Page 58 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

Branch by branch, I lowered myself down the tree, not allowing my fear to talk me out of this.Elias shook his wings, frantically hopping from the branch and following me down.His beak opened and closed as if he wanted to speak, but he remained silent, not making a single sound as he fluttered around me.

“Stop it,” I hissed, my attention focused on my next handhold.“You’ll call that thing back to us!”

He didn’t stop it; instead, he grew more agitated.My feet hit the soft mossy ground, and Elias went still on the lowest branch, his wings tucked in as his beady eyes tracked my movements.I couldn’t worry about him now.I turned and raced toward my pack, my first step landing in a large indent.I stared down, wide-eyed, at the massive paw print beneath me.Without hesitating, I rushed forward, my fingers quickly grasping the strap of my pack.

The skin along the nape of my neck prickled, and I paused for only a second before I scooped my pack up into the air and raced toward the nearest tree, my legs pumping as fast as they could.The air shifted next to me, and then a growl reverberated through the dawning morning, stopping me before I ever reached its base.

The creature had never left.

Elias cut through the air, his wings outstretched and his claws reaching as he screeched.His blue-black feathers glinted in the soft glittering light of the morning sun.Something howled, and the bright flash of crimson glistened against Elias’s clawed feet.The air rippled, and for the briefest of moments, the beast flickered into being.

My heart plummeted at the sight.It was monstrous.Sharp, blade-like needles jutted from nearly every surface of its massive body, resembling something between a dog and a rat.But its face was what truly terrified me.The face of nightmares.Deep-set eyes, like black, fathomless pools, stared out from its skull.Its broad snout had two grotesque slits, and it opened its mouth impossibly wide to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth.Massive, meaty paws ended in thick claws, slicing the dirt with each step.

I’d heard of this creature before.The unseelie queen’s own creation.One of her faithful pets.My mother had told me stories of this creature in warning because I always wanted to play in the woods where the flowers and herbs grew in abundance.The unaki.The devourer of flesh and souls.Vicious, and about impossible to kill.To hear my mother tell it, no one had ever walked away from one of them alive.Everything you were, any promise of an afterlife, all of it gone.A soul-eater.

The unaki here, now, could only mean one thing.The unseelie queen knew where I was, and she was hunting me.How could she know where I was after all these years?I’d been so careful.

It raised onto its powerful hind legs and swatted at the air, its massive paw slamming into Elias’s delicate crow form with a thunk.My breath halted in my throat as his feathered body spun in the air until it smashed into a nearby trunk and thudded to the ground in an unmoving heap.

“Elias!”I cried as a new kind of fear seized me.He was so still.Too still.

I didn’t dare move as the creature dropped back to the ground, his weight sending vibrations through the soles of my feet as the ground shook with it.My fingers twitched, shifting slowly toward the blade at my hip until I held its hilt tightly in my hand.I lifted the insignificant dagger between us, my arm shaky but my grip fierce.Ready to fight, knowing I’d likely die.I wouldn’t leave Elias, even as his crumpled form still lay completely motionless.

The unaki charged, its massive paws thundering against the ground.Instinctively, I bent and twisted away just in time, narrowly avoiding its jagged teeth aimed at my throat.It brushed past too closely, its needle-like fur slicing my shoulder, tearing through my dress and the strap of my pack.Pain flared under my skin.I hissed and dropped my pack.There was no time to retrieve it; the unaki was already prowling forward again.

I treaded backward, step-by-step, putting more distance between this monstrous creature and Elias’s broken form.It stalked toward me, its tongue dragging across its maw as if it could already taste me.Its eyes never left mine as I backed away.Light filtered from the sky above, painting the earth in its golden hues as the sun rose.It didn’t bother with its invisibility as it hunted me, letting me see the horror headed my way.

With a final glance toward Elias, I silently prayed for his forgiveness.I’m sorry that I wasn’t strong enough, sorry that I dragged you into this with me, sorry that we’ll both likely die here today.Then I closed my eyes, my hands held out to my sides as I accepted my fate.

