AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There was a dull thunk as Edith dropped her bottle, all four of us tilting our heads up to face the inky black sky filled with glittering stars. And the barest sliver of the waning moon.
After that revelation, the seemingly impossible magnitude of our task had settled on our camp like a cloak of despair. With the new moon the following night, getting to the cottage in time just wasn’t possible. I had become numb, my mind disconnecting entirely from my body to focus entirely on that connection to Tor. The pain I felt there. Was he hurting? I could feel his fear, but I didn’t know how to use the bond to know more, to decipher the impressions and feelings it was throwing my way.
Almost robotically, we had packed up our dinner in near silence, everyone tiptoeing around me, their faces filled with sorrow and pity. As the evening wore on, my thoughts spiralled. I had tried to not be resentful, but it was salt on an open wound. We were going to be too late. There was no way to make it on time.
Despair choked me as I ignored everyone and slithered into my sleeping bag, wrapping it around me like a shield, and turned my back to them. Did they know I lay there sobbing silently until I passed out while they murmured their hushed concerns?
Probably. But they had the good grace to not mention it. Instead, Seff had changed into his wolf form, and tucked himself in along my back, offering his own strength and comfort through the night.
The fourth day, yesterday, the day of the new moon, had been hard. The dark pit in my belly as I woke gnawed at my insides. Edith gently coaxed me to eat something before we set out on the trail before the sun had risen, reminding me I would not getanywhereif I passed out and hit my head on a rock. And so I had shoved a dry and crumbly granola bar into my mouth, choking it down with water pressed into my hand by Roan.
I had taken the lead, clutching the now torn and muddied map in my hand like a life preserver, focused solely on following the path that led to Tor. Wehad walked relentlessly, and when Edith had gotten too tired to walk, Roan had scooped her and Monty up without a word, throwing her onto his back and piggybacking her for as long as his enhanced-being strength would allow.
Eventually, though, the sun had fallen, and the sky had become inky black. Darkness overtook the Woods, stealing the light we coveted, forcing us to stop for the night. Seff pulled me into his arms as I had collapsed to the Woods floor in desolation. I couldn’t take the sad, pitying eyes of my friends any further, so when Edith had offered to make me a tea to sleep the night in peace, I had taken it, too depleted to fight Seff and Roan’s urgings.
In the morning, this morning, Edith had woken me just before dawn, her smiling face hovering over me as she wiggled my shoulders, whisper-shouting my name.
“What do you want, Witch?” My voice was hoarse and my eyes were like grit from crying. But at least I felt rested.
She just giggled. “Youlive, Caelan. You are alive! Do you know what that means?” I’d been too depressed to do anything but raise my shoulder in the barest of shrugs.
She shook me again, making my brain rattle in my skull. “Caelan! Think! If you are awake, it means that your bonded mate lives! Tor isalive!”
I tried to shake the fog her sleeping brew had left in my head as her words permeated my consciousness.I’m alive. That means Tor is alive!Hope smashed into my chest, flooding my body like white hot electricity. I couldn’t quite bring myself to smile, but I also couldn’t stop the awkward laugh bubbling out of me as I snatched Edith down into an awkward upside-down hug, squeezing her tightly.
“We’re going to save him.” Her words were whispered in my ear, and they curled through my spirit, tickling those primal places inside of me I had never felt a connection to. Not until Tor, until this trip into the Woods. And I had known them for what they were, magic. Her words were a spell, and she would weave our victory.
But this morning seems like an age ago as we once again clamber over rock and root, dodging small creatures making their way out of hibernation that hadcertainly not been here on our last trip. The weather is so much calmer I could almost convince myself we had imagined the whole thing.
That is, until we come across an ancient oak, ripped from its roots and thrown. The oak now rests in pieces amongst the wreckage of the forest it had decimated in its flight. Roan blanches as we pass, his neck craning to take in the vast expanse of the crater left in the ground, and the ruins of trees older than time.
“You survived that?” His face pulls tight as he looks at Edith and me.
We look at each other and I shrug. “It was Tor. He saved us.” A pleasant fluttering tugs at my chest as I remember how strong he was that day. How in awe of his own magic. We are getting closer to him. I can feel it.
Seff knocks my shoulder with his as he pushes past me to heave himself over a boulder taller than he is and then reaches down to pull Edith up. “Well, then, better get cracking so we can return the favour.”
There is a dangerous sense of déjà vu as we arrive at the border where the Woods meet the clearing. The heavy sense of foreboding and wrongness impregnates the air, with the overwhelming smell of floral decay, as the four of us stand on the boundary and survey the pretty cottage. Smoke curls once again from the chimney and the sun shines warm and bright into the open field. Seff shudders next to me, his hand brushing mine for comfort.
“So, uh, do we have a plan?” Roan scratches the base of his horn idly.
Edith shrugs one shoulder and tilts her head. “I kinda thought we’d just storm the place, and I’d skewer her with Monty here.”
Seff scoffs and I scrub my face, pressing the heels of my hands hard into my eye sockets until the colours dance behind my eyes. Wereallyshould have considered a plan before arriving, but we were so focused on getting here we forgot the rest. People on TV and in movies make this hero shit seem so easy, but honestly, it is just traumatic and exhausting.
“Hey! There’s your other bag!” Seff points just to the right of us, and there it is. Just sitting out in the open.
Chuffed, I run over and dump my other bag next to it before digging around in the old one. Finding what I am looking for, I pull out my old hunting knife and toss it in my hand. It makes me feel more confident somehow, more assured.
“Come on team, let’s plan.”
Tor
The relentless dripping willbe the death of me.
Drip.
Drip.
