Chapter 66
Chapter sixty-six
Seraphina
Vasso floated behind her on a platform of mist. The downpour had reduced to a drizzle. The booming thunder was now a rumble; gone were the crashes of lightning.
“Snik?” Sera called out. The goblin rushed from the dilapidated tent. Her hands shook something fierce, but as those little green arms wrapped tight around her legs, she felt a smidgen of relief. “Stick close to him.”
Sera lowered her magic to the ground, and Snik whined over Vasso.
“Vatera,” she called to her magic, throwing ropes of shadow toward the fallen tree that had knocked down the corner of the tent. She tossed the trunk and branches into the river. Thankfully, some of Vasso’s magic was still working, and their shelter popped up in place.
Slowly, she maneuvered Vasso above a cot before setting him down gently.
You are advancing.
She didn’t want to acknowledge that voice in her head, but she had to agree. Something had just clicked. Easy as breathing, her magic came to her now.
Snik whined, grasping Vasso’s hand.
So still. He was so still. Barely a rise and fall of his chest. Her stomach sank. “Vasso, I need you to wake up,” she said. Her chin was trembling as hard as her hands. He couldn’t die.
How would she do this without him? Not only getting to Nora, but…
life. Over the weeks she’d spent training and getting to know the demon lord, she’d relied on him like an anchor.
Even now, she felt like she was falling.
Blaming these feelings on fate was cheap.
For so long she’d searched for someone who understood her, and here was her opposite, her equal, a twin flame.
Giving in to whatever they were would probably ruin her forever. But first, she needed him not to die.
Sera traced his brow with her fingers, down the side of his cheek, over his lips.
She had to keep telling herself that he was breathing, he was still alive. But Shadow damn him, why had he done it? He hadn’t needed to save her, just get out of the way.
Settling herself in the damp grass, Sera rested her head against his cot. Rubbing her chest, she remembered the pain when the totrus hit him. It still ached, like that fateful line between them was being sawed away. But deep and buried, entwined through the ventricles of her heart, it was there.
Vasso coughed. “Subdina?”
“Thank Shadow, you’re all right,” she whispered, inspecting him closer.
“Did you save me?” He gave her a weak smile.
“I thought you were dead. I thought that giant was going to take you.”
He coughed again. “To be fair, your distraction is what got me injured in the first place. Something I have not been in centuries.”
She snorted.
Vasso ran his knuckles across her cheek. She couldn’t help but push those stray strands of hair back. Wave after wave of emotion rocked her. Fear, anger, sadness, relief, all of it manifesting in the tears now rolling down her cheeks.
“Nula, do not cry.”
“I thought I lost you.”
Vasso winced before scooting over to make room in his cot.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” she said.
“Nothing but bruises. My spine has already knit itself back together. Lie with me.”
“I’m soaked.”
“If I had it my way, you’d always be soaked around me.”
“Vasso!”
He chuckled and snapped his fingers. Gone were her heavy wet leathers. Now, his oversize gray satin nightshirt hung to her knees. “I know you can make these fit me.”
“They’re perfect how they are.” He motioned for her to come closer.
Sera carefully lay beside him, nuzzling the crook of his neck. Smelling his skin, absorbing his warmth. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she said.
“What? Make jokes about how wet I dream of making you?” Vasso wrapped his arms around her.
She huffed a laugh. “Die on me, you idiot.”
“All right, I’ll let it be your choice then.”