CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Hushed Woods was my own personal nightmare.
Though I supposed it was meant to be everyone’s.
As we approached the border of the woods, a void-like presence stretched before us, swallowing up the trilling of birds and the leaves shifting from the breeze.
It appeared like any other woods. Most of the leaves had fallen where they decayed on the ground.
Some trees still held on to golden yellows and vibrant reds.
But unlike any other woods, disquiet emanated through the long corridors of trees, what stoked the unease within my chest. The further we went in, the more muted sound became, until all sound had been snuffed out by the thick air that pressed in all around.
All that eased the heavy silence was Nyx’s steps that rustled the underbrush.
And my breathing. And Sebastian’s. The slow rise and fall of his chest behind me rocked me gently.
I leaned into him ever so slightly before I realized what I had done. And my eyes widened as he lowered his head to me. His cheek nearly grazed my own. His lips brushed the shell of my ear. “You’re scared.” It wasn’t a question.
“No.” For some reason protesting him just felt right.
“I can hear your heartbeat, and I can smell it.” He can smell it? I pushed past that.
“I don’t like the silence.”
His face was still so close to mine. His nose trailed along my temple.
With his arms wrapped around me to hold the reins, he was truly enveloping me, and I found it hard to breathe.
I wanted to tell him to keep his eyes on the path, but there was no path, and Nyx seemed to be maneuvering around the trees just fine.
“Why?”
“Because it’s lonely.”
“Lonely, how?” He drew in a deep breath, and ... did he just smell me? I gripped the horn of the saddle hard.
“I just don’t like to be with myself in that way. Completely on my own within my thoughts, with no distractions to keep them from taking over.”
“What is within your thoughts?” His voice dropped low, to a velvety caress. Each word spilled down my neck with his warm breath.
At present, my thoughts were entirely scrambled. A light shimmered underneath my skin; I wanted to let it breathe and burn brightly. But a part of me held back, knew it was wrong. It would only turn to a ravenous fire leaving a desolate path.
“I ...” I couldn’t think.
“You don’t like your thoughts?”
“No.” I could tell he was waiting for more. “There is a lot that keeps me from contentment, being able to just enjoy. I ...” I couldn’t find the words. No one had ever asked me such things.
Movement shifted in the distance. He must have spotted it when he went rigid behind me.
He stopped Nyx with a soundless command and slowly placed his hand over my mouth.
He didn’t know I was used to being quiet in the face of danger.
But I remained still, not making a sound.
Though what I saw was more terrifying than anything Alaric had ever shown me, because this was real.
And it only distorted my reality further, showing me once more that I knew too little.
It told me anything was possible in all the wrong ways.
The creature moved slowly, a darkened mass wrapped in shadows that rolled off its body to the ground, dispersing into a dreary fog.
Its gangly, skinny limbs were bent. Its arms were so long that they nearly dragged along the ground.
It was hunched over as if its own weight was a chore to carry.
If we were any closer, it surely would have towered well over us.
And what was most disturbing was that its movements made no sound.
Its steps did not disturb the underbrush.
It left no mark on the land. I could only imagine when night fell, this creature would meld with the dark seamlessly, not making a single sound to warn of its horrid presence.
We waited as it dragged its limbs by at a glacial pace.
Even Nyx seemed to know not to make a sound.
Sebastian kept his hand over my mouth. My head rested at the crook of his neck.
Our bodies pressed tightly together. And I realized his arm was like a vise wrapped around my waist, as if he feared I’d jump off Nyx and run away.
His scent roiled around me, prodding me all over, pulling me down.
Amber, leather, the smoke of a distant fire.
His proximity was becoming intoxicating.
My head felt lighter from the weight of it all.
I tried to focus on the creature, on the terror before me, on my possible death, my own life that dangled before me.
But his heavy touch sent shivers through me, setting my core on fire.
My thoughts clashed together, writhing around into a tangled mess.
The creature began to fade into a darkened mist until it dissipated completely. Sebastian released me, and I sucked in a breath. He gathered up the reins and urged Nyx onwards again. After a few short moments, he broke the suffocating silence.
