A Passage of Threats

by Bella Forrest

  The Daughter and I made our way to my room, where she lay down. She was determined to reach out to her sisters after our conversation in Draven’s study. It had taken her a while to calm down after she’d heard about her fate and ours and the explosion. In fact, keeping her mind busy with preparing the spells for the succubi had worked, but as Anjani’s sisters vanished, I could feel her slipping away and desperation taking hold of her once again.

  “I need to speak to them,” the Daughter mumbled.

  I lay in bed next to her. I dropped a kiss on her forehead and watched as her eyes closed. She drifted away. My soul was connected to hers even as she slept. I felt everything that went on inside of her, every moment of angst and every sliver of fear. I also sensed the warmth she exuded from her core each time I got close to her. Emotions poured out of her and filled me up with liquid sunshine. Most importantly, I felt the energy stored inside of her, the source of the future devastating explosion described by Vita. It shook me, sending shivers down my spine and leaving me in awe of what she was capable of.

  Yet, she didn’t want to hurt anyone. She didn’t want the pain, the suffering, the uncertainty that we dealt with daily.

  Her breathing became heavy, and I felt a pang in my stomach. Something was wrong. She was experiencing something very dark and painful, and I could sense it. She frowned and whimpered, moving her head.

  I kissed her temple in an attempt to soothe her, but she continued to get more restless in her sleep.

  Her eyes flew open and glowed violet. She sat up and gasped for air. She blinked several times before she looked at me, fear imprinted on her beautiful face. Beads of sweat glistened on her skin, and she brought her hand up to touch my lips with trembling fingers.

  “I saw my sisters,” she said. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “They waited for me in the darkness. They wore their gold masks and silk garments. Their fingers were covered in rings and gemstones. They stood there, looking at me, telling me that I had to sacrifice myself in order to save Eritopia.”

  She sobbed, and I took her in my arms.

  “I asked them if there was another way. I told them that I didn’t want to hurt you or anyone else. I asked them if there was another way to save you. To save us all. And they shook their heads! They just shook their heads, saying that my sacrifice was needed. And then I asked them about the other Daughter, the one Azazel has.”

  “What did they say?” I asked.

  “They said she was their mistake, that Azazel snatched her egg a long time ago when it first emerged on Mount Agrith. Her egg was the first sign that Eritopia was in trouble as he expanded his dark reign, and they ignored her. They considered her to be a glitch, because they were everything that Eritopia needed against anyone and anything, including Azazel.

  “They said the Destroyer was cunning and didn’t pass on the opportunity to gain leverage against the Daughters, so he stole her egg and forced the Daughter inside to hatch prematurely. You see, the Daughters mature inside the eggs, and if we’re hatched before our time, our growth stops, which is why he refers to her as ‘the little one’. We cannot mature outside the egg. She’s barely a girl and most likely has less of a clue about her abilities than I do. I spent more time in my egg, making me older than her, even though her egg came out first… Nevertheless, there is great power inside her and she is crucial to Eritopia’s balance, making her extremely important. They said she is the only reason they haven’t been able to wipe him out of existence. He’s found a way to draw the energy he needs for his dark magic from her, not just the volcanoes. It’s how he’s built up such a resistance to everything. The Daughters cannot save our little sister, but Azazel has to be stopped. They said I’m the only way, that it must be why Mount Agrith pushed my egg to the surface shortly after she was taken.”

  I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through her hair, carefully considering everything she’d just told me.

  “At least now we know why they never intervened and why they’ve resorted to adjacent measures to contain Azazel. He’s drawing power from a Daughter he’s holding hostage,” I concluded, resting my head on top of hers.

  She looked at me, her hands cupping my face as she swallowed back more tears.

  “They are afraid to lose her, and they keep telling me to sacrifice myself to destroy Azazel,” she said, her whole body shaking. “Why is her life more important than mine?”

