Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Iripped free of Colton’s grasp, whirling on him and barely managing to choke back more screams as I took in the carnage that surrounded us.
Blood stained the trees, limbs torn from corpses which were hung like twisted decorations from bough to branch.
Bile pooled in my mouth as I took in the bloody lumps of flesh which had been Champions and townsfolk alike.
They were barely recognisable, the faces I could see twisted in agony.
There were only ten of us left breathing, and at least double that number had perished already, dead before the trees had even sealed us inside the forest.
Axel stared lifelessly at the thick canopy of leaves above us and guilt tangled in my chest as I took in the sight of his broken body.
He’d only been dragged into these cursed woods because he’d been trying to stop me from entering them.
But it seemed the trees themselves had wanted me here regardless of his attempts to save me from this fate.
“They…the trees…a vine…” My words were a tangled knot in my throat, my heart racing so powerfully that the sound of it practically drowned out Colton’s attempt at calming words.
I looked down at my ankle, my gaze locking on the vine which had coiled around it and hauled me into the cursed forest. It had broken in my struggle, just a short length of it left, like a macabre manacle to remind me of what it had done.
I dropped down to one knee, tearing the vine from my ankle with ease which defied the truth of what it had done to me just moments before.
My boot was gone, lost in the struggle with the vine, half the contents of my pack along with it, thanks to the great rip I found down its middle.
“It seems these woods have a want for you, Ferris,” Colton mused, looking down at me from his great height, his bulk seeming to have grown within the shadows of the trees.
“Is that what you call this?” I demanded, splaying my arm at the nightmare which surrounded us. “The wants of the woods?”
His brow lowered, his head shaking slowly. “I don’t have a name for this. But the trees snatched you into their grasp.”
“They snatched them too,” I pointed out, not looking as I indicated the broken bodies of the townsfolk who had joined me in this fate.
“But none of them still draw breath. You’re the only person still living who wasn’t destined to be here,” he said.
I glanced at the other survivors, understanding dawning as I realised he meant that I was the only non-Champion to still be breathing.
Panic threatened to consume me whole, every terrible tale I’d ever heard of this place echoing through my skull at full volume, mocking me for my stupidity in coming here.
And maybe I was a fool to have made this choice.
Maybe I’d doomed myself by coming. All of my preparations had been so swiftly proven lacking.
I was in over my head here, and I knew it now more than ever.
A sob threatened, tears clawing like ragged fingernails at the corners of my eyes, but I fought them back.
Descending into despair would do me no good.
I’d made this choice a long time ago, and I wasn’t going to lament it now that I’d finally followed through on my plans.
I would have entered even if the forest hadn’t made it impossible for me not to.
I stood, raising my chin as I looked into Colton’s dark eyes and swallowed down my terror.
I was tall enough to look most men in the eye at five foot ten, but Colton still scraped a few inches over me. It didn’t matter. He found what he was clearly hunting for in my defiant gaze and nodded gruffly.
“You’ll be needing a new boot,” he said, turning to survey the dead and trudging towards a corpse which had been ripped in two. I knew her. Only by name, but it felt wrong to steal from the Champion while her body was still warm.
“Wait,” I said, catching up to Colton as he bent to retrieve her boots from her oddly-splayed legs.
He turned to arch a brow at me, the dappled light from the forest catching on the strength of his features, and for a moment, I only held his gaze before forcing myself to speak again.
I’d meant to stop him, to tell him to leave her body in peace, but I could already feel the cold of the forest floor leaching warmth from my foot, mud slick between my toes through my sodden sock, a stone digging into my heel.
Those boots were no help to her anymore, but I wouldn’t last long out here without them.
“I’ll do it,” I said firmly, and Colton shrugged, pushing to his feet and striding over to the other Champions who had survived the entry to the forest.
I fought the urge to gag as I lowered myself in his place and began unlacing the boots from Evain’s feet.
She’d been a stoic kind of character, lacking in the bluster and bravado so many of the other Champions claimed, but in a way that demanded a quiet kind of respect.
I’d believed in her before this. I’d believed in all of them, though that hadn’t lessened my need to come here myself.
Their goal wasn’t aligned with my own after all.
Yes, I needed the curse to end, but most of all, I craved the boon the forest promised the victor of this twisted game.
I retrieved the boot and was pleased to find it fit well enough – though it would have been smaller ideally.
It was well made, both water-tight and thickly lined, the sole strong and broken in.
Far better quality than my own boots, in all truth.
I tried not to look at the blood which speckled them as I made the decision to take the pair, not wanting the mismatched soles to slow me down.
I muttered a word of thanks to her, then turned away to hunt the ground for a pair of stones to place over her closed eyes.
