Ambrose remembered what Akadian had told her before they left the palace. Of creatures that can use and hide in the shadows, ones made entirelyofthem.
Which meant they were probably surrounded.
“What do we do?” she asked, terrified.
He squeezed her hand. “Werun.”
They ran further into the woods, the screeches of the Alkijin came from every direction. It was impossible to know if they were running away from death, or towards it. Every step they took, every turn they followed, there was no escaping the horrible cries that echoed off the trees and the inside of their heads.
Akadian refused to let go of her. “The further away they sound we’re good. As long as it doesn’t get louder.”
His words were meant to comfort her but they offered none. The woods had always been a place of safety and small freedom for her, but now, terror coursed through her like never before. Her breath caught in her chest as she worked to keep it as calm as she could, her steps uncoordinated on the uneven forest floor. The forest was the last place to start hyperventilating.
It was going to drive her mad.
“We need to find Felius.” She feared they might already be too late, but she couldn’t leave him out there alone to defend himself against the monsters hunting them.
The screeching grew louder than when it originally started and the party dropped to their hands and knees, screaming as they held their ears. The sound alone was enough to tear them apart from the inside out.
Ambrose couldn’t take it. How could anyone bear this?
She crouched with her head between her knees when the sound ran into the woods. As though whatever was making it was now running through the woods shrieking. As though they were following something else…
Felius!
Ambrose pulled her head up to see the rest of them still covering their ears in pain. She had to save him. They had to do something. Felius was completely alone.
Without giving it another thought, before Akadian could stop her, she pulled Eurus’ sword from its sheath and ran as fast as her legs could carry her in the direction the screeching had gone.
Stumbling mindlessly in the dark, she didn’t dare light a firelight, unsure if she even could. She tripped over logs and bumped into trees, branches scratching her face as she pushed her legs to move harder. Faster.
She had to reach him in time.
She couldn’t lose anyone else on this journey. Not when they were all out here because of her. No one else was going to die for her.
“Stay with the prince, young mage!”The voices cut into her head through the shrieks.
Ambrose quickly shoved them from her mind.
She ran, calling Felius’ name into the night, hoping he might hear her, but she doubted it. Nothing could be heard over the horrible sound. She’d find him. She knew she would.
She wouldn’t give up until she brought him home.
Cutting her way through branches that seemed to stretch and reach for her at every turn, she chopped a path forward and didn’t stop. Twistingher body away from shadows, unsure if they were just that—shadows.
She ran, screaming his name until her throat burned and her feet protested with every step. So far into the woods, she had no idea where she was.
Then, the screeching was right on top of her.
Head pounding, Ambrose raised her sword to fight as the hair on her arms stood on end. An ominous clicking, something between a growl and the chittering of an insect mixing into a horrible scream that penetrated her to the core. Vibrating against her skull. Sweat pooled on her upper lip as she prepared herself to face whatever had found her.
“Show yourself!” she screamed at the darkness.
The clicking intensified as though they were talking to each other. Taunting her. Then the shadows began to move.
They stretched towards her in unnatural ways, bending and breaking as though the physical world didn’t apply to them. Bringing her sword up, she sliced and hacked at them but her blade went right through them, as though they were made of nothing more than a whisper of smoke.
Her breaths came ragged as she chopped and swung but nothing connected with the blade. Swirls of terror reached across the ground, inching their way towards her as desperation took hold of her chest, squeezing it like a vice.
