Though it would have been a pleasure to carry her over the breadth of the forest so that she could see it from above, her flesh was still easily damaged like a mortal and he didn’t want to risk injuring her by having to drop through the canopy of the trees for one of the frequent stops that she would still require. It would take many years, perhaps centuries, before the last traces of her humanity faded away. Until then, he would have to be careful with her. As he flew over the final stretch of the lower foothills, he intentionally ignored the churn of discomfort that his sister did not guarantee that Diana wouldn’t be a threat against him. His heart pinched with the uncomfortable knowledge that just because she was his mate, that didn’t mean that they were guaranteed anything.
In fact, if Dorinda was to be believed, all that was guaranteed was that Diana’s presence was going to change everything. The more time he spent with his mate, the more he hoped that she would not ultimately be a threat that he would be forced to dispatch—he doubted that he could survive such a fate. Many minor gods have gone to rest before in times of grief. Silvas was certain that would be his fate if he was forced to destroy his mate and earn the wrath of the Furiae for shedding the blood of one’s bonded. He held to him a glimmer of hope that it would not come to pass, and with that hope burned another that maybe she would permit him to keep her.
Someday.
Even if he had to wait at the edge of her mortal forest for the span of a human lifetime to collect her.
Silvas grimaced to himself as he dropped before the thickening tree line, gracefully avoiding the larger trees that straggled out from the edge of the forest. Although a human lifespan was a brief flash of time, he didn’t care for the idea of being separated from his female for that long. That was if she wasn’t determined to languish, haunting the mortal world, refusing to leave. Although many spirits kept apart from their bonded mate for centuries at a time, he found the thought of it deeply unsettling. He was becoming so accustomed to her presence that the idea of separation left him with a feeling of deep panic that he couldn’t quite place.
He wasn’t getting attached. He refused to succumb to such foolishness. It was just natural due to the bond that he felt the need. That was all. Shaking away the unsettling thought, he folded his wings and crouched just enough that Diana was able to slip off his back.
Yawning, she stretched and glanced around. “I take it that we are breaking for a few minutes?” she asked as she dragged their supplies and his armor from where it was harnessed to him.
Freed from the bindings of the harness, Silvas gave a leisurely stretch of his wings and jerked his head in reply. Seizing hold of his true form, he felt it dissolve to reknit itself, every muscle and bone reshaping and popping into place as he solidified. A small, enchanting smile stretched her lips as she appreciatively looked him over.
“I’ll never get tired of seeing you do that. And the eye-candy that comes after is quite a nice vision too,” she murmured.
He grinned at her easily, his heart lightening quickly at her admiration. Only Diana was able to do that to him. “It is perhaps one of my more impressive gifts,” he admitted, intentionally being vague about what gift he was referring to.
Diana’s eyes widened as a husky laugh left her lips. “Nicely played.”
Dipping his head fleetingly in acknowledgment, he raised his eyes to the trees, noting the way the limbs bent and swayed toward him in greeting. His lips curved as he breathed deep of the forest, relieved to have returned. His smile widened as he turned his attention to his mate.
“I suppose we are traveling by ground now,” Diana mused as her eyes took in their surroundings. “Any chance we can walk a bit. I know that we are in a hurry and all, but it would be good to stretch my legs for a little while before I’m in the saddle again.”
“We can walk for a short time, I think,” he agreed. “But first, rest and see to your needs. We will have some rations for now, but when we settle for the night, I will see what I can hunt for our meal.”
She gave him a grateful look as she sank down between a couple of thick tree roots, her back resting comfortably against a tree. To his surprise, the tree immediately lit up with the multitude of tiny motes of energy released as the hamadryad reacted to Diana’s touch. His mate made a soft sound of delight in her throat, her eyes watching the drifting lights for a long moment before falling once more on him.
“I don’t recall the trees reacting to me this way when we were coming through.”
He grinned and rested his hand on another tree, which after a couple of heartbeats began to light up in turn. “The hamadryads of the Eternal Forest differ from those that are constantly around the palace, it takes direct touch. Your tree is responding to you.”
Diana’s eyebrows shot up as her head whipped around to look at the tree behind her. “To me? How is that possible?”
He grinned at her innocent wonder. The first centuries were going to be ceaseless sources of fascination for his mate. He hoped to be present to witness her every new discovery.
“We are bonded. I told you before that you are no longer human. Although it will take time for your transition, as my uxorem the Eternal Forest will begin to recognize and respond to you.”
“This is so fucking cool,” she whispered as she trailed her hand along the surface of the tree. The sparks of light followed the direction of her touch, making her laugh with delight. “I wonder if the trees around my house would do this.”
A heavy feeling sank in his stomach, but he forced a smile as he replied. “As you are now… they would recognize your touch and react. I suspect after a time any tree near your home would have the hamadryads in a state of ecstasy, like those that grow around Arx, for being near you over such a long period.”
She raised an eyebrow in his direction. “I thought it was because of their relationship to the palace?”
He shrugged, a chuckle rolling through him. “There is not a great difference between me and my palace. Arx was a seed I planted. Much like the vinculum marcam, except not quite so profound, it is a part of me. I am connected to it even if Arx as it is was the result of an accident.”
