by T. F. Walsh
With those words came the silent hum of sadness threading within her, the same emotion she’d sensed from the Creators during her dream. They’d had enough of watching the endless war between draes and other beings, and Fallen yearned to show them that love was still possible. But her insides pulled in two. A part of her craved to run toward Saber, while the other, screamed to keep her distance. Now she was stuck in the middle of a cold, empty world that no longer held the merriment it once had.
Saber closed the distance between them.
“Fuck the Creators. I’ve never felt this way toward anyone, so who are they to tell me who I should be with?”
He felt for her that much? A beam of warmth encased her, and yet she wouldn’t let herself go there. She pushed those thoughts away. This was about the safety of every magical being. Not just the two of them. “The Creators gave us life.”
“Not me. I’m a fucking Ash without a soul. The Creators didn’t select me for any mission. What if you’re wrong about them?”
She ran a hand down her face, biting back the angry words that wanted to spew out. “You’ve got a soul. But you’re too busy brooding to see the truth. We need to finish Noah, then focus on finding our mates.”
How in the world was she to track a so-called soul mate when every molecule in her body craved Saber? This sucked. Saber had her body thrumming with desperation to forget everything and run into his embrace. She’d officially gone batshit crazy. Noah had said they were chasing the wrong person when she asked about their bond. She didn’t buy his reasoning. The guy lied about everything, so why would he suddenly be honest? What if the magical bond from Noah was somehow blocking the mark from doing its thing? As far-fetched as that sounded, the possibility had her smiling.
“Sure,” Saber said. “I agree on the first half. We’ll deal with the rest later.”
Her mouth opened, but she clamped her response because he was the epitome of stubbornness. Why didn’t he just accept the entire idea?
“Put some clothes on. Then we come up with a new game plan.” She crossed the room to the fridge. Two-day-old Chinese take-out and spring rolls. Ignoring the growing ache pounding inside her skull, she threw the containers into the microwave and zapped them.
She turned around and found Saber still nude and holding his jeans, which had two massive holes at the back.
“Watch the food, and I’ll get you clothes from my neighbor.”
His eyes narrowed. “Your neighbor’s going to give you his clothes?”
“Her ex cheated on her, and she’s keeping his belongings hostage. Anyway, long story, but she’d give me a few items. The guy’s got a big build too.”
Saber reached for his shirt and tugged it over his head, the fabric falling just short of covering his hardening junk. Oh geez, she had to get him something to wear before she lured him into her bedroom and they never resurfaced.
After a quick bathroom stop, she rushed outside the apartment. Out in the hallway, she pressed her back to the door and caught her breath. Pressure burrowed into her heart and stung worse each time she remembered Saber and she weren’t meant to be.
Creators, please give me strength. How could she have allowed herself to fall for him at the worst possible time?
Half an hour later and she sat on the couch, balancing her bowl of fried rice with Kung Pao chicken on her thighs, unsure if she could stomach anything. Across the sofa, Saber shoveled a second helping into his gob. She’d even given him her spring roll, but the guy wasn’t slowing. She had bread and peanut butter if he got desperate.
After a shower, he’d gotten dressed in borrowed jeans and a tight, blue T-shirt. Better than him parading around her apartment naked and driving her lust thermometer to the moon.
She folded her legs underneath her and dug into her rice. Her stomach growled for more as the delicious morsels slid down her throat.
Her mind refused to stop picturing the prisoners in the church and how close she and Saber came to joining them. She set her bowl on the cushion, suddenly full.
“You going to eat that?” Saber eyed her fried rice.
“Go for it.”
Within moments, he’d inhaled the leftovers and scanned the empty plastic containers on the counter.
“How are we going to defeat Noah?” Fallen’s words steamrolled out. Somehow they’d ended up at square one again. No answers at the Wart Market. Noah was too powerful for them. And now the monster knew she was a dazmeu. Yep, they’d gone several feet backward in the grand scheme to overtake Noah.
