Page 13 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom (Faeted Seasons #2)

Vareck

The clearing looked safe. That was the first red flag.

Evorsus didn’t do safe. It did alluring. Inviting. It seduced the senses with a welcoming whisper, rest here , even as every survival instinct I had screamed not to let our guard down.

Thick, lush grass blanketed the ground like velvet, soft and dry enough to sleep on.

Trees rose around us like stained-glass walls, their jewel-toned leaves shimmering beneath the moon.

Everything glowed faintly green, violet, and sapphire.

It should’ve been peaceful. The perfect place to rest after many hours of walking.

It was anything but.

Meera walked around the clearing, near the tree line. Too close to the shadows. Too far from me. The tension that had coiled between us all day snapped taut again.

She hadn’t said much since the shift into Evorsus. Not about the realm. Not about the thread. Not about us .

Which was fine.

Mostly.

Except it wasn’t, and I was full of shit.

Every move she made—every glance, every breath—felt like a decision not to close the chasm between us. I tracked her from the corner of my eye, both hating the distance and embracing it myself.

Meera wasn’t sure how she felt about the mate bond. It was my job to convince her to accept it. To stay. That was easier said than done when we were traversing the most dangerous hell realm.

With every step, it became apparent that Evorsus had taken an interest in her.

The roots themselves had moved out of the way after Meera tripped and rolled her ankle.

The branches lifted just so, making it easier for her to cross underneath them.

She’d fallen twice during our trek before I found a suitable walking stick for her—yet another thing that appeared right when she needed it.

The realm itself was accommodating her body while simultaneously wearing her down.

I wasn’t sure if she noticed it. If she did, she didn’t say anything. The last thing I wanted to do was make her panic when there was literally nothing we could do about our current situation. So I watched. I listened. I guarded.

She dropped her backpack with an unceremonious thud, exhaling as she stretched and rolled her shoulders.

Crouching, she rummaged through the sack and pulled out a thin blanket and a package of dried beef.

With mechanical precision, she laid out the cloth, her movements sharp and deliberate despite the exhaustion I knew was weighing her down.

“You’re brooding,” she said, sitting down and leaning back on her palms.

“Brooding?”

She gave a vague shrug and brushed a sweaty lock of ginger hair away from her face. “Ya know, sulking but manly-er?”

The corner of my mouth twitched. “Manly- er ?”

Meera pursed her lips. “Are you just going to repeat everything I say? If so, this conversation is going to get old real fast.” Her voice edged toward sarcasm, but she sounded more annoyed than anything else.

I sighed. “I’m not brooding. I’m thinking .

Namely about how to get us out of here once we find Sadie.

” It wasn’t a lie. I was thinking about that.

Maybe not at this exact moment, but Meera made it clear she didn’t want to talk about us and while it frustrated me, I knew I’d get nowhere if I pushed it.

I was coming to learn that my fiery mate had to do things in her own time.

“Oh,” she said, straightening her posture. “I suppose that’s fair. I’ve mostly been focusing on finding Sadie but once we do, we need a way back—to Earth or Faerie. At this point, I’m not picky.”

I inclined my head, listening to the forest around us. “How much water do we have?”

She reached for the canteen hanging loosely from her shoulder and gave it a little shake. “About half. Do you think there’s water nearby?”

I nodded. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving you here while I go searching for it though. Not when these realms have a nasty habit of changing.”

Meera cocked her head, considering my words.

After a second, she reached for her walking stick and used it to climb to her feet once more.

“All right. Let’s find it. I’ll leave the blanket here, so we have a way back to the clearing.

” She noticed my frown and added, “I can track it. It’s a convenient skill to have here when I can’t tell right from left and everything looks the same. ”

“Will you let me carry the backpack this time?”

“I already told you I’m capable of wearing it,” she said, jutting her hip out and using the walking stick to lean on.

I walked toward her and picked it up off the ground, putting the dried beef back inside before closing the pocket. “And I don’t think there is anything wrong with sharing the burden. We can trade on and off.”

She hummed sarcastically as I wrapped my hands around both straps for a better hold. With two swords at my back, carrying it as she had done wouldn’t be as easy. I was fine holding it. “Are you actually going to trade with me, or are you just going to take over?”

