Sylfic

by Kenna Bardot

  "What's going on?" I tried to plant my feet, but there was no traction because my feet were bare just as my arms were in the flimsy nightgown that I still wore. There was nothing to stop my feet from slipping along the tile as we approached the front doors.

  I stumbled when my eyes landed on someone I'd trusted, someone I would have never expected to rip me from my bed in the middle of the night. Edlynne and Colm stood at the doors, looking grim.

  "Colm!" I yelled, and I became vaguely aware of the other Sylfes pouring out of their rooms and into the area before the main entrance. Like someone had called them to watch me, witness what was happening to me even as they moved of their own volition.

  Nobody carted them from bed. Nobody restrained them. They were free. I struggled against the guards’ holds again to no avail and I felt the tears stream down my cheeks. "What’s happening? What did I do?"

  He shook his head, sighing at me. "It will be alright. You'll see," he whispered, and I watched as a white-haired God approached me. The moment I saw him, I struggled harder, trashed about, felt my feet slap against the hard marble floors.

  The hands under my arms tightened their hold as the white-haired God’s hand reached forward. I flinched back as far as I could, watched as the fingers loomed just before me. I’d experienced firsthand what a Descendant Vide could do to a human body. I had no doubt that there would be pain and ache that would embrace me the moment his skin made contact with mine. "No," I whimpered.

  My eyes only briefly connected with Lysandra's wide and panicked ones, her hand moving to cover her mouth before she stepped toward me and a guard restrained her. "Let her go!"

  But the fingers touched my temple anyway, and I felt a moment of blinding pain envelop my fear, encompassing it until they became intertwined, wrapping around me so hard I knew and could feel nothing else.

  Then there was just nothing.

  ✽✽✽

  Tate

  The woods were quiet beyond the gate.

  Too quiet.

  "Your aim for the Fourth Sire Trial is to find your Sylfe." Caprice smirked vindictively, her eyes briefly meeting each of ours. We exchanged looks of panic.

  What did she mean by find her?

  Zeevar stepped forward from where he stood beside Rhiannon and Anselm, who continued to watch in silence. "Once you find her, your aim is to rescue her. Continue going on the same trajectory, and eventually, you will find your way to the end of the Trial. Simple, yes? Find her, keep her safe and bring your potential back whole."

  I nodded my head even as anger flooded in me that there was a potential for Mireyah to be harmed. Nothing to worry about though, keeping our Mireyah safe wasn't strange for us. I'd give anything to keep Mireyah safe. Anything to protect her from harm or the threat that Ashric posed to her.

  "Our group of five must rescue her as a unit. One may not act alone, and if you are not all together when you cross the threshold to the finish line you will automatically be disqualified.”

  We looked at each other. If our Second Trial had taught us anything, it was to acknowledge our weaknesses but not let them define what we did. We had to keep the goal in mind.

  Mireyah. She was most important.

  "Oh, and Sires?" Caprice interjected, an amused smile gracing her face. "In honor of Mireyah, we've chosen some particularly fierce obstacles. We wish you the best of luck."

  With that, they stepped back, and the four Core Gods disappeared. Colm Svadeni sighed when he realized that he was alone, but nodded. “It begins.”

  The gate opened slowly, massive wrought iron doors creaking open. I swallowed, casting my eyes briefly to my twin and then to Char on my other side. The five of us formed the center of the line, Lathyn on one side and Ashric on the other. While I didn't trust either of them for shit, I knew in that moment we were all too uncertain about exactly what we might face inside the boundary.

  Exactly what Mireyah might need to be saved from.

  "Together," Hollis said, hefting his sword in his hand. Being a Svadeni put him at such a disadvantage, gave him no added skill in combat situations. At least I could read people, but unless he intended to seduce whatever we might face, there was little he could offer.

  Which was why we'd placed him between Ryle and Shephard. Our two strongest fighters to protect the weakest link.

  Acknowledging the weakness and protecting it, rather than becoming distracted by it.

