This Cruel Blood by Everly Frost

Author:Everly Frost [Frost, Everly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Paranormal, Vampires, Fantasy, Romance, New
Amazon: B093FD39KV
Goodreads: 57915631
Publisher: Ever Realm Books
Published: 2021-10-08T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

My heart is in my throat. Clara’s telling me that Aiden is alive, despite his silent heart, but she’s also telling me that he is something else. Someone else.

That is, assuming I can take her word at face value.

“How long will we have to wait?” I ask.

“It’s a lengthy process,” she says. “To open the shell that houses a seed can take years. But without breaking the protective outer layer, the seed inside can never grow.”

“Years?” I clasp my trembling hands in front of myself. “I don’t have that long. I’m being tracked by a demon who wants me dead. If he finds me here…”

“The dryads will take care of him,” Clara says. “Demons control others through persuasion, yes? The hive mind of the dryads is impossible to control.”

I swing to her. “Are you sure about that?” It’s my turn to peer at her, my eyes narrowing. “Or are you confident about your safety here because you’re harboring a weapon you know can kill any supernatural?”

Aiden told me it was Banta’s goal to find this weapon and use it to his benefit. Aiden, himself, was hoping to use it against Banta.

Clara’s response is a gentle ‘hmm.’ She stoops to pick a flower from a stem growing at her feet.

“It’s true that the dryads are guarding a weapon,” she says. “But it’s impossible to retrieve.”

“Why?” I ask. “Where is it?”

“It’s here,” Clara says. “See?”

An orb of light floats from her outstretched palm, bobbing through the air as it ascends to the tallest branch above us. A vine twines around the branch that the orb lights up. The orb follows the vine’s path to another branch from which the vine finally descends.

Hanging at the end of the vine is a dagger, the greenery securely wrapped around its handle, holding it, dangling, at the highest point of the cavern.

The dagger’s tip points directly downward at the spot where Aiden lies in the pool. It looks as if the dagger would pierce his heart if it fell.

High above us, Clara’s orb of light slowly rotates around the weapon, revealing that it’s a simple design. Its handle appears metallic, as is its blade, and it looks like any dagger I might carry. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.

“That’s the weapon?” I’m slightly disappointed. “It’s just a simple dagger.”

Clara is quiet beside me. “Sometimes the simplest weapon is the most effective.”

She gently blows on the flower she’s holding between her fingertips and lets go of it at the same time.

The flower floats through the air before it drops to the surface of the glistening pool.

I gasp when the flower disintegrates, curling up and blackening, as if the pool were acid.

“What looks like water isn’t simply water,” Clara says.

I take a hasty step away from the edge of the pool, suddenly taking note of what Clara said before: The fact that Aiden can lie peacefully in these waters proves that his power has not fully emerged. I’m suddenly worried about what will happen when he does wake up.

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