No. Surely not.
Dampened by soft moss, Lux stepped, noiseless and imperceptible, through the forest’s edge. The wood breathed around her. The wood breathed herin. Boughs high above appeared to shift toward her scent only to shudder back at her quick glance.
She blew out a silent breath, watched it puff into the gloom.
“You can’t have me, trees. My heart beats still.”
Her admonishment was met with a hiccup in the air. A hidden smile.
Silly girl.
Lux fought against the trickle of fear down her spine. A trickle that threatened to crash over her in debilitating waves.Hunger. Want. Desire. It pulsed from the forest’s center, coating her skin, enticing her further inward, even as her insides turned to ice. Adrenaline’s welcomed flame snuffed out.
A rhythmic creaking met her ears. Soft at first, but only growing in intensity, and Lux swung around to the grassy plain she’d strode across.
A death-cart.
She lunged behind the nearest tree, careful to avoid the barest brush of skin against its rough bark. There, she waited.
The reaper flickered in and out of her vision as he neared. Cloaked and masked, he drove the horse fast across the wood’s edge, into a natural clearing covered in that same thick moss. Yanking back on the reins, the horse tossed its head in irritation as the driver jumped down, pulling the dead by limp arms and dangling legs. He didn’t have a care for them, tossing four bodies into a heaped pile before leaping again into the wagon andforcing the horse to retreat. Back and back, until they hurtled toward Ghadra once more.
Lux clutched at the breath longing to escape her chest, for she didn’t dare allow it. Not now.
Black boils burst and oozed, coating the forest floor, and the wood released another cold exhale filled with a new scent now. Jasmine. Lux stepped away from the tree, craning her neck, peering into the shadows. Any moment now, and—
She stilled.
There, amongst the trees. Something had formed from where there’d been nothing before. It was grey, this something, silent and unmoving, and the wood caught its own icy breath before it. Lux sensed her heart bounding in her chest; she was sure she could hear it too. And if she could hear its beat, what else might?
The figure stood rigid and cloaked, a deep hood hiding the face beneath. Lux whispered a silent plea that it would pass her by.
Another exhale from the living darkness around her, and the wraith glided forward. Did this phantom play a part in the wood’s devouring? Lux shook so badly her teeth rattled. She clenched her jaw tight. If this being were anything like its towering companions, it could sense her presence on much less. But it didn’t turn toward her.
The flash of a long blade winked in the waning light, held tight by pale fingers. The figure crouched among the bodies. Lux couldn’t see what it did, but it worked quickly, and when the knife retreated, she expected it bloodied.
It wasn’t.
The figure rose, and as silent as it came, faded into the darkness.
Lux peered into the treacherous shadows for so long, her eyes threatened to send tears down her cheeks. When the wraith didn’t reappear, she swung her gaze to the bodies. They’d beenmoved, but only just. Aside from that she could discern little difference.
Yet, there must be. What had been done?
Lux strode forward only to stumble, a protruded root she hadn’t noticed earlier humped and warped at her feet. Her booted foot was wedged tight. She growled at its refusal to budge and, forgetting for only a second, braced a hand upon the tree to free it.
The cold.
It stole the breath from her lungs.
And when frigid fingers wrapped themselves around her own in an unbreakable grip, Lux could only gasp—for her voice was gone. She clawed at the invisible binding. The fingers ignored her and brushed along her wrist, caressing, so cold it burned. Her tears grew rigid on her cheeks.
A trick.
She dragged in a frozen breath; her lips cracked, raw, and with everything in her, she whispered, “It isn’t real. It isn’t real. There’s nothing there.There’s…nothing…there!” She pulled, wrenching her arm at the shoulder.
The fingers. They slid to her forearm.
A silent fissure crept downward along the black trunk. Roots shivered, crawling like monstrous snakes. The soil shifted beneath her stuck-fast feet.
