“I had matches, you know.”
“Matches?” Adrian scoffed in an offended tone. “I’ve never used a match in my life.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, look who’s too good for nineteenth century technology.”
He smirked and sat up. He had angled his body toward me, so that our faces were only inches apart.
I didn’t feel the urge to move away, which was unlike me. I also was the first to break the silence, again unlike me. I strongly suspected that my sleep-deprived mind had surpassed the stage of zombie-like lethargy and was now entering stupid brazenness.
“Well, I told you a childhood story. I believe you owe me one.”
“Do I now?” Adrian seemed amused by my boldness. “Let’s see. This one time Arisella and I were hunting a monster of a grimalkin that had mauled a family in the outskirts of the Blood Kingdom. Quite a beast, it was. We were in the Black Forest for over a week, searching for its den. It was the head of its pack, so we had to take out half a dozen other grimalkin before we could kill the one we wanted. It was absolute bloody madness.”
The twinkling excitement in Adrian’s eyes was extinguished by my horrified look.
“I realize now that my childhood story was rather dark,” Adrian acknowledged.
I made a small nod, keeping my eyes fixed on the dancing flames, tongues of light licking up the cracking sides of the wood. As much as I hated to admit it to myself, I was frightened – not by his story, but by the look of bloodlust that had animated his eyes.
“I apologize if I upset you.”
“No, no. You shouldn’t have to apologize. Sometimes I forget that you grew up in a different culture – hell, a different world. It’s just a little hard getting used to all this at once.” I bit my lip thoughtfully.
“Well, you’ve exceeded my expectations so far.” Adrian grinned at me, and, for the life of me, I couldn’t keep myself from grinning back.
I shivered as an icy chill ran down my spine, and Adrian took my hand in his. His fingers sent hot, tingling sensations through my skin – not unpleasant, but unusual.
“Gods, you’re cold,” Adrian said softly. He reached for my wrist and nudged me closer to the fire, incidentally closer to him. He gently ran his thumb over the thin, blue veins in my hand, and at his touch my heart fluttered sporadically in my chest. I was so sure he could feel the sudden surge of blood pumping through my veins.
He turned my hand over, holding it the way he had when we had first met, when he had been examining me for injuries, but this time he was more delicate, more careful. “Everything about you is human – the way you speak, the way you move, the way you think. Everything, except for your blood. Your blood is undeniably Irisbourn.” Adrian’s eyes found mine. “Everything about you is unfamiliar to me.”
“And everything about you is unfamiliar to me,” I found myself murmuring. My gaze shifted to Adrian’s wrist, the blood in his veins running darker than mine, almost black. Perhaps a trick of the firelight, an illusion cast by the contrast of his pale skin… perhaps not.
I looked up at him. “I’d say we have some more acquainting to do.”
“I’d say we do…”
The world became quiet then, save for the soft sounds of our breathing, and I became hyperaware of the boy in front of me – the shadows dancing wildly across his face, the dew beading on his dark hair, the warmth radiating off his bare, powerful arms. He leaned in closer, so close that I could distinguish the individual filaments of blue in his irises. And still I did not pull away. No, I wanted him closer.
His lips parted ever so slightly and he froze, his eyes searching mine with uninhibited intensity. Under his gaze I felt like a deer caught in headlights – I couldn’t move, didn’t even want to move. All I could see, all I could think about, was him.
He moved his other hand to my waist and pulled me toward him, closing the distance between us in one strong, fluid motion. He brushed his burning lips against mine, sending shudders rippling through me.
The heavy rhythm of approaching footsteps echoed through the forest, ripping me away from Adrian, ramming me back into reality.
I tore myself out of his arms, and he let me go without any resistance. I arched my back and rose to a fighting stance, my senses heightened and on red alert.
A flash of dirty silver appeared against the shadows, and a bloody grimalkin stepped out from the trees. A midsized dog-rabbit creature sat lodged between its jaws, another slung across its back.
The grimalkin spat the creature onto the ground and shook the other off dangerously close to the fire before transitioning into human form.
