19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Eldrick

E ldrick was fucked.

He walked alongside Tovi, ensnared by her allure. With the grayish-white sky above, her porcelain skin and hair as white as a dove’s, she blended into the wintry landscape as if she were the ruling creature of it. Eldrick supposed she was, as the rightful heir, a fact that showed in her proud, poised walk, in her firm, thoughtful brow, and in her determined jade eyes. Her thoughts swirled there as she assessed their surroundings.

She paid him no mind, and Eldrick wasn’t sure why it bothered him. Now that it was the two of them, the silence didn’t feel right. Should they have casual conversation? Discuss the weather, perhaps? They barely tolerated one another. Yet, why did that thought leave a sickening feeling in his gut?

His uncle’s proposition came to the forefront of his mind. A blaring torchlight of a reminder. Assess Tovi. Learn her motives. Create a sound judgment of her character. Learn what he could about the missing werewolves. At the thought of the latter, he grimaced and looked away from her. He still believed vampyrs were behind the attacks on his people .

A few snowflakes fell, lazy and tranquil, from the never-ending sky of gray. Aside from their crunching footsteps, nothing else moved or rustled until the calming trickle of water sounded from up ahead. Snow blanketed every surface aside from the stubborn needles of the fir trees poking up from the icy layer.

The sound of water grew louder before they reached a creek bleeding into an icy marsh. Trees with bulbous roots rocketed into the sky, trunks enveloped in ice. A sage vine-like plant sprawled across the frozen patches of water. Eldrick struggled to see through the dark water and detect its depth.

“Is this where you kill me?” Eldrick said. “Leave me behind before the others join us?”

Tovi exhaled, schooling her features. She crouched. “Killing you is not on my agenda. At least not today.” She flashed him a radiant smile, a hint of fang peeking over her bottom lip.

Eldrick scoffed. She continued her assessment, and he trailed behind her. She stopped, listened, and inspected the forest floor, then repeated the pattern three times.

“What is on your agenda?” he asked.

“I’m looking for signs of anything that might kill you instead of me,” she muttered.

“I thought you said madras stayed out of the canyon pass during the winter months.”

“I said usually they stay out of the canyon pass, but if the season gets tough enough, they wander for food. It’s why some of them cross the Void. By the looks of the frost, summer was short and bleak this year.” She sighed as she brushed her delicate fingers over the fronds of a fern glassed in ice. Her brows scrunched as she shifted her touch to a patch of disturbed snow. The indent was deep, the width of her slender forearm. Tovi rose from her haunches, moving past him and looking out into the marsh. “And so we’re clear, there are more than madras demons in Drystan.”

Eldrick fought his curiosity of the land no werewolf had entered in centuries. “I suppose you’re an expert on all things demon, bloodsucker.”

Her nostrils flared, and her knuckles popped as she fisted her hands. She breathed deep through her nose. His words riled her, but she ignored him. Eldrick felt like a child, a young boy teasing a girl he had a crush on. Moons. He shook his head. It was this place. It was Tovi’s allure. Her enchantress energy.

Whatever it was, Eldrick needed to get a grip.

“We’ll wait here until the others join us. The water is moving, so it’ll be safe to drink and wash in,” Tovi said.

“And when the others join us, what do you suggest we do next? Make camp or move out?”

Tovi crossed her arms, looking towards the sky. “Well, my guess is they’ll make it back right before evening and resting during the night would be safest. We need the rest, but I’m not convinced Kade will want to delay.”

Eldrick paused. He’d forgotten they were on this mission for Kade and Evelyn. After so many months away, Kade had assumed his role as commander so effortlessly, like he’d never left. He always fell into his duty far easier than Eldrick. His focus was unparalleled. Eldrick didn’t envy his brother; instead, he was proud of him, admired his discipline.

“Kade knows his team best,” he said. “We trust his instincts.”

Tovi scoffed, rolling her eyes as she searched the trees.

“What?” Eldrick asked.

She sighed. “Look, I should preface I think Kade and Evelyn are great together, but I’m not sure Kade’s instincts were as sound as you think in Callum. He acted as a huntsman, Cyrus Skender, hiding his werewolf and identity from her. That’s how he got close to her.”

Eldrick’s brother was honest to a fault. Loyal, dutiful. Pretending to be someone else didn’t sound like him, so distrust didn’t worm its way into Eldrick’s belly, but curiosity did.

“Didn’t you do the same? Act as Evelyn’s friend to get close to her? ”

Tovi paused, a flash of something crossing over her features.

Eldrick cursed. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be hurtful, that came out wrong.”

“No.” Tovi shook her head. “You’re right in a way.”

Eldrick waited. Snow continued to fall between them. With his arms crossed, Eldrick’s inner wolf sat rigid, almost feral to learn more about her.

