When the sun kisses the horizon

Brone's P.O.V.

Romal was down, but I had my axe.

The animal charged, leaping directly at me, prepared to maul me to bits and lick my bones clean. I could see it in my mind, my body gutted by the blighted nightseeker’s claws, eyes staring vacantly at the sky, lifeless. The cold seeped into my bones, leaving me feeling like I was already a corpse. I didn’t care for the sensation.

‘What would happen to her if I died here?’

My mind wandered unexpectedly, casting images of Adira’s sleeping silhouette in my thoughts.

When the disfigured nightmare was in the air, only an arm’s length away, my body reacted. Time seemed to slow, and, as if on its own, my arm swung the axe, aiming for the head.

A loud ‘THWACK!’ resounded through the air as the weapon made contact, planting itself squarely between the blighted’s eyes.

It’s growling, and shrieking ceased, the beast landing on me and going slack over my body. I could feel it twitch and seize as the bastard bled all over me, stinking of rot and death.

‘She’s afraid of me enough as is, and now I’ll come home looking and smelling like a feral brute.’

I grunted, pushing the thing off of me as its body continued to spasm. It may have been immobilized for the time being, but it wouldn’t die- not without fire.

When an animal became blighted, the curse that possessed its body changed it. The body would become mutilated and damned near unstoppable. Even in this state, it would live until cleansed by fire and offered to Akhael, even if it could no longer move.

‘If I remove the axe, it will only take a couple of days to heal and return to hunt. I can’t let that happen- can’t let it claim any more victims.’

Making my way to my feet, I winced as the pain scorched its way up my leg. I staggered, blinded by agony now that the adrenaline had begun to subside. The feeling made me imagine boiling water being injected directly into my limb, blistering me from the inside.

“Fuck!” I hissed between clenched teeth, determined to block out the pain and keep myself together for just a little while longer.

I made my way over to Romal, dropping to my knees next to him.

He was no longer conscious; his breathing came strained and short. Red blood stained the snow around him and painted his black fur. He was so beaten up I could hardly determine which injury was the most severe. However, even without medical knowledge, I was certain it was the wound to his neck that would prove to be fatal.

I ran my hands through his thick fur, feeling it wet with his blood and that of the blighted. His usually warm body was beginning to feel as cold as the winter air that wrapped us in its frozen arms.

‘You didn’t deserve this.’

I felt my eyes sting and begin to blur, heat rising up my throat, causing me to grit my teeth against it.

Looking at the amount of blood and feeling the labored breaths beneath my palms, I was sure that Romal would be gone by sunset.

But he sure as fuck wasn’t going to die here.

He was my comrade, my confidant, and the first good thing that had happened to me since I left the capital city six years ago. If today were the day I lost him, then I was going to make sure he was warm and comfortable before he went.

“Come on, you behemoth,” I choked out as I shoved my arms underneath him. Blocking out the pain, I lifted the dog and shuffled, adjusting him so his chin would rest against my shoulder, and I could feel his shallow breaths.

With that, I began limping toward the cabin, sparing a glance back at the blighted who lay twitching in his own bloodied snow.

‘Don’t think I’ll forget about you. As soon as Romal is gone, I’m burning you alive.’

I could smell the smoke from the cabin’s fireplace; it peppered the icy air, mixing with the scent of evergreens and blood. Romal and I were soaked in it.

Nightseekers’ mouths secreted an anticoagulant that kept their prey bleeding. It made it easier for the blind bastards to hunt their prey by scent if they bled.

‘They really are a fearsome breed.’

I readjusted Romal in my arms for what felt like the hundredth time. I had no idea how long it had taken me to get from the site of the attack back home, but it felt like hours. The sun still hung in the sky, but now its golden light had begun to dip lower, soon to kiss the horizon.

I fumbled, nearly falling to my knees only feet away from the door, but I steadied myself. Exhaustion was eclipsing my determination as I grasped for anything my body had left, anything to get me through that door… for Romal.

She must have heard me. Must have smelled the blood.

The cabin door creaked open, and in the frame stood Adira, green eyes wide in shock and horror. An expression that said everything without a word. I liked that about her face.

‘I can tell what she’s thinking, even if we don’t understand each other.’

I thought hazily, quickly losing myself.

My shoulders tried to slump, but I wouldn’t allow it, not until I got through that door. Not until I had Romal in front of a warm fire beside Sila. Somewhere shut away from the icy clutches of this god-forsaken mountain, where he could be at peace.

I wobbled forward, making my way past Adira, who quickly moved aside, seemingly out of her state of shock.

As gently as I could, I set Romal in his usual place by the fire, atop some pelts he had long since helped me earn. Sila whined, her big dark eyes on her mate. She sniffed his face, her tongue lapping against a few minor scratches in a sad attempt to stir the father to her unborn pups.

A pang of guilt and sadness choked me, burning my eyes and throat so intensely that it rivaled the fire burning in the hearth. For all the things to have been taken away, Romal had to have been among the most painful.

‘I’d sooner lose my leg than that dog.’

I slinked down, finally sitting and resting my back against a wooden post that supported the cabin. The lids of my eyes weighed heavily, trying to creep shut despite my best efforts to fight the exhaustion wracking my body.

Before my weariness could fully overtake me, my gaze met Adira. She was now moving around the confined space with a look of determination. She held in her arms a pot filled with snow and placed it over the fire before striding in my direction and lowering herself to me. Before I could react, she was pushing my jacket off my body and tearing at my shirt.

‘Not the circumstances I’d ever imagined having a woman undress me.’

Before I could stop them, my eyes finally closed.

“For the glory of Akhael,” I murmured, finishing my silent prayer.

I lifted my head from ritual to gaze at the flames dancing in the massive stone brazier before me. Usually, I would feel a sense of calm gazing into Akhael’s flames, but today the sight did little for my frayed nerves.

“You look troubled, my son.” The old man spoke next to me.

His hair was salt and pepper, tied back from his face to not become a distraction during worship. His eyes were light brown with golden flecks throughout that, against the blaze that lit the room, seemed to become fire themselves. When I looked into those eyes as a child, I swore Akhael himself resided in them.

“According to you, I am the trouble.” I cracked, trying my best to sound lighthearted. But my tone betrayed me and the man stared through me knowingly.

“This is the beginning of a new Eovarrah, Brone. It would be more strange if you remained calm.”

‘He’s right. He’s always right. Damned if I’ll let him know that though.’

“Same Eovarrah, different rule.” I shot back.

Konstantin eyed me, his face firm and wise. The old man had been a high devotioner of the church for longer than I had been alive. As such, we all called him father, but for me, the title was something more.

Konstantin looked after me when my mother was sick, took me in when she passed, fed me, clothed me, and gave me dignity. And when he looked at me now, knelt in front of the flames of our god, in the basilica he’d dedicated his life to, I knew for just a moment that he saw me as his son.

And that was enough.

It was enough to steel my nerves and do the only thing this man had ever asked of me.

I was going to commit treason.