  I felt anger pouring out of her, along with red ribbons of pain, which I captured and absorbed in an attempt to make her feel better. I shook my head, my gaze locked on hers.

  “I don’t know, but I know one thing for sure. They do not deserve you. And if they won’t help you, we’ll find another way. We’ll put our minds together. We’ll look at all possible options, and we’ll find a better way to destroy Azazel.”

  She listened to me, clinging to every word as her fingers started digging into my shoulders. I felt her desperation, her eagerness to hope, to look elsewhere, to find an alternative to Vita’s vision. My heart peeled itself open, layer after layer, and I understood how much she wanted to be here with me. It hadn’t been so accurate, so perfectly clear before. I had sensed it but not with such intensity.

  “We’re connected,” I added. “My heart to yours. My life to yours. I have no intention of finding out what happens if one of us dies. Do you understand me?”

  Her eyes glimmered gently. The frown faded, the skin on her forehead smoothed over, and her lips stretched into a hopeful smile.

  “We will live,” she said.

  I kissed her.

  She leaned into me.

  I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her even closer. My pulse raced as she opened up to me, and I felt the warmth of her feelings pouring through my veins.

  Our connection was so strong and intimate, it made my heart pound against my ribcage. I couldn’t get enough of her, of everything she had to give. Everything we experienced was of cosmic intensity, and my body reacted in equal measure to hers.

  I deepened the kiss. My fingers traced her waist through the gentle fabric of her dress. She quivered and pushed her chest forward, pressing herself against me and nearly making me lose my mind.

  I lifted my head to look at her in all her splendor—lips pink and tender, parted and yearning for more, eyes electrifyingly violet, and breath ragged. I felt excitement and intense curiosity seeping through her consciousness, as she ran her hands up and down my back, touching every muscle.

  “I’m not leaving your side, you beautiful creature,” I whispered and took her in my arms again, willing myself back into control.

  She relaxed in my embrace, exhaling and purging the last wisps of darkness from her emotions as she found comfort in my presence. I held her close on the bed, listening to her breathing.

  “Maybe next time you speak to your sisters, they can tell you your name.” I smiled, my lips pressed on her forehead. “I don’t know what to call you.”

  “I don’t ever want to see them or speak to them again,” she muttered, then looked at me. “Why don’t you give me a name, instead?”

  I took a deep breath, getting another whiff of her lilies and summer-at-the-beach scent. I was once again stunned by the way she rattled my every sense. I was hopeless, lifeless without her.

  “Okay then, we’ll find you a name. I’ll think about it. You think about it too. We’ll pick one together.”

  “Perfect,” she murmured and nestled her face in my chest.

  We were in a heap of trouble, since the Daughters had proven to be so unreliable. In fact, I’d lost a substantial amount of respect for them upon hearing they’d been so careless. They’d left a window open for Azazel to snatch their sister. They were exceptionally powerful but helpless, since the Destroyer held one of them hostage, feeding off her and gaining enough strength to resist them. Vita’s vision made more sense. The Daughter tried to kill him with her touch, but it didn’t work.

  And yet, with one sister taken, they were adamant that the other
would have to sacrifice herself to destroy Azazel, because they couldn’t do anything else aside from their masked interventions. The advice they’d given Draven before blinding him, the visions they’d sent me, the diamond they’d given to the succubi during their prayer, the shroud that they’d placed on the whole of Eritopia to keep Azazel in and everyone else out; all were signs that they wanted to get involved but couldn’t do much.

  It was unfair but not impossible to work with. Just like they’d found other ways to help the world that birthed them, I would find a better way to defeat Azazel without the Daughter’s sacrifice. I couldn’t live without her, and I couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering, even for a minute, because of her sisters’ negligence. We would figure something out.

  Jovi

  Anjani and I held each other for a while before I heard a long, torturous sigh leave her body. I was working up my courage to present her with the pendant. I’d made my decision, but I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, my fingers fiddling with one of her curls.

