“Evie.” My voice echoed again in the dark. It was eerie to hear my voice not coming out of my mouth.
“Ward?” Came Evie’s sleepy reply. I searched for the thin mate bond I knew was there. She couldn’t have gone far. There. A thread leading off into the tall grass beyond the river.
Racing toward the end of the bond, my blood froze in my veins. The muscular back half of her snake stuck out of a portal hovering above a Devil’s Bell. Cream petals, stumpy legs, black stamen—it looked enough like an Angel’s Bell that she must have gotten close to it. The only thing keeping my mate out of the red-rimmed portal—its mouth—was the giant knot she tied herself in, making her snake ass too big to fit into the portal. The flower still worked to suck my mate further inside. She squirmed backward and my roar shook the earth. The flower released a puff of spores, attempting to prepare me for eating next.
Ripping open a channel, I shouted the structure of a purifying spell to filter the spores. I wanted to tear the Devil’s Bell apart, but the void my mate was currently stuck in would collapse, killing her. Darting forward, I grabbed her tail and pulled her back enough for her to wrap it around my wrist, almost crushing my bones.
The flower did not take kindly to my stealing its meal, closing its petals to stab inch-long thorns into my forearms. The pain ripped up my arms, but I would never let her go. Inching her out, Evie wrapped more of herself around me, but she shook. I needed to get her out before she gave up. My bear pushed at me to change, but I had to repeat the structure of the spell and I couldn’t filter the spores without my magic. Even my bear could only inhale so much before succumbing. My muscles strained to drag her back, the thorns tearing skin as I won another inch. Evie labored so hard she drew me forward.
All of my effort concentrated on jerking us back as my muscles burned and sweat ran down my back. I was a large man and still the Devil’s Bell slowly pulled her deeper into its maw. My bear breathed heavily in my mind. There was no way he was going to let our mate die.
Release me.
I stumbled forward at the sound of his thunderous voice in my head and my bear took the opportunity to shift into my skin, ripping Evie out of the flower’s mouth with pure brute strength. The force was so great; the portal left a magic rash against her scales. She gasped, flopping on the ground, heaving as I tore through the flower with a savage intensity that did nothing to satisfy my bear. I scented the rest of the murder of Devil’s Bells and rampaged through them, rending petals from legs before they could think of releasing any more spores.
“Ward?”
Her wobbly voice was the most beautiful, alive thing I ever heard. I shifted and recited the structure of a spell to clothe myself as I raced back to her. She wouldn't appreciate that she was absolutely adorable, covered in slime, sitting human in a puddle of it.
“Are they gone?” she asked, wiping her face but only succeeding at putting more sludge on her forehead.
I kneeled next to her, trying to find some spot I could hold without getting disgusting. “My bear took care of them.” I hesitated to say ‘killed with extreme prejudice’. She still shook.
“I should be too big to be a snack. I hope by ‘take care of’ you mean ripped limb from limb.” Evie hiccuped.
There was no avoiding her slime. I scooped her into my arms and took her back to the fire, adding some logs to flare it into life. She snuggled into me, ooze squishing between us.
“Sorry.” She went to pull away.
“Shhhh. I’ve got you. It’s nothing. It’s gone. You’re safe. I will always come for you,” I murmured, clutching her in my need to have her safe and whole against me. Shaking came over her again instead of tears. I felt helpless against her distress, raking my fingers through her hair.
“It’s okay, Evie. It can’t hurt you anymore,” I said.
“I thought you said those flowers were peaceful vegetarians?”
“That was not an Angel's Bell. That was a Devil’s Bell. The blood-red tips of the petals were the clue. It was trying to feed you into its stomach by showing you your heart’s desire. What did it show you?”
A blush sizzled across her cheeks.Don’t say you. Don’t say you. “Uh… a rock collection. I’ve always wanted one.”
How could it be so charming that she still forgot I could hear her thoughts, even though she lied? I kissed her despite the slime, and pulled back, taking her by the shoulders to impart my seriousness. “Do not touch one, ever. Once inside, the Bell will only break off an atom at a time to feed. It’s incredibly painful and you go missing from time and space inside it. Not even magic can reach you.”
She shuddered, and I squeezed her tighter. “I got it. I didn’t need the visual. Is everything going to try and eat, maim, or kill me here?”
I wouldn’t lie to her. “Possibly. Everything in the Harrowlands usually tries to eat, maim, or kill right back.”
“Literally nothing in my village prepared me for this shit.” Her huff spattered wet goo onto me.
It wasn’t a small thing, this quest. I knew she should have stayed in the keep. I scraped her hair away from her face which screwed up with determination. “Then I'm going to bite back. Do I have venom?”
I huffed a laugh of surprise. “You could, but I don’t know if I want to find out.”
“I can’t even defend myself? I’m going to get you killed.” All of her fears came crashing against me in a giant wave of shame. It was so strong the emotion overwhelmed the basic bond. “I can’t run or fight or do stupid questing.”
“The shifters you saved would disagree,” I reminded her.
She scrubbed her face, pushing around the goo. “I’m so tired of crying all the time. Is there any part of this that won’t terrify me? Every time I think I have it under control, something crazy happens.”
I rubbed her back. “The Harrowlands isn’t always safe or kind. That’s why we stick together.”
