Page 14 of The Last Slayer
Three
The velvety moss felt moist and cool against the soles of my feet. The forest wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t bright either. Wide leaves on the trees filtered the light until everything was muted green and brown. I didn’t recognize any of the plants around me, although I smelled pine and honeysuckle. But pine and honeysuckle don’t have wide, gossamer-thin leaves with serrated edges, and their veins don’t shimmer in sunlight.
A river murmured down a deep gorge that ran through and around the forest like Jörmungandr, the mythical ouroboros that held all the world within its tail-swallowing compass. With the sun reflecting on its silvery, multi-faceted surface, the water looked like a finely filigreed snakeskin. The wind shook the tree branches and made them crackle and ripple in green waves over my head.
I followed the river, feeling as if I needed to go somewhere…but I didn’t know where. Penetrating deeper into the woods seemed reckless. You never knew what could be lurking in an ancient virgin dream forest. I’m no diviner, and I’ve always tried to avoid going into the dark places of my subconscious.
The only things I had on were my stretchy black Under Armour leggings and top. I didn’t have my sword, and I would’ve given anything for it. Not that it was absolutely necessary. There were spells I could use. Still, it would have been nice to have a physical weapon to hold on to, a security blanket of sorts.
Tree roots coiled like vipers near the river bank. I walked carefully over them. It would suck to twist my ankle. Anything that could limit my mobility was simply not an option, and that didn’t change just because I was asleep.
You are marked.
I made a face. It wasn’t like me to keep obsessing about something a loser demon had said. I was in my own dream while inside my heavily warded condo. What could go wrong?
The water eventually led me to a wide clearing with a gigantic tree stump. It came up to my waist and had more rings than I could’ve counted in a day. The sight of its level surface angered me. Trees as old as this shouldn’t be cut down.
Weary from my long walk, I lay on the stump and looked up at the uncovered sky. Fluffy cotton-candy clouds traveled across the endless blue. The soft whispers of the river and the breeze and the trees… My eyelids drooped, and my head lolled to one side.
It was then that I saw him.
When I’d been a kid, I used to dream of a prince to come to me and reveal that I was really the long-lost princess of a magical kingdom. It wasn’t such a bad fantasy for a girl raised in a series of foster homes for eight years, and later in a household full of decent people who nonetheless made me feel insignificant just by being naturally flawless and beautiful. And this man standing at the edge of the clearing looked just like the prince in my young fantasies.
Elaborately worked armor and a matching helmet
, all in gleaming white, covered his body from head to toe. He took off the helmet and a mass of platinum hair tumbled to his waist. It danced in the breeze, loose and straight.
This time, there was no glamour to obscure his magnificence.
I gaped at the beauty of his face. There was nothing out of balance, nothing common. Divine perfection if there ever was such, if I believed in such things. Despite his easy stance, magic emanated from him like some sort of airborne honey, thick and seductively sweet. And I was drawn to it like an ant. I would’ve gone to him if it weren’t for the emerald eyes nailing me to the spot.
“How did you find me? How did you get here?” I asked, my voice faint. Damn it. The last thing I wanted to do was sound weak and pathetic in front of a supernatural. Especially one like this. I tried to get up, but my limbs felt heavy.
No response. He came closer and bowed, the motion elegant and economical, his hair tickling my bare feet. He smelled like sandalwood and spice. And power so overwhelming that my head spun. There was a quiet control in him, centuries of refinement. This wasn’t good. Gallant demons are generally more dangerous than rude ones.
He went down on one knee. I realized that his right hand was closed in a fist. He opened it, and tiny strands of fine golden hair flew from his palm like puffs of dandelion fluff blown by a child. I watched them float toward the sky, twisting and glinting like needles in the air, then turned my attention back to him.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment, Ashera Isabella del Cid.” His body heat radiated over me as the air grew colder.
I’d seen some horrifying things in my years as a hunter and a supernatural expert, but nothing compared to this. I mean…he said he’d been waiting, and there was only one thing he could be waiting for: my slow and painful death. The soothing voice didn’t fool me. Thousands of supernaturals wanted me dead, and he’d come into my dream, uninvited, without a link, and knew exactly who I was. My full, true name, which nobody knew. Jack had spent a fortune and called in several favors to ensure it. This was wrong, all wrong.
“Happy birthday.”
I blinked. “How did you know?” Dumb question. If he was targeting me, he’d know everything about me that was public knowledge. “What do you want?” Smarter.
He dipped his head, hair falling like an opalescent curtain. “Let me show you.”
He slipped an arm under my waist and picked me up as if I weighed nothing more than a dress. Even his armor was warm. The heat loosened my muscles and liquefied my bones.
Focus, Ashera.
Damn it. I could barely even move. His magic pressed on me like a thousand sheets of silk. Now I wished I’d had another bottle of Sex. Vile tasting or not, it was better than this feeling of helplessness.
He carried me to the river. Was he planning to drown me?
“Look into the water,” he said.
I thought about saying no, just on general principle, but what would I gain by it? I glanced down and gasped. The water had stilled, forming a glasslike surface. In it, he was holding someone, but that someone wasn’t me. It was a breathtakingly gorgeous woman with blond hair and deep violet eyes. Despite a small smile on her lips, she looked sad, like a trapped bird.
