by Lyra Evans
As Cobalt moved, Niko shifted his sleeping back in micro movements, trying to free himself as slowly and quietly as possible. Cobalt hovered over him a moment, his strong arms bracketing Niko in place, before he lifted his other leg to finish his crossing. As he did, Niko saw Cobalt open his mouth, perhaps to Sing to the creature, but it didn’t matter. Niko didn’t know what caused it, but a twig snapped or a leaf crunched—and the creature alerted.
In a swirl of movement, Niko spun in his sleeping bag, grabbing his gun and arming it to point at the creature. Cobalt called out, but Niko didn’t register his words. A heavy growl followed by a roar, and a wave of orange and red came at them. Cobalt yelled again, throwing himself in front of Niko. Heat washed over him like stepping into a sauna, and Niko flattened himself on the ground, aiming the gun under Cobalt’s falling body. He pulled the trigger three times at the blur of amber and red and green and white without even realizing what it was. All he heard were the pops of the gunshots and a wounded yip.
Cobalt was on the ground, barely moving but for the subtle trembling of his body. His face was a mask of agony, his eyes screwed shut, his mouth open in a soundless scream. The creature ran off into the woods, a serpentine tail snapping at them as it disappeared. Niko watched it go, gun drawn and ready, until he was certain it was gone. Then he dropped the gun and sat up to see to Cobalt.
“What was that?” Niko asked, searching the Selkie for injury. He found it quickly, by sound and smell more than sight. Crackling and bubbling drew his eyes to Cobalt’s forearms. The unmistakeable smell of burning flesh told him what had happened.
“A chimera,” Cobalt managed, his words choked through pain. Tears spilled from his eyes, and steam rose off the black and red scorch marks on his forearms.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Niko cried, reaching instinctively for Cobalt’s injuries but stopping himself in time. Any light touch to the burns could peel away skin and cause even more pain. He swore a few more times, kicking out of his sleeping bag. The backpack held the first aid kit, and Niko dove for it, pulling anything he thought might be useful from it. But it was only a basic kit, and the burn ointment in it was only meant for light burns on small areas. “Fuck! Here, let me try this,” he said, reaching for Cobalt again.
Cobalt shook his head violently. “No! Just water,” he said sharply. “Get me water.” Niko didn’t hesitate. He dropped the ointment and picked up his water bottle, popping the cap to pour it into Cobalt’s mouth. Cobalt swallowed the stream in seconds, and the bottle was empty. “Pour the other directly on the wounds,” he said, still shaking, his teeth gritted. The burns were still steaming, and every passing second had him losing colour.
Niko popped the other cap and poured out the bottle as steadily as he could on Cobalt’s forearms. The burns hissed like water in a heated pan, but they slowly stopped steaming.
“That’s all we’ve got,” Niko said, shaking out the last drops onto the burns. “I’ll get more.”
Cobalt didn’t bother answering as Niko collected the bottles and ran to the river near their camp. Water rushed along southward, rough and greenish over stones and roots and aquatic plants. It did not look potable, but that was what the filtered bottles were for. And he was certain Cobalt didn’t much care about the algae content of the water in his current state. So Niko filled both bottles quickly, the spray of the rapid river like a splash of cold reality on his face.
He ran back to camp and skidded to a stop next to Cobalt. He poured out some of the water onto the burns again, then tipped the rest into Cobalt’s open mouth. The Selkie said nothing, still shaking from his injuries. The hollow in Niko’s chest ached differently, his mind acutely tuned to Cobalt’s every reaction. His skin was ashen and dry, but with every gulp of water he seemed to return to himself somewhat. Niko went back to collect more water, and when he returned, Cobalt was recovered just enough to hold the bottle himself to drink.
“You idiot,” Niko said, holding the second bottle at the ready. “Chimeras breathe fire. Why didn’t you let me—”
“No time,” Cobalt said. He shook his head lightly, heaving as though he’d run a marathon up a mountain. The blue tone to his skin had faded from the burn, but as he finished drinking the third bottle, Niko saw the colour slowly brightening on his cheeks. “It’s all right. It turned out fine.”
