The Heirs of Death

17.2 Singed Heart

SINGED HEART

That woman, or whatever she was, charged through the air so fast my eyes couldn't register her movement. The next thing I was aware of was that she was inches away from me. But I was faster, both in magic and body, adamant walls protecting both Leon and I's minds from the shocking surge of power trying to break into us. My claws were a breadth away from tearing her awful eyes—Leon's already shredding her left shoulder—when she stopped in place.

Her stares kept on sliding between us, her grin growing wider to the point her entire face swirled. She stepped back, skin pale and fluorescent. I only dared a stare at her body, attention remaining on her mind—her most dangerous weapon. Small, thin branches trailed scarcely around her collarbone, intensifying around the swell of her breasts, hiding completely the glowing skin under a thick mesh of twigs and wood and small, peeking leaves as though clothing her. This coverage lessened on her navel, showing a pregnancy bump, the skin so pallid I could make the shadow of the infant growing in there, before the threads of wood wrapped her again fully and pierced in the ground like she had surged from it.

"What do you want?" Aedis hissed, dark smoke curling around his shoulders, ready to attack at his will.

The demon placed a hand on her stomach and I could swear the infant in there stared at us through skin and flesh. There was something completely wrong with this demon; there had been nothing about such specie not in books or research or hunts.

She tilted her head furthermore, her skull falling on her shoulder, her neck cracking as she did so. "I thought you were all dead." Gods above, her voice trailed chills down my spine. My blood turned colder than it already was. My stomach churned and hissed. Her smirk turned even more sinister. "I wasn't mistaken when I saw you jump in that horde." A laugh. "That man's words are true then, that you fled from the castle."

I didn't flinch as she stepped closer, claws only growing as long as daggers. She clicked her tongue, the mass of wood groaning as it trailed on the earth. I repeated Leon's question, body going rigid as she took his face in her hand, squeezing it as she studied it.

"But there is something different about you two.'' Her tongue slid out, split like a snake's as she sniffed Aedis.
"Something more powerful than I ever imagined." Her nails dug into Aedis's scar, black blood trailing down from the small wound she left. I snarled but didn't attack. It was too risky, too reckless. We were on the same line now, and unless she tried ending us, it would break our lie if we killed her, especially since she seemed to be on strong connection with our traitor.

At last, she turned to me, tongue licking the blood on her fingers. I tensed. Not at the simplicity of the action, but because she studied the black liquid in her mouth. Because she stared at us and knew that there was one drop of blood that was not supposed to be bright and pure.