4. Ash
Chapter Four
Ash
N o way was I going to stay awake for the next month until All Hallows’ Eve. What the hell was I going to do with myself? I wasn’t in the mood to party with the other druses or fuck a couple of dryads to keep me busy. Once upon a time, that had been me. I’d been more than happy to fool around and have my fun. What was the point of an eternal life if I didn’t live every day like it was my last?
After Ava, everything changed. Eternity had become one long blur of emotions I didn’t want to feel, memories I didn’t want to revisit, and a future that was empty and filled with more of the same.
Yeah, count me out. An eternal slumber was more up my alley. Did it look like I was running away from my problems? Sure, but who the fuck was counting?
Sleep for a tree spirit was a weird thing. It made time speed up and slow down all at once. It felt like I slept for an eternity every day, only to relive the next day doing the same. It was a sweet escape, and yet even while asleep I was aware of the forest around me, the way the earth breathed life into the trees. Creatures moved between the trunks of our trees, reveling in their very existence, and I drank in the sight of them, the pure bliss they got from being alive.
I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep. Maybe a week, maybe a century.
Something shook me out of my slumber. The night was darker than usual. The moon was high in the sky, only a sliver of silver, but it didn’t cast any light across the trees the way it usually did.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but I couldn’t see the stars either.
Something was wrong. Darkness swirled at the base of my tree, curling around the roots of the tree all around me. The atmosphere tasted bitter. Fear was a living thing, running between the trees like a current.
Somewhere further off, I sensed a menacing presence. Whoever was here, whatever they were doing, it wasn’t good.
I shook myself completely awake. I had to look after the vale. The others were awake, too. I could sense them, all in their trees, hiding from the darkness that seemed to grow thicker every minute.
The menace in the distance grew closer. It was like a beast, growling, consuming fear, with red eyes and dripping teeth.
That was what it felt like. Of course, it wasn’t real. Magic, emotions, they could all become a blur, manifesting in mythical creatures that we immortals could see.
The humans only felt it, and they didn’t always know what they felt.
Screams pierced the air. They ran across the sky like an electric current and danced between the trees. I shivered, the fear making my blood curdle.
It wasn’t my fear, but it was powerful.
Footsteps sounded. I felt the tremble in the earth long before I heard the panting breath, the feet pounding on the ground.
When the creature burst through the trees, I saw it was human. Long blond hair streamed behind her as she ran. A white robe flapped behind her like a cape, and her face was twisted in a mask of terror. She had scrapes and bruises on her arms and legs, and whatever the menace was behind her, it was after her.
The other trees rustled, their leaves dancing on the breeze as they communicated with each other.
They discussed what needed to be done.
They came to a common consensus.
Leave her be. Let her fight her own battles. The humans are not our problem unless the forest is harmed.
I watched as she weaved her way through the trees. She looked over her shoulder, and her cheeks were flushed with exertion.
In the pale light, her skin was milky smooth. She was an apparition. Despite the fear, the purple bruises and the angry red scrapes on her skin, she was beautiful. An Aphrodite.
Branches snapped as her pursuers crashed through the forest behind her. The menacing darkness that came with them filled the forest and clawed at my bark. They wanted her, badly.
The menace that hung in the air told me she wasn’t going to be in a good space if they caught up to her.
There was only one of her and four of them, and two had split off to circle around.
They knew the forest better than she did. They would trap her against the lake if she kept going in that direction, and then she was done.
If they let her live, she had a very harsh, ugly future ahead of her.
Leave her be. Let her fight her own battles. The humans are not our problem unless the forest is harmed.
They weren’t here to harm the forest, but they were here to harm her.
Getting involved with mortals had nearly lost me my immortality before. It had crushed my heart and drained me of the will to live. For an immortal, not wanting to live was a bad, bad deal.
I wouldn’t get involved with one again. I knew what they did. Humans maimed and destroyed. They killed, inflicted pain.
I’d had more than enough of that. I wasn’t going to get involved.
When the two men waited for her at the edge of the lake, I groaned. The tree I lived in creaked in the wind.
I couldn’t just let her die. These men wanted to hurt her in ways she didn’t deserve.
I shot out my branched hand, and when she ran right by me, I wrapped my fingers around her delicate ankle.
She fell, screaming when she did.
I stepped out of the tree, still in my drus form. There was no time to shift, no time to get her on her feet and tell her everything was okay, that I didn’t want to harm her. The men following behind were on us.