Drawing her hand away from the tree, she folded them in her lap and raised her eyebrows at him. “An accident? Oh, this should be good. Please go on,” she laughed at his pained grimace.
“Mind you, it is a distant memory, so I am a little fuzzy on some of the details,” he grumbled reluctantly as he dropped down beside her. “You must keep in mind that at that time I had just recently been given responsibility over the Eternal Forest. I was a very young and lusty silvanus, who was perhaps equally captivated by the various nymphs as I was with exploring my new domain.” His lips twisted in a self-deprecating smile. “I hadn’t yet understood the nymphs’ lust for sexual desire and passion. Although they may mate or take a lover into their bodies, many of their interactions require no sexual consummation. As a young silvanus, it is not surprising that I fell into the more common category.”
“That must have been frustrating,” Diana chuckled.
Silvas rolled his eyes and shot her a glower. “Some sympathy, uxorem. Do you wish for me to continue this story or not?”
“Sorry,” she said around a strangled chortle. “Please continue.”
He huffed in irritation but smiled himself, delighting in her willingness to play with him. Although as a predator he had enjoyed the taste of her fear, this was what he needed from his mate. Her passion, her playfulness… and hopefully, eventually, her love. Clearing his throat of the emotion that unexpectedly swelled within him, he continued his story.
“It was not unusual for nymphs to work me up until I was pained with need and leave me to resolve my passions on my own effort. Dallying with nymphs makes a male quite intimate with his hand if they are not inclined to mate with you. On one occasion some of my seed ejaculated directly onto a flower bud as the nymph scurried away. The flower petals immediately dropped away to reveal a large pearly seed. Before I could even pluck i
t up and investigate a wind stirred it just enough that it fell into a crack in the earth. Almost instantly the ground surged with rock and vines burst up into a modest dwelling. It was unplanned and had some unfortunate consequences.” He thought sadly of his sister trapped forever beneath the stones of Arx. He leaned his head back against the tree willing the thought away. “After that, it just grew over the centuries as it was needed and however it desired.”
Turning his head, he met Diana’s eyes and found her staring at him her lips parted in wonder. “That is both amazing and a bit disturbing,” she admitted. “Are you saying that it’s alive… as in, sentient?”
“To a degree,” he admitted.
She shivered. “I’m going to try not to think of it as a living house when we get back or else I’ll never be able sleep there again.”
Silvas wrapped one arm around her genially. “No ghosts. I can’t guarantee that Arx won’t kill under any circumstances, but it is not evil and it does not contain the ghosts of the dead.”
“Really splitting hairs here, Silvas,” Diana said as she leaned against him.
He dropped his nose into her hair and smiled to himself.
They rested for there for a couple of hours, during which Diana entertained him with stories of her life in the human world before the wulkwos—or ravagers, as she called them—disrupted human civilization. When it was time for them to be on their way again, he stood to drape the harness of supplies over his shoulder and reached down to tug her gently to her feet.
As they stepped into the woods he glanced at his mate, affection filling him at the sight of her upturned cheek as she glanced up at the trees around them. A peace fell over him and he decided that he liked this. He liked it very much.
Chapter 29
The trek back to the palace went quickly, though Diana couldn’t help noticing that the forest seemed quieter than it had been before—and it wasn’t due to a giant white crocotta loping through. When they had ridden out with Raskyuil, there were the sounds of birds and insects in the air. Now it was nothing but unnerving stretches of silence. Although he didn’t speak of it, she felt Silvas’s concern through their bond.
When they made camp, he had been so tense that he paced the campsite, keeping guard as he warily watched over the camp. For three days, he didn’t close his eyes, nor did he allow anything to distract him. It had been uncomfortable bedding down with his glowing eyes scanning the trees. Whenever they settled on her, need had sprung to life inside her. His nostrils twitched and flared but he had made no move toward her.
She understood the reason, and damn if the forest didn’t freak her out even more now, but three days without his touch was maddening. Her desires plagued her. She needed to taste him on her tongue, to scent the height of his passion—admittedly a strange impulse for her—and take him deep within her body.
The need, although it died away after a couple of uncomfortable hours, to her horror never truly ceased, nor was she able to satisfy it manually by her own efforts. It always returned stronger than before, making her body quiver and squirm as if stroked by a hundred feathers. It was worse if it hit when she was in the saddle, her pussy teased through the fabric of her pants by the rocking lope of Silvas in the crocotta’s form. It left her panting, sweat glistening on her skin as she flushed hotly. As the days passed the episodes were getting more frequent.
By the end of day two, Diana had come to the brutal realization that she wasn’t sure how long she could go without his touch. She had been reduced to a crying, whimpering mess until Silvas had been so filled with concern and his own need that he stopped and roughly took her over a felled tree, rutting into her upright so that he could watch their surroundings. If she couldn’t make it through two days without practically crawling out of her own skin, how would she survive any distance at all from him?
That was a sobering thought.
As much as she was afraid of the forest, she was almost more afraid of suffering days on end without comfort or release.
