Page 20 of Stone Sentinels (Shadow Guardians #6)

DRAGAN

The Veil

The explosion rocks the ground beneath my feet. I turn to the direction of the cottage and see a flash of white that ripples across The Veil. My instincts kick in and I throw myself on top of Noni while Flumph hovers beside me. A wave of energy nearly pushes us into the lake. Nymphs swim away from the water’s edge and take refuge beneath the surface. When The Veil settles after a few passing heartbeats, I stand with Noni in my arms. She twitches and grimaces with tightly shut eyes, whimpering in pain.

I must find Pyre.

Flumph stares in shock at what’s left after the blast.

When what was once green burns asunder and blackens to smoke and blood, an age of lawless destruction shall birth new life and a reunion of enemies.

I pored over the book of prophecies for hours to decipher that one passage just this morning. To think it would actually come to pass so swiftly makes me feel as if the forces that control our fates are mocking us. Flumph lands on my shoulder.

The wound caused by Lithenli burns as I walk along the path that leads to the explosion site. My stomach flips as nausea courses through me. The pungent stench of death clings to the air.

“This ain’t good, Shadow King,” Flumph says. “Theren done fucked everythin’ up real bad.”

“Not just Theren.”

“Yup, I knows it was the asshole elf we been travelin’ with. Fucker owe me a new crossbow,” the sprite complains. His face crumples into a contorted frown while he continues griping under his breath.

We weave our way through the destruction left in the wake of the swell of power that flattened nearly everything in sight. My mind wanders to Eilish and I find myself hoping she’s still alive.

If she isn’t… I can’t even continue the thought. I don’t know what I’d do without her. Not to mention our mission wouldn’t last one second if she was slain.

My heart clenches painfully, but I shake the feeling off, unwilling to analyze it. Eventually, we come on Pyre, Eilish, Baron, and Kolvar.

“Eilish,” I say as soon as I see her.

She’s covered in dirt and blood but she’s stunningly beautiful. She runs to me and throws her arms around me as I hold her in response, being careful not to disrupt Noni. When Eilish pulls away from me, she glances down at the brownie in my hands and her smile drops.

“Noni?” she whispers.

Pyre catches sight of Noni and immediately takes her from my hands, I notice his own are shaking and his skin looks ashen.

“What happened?” he asks bitingly.

“Morrigan.” My answer sparks confusion, fear, and something else I can’t recognize in my allies. “She hit me with a brutal spell and escaped. Noni defended me and was injured in the process. I took her and Flumph from the house to get away from the soldiers. We made it to the lake and laid low until the explosion.”

Pyre floods the last of his power into Noni to heal her. She opens her large eyes and smiles at everyone.

“Oh, good! Noni was scared for her friends!” She throws herself at Pyre, and he holds his little companion close. Noni abruptly pulls away. “Master! You not well! We need to go to the big scary place so you can get your power.”

“Noni’s right,” Eilish says. “We can’t stay here. Pyre needs to get to the Echoing Spire and we need to find a place to take refuge until all of this settles.”

Kolvar clears his throat to get our attention. “After we close the portals and get this fella all fixed up,” he starts and points to Pyre, “We can head to the mortal realm to search for my clan. It’ll give us more fighters and it’ll be safe enough to rest our bones for a while.”

“Your clan is in the mortal realm?” Eilish asks.

“Yeah,” the satyr answers. “We take refuge in the deserts where others fear to linger. It’s where we chieftains set our camps to train newcomers and build our ranks. Galmer is our king. If we appeal to his better nature, he may be inspired to give us a hand in our quests.”

I unbuckle the leather straps that secure my armor and pull one of the plates free. Eilish limps over and places her hand on the wound, healing it with the bright light of her power.

“What the fuck happened?” I ask. She ducks her head, refusing to meet my gaze. “Eilish, I know how your power feels, and that explosion came from you.”

“Yes,” she says and nods.

“How?”

She looks up at me then and her eyes are wide and afraid. “Pyre tried to clear the battlefield, but the swell of his power triggered mine. It’s happened before. Once, when we were in the Ashland,” she admits. “It wasn’t on purpose. I couldn’t help it, Dragan. And now, so much blood is on my hands.”

Baron scoffs and shakes his head. “It’s on all of us, but mostly it’s on Cambion. He put us all at risk and didn’t think to make it right before he ran like—”

“Please!” Pyre shouts. “We need to get to the spire. Standing here pointing the finger of blame won’t change what’s already happened. We still have bigger problems to worry about.”

Pyre lumbers towards the Obsidian Mountains in the distance. I shake my head and follow, giving Eilish a small smile to let her know I’m not upset with her. She curls her hand around mine and I help support her weight so she doesn’t injure her leg further. I don’t mind holding her against me. Actually, I relish it.