“I pretended to be someone else, but I never pretended to be her friend. I was her friend. About ten years ago, vampyr court was getting worse and worse. Many were falling to darkness, farther than ever before. As my brother became more secretive and gaining favor in the court, I thought it best to keep an eye on her, but…”

“But?”

“I never intended for us to be friends. I was only keeping tabs on her from afar, and then our paths crossed, and it sort of happened. It became real. So real. I’ve been alive for centuries, and not once did I have a friendship like I did with Evelyn or even her sisters for that matter. It was like she was my sister, too.”

Anguish dripped from her tone, and the urge to reach out to her flexed in Eldrick’s fingers. He kept his arms crossed, snuffing the urge.

“Why didn’t you tell her?” he asked.

Tovi shook her head, blinking wide. “I wanted to, and every time a moment came where I could, I’d talk myself out of it. Maybe she’d hate me? Maybe she’d not accept me as a vampyr? I worried, too, that telling her I could walk in sunlight would put my people at risk. Would she and others on the Guard think we were worse of a threat and march to war? In the end, I remembered the prophecy, and I couldn’t jeopardize the promise it held. Not when she hadn’t met Kade yet.”

Eldrick sucked in a breath. The prophecy. The one that claimed the darkness could be defeated, the one his people had always believed meant defeating the vampyrs. This belief of Tovi’s was what he needed to learn more of.

He took a step closer to her. “You really believe in it, don’t you? ”

“Yes.” Her jade eyes tracked his movement.

Conviction. Poise. Adamancy.

All of that enveloped Tovi, and a need— no, a want—etched into Eldrick’s tightly woven body. A snowflake fell onto her eyelash. An itch to brush that snowflake away flushed through him. To touch her. Feel her. Stand in her orbit.

Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment.

He lurched away from her, putting her out of arm’s reach. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Earlier, you were looking for signs of demons. Show me what you know, what you’re looking for. I can help.”

Tovi assessed him, head to toe, her eyes narrowing. “Alright.” She fell back to the original print in the snow. “I’m looking for signs of what’s about.” She pointed to the disturbed patch of snow. “Something’s been here, but it’s not fresh. The snow has frozen and there’s a layer on the top.”

“Do you know what type of demon?”

Her shoulders slumped. “I’m not entirely sure. It’s definitely not a madras. There’s only one print, something of the insect variety.”

A crawling sensation tickled Eldrick’s skin. That sounded dreadful.

Tovi hurried away, scouring the snow. Eldrick inspected in the opposite direction, trying to find similar prints as well. In the Vadon Mountains, demons always made themselves known—madras, italogs, béars. They attacked anything in their wake past the Void.

He caught movement in his peripheral vision, but when he turned, the marsh rippled as snow fell on the glass-like water. His hackles rose.

“It’s probably best if we meet the rest of the group closer to the canyon base,” Tovi said. “Whatever it was—”

The iced marsh cracked like glass as a blue-hued beast burst from the depths. It cried out a piercing roar as water and vegetation dripped from its exoskeleton. Large oval black eyes peered down at them while pincerlike teeth chattered together.

All six of them.

The demon dove for Tovi first. Eldrick ran, his instinct snapping into place as his blood ran cold. He shifted—earlier warnings be damned. Tatters of his shirt burst around him while his leathered armor and axes fell away, and his enchanted trousers molded to his newly enlarged, furred muscle. Across the frozen ground, Eldrick’s elongated feet thundered. His face and torso stretched, the muscles screaming. As he grew a foot taller, his vantage widened, and his agility strengthened.

He collided with Tovi before the demon landed a blow, encircling an arm around her waist and pulling her with him as he dove to the side. Jointed arms stabbed into the ground right where Tovi had been standing, leaving an indent similar to the one they’d found in the snow moments ago.

The demon roared again, the sound ricocheting off the trees and surrounding canyon walls. Eldrick and Tovi pulled apart, rolling to opposite sides as the demon pierced the ground again. Eldrick jumped to his feet, squatting into a fighting stance with claws at the ready. He roared, luring the demon’s attention away from Tovi.

It’s insect-like head tilted and swayed as it came closer and closer to Eldrick. Its body never seemed to end, emerging foot by foot from the depths of the marsh. Eldrick had never crossed paths with such a demon, but he’d seen the likeness in the small centipedes that crawled throughout the forest floor of the Vadon Mountains. Farmers hated them in the Drengr Village. Pests that munched on crops. Yet, this one was clearly not on the hunt for carrots or cabbage. It was a demon of Drystan, hungry for him and Tovi.

