13. Chapter Thirteen #2
My hands shook and my heart raced. I would have felt something.
That’s how it worked. Two souls bound together for eternity.
Even after death. I would have never admitted it out loud but a part of me wanted the mating bond that I had read stories about.
I wanted that unbreakable connection, the love and passion that blossomed from it.
My mind spiraled in a split second. Fear and anger filled me. Tears threatened to escape.
Was something wrong with me?
I inhaled sharply as Njall grabbed my face. “I was lying.”
“What?” My shoulders dropped as I reared my head back away from him. “Why would you do that? Why would you lie about something like that?” I shoved him again, and he released my face but still didn’t move.
“I panicked, alright.” He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the roots. “I’m sorry. I just needed to stall them. I don’t know why that was the first thing to come to mind but thank the Gods it worked.”
“So…we’re not mates?” I breathed.
He huffed. “No, Roav. Trust me, if we were mates, we’d be marked. There’s no way I would have been able to hold back from sealing the bond with being so close to you in that tree last night.”
My gaze briefly flicked to my unmarked arm, the one I had secretly hoped would be marked one day.
A childish dream.
The mark was a symbol of the mating bond—a gift from the Gods, a sacred one. The mating bond was divine, a connection of two souls, and it drove them to each other. As much as I was relieved, a small part of me was also disappointed.
“Well next time, try not scaring the shit out of me without warning.”
“I’ll do my best,” he sighed and visibly relaxed.
“How did you know all of that about the mating bond anyway?” I asked suspiciously. Not many did, seeing as it was so rare and very few records of it.
“Oryn has libraries too, you know.” He smirked.
We walked in awkward silence, avoiding eye contact for the next several hours.
The mountain had started obstructing our view of the sky through the trees as we drew nearer.
Being this close, we were able to see the northern side of the mountain, darkened by constant shadow and completely devoid of vegetation all the way to the base.
“We should reach the base soon. Do you think we can make it to the peak by nightfall?” I glanced at him, finally breaking the silence.
He tilted his head and pursed his lips for a moment. “I think so. We’ll have to be quick. Those rocks will slow us down, and I don’t want to be up there long. We’d be too visible out in the open, and we don’t know what, or who, will be watching.”
“Let’s plan to head back down the same way we came so we’ll be somewhat familiar with the path—”
My voice was cut off when large thorny vines sprang out through the trees toward us. I dropped to my stomach with a gasp as the air whooshed from my lungs, narrowly evading the thick plant.
Njall wasn’t so lucky.
As I looked behind me, the vines from a Lurvinea plant quickly wound their way up Njall’s body as he struggled to free himself. The thorns dug into his flesh while squeezing around him. Once it got to his waist, it pulled him across the forest floor as he roared.
I jumped up and chased after him, grabbing the sword that he dropped along the way. I needed something bigger than a dagger with the vines being nearly as wide as my body.
The vines were pulling him faster than I could run and I pushed myself to the point that everything around me passed in a blur. I could hear him bellow even as he was out of sight. I followed the sound along with the trail of his blood left behind through the forest.
I’m coming Njall .
Adrenaline filled my veins as I continued to run faster and faster. I could barely see where I was going as the trees rushed by me.
I was gaining on him.
Within my distorted vision, I hadn’t noticed that I had entered into a much darker place where the air was thick with a smoke-like substance. It took only moments for the cloudy air to enter my lungs and its effects began to sink into my bloodstream.
Dizziness. Blurred vision. Headache. Nausea. Suffocation.
It was so much. Too much.
This was what the Trial did. It took out those that couldn’t survive, couldn’t endure.
That was the purpose. To fight against all odds for only a fraction of a chance to survive.
And even then, that didn’t guarantee being deemed Worthy.
And everything here was meant to kill. Gods was I sick of everything trying to kill me.
It was already midday and the mountain would still take us until nightfall.
There was no time for additional shit to deal with.
I want out of this place.
If I were smart, I would have turned around and left Njall to his fate. I would have only worried about my own survival. I barely knew the male anyway.
I guess I was stupid.
I held my breath and ran harder than I thought my body could handle.
The vines seemed to slow down and I could see Njall gasping and coughing from the poisonous air.
My lungs ached and pleaded for oxygen, but I knew that the more toxic air that I breathed, the faster it would kill me.
I got closer and closer as I had to keep telling myself just a little farther .
I was finally close enough to see Njall thrashing and clawing at the ground in a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of the carnivorous plant.
Pushing my body to its limit, I thrust myself through the air, Njall’s sword over my head, and stabbed it into the vine below his body.
It writhed, finally stopping. With all my weight behind it, I pushed down on the blade, slicing through the dark green appendage as an opaque liquid oozed out of it.
I lifted the blade and chopped through the rest of the vine, effectively severing it.
The vine trembled, but ultimately retreated farther into the murky forest.
I didn’t have time to think as I pried the remaining vine from Njall’s suffocating body. My vision filled with spots of black as I struggled for air. Njall’s eyes closed as he fell unconscious. I couldn’t scream and waste the last remnants of oxygen.
Pulling his arm with all my might, I wrenched him through the smoky air until we were clear of the poisonous gas.
I collapsed on my hands and knees and sucked the fresh oxygen into my lungs.
After a few minutes and half a canteen of water, when I could finally see clearly and breathe normally, I went to Njall.
His body was covered in blood from waist down.
“Njall.” My voice was scratchy. “Njall, I need you to wake up because I can’t drag your big ass all the way to the mountain.” I shook his shoulder until he stirred.
I offered him the canteen, which he drank deeply from. He coughed and sputtered for a second before finally opening his eyes and looking up at me.
“Been looking at my ass, Roav?” he wheezed.
“It’s hard to miss.” I huffed a laugh. My face fell as I observed his wounds. “Do you think you can walk?”
“It’s mostly superficial cuts. I’ll make it.” He gritted his teeth as he stood. “And I don’t want to stick around here any longer. That Lurvinea could come back. Let’s go.”