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I had my arm around his throat and my knee in his back.
His spine was moments from snapping.
But then—
I snarled at the moon, trying to remember what happened after.
Tried to recall if I’d killed them both and saved the girl.
But...there was nothing.
Pure anger soaked through my blood, hot, thick, and potent. It flowed through my heart, pouring out of my fists with licking darkness.
She was back there.
In danger.
With those men.
That fire.
Alone.
I have to find her.
My thirst was forgotten; my hunger not important.
I didn’t waste time telling Salak where I was going.
I merely gathered my shadows and ran.
Chapter Nineteen
. Girl .
“SIT THERE.” SOLIN POINTED AT the furs on the edge of the crackling fire.
His lupic smelled smoky, but the air wasn’t too thick, thanks to the hole in the centre of the roof. Lazy raindrops sizzled in the fire as they snuck their way in through the opening.
The electrifying promise of a storm prickled my hair as distant thunder rumbled.
“Will the rain extinguish the fire if it gets heavy?” I asked, drifting toward the furs he’d pointed at.
“No. When we step into the trance, the fire won’t burn out until we return. Regardless if it burns through all its fuel or a river flows over its coals.”
“How?” I sat carefully, doing my best not to smudge my oil-ash symbols.
“Because while we walk in the flames, they walk in us. And we cannot be killed by water or lack of wood.” Solin yanked the two sides of the bison lupic tightly together. Unwinding a thin strip of leather from around his wrist, he threaded it through the holes on either side of the entrance. With swift hands, he sewed the entrance shut, tying a fierce knot.
“You’ve locked us inside?” I asked quietly, resting my palms carefully in my lap.
“It’s for our protection as well as the clan’s.” Throwing me a look I couldn’t read, he moved toward the small collection of jars, bowls, and woven boxes that held personal items stored around the lupic. I’d never gone near them, respecting his privacy too much to explore, even though I still found myself so illiterate compared to many of the Nhil.
Solin finally found what he wanted and moved toward me.
Not speaking, he sat slowly beside me, folding his long legs gracefully.
I stayed silent as he placed a tightly woven box made with two different coloured grasses before him. The lid had a complex design that swirled into a tight spiral. Closing his eyes for a moment, he hovered his hands over the lid before pulling it off with a sharp inhale.
I leaned closer, full of curiosity despite my fear.
I didn’t want to do this. So many parts of me screamed that it was a bad idea, but I couldn’t deny the privilege of learning what Solin did. To be permitted to share the living quarters of such a respected Fire Reader. To be given the rare opportunity to share a trance with him, even if it petrified me.
Pulling out a dried gnarly root from the box, he cradled it carefully. “Have you seen the damaq tree on your travels?” His black eyes met mine, dancing with reddish flames.
“I’ve seen many trees in many locations, but I don’t know their names.”
“It’s not a big tree,” he murmured. “It grows twisted and stooped, the branches intertwining instead of soaring for the sky. It bears no fruit, but its flowers are as red as blood with stamen that drip with sticky black dew.”
My lips thinned as I recalled a glade—remembering my lonely journey so clearly, even though I could remember nothing before it.
I had come across the trees he mentioned.
They always stood alone as if banished from the forest of others. No bees buzzed in their flowers. No birds sang from its branches. They merely grew in silence and aloneness, knotting their limbs into confused tangles instead of paying homage to the sun.
I’d been drawn to them as they’d looked like outcasts.
Like me.
I’d fallen asleep beneath them one night when I was nearing the end of my endurance. It’d granted me shelter amongst its thick dark leaves, and I’d felt safer than I had in a while because if no creatures went near them, then I didn’t have to fear the always hunting wolves.
My thoughts tripped to last night.
The wolves that’d come for the stranger...had they been the ones who’d stalked me, like he said?
What had the stranger called one of them?
Salan?
No, Salak.
Was that the giant one who’d stared right into my spirit before running away with the stranger on his back?
“So...have you seen this tree?” Solin asked, dragging me back to the present.
I blinked, disoriented. Whenever I thought of the stranger, I always felt different. As if my thoughts chased something far more real than what was currently around me.
“Yes.” I licked my lips. “I have. I didn’t find many, but the few I did never had animals near them.”
