Chapter 54 Into the Woods
Into the Woods
Caramyn
It was a sensation she couldn’t stop thinking about, the trace of him at her back even long after they’d dismounted.
Her mind knew it was a wicked, fool’s game to even entertain the idea of what it might feel like to entangle her body with Prince Asterious’, but she couldn’t stop playing nonetheless.
Even despite the crushing certainty that it would always leave her the loser, empty and wanting.
After they’d rested a while, and mounted back up on their horses, Caramyn prepared once more to ignore the torture of feeling Asterious behind her, of his length pressed firm against her backside, hot and ever-present.
She would have to stop talking to him so much, because she could hardly handle it when that velvet voice answered her against the back of her neck and sent a cruel warmth blooming through her.
She focused on Nocthar flying above, and on what it might be like to have wings. At least when the snow began to fall, its chilling beauty became something else to distract her as a thin layer of white coated the ground, a subtle contrast against the bleak grey clouds above.
And then, as the evening drew near, it came into view—the edge of the Shadow Woods.
It lay miles into the distance, sprawling across infinite acres like a black hedge of white-tipped thorns.
The dense trees jutted into the darkening sky with gnarled branches that might have been claws bursting from the smooth pure ground beneath it.
And it beckoned, like an ominous threat and an old, familiar friend at the same time.
Caramyn drew in a deep breath, unable to pry her gaze away.
“Are you alright?” Asterious leaned forward, his voice gentle.
“Yes,” she mumbled. “It’s just...it’s strange to think that that was my home for five years. It was the only thing I knew—until it wasn’t. A place that looks so hopeless from here, now that I’ve seen the beauty of what lies beyond. Now I don’t know what home is anymore.”
“Coming out of the fire doesn’t mean we forget what forged us. This is still a part of you, just as much as the Lightborn lands, if you so choose.”
Caramyn bit the inside of her lip, twisting her mouth as she thought. “The Shadow Woods will always be a part of me. A place I will protect as it protected me. And right now, it needs me…because an intruder lurks within—one even the Shadows can’t seem to keep out.”
She didn’t need Nocthar to fly ahead and warn her. Somehow, just as she sensed the letter in the library and the prey in the Spires, she could sense the presence of Sinevia all on her own, even from here.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Asterious said.
He commanded his men to follow as Caramyn dug her heels into the horse’s flanks, sending him into the fastest gallop he could manage.
He snorted with each breath as his hooves pounded across the fresh fallen snow, carrying the prince and the witch beneath the soaring shadow of Nocthar.
They slowed as they neared the foreboding forest’s edge, where they dismounted, facing the entrance to the Woods.
Dark tendrils of shadows curled along the snow-dusted forest floor, phantom wisps as they crept toward her feet.
Eerie whispers and strange songs flowed from the depths of the swaying trees, beckoning her closer.
It was a warning and a lure all on its own. And it was hers.
Caramyn tilted her head.
“I spent my whole life thinking that I was destined for darkness—that I could never do anything good. That my blood of Shadows would always outweigh the Light in me. But when I found the Shadowblood’s letter, and then later when I saved Narahbi, it made me rethink everything.
And I decided I was done letting others write my story,” she said.
“I still don’t understand what I am, or why I exist. But I believe that, Shadow or Light, my destiny is my own. ”
She stared into the trees, the rest of everything fading away in the snowy silence. Then glanced down at her sleeve, where she could envision the black patterned veins beneath them as Zera’s words breathed hope into her.
The darkness that marks you does not define you. What you do in spite of it, does.
She turned around to face the others. “This is as far as you all can go.”
They looked at the prince, uncertainty written across their faces. He took a step back to place himself behind Caramyn. “Don’t wait for orders from me to tell you otherwise. This is her domain, and we are to obey whatever she says.”
Their confused faces told her they did not understand.
They must’ve thought she would be able to shield them all.
But they were wrong. She still didn’t even know if she could convince the Shadows to permit Asterious—but they had before, hadn’t they?
When he first crossed to find her. Or maybe they had known if they tried to stop him, they might awaken something even worse.
Either way, he was the only one who could come with her.