“Is it normal for you to be so aroused in the presence of a predator?” His words twisted my insides. The urge to fall flat on the ground nearly overtook me.
“What?”
“Though I’m curious, Miss Charlotte.” He leaned forward again, brushing his lips against the shell of my ear. His voice fell deeper, darker. “Which predator brought you to your arousal?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He nuzzled his nose into my hair, sending a shudder through me. To my horror he said, “Your scent is overpowering, killer.”
I tried to regain control of my breathing, blinking hard. I shook my head. Perhaps I needed to be rattled, taken by the shoulders and shaken until my head fell back into place.
“I think talking time is over now.”
He leaned back with a deviant chuckle.
The oppressive silence was better than this, better than whatever unfurled inside me. It needed to be plucked from the roots, to rot and decay. Because, no, this was certainly not normal. To allow these feelings to continue would lead to everything I did not want.
* * *
We were nearing closer. I was growing tired of hearing my own breathing so clearly, the inner workings of my body. No matter how hard I tried to focus on something else, it was inescapable. I was close to snapping, wanting to scream into the woods just for another sound to hear.
“Stop.”
My spine stiffened at the sound. It was so faint. The tiny voice retreated far too quickly before I could process the word.
“Did you hear that?” I asked, glancing around to see nothing but an endless expanse of trees.
He gathered the reins in one hand, wrapping his other arm around my waist. “I did.”
“Take heed.”
I swatted at my ear. The whispers like the buzz of a fly.
“Turn back.”
I swatted again. Whoever this was whispered right into my ear before dashing away, the voice fading out with distance, only to come back sharply. I narrowed my eyes, scanning the scene around me.
“Come any closer and mistress won’t be pleased.”
My eyes finally caught sight of movement. A streak of blurring light, moving too fast to decipher.
“But keep going and we will be quite pleased.”
“Yes, then we can fill our tummies.”
Sebastian urged Nyx into a canter as a chorus of unsettling giggles followed after us. I squealed as something entangled within my hair. He grabbed what I still couldn't make out and tossed it aside. Whatever it was let out a tiny growl. We lurched to a stop as they finally appeared before us.
There were three of them, and they couldn’t have been more than five inches tall.
They were floating before us. Their wings, a translucent black reflecting blue and purple, fluttered rapidly behind them, creating a shimmering effect that was quite mesmerizing to look at.
Their skin was paler than mine, with an ethereal light like the surface of the glowing moon.
Their clothing seemed to be made of thin, soil-stained roots woven together in delicate crocheted patterns.
Hair black as ink flowed past their dangling feet.
They had the face of a porcelain doll, though a sorrowful haze crafted their features.
But what was truly disturbing about them was their eyes that took up the majority of their face. They had smokey gray scleras and pitch black irises that blended into their pupils, leaving them appearing maliciously doe-eyed. And their lips were smeared with a faint red.
“What in the blazing oaks are those?” I muttered.
“Some type of faerie,” he muttered just as low.
I had to stop being surprised at what I saw now. No matter how much I claimed to expect the pages of my folklore books to come to life after all that I had seen lately, I was still taken aback with my ever-changing world.
“I get the gray one. She smells quite delightful,” one of them spoke.
“You got to pick last time. I get first dibs this time,” another protested. Their small, mournful voices trudged along a haunting breath.
The former gasped. “I did not!”
“Did too!”
“You always hog the humans.”
“Do not!”
“Do too!”
“Well, I don’t want the big one. He smells funny.”
They must have thought he was human because that was the last way I’d describe his scent.
“Too bad!”
They let out tiny growls before they collided, tussling around the air in a ball.
The third one who had been quiet throughout their bickering piped up. “I say whoever is quickest gets first dibs.”
I hardly had a chance to register her words before she dove in.
I cried out at the sharp pain of her pulling at my hair.
Sebastian backhanded her, sending her tumbling through the air.
She shook herself out like a dog once she righted herself.
She snarled, pointing a slender finger at him. “I’m eating you face first!”