“My, dinner was quite bloody tonight,” Arisella muttered, as she wiped away animal blood with a soiled rag from her backpack. She eyed Adrian and me warily while she pulled herself into fresh clothes. “What, have you two gone dumb? You could at least thank me for the moonrabbits.”
I glanced back at Adrian, and found him exactly where I had left him, perhaps still a little stunned by how I had left him.
But as soon as he noticed me watching him, he instantly recollected himself and rose to his feet.
“You, dear sister, have truly dreadful timing,” he said irritably.
“Do I, now? What did I interrupt that was of such importance?”
“Adrian is just upset because we were in the middle of discussing the differences between Earth and Fallyre,” I said hurriedly. I wasn’t sure how much Adrian intended to tell his sister, but I didn’t want her to know about any of what had just happened, especially when I barely knew what had just happened.
Adrian lifted an eyebrow at me, and I felt the blood rush to my face.
“Boring.” Arisella ran her fingers through her tangled hair. “And I really don’t care. Let’s cook the food. I’m starving.”
I didn’t get a chance to speak to Adrian for the rest of the night; he had dragged the two moonrabbits away to the far edge of the camp to skin them. When he was finished with the first one, he let us claim the unrecognizable red mass. Blood pooled at its sides, and I could see its bones straining against the tissue, its broken arteries, its individual muscle fibers. It took everything in me not to vomit.
I left Arisella while she skewered the thing with a stick, and I spent my efforts where I felt I would be most useful: making a spit over the fire. Sure, it might have been a little wobbly, and Arisella might have had to crossly remake it, but at least I had tried to contribute.
At the smell of cooking meat, Dylan awoke with one objective: to pull off as many pieces of the roasting moonrabbit as possible. He popped them all into his mouth, effectively burning his fingers and his tongue.
Moonrabbits tasted like tough pork, I decided as I chewed mine thoughtfully. Not bad, but I didn’t consume much of it – watching Adrian skin them had killed my appetite.
The meal left me exhausted, and I was already sitting in my sleeping bag. Everyone else was still working on their portions, so they didn’t seem to notice as I laid my head down and allowed myself to slip into unconsciousness.
That was, until a hoarse whisper rattled my eardrums. “Where do I sleep?”
I produced an irritated grunt and rolled over to squint at Dylan. “I don’t know. Figure it out.”
“I don’t have a sleeping bag. Amber, it’s really wet and cold out here.”
I groaned. He was right. He would catch a cold out there, and I doubted whether Arisella and Adrian cared much for Dylan’s health.
“Fine. Get in,” I muttered.
Dylan hastily unzipped the sleeping bag and smashed himself in with me. We had grown significantly since the last time we had both slept in it, which was when we were ten, camping out in his backyard.
“Cozy,” Dylan whispered, wiggling his toes. “Just like when we were little.”
“Hush.”
Once again, I felt myself on the brink of unconsciousness, when a vulgar exclamation tore through the silence of the camp.
“What the hell?! What is he doing?!�
� Adrian growled, his eyes alight.
Dylan put a finger to his lips, like the way a teacher might shush a kindergartener. “Hush, we’re trying to sleep.”
“Get out of there.”
“Well, what if I like it in here?”
“I. Said. Get. Out,” Adrian commanded through clenched teeth. He was clearly not in the mood for Dylan’s sass.
“What if she likes me in here?” Dylan grinned slyly.
Adrian grew silent.
“Okay, both of you stop,” I spoke up, still half-asleep. “I would love to have this sleeping bag all to myself, but Dylan has nowhere to sleep. He can’t sleep on the ground. So I don’t see anything else we can do here.”
“He can have my sleeping bag,” Adrian volunteered.
“Where are you going to sleep?” I asked dubiously.
“On the ground. A night on the forest floor is nothing to me. You should know by now that I’m not a weak human who needs to be coddled.”
Dylan inhaled sharply.
