Chapter Three: Syrra

"This doesn't make any sense."

I peer at my mate with furrowed brows. "You're kidding right?"

He makes a face at me. "What?"

"You're holding it upside down."

He squints at it then flips it over. "Oh. Yeah this makes a lot more sense."

I roll my eyes and turn back to the maps on the wall. "Why are you reading that? Do you even know what a chimera is?" I ask.

"Well no but I wanted to practice my Latin, and this was the first thing in Latin that I found on your bookshelf."

I turn around and tilt my head sharply. "Kaine that's not in Latin."

"What?"

"That's Greek."

He frowns at it. "Really?"

"Gods, you can't possibly be Queen Zari's son," I tease, shaking my head in amusement.

"You know maybe I should just stick with listening to you read," he chuckles, tossing the book on the table beside the bed.

"I don't think I'll be able to teach you much considering you clearly didn't learn anything from your mother," I grin.

"Yeah well she's not a very fun teacher, she once threw a book at me in the middle of one of her little language lessons."

I raise my eyebrow. "And what were you doing?"

"That's not important," he shrugs making me laugh.

"Seriously Kaine what were you doing that made your mother throw a book at you?"

"I drew a dick on the desk."

"Wow." I turn back to the map, shaking my head. "I'm so proud of my mate," I mutter.

"Hey, I was thirteen, and the stuff I did wasn't nearly as stupid as what my brother did when he was that age," he defends.

I roll my eyes. "You're gonna have to tell me those stories sometime but I really need to finish this right now, so you need to shush for a bit."

Kaine walks up beside me a few moments later. "What are you doing anyway?"

"Plotting our constellations on this map of stars," I explain as I skim through my book.

"Why?"

"We don't have the same constellations as everyone else, so we have to make our own. And there are different constellations as the seasons change so I'm making one for winter."

His arms slide around my waist and he rests his chin on my shoulder. "Can't you take a break? You've been working on this since we got here."

"I would have been finished more than an hour ago if you didn't keep distracting me."

"But I'm bored," he moans obnoxiously.

"You're so impatient," I chuckle. "I need to finish this so just go to bed and I'll join you once it's done, okay?"

He groans. "Fine."

There's a grin on my lips as he moves away. "Yeah you definitely don't have your brother's patience," I mutter.

"How dare you?" he gasps, feigning offense.

I roll my eyes and quickly finish marking the map. I pull on one of my silk sleeping gowns before climbing into bed beside Kaine.

"What are our plans for tomorrow?" he asks, slipping his arms around me.

"I don't know, we can just wander around the territory and see how everyone's doing. After that we can just hang out in the library if you want?"

"You have an actual library?"

I nod. "Yeah and it's like ten times bigger than the one your mother built. We even have people that do nothing but write so we have a copy of almost every book in existence―well except the human stories, we only have a few of those since they're difficult to get ahold of. Most of the ones we have are either spell or history books but there are some really awesome fiction stories too," I trail off when I realize I'm starting to ramble.

Kaine chuckles. "Sounds great."

"Okay. Well goodnight," I sigh, weariness washing over me.

He kisses my forehead. "Goodnight beautiful."

***

I jerk awake to someone shaking me. Kaine hovers over me, his golden eyes wide with panic. "What's the matter?" I ask.

He opens his mouth to say something but stops at the sound of screaming. My heart drops at the raucous noises coming from outside. "Damn it not again," I hiss, throwing off the sheets and hurrying out of bed.

"Syrra what the hell is going on?" Kaine demands.

"Remember the monsters I told you about?"

His face goes pale. "I seriously thought you were kidding about that."

I shake my head. "Yeah no. You might want to get your sword," I comment before snatching my sheathed blade and hurrying out of my bedroom. I wave my hand as I walk and my nightgown is replaced by my armor.

The screaming and shouting get louder as I head outside and I jog faster down the stairs. As I round the first curve I see the source of the noise.

Flames illuminate the scene and make the monsters look even more horrifying. I swear under my breath when I count five.

