“Haze, are you okay?” Marco crawls up to me and studies my arm, his eyes narrowing in anger. “What happened?”
“Hazel provoked him!” Braith snaps, jumping to her feet, only to stagger when her leg buckles underneath her.
“I wanted answers!” I hiss back.
“If he doesn’t want to tell us, he doesn’t have to!”
“We have a right to know!”
“We have a right to nothing! The only thing that we have the right to do is stop the Wyrms!”
“How can we do that if he won’t tell us anything?”
“You have to trust him!”
“But he’s given me no reason to trust him! He kidnapped you and hurled us against a fucking wall!”
“Because of you!”
“How can you have so much faith in him? We don’t know what he wants.”
“He wants the Wyrms gone.”
“But then what? What will he do once they’re all dead?”
My friend shrugs in reply and turns her back on me.
“Let me see that arm, Haze. We might need to find a stick to splint it,” Marco says. He touches my arm softly but recoils when I hiss in pain.
“Is it broken?”
“No, just a sprain,” he says. “We can’t exactly show up at a hospital.”
“Well, thanks for provoking the giant dragon, Hazel. You’ve done us all a favour.” Braith clambers onto Damayanti with her lips curled back in pain.
“Wait, where are you going?” Marco demands as the black and white dragon starts to trot away.
“I dunno. The lab, maybe.”
“The lab? What lab?”
“The one where Draca was created,” I say. “He wants us to go there.”
“So I’m going, with or without you,” Braith snorts.
“If you’re going to be a bitch, go without us,” I snap, though I instantly regret my words.
For a second pain flashes in Braith’s brown eyes before she turns around in a huff. Damayanti glances back solemnly at her friends before slowly disappearing through the green foliage with Ares trotting along, blissfully unaware of the argument. But I know Braith; she won’t go far. Once she cools off she’ll come back.
“Haze, tell me everything.”
I tell him what happened with Draca, and Marco is especially unhappy to hear that Draca flung us against a wall.
“So now what do we do?” he asks.
“We wait for Braith to come back.”
“But she went without us.”
“She’ll be back once she cools off. As much as she hates to admit it, she does like spending time with us.” I bury my head in his chest for comfort. “Who knows what will be there?”
“I dunno.”
“Hopefully not another big dragon.”
With a sigh, he kisses my forehead softly. “I still don’t know why I follow you around.”
“Because you love me?”
With a chuckle, he replies: “Oh, yes. Plus I’d miss the sex.”
“Shut up.”
“What? I would. Speaking of which, we haven’t done it in a while.”
“What? The woods making you horny?”
“More like you making me horny.” He breathes, a slight bulge now pressing against my back from his crotch.
“We’re in the middle of a forest.”
“So?”
“Braith storming off and a story of a giant dragon get you hard, huh?”
“No way. I’ve missed being close to you, that’s all.”
“We’ve been sharing a bed for the past few months.”
“Yeah, but we had to take shifts looking out for Wyrms so it’s not as if we spent loads of time together. Plus, who knows when we’ll get the chance to do it next? You can clean us both afterwards.” He wriggles his eyebrows and places a kiss on my neck.
With a gasp, I reply: “Fine, but you better have condoms.”
“One of the first things I grabbed from the house before we left, plus food.”
“Nice to see you’ve got your priorities straight.”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
25
Chapter Twenty-Five
“We really should go after Braith,” I say, packing our leftover food into a bag and strapping it to Aqueous’ back.
“Come on, you can’t say you didn’t want to do it.” Marco teases.
“I did, but now I feel bad because Braith might be in danger. She hasn’t come back.”
My boyfriend hauls a bag over Drea’s neck. “It’s Braith. She got kidnapped by a large dragon and came back best mates with it; she’ll be fine.”
“I guess she did well against the Wyrms, and the protectors.”
“She sure did. We wouldn’t have lasted long without her.”
“True.” I climb on my companion’s back; he has been itching to leave for the past hour.