Arisella appeared from behind the fire, still picking at smoked pieces of moonrabbit. “Adrian, enough with your foolishness. You’re not sleeping on the ground either. As much as the thought of Dylan in my bed makes me sick,” Arisella narrowed her eyes at Dylan, “he might as well have it. I prefer to sleep as a grimalkin, anyway.”
“It’s settled then!” Adrian scowled irritably. “Now get out.”
“How do I know she hasn’t put snakes in there or something?” Dylan whined.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Dylan. She’s not that evil,” I said with little conviction.
Dylan looked at me disbelievingly.
“Okay, she might be. But she also knows that if anything happens to you, I will make her life a living hell.”
Arisella made an unladylike noise over her food.
I shot her a serious look that told her I meant every word of what I had just said. “So please accept her offer, Dylan. My foot’s falling asleep.”
Dylan took his time rolling out of my sleeping bag. He kept his eyes trained on Adrian’s expressionless face the entire time. He then made a big show of inspecting Arisella’s sleeping bag for snakes and spiders, and when he had deemed it safe enough for him to retire in, he announced loudly, “All clear!”
And finally, as I closed my eyes and let my thoughts become one hazy, unintelligible jumble, sleep claimed me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When I opened my eyes, it was still dark. In fact, it felt like barely any time had gone by at all. I sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from my eyes with the cool palms of my hands.
Everyone was still asleep – Dylan snoring brokenly, his face obscured by the front flap of the sleeping bag; Arisella as a grimalkin curled up near the fire; Adrian breathing softly, his back against a tree, a knife in hand.
But I sensed another presence nearby, watching us from a distance. A bony figure encased in a wispy black shroud floated above the sheet of fog. A wraith? I squinted at it, forcing my eyes to focus in the darkness. It lifted its head up, and its hood fell to its shoulders, exposing a pair of colorless, wide-set eyes I could recognize in a heartbeat.
Matt?
At least, it looked kind of like Matt. Whatever it was, it had been charred beyond much recognition, its skin hanging in burnt, black bits over its thin, sickly frame. The fact that I thought it had even resembled Matt made me feel ill.
But those looked so much like his eyes… The more I stared at them, the more certain I was that I was staring into the soul of my brother. But the body…
It held out a bony hand in my direction before turning to recede into the depths of the forest.
“No!” I shouted, as I jumped out of my sleeping bag. No one stirred around me, not even Adrian.
“Adrian, look!” I shook Adrian’s shoulder weakly at first, then with increasing violence. Still he did not wake.
“Adrian, please,” I begged. It was disappearing.
Those eyes would haunt me forever.
I took off after it alone, stumbling along blindly in the darkness. I could see it billowing in front of me, taunting me, willing me to follow it. But no matter how quickly I moved, I knew I would never catch up to it. Upon realizing the futility of my situation, I collapsed to my knees. With the heartbreaking realization that I might never see those eyes again, I watched the figure fade away.
It took all feeling and light with it, leaving me in pure numbness.
I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything – I was completely and utterly alone.
Then, so gradually I almost didn’t notice it at first, the world around me slowly began to lighten. I felt my eyes opening – actually opening, peeling away the nothingness and exposing a new reality.
I was on my knees, at the edge of a coursing river, staring into a freckled face framed by fiery red hair. I was staring into the face of a kelpie.
Upon perceiving where I was, I immediately clambered away from the river, my fingers digging into the soil, as if I were trying to anchor myself to land.
But Kaela just released a soft, musical laugh at my panicked reaction. “You need not fear me.”
I inhaled deeply and examined my surroundings. It was undoubtedly still night – but light filled the air, radiating from mysterious blurry patches deep within the river. The countless flowers shuddering in the trees emanated a soft, golden haze, and kelpie floated gracefully in the river, their hair decorated with the glowing flowers that augmented the fairness of their hair. The entire place had an unearthly, almost heavenly aura.
“It was just a dream,” I realized softly. “I was sleepwalking.”
“Yes.” Kaela laughed again. “I called you to me.”