"Gods help us," I hear Kaine gasp behind me. "Should I shift? Lucifer might be able to handle this a little better."

I shake my head. "If there was one then yeah, but this is a pack. If you shift then all five will go after you and there is no way you'd survive that," I mutter, moving faster.

I hear another scream and I swear again, jumping off the staircase and dropping down the last few meters. When I land there's a slight burning on my spine as the strength rune pulses with energy.

Get your ass over here! I hiss at Rexall when I realize he is nowhere in sight.

Ugh fine. I hate monsters, he grumbles.

People run past me, terror and panic written all across their faces. I take a deep breath as I approach the monsters.

They loom over me, dozens of meters tall with contorted limbs and grotesque faces. No one knows where they come from, but Hell is my guess; they look more like demons than actual living creatures.

I pull my sword from its sheath and press my lips onto the blade. "Da mihi virtutem luminis; control tenebras noctem," I whisper. Give me the power of light; darkness will never control the night. 

The black blade suddenly begins to hum in my hands, the runes glowing pale blue. My fingers curl tighter around the hilt and a smirk crawls onto my lips.

A harsh shriek pierces my ears as one of the creature's feet slams down in front of me, shaking the ground beneath my feet. This one looks similar to a spider with almost a dozen thin legs and a sectional body. Its pincers snap loudly as it moves closer.

I grin, spinning my sword around by the hilt. I wait until I can literally smell the rotting flesh before lunging forward. I plunge my blade between its beady red eyes, smirking at the demon's shrill scream.

I yank the sword back and whip around just in time to duck under another monster's foot, narrowly avoiding its razor-sharp claws. I swing my sword up, slicing its foot clean off.

It screams, stumbling backwards. Its mouth opens but I don't have enough time to get out of the way before a stream of black liquid sprays across my face. I let out a loud hiss as it burns my skin. I grit my teeth against it and shove my sword into the monster's chest.

I quickly sheathe the blade and dart out of the way. Its body crashes to the ground with a resounding thud, centimeters from my feet.

I look around and see that only one monster remains, surrounded by creatures of all kinds. I spot Kaine rushing at it and groan in frustration.

"So proud," I mutter when the monster flings him away like a rag doll.

I cringe as he hits the ground hard, sighing when he slowly sits up. He looks around, his body swaying a little.

I turn my attention back to the monster. My lips curls upward in disgust. It stands dozens of meters tall, its chest glowing red with each rattling breath. It has four legs and at least a dozen eyes that move separately.

I jog over to the warriors, about to ask why they are keeping their distance when a tail suddenly slams to the ground in front of us. I leap back with a curse, my eyes flying wide.

"My Queen we can't get close enough!" One of the warriors shouts over the monster's roar.

"I got it!"

I turn just in time to see Kaine rushing at it once again. "You stupid fucker," I growl, clenching my jaw. "Sure, just ignore everything I taught you."

The monster spots him immediately and opens its jaws. Hundreds of teeth sit inside its mouth but all I can focus on is the glowing venom gland under its forked tongue.

"Damn it Kaine!" I yell as the yellow spray completely covers him. 

He stumbles but doesn't fall. I swear again when he starts to run sideways, his head bobbing like he isn't strong enough to hold it up.

"Keep it distracted!" I order the warriors as I snatch my dagger from underneath my armor.

I drag it hard across the inside of each of my arms. Blood flows thickly from the cuts, quickly pooling on the dirt under my feet.

I start reciting the incantation and with one blink, everything turns a deep shade of red. My voice grows louder and my fingers curl as my arms pulse. My hands are numb by the time I reach the end of the spell, but I keep going.

Suddenly a piercing shriek fills my ears. I collapse to my knees, clutching at my head and squeezing my eyes shut.

I cover my ears, but it doesn't help. "Somebody kill it!" I scream, my fingernails scratching against my head as I desperately try to block out the grating sound.

I open my eyes when it suddenly goes silent. I swear I can hear my own heart beating. I carefully stand, dragging my gaze towards the circle of warriors.

