The warrior stalked toward me, and I backed up, nearly stumbling again in the brush. “Kole, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interfere, but when you ran off, I panicked, and?—”
I stopped.And what exactly? How exactly did I explain to him that an unreasonable instinct had come over me, and I’d been helpless to resist it?
“The Stone is making me act crazy.” I blurted. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have followed you.”
“The Stone,” he growled.
“Yes, the Stone. I’m sorry.” Eyesight still enhanced by my magic made every thunderous line visible upon the warrior’s face. He was glaring at me, for once not even trying to hide his expression.
In my next breath, he closed the distance between us completely, his aura pulsing and rising, and then he was right in front of me, crowding my space.
I gulped, but I held my ground.
When he raised his hand, I flinched and automatically took another step back.
He seethed. “Do you really think I would hit you?” He grasped my chin with his raised hand and angled my head both ways as he looked me over. “It didn’t hurt you?”
“No, it never came near me.”
“There wasn’t another one anywhere that you encountered on your way here?”
“No, not that I saw.”Or felt.I was certain the headless creature behind him was the only one. “Wait.” I shook my head. “There aremoreof those things?” It briefly struck me that perhaps the one I’d heard the other night had already been killed by Kole. Maybe this was a different one of the same species.
He finally released my chin, and his nostrils flared, but he stepped back and used a burst of self-cleansing magic to clean his sword. The black blood coating it disappeared.
Dear Goddess, black blood.What in the realm hadblackblood?
“Kole, what is that thing?” I wrapped my arms around myself, and I suddenly realized it was still snowing, and the temperature was even colder in the Wood. A shiver struck me. “Is it from Silventine Wood? Did it escape that forest?” I tried not to panic at the thought of the Wishing Stone potentially landingthere, resulting in me encountering these creatures on a daily basis.
“It’s something you should never hope to encounter again.”He gave me his back and stalked toward the creature, not pausing until he stood over its body.
A gust of Kole’s air element flowed out of him, and the creature’s decapitated head lifted in the wind and fell on top of its headless body.
A flash of moonlight penetrated the Wood’s canopy, and I recoiled when razor-sharp fangs appeared in its dead gaping mouth, but the creature had ears like fae. Pointed and sculpted in a way that were similar to mine, but so many other aspects of it were different, not fae at all.
“Kole,whatis that thing?” I asked again and stepped closer to him.
“Stay back.” The warrior swung toward me, his eyes glittering in a way that even someone without my magic would have been able to detect in the dark. “Don’t come any closer. It could infect you.”
“Infectme?” I stopped, and another shiver struck me.
He swung back around, then pulled something from his pocket. He flicked it a few times, and a spark appeared at its end, but it went out as quickly as it’d appeared. He did it again, and another spark flamed, but as before, it extinguished.
A frustrated hiss tore from him, and his heightened aura formed a thick cloud around him.
“What...” I licked my lips, which had suddenly gone dry. “What are you doing?”
“I need to burn the body. Otherwise—” He shook his head. “I need to burn it.”
I took a step forward. “I can help with that.”
He cocked his head in my direction, but in a swirl of magic, I called upon my elemental power, and a stream of fire appeared in front of me. I molded it into a ball. “Stand back.”
Surprisingly, he did as I said without questioning me. Once he was clear of thething, I flung my fireball at it.
The creature ignited, and the sickening stench of burning flesh filled the Wood. I gagged, covering my mouth as the putrid aroma of decay swirled in the air.
Walking backward, Kole slowly moved toward me, never once taking his eyes off the hideousthing.
