Page 97 of Eldritch
Zevander removed his cloak, wrapping it around both my and Aleysia’s shoulders. “We have to get back to the cottage.”
“We can’t. It’s overrun by those monsters. The village is our only option now.”
“Maevyth, I’ll never make it,” Aleysia said, shivering next to me. “I’m so cold I can hardly breathe.”
Zevander rubbed his hands together and held out both palms toward us. A radiant heat poured over us, the kind that reminded me of summers out on the lawn, and Aleysia let out a quiet moan, teetering to the side. “That should get you to the village, if we go now.”
Despite the warmth, my head felt stuffy, muscles aching, as if I were coming down with a cold. “You returned far too quickly. Did you find the vivicantem?”
“No. I had a sense that something was wrong, so I returned.”
So strange, the warmth that surged through me, sinking into my bones. Feeling had even returned to my toes. “I thought you were struggling to summon the flame.”
He curled and flexed his hand. “It’s still weak. The rabbit meat we ate offered a bit of energy. Just not enough.”
“I feel like I just walked into a summer day.” Aleysia threw off the cloak that had, admittedly, gotten a bit toasty, and stepped in the direction of the village. “This is incredible!”
Raivox cawed at Zevander, taking a few hops in his direction, as if threatening him, then leapt into the air, but instead of taking off as usual, he circled overhead, seemingly waiting on us.
Dizziness swept over me, and I stumbled a few steps, catching myself before I fell. “I don’t know why I feel out of sorts, all of a sudden.”
“If you used your power, you expended a lot of energy. Even if you don’t require much vivicantem, blood magic is exhausting,” Zevander said, and before I could respond to that, he swiped me up into his arms and marched across the snowy field.
“You don’t have to carry me, Zevander. I’m perfectly capable of walking.”
“I’d like to get to the village before a fortnight. What happened back there?”
“Aleysia and I were talking, and a spider appeared on the wall.”
“Any idea where it came from?” He glanced over his shoulder, scanning the distant tree line, as if watching for something.
“It looked like they were spawning out of those rabbit remains. Do you think we’re infected, for having eaten it?”
“We boiled the meat. Should’ve been enough to kill anything inside.” Something about him seemed unsettled, the way he kept glancing around, as though he was waiting for something to jump out at us.
“A strange entity of some sort emerged from one of them back there. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was wraith-like.”
“Where did it go?”
“Raivox ate it.”
He finally switched his attention, looking up at the Corvugon that followed us toward the village. “He doesn’t seem to like me much, does he?”
“Well, to be fair, you don’t exactly look like a white knight coming to rescue me. I think he senses your moral ambiguity.”
“I look morally ambiguous?” Again, he looked over his shoulder.
“Very. Is something troubling you?”
“I was attacked on the way back here.”
“By the spiders?”
“No. A Solassion soldier sent on behalf of General Loyce.”
“Just one?”
“I don’t know. There could be others, I suppose, but I only saw Theron.”
