Chapter Nineteen

Silas

In the hour since Dakata had gotten yanked off somewhere, Silas had done his best to stay useful. He packed up the picnic Dakata had arranged for them, taking the furniture and leftovers back to his house. Silas had always prided himself on being a calm and relaxed person. It took a lot to upset him—like his sister being abducted, for example—but for the most part he was a live and let live type of individual who just stayed away from people or any beings with upsetting energies.

But now I’m the one with the upsetting energies. Silas could feel it in him, and as he wandered among his beloved trees, he did his best to stay away from Wanda’s grove. She did not need to deal with his edginess, and it wasn’t like he could hide it from her for any decent length of time.

It didn’t make sense, though.

Silas’s emotions made little sense to him. I’m never like this, he railed at the sky at one point. I’ve barely known the guy for a couple of days, and now I’m wandering around like a forest ghost with no purpose.

What is wrong with me?

No sensible person has a hissy fit because their partner leaves before they finish their coffee in the morning. Dakata has a job, responsibilities, people, and family who depend on him.

The sentiments all made sense from a logical perspective. But Silas couldn’t ignore the worrying butterflies in his belly or the nagging ache in his heart. His limbs felt achy—it was similar to the way he felt when he’d been away from his tree for too long, and that was ridiculous, because he was in his beloved forest.

Has my purpose changed now Dakata is in my life? Silas blew that idea away as soon as he thought it. He could no more deny being a dryad that Dakata could try to tell him his horns weren’t silver tipped. Both facts were indisputable. But the edginess wouldn’t leave him, and with his tree out of his sight, Silas rubbed his arms, his feet dragging as he headed towards his oak.

He wasn’t far, just wandering along the river’s edge on his way back, when he felt his tree scream. The smell of burning hit his nose, although a quick glance let Silas know there wasn’t a flame to be seen. Panic gave his dragging feet energy, and he sprinted as fast as he could toward the center of his existence.

Minutes—two, three at most—and Silas was standing in front of his majestic oak, his hand over his mouth, as tears filled his eyes. The flawless thick trunk of the tree now had a huge scorch mark that ran from about a foot from the ground up to where the first branch spread from the trunk.

“What happened?” he cried, taking his hand from his mouth to rest it on the charred bark. The wound wasn’t deep, Silas could tell it had only affected the top layer of bark. But that mark would remain with the tree for the rest of its entirety. “Please, talk to me. Is this from other demons? Who did this? I’m not seeing anyone here.”

I didn’t want to have to do this… The tree sounded so sad, its tears sprinkled like rain through the words Silas sensed in his soul. Our blissful one is so independent, he has a life outside of this forest, where I do not…

“This happened because Dakata left this morning?” Silas didn’t understand. He left his tree at least once a week, even if it was just to sing in the club.

It’s not that he left. He can’t get back to us. Our separation has felled him as swiftly as a lumberjack’s axe. Branches reached over, picking Silas up, much like the tree had done on the first day they’d bonded. This is on me… I didn’t tell him… but we—that is, the demon part of our blissful one, and my soul needs to come to an accord. We can’t do that unless he’s here.

“I’m sure it wasn’t his idea to leave this morning. His sister took him.” Silas wrapped his arms around the trunk in front of him. “Tell me what to do because I can’t bear to see you in pain. Let me be your arms and legs, use my voice. Please, let’s make this right.”

Dakata has summoning stones. He carries them in his pocket.

“He’s not here. That’s the problem.” Silas wondered if his tree was suffering because of the burn… and where did that come from, anyway?

Dakata is being tested—he’s being pulled from us. Someone seeks to determine if our bond is true. I’m providing the buffer, so you don’t get hurt, but someone in his realm feels threatened by us… We need to get him back.

“Okay, so in the absence of summoning stones…”

We have one. One of the small stones. I was curious and one of them might’ve found its way into my tree knot, you know, while he was getting dressed this morning. This sort of thing can happen, you know, the tree added as if he was expecting Silas’s disapproval.

“We all share everything,” Silas said, reaching around the right side of the trunk where his oak’s knot was tucked away. Silas never knew how the wood had formed that way—if it was from an animal, or someone had hit it, but the knot was deep. Silas’s hand disappeared as he reached into it.

Pulling out the stone, Silas turned it around in his fingers. Smooth. Buzzing with energy. Focusing on their soul bond and picturing the huge demon in his mind, Silas whispered, “Dakata.” And then, because he had no idea how energies worked in the demon realm, he yelled, “Dakata!”

The ground rumbled around the oak—as if the ground itself was fighting to stop Dakata’s response. Silas squeezed the stone. He didn’t have a clue how it worked, but the spirit of his oak flowed through him, and as the stone heated like a brand in his hand, Silas winced through the pain but would not let go.

There was a loud snapping sound—a breaking branch and Silas looked up in horror, and then relief soaked him like someone had thrown a bucket of water over him. Dakata, in his demon form, lay sprawled facedown across some of the smaller branches at the top of their tree.

Scampering up like a monkey, Silas reached him in seconds, resting his knees between branches and dropping the stone so he could cup Dakata’s face in his hands.

The demon looked so sick—his previously vibrant red skin tinged with grayish pink, his body was limp, supported by branches, his limbs splayed out in a way that could not be comfortable. “Can you heal him?” Silas couldn’t assume, not when his tree had also suffered from their separation.

I can nest with him if you can fix the branches he broke in his fall. It would not do his spirit good to see that damage when he wakes.

“I feel a bit like the odd man out here,” Silas said with a quiet chuckle to show he was teasing, his mood so much lighter now Dakata was back. “Please tend to him in your special way, strengthen your spirit bond, and I’ll look after you both as best I can.”

The leaves of his oak rustled, and Silas moved aside as huge boughs that should not bend according to the laws of physics and biology, moved around the demon until he became cradled, face up this time, his limbs nestled against his body as the leaves cushioned him.

Stroking over Dakata’s face one more time, Silas dropped a kiss on his demon’s slack lips, and then moved further up the tree to fix the broken branches.

With the bond he already had with his tree and his demon, it wasn’t as though he was truly being left out, but Silas remained filled with concern and curiosity.

What had happened to his blissful one?

How did the tree get burned so terribly?

What would happen to them from now on?

Questions, questions, and precious few answers, but Silas focused on what he knew he could do—fix the branches of his oak tree. The questions would still be there when his tree and demon felt better, then, maybe he’d find the answers.