Bound by Devotion

Chapter Thirteen

Kornae stood and took her hand as Micah claimed his spot. The look of wonder on his face, his bright green eyes shining, brought tears to hers and she laughed while brushing them away. Standing in the middle of a dying spider's nest in a dying world, she felt life. It was stunning, really. A tiny being, moving inside her body. A living creature that she was going to bring to the world after so much death.

They all spent a few minutes with her and this would be a memory that she would cherish the rest of her life.

But, speaking of death, it soon came time to move on. After they made it back to the rocks, because no to the ground, she thought about something. She couldn't do it. And it wasn't the Blue of Seelie, or the gray of Shadow, but maybe they could do one more thing for the magic starved land

"Kornae, please don't argue with me. But can you send some of your magic into the earth? It's not just the spiders that are starving. It's the whole realm."

He looked at her with a resigned look in his eyes and she smiled. He shook his head and dropped to a knee, hand over the soil they were no longer touching. He did as she asked and send a thin steady stream of green into the gray. He let it go for a few seconds before dropping it. At first, nothing happened, then a large part of the gray... shivered... before falling down into a huge hole, one large enough to fit several of her old house in. Eve could feel her mouth drop as the webbing that ran all throughout it swelled, becoming not so sickly looking. A fine net work of white webbing covered the top and she realized that this was what they were standing on. The amount of dead web that covered the fine mesh of the top giving it a firm surface, but also preventing them from catching anything. There was a noise that came from the black depth, a mass of whispers as the greedy webs sent more and more magic down, bringing while maybe not life to the nest, at least a sense of hope.

The man who did it stood and she took his hand. "Let's see what other trouble we can cause while we're here."

~~~

Two day's later and Eve was kicking herself. Who said everything would be okay? Oh yeah, she did.

She trudged along, boots growing heavy after the near constant walking. Rest. She needed to rest. They needed to rest. Kornae had to be as tired as she was. But all she could see was gray dust and dirt and rocks and oh yeah, don't forget, there was another tentacle thing off to their right. By sticking to rocks, they didn't really have to worry about falling into another nest monsters of the eight-legged variety, but it was slowing them down. And keeping them well out of reach of the soil-bound octopus.

She laughed. Balance.

Fallon and Gabe had gone off to scout ahead this time, and so far, they hadn't returned. Worry for them lay heavy on her shoulders, making her steps that much harder. They would come back. She knew that. Of course they would.

In the five day since she stopped using her magic, her slight swell had grown a bit. She occupied her thoughts by running her hand across it. Sometimes, she could feel the soft bump against her palm and that gave her motivation for continuing to put one foot in front of the other. Would she have Kornae's blond hair and blue eyes? Would he look more like her? Would she be of the same temperament as her father? Or would he be as controlled by his heart as she?

As if sensing her thoughts, Kornae took her hand in his, weaving their fingers together. She would smile at him, but she didn't have the strength.

"I think we should rest," he said and she did glance at him then. He didn't look as tired as she felt. It was on the tip of her tongue to say that she was fine. She wanted so badly to push the words out. But like Kornae pointed out, what she knew. It wasn't just her now.