All the dragons seem uneasy; they must not like being vulnerable in the forest. If the Wyrms were to find us there’s not a lot of space to fight. The second Marco’s backside touches Drea’s back our dragons are speed-walking forward, swatting branches out of the way.
“Hey, do you even know where you’re going?” Marco leans down to ask Drea, but she snorts in reply.
My companion looks up at me uneasily, but I’d recognise the guilt in his eyes any time.
“You saw Braith, didn’t you?”
My companion nods solemnly.
“What?” Marco calls.
“They saw Braith.”
“So? Maybe she flew over.”
“Or maybe she saw us and got upset. Maybe we should have gone after her instead of thinking she’d come back.”
My boyfriend sighs. “I know, but we need some time alone, you know? Braith throws strops over anything. She probably went to cool down, came back, saw us and got angry again. Even if we went after her she probably would have found something to get pissed about.”
He’s probably right, so I keep my mouth shut. Life was so much easier when we were in camp, our little group trying our best to find out what our markings mean. I still wish for those days, when Wes was still my friend and we were all together.
And I had Rocky.
A fresh wave of sadness washes over me at the thought of my brother. I still read his letter every night; it makes me feel as if I never left him. I wish that I hadn’t had to leave him behind.
“Haze? You okay?”
“Just thinking,” I murmur.
“About Braith? It’s not your fault, you know.”
“Rocky.”
“You miss him?”
With tears starting to blur my vision, I whisper a quick: “Yeah.”
“I’m sure he misses you too.”
“I know he does. I hope he’s okay. I want to see him again… one day.”
“You will,” Marco promises.
Aqueous lets Bluey and Drea take the lead as tears fall down my cheeks. Marco glances behind me, but allows me space to be by myself. I grow uneasy at the lack of light; it’s the time when the Wyrms usually come out. It might take them a day or two to follow our trail, so hopefully we have time to rest and be ready for another attack should it come.
“I can’t see why we can’t just fly there,” Marco mutters under his breath, thinking I didn’t hear.
“Because if we fly over the city we could get caught,” I reply, making him jump. “Plus we can’t fly near Aria.”
“Are we going near Aria?”
“We have to; Draca said northwest, which is past it.”
Marco grimaces. “Maybe we should keep walking.”
“It’s good that we agree now,” I tease.
A twig snapping behind us makes me jump and whirl around, expecting to see a Wyrm, but I see something that I haven’t seen in months.
Marine.
She stands just behind Aqueous, her head cocking from side to side as she stares at me with large, empty eyes. She points one finger at me, opening her mouth slowly.
“D
raca? Why are you doing this?” I stutter, cowering as Marine begins to walk around my companion to face me.
“Haze? Who are you talking to?”
I ignore Marco as Marine gets close enough to grab my hand and pull me off my companion. Her skin is freezing cold to the touch and hard, as if she hadn’t seen the sun in years. I land on the dirty ground in a snotty heap but she quickly pulls me up.
“End. It.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do; we’re going to end the Wyrms.”
Her eyes widen slightly. “End it.”
“We’re trying, believe me.”
“Haze? Who are you talking to? There’s no-one there.” Marco comes up behind me to pull me away, but Marine increases her grip on my arm.
“It’s Marine,” I answer through pain as her grip gets too tight.
“What does she want?”
“She wants me to end it.”
“End what?”
“It,” Marine answers, moving forwards so much that our foreheads are pressed together. “Save us.”
“Save you? From what?”
“Save us,” she repeats, her eyes growing more fearful.
“Please tell-” Before I can finish my sentence, she vanishes.
Draca said that he controlled the visions. I haven’t seen Marine since he told us about the Wyrms. Why is he making her appear again now?
“Haze? You okay?” Marco asks gently, rubbing my shoulders as my arm drops down to my side.
“Yeah. She wants me to save her.”
“From what?”
“I dunno… But she seemed scared. The Wyrms must be much worse than we thought.”
“As if they could get any worse.”
“But why would Draca show me that? I haven’t seen her for ages.”
