Thanatos: The Blue Dawn

(23)A Sea of Lavender and Ash

'If anyone was the wild animal in the room- it was him...'

A Sea of Lavender and Ash

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this..."

"'Letting me?' Excuse me, but you're not my keeper."

"Actually," Thanatos said as he casually leaned against a large boulder covered with moss and grass at its base; "That's exactly what I am."

"More like a 'glorified babysitter'..." I mumbled as I stretched my hand and tried to focus my energy at the humming tree.

Thanatos scoffed. As he spoke I could feel his roguish grin burn into my back; "Watch your tongue, angel, or I'll have to teach you a lesson in manners."

I rolled my eyes at the tree; "You'd like that, wouldn't you..."

"Oh," I could hear his sultry voice get closer; "Very much." Suddenly, his hands snaked around my middle and his lips were tracing a delicious pattern down my neck. I jumped slightly from the break in my focused trance and tried to shove him off.

"Not now- I'm trying to focus here. Do you want me to set you on fire?"

"You already have." He muttered against my hair as his hand slid down to my ass. He clutched my one cheek and purred.

"Thanatos, I'm serious- can we just focus for five minutes?"

With a dramatic sigh he let go of my waist and his hand lazily fell from my bum; "Fine, but if you accidently kill a squirrel, don't come crying to me."

"My hero." My sarcastic reply only made his grin grow wider. The playful smile on my face lowered as I refocused my attention on the tree. I felt a tad self-conscious as he watched me gather my energy and stretch out my hand.

Spell casting had become a quick habit, and I could now do it without wasting time on thoughtless movement or time-consuming meditation, but with Thanatos so close- I could feel my hands shake. He was watching and I didn't want to disappoint.

I breathed in and as I breathed out- the fire sprang up from my fingertips and I shot it forward like a catapult from my hand. The tree went up in a magical haze of flaming brilliance. A golden dust folded around the bark and the fire grew and blew up into a raging tower of red and orange until it suddenly flickered out and the forest fell into silence.

There was no doubt that that tree had been the one we'd been looking for- no other oak would've burnt black and fizzled out so quickly. Not to mention the gold dust falling from the scorched leaves. They'd turned black and were now falling down to the soft, green grass as ash.

"Did it work?" I asked as my eyes adjusted back to the shaded light of the forest' canopy.

Thanatos' shadow chirped from the high trees and I glanced up to find it smiling broadly down at us.