My eyes burned, and my vision went blurry again, but I could still see her in the distance. I tried to shake off the uneasiness of watching her so close to the shield. With each step she took, my concern amplified.
Before I could say anything, she turned and blew a kiss in my direction. My cheeks felt warm. I didn’t feel like I belonged in that picture.
Was that for me?
A slight movement to my right drew my attention. Almus, Draven’s father, sat next to me, watching her. His gaze softened, and he smiled at her, pretending to catch the kiss she’d sent his way.
I was experiencing a vision of the past all by myself, with no herbal catalyst. I could feel myself beaming with pride as I turned my attention back to Elissa. My heart stopped once I saw her go past the protective shield, the invisible membrane glimmering slightly as she walked through it. I wanted to tell her it wasn’t safe, but my words refused to come out.
The closer she got to the swamp, the more alarmed I got, to the point where I stood up and started walking toward her. The image before me trembled, and I saw Elissa fading away like a colorful mist.
I froze when I saw the Daughter standing outside the protective shield. She held the flowers to her chest and smiled at me. Shadows moved through the trees behind her, where the jungle began. My stomach tightened as the prospect of shape-shifters came crashing into me.
“Come back here!” I shouted after her, grateful to have my voice back.
Her smile faded, and she frowned at me, as if I’d upset her. She didn’t know the danger that lurked behind her. I started rushing toward her, my heart thumping violently.
“It’s not safe. Get back here now!”
The Daughter was still, watching as I ran to her. The confusion on her face only added to my aggravation. A clock ticked in the back of my head, as if counting down an unknown number of seconds before a shape-shifter would come out of the woods and attack her.
Not a second later, I saw one rushing from beneath a thick green shrub, ugly and livid and foaming at the mouth. It growled and jumped at her, its claws out as it slashed at her back. She screamed, and I stumbled to my knees, floored by a sharp pain in my back as if something had cut clean through my skin.
I watched helplessly as she fell forward, her flowers scattering all around. The shape-shifter morphed into her, hissing and circling her like a predator enjoying the sight of its weakened prey.
I reached around my back to identify the source of the searing pain, and I felt three long diagonal cuts through my shirt. My fingers ran over the wet fabric, and I pulled my hand back to find a worrying amount of blood smeared all over it.
It dawned on me that my connection to the Daughter was far stronger than I had originally assumed. My pulse raced as I struggled to stand. The pain in my back was so intense that it made it difficult for me to move without panting. I needed to get to her, and I was too weak to send out a barrier using my mental power. I tried to push one out, but barely a whiff emerged.
The beast jumped at the Daughter, going for the kill, and I shouted out in desperation.
An arrow whistled past my head. Its end was adorned with red and black feathers. It shot through the air and pierced the shape-shifter’s neck mid-jump. The creature fell backward and writhed in pain, its shrill sending shivers down my spine and scaring the nearby birds away from the trees.
I then saw Anjani run past me, crossbow in her hand. She sprinted across the grass and reached the Daughter beyond the shield. She shot another arrow through the tormented beast, killing it. She helped the Daughter up and dragged her back inside the safe zone.
Serena
Vita and I were in the basement, keeping ourselves busy with re-stocking the medicine cabinet. She’d read through some of the books in Draven’s library and had learned to identify the plants and flowers in the greenhouse. Many of them had medicinal properties, and some had been used to treat wounds over the past few days, so the supply in the basement had dwindled. The herbs weren’t something that the ancient wards were tasked with replenishing, from what I could tell.
I’d helped pick them from the greenhouse, and we were filling the carefully labeled jars downstairs when I noticed something slightly different about Vita. Her expression was stuck somewhere between pensive and pleased, a faint smile passing across her face occasionally. For someone who had seen the end of the world yesterday, I found that odd.
“What’s up with you?” I asked, wrapping twine around a handful of twigs that looked a lot like rosemary.
Vita looked at me, her turquoise eyes wide and blinking faster than usual, as if she’d been caught red-handed doing something questionable.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been half-smiling the entire morning. What’s up with that?”
“Oh,” she nodded, while filling a jar with waxy dark blue leaves. “It’s just that I had an interesting dream. I’ve been replaying it in my mind. That’s all.”
She gave me a weak smile and shifted her focus back on the jars, avoiding my gaze as if she didn’t want me to drill any further.
Fair enough. She’d most likely dreamed about the incubus. Given how she felt about him, it wouldn’t have surprised me. If anything, she deserved whatever she wanted—even if that meant Bijarki.
Speaking of whom…
“You know, Bijarki’s going to see the Red Tribe again today,” I told Vita.
She stilled and stared at me for a moment, visibly dismayed.
“What? Why?”
“Draven asked him to speak to Hansa about the Dearghs,” I replied.
“I don’t get why he has to send Bijarki over there. Why can’t Anjani do it?”
She was visibly irritated, and I made a considerable effort to suppress my grin. I’d hit a sensitive spot, but I didn’t regret it. She looked adorable when she was jealous. To be fair, I wouldn’t have been comfortable with the idea of Draven surrounded by succubi either, especially after seeing them in the act of seduction.