The Shadows hissed from the depths behind her, and she looked at them once more, reaching for her bow.
“The Prince will go with me so that I can lead him through, but I can’t protect all of you.
If you decide to be brave and try to cross anyway, the Shadows will come for you.
And I won’t be around to put an arrow through you to spare you the misery. ”
Silent and bewildered, the group cautiously stepped back, a silent pledge to stay put at the forest’s edge, though she secretly hoped Wyran might attempt to prove her wrong.
Asterious grabbed his stallion’s reins.
“Leave the horse,” Caramyn said. “I don’t want anything to happen to Alofreise. I’ve never known the Shadows to hurt an animal, but the Woods are angry at Sinevia’s presence. I don’t know what they might do.”
Asterious nodded, and turned the horse away.
Side by side, they entered the Woods. Nocthar fluttered from branch to branch, as if greeting each one with his return.
They tread carefully, with Caramyn leading through every uneven spot, every low hanging branch, weaving through the maze of black trees like it was second nature.
Each strip of bark against her fingertips, each frost-tipped bramble that she brushed aside, felt like a kiss from an old friend.
And she felt a rhythm in her bones and a strange song in the wind, composed of the footsteps of a stranger never invited, one the Shadows did not welcome.
She walked with the prince at her side, guided by the thrum of darkness in her veins, desperate to drive out the threat to the place that had once been her refuge.
But they had to find the Blade first. And this forest was vast. The trees stretched for miles, filling the landscape so far and wide it could take weeks to fully explore, especially if one did not know the farthest reaches that led to the Veil.
She called to her raven, and asked him to fly toward the Veil, and to spend as long as necessary searching for the Shadowblood’s sword and for Sinevia. They’d continue to search the woods on foot for as long as they could—until nightfall would make it unsearchable.
“So how close have you ever gone to the Veil?” Asterious pushed aside a thorny branch from his face as he ducked underneath another.
Caramyn narrowed her eyes at a familiar cluster of trees in the distance, assuring herself they were heading in the right direction.
“I tried to see it once. I wanted to know what it looks like, to see if the rumors were true about it being unapproachable. I had to be less than a quarter mile away when the darkness came too unbearable even for me. I don’t know if the Shadows would have killed me if I went closer, but something in me was too afraid to find out. ”
“How…encouraging. What did it look like?”
“Tell you and spoil all the fun?” Caramyn wrinkled her nose. “You’ll get to find out firsthand soon enough.”
The prince feigned a laugh, but the air was stiff between them. Fresh snow crunched beneath their boots as it deepened with the passing hours. As the woods began to darken, Caramyn held out a hand and stopped Asterious in his tracks. “Listen.”
The sounds of wind wailing and unearthly whispers swirled around them, low at first, but then it grew. The branches swayed in a sinister dance as they carried the sound closer, growing until it felt almost tangible between the prince and the woman in the forest.
“The Shadows are hunting.”
Asterious glanced around with a light shrug. “Should I be worried then?”
Caramyn shook her head. “I don’t think so. It sounds distant. Just hope it isn’t one of your men who tried to come looking for us.”
The growl of the Shadows lingered in the distance, humming their eerie lullaby as night cast its cover over the forest. Caramyn was grateful for the snow, as it made the ground easy to navigate even without torchlight.
She shuddered as a cold chill snaked its way down her spine and breathed a sigh of relief when the snow-covered roof of her cottage came into view, a bright white spot of hope in a maze of darkness.
“We’ll have to resume our search in the morning.
It’s useless to be out here after dark. We’ll wander blind all night.
” She knew her senses were strong, and that she could likely push through the night.
But the midnight darkness fell so thick it was almost painful, like an oppressive force sucking away any hope that had existed during the day.
And she feared it might just be enough to weaken Asterious and strengthen the darkness fighting to overtake him.
Nocthar was already out searching. It would be unwise to press on through the despairing dark, too.
“My cottage isn’t far. We’ll be safe there for the night.”
The prince nodded, gesturing for her to go forward. “Lead on.” He never once questioned her or even asked for an explanation for anything she said. And something in her heart swelled at the thought that he trusted her completely.