"That should keep him off the edge a few hours," Lex muttered to Nyssa.
"One would hope," Nyssa said back as Dorian rejoined them, ash and blood covering his leather pants and bare torso.
“Feel better?” she asked him.
“Much,” he replied.
She held her hand up, and he gave it a facetious slap upon his passing, as though congratulating each other for a well-accomplished morning.
“You’re bleeding,” she noted, seeing the scratch across his pec and shoulder.
He looked down at himself, apparent he had not paid the injury any attention. “That explains the actual feeling in my bones this morning,” he mumbled. “Wondered where that had been hiding.”
“I’ll stitch,” Lex said. “Corbin, pack us up.”
“No stitches,” Dorian argued. “We need to get going. I hate this fucking hill.”
CHAPTER FOUR
THEY CUT OVER the Preymoor the rest of the day, intending to stay off the road. Lex hoped they could evade any more companies of mercenaries. As the sun set, they set up camp and made sure to do so far enough from the Forest that if a Noctuan came wandering, they would know.
But it wasn’t far enough away that Nyssa couldn’t hear them crying out.
The Ulframs’ howls sounded like a chorus, unmoving and bewildering. Nyssa was trying her hardest to keep calm and push out the nauseating grief they bellowed out, but it felt almost as though they were trying to get to her. As though they felt her presence and were reaching in her direction. Shudders that she'd never experienced before consumed her. It was all Nyssa could do to keep her composure and not shred right there.
“Alright, Nys?” Dorian asked as he turned the rabbits on the stick over their fire.
She zipped out of the space she’d nearly fallen into and gasped a breath, blinking back into reality. Dorian gave her knee a squeeze as she met his eyes.
“Yeah,” she managed. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
The howl sounded over the stillness, and Dorian glanced to the trees. "What's she saying?"
His voice was low enough the others couldn't hear, but it didn't stop Lex from staring at the pair across the fire.
Nyssa leaned her head on Dorian’s shoulder and closed her eyes, hoping that she could perhaps block some of the cries out.
If anything, though, they grew louder.
"She's just... They’re crying," she whispered. "I can't... I think I’ll take a walk," she finally determined. "The smell is making me a bit nauseous.”
“I’ll come with—”
“No,” Nyssa told Lex sharply. “No, I need a minute. Alone.”
Lex looked like she would argue, but she didn’t.
Dorian’s eyes remained fixated on Nyssa as she stood and dusted off her pants.
“Will you take a torch?” he asked her.
She nodded, and he wrapped up the end of a stick with an old shirt from his bag before lighting it on fire in his palm. She reached down to take it from his hand, and Dorian pulled it back.
“Please be careful,” he begged her.
“I’ll be fine.”
Her eagle landed on her bent forearm. His great talons dug into her arm but did not break the surface. He gave her a comforting peck before pushing his head against her temple.
