“Yeah, I figured that’s why we are all wet. I dreamed…” she paused, shivering violently before continuing. “I found some notes in my grandmother’s study. About Eidolon.”
“What about him? What did it say?”
Hazel was silent for so long that Jayce was sure she wouldn’t answer, but finally, she did. “It said he will only live until the next harvest moon, unless…unless he sheds the last drop of my blood, unless he kills me.”
Jayce and Nika both stared at her, shocked and filled with the same, sudden fear but before either could speak, Hazel did instead.
“What does that mean for you? What if…” Her words fell off again, unable to say the awful words she was thinking but he could see it in her thoughts, her fears for them, and his heart broke a little because there wasn’t a single one for herself, of her own safety. She was all concern for them, their happiness, their lives. He held her tightly to him, his chest tightening on a wave of tenderness for their little witch.
“I guess some of what I was dreaming about happened here, like with the fire. It doesn’t seem as bad though.” She said, for the first time noticing that nothing else was wet anymore.
“Well, it was a bit more than you might be thinking.” Nika hesitated for a moment, but then continued, telling her the rest, “The whole house was flooding. We were…we were very close to drowning.”
His chest tightened painfully as tears filled her eyes, turning them a darker, hazy purple. “I am so, so sorry. If I had thought that you would be in danger…If I’d known I might hurt you.” Hazel stopped again, staring at them for a long moment before her gaze firmed. “You have to go. You can’t stay here.”
“No way.”
“Absolutely not.” They both spoke over each other, shaking their heads to refute her words.
“But I might…what if I really hurt you?”
“No, little witch. We are not going anywhere. So just stop trying to argue with those big eyes of yours.” Jayce said sternly, realizing she was shivering wildly in his arms, the icy water still drenching their clothes.
“Come on, now. Let’s get you dried and warmed up.” Hastily, Nika grabbed a new night shirt, an old t-shirt with some sort of cartoon character on the front that fell almost to her knees. Jayce carried her down the stairs, leaving her in the bathroom alone for barely a minute before scooping her back in his arms and situating them once more on the couch. Hazel huddled even closer in between him and Nika and he desperately tried to still the ache that had clung to him since that morning’s kiss, not to bring the fire back to life. But it was a lost cause.
Stoically, he gritted his teeth as she climbed even more on top of him, fitting all of her soft curves against him as she sighed sweetly under the blanket Nika draped over the three of them. Jayce watched, transfixed, as Nika’s pale fingers ran across the bare skin of her legs, dipping under the hem of the t-shirt only to sweep back out only to repeat the movement. Up and down, up and down.
He knew it was only meant to be comforting but his body suddenly had ideas all of its own and he found himself shifting slightly to ease some of the ache that he had a feeling would be his constant companion whenever this little minx was around. Nika glanced at him over her now sleeping form, a fire burning deep and hot in his gaze. A fire that he knew was reflected in his own.
Chapter 12
“Are you sure it’s going to work this time?” Hazel asked distractedly as she focused on stepping over an emerald green moss covered log, one of many that littered the forest this far in. They had been walking for almost an hour straight into the Black Hills, and it grew denser and denser as they did.
Jayce sighed for the hundredth time as he answered her question, again. “I’m not sure, little witch. It is obvious you have an affinity with nature, we will see if this makes it easier for you to access your powers. But the rest is up to you.”
Hazel was silent for another long moment, thinking about the night before and the intense manifestation of her dream that had threatened to drown them all. To her mind, she had done enough already. The idea that she had put them in danger, either one of the dragon warriors, had her heart thumping slow and painful in her chest. She rubbed at the spot right over her heart, where it ached the most.