“You do not even know if you are going to find answers in this village. Come back to the castle. If you insist on trying to help, we can form another plan. It is not safe for you in that forest.”
“It is already past the set of the moon, Taveon. It would be more dangerous to trek back now when it’s dark.”
“So then come back first thing in the morning.”
“We will reach the village tomorrow. We must press on.” Bree reached out a hand through the bond and tried to wrap it gently around his, feeling his essence underneath her fingertips. “I know you’re worried about me, Taveon, but nothing can harm me as long as we are linked.”
“You know that is wrong,” Taveon said. “Yesterday, the beast harmed you. You may be immortal, but you can feel pain just as easily as anyone else. Just like me. And I know how terrible the pain can be. If the wrong beast got ahold of you, it would tear you to shreds and continue to do so until your soul left your body. But your soul would remain. The pain would just continue and continue and continue…”
Fear churned through Bree’s gut, but she did her best to hide it from Taveon. Indeed, it was a terrifying thought, but one she refused to dwell on right now. There was no turning back now. Not only for Taveon but for Rafe and Dagen and the entire Court.
Taveon must have felt her determination through the bond because he fell silent. Moments passed with no more sound but the flickering fire as Eurig leaned over it, turning the wood over the flames. But then Taveon’s voice sounded loud once more in her ear. “Very well. But you will return to the castle as soon as you discover what has happened in the village. Ride through the forest as fast as you can. No more camping there. I will not allow it.”
Bree had to smile. He might not be the true-born son of King Midas, but he was a King all the same.
“You look like you’re in some kind of trance,” Eurig said when she moved to his side after throwing up a slight wall between her and Taveon. “Were you talking to my old friend, then?”
“Did I really look like I was in a trance?” Bree asked. She never considered her expression when speaking to Taveon through the bond, but Eurig had a point. It probably looked weird, seeing Bree doing nothing more than staring off into space with eyes distant and mind somewhere completely other than where she currently was.
Eurig gave a nod. “I hope everything is still well at the castle?”
“It would seem so. But who knows?” Bree sighed and wrapped her arms around her knees, pulling them close to her chest. “He tried to order me to go back. He is not a big fan of the two of us spending the night in the forest.”
Eurig let out a low chuckle. “That’s because Taveon is not an idiot. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of the two of us spending the night here either.”
“Do you think one of those creatures will attack us again?” Bree asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. She didn’t want Eurig to know just how terrified she was to face another monster, especially if she was not able to face it in her own beastly form. Even though they had struck up something akin to friendship, she still felt the need to put on a show of strength in front of him.
Eurig rubbed his jaw, causing Bree’s gaze to snap onto the chiseled curves of his face. The firelight illuminated his sharp cheekbones and the full jaw that jutted out like a towering cliff. “Unlikely. That said, we need to be on our guard. It is never a good idea to relax in this forest.” He cut his eyes her way and the ghost of a smile flickered across his lips. “Are you actually admitting that you’re nervous? The great, brave Bree?”
Bree shot him a scowl. “Of course I’m not nervous. I’d just rather get some sleep than have to deal with a monster tonight.”
“If you say so.” The smile didn’t drop from Eurig’s face. That smugness. That righteousness. It irritated the hell out of Bree.
As the night deepened, Bree and Eurig took turns keeping watch over their makeshift camp in the middle of the forest. But even during her stint on the ground, with her cheek pressed against the cool dirt, Bree could not find a single moment of blissful slumber. Everything about the night had her on edge. She was all too aware of every crack in the forest. Every hoot of an owl. And every whistle of wind through the trees. And, she was far too aware of Eurig’s presence. She could hear his every sigh and smell the intoxicating scent of him every time the wind brushed past him. Mint, cinnamon, and sea. Her body was tense, and she wanted nothing more than to jump from the ground and pace back and forth until the moon rose high in the sky.
Not that she could let him know that.
