Epilogue
HEMMING
H ooves and claws thundered and shredded the forest floor as I wove through the trees, driven by the sound of a distant voice. A muffled call.
Whispers and murmurs gained in strength and clarity as I drew nearer to their source, but remained undecipherable still. I scented the air, hoping to recognize something other than the musty scent of rot and decay littered beneath me as I ran, but there was nothing—or, rather, more than nothing. As though a magical hole had been carved out of the atmosphere.
Where someone—or some thing —lay hidden.
Errant branches whipped against my hide as I drove on, focused on the voice that I couldn’t quite place. There was a familiarity to it that was undeniable, but it remained a mystery as it echoed through the forest, beckoning me.
“ Only …” it called as I plunged deeper and deeper into the darkness without hesitation. Without fear. “ One …”
I skidded through the damp moss until I stopped short of the red maple— the tree that is not a tree —and listened. My ears twitched as the silence drew on, and I snorted in frustration. The disembodied voice that had summoned me to the Black Forest had ceased to speak.
But then, off in the distance, a dark silhouette stepped out of the abyss, still wrapped in shadows, and spoke in the clearest of tones. “ There can only be one, prince…”
Without another word, it disappeared into the ether.
A howl ripped from deep in my gut and shook the very fiber of the forest. The earth quaked and buckled as the trees bent and broke. Birds scattered and creatures shrieked as they fled the unstable land. I crashed to the ground as it jutted up into the air.
And when my desperate roars cut short, everything went still…
I shot awake in the darkness, the sweet stench of the forest still thick in my nostrils as I tried to catch my breath. The dream had felt so real that I closed my eyes to force the images from my mind. The sound of that voice.
But when I opened them, nothing had changed.
I peered through squinted eyes at the sea of trees looming all around me; felt the soft squish of moss beneath my hands. And just beyond was the spot where the silhouette had spoken its cryptic message.
My dream hadn’t been a dream at all. There can only be one, prince, echoed through my mind as I tried to slow my racing heart. Something had summoned the beast to the Black Forest—and I had no recollection of it.
Dread shot through my veins like poison. “ What is happening to me ?”