Chapter Fifteen

Silas

The moment the stench from the place where they’d been cleared his nose, Silas ran with his sister still in his arms, towards what was known in the forest as Wanda’s Grove. Wanda was unbelievably pale, her shift torn, and she hadn’t said a word, although her eyes were blown wide. But Silas couldn’t think about his sister’s modesty, or dwell on what she might have endured. He had to focus on getting her to her trees. Plural.

Because yes, Wanda was truly unique among dryads. When it was her turn to find her tree, she wanted to be close to Silas, so had wandered the same forest where he was living. But it wasn’t until she got to the edge of the forest, quite close to the road, that she came across an old orchard. Four gnarled and neglected trees doing their best to survive left after a homestead had become abandoned years before.

It was love at first sight. All four trees bonded with Wanda, providing a grove for her where she could be safe, and she could care for them. The orchard Silas ran into now was a testament to his sister’s devotion to her trees. The leaves were lush and green, an abundance of fruit filled the thick and strong branches of every tree.

Those same branches reached for Wanda the moment the trees became aware she was there. Silas knew, from the bond with his own oak, that the peach trees had been through what she’d been through—had experienced her shock and pain as if it were their own. That was the nature of the bond.

Even as he placed Wanda into the nest, those combined branches made for her, leaves covering her, cocooning her. Silas was aware of what issues he would have with his own tree bonds. Because now he wasn’t just tied to his tree. He had become tied to Dakata, too, and what that demon was doing…

I have to help Wanda. Silas’s oak understood when the peach trees made a space for him so he could cuddle close to his sister. He didn’t get the same energies from her trees as he did his own, but simply breathing the natural scents in the air and hearing nothing but the forest life around them helped.

Silas had no idea of how long it was they stayed in silence, Wanda healing thanks to her tree, and Silas holding her hand and letting her know he was there for her.

Finally Silas felt Wanda pat his hand with her free one. “I don’t hate him, you know,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

“Dakata?” Silas guessed as much. That wasn’t their way. “I only wish they had found me down by the river instead…”

“No.” Wanda closed her eyes and a slim glass appeared in her hand filled with peach juice. Taking a sip, she continued gently, “You will not think like that. None of this was on you, or your demon, or the bond you’ve made with him. Your bond was clearly inevitable, natural, and meant to be. My being taken resulted from someone else’s foolishness.”

“I don’t understand.” Silas winced. His demon was fighting, but his foes weren’t going down easily. He did his best to block his energies from Wanda.

“I heard the ringleader talking.” Wanda chuckled tiredly. “Honestly, those thugs didn’t have two brain cells to rub together. Him, the big one you probably saw because everything was all about him—he was ranting and raving about your Dakata, about how he was doing this thing and that thing, and all the others around him were yelling like toddlers going ‘yeah, yeah, yeah,’ with raised fists and all that other nonsense.”

“Do I want to know what Dakata has done?” Silas wasn’t sure that he needed to know. Dakata would’ve had a history—he was an older demon who’d been around a long time. But they hadn’t bonded a full day yet, and Silas wasn’t sure he was ready to hear anything negative, especially with what he was currently feeling.

“Yes, you need to know. You need to hear how Dakata works long hours, makes a heap of money, is respected all over the world for the way he looks after those people and bands he signs, and how successful that has made him and them.”

“I guessed a lot of that by the way people at Earth Space talked about him.” Silas frowned. “How was that…?”

“Exactly.” Wanda patted his arm. “The biggest crime, according to the ringleader, was that Dakata thought himself far superior to everyone else because he didn’t spend his time in their realm engaging in endless orgies.”

Silas didn’t need reminding what he’d seen in that room. What Wanda had been forced to witness. “Are you sure you’re all right? They didn’t do anything… you know. Your shift got torn, and there was blood…”

“No, my dear brother. Remember, the idiot who took me thought I had a blissful bond with Dakata? Turns out that is what kept me safe. He wouldn’t lower himself to engage in sloppy seconds, as he called it, and was going to wait and bait Dakata with the idea that he would, frequently, when your demon was dead.”