I repeated the tone of her hum and gave her a wink as we headed toward the water source.

“Can you track it and Sadie at the same time?” I wondered aloud as we walked.

Meera nodded. “It’s just another thread.”

“And you know which is which?”

She tilted her head one way then the other. “Mostly. When I search for something or someone I feel a pull. More strings means more pulls, but all I’d have to do is stop tracking one thing to know which is which.”

“Hmm. Your ability to find things is fascinating. Especially when you don’t have a witch mark. Could you lead us to water?”

Meera shook her head. “I mean, technically, yes. But I’d get a pull in too many directions if I just searched for water.

It’s different if I’m looking for a specific body of water, like Lake Michigan—that’s a place.

Whereas water in general is vague. Plants have water in them.

People too. Not to mention all the many bodies of water that exist in a realm.

” She shook her head again. “I also have to have a connection to the object or person.”

The further we went from the clearing, the louder the slight rustling of water became. “You have to know them? How were you able to track Damon then?”

“Photo,” she answered. “If it’s not a person I know or an object I’ve encountered before, I need a picture of it to anchor the connection.”

“And everyone you work for knows this?”

She scoffed. “Of course not. I’m not giving away that secret to just anyone. But even a regular bounty hunter without my ability would be hard up to do the job if the client didn’t provide that. You have to know what you’re looking for.”

Between the trees in the not-so-far-off distance, something was glowing.

It wasn’t until we were only ten or so feet from it that I was able to identify it as a series of pools.

Each one was several feet higher than the last. Bioluminescent water spilled from one into the other, ending in a tiny lagoon at our feet.

Meera whistled. “This is cozy.”

She hobbled over to me, but instead of reaching for me, she went for the bag I wore on one shoulder.

Now she sifted through it, muttering to herself. Wrappers crinkled as she pushed some granola bars aside, looking for what, I didn’t know.

“Aha!” she said excitedly after a minute. “Found it.”

I lifted a brow as she held up a vial of clear liquid with an eyedropper.

“And that is?”

“A potion. One that cost me a pretty penny to have made. After I nearly died from dehydration in another realm a few years back, I had Amelia make me a ton of this stuff. Every survival pack I make has it.”

Immediate distrust filled me, and it was no doubt written on my face. “The same Amelia that has a portal to Eversus in the backroom of her bar?”

The excitement she felt waned a bit. She lifted a shoulder and looked at the ground. “She made this when she was still my friend. I’ve used it before. I know it works.”

“What exactly does it do?”

Meera smiled, and even with a leaf stuck in her hair and dirt smudged across the bridge of her nose, she still looked beautiful. Everything about her was pure. “This little guy is going to tell us if the water is safe to drink and not, ya know, poison or something.”

She unscrewed the dropper and extended her arm over the pool, careful not to spill. A single crystalline teardrop fell into the pool and dispersed. Nothing happened.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. If the water isn’t safe, it turns black when the potion touches it. Clear means we’re good to drink.”

We refilled the canteens in silence, the quiet hum of the surrounding forest oddly soothing. Meera sat crisscrossed at the edge of the lowest pool and dipped her fingers into the glowing water. “You know,” she said, not looking at me, “this reminds me of hiking trips with Sadie.”

I turned my head. “You hiked?”

She snorted. “Tried to. My equilibrium isn’t designed to keep me balanced for most physical activities, but I liked it all the same.

Sadie and I used to go with our boyfriends back in the day.

” The mention of her with someone else made my muscles tense, but I hid the reaction.

I didn’t want her to stop sharing with me.

“One trip ended with me twisting my ankle and falling off a ledge. Sadie laughed so hard she nearly peed herself.”

“You fell off a ledge and she laughed?”

“It wasn’t a big ledge. It was just enough to bruise my ass and my ego.” She smiled to herself, reliving the memory I wish I could have shared with her. “You better believe I acted like it was nothing, but internally, I felt every step of the way home.”

“Sounds like you.” I chuckled, the sound only slightly less strained than I felt. I could recognize what she was doing; telling me about herself and her past as a way of getting to know her and distracting us from our bleak reality.