Chapter 9 #2
“Many of the creatures that inhabit these woods are made of the same stuff as thoughts. They aren’t reading your mind. They’re merely reflecting your own thoughts back to you, twisted and distorted.”
“You’re saying these are my thoughts?” I murmured, bending over and gripping my thighs as I struggled to draw a full breath.
“A version of your thoughts.”
But it didn’t matter. My chest felt too tight, and those voices were growing louder.
A warm, calloused hand slid around to cup the back of my neck, making me feel even clammier.
Suddenly, Kaden’s face was inches from mine, a muscle working in his jaw. “Lyra. Lyra, look at me.”
It took great effort to focus with the cacophony all around me. But I forced myself to meet his eyes, which flashed like sharpened steel.
“These are not the demons who hunted you in the Quarter. They are lesser demons — lowly creatures with little magic. They have only the power that you give them.” Kaden’s grip on my neck tightened.
“They can’t hurt you. At least not physically, though plenty have gone mad by listening. We have — to keep — moving.”
Killer.
Killer.
Killer.
I tried to nod but couldn’t quite manage it. Then Kaden’s warm hand captured my own, and he started tugging me down the narrow path.
The voices grew more manic then, almost as if they were chasing us.
We couldn’t outrun them. They would follow me to my grave. Perhaps they’d torment me even in death .
“Whatever you’re thinking about,” Kaden growled, “ don’t .”
And then the woods fell silent.
The relief was instantaneous — so stark that it felt like a punch to the chest.
Choking on a sob, I stumbled out of Kaden’s reach and slumped against a tree. The rough bark dug into my shoulder, but I was afraid my knees might buckle if I didn’t have the support.
Distantly, I was aware of Kaden watching me, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. A spasm of dry sobs wracked my body, and I covered my face with my hands as my legs gave out.
The ridge of one gnarled root dug painfully into my knee. Warm fingers closed around my wrists, dragging my hands away from my face.
“ Lyra .” Kaden said my name like a command, and the echo of his voice in the quiet woods was enough to bring me back.
His expression was harsher than I’d ever seen it — more terrifying than the angel of death that had swept into that alley to chase away those demons. He looked as though he’d been hewn from stone. Or maybe carved from the same gnarled wood as these ancient trees.
And those eyes . . . It was like staring into the epicenter of a storm that promised to rip land and sea asunder.
“Listen to me,” he growled. “The things in these woods will not touch you as long as I am here. They cannot hurt you unless you let them.” His grip on my wrists tightened, verging on painful. “ Do not — let them — in .”
His words came out as an animalistic snarl that chilled my very blood. I nodded, my dry sobs slowly receding as my breathing returned to normal.
I could hear the rush of blood in my ears and feel my heart hammering, but at least those terrible voices were gone.
Kaden gave me another moment to pull myself together. Then he tugged me to my feet, and we kept walking.
The farther we went, the denser the woods became. The trees here seemed larger than life, some easily twice as wide as I was tall. They grew so close together that their roots and branches formed a cage overhead and along both sides of the narrow path.
Finally, we reached a small clearing, and I took my first deep breath in hours.
A star-flecked sky yawned overhead, the silver light stunningly bright after the absolute dark beneath the canopy. Those imposing trees seemed to yield to the sky, retracting their gnarled arms.
Strange noises sounded from the tallest branches — screeches and caws and screams of death as monsters became lesser prey.
“We’ll rest here,” Kaden said, waving a hand in front of him.
Instantly, a perfect stack of firewood appeared, the logs arranging themselves in a pyramid shape just as I caught a whiff of smoke.
Kaden turned, producing a pack seemingly out of thin air and setting it on the ground beside him. “It’s not a good idea to eat anything found in these woods. We’ll make do with rations for tonight. See what Freydolf packed for us while I have a look around.”
His meaning was clear enough: He was checking to be sure none of those things were lurking too close for comfort .
Kneeling in the dirt, I watched as a flame flickered to life between the logs, crackling as it devoured a clump of kindling that looked disturbingly like hair.
I opened the pack and found chunks of bread with that crispy crust I loved so much, the soft inner part somehow still warm.
There were twists of dried meat, hard little apples, nuts, and cheese, along with a canvas bag filled with grain for porridge.
Freydolf had packed us a waterskin apiece, as well as a flask of something that burned my nostrils.
I uncorked a waterskin and drank greedily. Despite walking for hours without a sip, I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was, and the cool water might have been the best thing I’d ever tasted.
Once I’d had my fill, I wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve and replaced the cork. I peered through the dark in the direction Kaden had disappeared, but there was no sign of him.
Needing a distraction, I dragged my fingers through the dirt and found a handful of small, flat stones. I arranged them in a line and inhaled deeply, conjuring the mental image of the rune Gaeldric had tried to teach me.
I closed my eyes as I traced the rune in the dirt, sharpening my intent to levitate the stones and stack them one on top of the other.
The back of my neck prickled, and I opened my eyes, unease creeping down my spine.
I turned, hoping to find Kaden prowling toward me, but the Dark Prince was nowhere in sight. Instead, a familiar moon-pale face was peering through the trees.