“Like a siren,” I murmured to myself. I furrowed my brow at Kaela in confusion. “What do you want with me?” I demanded. Why hadn’t she called Adrian?
With a horrible sinking feeling, I wondered if perhaps she had already called him to her, forced him to sleepwalk to a watery death. I frantically scanned my surroundings for any trace of his presence.
“You are alone,” Kaela assured me.
I tried to disguise the wave of relief that coursed through me, no doubt unsuccessfully,
“You are not like the others,” Kaela observed, keeping her bright eyes on my face. “What are you?”
I bit my lip, unsure of how to answer. “Irisbourn,” I finally replied. There was no point hiding it anymore – my eyes gave me away.
“But how? You are all supposed to be dead.” Wonder filled her expression, as if I had become the rare, mythical creature, not she.
“I am not dead.” At least, not yet.
Kaela’s face darkened. “If you are truly who you claim to be, why do you keep the Bloodbourn in your presence?”
“His name is Adrian, and he’s helping me,” I implored. “He broke from the Blood Kingdom and their abominable principles. Without him, I would have died.”
“Bloodbourn are not to be trusted,” Kaela warned me.
“Funny, he told me the same about you.”
Rather than snap at me in offense, Kaela just grinned eerily.
“You possess the brazenness of your kind, that is certain. There was a time when your kind protected us from the Bloodbourn, prevented them from committing their vile crimes against us,” Kaela recalled nostalgically, painfully. “Those times are long gone. But I will be forever grateful for them.” She withdrew from her memories and turned her attention solely to me. “And for that reason, and that reason alone, I cannot let you meet your demise in the Blood Kingdom.”
My spirits lifted. Was she saying what I thought she was saying? Or was this another trick?
“I will allow you to cross my river.”
“What about my friends?”
“They may cross as well –” Gratitude swelled within me. “—except for the Bloodbourn.” I felt myself fall like a deflated balloon.
“Then I won’t need your assistance,” I affirmed, completely aware of how I was
throwing her goodwill back in her face.
“Are you really willing to die for that boy, that spawn of soulless murderers?” Kaela hissed.
“Yes.” It surprised me how little I needed to think about it.
In a flash of her tail, Kaela swam to the edge of the river, launched her abdomen out over land, and seized my wrists in her inescapable iron grip. At first I was certain she was going to pull me into the water with her, but she stopped when my arms were submerged, my face a single inch from the surface of the rippling river. Beneath the water, she studied my frightened, wide eyes intensely, before releasing me and allowing me scramble even further from the water’s edge.
Kaela reappeared above the water’s surface, her hair dripping and hanging about her in dark tendrils. “If you feel this strongly about the Bloodbourn, I must let him cross as well,” Kaela reluctantly allowed.
I exhaled hugely. Arisella had been right. The kelpie were unbelievably fickle. But apparently I had gotten that to work to my advantage.
“As soon as you wake tomorrow, return to my river. Perhaps now I can begin to repay the lifetimes of debt I owe your people.” Kaela’s expression grew grave. “Be careful who you trust, young Irisbourn, or that Bloodbourn boy will be the death of you.”
With that creepy piece of advice, the kelpie sank under the dark waters for a final time, taking her sisters and their light with her.
Darkness closed in around me, enveloping me, sealing me away.
“Wait!” I called after her. She had left so abruptly, and I still had so many questions.
My eyelids grew heavy, and I felt myself sinking into the grass. I was falling away, away…
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I awoke with a start in my own sleeping bag, my memory of the kelpie slipping away as soon as I opened my eyes. With every second, it seemed less like reality and more like a dream.
“Adrian!” I shouted, as I brought myself to a sitting position. Light streamed in through the tree branches, casting erratic splotchy patches on the forest floor. I scanned the camp and found Adrian with Dylan by the fire pit. Based on the soil and leaves in their clenched fists, I deduced that they must have been in the process of eliminating any traces of our fire. Arisella sat nearby, gnawing on a Slim Jim. They were all staring at me, waiting for me to say something.
Feral (The Irisbourn Chronicles Book 1) Page 23