I push past them, a frown making its way to my face. The monster lies on the ground, completely immobilized. Its limbs are contorted and its tail limp but its chest still glows.

"We tried our blades, but they only hurt and anger it," someone says.

I retrieve my sword from its sheath and step closer to the monster. Its eyes follow me, but it remains completely still, even when I am close enough to touch it.

I raise my sword and shove it hard into its head. It doesn't scream, only hisses as its eyes slowly close. I yank my blade out and watch as the monster's body starts to collapse into dust.

"No darkness can escape the Light Bringer," I mutter, glancing down at my sword. I whisper a few words in Latin, making the glow fade and the blade go still.

I turn around with a sigh. "Help the wounded. We will hold a vigil for the dead tomorrow night," I instruct.

I clench my jaw when I can't see Kaine anywhere. "Where is the Dragon Prince?" I ask a guard.

"They already took him to the healer, they were worried he'd get himself killed if he stayed out here," he chuckles.

"Yeah he's not very good with magic," I murmur to myself.

My skin starts to burn again as I make my way to the healers' tent. There is only one healer, but he has over a dozen apprentices. They are all rushing around inside the tent.

I spot my mate lying in a bed, a young girl sitting beside him. Her eyes are completely blue, and a trail of tiny blue sparks follows her fingers as she waves them around.

I weave through the crowd of people until I come to her side. "Kyla? Thank you for taking care of him," I say.

She blinks and her eyes return to their normal gray. "Queen Syrra, would you like me to get a salve for your burns?" She asks.

"If you could bring me some bandages too, I would greatly appreciate it."

She nods with a grin before dashing away.

"How old is she?"

I glance at Kaine with a small smile. "Eleven."

He frowns, shifting a little. "Where are her parents?"

"They disappeared like mine did. Around the same time too. She wanted to be my apprentice a few years ago but she was skilled in healing, so I convinced her to train under Jalen instead," I explain. 

Kaine starts to get up but I shove him back onto the bed. "You need to rest, Crightus venom can stay in your blood for days even with a healer's magic," I tell him.

"What the hell is a Crightus?" he mutters.

"That's what we call the monsters with venom glands. The venom induces partial paralysis in your brain, usually affecting your motor functions which can have psychological side effects like hallucinations."

He stares at me blankly. "Are you doing that on purpose, or do you really think I'm smart enough to understand a word of what you just said?" He chuckles.

I laugh. "Sorry, uh—so the venom makes parts of your brain malfunction and screws with your body. Like you started running in circles and I'm guessing you were also hallucinating?"

He nods. "Either that or a three-headed lion really was trying to kill me," he murmurs.

My eyebrows furrow a little. "That's a strange one," I mutter.

Kyla suddenly appears again, bandages in one hand and a small jar in the other. "If you could sit down please?" She asks and I smile in amusement before doing as she says.

She expertly stitches the cut running along my arms before wrapping them tightly with bandages. I frown when I notice my arms are extremely pale and cold and my fingers look almost blue.

"Blood magic?" Kyla asks.

I nod. "Powerful spells require more blood," I sigh.

"Well it should replenish quickly. I would mend it but I haven't mastered the spell yet," she explains.

"Anything helps. Thank you," I say.

She smiles then moves on to spread some of the salve on my face. It stings a little at first but then quickly cools my burning skin.

"Thank you, Kyla, now go help someone else, there were a lot of injuries," I say with a smile.

"Yes, my Queen." She gives me a small bow before disappearing to follow my order.

I turn towards Kaine who frowns at me. "What happened to your face? I thought that black stuff was just ash or something?" He asks in confusion.

"Deloch venom. It doesn't cause problems with your head it just burns your skin and melts your clothes."

"Gods that's terrifying." He crosses his arms over his chest and chews on his lip. "So how often do these monsters show up?"

I chuckle. "At least one every couple of weeks. The longer we have without a monster attack, the more of them usually end up appearing," I tell him.

He makes a face, glancing at me nervously. "I seriously thought you were kidding when you said monsters."

I laugh. "Are you sure you still want to be my personal guard?"