“Once we start, we have to finish,” she warned. “We need to work fast. We—”
“We? You mean me.” I couldn’t keep the snap out of my voice.
It was fear talking. We could just leave, we could just go, but I had to do this because I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t take the opportunity to cut one of Oblivion’s heads off.
I sliced into the roots, and the chamber erupted in a shrill scream. My grip faltered.
“Faster!” Celnith urged.
I hacked all the way through and moved on to the next one.
“Stop. Stop.” Nadine’s voice was a reedy cry. Her body jiggled as if she was trying to shake me off.
I hacked through the second root and ran to the third one.
“Stop,” she cried again, and then there was silence.
“Keep cutting.” Dareth hopped from one foot to the other.
“Hello again, little one.”
My body grew cold because that voice was etched into the deep recesses of my memory.
Oblivion.
I started work on the final root. Focus. Don’t speak to it. Don’t look at it.
“I thought I sensed you,” Oblivion said conversationally. “You’ve come far. Strong and eager, but you can’t escape me. Not for long. I’m everywhere, little one. Fighting me is futile.”
Come on. The bone did its work, and the root was free of the ground. Black blood seeped out onto the earth, and I couldn’t help but raise my head to look at the undine mother, to look into Oblivion’s eyes.
Nadine watched me impassively, mouth wide open as Oblivion’s voice poured out. “This is nothing,” it said. “A mere distraction.” Nadine’s eyes began to droop, and the black veins began to melt away. “But together, we can be so much more. You belong with me, little one. I’ve seen it, and soon, so shall you.”
Nadine’s eyes closed, and the fungus lighting the room began to dim.
“Quick,” Celnith said. “The back of the chamber. There’s an exit.”
Distant yells drifted into the chamber as I ran around Nadine’s dying body. A wooden door was built into the rock face. Dareth tugged, and it opened easily. We ducked through into the tunnel beyond and broke into a sprint. The lights were dimming fast.
“She’s dying,” Celnith said.
I picked up speed. “And what happens when she dies?”
“The underground haven will collapse.”
“Please tell me that does not include this tunnel,” Dareth said.
“I don’t lie,” Celnith replied.
Crud.
My body was flooded with heat and energy – Celnith’s power. I grabbed Dareth around the waist, tucked him against my side, and broke into a dead sprint.
“Almost there.” Celnith’s tone was tight with worry.
Please, please, please. And then I was slamming full force into a barrier. A door.
“The latch, the latch!” Celnith yelled.
My fingers were clumsy, brushing metal and lifting just as the lights went out.
Chapter Seven
The door swung open and spat us out onto frozen ground. I lay on my front, Celnith hugging my back, as we both sucked in the winter chill air. We were in a clearing, and the huge tree that had just ejected us stood behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see the door hewn into the trunk swing closed and become one with the tree.
Was this how the undines got about? How they’d snuck up on Horatio, the griffin, and his daughter, Mirage?
“We made it,” Dareth groaned. “Oh, my heart, my legs.”
“What are you moaning about?” Celnith snapped. “We carried you most of the way.”
We. Again.
Time for you to leave now, Berstuk said.
But he wasn’t speaking to me. He was addressing the parasite on my back.
I pulled myself up onto my knees, ignoring the icy wetness that seeped through the material of my britches to kiss my skin.
“The deal’s over, Celnith. Get off me.”
This was the moment she’d turncoat, the moment she could go back on her word, and my pulse was hammering in my veins because what if she said no? What if she decided she liked being stuck to me? My hand slid to my dagger. I’d hack her off if I had to.
There was a moment of silence, and then she sighed wearily. “This might hurt a little.”
Pain tore me open, and for a moment my lungs refused to suck in a breath, and then I was face down on the icy ground again, hands splayed as the weight lifted off me with fiery lances.
The pain subsided as quickly as it had come, leaving a dull throb in its wake.
I took a huge gulp of air as tears stung my eyes. “Crud, that hurt.”
