CHAPTER FORTY-SIX（Untitled）Branikk

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Branikk

My sword whirls, clearing the air above me. Aurora whinnies, slashing with her horn, but as I feared, my friend is hampered by all the trapped birds strapped to her. Mist leaps, batting birds away from the unicorn with vicious swipes of knife-like claws. Rune runs over to help her. Grace and Ashley catch birds in nets. Several feet away, Dravarr still shoots deathsleep gourds from the sky, surrounded by a protective barrier of leaping cu sith led by Riselda.

We're all fighting damned hard. We're amazing.

We're not enough.

I slice another bird out of the air, only to have it replaced by two.

Grace gasps her pain gasp, the very opposite of the sounds I love to coax from her in the furs. Claws grip my heart when I spin back toward her.

She's dropped to her knees, swaying. The soul suckers are feeding on her!

"No!" I leap to stand over her right as she topples. I will fight until my dying breath to save her. Nothing else matters.

Music blares, music such as I've only heard one time before, at the Ferris wheel my bride created.

I glance up. The cloud of sluagh I expect are there, only they're high above now instead of attacking. Because a giant, brightly colored thing spins in the middle of the clearing, lashing the air with straps and metal chains and creating a barrier the soul stealers can't fly through.

My beautiful, amazing bride has done it again!

Then one of the sluagh who dove into the clearing right before the new creation appeared flies in our direction and releases the gourd clasped in its claws. It's much lower than the others, and by the time Dravarr could lose an arrow, he'd be aiming straight at me.

The bird dies by my sword, but it's too late. The gourd hits the ground, and an orange cloud laced with deep-red speckles billows into the air, surrounding my moon bound. By the goddess, no! It's the new kind of deathsleep. The one that affects humans as well as fae. The one we don't have an antidote to for humans.

The one that will put Grace into a coma.

Holding my breath, I leap for her, scooping her up and running out into fresh air.

"Grace, my love." My voice is frantic as I pat the side of her face. "Grace, can you hear me?"

The ghost of a smile curls her lips as her beautiful blue eyes flutter open for a moment to meet mine.

Then they shut, her whole body going limp.

"No!" I shake her. I can't lose her, not to this! I drop to my knees, dizzy, my heart pounding. The cloyingly sweet scent of deathsleep herb lingers in my nose. Cradling her to me with the last of my strength, I press a kiss to my bride's forehead. "Come back to me."

Then my entire world goes dark.

The medicinal taste of bitter herbs fills my mouth, and I make a face and smack my lips. Bleh. Why did I ever drink such a thing?

"Wake up, Branikk," Dravarr says, his deep voice carrying the command of a warlord.

Aurora adds, "You do your moon bound bride no good sprawled on your back."

My bride! My heart leaps, racing, as I jolt upright. "Grace!"

She's stretched by my side on the moss of the clearing, still unconscious. By the goddess, if only she'd wake up and scowl at me! My bride doesn't even need to smile. I would live with nothing but her scowls for the rest of my life, if I had to, because it would mean she's all right.

A whirling noise comes from overhead, only heard because the tinny human music has stopped. But the chains still fly through the air, blurred against the bright blue sky, which is wonderfully clear of sluagh.

"The soul stealers?" I ask.

"We trapped the last of the ones down here with us, and the rest gave up and flew off not long after that appeared." He jabs a finger toward my bride's creation.

"It's another of those infernal contraptions that makes a horrible noise," Aurora says.

"It's a carnival ride," I say. "I don't know what kind, but it has to be."

"Yeah, it's a Whirling Swings ride." Ashley walks over from the brightly painted central column and gives Aurora a pat on the neck. "I turned off the music as soon as I figured out how."

"Not soon enough." The unicorn tosses her head. "How you humans put up with it, I'll never know."

"I never would have thought of something like that," Dravarr says. "But it certainly does work."

"It's brilliant. She saved us all." I pull Grace onto my lap and smooth a wayward lock of her hair away from her face. "We have to save her. We have to get her to Gerna." My childhood friend is the only person I know who's ever cured a human of this new form of deathsleep.

