Page 253 of Vasmora

Branimir glanced toward the thread lying on the floor and swiped up the end of it before leaping through to the other side.

The spool of thread bounced and unraveled, rolling toward the portal. Forcing himself forward, Dolion reached out his good hand and snatched it up before it could trail after Branimir completely, letting it spin over his intact fingers.

The rope tautened, vibrating as it pulled tight.

In one dreadful crack, it snapped free, the end of it drifting onto the floor.

Torryn shot forward after Rykaia and Branimir, slamming against the stony surface of the wall with a bone-rattling smack. Dust crumbled on impact and he tumbled onto his backside.

The portal had closed.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

MAEVYTH

Boots crunching over the blanched underbrush, Zevander carried me with ease through the woods. My ribs ached with despair, a frantic, feverish dread slogging through my veins, as I glanced around at the blighted vegetation. The surface of my surroundings held the calm of a winter slumber, but beneath that placid rime of white, the fetid stench of rot burned the back of my throat. I could feel the forest withering around me, its last vestiges of life writhing like a dying animal begging to be put out of its misery.

I cleared my throat of the cloying scent. “You know, I can walk perfectly fine by myself.”

“There’s the woman I recognize.” Zevander’s voice held amusement, and he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “

“She couldn’t have been that bad. Was she?”

“I’d say using your body to strengthen her bloodline is pretty bad.” Zevander’s jaw tightened. “Didn’t seem too fond of Rykaia. Or Branimir, either.”

“Oh, no. Tell me she wasn’t hostile toward them.”

He pressed his lips together. “She wasn’t kind.”

I exhaled a sharp breath and shook my head. “I’ll make it right with both of them.”

His mask hung unfastened, loosely clasped around his neck, and I leaned in to kiss the scar at his cheek.

“It’s terrifying to me, how easily I could’ve been lured to stay.”

“How so?”

“You were there. It wasn’t the real you, of course, but I doubted myself, sometimes. And our son.”

“Son?”

If I concentrated, I could almost see him in my mind. The dark hair. Silver eyes. “He felt real in my arms. Had I not heard your voice, I might’ve been inclined to believe he was real.” Lips pressed together, I toyed with one of the curls at the nape of his neck. “He was beautiful. Perfect. A lie.” I sighed. “Thank you. For being my beacon. For defying the gods and fate, and whatever else has tried to keep us apart. You were right. Sacton Crain would’ve found a reason to burn me. If not in this existence, then another.” An uneasy breath trembled out of me as I recalled watching my former self burn at the stake.

His pace slowed to a stop, the two of us swallowed in the thickness of the woods. “I knew the moment I laid eyes on you that I would fight hell and death for you.”

“And so you have.” Smiling, I leaned forward to kiss him.

A deep growl rumbled from behind, and Zevander snapped his head in the direction of the sound, his gaze scanning through the moons’ stippled light that pierced the surrounding blackness.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Unless I’m mistaken, and I hope I am, it was a fyredrake.” He lowered me to my feet and quietly unsheathed his sword.

I trailed my gaze over white tree trunks that bit down through the darkness like teeth, focusing my attention and staring into the night’s persistent void. A strange, silver glow reflected back at me, illuminating the gaps that, moments ago, I couldn’t see past. Shuttering my eyes heightened the sound of careful footfalls and snorting breaths so vividly clear, I could see the white puffs of mist in my mind’s eye. I opened my eyes to the same brightness, my vision sharp, as if it were midday. In the distance, a figure prowled, the tips of its scales catching the light, its lizard-like shape telling me it was, without a doubt, a fyredrake.

“It’s there,” I whispered, pointing in that direction. “Between those two trees.”

Zevander glanced in that direction and back at me. “You see it?”