Er’it gave no response. Setting his knees to Kal’s sides, Er’it urged him into a fast trot. His heaving chest pushed against Aida’s back, his grip painful around her waist. She did not utter any complaint. The warmth of his breath fanned over the back of her neck, somehow cooling the crimson-shaded ache at her shoulder from his second bite.
The land sped by, passing far faster than it should. Yet, Aida could detail every second of that journey. The smell of Kal and Er’it heavy around her, the sharp bite of the cold, and even the ringing of Kal’s hooves against the frozen earth ingrained itself into her memory. Not that it would remain there long.
The trees became twisted and gnarled the closer they came. They grew black and hideous as Kal broke away from the main road to travel a narrow path overgrown and treacherous. No longer hidden behind a layer of deceitful magic, the true face of the forest laid itself bare. Thick strands of some meaty vine hung over the trail. Its tendrils grabbed at them, twining around their hair and limbs in a burst of hissing growth before clamping down.
After having to pause once more to hack away at the clinging growth when it snagged at Kal’s legs and forced him to a dangerous halt, Er’it snarled vicious curses and dragged Aida down from Kal’s back.
“Go back and wait for the others,” Er’it told Kal, giving the Phylix a rough pat against his lathered neck. Though the journey hadn’t been so arduous, all of them looked as if they’d traveled at speed for days.
“This place,” Aida murmured as Kal trumpeted and brayed, voicing his unwillingness to part ways. The sound itself made the slimy leaves hiss and rattle as they withdrew into an impenetrable wall around them. As man and beast argued in a way that once fascinated her to no end, Aida drew closer to the monstrous growth. Her fingers traveled over the edge of a leaf, the thorny edge piercing soft flesh as she whispered, “It is what was done to it.”
It took no effort at all to call to her magic. There was none of the searching and wrangling Tor’en often spoke of in terms of what mages must do to access their power. Hers forever lingered just under the surface, impatient as it waited to burst forth. The icy blue glow painting her skin caused the leaf to recoil. It collapsed in on itself as she placed her palm upon the leathery stem of its vine.
Er’it’s shout echoed through the trees as the azure glow writhed through the forest. Amid a great roar of crackling wood, snapping vines, and whispering leaves, he shouted at Aida and raced toward her, Kal close on his heels. The Phylix blazed, brightening the red-gold flames building at Er’it’s hands as they reached for Aida. She collapsed to her knees, cheek scraping over the bark of the tree she clung to as it healed. With no other thought than to mend it all, her lashes fluttered as she let loose her straining grip over her power. Aida let it free, allowing it to race through the canopy of budding growth, the earth swallowing the wretched remains of the befouled greenery as it rumbled and groaned.
“Aida, stop!” Er’it yelled, having to squeeze his eyes shut against the glare of her magic as he fell down beside her. A wordless roar wrenched from his chest as he wrapped his arms tight about her.
Attempting to quiet the raging energy, he dared to touch the icy core of it. It dragged him along, the virulent sapphire twining with strands of gold and amber as their combined power licked over the healing landscape. The ground erupted with a staggering growth of thickly fleshed plants and scraggly grasses. Sandy soil glittered with shards of black crystals as the amaranthine petals of heart-shaped blooms broke open to expose their fire-shaded stamens. Sprays of some fluffy white and gold flower sprouted alongside them, the delicate puffs glowing in the filtered light beneath the thickening canopy.
Aida smiled at the scene, her arm dead and cold as it fell away from the tree she could no longer hold on to. She tried to keep her eyes open just a moment longer as star-shaped flowers painted with streaks of red and gold rushed into being. Swearing she heard a giggling laugh, uncertain if it was her own, blackness took her away before she could ask Er’it if he heard it, too.
Chapter 17
Er’it
Clutching Aida’s unconscious body to his chest, Er’it watched on in awestruck horror as the forest continued to groan and tremble. Her power sparkled and sizzled through the air, the greasy muck coating the twisted trees catching hold of blue fire before erupting in new, green growth. The trees her magic touched became thicker, strong and true as they reached for the sky.
It was far too much for her to expend at once, no matter the golden hues of his energy racing through the pure azure of hers. Struggling with her limp body, he hurried to feel for the pulse at her throat and groaned at how erratic and weak it thumped against his fingertips.
Kal snorted and stamped behind them. The earth shifted beneath his hooves, threatening to break a leg as magic continued to pour through their surroundings. No longer directed by Aida, it sought out anything that did not belong. That included Er’it and Kal, creatures that had no bond or right to this part of the world.
Except Aida.
