Page 5 of Blade of the Nightking

Around us, the forest slipped past in a blur, the brittle trunks rising like jutting spines from the earth, their flaking bark streaked with crimson sap that looked like dried blood. Night was falling slowly, unevenly, the half-light dappled and strange.

I finally tore my eyes from Aedric and looked upward, taking in my last sunset.

The light was wrong. It reached us only in fractured remnants, the sky glowing with an eerie palette of rust-red and bruised purple where drifting particulates hung thick in the air. Streaks of orange and gold fought their way through the haze, turning the cloud edges into molten ribbons. Ahead of us, the horizon between the trees darkened toward indigo, yet a faint copper tint clung to everything, a stain the eruption had smeared across the world.

Aedric walked on through the thin forest, each step marked by his uneven breath.

At some point the wind shifted, carrying a sharp sulfuric sting threaded with a metallic tang. Gray flakes drifted thickly from the sky now, falling in slow, uneven spirals.

My eyes filled with tears. “Thistra,” I croaked.

His gaze darted down to me, ash settling across his broad shoulders, powdering his hair. He forced a weak smile that never reached his eyes. “Yes, El,” he whispered. “It looks just like Thistra, after I burned that tree down.”

Ash clung to him, collected in the hollows of the pale trunks, and blanketed the forest floor. Each step sent faint puffs of dust rising around his boots. He turned his head into his shoulder to cough, sparing me the worst of it, then continued forward.

“Remember how angry Hyperia was?” he asked.

“Kill… you…” I rasped.

A low, broken chuckle shook him. “Yes,” he murmured. “I thought she’d kill me too.” His mouth tightened as he glanced down at me again. His eyes swept over my injuries, lingering on the side of my face burned beyond recognition. A choked sound escaped him before he straightened, shoulders locking into a desperate resolve.

“I snuck into your room afterward. You were barely dressed, furious… the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.” He swallowed hard. “I was filthy from the fire… You told me to find a hose. No one had ever spoken to me like that.” His voice broke, but he pushed through it. “I think that was the moment I realized that bond or no bond… I was going to love you.”

I love you I love you I love you.

I opened my cracked lips to speak, but instead a horrible wet gurgle rose from my throat, drowning out the words.

“Shh,” he whispered, trying to soften the panic in his voice. “Hold on, El. We’re almost there.”

But I could see the lie in his eyes, the wild, desperate gleam that betrayed him. I could feel it in the way he pushed forward, driving his exhausted body beyond its limits.

I didn’t know how long we’d been walking. Minutes? Hours? Time no longer held shape. I existed somewhere in between.

“You’re so strong, El. So strong,” he murmured.

It was in the next breath that my body betrayed me.

A strange pressure bloomed behind my eyes, like something inside my skull had clenched its fists. My mind clouded. A low humming filled my ears, growing louder, vibrating through my bones. My vision wavered, blurring at the edges as if the world were being pulled away from me.

It hit me in a single violent jolt.

My muscles locked tight, every limb stiffening at once. My spine arched against Aedric’s arms, and a strangled sound—half-gasp, half-cry—forced its way out of me.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t blink.

I couldn’t move.

I was trapped inside myself.

Bursts of light exploded like stars behind my eyelids. My fingers curled in on themselves, cramped and rigid. My legs jerked in uncontrolled spasms that sent bolts of agony through my burned flesh.

My thoughts scattered.

Words dissolved.

My body convulsed violently in Aedric’s arms as he fought to keep his grip on me.