The thing must not have liked the sun or theidea of leaving the woods, because though Cole ran for at leastanother half a mile, it never pursued him past the trees. It tookhim a little while to realize the laughter of his friends, who hadbeen waiting for him at the edge of the forest, was the only thingchasing him.
When he finally stopped, it took him anotherfive minutes to catch his breath enough to tell the others whathappened. Some of them paled at his description, others continuedto laugh, but none of them ever entered the woods again.
He never believed he’d return to this place,but here he stood… withLexi. They weren’t far from the edgeof the forest, but he’d never expected to bring her into it.
Even large contingents of dark fae, whotraveled through the woods, didn’t always make it. However, thiswas the safest place for them to remain undetected by the Lord’smen and his dragons.
He didn’t like her being in these woods, buthe’d survived as a child, and the two of them were far morepowerful now.
Not to mention… shadows filled thesewoods.
“Where are we?” Lexi whispered.
“The forest behind the palace.”
She gulped. “Aren’t there all kinds ofcreatures here?”
“Yes, and they’re all deadly, but they neverleave the trees, so if we can get to the edge of them, we can checkon the Gloaming without being noticed.”
“Solid reasoning,” Lexi murmured as her eyesdarted around. “Where are weinthe woods?”
“A small cave about a hundred feet or soinside. When I was a kid, we used to dare each other to run to thiscave and”—he reached overhead and plucked a pink stone from theceiling before holding it out to her—“collect one of these to bringback.”
A small smile tugged at Lexi’s lips as shetook the stone he offered her. “Such a reckless, childish thing todo. How many of you were eaten?”
“None while I was doing it, but many werelost over the years.”
“How sad.”
When she went to hand the stone back, hecurved her hand around it. “It’s yours. Everyone brave enough toenter these woods has one.”
After Lexi slipped the stone into her pocket,he clasped her hand.
“It’s not a far walk,” he assured her. “Stayclose to me, and we should make it through without anyproblems.”
He’d tell her about his encounter with thegiant rat later. Together, they stepped from the cave and into thewoods.
***
Lexi’s eyes darted around the forest as shetried to take in everything at once. She recalled when Cole wasfighting against the rebels and she opened one of the doors in thepalace to discover the woods on the other side.
That night, from within the trees, eyes thecolor of a rotting peach stared back at her. Those eyes scared herwhen they were a safe distance away, but now, she was intheirdomain.
From all around came the rustle of scurryingcreatures. Their noises made the hair on her neck rise, but thesilent ones unnerved her more.
And she suspected there were far morestealthy hunters in these trees than the noisy ones. Or… the noisyones were covering for the others sneaking up on them now.
Her head swiveled as she searched the shadowsbut didn’t see anything there. They’d never let her see them,though.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm theriotous beat of her heart as she focused forward. If somethingattacked them, she wouldnotallow him to draw on theshadows to defeat it.
She focused on the heat of Cole’s hand, hisscent, and the way he made her skin come alive with a simple touch.Now that she’d learned how to activate her power, she felt theflame against her palm, waiting to break free.
She would torch anything that tried to hurtthem.
They’d walked about fifty feet when somethingscuttling through the bushes to her right spun her head in thatdirection. She glimpsed a flash of brown fur before itvanished.
When her lungs started to burn, she realizedshe’d stopped breathing and reminded herself to draw in air. It wastough to do when dozens of eyes burrowed into her back. Theyfollowed her every move as the unknown creatures of the Gloamingcrept closer.
