From the Ashes

Chapter 14 ~ These Steps Together

    Morana woke to find Tarion already tossing dirt over the last live embers in their fire. She sat up and rubbed her eyes blearily. "Let me guess. We're hauling ass again today," she grumbled.

    "You're learning quickly, Phoenix."

    She caught the piece of dried meat he tossed over and began to gnaw on it absently. Tarion was looking better today than he had last night. His wounds had healed completely already, leaving only thin white lines in places where the cuts had been deeper.

    She couldn't help but wonder what had caused them in the first place. Had he been attacked by an animal, or were they the result of butting heads with Rhidian? Then again, Tarion said he'd been taken to Astaroth. A shudder ran down her spine. No, it hadn't been Rhidian or an animal.

    It had been the dark Lord himself. Which begged the question, how many times had Tarion met Astaroth face to face, and how many times had he been left with even worse injuries? She felt a twinge of sympathy for him, but it was soon overshadowed by concern for Neeri and what she might be suffering at Astaroth's hands.

    "We'll try to reach the Treis River in another day or so," Tarion said, welcomely interrupting her thoughts. "I don't want to cross immediately though. We need to travel down to the coast where the river broadens and cross there."

    "Why not cross where it's more narrow?" Morana asked, brows creased. "It will be easier and won't take as long."

    Tarion's gaze darted to her, hesitation and...guilt, swimming within them. "We need to hide our scents and disguise our trail. Passing through the water will help with that, especially such a broad stretch. It will take longer for our scents to hold once we reach the other shore and will throw off anyone who might try to follow us."

    "Is someone following us?"

    Tarion turned away. "Like I said, I'm sure Rhidian will be tracking me, or sending someone to do it for him."

    Morana eyed him carefully, observing the tension that crept into his shoulders as he continued to avoid looking at her. He knew something. "What is it?" She rose and took a few steps towards him. "What do you know?"

    Tarion heaved a sigh, combing his fingers back through loose wavy hair. "There were newly Corrupted Fae with Astaroth." Morana crossed her arms, waiting. "Your friend was one of them."

    Her breath caught and something within her snapped, sending shards of pain flying into her heart. Neeri, a Corrupted Fae. Her brave, bubbly, and kind friend, now a monster who thirsted for her blood.

    "Whatever wounds they might have given her were healed," Tarion went on. "But I know they tortured her for information, and she gave it to them before he Corrupted her. It was recently. She was raving for my blood when they spilled it. If she'd already been Corrupted for two weeks or more, my blood wouldn't have affected her. Only a Fae or Human's would have."

    Her friend, one of the only ones she'd made her entire life, lost to madness and bloodlust. Now the same creature that had murdered both of their families. A bitter sting nipped at Morana's eyes, but no tears would fall. A coal flickered with warmth in the pit of her stomach. Tarion's gaze met hers. Vibrant blood red and frosty gray.

    Neeri's beautiful, sparkling black eyes would be red now too. A monster's eyes. Each breath she drew burned through her lungs, fueling the coal that had ignited into a furnace. Morana stared at Tarion, at the marks on his face that she had healed, while he knew this had happened to her friend. He'd seen Neeri and had done nothing!

    "I'm sorry," he said, as if she'd spoken her thoughts aloud. "There were too many of them and she was being held by Gaelen. If I tried to free her, we both would've been killed."