Page 59 of Of Nightmares & Fire (Elusive Umbra #1)

“Is it ok if I touch you to apply the balm?” He asks as he opens the tin; his pale hair isn’t braided back like it normally is and falls into his eyes as he looks at me, waiting for my response.

The spicy scent of the healing balm immediately fills the room, and I’m taken back to a time when I was a child.

The memory I couldn’t pinpoint when I first smelled it floods my memory.

My brow cinches together as I recall the image of my mother rubbing the same sort of balm over a cut on my elbow.

She had pressed her finger to her lips. The corners curved up into a secret smile. “Our little secret, my bright star. ”

“Mavros?” I say, and he stops with a scoop of balm on his fingers. “This balm… Can it be prepared by just anyone? Like the ingredients, are they easily accessible?” I ask, and his brows drop.

“I mean, I suppose the balm itself, yea, but the healing properties have to be imbued by a dweller to truly be a Creshian healing balm.” He gestures to my neck, and I lift my chin, allowing him to rub the balm on the wounds there.

I know that this is the same smell from when I was a child.

Did my mother seek out a dweller, or was she a part of the Neer people? A magick sympathizer?

“Hold still, let me get every mark. Maybe we can get the worst parts healing before Kyros comes back and loses his shit.” He says, blowing air out his cheeks. “Fuck, I don’t see how he’s not going to.”

“I don’t see why, though? There is nothing that could have been done.

If he wants to be upset, then he can be upset with himself.

The nightmares haven’t been happening when he is around.

I think it’s afraid of the magick Kyros pushed back at it.

” I say, glaring past Mavros and to the broken door to the room, as though the man we are speaking of may storm through at any moment.

“Kyros pushed magick back? At your nightmare? ” He asks warily, dipping his fingers back into the balm and slowly applying more to the wounds.

“Like he was seeing your nightmare?” He finishes.

His face is stern, rigid with concern, and it's confusing to me.

I thought that Kyros would have told his brother about this.

“The nightmare creature stabbed him. He—fought him off—with magick. This is the first time the nightmare has returned since.” I say.

He is quiet for a moment as he wipes his hands on a cloth and secures the lid back over the jar.

“And you saw all of this happen?” He asks, and I hesitate.

Of course I saw it. What does he mean? “It’s just usually, the dreamer can’t really see us in their dream state, meaning there is a reason you can…

or you were awake and your nightmare crossed the threshold of realms.”

Pounding footsteps sound in the hall, and Mavros’ lips purse looking at the wound on my neck like it makes him angry.

What he has just said doesn’t make sense to me, but I know nearly nothing about magick or its workings.

Kyros using magick around me is the only time I have seen it.

Other than stories from drunken men in hushed tones, I wouldn’t know the first thing about details like that.

Mavros’ face is stern as he looks up to the doorway, and I know it's Kyros who approaches. I can feel his presence.

“Shula?” Kyros skids into the doorway; the broken door, pushed further out of the way in his haste to get into the room, falls with a loud bang.

I flinch. “Are you—” His words are stopped with a rope of shadow whipping out and twisting around his neck.

My eyes go wide as Mavros holds his brother still in the center of the room.

“Mavros?” I say warily, eyes locked to the way Kyros’ coloring deepens from lack of oxygen.

“You failed to mention this whole little nightmare situation, brother. Seems you are keeping secrets from everyone lately… Which one should we delve into first?” Mavros sneers with his lip curled back.

His shadows whirl and twist along his skin like churning clouds in a storm.

The look of them against Mavro’s pale ey es and hair gives a whole new appearance to the shadow magick.

Kyros lifts his hand, fingers splayed wide, and hell in his eyes.

When he closes his fist, the shadows all fall away.

Mavros’ eyes narrow before he hurls himself at Kyros.

The brothers crash to the floor so hard that dust from the wooden floorboards plumes into the air.

“What the fuck?” Viltarin comes to the doorway, Colette right behind him, wide-eyed.

“Stop them!” I call out between their grunts from savage punches and kicks to each other's bodies. Viltarin shakes his head.

“No way. They will stop when they have worked out whatever is going on…” He says with his eyebrows high.

“It's been a while since I’ve seen them fight like this.” This is ridiculous .

They are fighting, rolling around on the floor like children.

I stand up from the bed. My feet are still bare, but at least the pain has subsided in my throat.

I stomp over to where Kyros holds Mavros in a headlock, and I put my hands on my hips, staring at him.

He looks up, and the man has the audacity to smirk.

“Unhand him!” I demand. Kyros eyes me for a moment longer before he drops his hold on Mavros and pushes him away. Mavros rolls onto his back, flat on the floor.

“Thanks, Princess.” He smiles, letting his head flop to the side, and grins wide at his brother, his white teeth coated with the red gleam of blood.

“Fuck you.” Mavros says to him, and Kyros just shakes his head.

His eyes are still dark and lingering on me.

On my neck. It’s my turn to shake my head.

“The more time I spend with you, the more I see that you are both ridiculous . You know that?” I say as I spin on my heel and pick up the boots from the end of the bed.

“Viltarin, can you take me somewhere to wash up? And will someone find me something else to wear?” A deep growl emanates from Kyros.

I look down at him in a sidelong look. Shaking my head, I step over the brothers where they still remain on the ground.

Kyros’ hand whips out and wraps around my wrist.

“Wait.” He says, and I look down at where his hand holds me in place, then up to meet his eyes. “I need to speak with you. Let me help you clean up, and we can talk. Please.” He pleads. Mavros pulls himself up to stand, then plops down on the edge of the bed with a scoff.

“I’d go with him if I were you. It seems you have a lot to learn .” Mavros says condescendingly, and Kyros gives his brother a dirty look before releasing my wrist and rising to his full height.

“Come with me or don’t. It’s up to you.” Kyros grunts, looking at his brother again with indignation.

“The sun will be rising soon, and with it so does the city. We will be leaving here after the celebrations end. You should be ready, and make sure that the rest of those traveling with us are ready too.” Kyros growls at his brother, but the order was as much for him as it was for Viltarin, who gives a nodding bow as he storms past him.

Kyros looks over his shoulder once he passes Colette.

“I’m sorry that you had to witness that.

” Who he says it to is unclear, but the way he looks between the two of us, it seems his apology is to both Cole and me.

He disappears from my vision, and all three of them, left behind, look at me. Waiting for my decision. I roll my eyes and huff out my breath, looking around the room .

“If we are going to be here two more nights, I think we are going to need a new place to sleep.” I say, and Mavros lets out a deep-bellied laugh as I step over the door now lying on the ground.

Colette rolls her lips together to hide her smile.

“You both are ridiculous.” I say again, this time to Mavros and Colette.

I stomp down the stairs in the same direction Kyros left.