I mentally shook the thought off. My stomach churned. I’d stashed him away in a dark place of my mind, and I didn’t like him resurfacing so easily. I was still raw on the inside from his abrupt rejection.
“Anjani represents the Red Tribe in this group,” I said, tying more twigs together before stuffing them into a spare mason jar in the cabinet. “She’s been tasked to watch over the Oracles and, given the latest unexpected development, the Daughter as well. As part of the deal we made with Hansa, Anjani stays with us at all times.”
Vita sighed and placed a jar full of pale green stems on the top shelf. She clearly wasn’t okay with Bijarki on his own with the succubi, and I felt a bit sorry for her. I knew it had taken her a while to admit that she had feelings for the incubus in the first place, so not having him around must have been tough on her.
“He will be using the passage stone, though, so he won’t be gone for long,” I added in an attempt to comfort her. “Besides, I don’t think he likes spending time around the succubi anyway.”
“You think?”
I beamed at her, remembering our night with the tribe when I’d seen him constantly rejecting the succubi’s advances.
“The night we feasted with the succubi and had that spiced rose drink they were all over the men in our group, especially Bijarki. And he kept telling them no, politely rejecting their advances, and keeping mostly to himself,” I said. “I really don’t think he’s interested in them, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Vita blushed and turned away, mumbling something under her breath. I nearly laughed and wanted to ask her to repeat what she’d said, but a series of noises wafting down the basement stairs captured my attention.
In came Anjani with the Daughter, who had her arm around the succubus’s neck and leaned against her with a pained expression. Phoenix came in after them, staggering and then leaning against one of the beds. He’d been hurt. Cold sweat seeped through my skin.
“What happened?!” I burst out and ra
n over to Phoenix.
He groaned as I helped him lie on his side. His shirt was soaked with blood. I ripped it open and gasped at the sight of three long cuts running diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip.
“Oh, come on! Not again!” I snapped.
Vita helped Anjani put the Daughter in the bed next to Phoenix. She was in a lot of pain, crying as tears streamed down her cheeks. They put her on her side, and I could see the cuts on her back, through her ripped dress. They were identical to Phoenix’s.
“Phoenix, what happened? Talk to me!” I said again.
Anjani brought over a bowl of water and a couple of towels. I nodded my thanks to her while she got back to treating the Daughter’s wounds. My brother winced as I dabbed a wet towel against one of his cuts.
“She went past the protective shield,” he finally answered, gritting his teeth while I continued to clean his wound.
Vita mixed a few herbs together, following Anjani’s instructions, and brought me some in a small wooden bowl.
“Put it on his cuts. Follow the length,” she said and rushed another bowl of the same to Anjani.
The Daughter hid her face in the pillow to stifle her whimpers.
“A shape-shifter attacked her,” Phoenix added.
I wasn’t done applying the herbs on his back when he sat back up.
“Hold still, Phoenix! I’m not done here!”
“You can do it later. I’m fine,” he mumbled and got off the bed, as if entranced by the sound of the Daughter crying.
Anjani was busy covering her cuts with the same plant mixture.
Vita brought a few rolls of clean bandages from the medicine cabinet.
My brother leaned over and whispered something in the Daughter’s ear. Whatever he said, it instantly calmed her down. The creases faded away from her forehead. He brushed a hand over her temple and caressed her cheek with his knuckles.
Anjani watched the exchange between them while her hands were busy treating the Daughter’s wounds.
“There’s something very strange going on between the Daughter and Phoenix,” the succubus said.
“What, you mean besides the fact he’s basically brainless when he hears her voice?” I replied sarcastically, frustrated with how vulnerable my brother seemed around the Daughter.
To most people, it might have seemed endearing, but to me it was cause for concern. After all, she was of the same cloth as the cruel goddesses who had blinded Draven and refused to help us against Azazel. We didn’t know how much she really knew and what powers she held. I already had suspicions about the depth of this connection between Phoenix and the Daughter, and I wasn’t eager to see them confirmed.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Anjani replied.
I sighed, watching Phoenix whisper into the Daughter’s ear, occasionally stopping to stroke her forehead again. She was in a lot of pain, but he seemed to be doing a very good job of comforting her. I waited patiently by the bed for the moment he’d remember that he, too, was in the same tremendous amount of pain.
“Remember yesterday when she fainted as soon as Phoenix went under?” Anjani jogged my memory, and I nodded in response. “Well, the cuts on your brother’s back weren’t caused by the shape-shifter that attacked the Daughter. They appeared on their own as soon as the shape-shifter slashed the Daughter’s back. They were yards away from each other. I was right behind Phoenix. I heard him shout after her and decided to come out and make sure they were okay. I saw the blood spread across his back through his shirt. He was on his own with nothing and no one close enough to touch him, let alone cut him like this.”
She paused for a moment, applying the rest of the herb mixture. I watched my brother and the Daughter, utterly transfixed. Somewhere deep inside I had an inkling as to what was going on between them—I just didn’t think it was possible, even though all the signs pointed to it.
