Page 5 of Eldritch (The Eating Woods #2)

CHAPTER THREE

MAEVYTH

Present day …

H and to my throat, I jolted upright with a gasp and turned to see Aleysia, still asleep, as if she hadn’t moved a muscle.

A dream? Nothing more than a terrible dream?

Breaths sawed in and out of me, my mind sifting through flashbacks.

“ Kill her .” The words wrapped around me like slithering snakes, taking the form of a willowy silhouette in my thoughts. Morsana.

Cold and callous. Cruel.

I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut.

“ Kill her while she sleeps . It’ll be easier that way. ”

I glanced around the room in search of her, trailing my gaze over the same cob walls, with the same damp, earthen stench in my nose. Beside me, Aleysia continued to lay in oblivious slumber. So peaceful. Innocent. “No. I won’t.”

“There is rot inside of her. The only cure is death.”

“You will not touch her. Do you hear me?” I couldn’t tell if I was commanding her, or myself.

The voice didn’t answer.

I waited, watching the shadows, wondering if the Goddess of Death had somehow found herself in this world, outside of Caligorya.

The voice remained silent, and still breathing hard, I ran a trembling hand across my brow, before throwing back the blankets and scampering for the door.

I needed to physically distance myself from that damned nightmare.

In the other room, Zevander sat at a chair in front of the window, his boots kicked up on the sill. When he turned, catching sight of me, his brows lowered. “Everything all right?”

“Nightmare.” I glanced to Aleysia’s room and back. “She hasn’t stirred in her sleep, at all?”

“Not that I’ve heard.” His gaze lingered on my hands crossed over the front of me, as if he could sense the vibrations of my trembling, and he sat forward, studying me. “You’re certain everything is okay?”

Despite my heart hammering in my chest, I nodded.

He stared a moment longer, then turned back toward the window, beyond which the moon shone high. “Must’ve been some nightmare.”

“It was terrible.” Throat still throbbing, I made my way to the small table, where the pitcher of water sat alongside a tin cup, and poured myself a drink.

The hearth’s blazing heat warmed the incessant chill still clinging to my bones.

“Have you…” I paused, wanting to ask him—a man trained to kill—if he’d ever heard a small voice compelling him to take someone’s life.

If his conscience ever stepped out of character for a moment and demanded he do something atrocious.

Putting that question out in the universe felt too much like a confession, though.

“Have you seen many of them?” I asked instead. “The creatures outside.”

“They come and go. They seem smart enough to know we’re in here, but they haven’t tried to breach the door. I get a sense they’re nocturnal when it comes to hunting for food.”

His words cast a shiver down my spine. The thought of those things consuming flesh was a vision born from my darkest nightmares. “I’m praying she wakes by morning, so we can leave this place.”

“Maevyth …” He turned in his chair, his expression tight and, unless I was mistaken, grim.

“What is it?”

The moment he shook his head, I knew whatever followed would be a lie. “It’s nothing.”

“No, I absolutely do not believe that, so tell me.” I managed to catch a curse and idiot in all his grumbling. “Tell me.”

“Aleysia won’t make it through the Umbravale. Mortals can’t cross into Aethyria.” The razor-sharp tone of his voice sliced through any misunderstandings I may have had as I silently absorbed his words. Even through the glimmer of regret burning in his eyes, his words spilled like poison.

A staggering shock chilled my blood. “What?” I asked in disbelief, not expecting an answer. Zevander didn’t mince his words, after all. “I knew she couldn’t cross herself, but not even with me? Or you?”

“She cannot cross into Aethyria, at all. The Umbravale won’t allow it.” Still, his voice remained steady, somehow disconnected from the remorse he clearly felt as he ran his hand down his face.

“This can’t be.” I stumbled backward and fell into the seat behind me. “But…I’m mortal.”

“With Aethyrian blood.”

I opened my mouth to argue but failed to find the words. No argument would change the grave reality. “How will we …. We can’t stay here . Our home, the village, everything is destroyed .” My voice cracked at the reminder of Grandfather Bronwick’s cottage burning to the ground.

“I’ve been mulling it over for most of the night.” He turned back toward the window.

“Is there no other solution?”

“If she were bonded? Perhaps. There’s an exchange of blood in that case.

” Sighing, he shot me a somber glance. “I don’t imagine we’ll run into many Aethyrians on this side, but still, the risk is too great.

She would fall to her death in the great chasm if it failed.

