“Wait.” I gasped, reaching for the other steed’s lead. “Seth!”
Teeth gritted, Eleos looked as though he was going to suggest abandoning the assassin, but he closed his eyes and sighed before turning the horse around. We bolted across the fields, across pools of blood left behind in the chthonics wake.
A flash of crimson streaked through the night ahead as Seth disarmed a Guild member and drove his sword through the man’s gut. Yanking the blood blade out, he turned toward us, ready to strike, but lowered his weapon when he recognized us.
I dropped the other mare’s lead as we reached him. Seth grabbed the horse’s saddle as it ran past, managing to climb onto its back mid-stride. Whisper ran after him, clinging to the horse’s hind legs.
The Empty pulsed behind us, the depths of its void slowly marching forward.
“Seas.” Eleos cursed, staring daggers at Seth. “Are you asking for death? Why did you attack?”
“You’re going to scold me now?” Seth yelled. “Save it.”
Writhing emotions spun in my chest. Doubling over, I grabbed at my breast, unable to tear my eyes from the void and its still sea as it slowly consumed the world where we’d been fighting only moments before.
I saw the corpse of the man Seth had killed be consumed, turned to unceremonious nothingness as his existence was swept away.
And then it stopped. The bounds of the Empty halted and quickly fell out of view as we galloped into the trees.
14
Chapter 14
During my life in Ikaria, when stress seized my soul and pounded against my skull, I’d walk along the waterways and pick flowers. Flowers that would die by the morning, but would brighten my tiny home for a single night.
Tonight, I relieved stress by washing a muddy dog. Whisper stood in the brook, brown murk washing from his coat and drifting down the stream. I shivered in the cold water, rubbing soap between my palms before running it down his fur.
Scrubbing the dirt from his snout, I smoothed back his wiry fur and beheld his handsome face. Tongue flailing from his mouth, he tried to lick the soap from his tall, pointed ears.
Leaping from the stream, Whisper shook himself dry, throwing water and suds everywhere. His tail whipped violently across the river stones, alerting me to someone’s approach.
A black shadow ducked between two trees and descended upon the hound. “Did she wash you, boy?” Seth cooed, rubbing the dog’s ears.
Smiling, I rinsed off my hands as Seth joined me at the riverbank. Blood soaked his arm and dripped down his forearm. Examining the wound, I met his gaze.
“Shouldn’t you wrap that?” I asked, gesturing.
“Hm?” Seth raised his arm. “It’s probably fine. Chthonics get used to bleeding.”
“It’snotfine,” I said, hiking up my wet skirt and reaching for my bag hanging from a branch. Pulling out a roll of gauze, I flicked my fingers at him. “Take your shirt off.”
“I thought Eleos was the resident healer.” Seth loosened his cloak and pulled off his tunic.
“He’s a scholar,” I corrected, unrolling my bandage. A jagged wound similar to the scar on my breast snaked down his bicep. Grabbing a handful of water, I washed the laceration off and set to binding it.
Seth stared quietly at the top of my head as I worked. “You entered the Empty,” he said.
“I did,” I confirmed, fingers trembling on his skin.
“Who are you, really?”
“Nobody,” I said earnestly.
The stern gaze in Seth’s eyes softened, but I couldn’t read him. He guarded his expressions as tightly as his mind, barring both psyche and con woman out.
Stepping away, I checked over my work. Good enough. My eyes quickly drifted to his bare chest, tracing the myriad scars crossing his back and abdomen. Tattoos painted his uninjured arm, black swirling patterns I didn’t recognize. They rose from his elbow, caressed his shoulder, and covered his pec, as though vines reaching for his heart.
My gaze lingered on his defined chest and the way his arm muscles flexed as he shook out his shirt. Forcing myself to stop ogling, I pointed at the scar crossing his rib cage.
