Chapter 9
He ran like he’d never run before. Elric had ripped through the very fabric of the world to get to her.
The spell he’d cast had cut off three of his fingers, and it had drained all four witches near him entirely.
He’d give them magic back soon enough, but he knew where she was.
He paid the price, and he tore the magic from them before they could even give him permission.
She was within reach. He could get her.
The tear in the world allowed him to teleport himself close to her. Close enough that he swore he could still hear Ajax’s spell thundering through the clearing. In the distance, he could see there was plenty of magic spewing into the land. Both from Ajax’s spell and from her own magic.
He’d know the feel of her anywhere. Jessamine’s particular flavor of magic was one he’d never forget. It smelled like ash and vengeance, and he knew, without a doubt, that he was going to reach her.
This time, he would beat his brother. He wouldn’t let the one who called himself God King beat him.
Arms and legs pumping, he ran through the clearing like lightning flashing from a cloud.
And then he could see her. She staggered toward him, looking like one of the infected from her kingdom.
She could barely stand up straight, but she was still fighting to reach him.
Just like he’d asked, she had run, and she’d done so with every ounce of bravery she held.
He sprinted toward her and caught her up in his arms. She trembled in his grasp, some of her shaking transferring into his own body as he folded her against his heart.
Both of her palms pressed against his chest like she was frantically trying to find his heartbeat.
Only when she found the steady thump did he hear her take yet another ragged breath.
“Elric,” she wheezed. “It’s you.”
“My love.” He held her a little tighter, ignoring her wince as he whipped them both around. “This is going to hurt.”
She didn’t reply as he swung her up into his arms and bolted in the other direction.
The tight grip he had on her shoulders and legs were likely hurting her with all the wounds she had dotted over her body, but they had to move.
If he was going to make this work, then he needed to get her out of here. Now.
He tore through the veil of the world one more time and used some of her blood to do it. She groaned, but he knew without a doubt that she understood what he was doing. He had to get them away from here. Away from him.
Rushing through the portal that took blood from them both to work, he fell to his knees in the sands. He held her against his chest and dropped his head down onto her shoulder.
They took a moment, the two of them together. Just soaking in the knowledge that they were still here.
“Nightmare?” he murmured against her throat. “Are you still alive?”
“Wouldn’t you know if I was dead?”
Yes. He would. He’d always been so close to her, and he knew exactly what was going on with every heartbeat that burned in her chest. Elric had found her in that dying realm long before she could move on into the next. He reassured himself with that knowledge.
Even if she had died with Ajax, he would have brought her back. Elric was the only one who was the master of death, and he would have made damn well certain that she was still there in that realm. Even if he had to find another body to put her in.
Placing his hand over her heart, he sought that connection. He needed to hold it against himself, just to be assured that they were both safe.
But the warmth of that thread wasn’t easy to find. The connection between them had been instant from the moment he had seen her in his realm. He’d felt the connection of a new gravesinger and he had tied himself to her until… now.
His eyes snapped open in horror as he realized what Ajax had done. “Did you feel weaker around Ajax?”
“Yes.”
“Like you couldn’t access your magic?”
“Elric, you’re scaring me.” She leaned back and cupped his jaw with a bloody hand. “What is going on?”
“I can’t feel you anymore.”
She blinked a few times, a little crease forming between her eyes. “I can feel you, though. I summoned you during that ritual, didn’t I? We got away because I was able to summon you!”
Sorrow made it feel like someone had punched his stomach. “But I can’t feel you, Jessamine.”
He stared at her, trying to impress that there was something very wrong with this.
He had always known where she was. That was how he’d found her time and time again.
It was how he knew where she was in his realm as well.
If she died again, he wasn’t certain he would be able to find her like this.
There was nothing between them to guide him to her side now.
“What does that mean?” she whispered.
“I can’t save you anymore. I won’t know how to get to you. I don’t know where you are or how you’re feeling. I won’t even know if you’re dead.” Elric swallowed hard, trying to force the emotion down so he could tell her what this meant. “It means I don’t even know if you’re a gravesinger anymore.”
“The ritual. Some of his magic hit me before I ran. I don’t know what it was.
It wriggled underneath my skin.” She struggled in his arms, clearly trying to get away from him.
“Elric, something’s not right. He did something to me, even though the ritual wasn’t completed.
I can feel it inside of me. Get it out. Get it out! ”
He held on to her, struggling to keep her still. “Don’t panic, Jessamine. Let me look you over.”
“What if it’s worse than we thought? What if he somehow put her inside of me?” She spat the word “her” like it was a curse.
He didn’t know what would happen if they were too late.
The Huntress was a force of nature who would probably enjoy being inside Jessamine’s body.
There was a certain connection between god and host, even if the divine energy within their body decided not to share it.
That connection was hard to deny for anyone.
Reaching out with his magic, he bent his head and focused on searching through her.
Elric could sense other gods. He’d forgotten about this ability for such a long time, but all the gods knew what the others felt like.
There was a strangeness to it. A tinge of magic that was easier to sense when they were closer to each other.
He looked through her entire being. There was a strangeness to Jessamine, but that had been brewing ever since they had made their tenuous deal. He’d known for a while that his magic inside of her was shifting and changing.
Her magic reacted to him like it always did.
A soft touch, the lightest pressure of warmth.
He was blessed that her magic saw him as a friend and a lover, because he had the sense it did not like many people.
If there was ever a protector of his nightmare, it was his own dark power that had attached itself to her and grown far beyond his own reckoning.
“You’re much stronger,” he murmured as he shifted throughout her form. “Your magic is normally strong, and I don’t know if it grew because you were in danger or if something is… different.”
