. “Please tell me we planned to go this way and that there’s another exit.”
“This takes us under the second level of the city.”
That would be a few hours in this dark, wet cave. I shuddered, trying not to let my spirit sink.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this entrance before?”
“Because if you had a sure way in you wouldn’t have waited a week.”
He … might have been right about that. Though I wouldn’t admit it.
“I don’t think I like swimming either,” I said, shivering at the cold water seeping into my skin.
“It’s being trapped you don’t like,” he said. “You can’t swim, but you did enjoy shallow lakes, especially in summer before that gloriously warm season became more and more fleeting, year by year. Don’t you remember?”
My heart skipped because Drystan remembered such insignificant things about me.
He shut the door of amity that he’d let creep open before I could reply. “Come on. The faster we are, the less time we’ll spend in here.”
I had no choice despite my fear of confinement. We had to get inside the city and rescue Eltanin. My teeth bashed together and my steps were slower than those of Drystan, who marched confidently through the shallow water.
After a few more paces, he groaned, turning back to me as I hugged myself and followed pitifully.
“Take my hand,” he said, like it pained him to offer.
“I’m fine.”
He didn’t speak, and our harsh stares battled each other. I could hardly see him in the fleeting light, but the water added some reflection, at least.
With a disgruntled huff I dropped my palm into his, and immediately he tightened his hold, all but pulling me along.
It only took a few seconds for me to feel more at ease, secure.
Holding onto each other would be a tether of security should another wave come, and I tightened my grip too with that thought.
“You could warm us both,” Drystan said after a moment.
Now that I wasn’t prickling with the anticipation of being drowned or being cautious to keep the light from being seen, my body started to relax and I reached for my magick.
My silver markings glowed faintly, giving us more light to navigate the dark.
Warmth started to trickle over me, and I sighed in relief from the cold, but it wouldn’t dry us, nor would our feet have any chance with the shallow pool we had to walk through.
There was something about the dark that left no option but to be trusting; regardless, I knew my heart trusted Drystan even when my mind couldn’t.