Niko’s eyes bulged. “Fine? You’ve got third-degree burns on your arms at least!” His stomach churned as he looked at the black and red marks on Cobalt’s arms again. The smell wasn’t even the worst part. The sight of the blackened edge, crackling like paper around the bubbling red and white skin was enough to make Niko want to vomit.
Cobalt took the last bottle from Niko, and before his eyes, the red and white area seemed to fade in intensity. The bubbling dissipated somewhat. There were still blackened edges, too far-gone to salvage, but the other portion looked almost as though it had eased to a second-degree burn in mere moments.
“But you aren’t hurt,” Cobalt said with a small smile, looking Niko over.
Niko gaped at him. “Are you fucking insane? You said Selkies are especially vulnerable to fire!” A flare of anger cut through his concern, but the palpitations of his heart wouldn’t allow him to be angry with Cobalt for long. He was still hurt, still looked worn out and breathless. “You should have let me—” And suddenly Niko remembered he was Fae. “Let me heal you,” he said, reaching for Cobalt’s arms. “I can trade my healthy skin for yours. Or at least some of it so it’s not so bad.”
But Cobalt yanked back, out of Niko’s reach. “No,” he said. “It’s fine.” He downed the rest of the last bottle, and the bubbling of the second degree burns shrank significantly. It looked almost more like a really bad sunburn now, rather than looking like Cobalt had decided to spit-roast his own forearms. “See?” He reached out and took hold of Niko’s wrists gently. “No point in both of us suffering. I heal quickly.”
Eyebrows set low and furrowed, Niko searched Cobalt’s face. He had put himself at such risk to protect Niko, when Niko was possibly more resilient than he was in this case. Though Niko was relatively certain no one was particularly resilient to fire—chimera fire being particularly intense. He shook his head and reached for the first aid kit again.
“At least let me bandage the burns or something,” he said. Maybe the look on his face was pleading to be useful, because Cobalt nodded his assent with a soft laugh.
“All right,” he said. “But wet the gauze. Soak it. Then wrap them. It will serve the healing better that way. And no ointment.”
Niko had picked up the ointment again but tossed it back into his bag at Cobalt’s instruction. He took the bottles with him back to the river to refill and soak the bandages. Pausing to drink deeply of his own bottle before leaving, Niko realized his heartbeat was still irregular. He’d been snared in panic and couldn’t bring himself back down yet. Seeing Cobalt in that much pain, so badly hurt, was like raking his raw nerves over a bed of razors. It hurt physically. And that was unfamiliar to Niko.
“Here,” he said, returning to camp with filled bottles and soaked gauze. He set to wrapping Cobalt’s forearms while Cobalt drank some more. The water did seem to ease the wrapping process, allowing the gauze not to pull or stick to the deeper injuries. Niko smoothed the soaked cotton gently over Cobalt’s arms, pinning the ends in place with a carefully targeted trade. Beneath his ministrations, Cobalt’s skin felt particularly hot. Burns had the effect of releasing heat from anyone, but Cobalt’s skin almost felt as though it was still on fire.
“Thank you,” Cobalt said, and Niko looked up into his eyes to find Cobalt’s expression softening to a warmth that had nothing to do with flame. He leaned over and pressed his lips to Niko’s, and Niko kept him there by spreading his lips and allowing Cobalt in. When they parted, Niko felt heat on his own cheeks, and a slow smirk drew up the corner of Cobalt’s mouth. “You make a good nurse.”
Niko laughed a short sound, despite himself. He got to his feet, packing away the
first aid kit. “Don’t make a habit out of needing it,” he said, shooting Cobalt a look. “My bedside manner is shit.”
Cobalt’s eyes glittered. “You did call me an idiot.”
Niko shrugged, stamping out the remains of their overnight campfire. He had no interest in putting Cobalt at risk any further. “I tell it like it is,” he said. Picking up the discarded pot with the remains of their failed meal, Niko realized it was mostly gone. “It came for this,” he said, though he couldn’t be certain. He knew little of chimeras, excepting their fire-breathing habits. Each creature tended to have unique qualities based on the creatures that made up its biology. Niko hadn’t gotten a good enough look at this one to make any guesses.
