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Still, it doesn’t stop my hands from becoming sweaty as I inch through the forest.
When I woke up today, I hadn’t planned to sneak about the woods like a thief in the not-so-proverbial night. In fact, I’d intended to read a book I salvaged from the keep library, but then that man showed up.
I didn’t know the keep was his home. The place had been ransacked. It looked abandoned. Yet, instead of letting me leave in peace, he wanted to interrogate melike some criminal.Though, I suppose that term describes me accurately now. After what I’m about to do, I’ll have stolen from him, even if the loot was mine to begin with.
I don’t even want to think about his face, that inexplicably beautiful face… It’s infuriating, that’s what it is. It’s a trap. You stare just a second too long, and the next thing you know you’ve handed over your soul in a bargain, complete with a tiny little bow.
But he’s seen my face… That alone will allow him to haunt me forever. He can pop into my life at any moment in time and with that power… It’s possible I’ll be at his mercy, but I’vealready stabbed him, is stealing my necklace back worse? In fact, he might applaud me for getting one over on him. Demons are weird that way. They respect cunning plots.
Surrounded by the kind of silence that screams, I finally reach the wall. The moment my hand comes close to it, I stagger back, careful not to touch the mossy stones. Power, like the twisting cords of electricity, travels up my arm, then dissipates. I flex my fingers.It hadn’t been enchanted before…
Hovering my hand over the surface again, I feel for the magic, careful to not let my fingers grace the surface. A vibration thrums against my palm, confirming my worst fear. The bastard enchanted it. And if he could do that, then that meansthe poison didn’t work.
I steal a quick glance up, panic whittling into my bones. The wall is easily ten-feet tall. The only way over it is to go above the magic. Trying to physically scale the wall could trigger whatever spell he's cast. But trying to scale a tree with nothing more than five feet of stubbornness and wit, doesn’t sound like a good plan, either, but that would be the only way I can get over it without touching it. And staying out here with all the things want to eat me for supper, sounds worse than anything a tree could do to me.
Turning in a tight circle, I find a tree with a thick branch that looks like it could hold my weight crossing above the wall. Another tree on the other side, isn’t far. I can probably jump to it, but if he’s awake, and not paralyzed, do I want to?
He didn’t come for me. There’s a chance I could escape right now—magicless, but free. If I go for my crystal, I risk pissing him off more. I don’t think I could survive out here without it, but to go after it would make me a mouse picking a fight with a cat if I get caught. I’d be entirely at his mercy and there’s no way he’ll make the mistake of seeing me as harmless again. Not after I stabbed him.
And those claws…
That power…
Imagining it turned on me…
He had morphed into something out of a nightmare with obsidian eyes and here I am, sneaking back into his territory like I’ve got a death wish. I’m already living on borrowed time as is and I doubt the reaper will spare me a third death.
Maybe it’s best if I just go. There have to be more crystals somewhere—
My thoughts fracture into pieces as a growl sounds from somewhere in the forest. It’s close, whatever it is.
Nope… That settles that.
6
Valeria
Turning toward the tree,I find my first foothold and climb. The rough bark bites into my palms as I move with precision, staying silent as best I can while I ascend. Foot after foot, hand after hand, the ground below grows distant. And when I make it to the limb I spotted, and pull myself to a sitting position to rest, I glimpse one of those beasts prowling near the wall. It growls low in its throat, as if it’s looking for something on the other side of it.
Even from way up here, panic at the thought of that thing seeing me claws at my gut. My mouth goes dry, and my body tenses as it halts mid-stride. Its head whips as it glances for something in the dark,listening. Then it bounds off along the wall at the sound of a guttural wail.
Choosing not to stick around and find out what kind of creature could scare off thatthing, I seize my opportunity. Quickly getting to my feet, I hold my arms out to balance, putting one foot in front of the other until I near the end of the branch. Gauging the jump, I hunker down and pounce, whirling my arms as I glide through the air. Slamming into the tree trunk,too low for what I had planned. I slide down the rough bark, feeling it bite into my skin without mercy, feeling the scrapes form and the bark burn my flesh. Gnashing my teeth together and hanging on for dear life, the ground rushes up to meet me.
It’s too fast. I’m fallingtoo fast. If I hit the ground like this, I might break a leg if not two. Forced to act last minute, I kick off the trunk, redirecting my motion toward the wall and I drop into possibly one of the biggest piles of leaves I’ve ever seen.
Anoofescapes my lips as I collide with the hard ground, sparks of pain rattling my bones. Having sank into the pile like a rock in water, I’m buried alive in the crunchy leaves. They’re in my mouth, in my hair, and some have snuck under the hem of my pants and shirt. They’reeverywhere. But my pieces are intact and that’s what matters.
With a groan, I push to my feet, cringing at the sting in my hands, arms, face… My entire body is on fire. I pop through the top of the leaf pile, but even standing, the leaves still come to my shoulders. Swishing my arms, I wade through it, praying that whatever is going on with the creatures in the woods is still happening and is loud enough to cover the noise I’m making.
Free of the leaves, I push my hood back and start picking foliage out of my hair, along with other places that leaves should never go. Then, with my dagger in hand, I head toward the keep.
The strip of forest between the wall and the fortress isn’t thin, but I make quick work of moving through the underbrush. And when I reach the edge, I stick to the shadows, peering over a thick bush, scouting for movement or any sign of the demon man lurking. If I’m lucky, he might’ve gone back to wherever he came from after putting the magic on the wall. Maybe it’s empty and I can at least sleep in the keep until the hell flame comes up—assuming I can even get in without my crystal.
The wind blows against my nape, sending an icy cool breeze down my spine, cutting straight through the thin fabric of myclothes and nipping at my skin. Still, I don’t take my eyes off the keep. I willnotgo in there blind. Without my crystal, spying is going to be my best bet to not get caught.
Warm air blankets the crook of my neck, then my shoulder.
“See anything interesting?”That voice. No.
