However, the more time passed, the more my uneasiness grew. He could be okay, but something could keep him from returning to me. I wouldn’t consider the possibility of never seeing him again. I had survived the seal; I would not survive never seeing Zorn again.
When the calamuts swayed overhead, I glanced nervously at them. They continued to tear the building apart in their quest to destroy the nuckals, but they seemed unaware of me. I didn’t know how long that would last.
Then, through the shadows of the trees, Zorn trotted toward me. His scarlet coat and bright red eyes were vivid against the night, and I smiled as he neared. The calamuts shifted around him, and one lowered a branch toward him, but the horse didn’t acknowledge it as he stopped before me.
I rubbed his velvety muzzle as I rested my head against his. “You had me worried.”
He snorted in response and stomped his foot before nudging me with his head. He was as impatient as me to be free of these woods. I gave him another pet before grasping his mane and swinging myself onto his back. I started to turn him away but stopped when my gaze returned to where I last saw Bale.
Is she okay?I cursed myself for caring. She’d made her bed, and now she would lie in it.
I nudged Zorn, and we started into the woods together.
* * *
Bale
With Corsonand Wren at my side, we ran in the direction Shax and the others had gone. Cold air brushed against my face and down my back; it chilled the sweat coating me, but I was moving too much to notice it fully. When we got out of this and stopped moving, I was going to miss my warm coat. But first, we would have to get through this for that to become a concern.
We rounded the corner to discover half a dozen nuckals there. When they spotted us, they let out a garbled cry, and their hooves thundered across the ground as they came at us.
I reached for my sword before recalling it might cause the calamuts to unleash their fury again. However, I didn’t think the nuckals could reason that out. They would come for us, and they would attack, and they would leave us with no other choice but to fight unless we retreated.
The idea of backing down from anything went against my nature, but I grated out the words. “We have to go back.”
“What about the others?” Wren asked.
“We’ll find them outside the forest, but we can’t take on the nuckals; the calamuts will destroy us if we try.”
Turning, we retreated around the side of the building and ran back the way we came. We were almost to the hole we escaped through when a calamut branch pierced through the wall.
I skidded to a halt only inches away from it. A scream resonated from within, and when the branch jerked back, a spray of blood erupted from the hole.
Not much scared me, but as I gazed at the hole and the blood trickling down the wall, a feeling of unease crept through my belly. The calamuts weren’t attacking us now, but I didn’t think they’d let us leave this forest alive.
I glanced at Corson and found his orange eyes on me. In them, I saw the same realization that was creeping through me. The calamuts were pissed, and they were going to make everyone pay.
“We’ll keep going,” I whispered.
“We will,” he said.
As we jogged forward, I strained to hear every creak and crack of the trees. It was only a matter of time before they unleashed on us, and I had to be prepared for when it came. We rounded the corner where Wrath disappeared only to find a couple of nuckals there.
“We either fight or we retreat into the woods,” Corson said.
“If we’re retreating,” I said, “we better do it fast.”
I didn’t have to say speed might be the only way we would escape the calamuts; they were aware of that.
“It wasn’t too far until the edge of the forest,” Corson said. “We can get there.”
He’d always been the more optimistic of the two of us, but usually, I shrugged it off. Now, I cleaved to it like a mother to her baby. A small ray of hope was all we had left.
“Go,” I whispered.
That simple word spurred us into motion. Much faster than humans, we raced across the ground, zigzagging in and out of the trees. When the nuckals released a gurgling moan of excitement and chased after us into the woods, the calamuts came to life again.
My breath thundered in my ears; every beat of my heart hammered against my ribs. I’d always expected to die in battle, not in a calamut forest while being hunted by some revolting demon Lucifer freed from its seal. The nuckals had sent the calamuts into a killing rampage that wouldn’t cease until they were confident the tree nymphs were safe.