“Possibly,” Cobalt said. “But when the wood snapped beneath me, it had been staring intently into the fire.”
Niko emptied out the pot and wiped it clean, packing it away into his bag. A coal of guilt burned in the base of his stomach. “What did it look like?”
Cobalt tilted his head, taking another drink of his bottle. “It had the body of a lion, I think. And the head. But also other heads. One of a goat. One—”
“More than two heads?” Niko interrupted. Cobalt nodded.
“One seemed reptilian with short, pointed horns. And then the tail was a snake.”
“An extra reptilian head and the tail of a snake,” Niko repeated aloud, thinking it over.
“No, not the tail of a snake,” Cobalt said. “The tail was a snake. With head and fangs and all.”
Niko looked first at Cobalt, then at the place where the creature had run off. No two chimeras were identical, and the sight of one had often been considered an omen of sorts. Probably because each animal was so jarring to look at people decided they had to mean something. Why else would these strange beings exist?
As he looked outward, he realized how light it had gotten. A glance to the canopy told him it was fully morning now. “We should get going,” he said, then turning back to Cobalt, he added, “Are you going to be all right to continue?”
Cobalt got to his feet as quickly and smoothly as he could, perhaps to show Niko he was unhindered. But the slight shakiness in his wrist as he pushed himself up belied his claims. “It won’t be an issue.” Niko eyed him as he set to dismantling the shelter, but he had little option than to trust Cobalt. He could not afford not to pursue Preston to find answers, and he did not want to do that alone. It was selfish. He knew it. But he kept his mouth shut anyway.
They gathered up the last of their camp, shoving everything into their bags, and set off again. Cobalt checked the compass and map again before they pressed onward. The jungle-forest grew denser and denser as they progressed well beyond where anyone ever ventured. And the deeper into the more feral parts of the jungle they went, the more confident Niko was in his guess that this was Preston’s place. Not only was it far from any other properties or structures, it was also harder to get to than it looked.
He wondered, as he scaled the trunk of a tree to skirt the edge of a rocky pit that appeared from nowhere in the ground, what better location a psychopath like Preston could choose to keep his activities private. Even the condo in central Maeve’s Court seemed excessively exposed compared to this place. Vines looping between trees, a canopy so thick it blotted out all sunlight, and undergrowth dense enough to mask rocks or razor spikes or entire colonies of venomous animals beneath it meant no one was haphazardly wandering near Preston’s cabin.
Niko jumped down off a low branch and landed back on relatively solid ground, a strange anticipation growing in his chest. He had the sense that they might find more than just Preston out here in the jungle, with his fishing rod and lures. What if he was running the entire Woods operation out of this place? With the privacy afforded by the trees and creatures, he could easily be holding people captive. He could have a whole torture house set up here and no one would ever know. Not to mention any number of other illegal activities he could get up to. Drug synthesis labs, money laundering setups, gemstone smuggling—the list went on. Niko didn’t know just how much the Woods was actually doing. Preston was disgustingly wealthy, sure, but the provenance of that money was still in question. The ledger they’d found documented payments from other wealthy people…but for what?
Something snapped, and Niko turned to see Cobalt slip suddenly, tumbling sideways. Niko moved without thinking, catching Cobalt just before he collided with a rough, rocky crevasse lined with jutting spikes. But he’d caught Cobalt by the forearms, and the hissing sound that came from the Selkie indicated the pain Niko was causing was only moderately better than smashing his skull open on spiky rocks.
Niko yanked him quickly back up, wanting to limit the painful experience to as short a time as possible, like ripping off a bandage. Cobalt stumbled to the side, bracing himself against a tree with his shoulder, holding his arms out in front of him, away from everything else.
