Blood of My Heart: Book of the Death God Volume I by K.P. Burchfield

Author:K.P. Burchfield [Burchfield, K.P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: K.P. Burchfield
Published: 2023-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ripley left them at the clearing surrounding the water. It was beautiful; the river trickled over the mountainside and pooled into a small lake. The princess was in the water, naked, when they approached, and Slade was laying on his back atop a boulder, out of the mossy mud.

“There you are.” Elletta smiled. Kallan looked away when she turned to them. “Join me, Mora, the men can wait their turn.”

Kallan found a stump to sit on, facing the forest so she could undress without prying eyes. Not that she cared. She had never felt shy when it came to her body.

She left her clothes in a messy pile on the shore.

When her feet found the water, she ripped them back out. The idea of bathing had sounded amazing when it had been offered, but staring at the bottomless lake, she found that she no longer wanted to get in. She could already feel the water invading her lungs.

“How deep is it?” she asked as quietly as she could.

Elletta, who was shorter than Mora, walked further into the water until ripples waved across her shoulders. “This is where I can touch.” She took Mora in, still standing on the rocky shore. “If you’re afraid—”

“I’m fine.” Mora swallowed her hesitation and walked in, letting the water cover every exposed sliver of her skin. She sank until her knees hit the sharp rocks at the bottom and stayed there. She would force the fear from her chest, whatever it took.

Her essyn agreed, rising to the surface of her skin as the water engulfed her. She let the weight of her body pull her under. You never have to fear anything if you wish it, just let me out. She broke back through the surface a heartbeat away from passing out.

Elletta handed her a handful of berries, the same green ones she and Kallan had survived on in the Deadwood Forest. She shook her head, confused and not wanting anything to do with the sour taste they left in her mouth. “I’m not that hungry.”

The princess laughed. She demonstrated crushing the berries with her hands and mixing them with the water. They formed small bubbles, and she lathered the mixture into her hair.

It was soap. Mora’s head fell back, her chest shaking with the laughter she couldn’t contain. She took one of the berries and threw it at Kallan. “They’re soap berries,” she said. He caught it without looking and laughter of his own filled the forest. She felt entirely underqualified to ever survive in the wilderness alone.

When she was clean, they stayed to enjoy the solitude of the lake. Mora tested her panic, letting herself float in the shallows as she focused on the moon above her. She felt as if she could reach up, stick her hand into the night sky, and scoop the stars out with her trembling fingers.

“Can I ask you something, Elletta?” Kallan asked, keeping his back to them as he moved to the rocky shore.

Mora let her legs sink back into the depths of the water, her toes finding the bottom.

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