Page 16 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
“We’ll be here if you need us,” Noctis said gently.
“Will you be there for me, too?” Calvin joked, but Noctis only shook his head, a soft smile cresting across his lips.
Jump. I just needed to jump over the railing into the shallow water long enough to reach the land. The cool wooden beams purged the warmth from my body as I threw myself over.
A solid mass collided into me, sweeping me upward right before crashing head first into the waves. My head nestled in safety as the trajectory change attempted to whip it downwards.
My breath caught, eyes wide in surprise.
“No need to walk when I can carry you,” Noctis said smoothly against my cheek’s skin. He held me delicately against his chest, soaring toward land without a single beat of his wings.
“Put me down,” I seethed. Fear lived in me, but weakness did not.
He laughed, and I hated that it sent bumps along my skin. But he did not release me.
We glided just above the ocean’s surface, the water rippling faintly beneath us, magic carrying us in a silent, weightless drift toward the shore.
The air sifted through my pale hair and across my face as I contemplated the survival rate of throwing myself into the depths below to get out of the god’s grip.
Something flickered at the edge of thought, not quite a memory, more like a shadow of one. An embrace meant to soothe and an urge to chase it. Noctis landed softly, guiding my feet to the ground with deliberate care.
“I would have hopped on your back,” Calvin murmured behind us as he trudged waist deep through the water. “But instead, I’m the only one soaked.”
“It will not happen. Ever,” Noctis asserted with a shake of his head. Fiery waves tousled with the motion, one falling lonely across his face.
The moon peeked through the canopy of trees as we entered the thicket, Calvin’s sloshing, wet boots the only noise filling the void. Globules of otherworldly light skittered across usoccasionally, startling me every time. They flickered and swirled in dancing patterns as if chasing each other through the woods.
Untouched by understanding but still beautiful.
“Have either of you ever seen an elf?” I questioned, attempting to calm my frantic heart. Both males walked confidently through the brush, but I couldn’t find the same strength, instead hoping they didn’t notice me meticulously positioning myself between them.
Sap bled achingly slow down the forest trees, absorbing what little light filtered through the canopy above. The groaning of shifting wood and occasional crack filled the silence between words. Except, the forest didn’t feel empty. It felt like it held its breath… waiting for us to notice we weren’t alone.
“Yes, they operate under the Elven Accord, ancient laws that sound impressive but mostly just give them an excuse to stay out of everyone else’s problems,” Calvin answered, his head jerking around to monitor our surroundings.
“Why do you make that sound like a bad thing?”
“Because they’ll stand idle and quote peace, while kingdoms fall around them. It’s the reason many of their kind are killed in these forests,” Noctis continued. “The forest spares no one. It listens to their prayers of peace, and crushes those too timid to fight.”
“Great,” I murmured. At least we wouldn’t encounter one ofthem.
Our crunching steps echoed through the trees as we made our way into the thickets for over an hour, time passing incredibly slow in the eerie silence of the trip. Noctis stayed close to my back like an unwanted appendage, setting my nerves more on edge than I was sure he intended. When I hesitated at certain parts of the path, throwing vines to the side or slicing my blade through bushes to clear the walkway, his front side brushed up against me. And I didn’t understand why it made me feel as if my heart skipped, but my blood boiled.
A cawing shadowed raven soared overhead and perched atop a tree’s crooked, broken branch that splintered open like exposed bone. Its head cocked to the side as if examining us, but we kept strolling the graveled path.
A screeching whistle impaled the quiet forest, piercing my mind. My vision swam, pain sharp and blinding. I fell to my knees, face twisting in agony as I clutched the sides of my head, searching for any escape from the noise drilling deep into my skull. Noctis and Calvin crashed into the same position. Viscous blood dripped from our ears beneath our shielding palms. We needed to do something fast, or the first obstacle we encountered would have been the last.
Gods, the pain ripped through me, pinching every nerve through my brain.
Noctis raised his hand, sending a powerful flurry of wind into the leaf-riddled ground. It rumbled with his magic, faults cracking in all directions around us. The gusts of air intensified until the pain began to subside slowly like a tea bag steeping in cold water. He lifted his other palm, trees snapping in half with a mere flick of his fingers, falling to the shaking ground under our bodies.
The ringing halted, a sharp buzz hanging around in my head.
The forest lay in ruin, destroyed in a circle of eerie precision. The ground cracked in jagged webs in every direction around us. Tens of broken, destroyed trees lay scattered across the foliage.
“I could happily live the rest of my life without that again,” Calvin stated as he wiped blood from the side of his face dripping from his ears.
“Same.” I dug through my satchel and pulled out cloth, ripping it into two smaller pieces. “Here.” I tossed them to the two males to clean the crimson blood, doing the same as it trickled out of my own ears. A dull screech continued in myhead, lingering from the attack, but the ache that gripped my brain became more irritating than painful.