  I hefted my pole saw in my hand, keeping it ready. Then, as a unit, we all took our first step up to the gate. Then the next.

  Crossing the threshold felt much like the Challenge at Godsvail, where Mireyah swam through the frozen lake. Except this time I had a feeling the barrier contained something much more dangerous than the cold.

  Still we walked, and I didn't glance back when the gate creaked closed behind us. It was nothing but a warning at the moment, all for dramatic effect because any who wandered into the woods did so only with death in mind.

  Even for a God, it was treacherous. Zeevar’s domain.

  It rattled through the air, and the piercing sound of a feral howl split the silence in half after the gate closed. I swallowed, keeping quiet as we moved. I could practically feel the way Shep vibrated with the need to put Ashric down, but I didn't imagine it would reflect well on us if we attacked one another.

  At least not so early.

  But if something else caught him in its jaws, I'd leave him to die in a heartbeat. I knew that whether we or Lathyn claimed Mireyah as our wife, he would not take the loss well. His obsession with her had only grown with her continued denial of him.

  So if he disappeared, then only so much the better.

  Further in the distance, something roared so loud that the trees shook. I didn't want to think about what it might have been.

  One step after another, we plugged along.

  Until we didn't.

  A mass charged out of the woods, tackling Ashric to the ground. He struggled, but I tried to keep my eyes scanning the edges of the woods as they surrounded the cleared pathway. Tried not to listen to the feral sounds of his attacker as he fought with it.

  "Fuck!" Lathyn hissed, and he pulled his second sword free from the scabbard across his back.

  "What are they?" Char asked even as his eyes narrowed and he held his hands out, ready to attack with a far more formidable weapon than the one I held in mine.

  "The beasts from the Unwanted Lands," he answered, cursing as a second one stepped free from the woods. It tilted its head at us, studying us as it bared elongated, wolf-like teeth at us.

  "They look almost human," I said in horror. My eyes caught on the others hovering just behind the trees. Waiting for a chance to strike.

  "They aren't," he said. "Not anymore at least," he added cryptically. Any other question I might have asked was lost to the sounds of their howls as they ran forward on four unnaturally elongated legs.

  The sound of my blade scraping against the claws of the one who came at me shrieked through the clearing, echoed by the way the others fought.

  I cut, trying not to think about how strange their dark, dilated pupils looked on their nearly human face. Tilted up at the outer edges and strangely tortured, as if they hated their actions but had somehow lost control of themselves behind their need.

  It was a need that poured off them like desperation.

  Blood.

  They wanted blood. Char hit the one he fought with his pain, watching as it crumpled to the ground. He pushed and pushed until it stopped writhing and unconsciousness took it.

  I watched Lathyn pump his full of poison, the veins in its body turning bright blue before it collapsed to the ground with a shudder.

  "Tate!" Char yelled, and I looked up only a second before he pushed me from the side. I fell to the ground, and the spray of something warm hit the back of my neck. Char roared in pain, and I shoved to my feet to fight off the thing that had attacked him.

  The clawed swipe that had been meant for me. The one I hadn'
t seen coming in the frenzy. Enraged, I jumped up, my sword catching the next swipe, and I fought it back as it put both twisted, humanoid hands and pushed my blade at me.

  I'd have lost, would have died under its brute strength if Lathyn hadn't stepped in and pumped his poison into it. When it dropped to the ground, I turned back to Char where he laid on the ground. Hollis hovered over him, trying to protect him while Shep and Ryle took out the remaining two.

  Ashric was long gone.

  "Help me up," Char grunted. Lathyn nodded to me briefly, and I nodded my thanks before he took off. I hoped he would be able to at least delay Ashric, because the alternative that he might get to Mireyah first was unthinkable.

  I knelt at Char's side, touching my fingers to the blood welling at his hip. The cut was deep, too deep.

  I wondered if he'd even be able to walk, even discounting the fact that the pain must have been unbearable. So much of the muscle was slashed, and the wound went straight down to the bones, and it became obvious his bones wouldn’t function.

