8. The Hunt Deepens
Chapter eight
The Hunt Deepens
Maddox & Arley
Maddox rode in silence, hooves crunching through snow that had begun to harden into ice.
Every step was a drumbeat of fury, a pulse of obsession that thrummed through him.
Shadows clung to him, restless and alive.
Nothing else mattered—not the wind, not the cold, and not Ace.
Scarlett was gone, and every fiber of Maddox’s soul screamed to bring her back.
Arley rode beside him, cloak snapping like a storm-worn banner.
White silver hair spilled from his hood, catching the half-light.
His red eyes scanned the frozen landscape, reading the shadows as if the trees themselves whispered secrets.
“She’s close,” he murmured. “The Null Veil didn’t hide her completely.
She left traces behind—faint, but hers. I can feel her pulse in the forest.”
“Are you sure it’s hers and not the beast in the forest?” Maddox said with a huff.
As they rode further into the Spades Dominion, the trail narrowed, and the mountains rose darker and steeper.
Branches clawed at their faces, fingers frozen in the wind.
They passed a ruined outpost, sagging under winter’s weight.
Torn banners stiff as bone whispered of battles long past, while fractured stone walls leaned at impossible angles, fractured by frost and forgotten in war.
Maddox dismounted, snow trembling beneath his boots. Shadows slithered along his arms, alive and restless.
Arley dropped into a crouch, his gloved hand hovering just above the frost, before pressing lightly into it.
He stilled for a moment, listening—not with his ears, but with something deeper.
A quiet hum threaded through the air as he worked, subtle magic slipping from him in controlled pulses, rather than spoken runes this time.
The ice responded, a faint shimmer rippling outward where his fingers traced.
His expression tightened. “She came through here,” he said, voice lower now, more certain than before. “Recent enough that the trail hasn’t gone cold yet.” He lifted his hand, flexing his fingers as if the lingering magic clung to them.
Maddox’s jaw tightened, his gaze cutting along the trail like he could force it to give her back. “He thinks he’s ahead of us.”
Arley rose slowly, brushing frost from his gloves. His red eyes caught the dim light, darker now—less playful, more dangerous. “He’s not,” he said, voice quiet but edged.
“She’s not meant to be caged. He should have learned that from Seraphine’s mistakes,” Arley continued, softer—but no less certain. “She’ll fight it. She was always meant to stand on her own.”
The air between them pulled taut, heavy with everything left unsaid. Maddox didn’t need to respond. He already knew. Ace hadn’t just taken her. He’d crossed a line neither of them would let stand.
And whatever advantage he thought he had… it wouldn’t last.
Night fell like a black tide, swallowing the forest. They made camp among the ruins.
The fire’s weak orange glow barely cuts through the cold, casting long, twisting shadows.
Maddox sharpened his blade with measured strokes, the scrape of steel against stone ringing in the stillness.
Arley moved around them, tracing protective sigils in the snow that shimmered and coiled around the camp like a living shield.
The forests in Underland are unforgiving to the weak, and they wouldn’t be caught off guard at Arley’s expense.
A faint sound of a branch snapping, and snow shifting snapped their attention. Maddox’s grip tightened on his sword before the noise fully registered. Arley’s knives caught the firelight, ready. They moved on, a silent storm waiting in the shadows.
Three Spade soldiers stepped out from the treeline, armor rattling and breath fogging in the cold. Their eyes widened at the sight of Maddox and Arley, showing equal parts recognition and fear.
“The Heart hound,” The bulky one hissed, his face twisted in disgust. “And the foolish Rabbit.” He spat toward them after the last slur. His facial features bore age beyond his physique.
The three men lined up at an angle, the light of the fire catching their faces just enough to see.
The tallest and most formidable of the three stood in the middle, clearly with rank above the other two.
His glare looked as if it were telling war stories on its own within his scars.
To his right, and a step behind, stood the second soldier, much younger, with hardly any history to tell in his armor.
The last soldier to his left was just as comparable in size to the leader, but his aura bled arrogance.
Cyrus had sent the Spade military to hunt them, but they were too slow and unprepared.
Maddox let his shadows coil around his legs like serpents preparing to strike, and the first soldier never had a chance.
His jaw shattered under Maddox’s fist, blood spraying across the snow.
Arley was a blur of movement, knives silver and deadly, striking the mans knees and throat with merciless precision.
The second soldier fell, crimson soaking into the frost.
The youngest soldier stumbled backward, his hands shaking and his eyes wide with fear. His sword clattered to the ground. He dropped to his knees, trembling. “Wait! Don’t kill me! I’ll talk!”
Maddox crouched, steel pressed against the man’s throat. Shadows writhed at his wrists, ready to consume. “Then speak,” he demanded, his voice as cold as winter itself.
The soldier’s teeth chattered. “Cyrus… he sent us. The border is being swept. Orders are clear. Kill the Rabbit, kill the Shadowborn. But the girl—Scarlett—he wants her alive. He knows Ace took her and hid her away in the mountains. That’s where he’ll strike. That’s where he’s heading.”
Arley’s voice cut the night like frost, soft yet sharp. “We will reach her first, there's no other option.”
Maddox’s eyes darkened to coals, rage and desire coiling in every line of him. “Then we move,” he said, voice low, lethal. “We find her first. And no one will touch her. Not Cyrus. Not Ace. She is ours. And we will bring her back. Alive.”
Arley nodded, a fierce smile twisting his lips. “She trusts no one but us. That is her edge. We honor it. Every step, every breath, we keep her safe, together.”
The last soldier stumbled backward, blood already staining his uniform. “Please,” he rasped, dropping to his knees. “Please, I have children. I was only following orders.”
Maddox expression didnt change. The soldiers eyes darted between him and Arley, panic mounting.
“I dont know anything elese. I sware it. Please—”
A wat gurgle replaced his pleading as Maddox sliced his throat. He collapsed into the dirt, clutching at a wound he could never hold closed.
Without another glance, Maddox wiped the blade clean mounted his horse. They pressed deeper into the mountains, shadows of themselves, carrying the storm within. Every step drew them closer to Scarlett, every trace of her magic a guiding flame.
The peaks loomed black against the bruised sky, jagged teeth waiting to devour. Somewhere in that merciless dark, Scarlett waited—untethered, defiant, alive. That’s all they could hope for to keep pushing forward with her.
Maddox and Arley would follow her to the end of the rabbit holes and what possibly lies beyond them. They would fight, bleed, and tear through anything in their way. She was theirs—not to command, but to protect. They pressed on, a storm of steel and shadow, bound to a queen who had no equal.