“Let’s make camp here, and we’ll drag the stone inside the cave in the morning. I dinna want to sleep in here with that poison,” Lachlan suggests, and I nod.
“Good idea. I’ll grab our packs from the horses and bring them in here for us to set up camp.”
Lachlan doesn’t respond other than a dip of his head and Iget the feeling he’s still upset with me for not telling him about the voice. I stalk from the cave and toward the horses.
He’s mad at me? For keeping one slight incident from him on accident, but he kept my existence from me on purpose?
Seriously.
I’m so lost in my growing frustration that I don’t pay attention to the silence around me, or the plummeting temperature of the medallion pressed against my chest.
The smell of mottled flesh creeps its way up my nose and my muscles seize.
Something hard slams into me from behind, but my scream is cut off by a familiar hand on my mouth.
“Shhh,” Lachlan whispers into my ear.
His hand still covers my mouth, but he snakes his other arm low around my waist as he backs us against the trunk of a tree. Hiding us in the shadows.
My heart beats out of my chest, but I relax into this hold. The adrenaline coursing through my veins narrows my sight.
“Slow your breathing,” he whispers again, feeling my shoulders rise and fall rapidly against him.
He strokes his thumb against my cheek as he slides his hand from my mouth, down my throat, and rests it on my chest.
Howls sweep through the trees all around us and a creature with mottled gray skin and black pits for eyes clambers towards us on four legs.
A demon.
Lachlan releases me. The cold instantly replaces his warmth. He steps around me, placing himself between me and the demon.
His sword whines as it’s drawn from the sheath, and he swings, decapitating a demon as it stalks past us. The mottled skin reminds me of death and the grotesque face is straight from my nightmares.
“What the fuck?” He spits as the head squelches onto theground, elongated limbs collapse in a heap. “Where did it come from?”
“I don’t know, but there are more. I heard them in the trees,” I pant, resting my hands on my knees and struggling to calm my racing heart.
“How is it possible they can come here, but our bridges aren’t even open?”
Rocks tumble from the side of the mountain, and I glance up to see several demons climbing down. “Do you think they’ve been here all along? Like since the asphidra began impersonating Odessa?”
“Ye think these are the creatures Boudicca said roamed the forests at night?”
I nod my head while swallowing down the bile that burns my throat.
Lachlan watches as the demons advance. “Grab your axe and sword,” he growls. “We’re going hunting.”
I follow Lachlan as quietly as possible through the thick of the forest. He moves like fog on the water, not making a sound. I pick my foot up and glance at the stick I almost stepped on and internally groan.
How is it possible that he’s twice my size and doesn’t make a noise through all the leaves and sticks?
“Lach,” I whisper.
He holds one hand up, palm away from me, and clenches it tightly into a fist. Before crouching down and covering his lips with one finger. From our position, we’re practically invisible in the shadows cast by the large branches of the oak trees.
A demon tramples by and the noise from its careless stomping is loud enough I should have heard it coming. Lachlan eases up silently, but holds a hand out, instructing me to stay.
He takes one step forward and the demon halts, turning its hideous face to the sky and sniffing.