“I warned you,” Celnith said.
Dareth helped me up, his wizened face concerned. “You okay, lass?”
I wrapped my arms around my torso, hugging myself. “I’m fine.”
But Celnith wasn’t. She stood trembling in the snow. Her body smaller now, curled in on itself.
“Go,” she said. “You kept your part of the bargain, and we cut off one of Oblivion’s heads.”
“You know …” I took a step closer to her. “You know what it is?”
Her lids snapped down and peeled back up slowly. “I saw it coming. I tried to warn Nadine, but she wouldn’t listen. She was seduced by the promise of power. Greedy, arrogant creature. I saw you too. You must live, or we all die.”
She was shaking now.
“Celnith, what’s happening to you?”
“The cold will kill me in a few hours. My body isn’t equipped to survive in such elements without a host.”
Don’t even think about it, Berstuk said. You already have the weight of a world on your shoulders.
But this creature had saved my life; if I could keep her alive until we could find her another host, then I had to offer. “Celnith, I …”
“Don’t.” Her lips contorted in a grimace. “If you offer, I may be selfish and accept. But I am not a part of your journey. In fact, I do not see myself in my visions at all.” Her eyes were sad. “And yet I did not want to die in that chamber underground. But here”—she looked up—“under the vast sky with the breeze on my face …”
“Celnith?”
There was silence.
Dareth cleared his throat, his voice strangely choked when he spoke. “Her body is conserving energy now. It won’t be long until she’s gone.”
You need to get back to the others, Berstuk reminded me. They’ll be frantic.
He was right. We had a bigger mission, and I couldn’t allow anything to distract me from it.
“Dareth, can you find the lake?”
He nodded. “Follow me.”
Leaving Celnith and the clearing behind, we set off in what I hoped was the right direction back to the lake.
* * *
The trees were thinning.
“We’re almost there,” Dareth said. He glanced back at me warily. “I’ll lead you, but then I’m off.”
He was scared. It was obvious in the darting of his sharp blue eyes and his stiff gait.
“My companions won’t hurt you.”
He made a scoffing sound. “You humans, so naïve. Ya know what I am. Ya know what I can do, but they’ll ‘ave seen it. So, hurting me will be first instinct.”
“Do you intend to use your ability on us?”
He slowed and then came to a halt to look up at me. His brow crinkled in a frown. “Ya lookin’ to make a deal?”
Our quest could be long, it would be dangerous, and allies, any allies, could be the tipping point between winning and losing. “You can travel with us as long as you don’t use your ability to … to make anyone …”
“Fuck?”
“Um, yes.”
His eyes narrowed. “But if they fuck o’ their own accord, can I feed?”
“Will it hurt anyone if you do?”
He looked a little shifty. “Not hurt per se.”
“Dareth …” I injected
warning into my tone.
“They might get a little woozy, a little weak for a few hours. Nothing compared to if I weave my glamour.”
“What happens if you weave your glamour?”
“They usually die.”
I stared at him. “What?”
“My glamour siphons life force. It makes me young, and so they grow old, rapidly.”
Like an incubus? I’d read about those. “Do not use your glamour.”
He sighed heavily. “I give ya me word. Now, can we get goin’? I’m freezing me rocks standing here.”
I nodded, and we continued through the trees that were indeed getting sparser, and then the reeds came into view, followed by the frozen bog.
“It’s been too long.” A booming voice drifted across the bog. “We must accept facts.”
“Shut up!” The Raven’s voice was shrill with panic. “I would know. I would know if she was dead.”
The lake came into view, and so did the figures standing on it. The Raven crouched by the golden body of Mirage. Fenn and his men stood in a cluster on the far edge of the lake, and Veles stood in the center, his back to me, his shoulders slumped.
I stepped onto the ice, and the Raven’s head snapped up. His eyes locked on me.
