Chapter 37
Landwyrm: Ancient Horror. Extinct. Able to paralyze its prey with a look. Origin unknown, classification draconic.
A HISTORY OF HORRORS
“It was truly something to watch,” Clary said. “When you stepped in front of Drayven, held up your hands, and the Wyrm just…stopped.”
Late afternoon sun streamed into my room as I sipped the herbal concoction Darla had prepared.
A restorative remedy that should recharge my depleted strength.
Whatever I’d done to ward off what I now knew to be a Landwyrm had drained me.
That, coupled with the aftereffects of terror—a condition the Landwyrm could inflict on anyone who looked into its eyes—meant I’d slept for a whole day and night.
But a little bit of food, a restorative herbal drink, and company were enough to set me to rights.
“You should have heard the silence, then the cheers,” Benedict said. “It was like watching a moving picture.”
“But it shouldn’t have happened,” Dori pointed out. “Not the Wyrm or the echoes. I heard the Carvers admitted that their echoes never left their holding pens.”
I lowered my cup. “Wait…so the Echoes that attacked us—”
“Were from outside the wards,” Dori finished.
“Same as the Wyrm. Ana, Landwyrms haven’t been seen for decades.
We thought they were extinct. They’re the first Horror that entered our world during The Overshadowing.
The Landwyrms are the reason so many of our cities were destroyed and had to be rebuilt.
There isn’t much information on how we were able to kill them back then, but I do know that there was no such thing as rift blades. ”
The question of how those mammoth Horrors had been brought down was buried in history somewhere. “But one survived. Where was it all this time? Dormant somewhere?”
“It would seem so,” Dori said.
“Then why wake now?”
“The Hunters are looking into it,” Benedict said. “And the ward keepers are getting some serious heat right now, too.”
“And they should!” Clary said. “They have one job. Just one. And they get to just…relax the rest of the time.”
“I think it’s a little more than that,” Dori said.
“Really? I saw Augustine Berrywinkle last week, and she hadn’t left her tower room in three days. Three days!”
“Do you want to stay in your room for three days straight?” Dori asked.
Clary scowled. “I wish I had the option.”
“I would,” Benedict said with a cheeky smile. “Depending on who I was with.” He gave an exaggerated, suggestive wink.
Dori groaned. “Lower the tone, why don’t you.”
“Always,” Benedict said.
“But we’re getting off topic,” Dori said. “What you did, Ana… I did some research on Weave powers, and although there is a repelling spell and a shield spell, they don’t work on Horrors. No one has ever repelled a Horror or held one at bay like you did with the Wyrm.”
“I’m sure that’ll have the Coterie in a spin,” Benedict said. “Considering you haven’t come into your full powers yet, they’ll definitely have questions.”
Great, just what I needed, another session in front of the establishment to explain how I’d stopped the Wyrm. “If they have questions, they can ask the Weave Watchers, because I have no idea.”
Silence fell for a few seconds as we retreated into our own thoughts.
Clary was the first to break it. “If there’s one Landwyrm, there could be more. The ward keepers are going to have their work cut out for them.”
“And the Hunters,” Benedict added.
“I’m just glad everyone is okay.” Poppy had come by earlier to thank me for saving her and Bella.
The Carvers had said no one would die, but after everything that happened, it was unlikely that they had as much control over their creations as they’d hoped.
The Initiative was now under administrative investigation.
“And when you beat Tyler up,” Benedict punched the air, mimicking the shots I’d landed. “That was so satisfying to watch.”
I dropped out of my thoughts. “I’m sure that’ll come back to bite me in the ass at some point. Tyler will get revenge. Somehow.”
“Just let him try,” Dori said, mouth twisting in a sneer. “He’s a bully who doesn’t have much support here, despite what he might like you to believe. If he comes at you, we’ll deal with him.”
“I do have one question, though,” Clary said. “The salamander thing…they helped you, and they said something about an offering?”
I’d forgotten about the salamanders, but my mind had been working on the problem subconsciously.
Now that Clary brought it up, I had a possible explanation.
“I changed my bloody bandage and threw it into the hearth in Bramble Tower a few weeks ago. Solaris’s voice came through and said something about accepting my offering.
At the time, I thought that maybe I imagined it, but I think…
I think I accidentally did give him a blood offering.
So, when I bled on the flame barrier in the woods, I must have summoned Solaris. ”
“That would make sense,” Clary said, wide-eyed. “I’ve heard of students trying to form bonds with Solaris and his salamander brethren, but never of anyone succeeding.”