I stand, staggering a little bit, still woozy from my own brush with the vile concoction. Locking my knees, I command my body to obey. I did not pull her from the deathsleep quickly enough. I will not fail my bride again.

"Slow down." Dravarr stands and sets a hand on my shoulder, steadying me and also keeping me in place.

"I can't. I have to get her home by the quickest way we have." I look at Aurora. "We need to get those sluagh off you so you can run."

"She can't just drop them to the ground," Dravarr says, pointing to the large cloud of birds hanging silently over Aurora. "If no one maintains control over the trapped birds, it frees these flocks."

"I know that," I say.

"So we need a dragon to burn all the birds."

My eyes go to Drake. The dragon youngling stirs sleepily. "He looks like he can barely lift his head, let alone create that much flame."

"We gave him the other dose of antidote, but we only had the two, and I'm not sure it was enough for him. Let alone the fact that we need more for everyone else." Ashley points over to where Riselda and several of her warriors work to bring their unconscious brethren to the dens.

"That second deathsleep gourd," I say.

Dravarr nods. "It knocked out four cu sith."

I crane my neck, not spotting Mist. "Where's the feline fae?"

"Already on the shadow roads, going to get help."

"King Aldronn?" I ask. The orc king carries a couple of doses of antidote with him as he and his royal guard travel to and from the various orc villages. I suppose they'd be enough to fully rouse the teen.

"Nope. Think bigger," Ashley says. "We're going to solve all our problems in one fell swoop. We sent her to the dragons."

I try to make Grace as comfortable as I can, spreading my tent and furs on the ground underneath the shade of the trees. I hold her on my lap, unable to let her go. While we wait, Ashley orders me to eat, reminding me I'm no good to my bride unless I'm strong. My body agrees, wolfing down both of the venison steaks Dravarr cooks.

My heart pinches as I watch Grace's face. We had no breakfast, the sluagh attack coming at first light. She would be hungry, if only she could feel it. My moon bound has a good appetite—it's one of the things I love about her.

I dribble water into her mouth and massage her throat to get her to swallow. Deathsleep magically preserves a fae for a hundred years, so they need no food or drink. We don't yet know if the same protection applies to humans, which is what makes it crucial to get my moon bound to Gerna as soon as possible.

I grind my teeth. It's hard to sit still instead of riding out. Logically, I know it makes sense to stay until a dragon arrives who can potentially carry Grace to my village in only a handful of hours. Even if Aurora ran her fastest, a similar trip on unicorn back would take days.

But the waiting! By the goddess, the waiting is apt to kill me. Impatience burns through me. My foot bounces. I want to get up and pace, but I worry the motion will disturb my bride.

"I wish Grace would wake up," a forlorn little voice says. Astrid crouches, belly to the ground, and creeps from under a bush.

"She saved us. All the adults say so." Her brother follows, also in a pose of submission. He whines like he thinks he's in trouble. "They told us not to bother her."

Bittersweet pain pierces my heart. These little pups love my bride so much that they defy their elders to check on her. Grace deserves to know this, to see it for herself, so she can understand that she's loved and valued.

"It's okay." I reach out and run my hand over their heads, rubbing their soft ears. "You're not bothering her. Grace would be happy to see you and to know you cared."

"She would?" Astrid perks up.

I nod, and they both leap to their feet and come forward, jumping onto my thighs and placing their paws on her shoulder to give her chin what she calls "little puppy kisses."

I can't help but watch her face closely as they do, and my heart clenches to see her remain still. It's wrong. It's all so horribly wrong. My bride likes to be active and doing things, fixing things. If she were awake, she'd be working on the ride or playing with the pups or helping with the unconscious cu sith.

Riselda calls the younglings away, and I wave to her to let her know their visit was all right.

Then I hold my bride even closer and whisper in her ear. "Come back to me, my love. The world is terribly empty without you."