Chapter 29 Lore #3
The ground rumbling, branches shaking, the startled flutter of birds taking off, or the silence that indicated an apex predator had arrived.
Anything that might signal someone closing in.
I had never been more grateful for reading so much end-of-the-worlds fiction before—it prepared me for this moment.
The forest was alive with subtle sounds: insects thrumming, leaves sighing in the gentle breeze, the distant trickle of water.
I almost whooped with joy—the water source was off to the left. If I could make it there, I could get something to drink and cover my trail.
It would give me an edge I desperately needed.
Then I just had to wait until dawn. Hope kindled in my chest.
I went to move but halted, listening.
Some inner voice warned me to freeze.
I waited, wondering if I’d simply imagined the warning and had mistaken my fear for something it wasn’t.
A moment later, a different sound caught my attention: something that was not quite a footfall, not quite a heartbeat, but some odd combination of the two.
I froze. Since when could I sense heartbeats?
That had to be the Liber Noctem interfering. I hadn’t suddenly turned immortal in the span of a few hours. But my senses were slowly growing stronger. Maybe it had to do with my magic.
With the same increasing panic I’m sure most prey felt when a predator neared, I knew I was being tracked. I needed to seek high ground. Now.
As quickly and quietly as I could manage, I scaled the nearest tree, using the lowest branches and fallen logs for leverage.
I’d only made it a few feet off the ground when I felt a shift of energy through the undergrowth—an innate awareness that I was no longer alone.
All the hair on my body rose.
One of the hunters had found me.
Indecision kept me rooted in place.
I could either hope I hadn’t been spotted, or, if I had been, pray that someone else would race by and prove to be a more tempting target.
But if War was this close, it wasn’t an accident.
I squinted through the tangled branches, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm as I tried to catch any movement on the narrow path ahead.
The dense foliage formed a natural screen, and I hoped it was enough to keep me concealed. One moment turned into two. Then three.
A few more passed and I waited, ears straining. Still, nothing.
I slowly started to relax. Whatever I thought I’d felt must have moved on.
A twig snapped behind me, sharp as the crack of a whip.
The unexpected noise sent a jolt of fear through me, and my body involuntarily jerked. I slapped a hand over my mouth, smothering the sharp inhale.
I had been so sure the threat lay directly in front of me, I hadn’t even sensed the danger lurking behind.
That meant there were two closing in.
Like the spooked prey I was trying not to be, I panicked. I jumped from the tree and bolted, blood pounding, and plunged through the thicket.
This part of the forest grew darker, tightly woven with twisted limbs of towering oaks and rambling bushes, rich with the potent scent of damp earth that smelled like it had been deprived of sunlight for decades.
A sense of dread gnawed at me as I ran; I couldn’t decide if the thick shadows were shielding me or if they were the harbingers of my doom.
I tried to connect with them, but they weren’t the magical ribbons of my dreamweaver power. That would have been far too convenient.
I sprinted with every ounce of energy I could muster, but the sheer number of branches forced me to slow, dragging myself over and through the suffocating thicket that seemed to conspire against my escape.
Stupid Faerie forest.
I swore the undergrowth was doubling before my very eyes, trying to trap me for the Fae who ruled this realm.
Since the plot was now nothing close to the original story, I had no idea what they’d do to me. Murder? Imprisonment? Force me to fight to the death without any weapons? Or worse…
I refused to find out, so I pumped my legs harder.
Branches smacked at my arms, my face, but I wouldn’t stop. Not yet.
Not when every nerve screamed with the very real possibility that I was about to die.
I hurdled a fallen log, rolling to break my momentum, and skidded to a stop at the base of a huge old tree.
The bark was slick with dew, and the roots at its base were like a tangle of serpents trying to wrap around my legs as I stepped over them, but I scrambled up it anyway, my hands and boots somehow finding purchase in the trunk’s deep grooves.
I focused on controlling my breathing while I listened for sounds of pursuit.
There was nothing. No crashing through the trees, no crunching of boots on twigs. It was like being stalked by a ghost.
I knew I didn’t imagine the damn branch snapping. But that had been the only sound that had given the hunter away.
My pulse sped as realization dawned. That meant he’d wanted me to know he was closing in, and he’d wanted me to run.
He was enjoying the chase.
From my perch, I scanned the clearing below.
This part of the woods was secluded and hard to reach. Someone would have to make a real effort to find their way into this glen. Especially someone larger than me. The horsemen would certainly make noise.
The moon still barely reached this part of the woods, but what little light did slip through painted the scene in a spectral silver.
Nothing moved. Not even the wind stirred now.
But the hunter was close.
I felt him. It was like a gravitational pull growing stronger with every heartbeat. Instead of warning me to run, it tempted me to seek him out.
To run to him.
Which was not going to happen.
Cursed Liber Noctem, making me seek out the very source that could be my undoing. I would not fail this test.
I pressed my back to the trunk, chest heaving, and closed my eyes to ground myself for a moment. I waited, trying to hold on to the hope that I’d escaped, that I’d bested War or Death or even Conquest.
That my story was not about to come to some sudden, violent ending.
As the seconds stretched into minutes and no sounds reached my ears, I almost believed he’d lost my trail, that I’d earned this respite, this brief victory.
But just as I thought I was free, a large hand closed around my ankle.
The world spun as I was hauled out of the tree.
It happened so quickly I had no time to process that I’d been caught, let alone react.
A pair of strong arms shot out, grabbing me before I hit the earth, and pressed my back up against the trunk. He’d pinned me a few feet off the ground, ensuring my feet wouldn’t gain purchase; then a massive wall of warm muscle stepped between my legs, locking me in place.
My body crackled with electricity from each point of contact.
I immediately began thrashing, trying to free myself.
“Lore.”
I stopped fighting at the sound of that voice.
It couldn’t be.
My heart raced for a whole new reason as I looked up into achingly familiar eyes. “You’re alive.”