Saber twisted in his seat to face her and set the stacked bowls on the floor next to the couch. “He’s only a half-drae at the end of the day with no abilities of his own. If we can separate him from the draes he’s siphoning, he’d grow weak.”
“Easier said than done.” Fallen chewed on a hangnail. Saber had a point. Noah should have only a smidgen of magic, barely enough to help him cross the veil between worlds, so how was he doing it? “Back in the church, he drew on my energy after I tried to break open the cage. He’s got to have something on him that helps with his siphoning since he drank my ability even while he was in another room.” She paused, staring at her hands. She’d read about a dozen objects used as conduits for energy, but—
“Fuck. I bet it’s that crystal thing around his neck. While I sat imprisoned, he’d always stroked the stone, held it as he walked around. I assumed the item was some dorky jewelry to go with his costume.”
Her thoughts shot to the icicle-shaped piece. “Maybe you’re right. So we get the crystal from him.” Her shoulders deflated. “Except, how do we get that close to him?”
Saber sighed and rubbed his temples. “Fuck! You know, I think I’ve seen that exact crystal in my stepfather’s underground workshop. Many years ago, he’d forgotten a clay puppy he created for his granddaughter, and I went to retrieve it.” A pinch formed on Saber’s nose as if the words resurrected painful memories. “The stone was identical. Purple and shaped like an icicle.” He tightened his hand on the armrest. “How did I forget that the whole time I was locked up? So much shit going on, my mind’s lost half the time.”
Fallen wracked her brain for stories she’d read about energy stored because, in her spare time, she read any book she could get her hands on. “Do you think it’s an apium crystal? They’re rare and only found in caves where dragons used to live. And it’s said that every apium is half of a matching pair. They’re known for holding magic.”
“I’d once asked my stepfather why he kept such a gorgeous object in his muddy crypt. He said he still searched for the other half as he planned to gift both to my stepmother as protection.”
Fallen didn’t ask what the security was against, figuring it probably had something to do with Saber.
From what she’d heard about the apium stone, energy could be drawn from one crystal and into its twin. After the transfer, the crystal locked the power inside for a short span of time, which would give her and Saber a window of time where Noah would be powerless. With the crystal, she and Saber had an advantage. Still, they needed a source of enchantment to activate them. Something she’d worry about later. First, they had to get the crystal.
“That’s great news. Just, please, don’t tell me the crypt’s in the kingdom?” At the thought of entering the realm, her stomach tightened. She’d face a raging feaster rather than sneak into the realm.
“No. It’s outside. The last time I visited the workshop, I had no idea I was an Ash. Or that my stepfather was responsible for creating me.” Saber got up and paced back and forth in front of the couch like a caged goblin.
Her heart went out to him at the prospect of returning to the place where his life began, where he was brought into this world unlawfully. Regardless of what he said, he had a soul, and that was why the Creators selected him for this mission. She was convinced of it.
Sweat glistening on Saber’s furrowed brow. With the way he had his hands stuffed into his pockets, she could tell by the bulges they were clenc
hed.
“Listen, Saber, together we’ll go to the crypt, and I’ll snatch the crystal. You can wait outside. Okay?”
She got up, grabbed the empty bowls, and took them to the kitchen, setting them into the sink.
“We get this done now.” While his words were saying the right things, his undertone wavered. “First: is there something you can take to heal your fire. Because where we’re going, we’ll need it.”
She twisted around, facing Saber, who stood with squared shoulders.
“Where exactly is the location?” Her pulse pounded in her temples.
Saber cleared his throat, ripping her out of her nightmare. “Deep in the Hoia Baciu Woods.”
She choked on her next breath as a shudder rattled her insides. Of course it would be in the same place where her mother had died. Plus, the forest had been tainted by the Blood War where cruel magic deformed everything in its sight, and now the only creatures living there killed for sport. “Are you sure we have to go in there?”
