97. Levi
LEVI
The further down we travel, the larger the trees become.
Hours later, we finally approach what Violette calls the aersyans.
When she explained to me what they are—telepathic trees—I had to suppress my inner nerd’s squeal of delight as my mind experienced an orgasm.
After that, I was so excited that I led us downhill at a near sprint despite Violette and Azrael’s protest. His shadow drifted silently beside me.
The closer we get, the calmer the air becomes. Only the occasional birdsong decorates the breeze. Their thick trunks—some as wide as the front of my house—appear like a towering barricade to the forest, rising so high their tops disappear into the clouds.
My ears prick at the sound of running water, and soon enough, we reach a river that bisects our path. Just on the other side of it is the treeline of the aersyan forest. We pause at the river, and my eyes cast over it, studying it for signs of danger.
The deceptively glassy surface tells me it’s deep, and the current beneath it, fast. Its smooth surface is decorated intermittently with V-shaped ripples pointing upstream—submerged boulders and other large debris for the current to bludgeon, or impale us with.
I don’t need to dip my hand in to know the temperature is barely above freezing.
No magic and no bestial forms or extremities.
So, we’re fucked.
My eyes slip shut, and I draw in a deep breath.
There is something unmistakably sacred about this place.
The treeline isn’t the barricade protecting the aersyan forest. It’s this river.
There’s no fucking way we’ll survive swimming across it.
Violette stands sandwiched between Azrael and his shadow as I twist to look back at where we’ve come from. The safer option would be to find somewhere to pitch a lean-to with the canvas tarp hooding Azrael’s shadow’s body, but my intuition impels me to cross the river.
Violette mentioned the trees having telepathy so I attempt to reach out, only feeling slightly foolish. After all, I have horns and a fucking tail now.
Hello?
I wait.
In vain.
I turn back towards Violette. “Is there some secret to communicating with them?”
She shrugs. “All I know is that they choose who to communicate with. How one might go about enticing them to choose you—I have no idea.”
I turn back towards the forest, studying it with no small amount of reverence. It is easily the most breathtaking forest landscape I have ever set my eyes on.
Hello? I’m sorry to bother you, but how might you suggest we get across the river? Is there a bridge somewhere?
Again, I am met with silence.
Azrael steps forward to stand beside me. “Maybe we should just set up camp here?”
I shake my head, huffing a laugh. “You’ve never had to survive in the wild before, have you?”
Azrael arches a brow, narrowing his eyes. “No?”
“Sleeping beside a river would be an invitation to every predator in the vicinity to eat us in our sleep. This is the local watering hole. It’s also where I am most likely to find us some food.”
I bend down to pick up what looks kind of like a pinecone—if pinecones were velvety and white—and toss into the river. I heave a hopeless sigh as I watch it carried swiftly downstream before being sucked beneath the surface.
“This river is a deathtrap.”
Azrael’s eyes shift to the river. “Looks pretty calm to me.”
I chuckle, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “You of all people should know a smile can also hide fangs.”
Violette pipes up. “Azrael and I could fly across—we could carry you.”
My features harden. “You said no magic or bestial forms?—
Violette rolls her eyes. “I mean, it’s not like anyone is watching us.”
My eyes leap to Azrael. His eyes dip shamefully to the floor.
“Your vow?—”
“We vowed to complete the rituals. We didn’t say anything about the rules, and we’ve already been doing things a little out of order.”
I shake my head. “We have been doing things out of order. You and Azrael have been doing things precisely in order. Regardless, it’s not a chance I’m willing to take. And I’m a little surprised that you are.”
Violette frowns. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that you’re being a little careless with your own life—and his.”
Violette’s brow hardens. The silence between us is tense for a few moments before she finally speaks. “Well, if you have any of my sea god magic, then you will also have a water-form. Since the rules don’t necessarily apply to you, maybe you could swim across?—”
I angle my head closer to her, disbelieving my ears. “I’m sorry, what?”
Violette heaves a sigh. Her words very clearly reluctant.
“I can shift into what you might recognize as a mermaid. Thus suggesting that you might be able to, too.”
My mind reels and stutters. I think my mind is orgasming again because what?
“Why have you never mentioned this?”
Violette rolls her eyes, muttering something to herself as she palms her face. Azrael sidles beside her, rubbing her back. “Darling?”
She groans. “It’s from my father’s side, as you might guess, so I obviously detest anything that reminds me of him.”
My heart aches as if being squeezed by a fist. I close the distance between us, curling a finger beneath her chin to guide her gaze to mine. Her brow is knit together, forming one grumpy line.
“Vi, just as a sculptor might use clay that came from the same soil, it doesn’t mean all her sculptures are destined to be anything alike. You sharing your father’s blood and magic, doesn’t condemn you to sharing his flaws. You’re nothing like him, and you never will be.”
Even as I speak the words, I feel like I’m also saying them to myself.
Like they’re words I’ve always needed to hear because an integral part of my greatest fears was that I would one day be put in a situation that would turn me into my mother—someone who couldn’t muster the strength to live even if only for her child, or my father—a man conformed and shackled to a life that was made for him, not by him, and couldn’t find the strength to leave even for the safety and well-being of his own wife and child.
I have dedicated my entire life to becoming the opposite of them.
Violette’s eyes glisten as she stares up at me, nodding. Her brow softens in acceptance and somehow I feel liberated through her by my own words. “You’re right..."
I tug her against my chest. She sniffles. “I think I just sometimes need to hear someone else say it, you know?”
I nod to myself, eyes flicking briefly to Azrael and his shadow as I press a kiss to the top of her head. “Indeed, I do.”