Only Aethyrians true of blood and purpose are permitted to cross that boundary. ”

True of blood and purpose? “What does that even mean?”

“An exchange of blood wouldn’t make her a true Aethyrian. And if her blood happens to be infected, she’d be rejected. Anything perceived as a threat is not permitted to cross over.”

I exhaled an exasperated breath and covered my face with my hands, a pounding ache battering my head.

“I can’t leave her here alone.” Jaw tight, I blinked away the first prickle of tears.

“Not with those things. At the same time, the thought of having to stay here terrifies me.” In the relief of having found her, I hadn’t even considered that she might not be able to cross back with us—didn’t imagine that there was a chance she’d be forced to remain in the mortal lands.

“Don’t think about this right now.” He pushed to his feet, swiping up a blanket draped over Elowen’s rocking chair, and strode across the room.

After wrapping the blanket around my shoulders, he lowered to his knee, tipping his head as if to catch my gaze.

“I’ll chop some wood, and we have enough food to last a few more days. I can hunt for more, if we run out.”

I turned toward the fire in hopes he wouldn’t see the unspoken thoughts trapped behind my eyes.

The overwhelming relief I felt by him offering to stay so I wouldn’t be alone with Aleysia and those horrible monsters.

“I’m not asking you to do this, Zevander.

I’m not asking you to stay when you have family?—”

A strong hand gripped my chin in a startling gesture, and I looked up to see him looming over me, one eyebrow cocked.

“You’re not asking me to do anything. Now, get some rest. I’ll not allow you to dwell on this tonight.

In fact, I curse myself for telling you, at all, but I feared you finding out later might be worse. ”

“Assuming she ever wakes.” The dismal words caught in my throat.

“She’ll wake. Enough worrying.”

I’d have asked what he proposed if she didn’t, but I feared his brutal honesty as much as I craved it.

Another glance toward the bedroom brought to mind the visual of Aleysia sitting atop of me, with those terrifying black eyes and speaking in tongues. “I think I might sleep out here, if that’s alright.”

“Of course.” He strode over to the hearth and stoked the flames to a blazing heat that failed to warm the new chill slithering beneath my skin.

Pulling the blanket tighter, I settled myself on the floor, not noticing that Zevander had strode from the room, until he returned with a pillow that he set below my head.

“Thank you.”

Jaw tight, he gave a small nod and pushed to his feet, but I reached out for his arm.

“Will you lie with me? Just until I fall asleep?”

A slight smile curved his lips as his bulky body sank down beside me like a shadowy mountain at my back. “If only the things you asked of me weren’t such a chore,” he said, his palm against my stomach.

While I couldn’t see Aleysia over his broad shoulders, I remained well aware that her bedroom door stood open.

I twisted to face him, burying my face in his solid chest and inhaling the faint scent of Elowen’s liquor from earlier.

I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that his presence was a balm to the chaos in my head.

It wasn’t fair of me to expect him to stay, but damn it, I was relieved. “What of your vivicantem?”

“I’ll be fine. Might be a little grumpy. Certainly won’t be able to woo you with my tricks, but…I’ll survive a few more days without it.”

My smile faded. “And if it’s more than a few more days?”

He ran his thumb across my forehead. “Look at you, worrying about what hasn’t yet happened.”

“I like to think ahead.”

“You’re taking on too many worries at once. Sleep, or I’ll be forced to cast a spell over you again.”

I stilled at his comment. “You cast a sleeping spell over me before?”

“The night I dragged you out of Bonesguard and you wouldn’t stop with your incessant questions.”

A vague recollection of feeling overwhelmingly cozy while straddling his horse came to mind. Of course, I couldn’t summon a single event after that. Not until the next morning. “Is it possible then that Elowen may have cast a spell on Aleysia?”

“I’ve never known a spell to last for days, but I suppose, yes.”

“Is there no way to break it?”

“Spells break themselves at some point. They’re a weaker form of magic, mostly used by spindlings. Perhaps mortals, as well.” He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, the gesture a minor distraction to the thoughts he’d stoked.

“But Elowen changed the color of my eyes. That lasted most of my life, up until she passed,” I said, forcing myself to ignore the gentle toying of my hair.

“That was blood-binding, I’m sure. I doubt she’d have resorted to that for a slumbering spell.”

“Why?”

“Too much risk, binding your blood to someone. Besides, it seems her death would’ve broken it. Unless …”

“Unless?”

He sighed and rolled onto his back, tucking an arm beneath his head. “Wasn’t her blood.”