Touched by the Flame || Azriel Shadowsinger

Chapter 58

Soraya was not brave.

She was stupid. Foolish. Idiotic and ignorant.

A curse sputtered from her when her foot sunk ankle-deep into the mud. It suctioned her boots, holding them captive for the millionth time. She grunted with effort to yank them free. Sending her stumbling a little with her next step.

She was hungry, parched, sweating, and her muscles ached. Suddenly, sitting in the Town House doing nothing sounded far more appealing. She fantasized over the book she would be reading right then.

In front of her, Azriel's shoulders shook with silent laughter. She stared a scowl into the back of his skull. Had she known that half of the Middle was quite literally a swamp, Soraya wouldn't have been nearly as eager to throw herself into it.

Behind her, Gywn shifted slightly closer. A little wrinkle of concern between her delicate brows. 

"Are you alright?" The Valkyrie asked softly.

"Fine, thanks," Soraya grumbled. Her face scrunched as she swatted at the bugs circling her.

Emerie, taking up the rear, found humor in her frustration. The Illyrian chuckled and threw out a joke that Soraya didn't care to pay attention to. Something about hoisting her over a shoulder and carrying her if need be.

With a huff, Soraya tugged her feet free with another heavy step. Thick mud sucking at her soles with every stride. They couldn't fly, seeing as how Azriel would only be able to carry one of them. Perhaps two for a short distance if the situation was dire. Which left them tromping through the swamps of the Middle.

Azriel and the Valkyries didn't seem too bothered, though their steps were considerably slower and heavier than normal. Their tolerance had Soraya wondering if part of their training was through different types of terrain. Or perhaps they were immune to any annoyance life had to offer. What she would give to be that unruffled.

Soraya shoved back the loose hairs that stuck to her sweat-slicked face. Having fallen free from her braid. 

"How would the rebels get through all of this so easily?" Gwyn asked, cringing a little as her boot made a sticky slop sound when she pulled her foot free.

Azriel lifted one shoulder in a shrug, trekking easily ahead. "They wouldn't have had to if that faerie opened a door for them."

Emerie grumbled something under her breath. Her stiff wings pulled tighter to her body to avoid a dead branch that reached for her.

Soraya's eyes narrowed on something pearly white peeking out from the mud. When her toe caught on something sunken deeper, she shuddered with the realization that she was looking at a ribcage. Of a person, or beast, she didn't dare wonder. She only tromped closer to Azriel and pinched her lips together.

"So these rebels..." Emerie had to speak up a bit to be heard by Azriel at the front of the group. "Do we know how many faeries have sided with them? I mean, is it a few, or are there lots of us joining the cause?"

Soraya frowned thoughtfully. She had forgotten that the Valkyries hadn't been sitting through the meetings with the inner circle. That they hadn't been given all the details, though they got the basic foundations of information. A hint of admiration arose in her then. For the two females who threw themselves headfirst into danger without all the reasons why.

Azriel was quiet, letting Soraya answer, she realized. "We don't know for sure. But from what I saw, there were more than a few."

"Why? What good does it do to rebel against your own kind for the sake of another?" The Illyrian female asked. Azriel's lips quirked with a slight frown.