“Maybe he’s trying to warn you about something.”
“Surely there can’t be anything else to warn us about.”
“With all the shit that’s going on, I wouldn’t be surprised.” He leads me back over to Aqueous. “Come on, we have to keep moving. This forest gives me the creeps.”
Silently, I climb onto my companion and motion for him to keep moving. But now I have so many questions about Marine. Why could no-one else see her? I thought everyone could.
But her appearance doesn’t make me feel any less uneasy about what we’re about to walk into.
* * *
After finding shelter under the trees to rest for the night, the next day we continue on our journey, hoping to see Braith any minute. I still haven’t got over the appearance of Marine last night, and what it could mean, but all that gets pushed to the back of my mind as we near the city.
“We’ll keep our distance and skirt around it,” Marco promises.
“Can we stick to the trees?”
“We can until we get close to the camp. They’ll probably have guards everywhere looking for us.”
“But it’s been ages; surely they would have given up by now.”
“We can only hope.”
We carefully skirt around the bleak city, staring distastefully at all the ugly buildings. It’s far too silent for my liking. It feels like someone could jump out and spot us at any moment. But I brush that thought away when I think about how far away we are; no-one could see us out here unless they stumbled on us by chance. Once the city starts to shrink behind us, I let out a sigh of relief. One obstacle down; one to go.
The field that we ran across months ago as we headed towards the city is just ahead, and it brings back memories of our journey here. All three of us.
The grass is still a vibrant green, and is covered in footprints from various dragons and humans, making me feel another twinge of uneasiness at the possibility of being discovered. We’re not strong enough to handle too many people at once.
Dread falls over me as we go into the forest towards Aria. We could get caught by the protectors, the Wyrms, or even someone from Aria. There’s no guarantee that we’ll escape unscathed. Plus, we would have to be lucky to not be seen by anyone, and I think we used all our luck passing by the city. Someone should have noticed us then, but they didn’t. Thinking back on it now, it was quiet. Too quiet.
“Marco, I’ve got a horrible feeling about this,” I gulp, my stomach turning somersaults.
“We’ll be fine, okay?”
“Actually, you will not be fine.”
That familiar voice makes me shudder as Ray steps out of the trees, a posse of Wyrms behind him. Aqueous perks up at the sight of Winter, but she doesn’t meet his gaze.
“How did you know we were here?” Marco asks, making Drea move backwards as Ray takes a threatening step forward.
“The Wyrms noticed you were coming back,” the blond boy replies, motioning to the Wyrms hissing behind him. “I came to greet you.”
“Well, thanks, but we’re not staying.”
“But you are.” Ray’s mouth stretches into a wide, crazed grin. “The Wyrms need you.”
“I’m not doing anything for them!” I snap.
His head turns slowly towards me, but I duck as he raises a hand to hurl a rock at me. It flies harmlessly overhead, crashing into a tree behind me and splitting it in two. Aqueous growls as the Wyrms slither closer, the thrill of a hunt shining in their crimson eyes.
“We mean it. We’re not going with you,” Marco warns, but his voice breaks slightly as Ray turns to him once more.
“You have to. Otherwise, Rocky and Mason will suffer.”
“No! Don’t hurt Rocky!” I cry out.
“Haze, he’s bluffing!” Marco snorts. “The Wyrms need you guys for something; he wouldn’t hurt them.”
Ray’s dark expression falters slightly but it quickly comes back. “I will kill them if I have to. Do not make me.”
The thought of Rocky dead makes bile rise in my throat. I can’t let him die.
“Enough of this!” one Wyrm hisses, slithering in front of Ray. “We’ll take them by force.”