“My demon needs to fight just a little bit harder.” Silas winced again, clutching his belly as a sharp pain ran through him.

“You need to be back with your own oak,” Wanda fretted. “I promise you, I’m all right, and if I need anything, I’m equally sure that Dougal is camped just outside my grove as we speak.” She raised her voice. “Aren’t you, Dougal?”

“I’m not eavesdropping, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Dougal’s gruff tones were music to Silas’s ears. “It’s just, with what you’ve been through, young miss, I thought you’d like some toasted marshmallows, and a bit of lunch when you’ve had a rest. Silas needs to get back to his tree because his energies are all over the place again. It’ll be because of that bond with that demon, I reckon.”

Silas was happy for his friend to think that. He would not mention to Wanda or Dougal what he’d done. But suddenly, the need to be with his oak overwhelmed him.

“You need to go. I am fine. Promise.” Wanda leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I knew you’d come, and you didn’t let me down. You and your demon both. Thank you.”

There was so much Silas could’ve said. That his sister should never have needed saving in the first place, that what they’d both seen would scar their souls for eternity. Even that there were times when deep breathing exercises just didn’t work. But no. His sister didn’t need to hear any of that, and those thoughts were just a reflection of Silas’s need to center and heal himself.

“I’ll pop back later,” he said softly, stroking Wanda’s hair before one of her peach trees showed him the way out of the nest they’d made. Before his feet had touched the ground, the nest became shuttered around her again, making it impossible for anyone to see her. Silas rested his hand on the nearest peach tree, mentally sending his thanks.

Ten feet away, Dougal sat hunched over his firepit—a huge cast iron bowl, rumor had it, that he’d made himself. Dug into the ground, it had high enough sides that his flames never touched his beloved forest, its sturdy lid resting next to a bedding roll. “I’ll be here for a while,” Dougal said as Silas approached. “I don’t need any comments about how sleeping on the ground ain’t good for old bones.”

“You’re a good man, Dougal,” Silas said as he went past. “Don’t let anyone tell you any differently.”

“Your demon is one of the good ones, too.” Dougal laid some twigs in a mound in his pit. “Just remember, nothing in the past can ever be changed. What’s done is done, no matter how much it might change a person. We can only move on.”

“I know.” Silas heard the break in his voice, and broke into a run, the need to touch the bark of his tree overpowering him. As he ran, the blocks he’d tried to put up to stop his energies from upsetting Wanda came crashing down, and the pain he’d felt before increased tenfold.

Dakata’s hurt! Silas screamed through his bond, desperate for his oak to give him guidance. He couldn’t go back to that realm—not because he didn’t want to, but because, without a demon, it wasn’t possible. You can feel him, can’t you? How can we help him?

Panting, because between the pain, and his emotions, Silas could finally allow himself to feel his truth, he rested his hand on his beloved oak. “I killed a demon,” he sobbed against the bark. “I took a life.”

You took more than one, and you saved your sister. You will come to terms with that in your own time. For now, you must save Dakata.

“I can’t get to him.” Silas straightened and brushed his tears from his eyes. The dead he’d grieve when the living were safe. “What can I do?”

The man who took Wanda is already dead. Dakata is lost on a rampage. He’s injured, hurt beyond measure, and he’s not listening to those around him.

“Do you know the way to their realm?”

We don’t need to go there. His soul—last night, his seed sinking into my trunk, touching you—he gave it to you and to me to keep.

“He did…” Silas still didn’t understand.

Find his soul in your heart, where you placed it for safekeeping. Look inside and find it…

Closing his eyes, Silas did as his tree instructed. The spark of Dakata’s soul shone brightly in his mind’s eye. “I found it,” he whispered.

I knew you would. Now take it in your hands, wrap your spirit around it, and yank with all your strength.

Questions. Silas had a dozen of them, but the turmoil in his bond with Dakata was increasing—the demon was badly hurt. So he imagined it—cradling Dakata’s soul in his hands and then he thought about pulling it towards himself, like a giant rope. It’s time to come home, he whispered through their bond. Come back to me.

Now!