Page 3 of Wraithwound

No. She couldn’t— wouldn’t let her last words to Henry be a lie. Determination slowly replaced the vast hopelessness that threatened to be her undoing. Lena wiped the tears from her face and willed herself to think through the fog of her grief-stricken mind.

The Healer Organization might have answers. Ahgrie, her mother’s best friend in Enora, was both a member and a renowned healer. She might be able to help. Lena didn’t want to think of what else it would mean for her to go back to the city, but for Henry, she would face it. It was her best chance of fighting the turn to preserve Henry’s soul, perhaps her only chance.

The healers in the Org were brilliant. They had discovered ways beyond magic to heal broken bodies and cure mysterious illnesses that arrived with the infiltration of the wraiths. One of them had even trained at the prestigious Schola of Healing in Dovia with her mother before the capital city fell. Lena would give anything to be able to access the school’s extensive archives or speak to some of the instructors, but it had all been destroyed, with most of the knowledge lost.

Lena gathered her strength and stood, for the second time, fueled by a drive to keep her promise. She had failed so many people in her twenty-eight years of life, but she wouldn’t fail Henry now.

Chapter

Three

Lena buried Henry at the forest’s edge. A mournful chittering in the trees seemed to echo the deep ache in her heart. There wasn’t any water nearby to complete the water ritual that would ensure Henry’s soul was permitted to enter Brilliance, the paradise of the EverGods. Leaving his burial unfinished was a shame she would carry with her, although, if she were honest, she wasn’t sure what she believed anymore. It had been fifty years since the Goddess Quintessa abandoned Eteris and the wraiths emerged from the darkness that overtook Dovia. In her absence, some had taken to praying to the other Gods for help, but Lena never heard of them having any meaningful presence in Eteris.

Most suspected the wraiths had found their way in since the Goddess’s magic no longer existed to protect them, but the truth was nobody knew why she’d left or anything about the world the wraiths came from.

Lena’s heart ached knowing there was nothing she could do for the others. Mostly elderly evacuees from Dovia, they’d decided to settle in the once-abandoned village because it was the closest settlement available that was also considered a safe distance away from the fallen capital. Her mother had refused to leave them and became the village healer, ensuring supplies were delivered and using her connection with the Healer’s Organization to make sure their needs were met.

Lena didn’t remember walking back to the house where the remnants of her old life lay dying. She packed a bag, making sure to grab her mother’s traveling cloak. The emerald broach pinned onto the clasp glinted with the light of the sun, another reminder of all she’d lost.

Making her way over to where Henry’s body had lain, she did her best to ignore the blood staining the floor and pried open the loose board. Gold, ornate double loops, like an infinity symbol or a stretched figure eight, lay inside a linen cloth. Colored crystals hung from it, not unlike the two thin crystals that hung from the emerald broach. There were many types of crystals in the land of Reimar, but she’d never seen ones like this before. She packed it into her bag, wondering how the strange metal object could be considered a journal.

Finally, she made her way to Henry’s room. While the rest of the house had been destroyed, his room remained untouched. It still smelled of him, like a sun-kissed wind or baked earth. She sat on his bed and ran her hand over his pillow, remembering the nights she’d helped her mother put him to bed, the countless stories she’d told him, and soothing words she’d whispered when he awoke terrified from a nightmare.

While she would have liked to spend a few more moments amongst Henry’s things, it was getting late. The trip to Enora would take her several days on foot. It would be grueling and dangerous, but nothing scared her more than losing her brother’s soul, not even the infection that would eventually gain control over her body.

Chapter

Four

Lena had just set off into the eerie silence of the day, pack slung over her shoulder, when she heard a soft boom. She froze, the wild beat of her heart thumping loudly against her ribs. Lena willed her legs to move as she eyed the distance between where she stood and the safety of the forest. Not enough time. Lena cursed herself as she realized her mistake too late.

It was common knowledge wraith attacks drew mysterious creatures to the area, likely drawn by their energy. But nothing would be more dangerous to her than a soulbound soldier, the brutal warriors tasked with ridding the land of the infected. Indecision kept her frozen in place, the seconds ticking away. She only had one option: hide.

Lena made for a small house at the edge of the village. She’d barely made it through the open doorway when she heard soft footsteps round the corner. Lena ducked into the kitchen, ears straining for any sound that might indicate the need to run. Unlike the houses at the center of the village, this one was undisturbed, as if the people who had lived here merely stepped out for an errand. Lena thanked the Goddess she’d chosen this one, noting that it would be easier to escape if she didn’t have to dodge any obstacles.

Light footsteps paused right outside the home. And then silence. Gathering her strength, Lena willed her heart to slow and her lungs to draw in air. Finally, after what seemed like an age, in what was either luck or chance, the footsteps receded.

