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You’re going to come out of this alive. Talon’s voice played in my mind.
I’d figure it out.
The canopy of trees obscured my vision, making it hard to see where I was going. It was like the woods I found myself in a week ago when I foolishly tried to escape. The same plaguing feeling that something was watching me clamped down around my neck, making it hard to concentrate.
It was too quiet. Tendrils of whispers hanging in the air, spewing degrading rhetoric.
“Worthless bastard!”
“You’ll never be good enough.”
“Your mother will die because of you!”
Skirting to a stop, I dropped to my knees, covering my ears to quiet the truth I desperately wanted to ignore. My throat strained from my screams when one, not belonging to me, rang in the distance.
The voices disappeared as quickly as they began, and I ran my hands down my sweat-covered face—scouring the forest to see where the scream came from—when I spotted Kelvin and Aeron watching me in my peripheral vision.
Fear prickled down my spine.
His words haunted my mind. You can’t run from me this time.
Why were they set on tormenting me?
I needed to use the forest to my advantage and lose them before they got any closer. I took off in the opposite direction, running as fast as my legs would carry me.
But they closed in.
The pungent scent radiating off them singed my nostrils. I was vulnerable. Exposed. I hung a quick right into a shrub, sniffling a cry as the branches dug deep into my skin. One—or both—leaped in after me.
I pushed ahead, ripping the thorns from my path, and ignoring my blood-soaked sleeve as I exited. Swiftly, I veered to the left, slipping into the concealment of another shrub for cover. The foliage embraced me as I crouched, the blade ready and clutched in my fist.
Their faces were flushed. Brows pinched tight. And they came into view, searching for me. Hunting me.
Time seemed to move at a snail’s pace as I hid in the bush, holding my breath as they scoured the area.
Another shriek sounded in the distance, and like a wolf sensing blood, they took off toward their prey.
I waited. I didn’t know how long I’d been hiding, but I couldn’t stay there forever. Emerging from the shrub, I moved as quietly as possible, assessing my surroundings.
When I eventually stepped out, my body lurched, falling face-first into a puddle of mud.
An impish giggle rustled the bushes beside me, and I wiped the sludge from my face, catching a tiny, bearded man with a round belly running away with my knife.
A gnome.
“Are you kidding me?” I swatted at the puddle—splashing mud in my eye—and released a string of curses. Now I was wet and injured and without a weapon.
“Worthless bastard. You’ll never be good enough,” the wind whispered, igniting my insecurities.
I grit my teeth, mollifying my blood boiling. “Shut up! Fuck, shut up!”
Biting back the urge to cry as I stood, I knew I couldn’t throw in the towel. There were too many people to prove wrong. Too much at stake.
My clothes sloshed as I walked, adding extra weight to each step. Through the thick mossy overgrowth, I trudged, collecting spindles of vines as I tried to find the best location to set up the trap.
The sun peeked through the awning, reminding me it was mid-day, yet there were still no songbirds to be found. No woodland creatures. It was as if they, too, could sense the impending peril to come. The sooner I finished this trial, the less likely I was to be picked off by barbarians. Both human and magical.
I twisted the ring on my finger as I walked for what felt like an eternity.