  “I can’t help it. I’m just worried about the girls. I don’t know if they made it out okay.”

  “Hmm.” I nodded. “Why don’t we try the spell then? Never too early, I say.”

  She looked up and gave me a broad smile.

  I realized I was procrastinating, but I took her to Draven’s study without saying a word about my feelings. She sat on the floor, opened the spell scroll, and prepared the ingredients. She dripped Olia’s blood from one of the vials onto the symbol that the Daughter had drawn on the parchment. She looked up, her emerald-gold eyes twinkling as her gaze found mine. She then resumed the telepathy spell ritual, pouring dust from each little bottle over the blood and following the same pattern on the floor.

  “They’re a few hundred feet away by now, maybe more,” she said.

  I couldn’t help but smile, amused by her curiosity and eagerness to speak to her sisters. I would’ve done the same if Aida were out like that, so I sat down next to her, watching quietly as she finished preparing the spell.

  “Okay, now I have to read the incantation and set this thing on fire,” she said, lifting the scroll from the floor to read it. “Our bodies, our souls, our minds, and our hearts connected. Be there land or water between us, I will hear you. Be there fire or ice between us, you will hear me. Open yourself to me, Olia. Let me in.”

  She then lit a match and set the symbol on fire. The powders burned in a dizzying array of reds and yellows as they fused with Olia’s blood. The flames went out, leaving behind the symbol drawn in a fine black line.

  Anjani inhaled sharply, her eyes rolling in her head. I froze, not sure what was happening and if the spell was working. She gasped, then smiled. Her eyes stayed white.

  “Olia,” she said. “I can…I can hear you!”

  She laughed lightly, clapping her hands with joy as she stared blankly ahead.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  I couldn’t hear anything, but Anjani was definitely in touch with Olia. The spell had worked perfectly. “Yes, I understand. Where are you now?”

  I kept quiet, gazing at her as she spoke to her sister, my heart filling itself up with all the emotions that had been crashing into me from the moment I’d first met her. I couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

  “Right, so you all made it out? Perfect! No, you want to keep heading southeast, and stay in the jungles along the roads… Yes, they might still be there… I suggest you wait another day if you have to. Just don’t approach them at night. You don’t want to catch them hungry. Let them hunt first…”

  I shifted from a sitting position to my knees, resting on my calves as I dug into my pocket for the pendant. I felt unable to take my eyes off her. The smile she wore was as brilliant as a full moon. Her ink black hair covered her shoulders in a cascade of rich curls, and her skin gently shimmered.

  “I will reach out to you again tomorrow evening, Olia. Please look after yourself and keep our sisters out of trouble, too. You’re the eldest there. The responsibility falls on you.” She chuckled, then stilled. “I love you too, sister.”

  Her eyes closed for a moment. She sighed as she recovered from the spell. She looked around, irises back to normal. Her gaze settled on me once more. She beamed with joy and bit into her lower lip, setting all kinds of fires inside me.

  “It worked,” she whispered. “I can check in on them once in a while. Those swamp witches were truly extraordinary.”

  “Indeed they were, Anjani,” I said, trying to find the right moment to tell her how I felt. “I need to—”

  “It’s a shame we didn’t discover this spell sooner!” she exclaimed, still in awe of her connection with Olia.

  “Well, now we have it and can use it every time we get separated. Anjani, I—”

  “I am amazed. Can you believe it? I can’t believe it! Also, it’s the first time I’ve done a spell all on my own,” Anjani went on. “I mean, sure, the Daughter and Phoenix drew the blood and prepared the powders, but still, I was perfectly capable of following instructions and performing the entire spell!”

  I took a deep breath, not sure whether she’d finished her ecstatic monologue or not. My palms sweated in my pockets while my heart galloped faster with each second that passed. I struggled to find the right words to express myself.

