I believe it might be a Marrowstalker,Christian’s voice was crystal clear in his mind.
Marrow–that sounds horrible,Grayson admitted.
It is.They got their name from the fact that they would rip off enemy limbs to get to their bones and the marrow inside.That’s all they would eat, sometimes while the person was still alive,Christian explained.
Fiona had teleported them again to a bridge that spanned a river.It was the Bridge of Passing, if he remembered rightly.The black water rushed beneath them like liquid silk.He thought he saw something bob briefly above the surface, like gray rocks, but rocks didn’t move.Grayson knew that there were creatures beneath that surface just as dire as the Marrowstalker. His human blood was likely going to excite a great many creatures that would have otherwise ignored a Vampire.He gritted his teeth.
How did a Marrowstalker end up in a box in the Helm basement?Grayson asked.
“The last time I was at this bridge was with Christian and Caemorn,” Fiona said with a faint laugh.“We were walking into trouble back then, too.Going to the Well of All Souls.Glad that thing’s gone.”
“It’s gone?”
She nodded.“Yes, though I wish I had Faithkeeper here with me now.”
“Your old bow?”
“You remember!”She grinned at him.“I didn’t.I just picked it up in the armory at the Spire.Could have killed me if I hadn’t been worthy of it.”
“Of course, you were worthy of it!”
“Back then I was someone else,” she told him.“Someone just out for themselves.Trying to keep my head down while moving up the ranks of the Order.I’m getting better now.Less guarded.More open to others.”
Grayson’s forehead furrowed.“But, Fiona, as Wyvern you were the one that was keeping us all together.”
She blinked and looked at him, putting a hand to her chest.“Me?”
“Of course!You’d travel between our cities, urging us to get together.Keeping us up with each other’s news.It was yeoman’s work, but you did it with a smile, though you must have been frustrated at times,” he said.
She looked down.“I can’t imagine that.Being the one to bring people together.I’ve always seen my gift as letting me getaway.”
“Only if you don’t realize that you can be with anyone you want with a thought.Sure, you can have solitude, but you were the one to establish bonds with all of us,” Grayson told her.
She tugged on one of her braids.“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to use that to stop the War.”
“I think you kept it from happening for a long time,” Grayson admitted.“You were telling me of unrest with Kaly.But I… I was distracted with other things.”
“You were in love.”She smiled.
“Love shouldn’t blind you to everything else that matters.It should make you more aware of others rather than less.”He grimaced.
She put a hand on his shoulder.“It does.Just not in the first flush of it.But afterwards, it gives you the headspace to be more open to others.”
“Maybe that’s how it is for you with Arcius, but–”
“Oh, don’t think we haven’t escaped to be together often,” she said.“But his idea of service is rubbing off on me.Serving the king, serving others, I admit I do like it.But I hide behind him when I need to talk to new people.”
“I admit I do the same with Ryder.”He shrugged.“They’re the extrovert side of the couple.”
“I am missing Arcius now,” she admitted and there was a faint crease between her brows.“I would have expected to hear from him by now.With everything happening in the world, silence is not good.”
“No, it isn’t.We should look into that, I think,” he said.
They both glanced over at the location of the creature then.The Marrowstalker’s body was caught between the red moon and him.
“I think we need to take care of this first,” she said dryly.
“Yeah, time to move again?”