“Wynter …”
Veles turned slowly, his chest heaving, his face a mask of devastation that cracked at the sight of me, and then he was hurtling across the lake toward me. The rope of hope I’d been clinging to ever since I’d found myself in the kelpie’s grasp snapped, and the terror I’d held at bay flooded me. My knees buckled, my eyes filled with hot tears, and then Veles’s arms were around me, hauling me up against his chest. His heat, his hard body, his scent surrounded me. I clutched at his furs, pulling myself closer still. His stubbled jaw rasped against my cheek, and then his mouth found mine in a crushing, salty kiss as our tears mingled on our lips. He broke the kiss but planted several across my face before returning to my lips, and then we were laughing through our tears because I was alive, and he was here, and we were together again.
I think I’m going to be sick, Berstuk drawled in my head. But I couldn’t find it in my heart to be mad at him.
Veles slowly pulled back to study me, and then his gaze slid over my shoulder and his face hardened. I turned my head to follow his gaze to find Dareth hopping from foot to foot.
Veles’s lips curled in a snarl. “Who the fuck are you?”
Chapter Eight
“Why won’t she wake up?” Fenn studied Mirage’s prone form.
“Venom,” Dareth said. “The undines’ bite can cause hallucinations, paralysis, and unconsciousness.”
Fenn frowned. “How long does it last?”
“I dunno, depends on the target.”
The Raven hauled the griffin into his arms. “We need to get back to Horatio. He needs help.”
He wouldn’t look at me. Why wouldn’t he look at me?
He led the way off the lake and into the forest. It didn’t take long to get to the spot where we’d found Horatio. But this time there was no rustle of wings, no low moan of greeting. The griffin was silent and unmoving.
“No!” The Raven laid Mirage on the ground beside her father and then pressed his palms to the larger griffin’s throat. “Oh, thank the gods. He still has a pulse, but it’s weak.”
“He’s lost too much blood,” Grendel said. “Look at the snow.”
He was right. The snow was crimson, wet, and slushy beneath the creature. It wouldn’t be much longer before he was dead. Unless …
An idea unfurled in my mind, tenuous but probable. “Dareth … do you think Celnith could save him if they—”
“Yes.” The gancanagh’s eyes lit up. “Their combined life force could overcome her inability to survive in this climate, and as Celnith’s kind heal quickly once bound to her, so would the griffin.”
“What are you two talking about?” Fenn asked.
“Who is Celnith?” Veles added.
I locked gazes with Veles. “I’ll explain later. But right now, you need to come with me. The rest of you stay with Horatio.”
Dareth was like a homing beacon. He led Veles and me through the forest without doubting a single turn, almost as if the place was mapped out in his mind.
“You’re a tracker?” Veles said.
“Use ta be, long time ago, before the world went ta shit.”
We emerged in the clearing to find Celnith frozen and still. Frost clung to her translucent limbs, which had taken on a blue hue, and her slanted eyes were closed.
“What the fuck?” Veles took a step back.
“Please, tell me you’re not afraid of spiders.”
“Not the regular sized ones, no.”
I studied her. “Dareth … is she dead?”
“No. If she was dead, she’d be on her back with her legs curled in.”
“We need to get her to Horatio. I think they can help each other.”
Veles shuddered and then strode toward the spider fey. He lifted her into his arms, his face contorted in a grimace. “Let’s get this over with.”
We made it back to Horatio’s clearing in record time, probably because Veles was practically running, eager to drop the weight he was carrying. I wouldn’t have pegged the god of death to be the squeamish type, and it was endearing to see that he had normal fears too.
The clearing broke out in exclamations.
“What is it?” Grendel asked. He reached out and prodded Celnith.
“Don’t!” My reaction was instinctive. I owed the creature my life. “She helped us escape. If not for her, we’d still be down there, probably being feasted on by the kelpies.”
Grendel’s expression changed to one of curiosity. “But what is … she?”