  "Pain is my friend," he grunted, as Shep helped him to his feet. Hollis and I each slide underneath one of his arms, freeing Shep to do what he did best. We pressed on, Ryle at the front and Shep at our rear.

  Another roar shook the forest as a massive figure shaded the sky as it flew overhead.

  We had to get to Mireyah.

  Before it was too late.

  Chapter 32

  Mireyah

  Waking up was a slow, agonizing process. My eyes felt heavy, like I could hardly drag them open. A groan sounded, and in my haze it took me far too long to realize it was only me. That the dry, parched sound came from my throat.

  I wasn’t uncomfortable in the position I was in, but every muscle in my body felt taut, ready for some threat that I couldn't quite grasp. My fingers twitched on the cushion beneath me, some sort of pad covered in linens. When my eyes finally opened, I stared up at a hazy sky, smoke billowing into it from a distance. It was that stench of something burning that made me finally sit up.

  My heartbeat skyrocketed, panic filling me as I flung the bedding off me. I felt too hot, fevered despite the flimsiness of the nightgown I still wore. With the way sweat slicked my body, it felt like every curve was on display.

  And when I saw, to my horror, that I was on a flat rock that was raised high above the ground surrounded by boulders and jagged, rocky terrain I felt like a cliched sacrifice to the Gods.

  I somehow doubted it was a coincidence.

  I threw my legs down off the rock that had served as my bed, standing on the uneven rocks and wincing at the heat and sting of pebbles on my bare feet. But I pushed through it, taking a step forward.

  Metal clanked as I moved, an odd weight on my left ankle. A chain kept me tethered to the area underneath my platform, and when I reached down to tug at it, the anchor didn't budge. Not a single movement, no matter how hard I tried. Thrusting my hand into my hair to smooth it back where it slicked against my face, I bent down to try to dig it out. Shoving rocks away from the anchor one at a time.

  If I could just get it out-

  Something behind me growled. Long, low, horrific.

  A startled scream escaped me, and I spun so fast I landed on my ass painfully. Menacing, bright blue eyes stared at me, and it seemed like each eye was bigger than my head. Massive, terrifying, deep blue scales covered the face as it seemed to rise from the cliff-like abyss below.

  "Oh Gods," I mumbled, scooting back as far as I could go. One huge foot pressed into the rock beside me as it tilted its head at me and then leaned forward. I thought it would eat me alive, thought I'd become the lunch menu for a fucking dragon.

  But it only leaned forward, touching its scales to the side of my face and neck and letting out a deep vibration that felt soothing, like a combination of a purr and a sigh. My body tensed all over when a clawed foot lifted, wrapping around my waist. I didn't move, didn't dare flinch for fear of the sight of those long, curved talons wrapped around me.

  It lifted, setting me back on the platform and giving me a stern look that seemed too humanoid to be an animal. I'd never met a dragon, hadn't even known they could genuinely exist. I'd thought them just another legend - a myth found only in books, but the subtle gold tint to the dragon's blue scales made me wonder if perhaps they were divine like the Core Gods.

  As its claws unwrapped from around me, I reached up a hand tentatively to stroke the scales on the side of its face. It purred again, before releasing me entirely and fixing me with another look, a look that communicated clearly that I was not allowed to move. Whatever was happening, I was meant to wait. That was clear.

  I nodded, feeling ridiculous that I was trying to communicate with a dragon.

  It turned suddenly, narrowing its eyes as it stalked back down the cliff. I knelt on the platform, leaning over to stare down at where the dragon approached, one that looked exactly like it - big eyes, glorious wings and shiny scales. The only difference between the two massive creatures was that the other was a deep burnished gold.

  I wanted to scream when I saw the tiny figures at the base of the cliff. They alternated between hiding behind rocks and pressing forward. Six figures.

  Only six.

  Ashric's black hair gleamed as he made his way up, his hands waving about as he commanded the animated corpses of animals he'd gathered along their journey to get here, if I had to guess.