No.No!My brow furrowed a second later as a strength I hadn’t known filled me.I accepted nothing.I was tired of accepting things, tired of my never-ending duty, tired of the promises I’d made as a child so long ago.I had never asked for anything for myself, but as Elias’s still form flashed within my mind, I realized I would ask forhim.My eyes snapped open, and I adjusted my grip on the dagger, letting my toes dig into the earth at my feet as I demanded nature’s aid.

The monster charged.Magic cracked, and the smell of dewy grass and something else, something wild and untamed, sizzled through the air.It felt familiar, and I let it fill me as I harnessed it, my body vibrating with the power of it.Excruciating pain exploded within every vein as I held onto that power; each vein stretching with the glow of a brilliant white light as that power raced through me.My gaze locked onto the unaki, my lips twitching upward as I dared it to attack.

But it never came.I watched in horror as the unaki twisted at the last moment.It pounced, its massive body falling through the air in a heavy arc headed straight for my pack.I jolted forward, but it was already too late.Its jaws clamped down onto the remaining strap, and his head shook side-to-side until the fabric and everything within it had been shredded, broken, and lost.

All that I had collected, every plant and herb and ingredient… gone.My journals, my sketches, every bit of information I’d gathered, torn and scattered.The daemonacus flower, the very ingredient I’d risked everything for, that Briar desperately needed, lay in shredded pieces, drifting away in the morning breeze.

The magic I'd been hoarding, the power that had felt so elusive and unpredictable, suddenly roared to life within me.Rage and desperation unlocked something primal, something that had nothing to do with gentle healing and everything to do with raw, untamed force.I screamed, the sound tearing from my throat like a prayer made of rage.For a heartbeat, time crystallized.I smelled the damp earth beneath my feet, felt the rough bark of the tree against my palm, and heard Herb's distant, frantic cawing.Then every ounce of power I'd been unconsciously hoarding exploded outward.

The magic felt like coming home and being torn apart simultaneously.It smelled of my mother's garden after rain, tasted of the healing teas I'd brewed in our kitchen, carried the warmth of every gentle touch I'd ever given.But it roared with the fury of storms, of wildfire, of the earth itself when pushed too far.

It exploded out of me, hitting the unaki with a force that threw us both back.

But as my magic tore through the unaki, something unexpected happened.Instead of simply destroying the creature, my power seemed to absorb something from it.Dark energy flowed back into me, foreign and cold, settling somewhere deep in my chest like a seed waiting to sprout.I pushed the sensation aside, focusing on Elias, but I could feel it there, a new kind of magic that didn't belong to me.

I hit the tree behind me so hard, I felt my back crack.The magical backlash left me hollow and shaking, as if I'd poured out not just my power but pieces of my very soul.This wild magic came with a cost I was only beginning to understand.As I blinked away the pain, I watched the raw magic, the power that I had demanded from the earth, consume the unaki.The wild arcs of light snapped around its form, pressing into its prickled skin until it imploded into nothingness.

My head lulled, and the darkness claimed me next.

My Whispered Words

ELIAS

When my eyes finally fluttered open, hours must have passed.Dappled sunlight filtered down upon my fae form from high above in the sky.Its warmth chased away the chill of the night, the dewy dampness of the earth barely lingering in the air around me.I shifted my head sideways, groaning at the pain that throbbed behind my skull as I clenched my eyes and jaw tight against the agony.Then everything came back to me, and I bolted upright, ignoring the pain as I searched the trees for Rosemary.

I found her just a short distance away, her prone form lying still in a pool of blood.My fingers dug into the ground at my side, trying to find purchase so that I could crawl my way to her side, but something crinkled beneath my touch, and I paused.A torn page.Gingerly, I lifted it, realizing it was from one of Rosemary's journals.

Briar, I did it!I am coming home.Oh, gods, how I miss you.I have found the one ingredient in all the realm that I am sure will break this wretched curse.Once you've awoken from that insufferable slumber, I have so much to tell you.For starters, I…