Chapter 16
Raef’s breathing is jagged as he holds a hand over his chest.
His eyes are starting to roll back into his head.
“What’s wrong with him?” I ask in a panic.
Daegan lifts Raef’s hand, revealing a thin hole in his shirt. No blood, but something there is hurting him. Daegan doesn’t hesitate as he rips the hole open, revealing a nasty purple puncture mark on Raef’s chest. My stomach flips. The circle around it is bright and swollen.
“Fuck,” Daegan growls. “What the hell is it?”
“I don’t know,” I say helplessly.
“We need to get him out of here.”
I nod earnestly, placing my hands under his right shoulder to help Daegan lift him.
Then we freeze.
Again.
A screeching, wailing noise echoes through the forest.
I didn’t think it was possible, but this sound is even more haunting than the last.
Chills run up my spine and tiny bumps form on my arms. I glance at Daegan, who’s crouched next to me, our faces only a head-length apart. He’s so still, I can tell he’s holding his breath as he looks off into the trees, his full pink lips pressed tightly shut.
The noise doesn’t sound human, but it also doesn’t sound like any creature I’ve encountered before. Not that I’ve explored many lands outside our region. I’ve seen nothing of the world.
“What was that?” I whisper.
“Stay behind me,” Daegan demands.
We hold still as we wait to hear it again. My heavy breathing I’m trying so desperately to quiet seems like the only sound in these woods.
I sense motion from my left and I whip my head that way. My heart jumps. A dark form glides through the trees, then disappears.
Daegan shoots up so fast it startles me, standing protectively in front of me and Raef.
I take a deep breath, and another shrieking sound comes from the right. We both whip our heads in that direction, and another dark form glides behind some far-off trees. I stand next to him.
Daegan holds his hand up as his gaze flicks all over the place, motioning for me to remain still. Silent.
Another wailing shriek from a different direction. And then another. It has my head whipping around as more and more shadows dance around us. Playing with us.
The swirling figures and the wailing cries are like a nightmare that I desperately want to wake up from but can’t, and just when it seems there are so many we’re utterly doomed, a white light shines up ahead in the distance.
Daegan quickly pivots to face it. He stands in front of me again, with Raef beside us at our feet still struggling to breathe.
It’s getting closer, I realize as I peek around Daegan’s large frame.
I think—by the way it’s moving—that it’s a person.
Or… something like a person. It’s hard to focus on it, because the dark, shadowy figures are still swirling around us from a distance. Daegan’s gaze is everywhere.
“I don’t think they’re going to hurt us,” I whisper. It’s just a feeling.
“Stay back,” Daegan orders.
The figure is close enough now to confirm that it is indeed a person of some sort. Its white glow is a stark contrast in this dark forest.
A beacon of light… come to save us?
“Who are you?” Daegan asks in a commanding voice, his sword raised toward the approaching, mysterious figure.
We’re met with silence at first. And then I realize, I was so entranced by this approaching figure that I didn’t notice the absence of the wailing, and the slowing of the movement around us. I can still see many figures circling us from afar, but they’re gliding slowly now, less threatening.
I’m still terrified.
“The one you seek, of course.” A wispy, echoing voice fills the air around us. And it sounds… male? Possibly. Chills creep up my neck.
“Maethrel?” I call out, surprising myself.
At last, the figure stops a few body-lengths in front of us, pulling down its hood to reveal a creepy smile.
It is a male. Or, at least, it has all the features of one.
Whoever this is stands about as tall as Daegan, has perfectly slicked-back white hair, skin almost as pale as his hair, and the eeriest pale blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
They’re so light they almost blend into the whites of his eyes.
I see why he glows now, too. The white cloak he wears seems to emit a faint light, much like his hair.
Similar to the way some of the foliage around us is illuminated.
It's either confidence or arrogance that would make you want to stand out so starkly in the middle of this dark forest. He must have nothing that threatens him here.
“Are you Maethrel?” I ask again, my voice cutting through the silence. Not like a sharp blade, but rather a small, dull knife.
He nods, his lips pulling into a tight smile that feels too knowing. He looks at us like he already knows all of our deepest secrets, and it makes me feel unsettled. “Yes. I’ve been waiting for you.”
His voice has a hissing quality to it, not unlike the foes we just destroyed.
“Our friend needs help. He was stung by one of your creatures.” Daegan’s determined voice punctures the air. “Can you help us?”
