“It’s okay, Aida. I’ve got you,” he whispered in my ear.
I felt as if I were in zero gravity, floating around as he flew with me in his arms. I held him tightly, my face nestled in the warm space between his neck and shoulder, struggling to control my breathing.
“You’re safe.” His voice seeped into my soul. His hands were firm and his grip unyielding.
I slowly relaxed against him. I learned to enjoy the weightlessness and the friction of cool air against my skin. It was delightful and scary and arousing at the same time. I felt my flesh melt into his and bit into my lower lip.
“I need you to understand something,” he said as he kept flying. “Even if you lose your ability to see, I will do everything in my power to amplify every other sense you have. If you do go blind, I will help you fly. I will make you feel things that others can only dream of.”
His words entered my soul and tugged at my heart, forcing a trembling sigh out of me.
I felt his fingers grasp the blindfold and pull it off.
I opened my eyes and found myself staring into two blazing turquoise gems. His beautiful face was framed by a giant pearly moon.
“Field,” I managed to say his name.
I wanted to tell him something, to express myself. But my words had abandoned me. All I could do was look at him, his lips barely an inch from mine. He moved and flapped his wings twice as fast as we spiraled upward.
The cold began to sneak into my bones, and my muscles tensed. Before I knew it, I was shivering, but I didn’t want any of this to stop. I clutched him and abandoned my defenses in his arms. I felt my lips part, and I watched as he licked his, his gaze softening and burning into my soul.
A concerned frown threw shadows over his face.
“Your lips are getting blue,” he said slowly.
But I wasn’t really listening. I wasn’t feeling anything, other than my blood simmering in my veins. How could I be cold, when he had set me on fire?
I felt his hand travel slowly upward along my spine, his long fingers splayed and gently pressing into my muscles. The sky around us, riddled with myriads of stars, shifted as Field turned to descend. The air got warmer as we got closer to the jungle. He was all I could see.
My body glued to his, I instinctively pressed my hips forward to get even closer to him.
He tightened his grip on me, stifling a groan while his fingers dug into my flesh.
I could feel his rapid heartbeat echo in my chest.
The sound of wings flapping somewhere in the distance broke our stare. A hiss traveled through the night sky, and we both looked to our right.
We were just above the jungle trees when we spotted a flying group of Destroyers engaged in a tight turn as they headed in our direction. My heart stopped, and I held on as we dropped beneath the giant purple foliage. The obscurity of the jungle enveloped us as Field landed on one of the lower branches of a gnarly tree. Its crown was thick and dark enough to keep us hidden.
He leaned with his back against the trunk. My foot slipped. My legs were too soft for me to stand on my own. I gasped. He caught me before I fell and held me. I held my breath and closed my eyes, waiting for the dreaded sound of Destroyers flying overhead.
We were too far away for them to see us, I told myself.
My heart thumped in my chest. Field had a firm grip on my hips, while my palms rested on his rock hard chest. His lips pressed hot on my forehead. He said nothing as the Destroyers flapped their wings and hissed at each other while they passed above us.
We listened as they faded into the distance, thankful to have spotted them in time.
We looked at each other, finally able to breathe. Shadows moved around us, rustling the leaves just a few yards away.
“Destroyers are getting quite close to the mansion,” Field whispered, then looked up. “Even with that protective shield, I’m not comfortable with that idea.”
I nodded, unable to formulate a coherent thought. I’d been taken on an insane emotional rollercoaster, from the ground to the sky and back down to the jungle. I’d experienced excitement, exhilaration, desire, delight, and horror. We’d narrowly escaped a run-in with Destroyers. I was exhausted.
I leaned into Field. I rested my head against his chest and felt his arms wrap around me once more. I held on, and he flew us back to the mansion. The flap of his wings coaxing the wind to take us back to shelter soothed me.
Serena
I woke up the next morning with a mix of anger and determination fueling me. Aida and Vita were still sleeping when I slipped into the shower and let the cold water wash over me, as if removing the last traces of doubt from my mind.
I needed to speak to Draven. He’d spent the whole of yesterday deliberately avoiding me after we heard Vita’s visions of the future. I had to speak to him, to understand what we had to do next.
I put on a soft blue summer dress, a simple design with long sleeves. I wasn’t sure where I’d find him at this early hour, but my True Sight brought me in front of his study door. I took a few deep breaths and walked in without bothering to knock.
Bijarki and Anjani stood by his chair, while Draven warmed himself by the fire. It was blazing hot in there, and I began to regret my decision to wear proper clothes with sleeves. I could feel beads of sweat blooming on my forehead and down my spine.
They were talking when I came in but stopped as soon as they saw me—or heard me, in Draven’s case.
“We need to talk,” I said to Draven, my voice firm and sharp.
“Good morning to you, too, Serena.” His politeness had a tinge of sarcasm in it.
I felt my blood boil. I glanced at Anjani and Bijarki. They both had a look of sympathy, but their lips were sealed. Anjani gave me a half-smile, and I nodded in return before focusing my attention on Draven.
“I need an update here,” I replied. “It’s my brother and friends that you’re planning to use against Azazel, and I believe we all deserve to know what’s going on.”