“Fomorian, like me,” Dareth said. “We carry the blood of the invaders in our veins, a race that traveled across the Sea of Trinity to get here but failed to subdue the Tuatha. They did, however, sow their wild oats.” He grinned, showcasing surprisingly even, white, youthful-looking teeth for one so old. “She can save his life. But he needs to consent to it.”
And we needed to wake her. “Celnith?” I placed my palms on either side of her head. “Celnith, wake up, please.”
“We need to warm her up,” the Raven said.
Veles shrugged off his furs and draped them over the creature while the Raven spoke softly to Horatio.
“Old friend. Can you hear me? You need to open your eyes. Mirage is safe. We have her. She needs you.”
The griffin stirred at the same time that Celnith opened her eyes.
My pulse quickened. We could do this. “Celnith, could you take a griffin as a host?”
Her lids slowly peeled up until I was staring at my reflection in the blackness of her pupils.
“Yes.” Her voice was weak.
“He says he’ll do it,” the Raven said.
Horatio had raised his head. His eye swiveled to look in our direction, and then he slumped back down.
Celnith’s body twitched, and Veles stepped back quickly.
Grendel snorted. “Look at you, scared by a— Argh.” He leapt back as Celnith scuttled toward Horatio.
“My name is Celnith,” she said in her soft rasp of a voice. “If you carry me, I can heal you.”
“Not forever,” Horatio said. His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Not forever. Carry me until we find me another suitable host, and we may both live.”
“I agree.”
Celnith crawled on top of him and then sank into him. The griffin shuddered but didn’t cry out, and then the furs slipped off the spider fey’s body; she was latched on to him, her legs buried into the sides of his torso, her head pressed to the back of his neck.
They remained like that for long seconds, and then Celnith’s torso began to pulse and glow. Horatio let out a low moan, shook himself, and stood on all fours.
He was huge, towering over us, and Celnith looked tiny as she clung to his back. His wounds knit as we wa
tched, and he shook his mane, his golden gaze falling on the unconscious form of his daughter.
“Thank you for saving my daughter.” He stood over her and wrapped one huge taloned hand around her body. “I must get her home now.”
I locked gazes with Celnith. “Thank you.”
“No. Thank you.” She blinked slowly. “Come closer, I must tell you something.”
I walked over and stood on tiptoe so she could crane her neck and whisper in my ear.
“I saw it while I thought I was dying. I saw betrayal, but I could not see the hand that wields it. Be wary, little one. For if you fall, we all fall.”
Her words sent a shiver down my back, but then Horatio’s wings unfurled, and I stumbled back as he beat the air and rose up into the night sky carrying his precious load.
* * *
The lake was far behind us, and the forest around us was losing its foliage. We were in the autumn lands now. But there was still a day’s trek to get to the city and the autumn keep.
Veles had built a new fire with a little help from Dareth, who seemed eager to make a good impression on the others.
“He’s a gancanagh,” Grendel had warned. “I know the kind. I know what they feed off.”
Fenn’s crew weren’t happy with the gancanagh’s presence, but I’d assured them that Dareth and I had a deal. If he broke it, then what they did to him would be out of my hands.
Veles crouched beside the fire now, skinning rabbits to put on a spit. He looked up toward me and the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. I returned it with a slow blink. We’d be curling up for sleep soon, me and him wrapped in furs, bodies pressed together. Warmth stained my cheeks, and his gaze heated as if he was reading my thoughts. He chuckled softly before returning his attention back to the rabbits.
How he’d managed to find rabbits in this frozen wasteland was a mystery. He really did have a knack for hunting. Fenn had rolled up his sleeves to help, and the others watched with hungry anticipation. The sound of grumbling stomachs filled the clearing.
Veles looked up again, but this time, his attention was on something to his right. He frowned, and then focused on me before jerking his head, urging me to follow his gaze. I looked toward the log to my left where Raven had been sitting, only now it was empty. There he was, disappearing into the woods.
Fate’s Destiny: Heart of Darkness Book 3 Page 4