Serpent's Touch (Serpent's Touch 1)
KYLLEN
The River of Mists released them.
And the waters of Lorsan received them.
Caught in their torrent, he had no idea where the surface or the bottom were. Holding Amira tight in his arms, he kicked his feet. His boots encountered something solid. He shoved against it, propelling them in the opposite direction, which happened to be the up he’d been searching for.
Breaking through the surface, he gasped a lungful of air. His hood had been shoved off his head by the current. Jolted by panic, he pressed Amira’s head to his shoulder to keep her eyes closed.
She had stopped fighting his grip a moment ago. Her body slacked in his arms.
Alarm lanced through him. Did he kill his rescuer by dragging her between the worlds?
A strip of land stretched in front of him, the familiar expanse of yellow-green. He headed in that direction. When the water got shallow enough for him to walk, he shifted Amira over his shoulder and waded out to the dry land.
Each step jolted her. His shoulder pressed into her chest. By the time he dropped to his knees on the sandy shore, she sputtered and coughed—choking, but alive. For that, he thanked every deity he knew.
Shedding his new sweater, he yanked his tunic out from his belt, then ripped a long strip of fabric from its hem.
“Keep this on. At all times.” He tied the strip around her head over her eyes. “It’s not just me you have to worry about here.”
She gripped his hand.
“Are we in Lorsan? Kyllen, did we make it?”
He drew in a long breath. The air was warm and thick with moisture, filling his lungs with the familiar scents of golden duckweed and fuzzy willow, wet moss, and mushroom strings. He didn’t need to closely examine the place they’d landed in to know for sure that this was home.
“Yes, sweet pea. We made it.”
They truly did.
Spreading his senties wide, he let his body bask in the rich, nourishing air of his homeland. Excitement rushed through him. He was home, and it was all because of her.
Amira sat on the riverbank, blindfolded and looking lost. He leaped to his feet and scooped her into his arms.
“We are in Lorsan, my little human friend!” He gave her a twirl through the air, needing to hear her laugh. “We’re free!”
She smiled finally, wrapping her arms around his neck. He couldn’t fight the need to kiss her and took her mouth with his. She returned his kiss, shyly.
“Kyllen.” She tilted her face to him when he let go of her lips. “Tell me where we are.”
“In Lorsan, my darling.”
“Yes. But tell me what it looks like. Please.”
A pinch of regret twitched in his heart. He wished for her to see his homeland. For a moment, he contemplated taking the blindfold, so she could take a quick look for herself. But he immediately discarded that idea.
It was tempting. As it always would be. Just a quick look, the briefest of glances. What could possibly happen in a second or two?
But a glance could cost them her life. Here in the land of gorgonians, it wasn’t just he they had to worry about. Someone could show up unexpectedly. And then…
No. A glance was not worth her life. Nothing was.
She rolled her shoulders back, tugging at the neckline of her sweater. “It feels warm.”
He reined in his excitement and the urge to keep moving. She needed some time to adjust, and he wanted to give that to her.
He sat on the ground, then drew her into his lap. “It's the green season now. Summer.”
“Is there a winter, too?”
Hugging her from behind, he placed his chin on her shoulder. “Kind of. We call it the golden season. It’s when the trees turn yellow. Some leaves fall. Some wither and dissipate into the wind, only to be reborn when the green season comes back.”
“So, there are leaves on the trees now? Grass on the ground?”
“Yes. The grass is the warmest shade of green. It’s tall. It would reach to your waist if you stand up and take two paces either right or left from where we are, along the riverbank.”
“It doesn’t cover all the ground, does it?” She tilted a bit to pat the sand next to where they were sitting.
“Almost all of it, really. There’re just a few sandy patches left bare. That’s one of them where we’re sitting. The tall grass comes all the way to the water along most of the river bank. It grows in the stream too, where it’s shallow. The wide blades spear through the sheets of golden duckweed that rim the water's edge. Like most rivers in Lorsan, this one is wider than it is deep. It sprawls through the forest, often flowing between the trees. The sandy-golden water is lazy and warm.”
She gripped his hand. “It scared me so much when we were in it.”
He kissed her temple. “It scared me, too. Because it was unexpected. But water itself is not much of a threat in Lorsan.”
“What is?”
“The things that live in it, for one. Most dangerous, however, are the people who live in this lands.”
“The gorgonians?”
“Hm.” He nodded. “Fae are treacherous folks, Amira. You can’t trust anyone. I know a werewolf showed you some kindness back on Earth, but it doesn’t mean other fae wouldn’t want to harm you when they meet you. You have to be wary of everyone.”