When dawn finally came, Bree’s eyelids felt heavier than an elephant’s hoof. Her body ached from exhaustion from that tightly held tension that had kept her awake every moment of the night. Eurig, on the other hand, looked irritatingly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. When Bree stood and brushed the dirt from her leathers, Eurig gave her a full-length gaze, and then he raised his eyebrows.
“You look as though you’ve just spent the past eight hours on horseback instead of resting on the ground. Are you still recovering from the attack?”
Bree bit her lip. “Right. The attack. Yep, I’m still recovering. It made it kind of hard to fall asleep last night.”
Eurig still stood there gazing at her with raised eyebrows. “Why didn’t you say something? I could have tried to put a sleeping draught together for you. There are plenty of plants in these woods that could have helped.”
“And have you stomping around in the bushes in the dark and alerting every creature of exactly where we are?” Bree let out a tense laugh. “Yeah, that was not my top choice in how to spend the night.”
In the distance, branches cracked. Bree froze at the sound, her entire body going on high alert. The echo of crackling twigs was not far different than the dozens of others sounds that echoed throughout the forest, but Bree knew deep down in her gut that it was not the same. There was something more purposeful about these cracks. Like they were the result of approaching footsteps. Footsteps aimed right at their camp.
Eurig met Bree’s gaze across the fire, and he motioned for her to move to his side. Swallowing hard, she joined him on the opposite side of the flames, reaching to her belt for the dagger she kept tucked in its folds.
He jerked his head, and then pointed to her fingers and teeth.
Bree understood in an instant what he meant. He wanted her to shift into her wolf in order to fight. Her heart raced at the thought. If that were the case, then whatever was out there must be far more terrible than she wanted to imagine.
By her side, Eurig’s body was already twisting and shuddering into his lion-like form. Closing her eyes, Bree followed suit. Her beast was eager to get out, its soul yearning to join the fight. It had been forced to take a backseat the night before, and now, it wanted nothing more than to rip the attackers to shreds.
Just as soon as her claws had fully extended before her, a half a dozen snorting creatures hurtled toward them from all corners of the forest. They landed in the clearing, their sharp, glinting fangs dripping with reddish saliva. It was a sight that made Bree’s stomach turn and one that made her beast bellow in rage.
They were half her size, but they were monstrous all the same. They launched onto her back, digging their sharp little claws in her skin. Pain lanced through her body, and the beast screamed in rage. She twisted and turned, trying to shake the creatures from her back. But still, they clung on.
Several others had launched themselves onto Eurig’s back, and one had bit a chunk out of his shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see them pile on top of his form. They had pinned him to the ground, and Bree was no better off than he was.
They were going to lose. The creatures were going to win.
But then Eurig roared. The sound echoed through the forest and sunk deep into Bree’s bones. The creatures began to fly, Eurig’s strength returning to him in a flash of glory. He grabbed one after another and launched them through the air where they slammed into thick tree trun
ks or tumbled with a heavy thump onto the ground.
Bree’s face was smashed into the dirt, and she watched it all unfold with only one eye open. The pain in her back was far too unbearable for her to do anything else.
When Eurig finally turned her way, she could have sworn she saw something akin to fear flash in the lion’s eyes. But that was impossible. Eurig did not truly care what happened to Bree, especially not in his lion form. He was only helping her because of Taveon. He probably thought he’d be better off without her in his way.
But then he stormed over to her, plucking the creatures from her back and snapping them in two. He threw them into the forest, and the crack of their bodies against the trees made her stomach twist into knots. Soon, the pain was the only thing left. That and Eurig, who stood beside her with wild eyes and bloodied claws.
Chapter 18
Bree
Bree watched Eurig slowly transform back into his fae form. His limbs twisted, his bones cracked, and his face twisted into brutal agony. Her heart pounded in her chest as she watched the hair on his arms slowly slide into his skin as if they were knives being sheathed. Was this what she looked like? Is this what her body did when she made her own transformation? Bree had never watched her own shift. She wouldn’t be able to. In her head, she had tried to imagine what it looked like, but her imagination had not conjured anything as quite as violent and gruesome as this.