Ray steps back obediently as the Wyrms form a tight circle around us, baring their sharp teeth. Bluey roars and charges at a Wyrm that wasn’t ready, knocking it back several feet. Aqueous sits down and slides me off his back effortlessly as the remaining Wyrms close in. Two Wyrms dart forward and coil around my companion, hissing victoriously even though they haven’t won yet. Drea grabs one Wyrm by the tail and rips it off of the black dragon, shaking it wildly as it tries to bite her. One of the remaining Wyrms slithers towards me, its mouth open in a dark smile. Like the time in the field where I faced the Wyrms, panic starts to rise in my chest as I conjure up the shark. It bashes into the Wyrm constantly, wearing it down as it pushes it towards the split tree. The Wyrms backs into one of the branches, impaling its side and staining the grass beneath it with blood. With a flick of my wrist, the shark jumps down the Wyrm’s throat, collapsing into a puddle. The Wyrm chokes as water streams out of its mouth.
While this is going on, I don’t notice the Wyrm come up next to me before it’s too late. It pins me to the ground under its body weight before I can get up.
“You are coming with us. You are not yet ripe, but when you are, we want you nearby.”
“Fuck off!”
Aqueous crashes into the Wyrm’s side and digs his claws into its hide, grabbing it by the neck and flinging it away from me. Once the adrenaline wears off, the panic comes back and I start to hyperventilate. The Wyrm that I was fighting a minute ago now lays motionless on the dusty ground. Raising my hand towards it, the puddle of water around it reforms into the shark, which then flies down the throat of the Wyrm that was on top of me. I try to ignore the tightening in my chest as the Wyrm drowns. Once it flops to the ground, Aqueous bites deeply into its neck, making sure that it’s really dead.
My breathing starts to become more and more urgent as I look around at the two remaining Wyrms. Bluey and Drea have one each, and Marco is distracting both Wyrms by running so the dragons can get wounds in. My companion drops down in front of me, his blue eyes filled with f
ear.
“I… I just… need a minute…” I get out between breaths.
Aqueous nods and turns his attention back to the fights behind him, so he doesn’t notice when a rock smacks against his head. Winter lands in front of my companion, her lips pulled back in a snarl. The black dragon presses his ears against his scales and shakes his head slowly, but Winter growls in response.
Please fight, Aqueous.
Winter stamps her feet, making small towers of rocks sprout out of the ground behind her. Finally finding the courage to fight, Aqueous shoots a stream of water at one of the towers, and it explodes almost immediately. With a snarl of anger, Winter knocks one of the towers over, sending a landslide of rocks towards Aqueous. The black dragon dodges them easily, and I have to crawl behind a tree as rocks fly towards me. The two dragons throw themselves at each other, clawing and biting at each other’s necks like rabid dogs. My companion lands the first blow in her shoulder, breaking off a few blue scales.
“No!” Ray’s scream snaps my gaze away from my companion to him. He rushes towards the black dragon, but I intercept with a stream of water. The threat of Ray snaps me out of my panic as he turns his attention towards me.
“Hazel, you will come with me!”
“I will not!” I snort back.
The blond boy lets out an inhuman snarl as rocks fly up from the ground and attach to his fists. He bashes the rocky boulders together once and then smiles darkly at me, making me shudder. Pulsing black veins spread across his arms and neck as he faces me with a maniacal grin. With a screech of fury, he rushes towards me. I create a shield of water in front of me, but he charges through it and bashes my side as he passes. With a grunt I fire a stream of water at his feet, making him trip over and the rocks on his hands crumble to dust.
“You have become stronger,” Ray chuckles, rising to his feet. “But, unfortunately for you, so have I.”
The ground around me starts to shake violently. Unable to stand, I crumple to my knees. Sheets of dirt crumble into the ground, leaving a crater around me that leads to darkness.
“Come with me now, or I will drop you,” Ray warns.
“But you can’t. You said it yourself: the Wyrms need me.”
This makes him pause for a second, long enough for me to shoot two streams of water at my feet, effectively propelling myself to safety just as that piece of earth falls into the pit. Unable to control my landing, I smack into a tree, smashing the breath out of my body. As I scramble to my feet, Ray walks across the crater, towers of rocks following his feet as he walks across. He raises his hands and a ring of rocks shoot towards my neck, coiling tightly so I can’t breathe.
Venom and Earth Page 20