Page 94 of Shadows and Flames
It was the Queen’s turn to scream in the outrage of a mother, low and visceral. I encouraged the monster to ignore us with an arc of flame that lit the night. All remnants of my Flames went into the blast, and it shrieked as its belly burned.
As an extension of her, the beast changed course to fly after the Prince who was already disappeared beneath the clouds. Singed feathers rained down on us, Tomás shouted, a sound ofpain, and we ran.
I took my queen from him, supported him with his arm slung across my shoulders, and weran.
My muscles burned, my heart lay in pieces with Meline exhausted and bleeding in my arms, and we continued on.
The initial walk to the bridge had felt so long when we’d arrived in this world, with the realization my power was all but gone. Now the journey was short as my feet carried the three of us, meeting Tana, Fenix, and Francie at that confounded tree.
And as planned, taken from his home and bound, the Folk who first stepped through the trunk was glaring at Tana as she held her knife to his throat.
“Open it,” she demanded, all kindness gone. In the sharpness of the witch’s command, I saw my queen. The one I loved who, just moments ago, had fully intended to leave me.
Chapter Thirty-Five
ELIÁN
None of us spoke, but the moment I pulled my queen and brother through the trunk of the tree, into our world, I felt Zoko’s breath. Her touch, my direct line to her infinite power, and I staggered under the weight of it rushing in. Sweat prickled at my temples, and the haze of steam formed around my eyes. Meline moaned, back arching as she sucked in a ragged breath. One filled with dark smoke entering her mouth and nose.
Once we and our packs were all through, Tana plunged her blade in the throat of the Folk who gave us access to pass, ensuring he was unable to race back to the other guards and give us chase. As his blood, the same color as ours, spurted and spilled over her, the tree trunk solidified once again. She kicked it to be sure before dropping the Folk guard to the ground.
None of us looked back.
We walked through the Vharan forest, dark and with a chill in the air, still six but with Blackwood left behind to receive the agreement he sought or to be eaten. Both?
Francie remained unconscious, and at some point along the remembered path, Meline began to squirm in my arms. I did notspeak when I let her down, and neither did she as she walked with palpable space between us.
It was just before we reached the main road up ahead, visible through the balding trees, when Tom groaned and tripped over his feet. Immediately, I dropped, lowering him to sit, to catch his breath. He should have been healing—healed—enough to walk as slowly as we were.
“Fucker.” Then, I noticed his panting, the too-fast beating of his heart.
Black pumped around the hand he had clutched at his side, and my own pulse began to race. “Let me see, Tom.” I tried to pull his hand away, but he did not let me. “Tom,” I said more loudly, firmly.
His eyes were clenched in agony, his skin cool and drenched in sweat, and when I finally wrestled his hand away to see, a deep gash revealed itself. Tana cursed and dropped to her knees, hands immediately hovering over my brother. My vision swam, reaching uselessly, wanting to help, wanting to beg his body toheal.
Purple illuminated underneath Tana’s touch, and my brother hissed, kicking his feet in the dirt. I held his shoulders down as the witch worked, brow crumpled as she used her reawakened power to fix my brother.
“What’s wrong with him?” The Vyrkos asked quietly.
I could not find the words, running over the events on the bridge in my mind. Meline answered for me, whispering thickly over my head. “It bit him. The monster she was flying.” As he was helpingmeprotect her. Jumping into the fray without a thought, as he’d done for me time and time again.
“Is he healing?” He had quieted, but the cut of Tana’s worried green stare told me everything. The shards of my heart pulverized even more. Tomás would survive this. Hehadto. “What can we do?”
Tana was whispering, pouring water from one of our skins over the wound to clean away the blackened blood. The light of her magic seeped inside the wound, sending him into another bout of weak convulsions.
“Fenix.”
The Vyrkos stepped up, still holding Francie. “I hate to ask, but do—would you allow him to feed from you?”
He did not answer, but I heard a shuffling, and raised my head to find him transferring an unconscious Francie into Meline’s arms. The Vyrkos crouched and rolled up his sleeve without hesitation, without thought. For my brother.
He dropped his fangs and punctured his own wrist, where the prominent vein flowed. A groaning sounded, this time followed by Francie stirring in Meline’s arms. At the first scent of blood she could consume.
I ignored the watering in my own mouth at the sweet aroma, the first source of live nutrition we had encountered in days. Fenix clamped his wrist to Tomás’s mouth, and through the pain, his thirst took over. I allowed his hands to move, to grab Fenix’s arm as he drank.
“I…I’m going to get Francie to feed. I won’t go far.” I did not take my eyes off of Tomás. Afraid he would drink too much from the Vyrkos. Afraid of what I would find if I were to meet my queen’s stare again.
“That’s good, Fenix. It’s slowing the spread of the toxin,” Tana encouraged while healing Tomás. I watched as the wound slowly closed, flesh knitting against flesh, and once both sides of the wound met, it formed a long, jagged scar in his dark skin. One that cleaved in half the tattoo of Sjatan towers on his side, turning the already deep-toned skin there completely black.