I dragged her through the forest. She clawed the mulch and squirmed to escape, but I had her in a firm grip, and I was much, much stronger than she was.
The cabin wasn’t too far away. I hadn’t been to it in three hundred years. Not since I’d put Ava up there, making sure she was safe.
I stepped through the magic that veiled this part of the forest and finally let go of her. She yelped and scrambled to her feet, making a break for it.
I quickly slipped into my human form. “You’ll run right back into their arms if you go that way,” I said.
She stopped in her tracks and spun around. She breathed hard, lips parted, her bright eyes wide.
“You’re not one of them,” she finally said.
I shook my head. “They won’t find us here. I veiled this part of the forest. You’re safe.”
“What does that mean?” she asked. Her eyes darted around at the trees surrounding us. She was looking for a way out, an escape. She looked like a trapped animal, fear causing her eyes to roll in their sockets.
And yet her beauty shone through it. She was the most exquisite creature I’d ever seen, and I’d been around awhile.
I sighed. She knew nothing of magic, and she wouldn’t be able to figure it out when she was worked up with terror.
“They won’t find us here,” I said. “This part of the forest is… undiscovered. If you keep your mouth shut, we’ll be okay.”
She started to calm down, and I felt the immense fear pull back.
“Come on,” I said. “It’s better if we get you inside.”
“In… there?” She gestured to the cabin.
I nodded. “You’re not going anywhere at this time of night. It’s dark out, and I’m sure those guys are going to be around here looking for you for a while.”
She swallowed hard, weighing her options. She knew I was right, but she still wanted to get away. I watched her battle with herself and couldn’t help but admire her strength. She’d just been running from tyrants, and she’d been dragged through the forest by a stranger. She wasn’t falling apart. She wasn’t a crying, whimpering mess.
She kept it together, and it looked like she was thinking rationally.
“Okay,” she finally said. “Will you let me leave tomorrow?”
I nodded. “You can go at first light.”
She tilted her head slightly at me, her brows knitting together.
I turned and walked up the two steps that led to the porch and pushed my hands against the wooden door. I pulsed magic into the wood that was once a part of the forest around me, and the lock clicked open.
She followed me up the steps, but hesitated at the door. I found matches in the kitchen drawer and lit the candles in the room until warmth pulsed from the flickering flames.
I glanced around the small log cabin. It had been three hundred years since I’d been here. Dust hung in the air, glittering in the light, and memories whispered in the corners of the room.
When I turned, she was right behind me. I nearly bumped into her.
“Sorry,” she said, but she didn’t take a step back. She stood right in front of me, and I had a chance to look into her eyes.
Evergreen, the color of the forest, and filled with emotion.
Gods, I could fall into those eyes forever.
Her eyes were locked on mine. My power flared up around me. I hadn’t thought about doing it, but it did anyway. I knew what I could do.
My magic drew her in. She swayed lightly on her feet, and her eyes lowered to my lips. I lifted a hand to touch her cheek. I ached to feel her skin under my fingertips. I wanted to kiss her, to taste what her lips would be like.
What was I doing?
I wasn’t supposed to seduce her. I wasn’t supposed to charm her. I’d told myself I wouldn’t get involved with a human again.
I turned off my magic, flipping the switch.
But it wasn’t just my magic clinging to us, pulling us together. Something about her was intoxicating. My magic wasn’t at play now. I wasn’t trying to reel her in, but I was mesmerized by her. She had a strange power over me, drawing me to her.
“Thank you for saving me,” she said in a breathy voice.
“You’re welcome,” I answered, then cleared my throat. “You’re welcome to stay here for a while. However long you need.”
“I won’t be here long. I have to get home.”
I nodded curtly and forced myself to turn away from her.
“There’s a room through there,” I said, pointing.
“Where will you be?” she asked, her voice small.
“I’m going back out there.” I nodded toward the door, toward the vale I was supposed to protect.
“Oh.” Her fear flared up again, the scent acrid in my nose.
“Do you want me to stay?” I asked.
She didn’t answer me, but her eyes were wide and her breathing shallow. She swallowed, her lips parting again. Perfect, kissable lips.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll… sleep on the couch.”
She sagged visibly with relief. “I’ll see you in the morning?”
“I’ll be here.”
She nodded and turned to walk into the room.
I wanted to follow her. I wanted to crawl into bed with her, wrap my arms around her. I wanted to undress her, taste her skin.
What was wrong with me?
She was human. She had no magic. She was only mortal.
But she had a power over me I couldn’t place.
A power I wanted to explore.