I thought he’d be too arrogant, too proud, to ask for help. Especially from a stranger in a deadly forest. It appears I’ve been proven wrong.
“Follow me,” the figure says calmly, turning and waltzing into the forest like he doesn’t have a care in this world.
Daegan begins to lift Raef in a rush, and I hurry to assist him.
“I’ve got him,” he says, not sparing me a glance as his muscles lightly strain to lift Raef on his own.
“So you’ll ask the creepy glowing guy with an army of shadows for help, but you won’t accept mine?”
He flicks his gaze to me in annoyance, but time is of the essence, so he lets it go. “Lift under his other arm,” he says.
“Come on Raef, you don’t want to go out like this. Taken down by a fuzzy plant-spider,” I murmur. Somehow, I think he’d appreciate the dark humor at this moment. Daegan shoots me a curious glance.
I do as he says and we get Raef to his feet. Daegan takes the brunt of his weight, but I do believe that I’m helping a small amount by holding his other side steady. Raef leans his head and body toward Daegan, and he’s able to take some shaky steps with our guidance.
It sounds like every breath he takes is the hardest thing he’s ever done in his young shifter life.
Though the glowing figure ahead of us looks like he’s out for a leisurely stroll in his garden, we still struggle to keep up. He doesn’t look back, either. Once again, I get the sense that he knows more than he should, and the eeriness of it makes my skin crawl.
“Who do you think he is?” I whisper.
“Maethrel,” Daegan says.
“Maethrel is supposed to be a female,” I whisper, more to myself.
“Are you positive about that?”
I look at the illuminated figure walking gracefully ahead. “I guess not.”
“He’s our only hope right now. Raef is dying,” Daegan says. I think he’s trying to walk faster than our current pace. He’s unaffected by the weight, but I’m struggling to keep up, and he knows it.
“Stop,” he says. Then, with a touch more softness, “I’ve got him.” He holds Raef’s arm out, bends his knees under him, then lifts him across his shoulders with ease.
I stare after him as he takes off at a much brisker pace. Releasing a sigh, I sneak one last glance behind us, then take off after them.
We soon lose sight of Maethrel, or whoever he is, and we’re forced to pick up our pace even more to cut around the corner of a path.
When we come around the other side, a dark cottage waits ahead of us.
It’s not massive, but it’s not a hovel either.
The material it was constructed with is all black wood, which I’m assuming came from this very forest, but the most interesting part is the dense collection of glowing crimson flowers lined neatly up the front path and under the front windows.
He has a garden. A garden that looks like an illuminated blood bath.
We still don’t have a visual of our strange guide, but Daegan doesn’t hesitate as he bounds up the path with Raef hanging limp on his shoulders, opening the front door. I have no choice but to follow, if a bit reluctantly.
The moment I enter the cottage a powerful aroma invades my nose.
Not an unpleasant one, but something slightly…
foreign. Like some sort of tea or the smell of unfamiliar herbs burning.
It has a note of sweetness to it. The aromas don’t surprise me, though.
What does surprise me is how neat and uncluttered the interior is.
We walk straight into a sitting area that holds a large, black stone table that’s low to the ground, and a fireplace in the corner that’s already lit and crackling.
A small kitchen is in view beside the main room.
All of the furnishings are black, in an unusual, whimsical style that I’ve never seen. I like it.
“Sit, please,” our host gestures toward the cushions on the ground spaced out around the table.
Daegan gives him a look of annoyance as he continues to hold Raef across his shoulders.
“Lay him on the table.”
Daegan doesn’t hesitate. He lays Raef down, and I take a knee in front of the table. His breathing is slower now, making me even more nervous.
“He should be healing faster,” Daegan grumbles.
Dragon shifters have an accelerated healing process compared to most species. A fatal wound is a fatal wound, but a deep gash or a burn? It should take them a quarter of the time it takes me to heal. I read that in a book once. I haven’t actually seen it in action, of course.
“Do you have anything to help him?” Daegan asks with impatience. He remains standing, is posture stiff.
“Yes,” our host says simply. He moves to the kitchen area and opens a glass cabinet that’s packed with bottles and jars and every shape of container you could imagine. He grabs one without hesitation, then glides to the table where Raef lays.
“You defeated my crawlers. Very good.”
“He almost died,” Daegan grumbles in annoyance.
“He will be fine.”