Lost in the current of panic, Emilio didn’t notice the fork in the path until he was already upon it. His hand slipped out of Olivier’s as the other boy disappeared on the opposite side of the trees that blocked his path.
“OLIVIER!”
But it was too late. Emilio had lost sight of him, the other boy vanishing into the parallel path. Why hadn’t he held on? Why hadn’t he tried harder? Emilio cursed, staggering backward. He searched the surrounding trees, desperate for any sign of Olivier, but the darkness of the forest was his only companion, the barren branches looming over him like spindly bones. Emilio choked on a panicked breath. He was lost. And the others…there was no way of knowing if they were safe. If they’d been attacked—
Snap.
A twig creaked behind him.
Emilio spun on his heels.
Behind him, only a few yards away, waited the shadow creature.
There was a tense beat of silence as Emilio weighed his options.
Which, to be fair, weren’t many.
He started running. He ran faster than he thought possible, chest heaving. He pushed through twisted branches and the webof greenery obstructing his vision. He glanced over his shoulder in the hope that he had somehow managed to outrun the creature, but there it was—a flash of darkness. Pointed claws prepared to strike. The shadow creature was catching up, chasing after him, a billowing mass of shadows and talons and razor-sharp teeth.
He needed to find the others. He needed to—
His foot hit something hard. A tree root.
Emilio went flying to the ground, rolling and rolling, only coming to a stop when his back slammed against the base of a tree, a throbbing pain radiating up and down his spine. He let out a hoarse scream. It tore from his throat, desperate and hollow.
He tried to scramble to his feet, but he slipped against the damp earth, hands helplessly clawing at the ground beneath him. Something snapped in front of him. His eyes flitted up, and there it was again…the shadow creature.
Emilio hadn’t noticed before, but the creature had eyes. Glowing, piercing eyes that were strangely human, despite the animalistic gleam behind them. They were green. Olive green. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from them. It was like staring straight into the eyes of the reaper. Into the abyss of death.
“Please,” Emilio whimpered, hands raised in surrender.“Please.”
Then the oddest thing happened. The creature tilted its head. As if it had heard him. As if it had understood him. But it wasn’t possible. This thing was nothing more than an abomination of magic. A creature forged from shadows. And yet…it continued to watch Emilio. It didn’t strike, like Emilio thought it would.
It was waiting…but for what?
Emilio never found out.
Suddenly, with a startling force that bent the trees around him and whipped tufts of hair across his face, a supersonic burst ofshadows erupted from behind the shadow creature. From one blink to the next, the creature exploded, rupturing into nothing but a noxious cloud of smoke and ash.
Emilio coughed, sputtering. He could barely see. But something was shifting in front of him. Moving behind the curtain of smoke. Not the shadow creature…but something else.Someoneelse.
A figure emerged from the mass of smoke. A brilliant force bathed in shadows.
Emilio almost didn’t recognize him.
Augustine Hughes stood between two trees like a fallen angel poised for battle. His white button-down was untucked, thick streams of shadows snaking up and down the exposed skin of his chest, crawling over his neck. A cloak lay over his shoulders, cascading down his sides in billowing waves of black.
When his silver-gray eyes fell upon Emilio, there was a moment of hesitation, of complete and utter disbelief, and then Augustine Hughes, notorious traitor and bloodthirsty Demien, broke out into the most brilliant smile Emilio had ever seen.
He took a stumbling step forward.
“Emilio.”
Upon hearing his name spoken out loud, with such striking relief, Emilio couldn’t help but flush. His body tensed, though he didn’t call upon his magic, despite the obvious threat now standing before him.
“August.”
Emilio had expected August to approach him, but instead, he did something that Emilio couldn’t quite understand. He knelt beside what remained of the shadow creature and placed his hand upon the earth.
