Bound by Devotion

Chapter Thirteen

They were dying. Just like the world around them. A living, yet dying representation of what Braken had done. He had tipped the balance, alright,

She knew what she had to do. Yes they were fucking spiders. But they were a part of the Shadow court and they were dying. She took a deep breath, hand tightening on the handle of her knife. "Hold my beer," she muttered to herself.

"What are you thinking, Eve?" Alex asked and damn it, he could stop her.

"Balance, Alex. I'm trying to bring back some balance." She held out her hand. "Come with me and if it seems I'm going to die, then save me. But I have to do this."

He looked at her long and hard and cursed. "You're going to kill me."

"No, lover I'm not. We have plans later, don't we?"

He shook his head, the smile on his face telling her everything she needed to know. Slowly, carefully, she stepped from the rocks and moved closer to where Kornae stood. She knelt in the gray dirt and held out her hand. As if he knew she was about to make a monumental fuck up, he turned and met her eyes. The blue narrowed on her as she pulled the knife across her palm and let her blood drip onto the dying world.

The response was stunning. The earth itself seemed to breath and the small spiders parted around Kornae. She felt faint as they headed her way and she flung her hand, spreading her blood in a wide arc. The baby spiders stopped as they came to it.

Eve carried the blood of all three courts and the blood of Seelie was what they needed. She couldn't use magic, but she, herself was magic. Her blood would do fine to feed the starving children. She made another cut, hissing at the pain before muttering words in Shadow. An apology to the land itself. She wasn't queen of the Shadow Court. But damn it, she cared.

Kornae made it back to her and he dropped to her side. "What is this?"

"Magic without the fancy lights," she said. It was then she felt something over her.

She turned and looked up. Looked so far up. Passing out was the only option she had at the thing lowered itself in front of her. She couldn't breath. Why couldn't she breathe? Did the walking nightmare have to take all the oxygen?

Over the sound of her own racing heartbeat and the sound of the obnoxious Mcthuderson, she heard a scratchy whispering. Kornae and Alex both looked at each other.

Vaguely, she head Alex yell to the others to stop. Kornae went to take her hand, but stopped at the still bleeding cuts.

The whispering became louder and in it, there were words. "You feed my children?"

It was talking! The fucking thing was talking! She couldn't stop the rapid breathing long enough to form a word so she nodded. Hopefully that would work. Her vampires at her back now and the thing dropped lower, front legs bending into an impossible angle.

"You feel fear, yet you feed them. Why?"

Micah's mark burned into her shoulder and she tried to stop gasping like a fish on land. "Balance," she muttered, eyes closing as the mandibles as long as swords approached her. She couldn't keep the muffled scream inside as she felt the heat from the thing.

"Balance is gone, child of three. But what is gone may be restored."

"That's what we are trying to do."

She cracked an eye as it grew quiet. Was it going to eat her or not? Her being huddled against Kornae's chest didn't make her appear very strong. Slowly, she turned, his arm staying around her waist and hand over her belly.