  “The swamp witches were unbelievable. It’s such a shame they’re gone now, but they’ve left a tremendous legacy behind. Who else can summon magic with carefully compiled combinations of symbols, ingredients, and words, hm? No one! Not even the Druids!” she said.

  “I’m in love with you.” I held my breath.

  Her eyes opened wide, and her lips parted, speechless.

  “What… What?” she whispered.

  I inhaled deeply. Saying it again took the same toll on me. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to get any easier. My voice trembled, and my heart got stuck in my throat.

  “I’m in love with you, Anjani.”

  A moment passed. She blinked several times, not taking her eyes off me.

  “I know, you must think I’m crazy. I probably am. But since Vita’s visions of my possible death, I’ve taken the value of my time alive more seriously. I don’t want to waste another second, and I don’t want any more time to pass without me telling you how I feel. I’m in love with you.”

  She didn’t say anything. I’d obviously shocked her. The intensity of what I felt toward her scared me, but it had to be said. My stomach was a jumble of tight knots as I looked deep into her eyes, trying to identify something, anything, that would point to what she was feeling.

  “I think I fell for you from the moment I first saw in the swamp waters. I knew there was no way I was letting those shifters harm you. I am crazy. I am crazy by nature, and I am crazy about you, Anjani. Your wit, your spirit, your determination, and your scent, the way you melt in my arms whenever I hold you, the way you respond to my kisses, the taste you leave in my mouth. It’s all so inexplicably you and so incredible, I can’t get enough of you, Anjani. You give me strength. You make me look forward to every single day. You’re the first thing on my mind when I wake up and the last thought I have before I fall asleep. So I’ll say it again. I love you.”

  My fingers felt the wolf’s head pendant, tracing its shape in my pocket. Her silence was starting to make me nervous. I’d bared my soul, and I needed a response from her. At this point, anything worked, as long as she said something. As long as she acknowledged everything I’d just told her.

  “Please say something,” I mumbled, barely hearing myself.

  “What do you want me to say, Jovi?” she replied, her husky voice turning me into a tinderbox ready to burst into flames.

  “Anything.”

  “I don’t like it when you talk about death. About you dying. That’s not going to happen. It’s why Vita has these visions—for us to prevent them from coming true,” she said.

  Her reply wasn’t what I’d expe
cted. My pulse continued to race from anxiety. I took the pendant out of my pocket, holding it by its delicate silver chain. The crystal between the wolf’s teeth glistened under the candlelight, as it dangled before her. Her eyes grew even wider.

  “What is that?”

  “I got it from an old fae at the marketplace,” I croaked. “She told me to only give it to my soulmate. So, here I am, giving it to you. I don’t know whether you feel what I feel with the same intensity, but…I would like you to have this, no matter what.”

  A minute went by. The pendant dangled on its chain from my fingers, while her eyes followed its swaying movements, as if hypnotized. She lifted a hand and took it. She stared at it for a while, analyzing each line and facet carefully before she looked at me again, her eyes glazed with tears.

  “Jovi, I…I’m a warrior,” she breathed. “I was raised to never rely on a male, to never let myself feel anything other than love and devotion toward my sisters and my tribe. You are an anomaly.”

  It was my turn to blink, confused by the word she’d chosen to describe me.

  She didn’t give me a chance to respond. She closed the distance between us and kissed me. I felt like I was collapsing on the inside and gladly took everything she had to give me.

  “I’m hopelessly in love with you, Jovi,” she mumbled against my lips. “It goes against everything I’ve been taught as a succubus, but I’ve come too far. We’ve come too far, Jovi, and I’m finding it harder and harder to be without you. And it’s scary and confusing, but nothing is more terrifying than the thought of losing you, so I’d rather feel love in your arms than not feel you at all.”

  Heat expanded through me, as if a star was being born in my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and brought her body closer, so I could feel her heart thundering, echoing the cataclysmic effects that her words had on me. Our mouths met, as if for the first time, soft and warm and hungry.