“I’m just glad you’re safe,” Dori said. “Everything else is icing.”
The warm, safe feeling these three evoked, the feeling I’d been trying to deny for weeks, bloomed sudden and insistent inside me, and my eyes heated.
“Whoa, Onyx, are you… Are you crying?” Dori reached for me, but I waved her off.
“No. I’m fucking not. I have something in my eye.”
“No, you don’t,” Clary said. “You’re all emotional.”
“Because you love us,” Benedict said. “Or…is it that time of month?”
“Shut up!” I wiped at my eyes.
“It’s all right,” Clary said. “It’s okay…” Her smile was filled with gentle understanding, and my heart ached—I wanted this. I wanted them as part of my life.
I wanted…friendship. With them. Real friendship. But how could I have that and complete my mission here?
Stealing from the vault was a crime punishable by death. If the three of them found out, I had no doubt that they’d agree to help me. But they’d be putting themselves in harm’s way.
This is what I’d wanted, though. Friendship that I could leverage. But now… Now everything was different, because I cared. I fucking cared, and I couldn’t let anything happen to them.
The only option was to keep silent and enjoy them while I could.
I deserved it.
After all this time, I bloody deserved it.
* * *
Drayven came to visit when I was starting to think he wouldn’t, and my heart leapt at the sight of his large frame blocking the doorway.
“Hi…” I drank him in from the dark top knot on his head down to the kick-the-shit-out-of-you boots on his feet. “Are you coming inside, or are you going to stand there all day?”
“Can I, uh…open a window?”
“Does it smell bad in here?” I resisted the urge to sniff myself.
A blush stained his cheekbones. “Not bad, just… May I?”
What the… “Of course.”
He entered without closing the door behind him, cracked the window open, then pulled a chair to the bed. He sat with his forearms pressed to his thighs, head bowed. Silent.
A minute passed, long enough for my emotions to tie themselves into anxious knots. “Drayven, you’re making me nervous.”
“I can’t allow myself to be around you.” He blurted the words, then closed his eyes as if annoyed with himself. “Fuck…”
“Is this about the mate mark, scent thing?”
“Yes and…no. I thought I could control it. That once my scent on you faded, I’d be fine around you. But when you passed out in my arms after the Wyrm attack, I marked you again.” He squeezed his eyes closed. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“But I wasn’t physically hurt. I mean, my hand was, but it wasn’t bad and—”
“I know.”
But he’d done it anyway… Oh…
“I can’t seem to stop myself from trying to claim you,” he admitted.
I wasn’t sure I wanted a relationship with him, and I certainly didn’t want to be mated to him. So it hardly mattered that he was trying to stay away from me, but my curiosity was an insatiable beast, and I needed to know.
“Why are you fighting this thing between us?” Because despite my intentions, there was definitely a thing between us. An attraction, an inexplicable connection usually only born of long-term familiarity.
He looked up, stunned. “You want me to claim you?”
“I didn’t say that. I just… I want to understand your reluctance, because my gut tells me it’s about more than my consent.”
He sighed. “You’re too damn smart, too damn perceptive—”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m perfect, I get it. Now, please, tell me why.”
He cracked a smile, and my heart melted a little.
“You are all those things, Anamaya, and more. You’re resilient and determined and loyal and I…
I admire you, which is why I’m so drawn to you.
But…I made a vow a long time ago that I wouldn’t move on with my life, not until I ended the life of the male responsible for Brenna’s death. ”
Brenna…the woman he’d loved. He’d mentioned that she was dead, but… “Someone killed her?”
His nostrils flared. “Yes.” His hands curled into fists.
“My kind, my pack, do not live together like most. We own vast territories in which we make our homes separate from each other, yet close by. We are solitary beasts until we take a mate and have our own families. Brenna was human, so she could never have a full mating because she had no beast—but she agreed to come live with me on pack land. We had a family. A boy and a girl. But six years ago, I was called away urgently, and in my absence, our territory was stolen. Set ablaze by the thieves who wanted to claim it.” His throat bobbed.
“Brenna and my children died in that fire.” He swallowed hard again.
“She couldn’t shift and run like the barghest, so she perished.
I found her corpse wrapped around our children.
She’d shielded them with her body, protecting them for as long as she could with her flesh and bone. ”
Oh Trinity. “Who… Who did it? Who set the fire?”