Baron pushes his way ahead and shoves his shoulder beneath Pyre’s to help him.

“I’m fine,” Pyre argues.

“Don’t be so stubborn, you pain in the ass,” Baron grumbles. The vampire has changed so much since our group passed through The Veil the first time. “When the blast hit, I recovered my last memory. It was just black, empty space in my mind before, but now I know what happened the day Variant killed me. And fuck, it’s worse than I thought.”

“What happened?” I ask. “I only remember walking in to see you fall to the floor with the dagger of ice in your chest. Cambion and I were too late.”

He turns to face me and his eyes are hard. “Variant was completely convinced that we would turn on one another, that I would kill you and rise as the dark force in Morrigan’s prophecy. She told him that he had to kill me in order to stop that prophecy from happening. But all killing me did was put him under her spell and trigger a series of events that led to the prophecy coming true, anyway—only in her favor. She turned him against us and made him think we would bring the elves and fae to extinction,” Baron explains. “Morrigan said we would leave nothing but demons and orcs to roam the Realms.”

“So it was Morrigan who took your memories?” I ask.

“Yes,” the vampire answers. “The blade Variant killed me with was enchanted to erase my memory.”

“I see,” I answer as that horrible day comes back to haunt me.

“If you and Cambion would have shown up just a few seconds earlier, you would have seen Morrigan there... Morrigan and Silvanus,” Baron continues.

“Silvanus?” Eilish’s startled voice gives me pause. “What was he doing there?”

“Watching.”

“Why didn’t he interfere?” I ask. Baron shrugs. Perched on Kolvar’s horns, Flumph settles in for the long walk ahead of us. My mind reels, running through all the information I read before the cottage was destroyed by Eilish’s magic. Something strikes me then. “Cambion was Morrigan’s prodigy, right? She mentored him in the arcane arts?”

Eilish chews her lip and nods.

“So, in theory, he would be able to perform the same spells that she can, if she taught them to him.” I lower my gaze to the ground as I think. Would Cambion erase Eilish’s memories the same way Morrigan erased Baron’s? But, Eilish hasn’t had her memories from the moment I found her in that shithole tavern of Anona’s. Since I’ve known her, she hasn’t had her memories. So, it couldn’t follow that Cambion took them from her...

Unless Cambion knew her before I ever found her…

I suppose we’ll never know until Eilish recovers the last of her deepest, darkest memories.

Kolvar begins to sing as we walk toward the Echoing Spire. The dark, haunting melody of his lament swirls around us and eventually we reach the part of The Veil Forest that wasn’t destroyed. Those twisting, gnarled trees are a refreshing sight after walking through the barren wasteland left in the aftermath of the battle.

Baron launches into a rant about the dragon and Pyre reveals that he rode the great beast in an ancient war that nearly consumed The Veil. Our collective jaws drop and Pyre chuckles lightly. He points to a cluster of stones up ahead.

“We can make camp there. It’s not wise to travel through the Ashland after nightfall,” Pyre advises.

I gather kindling while the others remove their armor to assess their bodies for injury. Noni follows me to summon water from the soil in a way that amazes me. She rubs her hands together and then pokes a hole in the ground with one finger. A jolt of static flows from her body, and when she removes her finger, water squirts out of the ground as clear and fresh as if it came from a well.

She giggles and looks up at me. “Noni glad you are safe, Mr. Dragan. She is happy that you saved her, too, and thanks you very much for looking after little faeries like her.”

“I wasn’t always kind to fae creatures like you, Noni. You’ve changed my views on them.”

“Then Noni still happy. Master teach her that everybody can change if they want to. Noni see that Mr. Vampire and the angel are changing, too, so you not alone, Mr. Dragan.”

The little brownie pats my leg and hurries back to the camp. I smile to myself and continue collecting firewood. When I return, my companions settle around in a circle as I light the fire. Eilish shivers and cuddles close to Kolvar, who radiates heat like a furnace. The big satyr doesn’t seem to mind having such a beautiful woman pressed against his side.

I shove down the twinge of jealousy that sparks in my chest. “Morrigan is a traitor to the Realms and every creature she once sought to protect. Silvanus has the answers we need, but finding him will be impossible with all of us scattered around like we are. So, we need a new plan,” I say.

Kolvar pokes at the fire with a large stick and smiles. “Once Pyre is able, he and the vampire can work toward sealin’ all of the portals so that only they will be able to open them. Let’s not have any more leaks that’ll kill everthin’ in sight, eh? While you lot are doin’ that, Eilish, Dragan, and I can go see the mercenary king. With my clan and whatever men he can spare, we’ll liberate the critters at the Threst so Variant can’t do anymore harvestin’.”

“I likes his plan,” Flumph says. “It actually make fuckin’ sense for a change.”

The End