After several long moments where Bree felt as though she wanted nothing more than to reach out and place a hand on Eurig’s shuddering shoulder, he was finally back as himself, one fist braced on the dirt as his body curled over it. Despite herself, Bree couldn’t help but gaze at him. His muscles trembled and his skin was slick with sweat. As he stared down at the ground, his back was turned toward her. Red marks crisscrossed down the entire length of him. Wounds. No, scars. Ones that looked both old and ancient as well as new.
Slowly, Eurig lifted his eyes to meet her gaze. His voice was rough when he spoke. “I suppose you’re wondering what these are all about.” He jerked his thumb behind him, clearly referencing the multitude of scars on his back. “I had not meant for you to see them, at least not for a while. They are not something I’m proud of.”
Bree lowered herself to the ground, her knees now digging into the dirt, just like his. “Why would you be ashamed of them? We all have scars. Some are just more obvious than others.”
“Because they are a constant reminder of the weakest parts of me and what I was unable to do to save my family.”
Bree lifted an eyebrow, and her breath stilled in her lungs. “What happened, Eurig? Who gave you these scars?”
Eurig let out a long, hollow sigh, one that shuddered through his entire body. “It is such a long story. I do not want to bore you.”
She grasped his hand in hers and squeezed tight. “Stop it. You will not bore me. I want to know what happened to you.”
“Fine.” His jaw rippled as he clenched his teeth together. “If you truly wish to know, then I will tell you. But let me tend to your wounds while I do.”
Bree felt that Eurig was the one who needed to be tended to, not her. While she had a few cuts and gashes sprinkled across her skin, it was nothing compared to the deep gouge in Eurig’s leg. Her bond with Taveon would ensure she healed. Eventually. Eurig? He didn’t have that luxury. But despite her protestations, he insisted on looking at her wounds first.
Eurig grabbed a rough blanket from their rucksack and draped it around Bree’s legs as he settled in behind her. As he moved, her eyes flicked across every inch of his exposed skin. He didn’t seem the least bit self-conscious, even though he was fully naked before her. Her own cheeks were flushed from the heat of her embarrassment. She wasn’t wearing a damn thing either. Not that he seemed to notice, a fact that disappointed Bree far more than she would have expected.
His strong, rough fingers trailed across her back, and she shivered underneath his touch. He gathered her hair in his hand and gently brushed it away from her skin so that it dropped over her shoulder and spilled across her chest. Her entire body trembled, and she could not stop her heart from thundering like the hooves of a frantic horse. A part of her yearned to twist her head to look over her shoulder at Eurig, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it, not trusting how she would react if their faces came so close to one another. So, instead, she merely swallowed hard and kept her eyes focused on the dirt-packed ground beneath her.
“The cut here is quite deep,” Eurig said softly as he gently poked a finger at her wound. Pain shot through her back, and Bree winced. “I’m sorry. I did not intend to hurt you.”
“You’re not the one who hurt me, Eurig. You’re the one who saved me. Again.” Bree sucked a deep breath into her lungs and winced when Eurig’s hand traveled south toward another one of her cuts. “I thought I was improving with the whole fighting thing, but if this has shown me anything, it’s that I have way more training to do if I want to be useful to Taveon.”
“I daresay that Taveon would not agree. It seems that he understands what you are worth, even if you do not.”
Bree’s heart warmed, as well as her cheeks. She hated that the outposter had this kind of effect on her, but there was no stopping it at this point. She may have distrusted him when they’d first set out on this mission, and she certainly hadn’t liked him, but a lot had changed in only a couple of day’s time. Now, she couldn’t help but yearn to know him. To really know him.
“Speaking of knowing your worth, I think we had an agreement. I let you check out my wounds, and you promised to tell me about your scars.”