“Different?” she hissed. “Pull it out of me, Elric. Kill me, if you have to. I don’t want her anywhere inside of me.”
“It’s not her,” he said, finally opening his eyes and looking into her gaze.
The terror filling her eyes was killing him, so he repeated, “It’s not her, Jessamine.
I don’t sense any other god inside of you.
It’s just that your magic is different. Something in that spell perhaps was preparing you to become a host. I’ve never seen that particular one done, and each god has a different way of creating them.
The Huntress loves blood and pain, and I don’t know if that ritual would affect you because you were so close to it. ”
She went boneless in his arms. Twin tears dripped down either side of her cheeks as she finally relaxed. “It’s not her.”
“No, my love. You are still yourself.”
But not entirely right. He didn’t remind her that there was still the issue of their severed connection.
He didn’t know why that had happened or what Ajax had done.
Neither of them could focus on that right now, though.
They needed shelter. They needed to heal her.
Food. Water. All the things that mortals required.
After a few moments, Jessamine lifted her head and looked around them. “Where even are we?”
If only he knew. Elric looked around as well, surprised to see they appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.
They were on a sand beach, but all of Orenda was surrounded by sand beaches.
Behind them was a cliff’s edge that rose so high he couldn’t even see the top.
It was massive, so tall it blotted out the sun from where they were resting in its shadow.
The waves surrounding them were a peaceful touch.
White sand. Soft swells. The scent of salt water in the air. It was as good a place as any to rest.
“Let’s find somewhere to settle for a bit,” he murmured before gathering her up again and standing.
Jessamine hissed out an angry sound. “Your fingers, Elric.”
He shifted that hand so it was tucked beneath her arm.
He was missing everything but his pointer finger and thumb on his left hand, and he knew that had to be garish to look at.
“I know a spell to grow them back, nightmare. Don’t worry, I’ll still be able to wear your ring when you finally propose to me. ”
“Propose to you? I do believe that’s supposed to be done by the man.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely true.”
“I’m a princess. You’re supposed to treat me like one.”
He leaned down and bumped their noses together. “I’m a god. I think that beats princess.”
Her eyes widened. “Damn, you might be right.”
“I usually am.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
It was times like these when he loved her even more.
Jessamine didn’t realize what she did to him with those little giggles.
The slight coughing sound at the end, like she couldn’t catch her breath laughing, undid him.
So did the way her eyes wrinkled in the corners when she found him funny.
Such a small gesture, yet her finding him funny somehow made him feel like he was human, not just a god.
Elric walked for a while, enjoying the feeling of her in his arms, before he noticed a small path leading up to a seaside cottage. It had a great view of an island far out in the distance, and he thought this would be a rather peaceful place to rest their heads.
He walked all the way up the cliffside path, breathing hard by the time he got to the top. The burn in his muscles was enjoyable, though, and he turned them to face the sea.
Jessamine gasped and then burst out into laughter.
“What?” he asked.
She just pointed at the island, still laughing too hard to speak.
He stared where she was pointing, but he didn’t understand what would be so funny until she finally choked out, “That’s Inverholm.”
Of course it was. He’d gotten her close enough to see her homeland so she could heal. He chuckled with her, turning toward the house and hoping no one was inside. “Why is that so funny to you?”
“Well, now I get to see what I’m protecting and what I would have died for to make sure it was safe.
” She shook her head and then settled back in his arms a little more securely.
“This is possibly the only home in the entire kingdom that can see my own. And you somehow brought me here, of all places.”
He had. Maybe some part of him when he’d been creating that portal had longed to bring her home. He just wasn’t strong enough to do that. At least, not yet.
He walked up to the cottage and marveled at how well kept it appeared to be.
The white wood on the outside was only slightly ashen from the salt water that likely wore away at the grain.
The windows were clean, and so shiny they became like mirrors to hide the interior.
Not to mention the golden thatched roof that was quite adorable.
There was a small garden out front, thriving in the healthy earth and providing good supplemental food to the owners.
Unfortunately, that did mean it was likely there were people living within it. A pity. He would have to send them on their way.
Jessamine touched his chest, patting him to get his attention.
“What is it, nightmare?”
“Don’t make them leave.”
“We need a place to stay.” He looked down at her and raised a brow.
“Or do you want to sit in the sand until your wounds heal? I need to wait until the other witches sacrifice more to me before I will be of any use. I can heal myself, but you will be much harder considering the taint of magic in those wounds.”
She’d paid a price to cast her spells that bent the world. Plants weren’t supposed to grow that fast, and he had sensed those bushes were also enhanced. Thorns of that size, at least, weren’t natural.
Their argument was cut short as the front door of the cottage opened and an elderly woman walked out of it.
Her pale gray hair was piled on top of her head in an intricate coil.
She wore a homespun dress with pink flowers hand painted all over it, and an apron that was smeared with the slightest hint of red. Like she’d been working with tomatoes.
She turned with a basket in her hands and then froze at the sight of them.
He knew what she was seeing. A dark man, his face perhaps a little hard to recognize, holding a woman who looked like a corpse in his arms. Both of them were covered in blood, looking as though they had just survived a murder. Or perhaps committed one.
Jessamine’s bright tones broke through the stunned silence. “Hello! We were hoping you might have a place where we could clean up and stay the night? We promise not to be a bother. We just got into a bit of a… scuffle?”
The woman lifted her arm and pointed to a barn just beyond the house that Elric hadn’t noticed.
“Thank you,” Jessamine said, and then elbowed him in the ribs.
Apparently, a princess and a god were expected to sleep in a barn for the night.