A slow tremble starts in my body from the adrenaline, excitement mixing with fear in my belly.
“All right.” I wipe my mouth and stand, squaring my shoulders. Nazarean leaps expertly into my arms and from there onto my shoulder, slipping under my hair. With my braided ponytail draped over my familiar, I’m ready.
I want to help Xerxes with the tent, but he doesn’t let me. He makes it look so easy one would think anybody could set up that kind of camp just as easily, which couldn’t be further from the truth. As much as I resent it, I have to make do with the girly work, gathering the food, the water bottles and our few belongings into a ragbag that Xerxes straps to his shoulders.
His years of military training and experience show. I feel safe with him, despite the hostile surroundings. Even though we’re only at the foot of the Hill of Doom, a thick forest separates it from the nearest village, and not many people dare come into it.
We stop only inches away from the magical circle of protection. The closer we come to the field the better I can sense it, I can even hear its vibrations. It’s a low, almost imperceptible hum.
“Once we’ve crossed this line,” Xerxes says, the tips of his boots only inches away from the barrier, “there will be nothing else standing between us and those creatures. When we encounter them, they will try to tear us apart. Or you, because they’ll probably sense my power, and they’ll need to be more cunning to take me down.”
But his power is draining from him, I can feel it. Having helped me heal Nazarean, and then giving me his blood last night, even our love-making took away from him. With us, it’s not a mutual process, as it is with other fated mates, and we both know it. I channel energy, I don’t connect to it personally, I can basically only distribute it. Which means that last night, his power was channeling out of him, even though the process gave him pleasure.
My skin pebbles as flashes of last night run through my head, how much pleasure he took from being with me, how shamelessly I enjoyed him owning my body the way he did.
“I’m ready,” I say between my teeth, drawing closer to him. “But be careful. You’re losing strength, and if these creatures are intelligent, as you say they are, they might feel it, and try to exploit it.”
“That’s why we’re starting now, during the day. It’s our opportunity to explore and test without encountering too many of them.”
With that, he steps over the barrier. The magic protection hums as we cross over, its vibrations resonating inside our bodies. As we emerge on the other side of the line, I need to catch my breath.
“Wow, I swear that thing went through every cell of my body,” I say, drawing so close to Xerxes that my breasts touch his back. I want to step back, but he grabs my hands and guides my arms around his waist.
“Better stay so close that we seem to be one.”
Leaves and twigs crack under his boots as he walks into the chilly, obscure forest spreading up the hill like a dark blanket. Here the trees are even thicker than in the forest where we spent the night, the magic shimmering between them seeming to be rising from the very moss covering the ground. It fills the air, imbuing it with a sense of death.
My stomach knots, and my arms tighten around Xerxes. I press myself to him, into his warmth and the feeling of safety he gives me.
“Xerxes, this place is crawling with dark magic.”
“Yes, and it feeds on fear. So relax, and leave it to me, I can deal with dark magic. The more scared you are, the more you’ll draw it to you and give it power to attack.”
But now that all my pores are open to sense the magic around us, I can sense Xerxes’ just as well. Xerxes’ magic is not only leaving him, but it’s also changed. It’s no longer as tenebrous and brutal as it used to be. Now there’s a touch of defense-like strength in him, not just the sharp, violent destroyer feel. Seems like our connection is a two-way street after all. His desire to protect me made him less of a villain, which the magic in this place may exploit.
“Didn’t think there would come a day when I’d wish your general Marayke were with us. Not her brother, though, he wouldn’t be able to keep himself alive, let alone help get the Firestone.”
“Marayke’s powers are iron and fire, and neither would have helped here. She’s better placed back in Edinburgh, gathering more of my allies and my armies.”
“And nothing can dissuade you from those plans, absolutely nothing?”
“I told you, Cerys. They have never changed, and never will,” he says forbiddingly, but the words don’t fit with the shift in his energy that I’ve sensed. He’s not as convinced as he sounds.
Xerxes turns around, suddenly facing me. I look up at his brutish but beautiful face, feeling all sorts of things that hurt.
“Cerys, there’s no point in clinging to the hope that this might change, because it won’t. I’m ready to resume all my plans of taking over the worlds as soon as I’ve got my power back. I’ll continue pursuing my goals, and I’ll be relentless about it. I will not change my ways, but I will set you free, as I promised.”
We stare at each other as the world around us seems to fade. But then something moves in the bushes, and Xerxes spins around, shielding me behind him. My eyes dart wildly around until a strange breeze blows down on us, coming from the tree crown above. Like all trees here on the hillside, this tree has thick boughs and a canopy so thick that it blocks out the daylight. Something glittery moves along a bough, but it could be just an illusion from the light filtering through the leaves.
“There,” I whisper, pointing up, squinting in an attempt to zero in on whatever it is that’s moving in a wave-like pattern along the bough.
“Watch out,” Xerxes calls, pushing me back. I slam into the tree trunk behind me, but I look up just in time to see a huge glittery snake launching down on Xerxes, hissing so sharply that my ears ring.
“Xerxes,” I yell as the snake hits his back, coiling around him in a second. It’s a muscular beast, a long thick creature that wraps Xerxes from throat to ankles, the patterns on its body glittering in silver and golden hues as it coils around him.
I can see the profiles of both Xerxes and the snake, both hissing, the snake’s tongue fluttering in Xerxes’ face, while the King of Flames bares his fangs, his sharp features twisting in a brutal grimace. No words could describe the violence I see in his face at this moment.
My heart pumps with adrenaline, my eyes trained on the scene in front of me, until Nazarean stirs under my hair, and draws my attention. I can feel his body tense against my neck as he gets ready to leap into the fight and help Xerxes. But he won’t stand a chance. The snake will swallow him whole.
Nazearean’s paws harden against my shoulder, and he pushes himself off of me right into the fight in front of us. But the snake hears him, and turns his head toward us, catching my familiar in the air. It opens its jaws and snaps them shut over him.
I scream so loud that the pitch deafens me, my ears buzzing. I start towards them, my hands outstretched and curled like claws. The pain and desperation inside is too much for me to bear.
I grab the snake, its skin smooth and hard like fine silver mail. My fingers bleed as I claw at the creature, its eyes like silver slits emitting light that stings mine. It hisses, its tongue whipping cold air in my face. It’s not done swallowing Nazarean, so it can’t open its jaws at me, but I know it wants me to be next.