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She did not notice that the fire was not putting out much in the way of heat, or light. In fact, the bigger it seemed to grow, the dimmer it became.
“There’s something wrong with that fire, Hail.”
She wasn’t listening to Elise. She was thoroughly entranced by the fire she was kindling between her palms and in the pit. The heat was not in the fire. It was inside her. She felt very, very warm inside herself, in the pit of her belly, and right at the apex of her thighs.
“My sweet…”
She heard a voice. A deep voice. A masculine voice.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” Elise sounded nervous. “Hail, I really think you should put that out. Your magic always goes sideways.”
It wasn’t a diplomatic way of putting it, but it really didn’t matter how it was put because Hail wasn’t listening anyway. This was the kind of magic she had always dreamed of. The healing she’d done, that was a practical matter. The fire in the tree, that too was an attempt at practicality. But there was no magic she had ever performed that felt as though she was connecting something so much more powerful than herself.
“It’s getting dark, and cold,” Elise whimpered. She sounded very far away now.
“Hello,” Hail whispered. “It’s me.”
“Hello, my sweet.” The voice came again. It was so deep and so rich, it sounded as though it came from the very beginning of time.
“Don’t talk to it!” Elise squealed. “Whatever it is, don’t talk to it. Put the fire out!”
When Hail continued to ignore her, Elise rushed outside and attempted to collect water, stray droplets of fading rain collecting in the palms of her hands.
Hail continued to work on her creation. The fire was growing by the moment. The more it grew, the more the light faded and the more the dark shadows seemed to swim closer, swallowing up the world around Hail until she could not be sure she was actually still there. There was a heaviness and a deadness to the darkness. It was more than the absence of light. It was a void which turned things that did exist into things that did not.
Returning with no more than an inch of water in her cupped hands, Elise stepped back into the house with the idea that she would somehow put the fire out. She arrived just in time to see scaled hands emerge from the cold flames. They grasped Hail and pulled her into the depths of the darkness without so much as a whimper. In seconds, the bold, brave lyrakin who had set off into the world on her own had disappeared entirely from view.
Five
Return to the Dark
“Bryn! Bryn!”
Bryn was in a shallow, restless sleep. He had not been able to settle since Hail left. He wondered if he should have stopped her, but Bryn was not a captor, and she was not his captive. He had no right to prevent her from going out into the world and living her life.
“BRYN!”
One of the whelps burst into his room without knocking, just flinging the door open wide without a care for privacy or propriety.
It was Elise. That surprised him. Elise was not a troublemaker.
The girl was soaked with rain, though it was dry outside, and she was panting with exhaustion, as if she had just run all the way up Mount Eternal.
“Elise? Where have you been?”
“I was with Hail…” she panted. “It got dark, and we were down in Old Rahvin. Anyway, it got dark, and so she made a fire, but with her hands…”
“She used magic in Old Rahvin?” Bryn felt his blood turn cold.
“Yes! And something came. It wasn’t human. I think it was a demon. If demons are real. I don't think it was a man. And I’ve never seen any other species with skin like that. It had these huge claws. So long, and so shiny.”
“Why were you with her?”
“Oh, I was going to run away too.”
“Were you now,” Bryn remarked. He was too busy attempting to gather the necessary supplies to go after Hail to deal with Elise in that moment, but deal with her he would.
“Yes. We were going to go on a big adventure. But we went on a small one instead and that still went wrong.”
Elise no longer sounded panicked, because she was now in the presence of someone who seemed like they could do something about the situation, and more importantly, she was done with her part of the situation. She’d told Bryn what had happened, and that was done.
“I will deal with you later,” Bryn growled. “Close the door and go make sure the rest of the lyrakin are safe. Don’t wake up any more than you have. Those you have woken, get them back to sleep. And don’t you set foot outside the den until we have spoken. Understand?”