Eurig’s hand stilled on her back, and she heard a sharp intake of breath. “Very well. We did have an agreement. Where would you like me to begin?”
“At the beginning.”
Eurig let out a harsh chuckle. “If I started at the very beginning, we would be here all night and all day and for many nights and days far after.”
Bree wouldn’t say it aloud, but that didn’t sound like a terrible proposition to her, not with his strong and warm hands on her back.
“I will start with our previous ruler. King Clarke. He ruled the outposts for many centuries. He was very loved, but he was not feared. In fact, he was so loved that many believed the outposters would never see another ruler, not for many, many long centuries. Unfortunately, being loved wasn’t enough. One of our kind rose up against him and killed him while he sat on his throne.”
Bree gasped. Not because she found it difficult to believe but because she could have so easily guessed that was where Eurig’s story was headed. This realm, as beautiful as it could be, was full of so much death.
“Her name was Queen Freya. She was the King’s wife, but she had never been able to give him an heir. His death meant that she took his place on the throne, despite the hate and anger all of the outposters felt toward her because of what she’d done.”
As Eurig told his story, he spread something soft and cool across Bree’s wounds. A strange new sensation of warmth shot through her core, but this time, it was different. It had nothing to do with Eurig’s touch and everything to do with whatever magic he was rubbing into her skin. This salve was healing her.
“But even though King Clarke had no legitimate heirs, he had at least a dozen bastards.” Eurig’s voice went hard and rough, reminding Bree of the look in his eye when he often stared at the horizon, his mind somewhere far away and in the past. “I was one of these bastards. I mean, I am. Not was. I will always be his son, and the new queen knew that. And I was his eldest. She worried that the outposters would want me to become the ruler instead of her. She killed the other bastards, and then she took me prisoner. She would have killed me, too, but Taveon convinced his father to make the new queen to deal. And so she set me free.”
Bree’s heart roared in her ears, and she twisted to face Eurig, catching the crumpled expression on his face. “That is why you are so loyal to Taveon.”
Eurig gave a quick shake of his head. “That is p
art of it, but that is not all of it. You wanted to know how I got my scars. This is how. While the Queen kept me prisoner, she made sure to remind me of exactly where I stood in the grand scheme of things. So, she had me tortured. I was nothing. Nothing but an ant she could stomp out whatever she wanted. Truth be told, I still am.”
Bree stared at Eurig. He was far more than an ant, far more than nothing. If anyone was going to be stomping on anyone else, it would be him and not a queen who had killed her own husband in order to take control of the outposts on the sea. Bree swallowed hard, and she reached her hand out to Eurig, letting the tips of her fingers brush against his leg. She’d known that he’d experienced something in his past, but she’d never guessed it was quite as terrible as this.
Eurig’s gaze locked on where Bree’s fingers brushed against his skin, and a fierce heat sparked in his eyes. She stared at his chest, at the tightly-coiled muscles that rippled as he moved. She drank in his shoulders, his jaw, and those lips that looked as though they could turn any female into a writhing mess.
“You know that you should not let your Queen define who and what you are.” Bree sucked in a deep breath, forcing herself to be a little bit braver. She shifted her hand even closer, sliding her fingers further onto his leg. “You are one of the strongest fae I’ve ever met. The only one who could ever beat you in a fight is probably Taveon, but only because he has that special gift of his. He could only beat you because he cannot die.”
A slight smile lifted the corners of his mouth, and he lifted his gaze from Bree’s hand until he looked into her eyes. “You believe Taveon could beat me?”
Bree licked her lips and swallowed hard. “Couldn’t he?”
“It depends on what kind of fight we are waging.” Eurig’s hand suddenly appeared over hers, and his fingers slid between her own. His eyes were full of heat, and his words were laced with suggestion. Or at least she thought it was suggestion. Maybe he was just teasing her, like he done at least a dozen times already.
A Heart of Midnight (Dark Fae Academy Book 2) Page 12