Page 28 of Shadows of Air and Earth
My lips pulled back in a sneer—time was more than just that, it was a fucking illusion that always took and never gave back. A countdown that could easily be filled with regrets if one was not careful and that was all I felt right now. Fucking regret for wasting what I once had.
She sighed, attempting to pull her hand away after seeing the flash of anger in my eyes, but I stopped her with a harsh and desperate grip, digging my fingertips into her pale, tattooed skin. "You have been inside the rings?"
Her bare chest heaved with a deep sigh, the blood that had splattered on her dry and flaking as she ignored my handle on her body. "Unfortunately."
I squeezed her arm harder, my grip punishing but she never once winced. Instead, her eyes softened, empathy and worry for me shining in their emerald depths. I did not deserve such worry and I was past caring how pathetic I sounded. "How?” I choked, “How did you get out?"
"I didn't, my mother did. A fae must stand judgement to break the hold of a Faerie ring and then must be strong enough to pull the anthousai’s victims back through. But it is dangerous, Ri. It's not your actions that are judged, anyone can walk into a Faerie ring with proclamations of love but not everyone can face the truth in their own heart. If you are not deemed worthy, death will be inevitable."
I dropped her arm, my confidence returning. "Nothing is more dangerous than walking this world alone with a shattered heart and an empty soul," I growled. "Xi Chin is mine. They will not keep her," I added darkly.
Black hair spun as Remnant pivoted, first staring back into the jungle and then excitedly back at me. "That's it!" She smiled widely. "Sweet goddess that's it. You must use your power to find her."
I froze, my breath catching in the back of my throat with the same realization. Damn my soul to Sheol and back but I could not. Iwouldnot. Playing dense, I exhaled, "I fail to see how my air can help find a Faerie ring?"
She crossed her arms, covering her naked breasts and giving me a pointed look that reminded me of my mother when she used to scold me for whatever mischief I had caused for the day. Those memories were few and far between now, and Remnant was resurfacing them with too much ease. Memories that weretoo painful to even think of fully…forever tainted by the cruel fate of my mother’s final days.
When the silence stretched between us, and the general’s look began to burn holes into my skull, I licked at my lips, hissing between my teeth. "Fuck Rem, if you’re alluding to my other power, then you know how vile it truly is, how monstrous it is. Just the small bit of Xi knowing I had used it has her already walking away from me. If I actually do open them up…” I shook my head cursing. “I’ll possess her, I’ll siphon her power, drain her dry, wield combined power through her, make her hurt others…with it, she is naught but a weapon or tool to use. Her free will gone—and when she finds out that not only have I used it, but used it on her, I'll lose her forever."
"I don't believe that for one goddess damn second Riley Dragoon. When she inhales, you're the only air she wants to breathe, when she touches you, you're her earth to stay grounded, when she speaks your name, you're the only ruler she will bend a knee for. It is impossible for you to ever lose her because she is so interwoven into your very essence…just as you are threaded so thoroughly through hers. Xi will always choose you, Ri, and it is not due to the influence of your power. It's because her heart chooses you, her soul chooses you. Because of that, you have been given a gift far greater than any other—a gift greater than a bond of the soul."
I blinked at the shadow fae, swallowing hard and holding back the tears of despair flooding my eyes. "How do you see all that?" I choked, "You have only known us for a few days. We have known each other for hundreds of thousands."
"Sometimes, Riley Dragoon, it is harder to see who we are under the scars that we ourselves have given power to. In time it becomes our truth, a truth that is just as blinding as any lie."
"Our truth has been blind for a long time," I sighed with resignation, lifting the severed cord and frowning atit. Fingertips brushing against the frayed leather, I snarled, crushing it in my hand and reaching down into the darkest depths of my mind where the locked power I had banished but never escaped from was hidden. Exhaling slowly, I undid the mental locks, feeling Xi’s essence bloom to life, then her unique scent of fresh grass and polished stone plucked from a riverbed assaulted my senses. The thrum of her heart quickly followed, beating fast and erratic, her breath ragged, a sound I knew so well—I swallowed hard. Her pleasure hit me like a blow to my gut and rage burned through my veins. There was only one reason why Xi would be feeling pleasure in a Faerie ring and it sure as goddess wasn't by her fucking choice.
The tethered collar around her neck, one bewitched to be hidden even from her sight, hummed in welcome as I summoned it—summoned her.
Grunting, I reared back when my pull was cut off, like having a door slamming into my face. "I can't pull her from the ring,” I snarled, “not with my power but I do know where she is."
Pouring more energy into the bond, I began to race in the direction of the barrier, tearing blindly through the jungle, not giving a fuck about the hissing gnomes or the dragon plants that snapped at my heels. I even ignored the shouting warnings from Remnant. None of that mattered as I rode the winds to swiftly hurtle me through the jungle.
Blasting through a wall of vines with a cyclone of air, I snarled hatefully at the floral ring in front of me. Hyacinth flowers waved softly in the remains of my winds, taunting me with their little innocent star buds.
I glared, their beauty a cruel monster, an illusion of peace in its deadly hunger. I blinked when the petals blurred. Suddenly my knees hit the ground, losing the ability to stand. I shook my head, as realization hit me. It wasn’t the flowers that were blurring but my vision.
“No,” I whispered out desperately, crawling towards the ring unseeing, my hands clawing into the earth when I fell again, my face meeting the ground. The ring was just inches away, I was so close…if I could just reach a little bit further.
"Riley!" Remnant's hands firmly rolled me to my side and I silently roared with fury as she pulled me further away from the ring. I started to thrash, my body seizing and jerking against her firm hold, suddenly not in control of it. Moaning, my vision blurred in an aura haze of pinks and blues, my ears rang with derisive laughter, as the merciless scent of berries and lilacs penetrated the final shred of conscious thought I had.
Chapter 19
"Sweet goddess," I sworeharshly, my hands slipping on warm slick blood, struggling to get a grip on the thrashing Riley, needing to roll him to his side where he would be safe from himself and the wound I had not noticed earlier.
Studying the long ragged slice in his side, tiny thorns could be seen embedded in the torn flesh. Oozing with pus and blood, the rancid stench of the poison released from those thorns had already rooted deep within Riley’s system.
Convulsing, his body contorted in my hold, and I bit my lip hard, throwing myself against the uncontrolled seizing that was bringing him closer and closer to the Faerie ring. Grunting, I shoved him back, impressed that even while deliriously wracked with fever, his subconscious was still trying to get to the one fae that mattered more than his own life. The one fae that was inside that ring.
Except he was useless to her now.
Gripping his head and pulling it downward, I attempted to keep his airway as the tremors continued, the bright red blood on my hands smearing upon his pale skin like war paint. And he was at war, his body violently fighting off the poison but slowly losing the battle. Thankfully, if he was any less of a stronger fae he would have died already but my time to save him was rapidly ticking down at an alarming rate.
I glared at the floral ring—and if I didn't act quickly for Xi,she would also die.
Neither would I allow. Not ever. These fae, even if they walked away from me forever after this quest, would always fall under my protection. From the beginning, the knowledge of them fascinated me, and when we first met they had intrigued me, now even after a couple of days, they had ensnared me. I cared for them, like the beasts of this world, there would never be a day where I didn’t make sure they stayed alive in this goddess damn wreck of a life. They were essential, like the sun and moons in the sky, they held purpose, and one day it would be revealed to all.
On cue, my shadows shimmered into existence, hovering just beyond my shoulder, peering past it like a curious child,perfect last minute timing as always. "It's about fucking time you showed up," I hissed more with relief than annoyance. "Did you take the scenic route on the way back?"