He nodded, then licked his lips. “Well, there is this other option, though I don’t recommend it.”
Something warm filled her stomach at the promise of ease. “Yes?”
“My stepfather built a portal inside his crypt that takes anyone to and from the edge of the woods. The device allowed him to travel without going into the woods when he was in a rush.”
Fallen pressed her palms to her chest, waiting for the bottom to fall out from his offering because it sounded too good to be true. Last time a half goblin promised to get her a rare moth’s wing for a spell, she ended up being kidnapped by the dickhead who’d intended to turn her into his personal cleaning maid. Instead, she wiped the floor clean with his ass.
Saber scratched his cheek, his fingertips grating against his stubble. “After the Blood War, magic seeped into everything in the Baciu forest. Now weird shit happens, like the sun moves faster when you’re there. Normal animals that wander inside seem to get stuck in this slow motion loop where they run at a snail’s pace. Time doesn’t run properly. My stepfather built the portal in that location to tap into the magical residue, but at the same time, the magic from the woods interferes with the portal. So, teleporting comes with a side effect.”
Her skin chilled. “And that is?”
Releasing a long breath, he said, “Every time my stepfather used it, he lost time. Sometimes he’d arrive on the other side a week later, other times a few days. The woods mess with time.”
“Shit!” No other words formed. That one chance where they could catch a lucky break was snuffed away. She couldn’t afford to lose time and fail the Creators. They had more than three weeks left, giving her lots of time to somehow find her soul mate. Even thinking the words haunted her, replaying like an echo. How could she ever find someone else when her world would crumble once Saber left her side? She didn’t need to wait to discover the pain while the agony burned in her chest, throbbing and torturing her at every second. She couldn’t allow everyone to die because of her heartache. She had to drive the emotions aside.
“We do this the long way then,” she said. “No magic portal.”
“Agreed. Just wanted to give you the option.”
She turned toward the window, gazing at the bright sun, as a cold dread gathered into her gut. “Kind of wish you hadn’t.”
16
The wind ripped through Saber’s hair while he soared through the sky, high above the forest, locked in Fallen’s arms. Not even her breasts pressed against his back calmed the trepidation clawing behind his ribcage at flying so high in the air. They’d avoided the trolls in the city by taking off from Fallen’s apartment’s roof. Now he would plunge to his death if he slipped through Fallen’s grasp. He held onto her forearms, his breaths increasing. Telling himself to relax wasn’t doing shit. Whenever he looked down, noting his dangling legs, panic constricted his lungs. They might as well be flying into outer space because that was how it felt.
Fallen’s wings were a flurry of motion, each snap a heartbeat in his ears. With a wingspan of less than ten feet, she wasn’t large. The dazmeuns depicted in the kingdom’s paintings were huge beasts, two to three times the size of any warhorse. Scales covered their bodies; black, others blue or bronze, glinted against the fire burning from their mouths. Only their human eyes remained.
While Fallen spat fire and had the most incredible opalescent wings, why hadn’t she shifted into a full dragon? Since dazmeuns hadn’t been seen for thousands of years, perhaps the streak of dragon DNA she inherited was limited to only partial transformation.
“How you holding up?” His voice fluttered on the wind colliding into his face. “You sure I can’t ride on your back?”
“Not happening.” Her response was snake-fast.
“Why didn’t you transform into a full dragon?”
She didn’t say anything at first and kept flying. “I don’t know how to.” The undertone to her words was sharp as if the topic touched a raw spot.
His sights dipped just as they flew over a perfect circle of flat land in the middle of the woods. Over 300 yards wide with no trees. This had been the spot of the Blood War between the two realms. Cruel magic scorched the land. Blood from the dead seeped into the ground, and now nothing grew there. The surrounding forest was affected too, which was why most drae avoided the woods at any cost.
In the distance, a thick fog lay.
