Page 67 of Thorn & Ash
“I can be courageous,” Mona whispered before plunging onward.
As she entered the fog, it slowly parted to reveal a rocky wasteland of dust and stone. Towering boulders surrounded her. The sky was nothing but murky gray nothingness, an empty expanse that threatened to swallow her whole.
No magic, Evander had said. The trees, the sky, the grass… It had all been an enchantment.
Mona focused on her breathing, struggling not to faint from dizziness. “An illusion,” she whispered. “The forest was just an illusion. This is the same place, just without magic.”
An anguished shout echoed nearby, and Mona started sprinting without thinking. “Evander!” she shrieked.
The shouts continued, and she followed them, dodging large rocks and broken statues. She stumbled, her foot catching on a boulder, but righted herself and kept going.
Evander’s cries subsided to low moans, but the sounds grew closer. Mona was almost there.
Then, she saw him. He was huddled behind a boulder, gripping his ankle and hissing breaths through his teeth.
Mona rushed over to him, crouching to inspect his foot. She froze when she noticed the tendrils of black shadows creeping up his skin, making their way up his leg.
“Oh Goddess, no,” she breathed, her insides chilling as a memory surfaced. Inky blackness climbing up and up until it consumed the body entirely. The eyes going completely black before the life was extinguished from them…
This was the same darkness that had attacked her village. The same darkness she had given her life to stop.
But how could she stop it now?
Her own words echoed in her mind: I have the magic of life. Whatever you destroy, I can bring back to life.
She touched Evander’s leg, and he growled in pain. Ignoring him, Mona closed her eyes, searching within herself for that powerful presence.
The presence of a goddess.
“Come on,” Mona urged when nothing happened. “Please.”
She gritted her teeth, her head throbbing from the effort of drawing on her power. Her third eye quivered, as if it wanted to open. It wanted to help Mona.
“Come on!” Mona cried.
Evander’s clammy hand grasped her arm, and she opened her eyes. His face was covered in sweat, and he shook his head. “Just leave me,” he groaned. “Before it takes you, too.”
“No,” Mona snapped, rising to her feet. “I’m not abandoning you. We just need to get you out of this void so I can conjure my magic.”
“Mona—”
“Be quiet.” She grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet. He barked out a cry of pain. “Can you use your wings?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Well, try, dammit!”
Evander grumbled something unintelligible, his wings flaring to life beside him. He shuddered, his form threatening to crumple, but Mona caught him, straining against his weight.
“Come on, Evander, I can’t carry you,” she said. “Get us out of here.”
Evander nodded, his wings flaring. A brisk wind tickled Mona’s back as his wings kept flapping until he was able to rise a few inches off the ground.
“Let’s go,” he said.
With her arm around him, Mona helped him navigate through the fog, occasionally tugging sideways to keep from crashing into boulders. He grunted when his wings dipped and his injured foot brushed the ground, but he kept pushing onward.
At long last, they emerged from the void, and Mona laughed in relief at the sight of the lush green forest before them. She walked Evander over to a stump and helped him sit on it. By now, the shadows had made it to his kneecap. Mona remembered the shadows moving much more quickly before, but perhaps his divine blood was keeping it at bay.