“They are connected,” I said.
Anjani stilled and looked at me.
I continued, “If one experiences something, so does the other. If one gets hurt, so does the other.”
A few moments passed before the realization sank in properly. Vita was speechless, watching Phoenix and the Daughter with the same amazement. My brother heard us, but didn’t reply immediately. He straightened his back and looked at Anjani, then at me, a frown pulling his eyebrows together.
“We’re connected?” he asked, his voice low and raspy. “But…”
He seemed as baffled as I was. My heart stopped as one thought in particular started knocking around in my mind. After having recently been so close to losing my brother, it was a thought I wasn’t ready to consider again.
“We already had some suspicion about this since the Daughter passed out at the same time as you did yesterday, but this confirms it. I believe your connection runs quite deep,” Anjani replied. “Your reactions and your wounds are mirrored accurately. I’m starting to think that if one of you dies, so will the other—”
“Don’t say that!” I immediately rejected the very idea that had been bothering me. “It can’t be!”
Anjani sighed and nodded, an expression of pity softening her face.
“I’m sorry, Serena, but all signs point to that.”
I took a deep breath, leaning into my fists as they sank into the mattress in front of me. We stood there for a while, watching each other.
“I had a vision outside, just before this happened, all on my own,” Phoenix broke the silence, his eyes set on the Daughter. “I watched her picking flowers, then all of a sudden it wasn’t her anymore, it was Elissa. I was reliving a scene with her and Draven’s father, sitting next to me. Thing is, the Daughter didn’t pass out this time, so I’m not sure how this connection really works…”
“Technically speaking, you didn’t pass out today, you only had a vision, so there was no reason for her to pass out either,” Anjani mused. “The other day, you were under the effect of some very potent herbs. It was your body that was affected and it’s your body that’s connected to her.”
Phoenix nodded slowly, running his fingers through a flowing river of reddish pink hair.
The Daughter slowly relaxed under the effect of the healing herbs. The dynamic between Phoenix and the Daughter had taken a very dramatic turn, and I feared it could spell trouble for my brother, the kind I’d be unable to protect him from.
Serena
I finished treating Phoenix’s wounds once the Daughter relaxed under the effect of the healing mixture of herbs. Then I went looking for Draven. He had to know about this troubling development, and I needed to find out if he’d heard about such powerful connections before.
I found him in his study, warming up by the fire. The room was scorching hot, as usual. I instantly dripped sweat, and my lips dried up. Draven was in his chair, quiet and still, only slightly moving his head, enough for me to see his profile.
I got down to business. “There’s a weird connection between Phoenix and the Daughter.”
Several seconds went by before he nodded. “I suspected something yesterday as you know, but it felt too early to tell. What happened?” he asked.
“If the Daughter gets cut, he gets cut. The Daughter went past the shield and was attacked by a rogue shape-shifter. Phoenix was yards away within the mansion’s protective perimeter, nowhere near her at the time. The shifter cut her back, and an identical wound appeared on Phoenix’s back simultaneously. Anjani got her back to safety, and we’ve already treated their wounds. They’ll both be fine.”
I told the story in one long breath. My nerves were frayed. Not only was my brother’s life somehow linked to a Daughter of Eritopia, but my heart was helplessly thudding in my chest from standing just a couple of feet away from Draven.
“It might have something to do with Phoenix’s sentry abilities,” Draven mused, his index finger pressing against his lips. “He did spend some time with the Daughter in her shell. They most likely shared a profound bond in there, more complex than we’d originally t
hought.”
“Have you seen that happen before with anyone?”
“No. This is definitely a first. They must have fused somehow on a deeper, primordial level. I’d never considered the possibility before the Daughter passed out yesterday along with Phoenix,” Draven replied.
A minute passed in silence. I stood there, unable to move or utter another word. My mind raced in different directions, from Phoenix to the Daughter to Azazel and back, then to the Druid, the Oracles, and everything else in between. My brain felt like mush, and my legs refused to listen to me. I had every intention of leaving him there on his own, but my body did not compute.
“Thank you for sharing that information, Serena. I’d like to be left alone now,” he added.
It was enough to make me snap.
“What is your problem?” I asked, blood simmering in my temples. “Why are you acting like such a jerk?”
“A jerk?”
It crossed my mind then that maybe he was unfamiliar with that term as an insult.
“Disagreeable,” I replied with the first alternative that popped into my mind.
“I’ve been nothing but courteous,” he replied coldly.
“Oh, really? You’ve been pushing me away and keeping this distance between us, and I don’t understand why. What did I do, Draven? What makes me so unpleasant to be around?”
“You’re mistaken. I just need to be left alone to think,” Draven said.
But I wasn’t buying it. “You’re lying.”
Silence stretched between us. I felt my pulse in my ears. Anger poured through my veins like liquid fire. And yet, all I wanted was to understand why he’d walled himself off like this.
“I’m not lying, Serena.”
“You must think I’m an idiot. If you’ve decided to not be anywhere near me again, just say so. Stop pushing me away like I’m a little girl. I think I deserve a little bit more respect than that.”