Chapter 13
Chapter thirteen
Seraphina
Traveling felt like standing up too fast. Her heart slowed as the blood rushed to reach her brain.
She breathed in through her nose and out her mouth to keep from expelling the dough and sugar she had inhaled earlier.
Meat wouldn’t have stayed down any better than cinnamon rolls, though, and despite the churning in her stomach, she didn’t regret her decision.
Somewhere in the pocket of the universe, she went from having her arm looped through Alistair’s to hugging him tight around the middle, keeping herself upright. Her nose was buried in his tunic, enveloped in his scent of sage and sea salt.
Of course he smells good.
“Are you all right?” Alistair asked.
She opened her eyes and looked into his. The light blue outer ring held a golden center that burst from the pupil, lined by dark lashes. She wished she could swim in them. “I think so,” she whispered.
“Can you let go of me then?” His arms splayed wide.
She stepped backward and dusted off her uniform, desperate to look anywhere but at him, and hid her burning cheeks. So incredibly stupid. They had been out of the Citadel all of ten seconds, and she was already embarrassing herself.
“Which way do we go?” she asked.
The forest’s canopy reached to caress the clouds.
Some of the trees successfully dipped their leaves in the cerulean sky.
Their bark was thick and rough, with protruding knots from the damage of fallen branches.
She’d never seen a tree trunk that thick before.
The trees near the Citadel were skinny and easy to chop down, with papery bark that peeled with a gentle breeze.
These looked like they would take forever to fell.
Even the air smelled divine here. The forest’s essence was ancient and organic, leather and loam. Sera basked in the mossy tang, all while a cool breeze caressed her cheeks and rustled the greenery around her.
“That way.” Alistair pointed forward and hoisted his pack higher on his shoulder.
“Why didn’t we just land inside the town? Wouldn’t that have been easier?”
“I always arrive a few miles outside a location. It allows me to assess,” he said.
“You mean make an appearance, in your case.” She gave a little snort at her joke.
He didn’t seem amused. “Right.”
The walk to Crowpass was quiet and slow.
Each step became more painful as her new boots rubbed her in all the wrong places, but she still delighted in the gentle hum of the trees.
The leaves entranced her. The way they rustled as they walked through the underbrush and over dead logs, the vivid greens and browns—it was unlike anything she’d seen before.
The Citadel was almost sterile compared to the calm beauty of these woods.
She couldn’t help but stare at the high branches.
“There are bigger trees in Ironoak, I’ve been told,” Alistair said, interrupting her admiration of the forest around her.
“I can’t imagine it,” she said.
“Well, we’ll see for ourselves soon enough. The eastern companies often tell me it’s the hardest wood on the continent.”
“What came first? The name of the trees or the town?”
Alistair peeked over his shoulder at her, revealing a small flash of a smile and that damn dimple. “I think it was the trees.”
Sera couldn’t stop the fluttering in her chest. When he was young, he’d been so skinny that the natural soft hollow hadn’t fully formed when he smiled or smirked, not as much as it did now, with his jaw so well developed.
“Do you meet with other companies? Travel to other bases?” she asked, ducking under a low branch.
“Sometimes,” he said. “Lately, I’ve been running confidential missions for the Council. They typically don’t require me to have a team. Or a tagalong.”
“Sorry to ruin all your fun.” She took a step and hissed. Alistair glanced at her again. “I’m fine,” she said, biting her cheek. It would be ugly when she removed her boots, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of asking to stop, blisters or not.
Alistair grunted and continued walking.
A road of reddened clay, heavily worn by wagon tracks, cut its way through the trees. Alistair threw out his arm and stopped her right before they crossed.
“Do you know how to glamour?”
“You mean to make myself look dull, tired, and ugly, like we were taught in year ten?”
“That’s a yes, then?”
“No.”
“Shadow help me. All right, stay here.” He threw his pack down on the ground. “I’m going into Crowpass and will try to find transport to Ironoak.”
Sera slipped off her pack and sat beside their supplies, happy to finally rest her aching feet and calves. “I’ve got this,” she said, motioning to their rucksacks.
He stared at her, suspicion painting his features.
In an instant, his dark brown hair was dulled and lined with silvers, his skin marred with spots and deep wrinkles, and his uniform drab and full of patches.
He even put on beat-up work gloves to round out the ensemble.
But his glamour did nothing to shrink his size.
