Something–lightning bolt.
“Damn it.”He bit out the words from behind a clenched jaw.
Again, the fleeting thought that he could fly, though he pushed it aside.He’d come this far in the form he wore, and he’d finish it as such.
If Errshek hid there, the hiding place was a clever one.
As twilight faded to true night, the thunder intensified, overpowering the sound of gentle waves lapping at the side of Captain Wretch’s vessel.The rest of the crew would either go ashore to find evening delights or turn into their own cabins after dinner.
Saer wouldn’t be among them.
Saer parted ways with the crew ofThe Salty Maidwithout announcement, clad only in his woolen hood and trousers.Even Saer’s feet were bare—customary on any ship to avoid slipping on ropes and decks at sea.Pride stalked the shoreline as flashes of lightning guided his way.Along the southwest end of the lake the lightning seemed to be most consistent, right where a winding river drained into it.
While he couldn’t delineate Errshek from the cacophony of thunderbolts, it occurred to Saer, with a bitter curl to his lip, that Envy would be just as blind to his approach.
He hunted with a grace that would have made Wrath herself proud.
The first drizzles of rain speckled his skin, steam rising where it touched.His heat sense remained activated despite the interference from frequent thunderbolts.Saer’s quick pace slowed when the sprinkle expanded to heavier drops, edges of storm clouds directly overhead.The initial tinge of ozone hovered in the atmosphere, like burnt chemicals in an alchemist’s lab.He stepped into a thicket of ficus trees spotted with smaller orchid tendrils.Undulating peals of thunder covered any cracking or crunching of his bare feet on the forest floor.
Above it all, the increasing rain, the rumbling sky, Saer’s thudding heartbeat pounded between his ears, the throb of it against his temples, in his hands, along each fingertip.
Slinking lower, he moved one tree branch, one fern aside at a time as he scanned left and right.Despite the lightning, his senses persisted in being pulled to one place.One spot.
One.
Consistent.
Essence.
Biting back the growl yearning to announce his murderous intent, Saer moved forward.His pupils dilated.
Everything he’d worked for, the time before his journey began, the trial with Runeak, the games with the Twins, the brutality he’d experienced in Kalia’s chambers—it all weighed on his shoulders.A crescendo built, the height of his retribution symphony striking dissonant chords in the thunderous surroundings.
At last, Saer’s hands—shaking with adrenaline—pushed aside a final bushel of shrubbery.
Amidst bright flashes, a clearing splayed.A modest canopy strung with sinew hung at an angle between the trunks of several trees.There lay a circular series of large rocks just under the edge of the canopy, a fire pit with a moderate blaze at its center.Next to the fire pit, a single stump had been placed.
Upon that stump, illuminated during the intermittent glares of lightning, sat the Sixth.The youngest brother of theDaemoenica, Envy himself.
Errshek.
Saer’s breath stuck in his throat, occluded by rage.
Errshek broke dried sticks and tossed them into the fire.He’d dressed his thin frame in a simple linen top and pants.TheDaemoenicwho tried to turn all his kin against him.
He inhaled, expanding the moment.
This time, when he let it out with measured slowness, he allowed a growl to boil over the ocean of control he’d kept leashed, timed between the rich echoes of thunder.
Errshek froze.
His olive eyes lifted, showing too much white.Saer stood, unhurried and seething.
Errshek opened his mouth to speak or scream, but Saer didn’t allow time for either.The boiling rage spilled over, the muscles in his face and neck aching with the strain.Pride thrust an arm forward and metaphysically gripped the core of Errshek’s heat with choking intensity.
He called upon the Lucifer-given hierarchical power of unmaking.
The spark tore a gasp from Errshek’s lips, and he doubled over.The power and pain rooted him in place as Saer strode over with rancorous leisure, arm still outstretched.Lips peeling back over his clenched teeth, he hissed, “Errshekenyarris, you will go nowhere beyond this clearing until I will it.By your true name, I command you.”
