I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if he does either.
But I file it away, this moment of silence that says more than words could, and close my eyes against the darkening hollow.
Sleep finds me faster than expected. No dreams of claws. No visions of ending. Just darkness, and the steady sound of his breathing four feet away.
I waketo his hand on my shoulder.
The touch is brief—enough to rouse me, not enough to linger. By the time my eyes open, he’s already back at the hollow’s entrance, silhouette dark against the pre-dawn gray.
“Movement.”
One word. I’m on my feet before the second heartbeat.
My body protests—every muscle stiff, every joint aching. But the magic is there, rebuilt enough overnight to be useful. Not full. Not even close to full. But present.
It will have to be enough.
“How many?”
“Can’t tell yet. Multiple signatures. Coming from the southeast.”
The direction we need to travel. Of course.
I move to stand beside him at the entrance, near enough that our shoulders nearly touch. The dead forest stretches before us, gray trunks fading into mist that clings to the ground.
Shapes move between the trees. Too far to identify. Too coordinated to be random.
“Hunters?”
“Different.” His voice is tight. Focused. “Bigger.”
Bigger than the hunters. The gods are escalating faster than I anticipated.
I look at him. He’s looking at me.
“Stay where I can reach you.”
The words hit like a physical impact. Not request. Not suggestion. Command, yes, but beneath that?—
Beneath that, I hear need.
I nod once.
We step out of the hollow as one unit, and move to meet whatever’s coming.
SEVEN
KASTER
The shapes resolve into hunters before we clear the tree line.
Bigger than the pack from the ravine. Broader across the shoulders, with armor plating that catches what little light filters through the dead canopy. The lead creature’s eyes track our movement with hunting intelligence—calculating approach angles, measuring distances, building a combat profile in real time.
Four of them spread across the ridge ahead, blocking the eastern route.
Two more flanking from the south. A seventh circling wide to cut off retreat.
Seven total. Coordinated deployment. No gaps in their formation.