And the forest terrified her. It was as if something within the forest was watching and waiting while everything quietly died around it. It was not unlike what she had felt when she had come across the destroyed jeep, yet now the entire forest felt that way. The deeper they went, the darker and more oppressive it felt. Her skin prickled as she leaned lower against Silvas, relieved by his nearness.
Silvas rumbled comfortingly at her, his pace slowing so she could lay more easily against him. Diana looped her around his neck, her cheek nestled against the thick scruff of fur. She tried to ignore the gray light of the forest around her, focusing on the pulse of the power running through his body, and the hum of his presence through their bond. Dark, twisted branches reached toward her out of the gloom, and a peculiar haze seemed to cling to the forest. With the silence, it made the trees appear as deathly sentinels looming over a killing field. Diana scrunched her eyes closed, her heart pounding. She just needed to make it the short distance remaining until they arrived at the palace.
A loud crack broke through the silence, and Diana’s eyes snapped open just in time to watch the mist suddenly whirl as if pushed by a large hand. Another crack sounded, and then another, the brush rippling and stirring as if being plowed through. Up ahead a tree wavered as if something heavy landed on it and the branches began to shake before going still. Her hands clutched nervously in Silvas’s fur, her eyes were fixed on the tree as they neared, its one limb extending over the path ominously. Her fingers tightened as her head pounded the closer they got, the branch swaying slightly with the shift of wind.
Suddenly it shook and bowed sharply as the weight of a hideous, gaunt creature landed upon it. Marbled in hues of green and brown, the creature’s muddy appearance made it all the more grotesque when paired with the elongated, narrow features of its face and the thin, claw-tipped fingers that gripped the branch as it leaned forward, balanced by a long, outstretched tail. Much of its body was covered in pieced together clothes, the most noticeable of which was a red conical cap out from which poked its long, tapered ears. Its dark, beady eyes peered down at them as a wide smile pulled at its lips, revealing a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth. Diana’s breath stuttered at the terrible smile.
Diana jerked back, a scream welling in her throat as the thing pounced. Silvas growled, his pace faltering, but it did little to save her as the thing barreled into her body. A scream broke from her throat as the creature’s weight sent her flying from the saddle. Silvas had slowed enough, however, that the impact was bruising at worst. The breath left her lungs in a strangled cry of pain. She could feel its claws digging into her as it scrabbled over her.
She attempted to knock it aside, its terrible teeth flashing far too close to her face as it crawled across her. She cried out, tears streaking down her face, certain that any minute its teeth would lay into her skin and peel away her flesh. A metallic sound of impact greeted her ears, followed by a familiar angry snarl. Her tears turned to sobs of relief as the creature was suddenly pulled away with a snap of strength. It squawked in surprise. Standing over her, Silvas, naked except for the sword strapped across his chest, held the creature high in the air with one hand, his face creased with anger as he gave it a shake.
“You frightened my uxorem, goblin,” he snarled.
“Sorry, lucomo,” it squeaked in a high, grating voice. “I was excited. I did not mean to scare her.”
The words penetrated the terror fogging her brain, and Diana sat up and looked at it curiously. It was no longer smiling. Instead, the lines of its face were pulled into a frown as it hung from Silvas’s grip on his long tail. Its beady eyes shifted over to her, and once more that terrible smile stretched over its face as it gave her a happy wave, its long ears turned toward her. Despite the savagery of its teeth and claws, it looked so ridiculous that Diana found herself smiling in return as she stood.
Silvas let out a disgusted sigh and dropped the goblin on a nearby stump. “Goblins can be vicious little things, but often m
ore mischievous than harmful, and none of the goblins of the Eternal Forest will harm you, Diana,” he assured her softly.
The goblin pulled the cap off its head showing an unruly spike of fur as it nodded rapidly in agreement. It had an unsettling appearance that was a little too ugly to have anything truly comforting in its appearance, but Diana felt herself relax despite her earlier terror. Its brows shifted up like the remorseful stare of her grandma’s old hound that had trailed after her as a child.
Brushing off its hat, it gave her a small smile. “I hoped to be the first of my line to greet our new ati, our queen. I am Borbekel, son of Dirdankis and Entihela.”
Diana froze at the greeting. She didn’t know how to address the whole ati thing… She couldn’t be a queen. Her eyes slid over to Silvas. He stared back, his expression ambiguous and watchful.
He was lucomo of the silvani… Crap. She hadn’t even considered what that meant for her when they had mated. Glancing back down at the goblin, she watched as the tiny male grinned widely, displaying sharp rows of teeth once more.
“I trust that everyone knows of the bonding,” Silvas said.
Borbekel trilled in amusement. “All of the Eternal Forest felt it when your bond snapped in place with your mate. It has been a light within the darkness that has descended as of late. At least for most of us, that is. Alseida’s screams could be heard throughout the palace grounds. She is quite displeased,” he chirped.
Silvas waved a hand. “Alseida’s opinion matters not. She can learn to cope with the new situation. If she cannot, she would be wise to leave Arx and spare herself exile to the human world from the Eternal Forest. I am more interested in hearing of this darkness.”
Forest of Spirits Page 19