“You don’t need to be so irritable,” Draven said, further infuriating me.
He had given me the cold shoulder all day yesterday, yet he was the one making it seem like I was overreacting.
The nerve of him.
“If you think I’m irritable now, wait until you continue to keep things from me,” I shot back. “I need to know what you’re planning. We all need to know what you’re planning. You can’t just shut yourself in here with Bijarki and Anjani and leave the rest of us out. That’s not how it works!”
“It’s not like you have any other choice now, do you?”
I leaned over to one side, enough to get a glimpse of his profile and the smirk on his face.
“Well, it’s not like you can force the Oracles to tell you anything if you keep acting like an ass now, can you?” I held my ground, my hands balled into fists at my sides.
“Ah, good to see you’re both back to your usual bickering selves,” Bijarki interjected with a grin. “You were getting along a little too well for my taste.”
I gave the incubus a look that spoke of a slow and painful death, and he put on an innocent expression and raised his hands in the air.
“So, updates?” I asked Draven.
He sighed, further adding to my irritation. As if I was the one being too annoying in this conversation!
“We haven’t fully decided on all the details yet, but we know we have to get Sverik out of Azazel’s dungeon,” he finally answered. “We can use him as leverage to draw out the smaller rogue groups of incubi and succubi that are left. They need motivation to join our alliance, and Sverik’s presence could help. He’s very popular among his kind and has been known to influence the outcomes of several campaigns long before Azazel rose to power.”
“Do you think he’d join us?” I asked.
“Given that we’d be the ones setting him free, he should. Besides, once he’s out of the dungeon, Azazel will brand him a traitor, and he will have no other choice. With the Oracles, the Red
Tribe, the Dearghs, the Lamias, and hopefully at least some of the Sluaghs, we’d have enough of a solid base. Sverik would help supplement our forces. People tend to follow him.”
“Yeah, I heard he’s quite handsome,” I snorted, remembering Aida’s account of Kristos’ brother.
Draven was quiet for a minute, and despite the dim light in the study, I could see a muscle flexing in his firm jaw. The fire threw playful shadows on his face and, for a moment, I forgot I was mad at him.
“Ultimately, with Sverik on our side, Arid will be compelled to turn his troops against Azazel’s Destroyers when the time is right,” Draven continued.
I nodded, processing the information while my eyes focused on his profile and particularly his lips. Heat bloomed in my stomach, and I inhaled deeply, willing myself back to a cool and controlled state.
“So, what’s the plan, then? How do we get him out of the dungeon?” I asked.
“The trip there alone is potentially deadly. Too many eyes in the jungle, and too many miles between us and Azazel’s castle to make it there without a Destroyer ambush,” he replied. “From what we know now, the Dearghs travel through volcanoes, and there just so happens to be one still active a mile south of his castle. We need to explore this angle first and see if we can travel that way without being reduced to smoldering ashes.”
“Why can’t you flash us there like you did when you kidnapped us from the fae?”
He’d taken us from a different planet altogether using his magic, after all. What had changed?
“I can’t do that anymore,” Draven said, his tone warning me that he didn’t wish to explain any further.
“Well, why not?”
Another sigh left him, and I grinned on the inside, pleased to see I was still able to annoy him. He deserved it for being so cold and distant and patronizing all of a sudden.
“The spell I used to get you all here cannot be reproduced so easily. It requires a certain powder that can no longer be found in Eritopia. It’s ground from the bones of storm hounds, which are now extinct. I’d saved that last ounce for the possible scenario in which I’d have to rescue the Oracles from another planet,” he explained.
The thought chilled me. It meant we’d have to find some other means of getting home… assuming we ever got to that point.
“What about the trip we took to see the Daughters?” I asked. “What spell was that?”
“It only works to find the Daughters,” he replied. “I can’t just zap myself from point A to point B whenever I please, Serena. If I could, do you think I’d still be here, struggling to find allies in this fight against Azazel?”
I pursed my lips and looked over at Bijarki. I opened my mouth to further engage Draven, but the incubus shook his head slowly.
My shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Bijarki,” Draven called out to him.
“Yes, Draven?”
“I need you to go speak to Hansa about the Dearghs and the outcome of that conversation. You can use the passage stone, since you know where the other one is.”
“Yes. But do we know if she’s back yet?” Bijarki asked. “Based on Aida’s account, she was still with the Dearghs yesterday.”
“Chances are she will be back by sunset today,” Anjani replied. “My sister never leaves the tribe for more than two days in a row. We’re in day two now.”
The incubus nodded and headed for the door.
“All right then. I’ll be on my way now,” he said and passed by me, giving me a sympathetic sideways glance.
I didn’t like it. It looked too much like pity. I didn’t need any of it. What was there for him to pity me for?
“Serena, you can leave us now,” Draven said to me, his tone flat. “I have some business to discuss with Anjani in private.”
I clenched my teeth, swallowing back a curse aimed at the Druid. I took a deep breath, gave Anjani a polite nod, and slammed the door behind me.