This had been her home once. The blood of her people flowed through it. Did he not have that bond through her? Burying his face against her chilled neck, he found the coarse rasp of the binding at her shoulder with his lips. Twice he’d bitten her, the second time a glorious display of possession that he felt down to the marrow of his bones. He’d ripped open her soul and inserted himself with as much violence and pleasure as he’d ever visited upon her physical body. With his knees sinking fast in the tumultuous soil, Er’it worked the cotton free to bare the bloody mess to the air, to show the unmastered energy and the presence of the land itself. The oppressive weight of their combined attention almost drove him flat, but he struggled to remain upright. Hitching Aida higher, he tore at the seam of his tunic to show his own livid wound. Smaller but no less binding, it was a testament to her utter perfection.
Swirling around him in icy blasts, the brilliant starshine of her magic blistered his exposed flesh. Tasting his power, taking measure of him, it began to abate. The rich amber threading through it flared and showered the forest floor with golden embers. The plants erupting from the ground at its touch were foreign to these snowy hills yet more at home than they ever would be in the desert.
“Open your eyes, Aida,” Er’it said through a growl against her temple, lurching to stand in the still shifting dirt. His feet were as sure and steady as they could be on the rolling waves of soil while he made his way toward Kal, the Phylix a beacon of calm behind him despite their dire situation.
Her magic might not intend them harm any longer, but it was not finished with the forest. It would not rest until Aida’s final thoughts were shaped into reality or until Aida woke and called it back.
“Wake,kou’vera!” Adding a hard shake, his teeth clenched at the way her head rolled in a limp circle. Watching her grow paler by the moment, her skin like ice, he roared into the crashing turmoil around them as she refused to come back to him.
He didn’t think about what he would do, not as her lips shaded to purple and the breath leaving her came in a husky rattle. Crushing his lips against hers, he gave a silent prayer for her to wake soon as he searched out the weakening presence of her within his heart. She faded too fast, her presence within him beginning to crumble and wither. As he followed the glimmering threads, the snowy blues of her magic writhed and cavorted in an endless dance that grew more frantic the weaker Aida herself became. Pouring his heat and power into her, he grabbed hold of the jagged core of her energy and wrenched it under his command.
As before in the village, her power did not care for his forceful manipulation. It seethed and thrashed, scalding through his veins as he once again fell to his knees. Half aware of Kal’s body and the innate power of the Phylix surrounding them in a living shield, protecting Er’it and Aida from the violent wail of magic tearing apart the forest, Er’it changed tact. Force had never worked on his sweet Aida, never the way he’d intended at any rate. Cradling the magnificent power much as he did her body, he crooned over his little Omega and begged her to come back to him.
His pride fell to ash, the arrogance of his ego dust as he murmured the pleading words against her slack lips. Er’it begged with his heart in a raw ruin within the softness of her palms, his soul hers to do with as she wished if she would but open her eyes. He would not let her go, not now, not ever.
She was his and always had been. He had to get her to the temple, to set her upon the dais he somehow knew remained untouched within its walls.
Thunder rumbled through a sky shaded in soot and ash. Shouting against her pallid cheek, Er’it grabbed hold of Kal with one hand, dragging them up the Phylix’s body until he could scramble onto Kal’s back. Er’it’s roar was a broken, shattered thing as Aida hung listless in his arms, a broken doll that would not come back to life no matter how much of his power he forced her to take in. Faltering as his head grew fuzzy, his sight wavering to blur the colliding landscape into smears of colors, Er’it set his knees to Kal’s sides.
Vicious crimson lightning tore apart the midnight darkness of the sky. Sizzling arcs of white-hot blue answered in kind. Kal’s hooves drummed against the earth, carrying them in a blinding run through the ever-changing forest. As they dodged full-grown trees, reaching shrubs, and tangling vines, there were too many near misses to count. Kal screamed as his hind leg became snared in a twisted clump of greenery, but before his great weight could plummet to the ground, an electric blue charge struck the earth. Burning through the lush vegetation, the rush of power buffeted them upright, even lifting Kal from his feet as it set them back upon the path.
Kal’s trumpeting became lost in the shuddering booms of thunder, the moments of quiet scarce more than a heartbeat as they lurched back into a mad dash. The ruins of a castle loomed, its crumbling stone façade appearing from thin air. Surrounding it were shambles of bones, piles of them surrounded by blackened slime and moss. Er’it grew fainter with every long stride Kal took, yet his hold upon Aida never wavered, not even as the Phylix stormed through the shattered doors of the single intact structure.
Blinding white light erupted from the domed ceiling. Casting noonday shadows, it shone brightest upon the polished gray stone of the altar. More than just intact, the dais hummed with energy. Groaning as he tumbled down Kal’s heaving side, Er’it managed to twist at the last moment to protect Aida from the cruel stone the back of his head cracked open upon. His blood hissed as it met the utter smoothness of the bricks, and Er’it shook his head to clear it, unable to see beyond the brilliant glare.