The Champions were talking in low voices, and I could feel their gazes on me too.
I knew what they were discussing. They thought I’d slow them down.
I hadn’t prepared for this the way they had.
I wasn’t strong or trained for battle. I was lean and bookish, known to settle in any quiet corner I could find with a book in hand rather than a mug of ale or a group of friends.
But they didn’t know what it was I’d been reading in those books.
They didn’t know that I was ready for this in ways that they weren’t.
I was fast and agile, cunning and clever, and most of all, I was more determined than any of them to see this thing through to its end.
I let them whisper about me while I hunted down stones for the dead, scrawling an X on one and an O on a second using mud I scooped from the forest floor before placing them over their eyes.
Then I plucked flowers from wherever I could find them, white weeds which clung to the roots of the trees and little bluebells which sprouted in the spaces between them.
I tangled them between the fingers of the dead and made certain they each clasped some form of weapon beneath them.
Flowers so that no one would scent their sins on them while they crossed into the afterworld.
Weapons so that they might fight their way past anything which couldn’t be fooled.
An X and an O to mark a beginning and an end, and the placement to stop all ill spirits from watching them.
These acts were superstitions that I had often denied believing in, but it seemed only right to offer them to these people who had died for a curse they’d never been given a chance at breaking.
I stood when it was done and the Champions turned to face me, a mixture of judgement, contempt and pity in their expressions.
“We need to find shelter before night closes in,” Devlan said, his words for everyone but his eyes on me.
He was a brute of a man, the oldest of the remaining group, his skin lined and hair silvered, though he was arguably the most muscular among the Champions too.
He’d watched his mother enter the forest fifty years ago and had still spent his life training to do the same even after she’d never returned. “We can’t waste time on moving slow.”
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t be wasting time on standing still either?” I suggested, squaring my shoulders against his clearly disparaging judgement.
Helga snorted in amusement, her green eyes glimmering in a way that made me warm to her. At least she wasn’t eyeing me in a way that suggested she planned on ditching me like a few of the others were.
I knew them all, though I doubted many knew my name.
I’d been surprised when Colton had spoken it with such familiarity, but then he had grown up in my village and he was only a few years older than me.
Perhaps it wasn’t such a shock that he knew the names of the people who had surrounded him while he trained for this day – even if we hadn’t been consequential enough for him to converse with much while doing so.
Emmy and Tyson were from my village too, and I knew a little of their character – Tyson was hot-headed and often responsible for brawls at the inn.
He was broad and fairly good looking, though clearly he believed himself to be nothing short of godly.
Emmy with her mane of dark hair was the only Champion who seemed likely to have an even bigger ego than he did, and I was certain she didn’t know my name.
Common villagers like me were definitely beneath her notice, and I’d always been confident that we were all better off for it.
I turned from them as they prepared to move on, taking my torn bag from my back and hurriedly checking the contents, a knot loosening in my chest as I found the two books I’d brought with me still securely wrapped in their waterproof bindings at its base.
A few more of my supplies still sat beside them; some bandages and a healing poultice I’d traded for in town last summer, a couple of apples and a wrapped heel of cheese.
Thankfully, my slingshot was still lodged in my pocket, though I knew the meagre weapon was laughable in comparison to the blades the Champions carried.
But I was a good shot and it was the best I had.
The rest of the food I’d brought had gone, along with the spare clothes I’d brought with me, and I tried not to wilt in disappointment.
I hesitantly took Evain’s pack from her, guilt stirring in my gut as I did so.
But she had no use of it where she was now, and my torn bag was only going to cause me more trouble than good.
I emptied her belongings onto the ground and sorted through them, claiming her supplies of food, bandages, a small knife and her water canteen before packing it all away with what remained of my things.
I looked around, hunting the undergrowth for any more of my belongings, to no avail. Likely they’d been lost while I was dragged into this cursed place and lay beyond the boundary of the forest. I swallowed back my disappointment and snatched my tattered cloak before shouldering the pack at last.
I sought out Colton who stood observing me critically, his attention lingering on my new boots before he shrugged and turned towards the heart of the forest.
“She’ll keep up or she’ll perish. We’ve already wasted enough time,” he said, striding away, and like a flock of geese following a food bucket, the rest of them turned to hurry after him.
I glanced around at the trees, the webs of green and white moss hanging between them already disorienting me, and I hadn’t even taken a step out of the clearing yet.
I stole a final look at Axel, muttering an apology for ever getting him mixed up with me before painting a cross against the closest tree and striding after the gaggle of Champions.
We’d see who was cut out for this place before long. I was hoping that my studies had prepared me in ways their training hadn’t. I wasn’t here for glory after all. I was seeking something far more important.
Redemption.