The thought of Tovi in danger sent a shiver up Eldrick’s spine. Stars above , he didn’t understand it, but he manifested it into anger, into fight, meeting the demon’s attack as it dove for him. He grabbed each of its elongated skeletal arms. Back and forth, the demon and Eldrick shoved and pushed in a game of tug-of-war and wills. Eldrick’s paws skidded through the snow while his clawed grip tightened on the demon’s pincers .

Beneath his claws, the exoskeleton began to crack and splinter. The demon screeched, flicking its head to the side. The momentum threw Eldrick into the air. After a few moments of flight, he landed with a thud and body-jarring oomph .

Dazed, Eldrick struggled onto his back. The demon loomed over him, lowering inch by inch. It had him cornered in a cluster of trees. Eldrick bared his werewolf teeth, sliding backwards.

A chill flushed through. Where was Tovi? Had she run at the first chance she could?

He was a fool. An utterly distracted—

The cry of a female warrior captured both Eldrick and the demon’s attention.

Tovi flew through the air, her snowy hair flowing behind her. Eldrick stared, mouth agape. Tovi had transformed. Her fangs had lengthened. They glinted like razors as she landed on the demon’s back. She held Eldrick’s axes, one in each hand. Both crunched into the demon as she saddled its massive head, one embedded into the back of its skull while the other protruded from one of its oval eyes, black gunk oozing onto the curved blade.

The demon screeched in pain. Yet, Tovi held firm, baring her fangs. She knew how to fight. Her hold on the demon, her grip on the axes. Tovi had held a weapon and fought a foe before.

Eldrick couldn’t look away. His stomach fluttered. Stars above , he suddenly saw her in a new light.

This beauty, this enigma who threatened to shatter all he knew of this world…

The dark and the light, what was wrong versus right…

Everything turned upside down.

The demon began to shake and writhe above the marsh, and Tovi’s snowy, bright silhouette shook with it.

Eldrick growled in his werewolf form, came to his feet, and ran to the marsh’s bank. Snow and sheets of ice pushed onto the shore as the water sloshed. He prepared to jump, to latch onto the demon too when it suddenly plunged back into the marsh’s depths, bringing Tovi with it.

Eldrick skidded to a halt. The water of the marsh rippled back and forth, sucking Tovi and the demon down into its frozen darkness, then it calmed again. He shifted back into his human form, the cold tightening his sweaty skin.

“Tovi!” he shouted.

Panic chilled Eldrick through skin to bone. He clenched his fists. What should he do? How could he help? He had no weapons, and his werewolf form in water did him little good thanks to sheer size and mass.

But why did he care? Because she’d saved him. A vampyr . As a leader, he couldn’t look past the honor of what she’d done.

Fuck.

Eldrick paced the marsh’s edge, searching for any signs of Tovi. His breath came out ragged.

Nothing.

Not a ripple or a bubble.

“Tovi!” Desperation laced his tone.

Diving in seemed to be his only option. Weapon or not, he couldn’t stand idle. Waiting. Worrying. Stars above , this was maddening. Muscles bunched, poised, Eldrick was ready to dive into the marsh, but the demon rose to the surface with a ferocious cry, an ethereal princess hanging onto its back.

Tovi had blinded every one of the demon’s eyes, where now there was nothing, but ghastly indents left from the axes. One pincer hung limp while the other was gone entirely. Eldrick swore it bobbed on the marsh’s surface behind them.

With one last battle cry, Tovi swung around the beast’s neck, bringing her to the front. Blind, injured, and spent, the demon had no energy to react as she planted the axe where its neck met its belly. The blade sank so deep that her weight dragged her body and the blade downward, opening the demon at its center .

Its slain form wavered then plummeted to the marsh’s shore with a resounding boom. In the chaos, Tovi’s slender figure disappeared. Without thought, instinct kicked in, and Eldrick ran. He simply ran. Hoping. Wishing.

What for, he didn’t know, not until Tovi’s breathless, panting face came into view. Relief washed over him. Eldrick rounded the demon’s corpse, crouching down to inspect her. Her fangs had retreated and, though she was drenched to the bone with frigid water, there wasn’t a scratch or mark on her.

A million words, a million things, stars above , a million emotions expanded and ballooned inside Eldrick’s calculating and factual mind. She was safe. Relief. They were alright. Gratitude. She was breathtaking. Awe. Eldrick pocketed all of them. He didn’t push them aside, but he didn’t let them lead his next words.

“You’re full of hidden talents aren’t you, Tovi Verena.”

Tovi’s eyes went wide, her mouth falling open ever so slightly. Then she smiled and laughed. Sweet and songlike. Something embedded deep into Eldrick’s core awakened at the sound, and his mouth split into a wide grin and his own laughter bubbled to the surface.

Aside from a dead demon’s body and the Void’s chilly mist settling on their shoulders, he and a vampyr laughed together until their bellies ached.