The hooves of the eldritch entered the thin slice of meadow that I could see through the crack in my eyelids. This time I could hear the words within his sonorous rumble.
“It is her magic. It is interfering with the tree’s. She will be dead soon. Consider it a mercy over what the king would do to her.”
Inara’s keen swallowed the rest of what he was about to say. “No!”
“Denial will not change what is to come. She is fading. There is nothing you can do about it. I suggest you concentrate on you and your consort’s future survival.”
The eldritch moved out of view as Inara’s tears wet my cheek.
“I don’t care what he says. He doesn’t know you. I do. There’s no way a stubborn brat like you will let yourself die from something like this. Do what you do so well, Aileen.”
My lips were pried open. A drop of blood touched my tongue. Power zinged through my veins, bringing with it the taste of early morning sunlight.
“This isn’t your end, my friend,” Inara whispered.
There was a flutter. A tiny breeze from Inara’s passage touched my skin.
Then I was alone, only the labored sound of Deborah’s breathing and the silent presence of my fellow inmates for company.
twenty-six
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
It was oddly soothing listening to the sound of my blood oozing down my neck and falling to the ground. A relaxing metronome that allowed me to fall into a semi-meditative state, the boundary between life and death growing worn and thin.
After all this time, you’d think I’d grow used to straddling that line. To being neither one nor the other.
That’s what being a vampire meant, after all. A creature who had a foot in both worlds.
Not like this though. It felt like I was close to crossing that final barrier. To passing into the great beyond and leaving everything behind.
The thought was less terrifying than it should have been.
The sun above was just as intense, as searing, but I felt removed from it. As if it existed on a different plane than the one I was on.
With that same sense of disconnection, I took in the shadows at the forest’s edge.
Something had been done to them. The barrier Inara had been talking about. The one that was supposed to prevent Alches from using them to intrude.
The longer I stared; the more I saw.
Something moved in their depths. A small shift here. A tiny flex there.
Until finally, a picture took shape.
A shadow hound lay on his belly, his paws extended in front of him, their tips nearly touching the border where shadow gave way to light. As if sensing my attention, Alches whined and squirmed forward a few centimeters before the barrier stopped him.
A dissatisfied woof echoed in my mind. There was a hint of reproachfulness in it.
Alches whined again before nudging the border between light and shadow with his snout. Finished, he gave me a pointed stare.
Perhaps it was the blood loss talking but it felt like he wanted me to do something with that shadow.
It was the “what” that eluded me.
