Kal huffed, pawing at the ground no longer stained with black slime. Fresh and untouched, patches of golden brown and waxy green littered the forest, a landscape this land had never seen before in all its time. Long grasses looking dry and dead were anything but, their rust-hued fringes near blossom. Tiny white flowers struggled against the tight confines of their protective pods to bloom in the cool of night, something seen only after the worst of deluges in the sandy hills of Denath. It was the same with the spiky leaves sprouting from squat, craggy stumps. Thin and able to slice open a man’s arm, they held a treasure of milky fruit when large enough. None of them would show that for decades to come, though, if they even survived in this place.
Shaking himself from his wanderings, Er’it took a cautious step onto the sandy path of soil. When he didn’t sink in, he glanced back at Kal with brows raised high. In answer, Kal came forward, a dainty scrape at the dirt proving it went deep, at least deep enough to bear the Phylix’s weight as he edged farther out into the still-changing clearing.
“If I walk a while, you can rest and—” Er’it’s surprised shout echoed through the forest as Kal’s head wedged between his legs, tossing Er’it back over his neck as they’d done when Er’it was younger and far smaller. Scrambling for handholds and trying not to pull Kal’s mane out by the roots, he clung to the Phylix’s back with knees and arms, his breathless laugh muffled in the silky strands as the ground swam beneath them. “I am entirely too old for that, my friend. But thank you.”
Er’it’s teeth snapped shut, missing his tongue by a narrow margin as Kal lunged into a wild run. Hooves flew over the ground, eating the distance between them and where Aida must be. Any fear Er’it had of the transformed path ending and forcing them back into the trees proved invalid. At every turn, more of his homeland’s sparse plants and rugged growth showed its face, more often than not among a bed of delicate, heart-shaped flowers in shades of violet and plum.
* * *
Dawn approached above the canopy, turning the dense green into spritely chartreuse. The entire forest seemed changed on a level Er’it couldn’t understand. Those damnable flowers sprouted everywhere, even among the lingering swaths of murky slime.
There were hours between them and the clearing where they had found the long-dead body. Though the clothing didn’t show any signs of the seasons beyond being ragged and torn, the corpse had. Leathery skin sunken, cleaving to the narrow bones. Tattered iron-gray hair spread in a wave over fresh green grass.
Aida had been there at some point. That much Er’it knew. The remains of a fire and her lingering scent drove him insane. Unable to find her tracks or anyone else’s where she’d disappeared into the woods, they now followed the general direction he thought she may have gone.
They had nothing but guesses and estimations, which made him bristle, hackles raised as he neared his prey. Er’it wasn’t sure what he was more eager to do to her when he found her. Fucking her would be sublime, but so would turning the tawny roundness of her ass crimson.
He did not question that he would find her. It was just a matter of when.
Ducking under a low-hanging branch as Kal picked his way through the thicker undergrowth, Er’it heard a clipped cry. Snapping upright, he muttered a curse as the branch smacked him in the face, shoving at the rough limb while Kal carried them past. The Phylix heard it, too. Head swinging around with ears pricked forward, he sniffed at the breeze, though he didn’t find what he searched for.
“How many women could be running around these woods?” Er’it asked in a hoarse whisper. They drank their fill of sweet water from a brook in the clearing before they left it behind, but that had been some time ago. Throat tight and parched, he grew more impatient than ever to find Aida and return to his men and the comforts they provided. Chief among them was food, water, and privacy to do as he wished to his Omega, though perhaps not in that order.
The scream that split the forest open was at once familiar and foreign. Filled with terror, Er’it had pulled that sound from her dozens of times over in the short time they’d had together. Yet the lusty rage beneath it was new, a defiance he never thought her capable of.
There was no time to think further on it as Kal raced toward the sound. Bent low over the Phylix’s neck and hanging on for dear life, Er’it squinted to protect his eyes from the thrashing boughs, determined to catch sight of his Omega as soon as she materialized from the trees.
What he found, instead, was a ragged group of men scattered over the ground, faces twisted with far more than pain and thick scars puckering their flesh. Magical wounds that would never heal scored their skin with black marks. Er’it had seen it less than a handful of times in all his journeys. To see so many at once was surprise enough, but to see them all shrieking and clawing themselves bloody was another shock altogether.