Knowing that whatever was out there might decide to return, she made her move. Securing her pack to ensure it wouldn’t make noise, she crept to the nearest window. Standing where she had been only moments before was a woman with long, white hair flowing down her back. Distorted limbs unfolded from her back and materialized into black, leathery appendages. She turned then, seeming to inspect the decimated village, and Lena was stunned to see that she was beautiful. But the fury in her onyx eyes and contorted features of her face immediately negated her beauty.

The unearthly roar that erupted from the woman confirmed Lena’s instincts. She stretched out her wings and the leathery skin disappeared. White and gold feathers filled where the black, leathery skin had been. Lena blinked. The woman scanned the area one last time before she bent her knees, and with a mighty flap of her wings, launched into the air.

Legs trembling beneath her, Lena could only stare after the woman, growing ever smaller in the sky. Eteris had always been known for its monsters, even before wraiths arrived and began to infect the beasts that inhabited her world. Some of them were so strange, rumors said Ferah, the Goddess of wild things, had created them and gifted them to Quintessa. Even some of the plants in Eteris would eat you, albeit slowly. But the beasts native to the lands of Reimar kept mostly to themselves, remaining hidden in the forests or scattered throughout the plains. Lena had never seen a creature like this before, one who could almost entirely pass for human. It appeared she’d been wrong. There were indeed more terrifying things in Reimar than soulbound soldiers.

Lena spent the night in the forest, just off the dirt road that connected most of the villages in the area. Initially, she’d been too terrified to sleep, but exhaustion won out near dawn despite the strange noises deep in the trees.

She had a meager breakfast of dried fruit and tended to her needs before she started moving, often scanning the skies for the flying creature she’d seen in the village. After walking for the larger part of the day, Lena finally crested the hill that allowed her to glimpse Dovia. A sense of dread wrapped around her as she took in the sight.

She’d known she was growing closer to the city, the forest gradually changing as she walked, a sign of her proximity to it. The trees in the surrounding wood were enormous, having grown to incredible heights after the city fell. Those who had witnessed the transformation over time speculated their continued growth protected the rest of the land from the seeping dark. Once the glimmering capital of the realm, Dovia was said to be cursed after a black mass erupted from the castle grounds, killing every living soul that resided there and leaving nothing behind. Not even ash.

The sun had just set behind the tallest spires of the castle, the obsidian stones now backlit by an eerie red glow. Now she understood why it was often referred to as Obsidian’s Cradle. The mountains rising up behind the castle gave the illusion that it sat cradled beneath the towering peaks. She couldn’t help but feel like the sight was a bad omen, the crumbling spires reaching into the darkening sky like claws set to rip out the very heart of Reimar. As she approached, she could make out the temple, nestled below the castle in the heart of the city, now with a gaping hole in it. Black lines appeared to have been drawn up the sides. She recognized them now as vines that crept up, up, up, finding purchase in the cracks and blown out windows. They looked eerily similar to the black veins spiderwebbing away from the wounds in her chest. The wraithwound.

On the other side of the city, she could just make out the large circular structure that had once been the library. Not much remained of the building but the outer walls, constructed of pointed arches. The largest of the arches housed the main doors to the building, which stood intact. Her grandfather had told her the smaller arches had once framed beautiful stained-glass windows that would reflect the most brilliant shades of color on all manner of scrolls and tomes. Despite the damage the buildings had sustained, the remains of both buildings still towered over the once fine homes sprawled at the base of the castle. Lena could hardly believe the stones used to construct the city had once been white. It seemed not even the stones had escaped the power that decimated all life there.

Grief clung to her heart and exhaustion to her bones, but Henry’s last words kept her legs moving. As she drew closer to the city, the defensive outer wall, once beautiful with its ornate ogival arch gates, now served as a sinister reminder of how sometimes the very thing meant to keep evil out could, in fact, trap it in. Rumors said the city had developed a sort of sentience, the gates now working to alert the city any time someone entered.

Lena shuddered at the thought of her mother having walked through the gates before she disappeared. The emerald broach seemed to grow heavier on her cloak as she thought of her. She missed her so much it hurt to breathe, and she wished for nothing more than to be able to embrace her, to ask her for help. To feel less alone. But she knew she couldn’t think about it now or she might collapse and never get back up.

The idea of spending another night alone in the forest was daunting but still better than entering the city. Her wounds throbbed so fiercely now that she had to grind her teeth to keep from sobbing. Just as she noticed a peculiar prickling sensation coming from the wraithwound, she heard a high-pitched squawk from the trees, followed by a deafening roar. As if in response, a blinding spike of pain lanced through her chest and shoulder. What in the name of the EverGods was that?