  He was the closest to me, using the distractions of birds, bears, other mythical creatures, everything he could gather to sneak his way closer and closer. The blue dragon focused on those animals, but it was the way the gold dragon fixated on the four figures as he let out steam filled breaths in warning.

  But the four of them pressed on, with Char wincing from further below and trying to keep up. He held a hand to his side, and the red that slicked his palm made my heart clench. Injured and bleeding, I fought the urge to vault to my feet and rush to his rescue.

  I wouldn't get far. Wouldn't be able to reach him.

  And with Ashric closing in, something inside me died. Bleeding like he was, there was no way that Char could make it to me. No way all five of them could rescue me before Ashric could.

  I contemplated jumping off the platform and down the cliffs. Death would be more welcome than that future.

  Lathyn came out of nowhere, approaching my platform quietly and touching my hand. Then he reached down, touching a hand to the shackle on my ankle. It sprung open, and I kept quiet as he pressed a finger to his lips and tried to guide me off the platform. I shook my head. I wouldn't leave with him, wouldn't let him win. I would wait for the five, even if it meant condemning myself to Ashric. I couldn't give up on them. Not again.

  "Mireyah, you have to come with me," he whispered, his voice pleading. "Ashric will get to you first. We both know it. Char was injured at the start of the Trials and they can't take you unless all of them make it past the dragons. They have to win as a group or not win at all."

  "I won't leave them," I told him, my voice breaking when I thought of an eternity of Ashric's hands on me. Those black, soulless eyes trying to break me at every possible moment.

  He sighed, seeming to debate with himself for a moment, before he touched a hand to my cheek. It was a slow, searing sensation that spread to my throat. When my eyes widened on him, he gave me a satisfied nod before grabbing me around the waist and hauling me off the platform. I tried to scream, but found I couldn't.

  Something felt muffled, like my voice had been stolen, and pain exploded in my throat. "Lathyn!" I wheezed, punching at his back as he thrust me up and over his shoulder. “What did you do?” I screeched out.

  "I will not watch you condemn yourself to a life of suffering for them." He grunted when my fist struck his hip, and I pulled my hand away to look at the red that stained it. I immediately felt terrible, hadn't wanted to hurt him, but I needed him to put me down.

  He turned, climbing down the backside of the cliff as carefully as he could with me over his
shoulder. When he fell, he caught himself with his hands and risked his own body and injuries to save me from being harmed. He did everything right, navigated the sharp cliff face with speed and agility that would have been even more impressive if not for his injury and the weight of me on his shoulder.

  He was everything I should have wanted in a Sire, but I didn't. I wanted my men, and my eyes burned with the realization that it was lost. I would have cried if the air wasn't so dry. If the gold dragon hadn't roared his fury behind us and filled the sky with fire.

  Ashric peeked over the edge, glaring down at me where I was thrown over Lathyn's shoulder, and hurried after us.

  With my men nowhere in sight, I sobbed quietly. "He's coming. Ashric’s coming."

  "Let him come. I won't let him have you," Lathyn soothed, rubbing a hand over my leg as we came to the bottom of the hillside and he darted into the woods. I put my hand to his wound, trying to apply pressure when fresh blood leaked out with every move he made.

  "Put me down. I can run," I told him, but he shook his head as he panted for breath. Birds screeched from behind us, the sound making my ears ring. When the first one dove into the woods, eyes shining and filmed over with death, I ducked my head down in fear. I knew that Ashric wouldn't care if I was harmed, so long as it meant he could win.

  I was just a trophy.

  Lathyn threw himself to the ground, cradling me to absorb the blow as the bird swept too close. He stood over me, reaching out a hand when the bird came down once again and caught it in the air. His face twisted in fury as he squeezed it, and those glazed over eyes turned blue as he pumped his poison through its veins.

  I didn't understand why, because if it was already dead, what good could it do?

  But when he tossed it to the side, the bird shrank in on itself until all that remained was a puddle of blood and gore. No feathers, no beak and no bones like he'd burned away all that held it together with acid.

  I fought back the urge to vomit, staring at his hands in apprehension when he reached for me again.