Chapter 58
Chapter fifty-eight
Seraphina
Sera wiped the tears from her face. Alistair was gone, and the emotion rocked her much harder than she’d anticipated. That stubborn warlock had been her safety net. All she could think about was what she’d said to him. How sorry she was, and that this was the way things had to end between them.
He was gone, and Ophelia…
She didn’t want to think about what the oracle was about to face. All Sera knew was that it was time to save Nora.
“We need to leave,” she said to Vasso.
“Your belongings and Snik are already waiting for us in the main chamber. Though I don’t know where your familiar is.”
“Raven will find us,” she said. Sera went to walk past him, but his fingers brushed hers, halting her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Her gaze met his. She saw it then, for the first time—pain lingering in the lines around his mouth. Vasso’s shoulders were wound tight, and her chest began to ache.
Everything was a damned mess, but after all of it, she was here with him. The connection between them ate at her. He didn’t trust her, and she shouldn’t trust him. She should walk away, let herself process losing Al in her own way, in her own time, alone. It was how she’d always done things.
You are fated, her magic said. Can’t you feel it? He hurts because you hurt.
Sera let out a shaky breath and embraced him. She buried her nose in his chest and breathed him in. How could a person feel so lost but found at the same time?
Vasso wrapped his arms around her. The tension melted from the planes of his back as he pulled her tight like his life depended on it. She wondered if it did.
“Are you?” she finally asked. “All right, I mean?” Those eyes. Gray with flecks of silver and black.
“Better now,” he said, giving her a sorry smile that made him look boyish.
“We’d better get going.”
Vasso took her hand and led her to the main chamber. Sera looked around, taking in the rock formations, the tapestries along the walls, and flits of shadows across the lush furnishings.
Snik yipped, dragging her pack across the floor behind him. “You ready for another adventure, buddy?”
“Eeeeeeck,” the goblin squealed.
Sera checked her pack. The daggers that Al had given her and the summoning stones were in there, along with the remaining bottles of her sleeping elixir. Sera huffed a laugh.
“What’s funny?” Vasso asked.
She held up the glass bottle. “I just realized I haven’t needed one of these since I’ve been here.”
“Subdina, if there was something you needed, you should have told me.”
“No, no… It’s all right.” Sera swung her Legion pack onto her shoulder.
“You’re not wearing that.”
“Not fancy enough for you?” She glanced down at her Legion uniform.
“Do you think it’s wise to be riding into the Deadlands with that uniform on?”
Well, when he put it like that. “All right,” she said with a huff.
Vasso put his finger to his chin and eyed her up and down.
The glint in his eye made her a tad wary of what he intended next.
Her brown boots and trousers turned black with a snap of his fingers.
Her long blue tunic became a formfitting bustier, barely reaching her navel.
“You’re not serious.”
“It’s basically summer. I thought you might like the breeze.” He tried not to smile but failed miserably.
“My tits are to my chin, Vasso.”
His gaze explored her, that smirk turning sly.
“A full shirt, please,” she said.
Vasso sighed and snapped again. A sleeveless black cotton shirt formed around her, covering her entire midriff. He’d even included a supportive bralette beneath. “Thank you.”
“The stables.” He pointed. She followed.
Ponic was in the far stall. Sera clicked her tongue at the horse, who nuzzled his black velvet nose in her hand.
“Cheating on me, boy?” Vasso said and saddled him. “Yours is over there.”
A black mare with a white diamond on her muzzle stepped toward her. “She’s beautiful.”
“She’s yours. Though Ponic seems quite taken with her.”
“Mine?”
He nodded. “I purchased her the first time you asked for my help.”
A flush of adrenaline tingled through her; she beamed at him. “You were always going to take me, weren’t you?”
Vasso cleared his throat, obviously avoiding her question, and focused on fitting the bit into Ponic’s mouth.
A strand of hair had fallen into his eyes again.
His veined forearms flexed with the passing of the crown over Ponic’s ears.
He worked efficiently, as if he had done this a million times before.
“Her name is Navine,” he said.
“Navine, you’re stunning.”
“A stunning horse for a stunning witch.” Vasso smirked and led Ponic from his stall.
“Such a charmer, aren’t you?”
Once Ponic was secured outside, Vasso set to saddle Navine and instructed Sera to mount. She climbed up and waited. “You’re next, little one.” Vasso lifted Snik to sit in front of her.
His hand rested on her thigh. A question lay blatantly across his face, but the words that came out didn’t match. “Yes, I was always going to bring you.”
“You don’t seem too happy about it.”
He squeezed her leg. “I wouldn’t bring you within an inch of Gehenna if I could.” Vasso let her go and mounted Ponic.
Sera had a sinking feeling there was something he wasn’t telling her. It was too late for that now. “Where are we headed?”
“Port Sidnah. There’s a gateway there, a lesser-known one. Plus, I want to show you something,” Vasso said.
Navine brought herself next to Ponic, and they began trotting into the warm wind from the southeast.