“You’ll be fine. I’ll find you later!”
She stared after his retreating figure with a blank stare.
“He’s joking,” said one of the Hunters behind her. “Nymphs aren’t bad. Just like annoying mosquitoes that talk. It’s really the Kopies you want to watch out for.”
She raised an amused brow at the slender man sitting beneath the tree, whittling away at a large branch in his hands. “Kopies. Right. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
HER BARE FEET led her southeast into the forest’s depths.
She hugged her cloak around her shoulders as she walked, relishing the animals around her as she felt their cores and allowed them to fill her. She had no destination in mind, but when she found herself in the clearing she’d visited with the Venari people for the funerals, she wasn’t surprised.
“Hello, Duarb,” she said upon seeing the mangled tree.
She should have felt scared. She should have felt the darkness. But all she felt was the sun on her back as she sat down in front of the great tree in the ray of light that had made its way into the forest.
The tongues on its trunk didn’t wiggle as ferociously as they had when the Venari had been there. As she stared at it, she started to think her eyes were deceiving her, for it looked as though the tree were breathing. She pulled her knees into her chest and sighed.
“This is weird,” she muttered. “I’m used to Arbina simply appearing whether I need her or not. But you… you can’t. Trapped inside your own mind except when called upon.”
She suddenly felt so sorry for Duarb, being cursed into the tree he had sprung from. She sighed and stared at it another moment before then lying down on the ground. Her eyes closed, and she reached out for any creatures in the forest to feel, allowing her core to release from her body.
For how long she laid there, knotting her core with different creatures to escape, she wasn’t sure. But halfway through the day, she felt a familiar energy come near, and she nearly screamed out into the sky as it came near.
The Aenean Orel landed beside her and bowed its head.
And she fell into its feathers.
The great bird stayed with her until the sun began to set, allowing her to lay against it, its head nuzzling hers as they sat beneath the tree they’d both been instructed was their enemy. When the sun waned, the orel gave her another bow, and it lifted up off the ground to follow the sunlight. Aydra knew she should have started heading back, but she couldn’t move, too at peace with the wrap of noir and creatures around her that she wanted to settle there for the rest of her days. She allowed the moons light to greet her through the trees, and she sighed into the darkened wood.
“I thought I might find you here,” came a voice in the darkness.
She looked up and met Draven’s eyes as he emerged into the moons light peeking through the canopy. He carried a box with him that she didn’t recognize.
“Daughter of his enemy. Of course I had to come and see him,” she said as he crossed the space between them. “What’s in the box?”
“Ah—” he sat down beside her and put the box in front of her feet. “It’s your raven.”
Her heart constricted and she reached out to trace the lid.
“Thought you might want to give her a proper Noctuan burial.”
She turned and met his gaze. “There is a Noctuan burial?”
“Well… normally, it would be during the deads, but because it was able to live during the moons, I see no reason why this shouldn’t work.”
A deep inhale left her body as she stared at the box. “Okay.”
She allowed him to do the burial in silence. The ashes were spread into Duarb’s roots at his base. She felt the tears coming down her face as she watched him work. He ripped a piece of his shirt and gave it to her to wipe them from her cheeks.
Once they were scattered, he lit a match against a rock and tossed it into the roots. Fire blazed in her watery vision.
“Where is the fabric I gave you?” he asked.
She frowned, but held out the fabric in her clenched fist nonetheless.
“Draven, what—”