Anger bubbled up to the surface, burning through my throat and making my eyes sting. An upsetting pressure pushed down on my stomach as I made my way to the greenhouse. He was acting very differently, and it felt like all the progress I’d made in my rapport with him over the past few days had been thrown out the window.
The worst part was that he had completely shut himself off from me, and that hurt. I’d opened myself up to him, I’d overcome my own fears and doubts about him, and I’d allowed him to kiss me and touch me in ways that no one else had before. I felt like I had been tossed aside.
I looked around, my watery gaze passing over the multitude of colorful flowers and lush exotic plants. I leaned against a potted palm tree and started crying, unable to hold it in anymore. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks, and I wiped them away angrily, while more poured out of my eyes.
I felt rejected. Worst of all, I felt used. Like he’d gotten close to me for some specific end game that I knew nothing about. Like he was done with me and was back to his old condescending self. And I’d kissed him. I’d felt his fingers digging into my flesh. His hot breath over my face. His body hard against mine. His lips on mine.
I cried for a while, walking around as I let it all out. A lot had piled up inside of me since yesterday, but it had been severely amplified by his behavior this morning. I felt foolish.
It took me a while to calm down, but I eventually found my resolve.
I straightened my back and wiped the last of my tears away.
I didn’t want to feel like this again. I didn’t need that pain.
Most importantly, I was of no use to my brother and friends like this. I reached deep inside my soul for my determination. I found it and pulled it back to the surface. We had a dangerous road ahead of us, and I had to stay strong and focused.
Whatever had happened between Draven and me, as intimate and as troubling as it was, it could wait. I pushed it back, willing it to disappear somewhere in a dark corner of my mind.
We had work to do.
Phoenix
The Daughter and I went out into the garden after breakfast and walked up to the magnolia tree. The egg was still there, cracked open and dried up. She spent several minutes just staring at it, running her fingers along the sharp, darkened edges. It had been her home for many years, so I wasn’t surprised to see her interested in it.
I sat under the tree facing the mansion. I was determined to do a little work on my Oracle abilities without the help of any herbs or potions. After Vita’s visions of the future, I felt like I had to pitch in some more, dig deeper into the past. I wanted to provide the Druid with more information to help us gain a more significant advantage in the fight against Azazel.
There was no way in hell I would give that snake the opportunity to invade my home. It made me angry enough that he was destroying Eritopia.
As weird and as savage as Eritopia seemed, it was unique and had its own peculiar charm. Most importantly, the creatures who called it home did not deserve such a horrible fate. The whims of a power-thirsty Druid like Azazel could never justify these atrocities. And the closer I got to the Daughter, the stronger my urge became to protect her. It was her world, and I couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering along with it.
Draven had told me several times that an Oracle could develop the ability to summon visions at will without any external help. According to him, it required a certain level of focus. I had to shut out any noise or image that could distract me.
I wasn’t sure where to begin, but my goal was simple—tap into a vision of the past on my own. I leaned against the trunk and took a few deep breaths. I closed my eyes and sought out the silence. The noises around me began to fade away.
The bird trills faded, and the rustling leaves and the whispers of the southern wind gradually muted. It didn’t seem difficult up to that point. However, I couldn’t go beyond the darkness. It took me a while to accept that no vision would come to me with my eyes closed.
I tried focusing on something else instead. It was worth a shot. I set my sights o
n the Daughter, watching as she stood up and looked at me. The wind ran through her hair, lifting it gently in ribbons of hot pink with red reflections. Her violet eyes shimmered in the sun, and the smile she wore sent heatwaves through my chest.
She walked around, and I followed her bare feet in the tall grass, the white linen dress brushing against her thighs. As I took the whole sight of her in, I began to wonder what it was about her that had me so entranced. There was this invisible string tying my heart to hers, in a connection that transcended time and space. But I could never tell what she was thinking or feeling, no matter how much I tried. The mind-meld I attempted didn’t work. She hadn’t even felt my attempts to sneak into her mind, as if she were impervious to my sentry abilities. And yet I depended on her presence. Even more strange was the fact the she seemed to mirror my various states. If I was tired, she yawned; if I passed out, she passed out as well. I couldn’t help but wonder how deep this connection really was.
She started picking wildflowers, putting together a colorful bouquet of purples and yellows, occasionally glancing at me. Each time my heart thudded.
I sighed and relaxed against the tree. Its bark dug into my back. After what felt like a quarter of an hour, my vision started to become blurry, but I didn’t move. It was as if my mind was slowly detaching itself from the material world.
The view in front of me started to change. At first, it was so subtle I didn’t even realize what was happening. It was as though a clear film had been lowered on top of the original image. There was the mansion, the tall grass and bright sun, the summery breeze blowing through the pink magnolia trees, and the wildflowers lazily stretching outward from rounded bushes.
But the Daughter wasn’t the Daughter anymore. I recognized Elissa in her stead, walking toward the edge of the protective shield while picking flowers. She had her back to me, occasionally looking over her shoulder to give me a reassuring smile. Her dark hair was combed back in a loose bun, and I caught a glimpse of some of the black runes on her wrists. Her marks were permanent, but she didn’t seem to mind. She had her eyesight and was grateful enough for that much.