Xerxes must see it as well, because he slips his fingers with his black claws between the snake’s jaws, parting them. I watch dumbfounded as he pushes his claws into the creature’s mouth, and my heart goes wild with fear the snake is going to bite his hand off, but what happens is the exact opposite.
Xerxes oozes rage and violence, his perfectly white fangs elongating from under his upper lip that’s as dark red as thick blood. He seems a monster himself, even if a compellingly beautiful one that I wouldn’t be able to look away from if I weren’t so desperate to get Nazarean back.
I keep inspecting the snake’s body as it hisses, its loops loosening from around Xerxes. I step back as the creature starts to thrash, its powerful tail striking the tree it fell from, cracking the bark, opalescent sap swelling out from the cracks. A milky scent strikes me the more liquid emerges from the tree.
The snake lets out a deafening, piping sound as Xerxes parts its jaws so far that they begin to split across its skull. The creature can’t withstand Xerxes’ sheer physical strength, and its head finally tears open, goo-like insides splattering the tree trunk, Xerxes, and my face.
The winding silver body falls limp to the ground, the lower part still twitching. I keep staring down at it with wide eyes, its insides splattered all over my face. The next thing I become aware of besides the cold feel of them is the smell. Surprisingly pleasant, like flowers, a smell that makes me think of black roses.
“Nazarean,” I whisper, and Xerxes crouches down by the creature. He draws a hunting dagger, and starts cutting the snake’s body. I wish I could look away, because the act looks barbarous, no matter how much the monster deserved it for having swallowed my familiar, but I can’t. Xerxes moves so smoothly while he does it, it’s compelling. Again, it makes his military experience obvious, and at this point I’d say he does it like some sort of art.
Before he reaches the middle of the snake’s body I can already see a clump of wet fur.
“Realms,” I yelp. Even I can hear the gut-wrenching pain in my voice. I drop to my knees and stick my hands in there, scooping Nazarean out.
“He’s trying to breathe,” I tell Xerxes, even though my familiar’s breath is faint. I can barely feel his heartbeat against my palms. I set him down on the ground, between two large, knotted branches of tree roots that claw into the mossy ground.
“He needs heat, please, Xerxes.”
He lays his clawed hands on Nazarean’s body, and firelight glows from his palms onto the animal’s body. Xerxes is running low on fire power, but luckily it works. I close my eyes and place my own hands on Nazarean, helping to channel Xerxes’ energy. It works quickly, and my familiar opens his eyes.
“High Realms, he lives,” I cry, taking him in my arms and pressing my cheek to his fur that is now dry on one side from Xerxes’s touch.
As for the King of Fire himself, he drops down by the tree, resting his back against the trunk. Nazarean climbs down from my arms and prowls over to him, curling into a ball on his stomach, right above the holster around his hips.
My heart breaks when I look at him, the powerful fae king that had all the worlds’ leaders tip-toeing around him, trying to catch his breath. While he appears far from weak, I sense him on levels no one else does. I can’t even explain these undercurrents between us, they’re just there.
“The dead aren’t the only danger in this place,” he says, his big chest heaving. “The hill is crawling with creatures of the Underworld.”
“Xerxes—”
“But while they’re dangerous, they also bring opportunity,” he interrupts. “This is your chance to practice draining the magical powers from a dark creature.”
“What?”
“We don’t have the time, and I don’t have the energy to explain, Cerys. We need to get our shit together fast, because we have one hell of a problem ahead. This snake, it was just the beginning. We’ll encounter more, and we both know my power is waning. Soon I’ll be reduced only to my physical strength again, and there’s no source here for you to draw on and replenish me. But at least we’re close to the Firestone.”
“But we don’t know exactly where to look for it.” I look towards the top of the hill, even though I can’t see very far into the dark, humid forest. “We know there’s a chapel at the top, and that the Wraiths might have hidden there, but—Wait.”
My eyes dart down to Nazarean, who’s started to lap at the milky tree sap. If he does it, it’s because it’s feeding him energy, which means that Xerxes might be right.
“It might be true after all, what you told me. If Nazarean were a creature of the Underworld, of Tartarus... The Firestone has Underworld energy, too, right?”
“As does everything here.”
“Yes, but Nazarean is intelligent, he’s accumulated information, he knows what we’re here for.” I crouch down and touch his fur, stroking him lightly as his little tongue keeps flicking at the opalescent milk. I close my eyes and communicate with him at the level we use with each other. I sometimes use words as well, and he responds by emitting certain vibrations, but now I need a perfect connection to transmit what I need to.
My familiar turns his head as he understands, then returns his attention to this new source of food that he seems to like so much.
“He can try to track the Firestone’s energy, but he would need to know what he’s sniffing for.” I say as I reach for Xerxes’ ragbag, and search for something resembling a bottle, so I can get more tree sap for Nazarean to take-away.
Nazarean purrs.
“But he says he has a pretty good feel for your energy, and he’ll look for the most similar thing.”
Xerxes nods, licking his lips and resting his head against the tree trunk. I watch him as I let the tree sap trickle into a water bottle I had to sacrifice.
High realms he’s handsome, royally so. Those manly features, his golden body, and those lips that I drank from last night. Passion flutters in my lower belly, along with a feeling of belonging.
“First things first,” he says, fixing his red eyes on the snake. “Training. It’s what we were looking for just before this creature offered itself. Its dead body still retains some of its dark magic, so let’s try to drain it.”
Even dead, the monster’s body is impressive, and it emits magic.
“I channel energy into people, not out of them, but I do draw energy from elements, and I can weaken attackers by draining them, but there’s a catch.”
He nods, looking like he’s in control, but I can see the almost imperceptible grimace.
“I know. You need something to drive that energy into. You’ll need to do the same with the dead, which means we’ll have to find something that can’t use that energy to harm us.”
I look around myself. “I could use the channeling process in reverse and lead the energy into the ground.”
“It would normally make sense, but this ground is evil. The moss itself could sprout cords and branches that would wrap around us and tie us down.”
“Then what?”
An eerie breeze blows through the trees, making my skin crawl. It flows through my hair, and stirs the leaves. A strange rustle goes through them, carrying the scent of evil.