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That was where she could go.
She continued to run blindly, pumping her legs over the barren earth, trusting herself not to fall, and turned her thoughts over to Teryn. His lips on hers. His hands in her hair.
Her chest warmed. Her heart flitted.
She enveloped those emotions around her and visualized the tree under which they’d kissed. She saw its wide trunk, its bark, its bright green leaves. She saw the grass covering the cliff. Saw the wildflower meadow beneath it.
Every part of her felt like she was there.
Safe.
Home.
Heat scalded her back, but she ignored it, imagining it was sunlight blazing over the cliffside instead.
She sent a surge of magic into her feet…
And took a purpose-fueled step.
As her feet landed, the ground softened, the air shifted. She opened her eyes and flung out her hands, stumbling as she nearly collided with the tree she’d held in her mind’s eye. Night surrounded her, as did the scents of the familiar woods. She’d done it. She was here. A cry of relief escaped her throat, and she sank to the base of the trunk, arms curled around her knees as she caught her breath.
She sat like that for minutes on end. Sobs tore from her chest, erupting with the weight of her emotions, the return of her magic, the terror of what had just happened.
Once she could breathe easily again, she unhooked her arms from around her knees and rose to her feet. She brushed out the skirt of her robe, frowning at its singed hem. A tendril of dark hair caught her eye, and she saw it too had been singed. Only then did she note the faint smell of burning in the air. How much hair had she lost? Was the back of her robe intact?
She reached for the lock of hair but realized she still held the collar in one hand. With a glare, she shoved it into her robe pocket with far more force than necessary. Then, stepping toward the edge of the cliff and into the moonlight, she assessed the charred strand. She ran her fingers through her tangled ends, relieved to find most of her hair still there—
Movement caught her eye from beneath the cliff. The moon illuminated the vast meadow below.
Cora bit her lip to smother her shout of alarm.
It wasn’t the tents that startled her. Not the makeshift camp that had invaded what she’d once considered her most favorite and sacred location.
It was the monster that emerged from the trees.
56
Athunderous roar reverberated through the night. It echoed through the tent, shattering the moment Mareleau and Larylis had been sharing. Sweetness had filled their embrace mere moments ago—mingling with the joy and terror that came with knowing they’d soon be parents—but now they both froze, tensing in each other’s arms.
“What was that?” Mareleau whispered.
“A bear, probably,” Larylis said, trying to appear composed. Though he’d gone on countless hunts with his brother growing up, he never fully understood its appeal. Hunting prey, delivering killing blows, hearing animalistic screams when a wound missed its mark and caused unnecessary pain…he’d hated all of it. The sound he’d just heard reminded him too much of those screams—an eerie, keening cry of pain.
“A bear?” Mareleau pulled back from him, face ashen. “Bears can’t claw through tents, can they?”
He forced a reassuring smile to his lips. “There will be guards on patrol, ready to confront any hungry interlopers.” Even as he said it, an unsettling chill fell over him. In the wake of the roar, he heard only silence. He was grateful not to hear a repeat of the sound, but he expected to at least catch strains of commotion coming from the camp. As far as he could tell, the roar had come from nearby in the woods, which meant everyone else would have heard it too.
But…now that he thought about it, he hadn’t heard anything to suggest the hunting party had returned from their hunt. The darkness blanketing the tent walls told him it was well past nightfall, so they would have returned hours ago. Of course, it was possible he would have missed the party’s return. He had been rather…distracted.
Ever since he’d first entered the tent and laid eyes on Mareleau, she’d consumed his every thought. In the hours that followed, he’d been immersed in pleasure, in the joy of their reunion. Then came her confession, which had brought an entirely new set of emotions to contend with.
But in the hollow wake of that roar, he was reminded of all the other reasons he had to feel uneasy.
He pulled farther back and met his wife’s eyes. “Mare, I need to ask you some serious questions.”
She shrank down a little, pulling the small blanket her father had gifted her to her chest. He knew she’d purposefully changed the subject when he’d first suggested they speak of serious matters, but they’d ended up on one of the most significant topics anyway. Still, he couldn’t let her escape his line of questioning this time.
“There was a reason why I left my retinue to make haste to Ridine. That same reason drove your father to join me.”
