Sage

Sage

Kade gazed across the sun-drenched sand dunes. From their rooftop, they could make out the smoke plumes from the still-smoldering fires in the mine. Sage groaned, adjusting her legs and stretching them out. The rooftop provided plenty of coverage from the Hands scouring the city below, but only if they stayed low to the ground and behind the rooftop shacks that dotted the city.

The shacks were used for dry storage mostly, so there was a low chance someone would wander up there and catch them huddled in the only shade they could find.

She couldn’t help but watch how the sun caught in his dark hair. Or how his jaw ticked when he noticed her noticing him. Had he always done that? Or did it only start after she told him she had feelings for him?

“Do you see them yet?” Sage asked, feeling her skin heat up in a way that had nothing to do with the overbearing sun.

Kade quirked a brow. “No one has shown up since the last time you asked. Three minutes ago.” He added, giving her a pointed look.

She spat her tongue at him. “We’ve been up here all morning and I have to pee.”

Kade glanced around the rooftop, then pointed to a corner.

Sage scoffed in disgust. “I am not peeing in front of you on a roof.” Her cheeks blazed with embarrassment.

“It’s nothing I haven’t heard before, Blackwood.” Kade smirked when her mouth popped open in shock. He tapped a claw on his human-looking ear. “Demon hearing, remember? No matter how far you went in the forest, it was never far enough. But I thought it would be imprudent to tell you.”

Her face flushed, turning beet red as she struggled with a retort. Of the many things they could have had a conversation about that morning, her bathroom duties had not been one to cross her mind.

Kade’s eyes flashed red as she floundered to say something. “You’re prettiest when you look like you want to punch me.” He said.

Sage gaped. She felt like she had whiplash. How could he hop from one extreme subject to the next so nonchalantly?

Her stomach churned, but not in an unpleasant way. She’d rarely been called pretty, and never by a guy.

“You have a very punchable face.” She snapped, looking away as the blush rushed down her neck. He chuckled but turned his attention back to the smoke. After her heart stopped thudding in her chest, she cleared her throat and asked, “Do you think they’ll come?”

Kade kept his eyes on the smoke. “Yes. There are still prisoners fleeing the mine- but plenty remain. I’m assuming they mean to take control of the mine for themselves. That, in and of itself, will not be tolerated by Supreme Capricorn.”

Her cheeks puffed out as she sighed. “Then they must come.” She said to herself.

“Without the mine, the Hands have no revenue. The stones and minerals they force the prisoners to extract are highly sought after in the Witch kingdom to the south. Now that you three blew half of it up and set the prisoners free, there’s a chance the Hands will never regain-” Kade paused, then snorted, “Where did you get that?!”

Sage froze, a dainty pastel cake held between her lips. She didn’t take it out, but instead answered him with her mouth half full. “The vendor.”

“What vendor?” He asked, unamused.

She pointed below them, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Please tell me you didn’t steal it.”

Sage scoffed, “I left them money.”

“How did you even get to it?” He asked.

She drummed her free fingers against the stone rooftop below her, and a mini version of Bob the Marshmallow Man lumbered out from behind her.

“What. Is. That.” He hissed.

Sage popped the cake in her mouth and chewed before she said, “Bobby.”

Kade blinked at her slowly, his eyes narrowing at Bobby while the little sand man lumbered around her legs. He looked like he wanted to say something, but then froze. His eyes flashed as his body stiffened.

Sage started to ask him what was wrong, but he held up a hand to silence her. He cocked his head, glancing over the lip of the rooftop wall. She waited, listening for any signs of what he might have seen or heard, but when a few moments passed and nothing happened, she grew antsy.

Kade held his hand up again, sensing her growing impatience. Then he pointed a claw down, motioning directly below them.

She heard them a moment later- hundreds of iron-clad footsteps pounding in unison throughout the city.

“Finally,” she whispered. Kade gave her a slight nod, affirming they had at last made an appearance. She crawled to his side, peeking over the lip to see the street below lined from wall to wall with Hands. And not just any Hands- ones from the Iron Mountain.

It had taken them a week to arrive- three days longer than Gabriela had expected. The seeming lack of concern Supreme Capricorn had for Veer had prompted them to attack Veer once more- just in case. Gabriela had stayed behind for the last attack to go over their next phase in the cities, which left Sage and Minx to their own devices.

“Goddess above, did one of her Maidens really do that?” A Hand was speaking below them but was quickly silenced by another.

“They are witches, nothing more. The Goddess’s children would never do such a thing.” The other Hand hissed.

“No, they were Demon lovers. Of course, they could do something like this,” someone else said, loud enough their voice carried down the street, prompting a hushed silence from the group.

“You would think the tree was dripping blood or had kids strung up in it,” Sage grumbled to Kade. He rolled his eyes in agreement.

Minx had asked her to return to the square where the palace and Goddess Spring had once been. The dusty fountains were all that were left when they arrived. Minx had heard the desert lilies calling to her beneath the sand- the very seeds left behind so many years ago begging to grow.

She’d turned the square into a lush desert garden, full of the once-extinct lilies, but with a few alterations. First, Minx had Sage dig a well to the groundwater below, then create an underground watering system for the plant life. Last, Minx wanted the lilies to bloom all day- not just at night. So she grew an enormous tree right in the center. It wasn’t a normal tree by any means, either. It was Minx’s own creation.

It had the shape and overall look of an oak, but the bark was stark white with several grooves that laced throughout it. The leaves were the size of beach umbrellas, and just as curved, too, ranging from dusty pinks and oranges to light tans and reds. The leaves would gather moisture from the air, and the grooves would feed the water back down to the ground below, but it would also shade the lilies, giving them the chance to bloom during the day.

Sage hadn’t seen anything wrong with what they did- outside of annoying the Hands of course. But clearly, it had been an affront to them.

“Get the Fae Fyre- we will burn it all.” Someone called below.

Sage’s stomach clenched in dread. Of course, they would want to destroy it. Logically, she knew they’d try. But it still hurt hearing it, especially after watching locals drift in and out of it all morning, taking it in and enjoying the cool shade of the giant tree. She’d seen women and children venture the streets just to smell the lilies and had even seen some vendors, like the one with the cakes below them, come out to sell their wares. It wasn’t just the garden; she knew the thugs and criminals had fled the city or were in hiding for fear of running into the Maidens.

Kade flicked her nose, startling her. She snapped her eyes back to him, frowning as he pointed down and nodded.

She raised her hands, confused.

He made the motions again, but more hurriedly.

“What?” she hissed quietly.

“Now is the time, you idiot!” He hissed back.

She grabbed Bobby and placed him in her shirt. The little sand man hung on the lip of her shirt, his body wedged in between her chest. Kade looked at Bobby like he was about to murder him.

“Well, hurry up!” She snapped.

Kade huffed, then took her in his arms. With one leap, they sailed over to the next rooftop, and then the next, until they were by the garden. Kade let her down on a roof at the very end of the street, where they could still see the Hands marching towards the giant tree.

Sage glanced back to the tree, feeling a sinking weight in her stomach at the idea it could be burnt down.

“Minx can regrow it,” Kade said, trying to reassure her. “But we won’t get this chance again.” He reminded her. Sage tore her gaze from the tree, telling herself she wasn’t going to get distracted and ruin this chance they had. She had promised Minx, in front of Wraza and the others, that she wouldn’t.

So, she laced her fingers with Kade’s, letting her torn soul become one between them as her gift poured into her veins, and she sent a blast of pure power down the street.

It slammed into the group of Hands- tossing them down the street like rag dolls.

“Come and get me if you dare!” she called to them. “Come get the Blackwood Maiden!”