“Where’s the crypt?” The jarring tone of Fallen’s voice grabbed his attention. And who could blame her trepidation when fear filled him too?
“Beyond the mist,” he called out over the lashings of winds distorting his voice. “So, we need to dip now. We’ll be safer on foot from here on.”
Fallen wasn’t dipping.
He twisted his head to glance over his shoulder, finding Fallen’s forehead bunched up into creases and her lips a tight line. “Don’t enter the Blinding Mist. We need to go into the woods.”
She shook her head. “I’m not dying today. There are deadly monsters down there. My mother always told me to steer clear of Hoia-Baciu for a reason. We cross the fog, and we’ll be there sooner.”
“You’re wrong.” The first wisps of the mist curled around them. “Up here we’re open targets and—”
His words evaporated as they hurtled forward, swallowed by a blanket of white. Fallen’s wings beat like a slow drum, booming in his ears. An invisible hand squeezed his chest.
“Fallen, we’re not safe here. Go down!” His words shook.
She jerked left.
His gut lurched, threatening to bring up the Kung Pao chicken.
“What was that?” Her question was a whisper, yet it raised the hairs on his arms.
Yeah, no one ought to listen to the Guardian who’d trained at this location. He scanned the area that blotted his vision. Whiteness erased everything. Then a shadow zipped through the mist several yards to his left.
“Fuck. Furywings already?”
“We’ll outrun them.” Another dark figure, long in shape with narrow wings, zipped past them. Then another.
“Outrunning them isn’t the problem. It’s—”
A furywing threaded in and out of the fog across from them. A blend of an eagle and snake, the creature’s lengthy body was covered in gray feathers, and its wings beat furiously. Standing three feet tall, the bird attacked everything, including its own kind, with poisonous darts from its throat, rendering their prey immobile. Furywings were created at the command of the queen to keep her kingdom safe from the neighboring realm, Aripi.
Fallen stopped, hanging midair, her wings beating back and forth, creating a gust of wind. “Shit. I don’t feel the fire in my chest. I can’t burn them.”
Her arms readjusted around Saber. Not the best moment for her to lose her hold. The furywings would swoop after him, attacking with teeth and poison. He’d be dead before he hit the ground.
His pulse hammered in his skull and time seemed to stand still.
Furywings circled them.
Fallen trembled against him. His gaze swept back and forth for a possible escape out of the fucked up mess.
“W-what do we do?” A quiver lined Fallen’s words.
A furywing looped closer, its beak pried open. The creature bared two rows of sharp teeth and unleashed a deafening squawk.
Another encroached from his right, chestnut brown in color, lifting its beak. A tiny hole stretched open in its neck, and the tip of a dart slid forward.
He broke out in a cold sweat. “Dive! Now!”
“Fuck!” Fallen swung left and plunged into a deathly descent, every thought bludgeoned by the free falling sensation telling him he was going to hit the ground with a splatter and die. Saber was a rag doll. His body tossed in every direction, Fallen’s legs crashing into his.
Furywings dove alongside them. Two of them collided. A cacophony of squawks detonated.
“Keep going down. Don’t stop.” Furywings always remained above the forest canopy.
Wings tucked by her side, they gained momentum.
The air plastered him against her body, their legs dangling. The wind in his face made it impossible to breathe. “T-told you. B-bad idea.”
Fallen gasped, her heartbeat pounded against his back. “Shut up.”
If this didn’t kill him, damn, the furywings would finish the job. His stomach balanced on the back of his throat.
They rushed forward. His eyes fixed on the whiteness, searching for any sign of trees.
A dark form arrowed closer. A furywing materialized with its chin lifted, revealing a tiny aperture in its neck, promising death. A poisonous missile darted out and flew for Fallen’s head.
Saber jutted an arm outward. A dull thud whacked into the base of his thumb. Biting back the yell grating his throat, he plucked the dart out and tossed it. The tingling sensation writhed within his hand and spread upward, followed by numbness. Double fuck.