Aida did this, too. Wondering what they had done to incite such rage from his docile Omega, the memory of Otaso drained dry and ragged snapped to the forefront of his thoughts. She’d done that to the Black Mage after he’d tried to take what was fated to be Er’it’s, no matter that he hadn’t known she even existed yet.
Roaring as he vaulted down from Kal’s back, Er’it rolled when he struck the ground. Coming up with sword held high, he knew death would be too good a thing for these men, not if they’d tried to touch what was his. Stabbing his dulled blade deep into the belly of the one nearest, he reveled in the thick gurgle bubbling from the man’s throat.
Betas, all of them, they’d been weak mages at best in their prime before they’d allowed themselves to be twisted into this mockery of humanity. Hacking away the legs below the knee of the next, Er’it let out a whoop of victory. One after the other, he dismantled them to their basest forms, their black blood flowing sludge thick and soaking deep into the earth.
Wild gaze sweeping over the small clearing, he looked for Kal. Not finding him, Er’it charged through a splintered gap where saplings and shrubs were crushed to little more than kindling. Leaving the males howling in their death throes, refusing to waste the time to gather what energy he could skim from their stained souls, Er’it ran on the jumbled path Kal had left in his wake.
Finding the Phylix stalled, Er’it rushed ahead. Sword screaming through the air as he cut through what he could, Er’it used what magic he had left to him to weaken the barrier enough for them to plow their way through. Stumbling out onto the same overgrown road they had found in the beginning, Er’it vaulted up onto Kal’s back, pointing and yelling a wordless command as he spotted a flash of pale fawn and rich sable running in the distance, then roaring as he saw a large, dark form following close on its heels.
The arrow caught him in the same shoulder Kal had bitten. Another sank deep into his thigh, burrowing its way through to dig into Kal’s side. Kal’s resonating challenge boomed, leaves fluttering down around them as the very air trembled. A woman’s shriek was followed by the hoarse shouts of men behind them, the hard smack of bodies hitting the ground coming from ahead.
Racing past, he found the archers groaning and holding broken limbs from their falls but did not stop, not while Aida ran from something so much bigger than her. Voicing another challenge, Kal doubled his speed, his hooves glowing silver as he applied his own magic to fly over the rocky path.
Rounding a curve, Er’it feared the worst when he didn’t see her. Head whipping left and right to catch some sign of his little Omega, any break in the trees she might have used to get away, his attempt to slow Kal earned him a bone-deep rumble. The Phylix continuing his mad dash, his dark gaze remained centered on something only he could see in the swirling landscape rushing by them.
Then, she appeared.
Bare feet slapping the ground, arms pumping, Aida ran as fast as she could, the fact that she didn’t waste her time looking back giving Er’it an odd sense of pride. Focusing on her path, Aida ducked her head and put on a burst of speed that would do her little good. Still, she tried to keep ahead as Kal’s long strides brought them up behind her.
Even with no sign of the lumbering form following them, Er’it decided to take no chances. Wounded as he was, sapped of his magic, he’d be hard-pressed to fight them all off even with Kal. Groaning as he leaned to the side, he snagged Aida beneath the arms and hauled her up and over Kal’s back, shouting in a mix of pain and fury when her kicking caught the arrow in his thigh.
A well-placed slap on her perfect ass and Kal’s trumpeting got her still, though she groaned and whimpered as Kal’s ground-eating run jostled her across the wide girth of his back. Held in place with Er’it’s weight over her back, one hand snug between her thighs to grip her leg tight, they fled.
The sun was high when Kal slowed to an unsteady walk, foamy sweat coating his neck and flanks, skin shivering despite the heat of the sun. Er’it sat up, biting back his groan of pain. Patting Kal’s shoulder, he urged the Phylix to stop. They had gained enough ground for now. There were no signs of being followed by the men on the road, and Er’it needed to do something about the arrows using him as a pincushion.
“Do not dare run,” Er’it said, not having the energy to add a furious snarl. Holding her by the arms, he slid Aida’s limp body off Kal’s back. He eased her to the ground until she stood on her own despite the agony ripping through his shoulder and leg, knowing she’d break something if he just let her fall in her current state.
As she stood beside Kal with shoulders hunched and body trembling, Er’it looked her over. Sobs silent, she held the torn edges of a snug tunic closed as best she could, which wasn’t well at all. It was not his shirt she wore but another’s, as were the tight-fitting trousers, something he would never allow her to wear. Scratches marked the golden perfection of her skin where it showed between the ragged threads.