The humans she’d encountered in the past didn’t have his physique.
She hadn’t remembered any of the ones she’d met being quite so large.
He lumbered off, and with Alistair finally out of sight, she slipped off her boot with another hiss. The skin was raw and ripped at the back of her heel. A bloody mess already, and who knew how much farther they had to go.
Not even high sun, and she was a disaster. At this rate, she’d be finished by sundown.
This wouldn’t have happened had she been allowed to wear her keeper boots. Leave it to Alistair to make sure they matched.
She sighed. No, the reason for all this was her. Her defect, curse, whatever it was.
Fluttering darkness beat against her rib cage. The walking and pain must have helped keep it calm.
Her mother had corresponded with some tutors, casually mentioning traits of Sera’s power to Lavinia’s peers in Daedeth class.
Every one of them told her to report someone with magic like that to the Council.
There was a time Sera had been grateful her mother never followed their recommendations, but maybe Lavinia should have. Then Nora wouldn’t be gone.
A chattering yip and the scraping of tiny claws across the hard bark drew her attention as two rats scurried up and down a tree trunk.
Instead of having naked pink tails, theirs were plumes of fur and curled as they moved.
Unlike the rats that lurked in the alley outside the boardinghouse, these were cute.
All kinds of birds began to appear. Some with red feathered heads slammed their beaks into the thick trunks. Blackbirds with fire-red shoulders pecked at the ground not far from her aching feet.
Thump.
The darkness vibrated within her, straining against its cage.
Thump.
A slow drumbeat pulsed through her veins.
Thump.
Sera placed one hand on her chest, the other on her stomach, and pulled in deep breaths. With every exhale, the forest grew quieter. Birds ceased their singing, and Sera couldn’t shake the sensation of eyes on her.
She flinched when one of the rats bolted up the tree. Though Seraphina was not in tune with the ways of the wilderness, she could sense there was a predator in these woods. And she was alone and unarmed.
The abomination snapped and twirled. Each hair on the back of her neck stood, one by one.
Sera rose to her bloodied and swollen feet.
“Barijara,” she said and snapped her barrier into place, turning the woods a shade of blue. Her heart pounded in her ears. She should run straight to Crowpass and find Al.
One step, then two. She paused when the sound of hooves against clay thudded toward her.
It was—he was— Sera’s hands shook so hard her barrier trembled around her.
There was no making out his eyes within the void of his hood.
Just the tip of his nose down to a smooth half smile.
Beneath the elegant drape of his black cloak was a silver chest plate.
Arm guards led to silver gauntlets, their knuckles tipped like spears, holding the reins of the biggest horse she’d ever seen.
The greaves on his shins were polished to a brilliance that reflected the blue of the sky and the green of the leaves. He wasn’t human, couldn’t be. The pure power in his form that leached into the air around her screamed of something magical.
Sera knew what he was by the color of his cloak. By the rushing wave of magic that flowed over her, through her—the taste of it… Ash. Fear, as suffocating as the heat from the hottest death pyres, ripped the air from her lungs.
“Are you lost?” His voice wrapped her like velvet. If she could lean into it, she would, and the abomination spun circles begging her to do just that.
Let me out. Let me out.
She willed it to listen. Stay.
“I’m fine.”
“Do you need a ride to Crowpass? Maybe Ironoak?” He tilted his head, and she could feel his eyes trail her from her hair down to her bloody feet.
“No.” Sera clenched her fists, desperate to keep her magic at bay, to keep her barrier in place. There was no helping her now. If he wanted to take her, kill her, he could. She’d never get away quickly enough.
Burn them.
Moons, why on sweet Eraphon was her magic whispering to her? It swirled and moved as if being coaxed out to play. She was tempted to let it, but the images of smoky black plumes over Feybury flashed in her mind. There’d be nothing left of this forest. Nothing but ashes.
“Please, move along. I’m fine.” She swallowed and raised her chin to the man in front of her.
A flash of glowing red eyes peered at her from beneath his hood. Terror stitched her mouth closed, but the burning red orbs kept her stationary.
He chuckled at her, and for a split second, there was relief. The cloaked stranger gripped his reins tightly, shifting his weight on the noble beast.
In the months Sera had dealt with this cursed magic, she’d experienced pain. Burning, scorching pain. But when Sera looked into this stranger’s glowing eyes, agony tore through her.