Chapter 296 (1/2)

Chapter 296

“What the hell?”

Caera lifted one delicate hand to her face, feeling her cheek, then pulled a lock of her long hair out in front of her face so she could see it properly She paled visibly as her hand reached up and touched one of the onyx horns that grew from the sides of her head Each horn had two separate points: the -shaped pair jutted back behind, fras adorned each of the smaller spurs

“Grey, I can expla—”

My hand shot out in a blur, gripping Caera by her thin neck and lifting her off the snowy ground A sasp escaped her lips as she tried to pry herself free, but my eyes were focused on those black horns

She’s a Vritra! I thought, feeling foolish for letting soet so close to me No, she wouldn’t be able to enter the Relictombs if that was the case I wasn’t sure what to make of this sudden revelation Is she just Vritra-blooded?

‘I know you’re shocked—so aet any answers frothe Alacryan wohed fitfully and rubbed her throat

“Please…Grey I don’t mean…any harm,” Caera pleaded, her red eyes locked on er froh-blooded Alacryan woman

What was Caera’s purpose—to kill me? That didn’t make sense She could’ve killed me anytime while I was in the keystone realm Did she need proof to take back to her blood, a Scythe, or rona himself, so that they could find and execute ardless of her reasons, it boiled down to two choices

The thought of si any potential risk surfaced in iving up her late brother’s blade so that I could have a weapon Not only that, Caera and I had parted on good terence zone

Even then, she and her two guards had several chances to kill ainst the titan, though it was also true that she could have guessedto Alacrya

She’s still calling ht not knoho I aer tightened as I struggled to co, but the green-haired ht beside me never actually existed Instead, it was a woman wrapped deeply in the veil of Alacryan nobility—with Vritra blood coursing through her

Regis let out a chortle ‘Why are you thinking so deeply about this? Maybe she just likes you’

“What?” I blurted, startling Caera, as still on her knees in the snow

“Nothing,” I said, clearingmy companion for his flippant attitude

I could feel Regis roll his eyes ‘Kill her or not, it’s up to you, but chop chop I don’t fancy finding out what happens tohere’

My face and hands felt stiff from the cold, but my asuran body made this deadly weather a nuisance at most Caera, despite her obvious Vritra ancestry, didn’t share my fortitude, and she had already started to shake

Letting out a sigh, I reluctantly made up my mind I withdrew the wool bedroll froht to pack for me—and tossed it to her “Wrap yourself up in this We need to find shelter—then we’ll talk”

She took the soft bedroll and draped it around herself like a blanket “Thank you”

My eyes quickly scanned our surroundings Like before, the portal we’d co us stranded in a pure white expanse An icy wind kicked up a lot of snow, etaway

‘I would’ve gone for the nice gentleis teased

Do you want me to cut you off fromclose attention to the soft crunch of Caera’s footsteps just a few paces behindyour back to me Are you that confident?” Caera asked, her silvery voice cutting through the howling of the wind

“Do you want to find out?” I asked, not bothering to look back

“Perhaps next time,” she said softly after a beat of silence

‘Ooh, so she wants there to be a next tinored ave him his second strike

“Keep an eye out for any kind of shelter,” I called out,every shadow and wrinkle in the frozen wasteland for so that could be a cave or ravine, or even just an overhang that would get us out of the biting wind

“I can barely see past you Even withunless it was standing right in front of me,” Caera said, frustration laced in her voice

‘Maybe you guys will have to dig yourself a shelter and cuddle for—’

Strike three

Coalescing aether around Regis’s incorporeal form inside me, I directed it to the palis’s fiery cub for in surprise

‘Hey! What the—’

Caera gasped and burst into action Flinging off the bedroll and drawing her thin, curved sword, she cut swiftly doards, cleaving Regis in two

I watched with a raised brow as Regis’s bisected for into the windblown snow

Caera’s sharp eyes darted around the terrain, but when she didn’t see any ain Then she noticed the look on my face, and her own confident expression slipped away

I pointed nonchalantly at the area where Regis had disappeared and said, “That thing is going to refor as it was, please don’t attack hi you did?”

“That was my wolf, yes”

“Grey, I’an to spin within the light snow, condensing down until it was a perfectly round ball, then bursting into flaht eyes popped open, and the dark shadow of his mouth twisted down into a coround where it shi+fted again, bulging outward as it transformed back into the small, wolf-like puppy “You know, I’ht now”

Caera’s brows furrowed in confusion as her gaze shi+fted froed “This is Regis You two have met before in the last two zones”

Her eyes shone in realization, then she tilted her head “But he was a little bigger then”

“Yeah, well you were a dude,” Regis snapped angrily

“You’re right” Caera’s lips quivered as if she were trying very hard not to smile “I’m sorry, little friend”

The Alacryan leaned down and scratched Regis behind one pointy little ear His bright eyes glared at her, but he couldn’t stop his shadowy tail fro in pleasure

This ti is snapped at Caera’s finger, startling her so that she jerked her hand away

The tiny shadoolf pounced ahead of us, bounding through the snoith so and start walking, before you both turn into e red eyes, narrowed in a pleasant s up my bedroll, the Alacryan shook the snow off and wrapped it around her shoulders, then we followed after our fuzzy little guide

“It’s a bowl,” Iin the track I left in the deepening snow, bu a step back and peering around us

I took her by the shoulder and turned her so that she was looking down into a wide dip in the land Visibility was poor enough that I hadn’t ie of a massive, shallow crater

The wind let up at that ray blanket above us, spilling across the snow and highlighting the entire basin Far below us, perhaps a e, round bulge under the snow—much too round and perfect to be a natural formation

Then the wind picked back up, and the clouds closed in, and the shape was lost behind a white curtain

“Did you see that?” Caera asked excitedly, pointing doard the hidden mound

She turned toward aze then landed on my arm, which I suddenly realized was still around her shoulder I a step back as Caera also shi+fted unco back toward us after having gone several yards ahead “What’d Iwith your ar down there” I gestured down the slope, ignoring h, so is pointedly,it clear this was less a question and more of a des I think I’ll stay out here I don’t is wiggled his eyebrows in return, a gesture that reminded me of the cartoon animals in the shows I had seen as a kid

‘I think I’ll keep an eye on things fro it obvious that he was still upset about being cut in half

Caera atching us expectantly, so I waved hty cois swished his shadowy tail as he trotted on ahead Within sixty feet, though, the drifts ell over his head, and, even though the cold wasn’t bothering hih snow