“Shit,” Niko said, unsure what to do. He grabbed his bottle of water from his pack and offered it to Cobalt, but Cobalt shook his head. “I’m sorry. I should’ve—”
“Don’t apologize,” Cobalt said, his tone leaving no room for argument. It made Niko shiver, but he hated himself for it. Cobalt’s sharp tone was clearly a result of his shock and pain, not his desire to enflame Niko’s senses. He reached into his own bag and plucked out his bottle. “You saved me a far more serious injury.” He tipped his bottle back and drank deeply, his colour returning quickly as he did. “I will be fine, Niko. Don’t worry about—”
But he stopped abruptly, his eyes narrowing. Niko heard it too. It cut through the air like a useless bird, flapping madly to keep aloft. The chuffing sound of the helicopter seemed unnervingly close, and Niko felt his spine tingle.
He cast an eye upwards, as though he might see it, but the tree cover was so complete, Niko couldn’t spy even an inch of sky. They were well hidden in the foliage. His heartrate still spiked, though.
“I haven’t turned my phone back on,” he said, shaking his head. “Nothing we have would send up a signal for them to follow.” He wracked his mind quickly, thoroughly, in a panic. Was there anything at all they could use to track them? Was there a magical tracker they could tune to his specific signature? Or Cobalt’s? Was there a DNA tracker that would guide them this way? But as he questioned everything and prepared for the worst, the chuffing seemed to fade away into the distance. He calmed slightly. “They don’t know we’re here.” And he realized it was true as he said it. “It’s just circling. Hoping to get lucky.”
Cobalt nodded, having come to the same conclusion. He lifted himself off the tree, looking somewhat steadier than earlier. But the wetness of his bandages had gone, either being soaked into his skin or drying on the hot air. Niko uncapped his own bottle, took a quick drink, then poured half the contents over Cobalt’s arms to wet the bandages again.
The Selkie made a sound of protest at first, but he visibly eased at the feeling of water on his burns. Niko shot him a pointed look, and Cobalt smiled slightly.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice low and soft. It carried the barest hint of melody, and Niko felt it in his bones. His blood stirred at the sound, but as Cobalt leaned slightly forward to kiss him, he pulled back.
“We should keep on,” he said. “We must be close now.”
Cobalt caught himself mid-motion, his eyes shifting, a shadow of something passing over them. He looked at the map again, head tilted. Niko fought the tightness in his throat. He hadn’t wanted to pull away, but his head was buzzing with content. There was too much to think about. He couldn’t let himself get distracted again. He wasn’t—he wasn’t ready.
“Very close, actually,” Cobalt said, glancing around. Beyond the trees to the left was a small break, and through it they could just see the edge of what seemed like a cliff rising from the river. The sound of rushing water played distantly through the trees. “I think we may already be on the property.”
Niko frowned, moving over to check the map himself
though he had little way of checking Cobalt’s assessment. He scooted around, shoulder to shoulder with Cobalt, to look at the map and surroundings from his angle. As he did, Cobalt’s sea-breeze-freedom scent cut through the thick moss and wet earth smell of the jungle. Niko hummed unconsciously to himself, the feeling like a long stretch at the end of a hard day. It got into the core of him, soothing away the kinks and soreness. And as he looked up into the distance, wondering if there was any other cliff or waterfall they might be close to instead, Niko was certain he felt Cobalt lean in to him and breathe deeply.
He turned his head slowly, eyes meeting Cobalt’s, and his heart beat faster. Crystal irises looked back at him, glinting in a light that came from nowhere. Niko’s head swam with images and sensations, imagining Cobalt pushing him up against a tree and using the vines around them in interesting ways. He could almost feel Cobalt’s teeth scraping over his skin, and a shiver passed over him.
“Unless we’re desperately off track, this is the western side of Preston’s property,” Cobalt said. It was quiet. Almost an undertone. As though he was trying not to break the spell he’d put Niko under.
But the mention of Preston snapped him out of it, and Niko looked wildly around again, as though everything had suddenly changed. No matter how he tried to interpret the map, Niko was certain Cobalt was right. They were already within the limits of Preston’s property. Which meant they should have hit some kind of warding by now. Or passed by some guards. Or something. But Niko had felt no change in the magical fields around them. Not the slightest adjustment. He rubbed his hands together, making trades to enhance his sense of touch, and waved his hands through the air. Nothing. No difference. If there was warding anywhere nearby, even within yards, Niko would have felt it.