I know the rest of them can see his ailments. They’ve done more and more for him each night. His covenant works to help him as best they’re able by cleaning the table from our meager dinners, or bringing books and papers to him to read rather than he going himself to collect them.
I’m the one who could help him the most, and yet hestillrefuses me. Though…I haven’t exactly gone and offered. Much like the hunters and the vampir, I don’t know who’s at fault anymore and all I want is for the situation to be resolved.
“We’ll do our best,” I say to him. “Don’t worry; I’ll be sure to keep Ventos safe,” I add with a touch of arrogance, attempting to inject the slightest bit of levity into this heavy moment. I surprise myself in how successful I am. The rest of them chuckle at Ventos’s shift in expression.
“We’ll see who looks after who.” Ventos huffs. “Let’s get this over with.” He holds out his hand.
I meet Ruvan’s eyes one final time, hoping to convey my thoughts. When I’m back, we’ll talk. We’ll fix this. But I still don’t have the courage to say those words. So, instead, I take Ventos’s hand and hold my breath as we make our way back to the hamlet.
Shadow. Sharp on the lungs. Harsh on the eyes.
I gulp in salty sea air as we’re paused on a rock. Ventos doesn’t wait for me to catch my breath. I don’t ask him to. I won’t slow us down.
Darkness collapses on us once more with apop.
We stand in a glade of night. Living shadow curls around us, taking the shapes of ghostly trees and plumage of the same shade. At our right is a large slab, overgrown with ivy and moss. The foliage is so thick that it’s nearly impossible to make out whatever words were once etched on it.
We move again.
And again.
And again.
Finally I rip my hand from Ventos’s to place both palms on my knees. I’m doubled over, breathless. I hold up my hand. “A minute,please.”
“Sorry,” he mumbles. “I wouldn’t want to jump so much but it’s hard to sense anything in the Fade, which makes it nearly impossible to catch my bearings.”
“It’s all right. I know you’re doing your best, but it’s hard on my body.”
“I can imagine.” Ventos looks warily out into the darkness. “We should keep moving though. I don’t like this place. It reeks of elf magic.”
“Was it this hard to get through on the night of the Blood Moon?” I straighten. “Ventos?”
“No,” he reluctantly admits, wiping his forearm across his brow. He’s exhausted, too, and we haven’t even made it yet to Hunter’s Hamlet. “The Fade was thinner and our power was stronger. It almost felt like walking through, then.”
“You do know where you’re going, right?”
“I think so. This place is so different from that night. As though the land itself has been shuffled… But I think we’re almost through.” He holds out his hand. I take it and brace myself.
Every muscle and joint in my body screams. Mist stepping is utter agony. I’m being ripped apart and stitched back together, time and again. But I grit my teeth and bear it because every burst of pain is one step closer to home.
The moon is low in the sky when we finally emerge to somewhere that looks familiar. I heave a sigh of relief and collapse into the marshy earth. The squishing and squelching of the mud doesn’t disturb me as it might have once. It’s real. We’ve crossed through that world of living shadow and are now back in the realm I’ve always known. I gulp deep breaths of the wet air of the marshes and stand with renewed vigor.
I’m home.
CHAPTER32
“I can’t takeus much farther,” Ventos says, as out of breath as I am. “I can only mist step to somewhere I’ve been before—or I can see—and this is my limit.”
“This is fine.” I look to the moon to be my guide. “I know the approximate way from here.”
I lead Ventos through the marshes, heading south, southeast, until we come across the main road that snakes through the swamp. We move faster after that. Even though the road is slowly being reclaimed by nature, it offers sure footing.
Both of us are silent. The hunters will be out tonight, looking for Succumbed. I know if we run into a hunter, Ventos will be forced to kill them; no amount of pleading would prevent it. The hunter will have seen a vampir with a human and they couldn’t be allowed to live. So the only alternative is to avoid any confrontation at all costs. Luckily, most of the hunters patrol the deeper marshes. Succumbed tend not to walk on the main road, so we’re left alone.
I didn’t realize just how much power I had gained from the bloodsworn—and no doubt also from consuming Ruvan’s blood as well—until I was back in the Natural World. In Midscape I’m weak compared to the vampir. But here I can see in the darkness and not slip once on slick stone; my movements are easy and confident. I’m fairly certain that I can even smell the hunters out in the swamps and know when to slow or speed up my pace.
The small hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as we pass the ruins Ruvan and I fought in. I can still smell the blood that was spilled there.
