Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,92

It dragged him along, the virulent sapphire twining with strands of gold and amber as their combined power licked over the healing landscape. The ground erupted with a staggering growth of thickly fleshed plants and scraggly grasses. Sandy soil glittered with shards of black crystals as the amaranthine petals of heart-shaped blooms broke open to expose their fire-shaded stamens. Sprays of some fluffy white and gold flower sprouted alongside them, the delicate puffs glowing in the filtered light beneath the thickening canopy.

Aida smiled at the scene, her arm dead and cold as it fell away from the tree she could no longer hold on to. She tried to keep her eyes open just a moment longer as star-shaped flowers painted with streaks of red and gold rushed into being. Swearing she heard a giggling laugh, uncertain if it was her own, blackness took her away before she could ask Er’it if he heard it, too.

Chapter 17

Er’it

Clutching Aida’s unconscious body to his chest, Er’it watched on in awestruck horror as the forest continued to groan and tremble. Her power sparkled and sizzled through the air, the greasy muck coating the twisted trees catching hold of blue fire before erupting in new, green growth. The trees her magic touched became thicker, strong and true as they reached for the sky.

It was far too much for her to expend at once, no matter the golden hues of his energy racing through the pure azure of hers. Struggling with her limp body, he hurried to feel for the pulse at her throat and groaned at how erratic and weak it thumped against his fingertips.

Kal snorted and stamped behind them. The earth shifted beneath his hooves, threatening to break a leg as magic continued to pour through their surroundings. No longer directed by Aida, it sought out anything that did not belong. That included Er’it and Kal, creatures that had no bond or right to this part of the world.

Except Aida.

This had been her home once. The blood of her people flowed through it. Did he not have that bond through her? Burying his face against her chilled neck, he found the coarse rasp of the binding at her shoulder with his lips. Twice he’d bitten her, the second time a glorious display of possession that he felt down to the marrow of his bones. He’d ripped open her soul and inserted himself with as much violence and pleasure as he’d ever visited upon her physical body. With his knees sinking fast in the tumultuous soil, Er’it worked the cotton free to bare the bloody mess to the air, to show the unmastered energy and the presence of the land itself. The oppressive weight of their combined attention almost drove him flat, but he struggled to remain upright. Hitching Aida higher, he tore at the seam of his tunic to show his own livid wound. Smaller but no less binding, it was a testament to her utter perfection.

Swirling around him in icy blasts, the brilliant starshine of her magic blistered his exposed flesh. Tasting his power, taking measure of him, it began to abate. The rich amber threading through it flared and showered the forest floor with golden embers. The plants erupting from the ground at its touch were foreign to these snowy hills yet more at home than they ever would be in the desert.

“Open your eyes, Aida,” Er’it said through a growl against her temple, lurching to stand in the still shifting dirt. His feet were as sure and steady as they could be on the rolling waves of soil while he made his way toward Kal, the Phylix a beacon of calm behind him despite their dire situation.

Her magic might not intend them harm any longer, but it was not finished with the forest. It would not rest until Aida’s final thoughts were shaped into reality or until Aida woke and called it back.

“Wake, kou’vera!” Adding a hard shake, his teeth clenched at the way her head rolled in a limp circle. Watching her grow paler by the moment, her skin like ice, he roared into the crashing turmoil around them as she refused to come back to him.

He didn’t think about what he would do, not as her lips shaded to purple and the breath leaving her came in a husky rattle. Crushing his lips against hers, he gave a silent prayer for her to wake soon as he searched out the weakening presence of her within his heart. She faded