Chapter 16 — Into the Wilds
The forest was alive, yet dead all at once.
Kevin staggered deeper into the trees, barefoot, his skin streaked with mud and blood, his breath rising in white plumes in the chill of early morning. Every branch seemed to claw at him, every shadow seemed to whisper his name.
The mark on his back burned. His arms throbbed where the other sigils pulsed faintly, crimson and black, their light waning and flaring with his heartbeat.
His mind raced — with questions, with fear, with anger.
What am I? What do they want from me? Why me?
He pressed a palm to his chest, feeling the faint rhythm of the cursed power under his skin.
"This isn't real," he muttered, though the evidence surrounded him in every scrape of bark under his fingers, every drop of cold rain down his back.
It was real.
And he didn't know if he'd survive it.
Kevin stopped suddenly, ears straining.
Somewhere behind him — faint but growing closer — he heard them. Footsteps. Or perhaps paws. A whisper of air displaced as something fast and strong moved through the undergrowth.
They were coming.
Far behind, Mira's sharp eyes scanned the forest floor, her boots sinking into soft earth as she followed the faint traces Kevin had left. The sigils on her fingertips shimmered faintly purple as she murmured a tracking spell, though she barely needed it.
"He's not hiding his trail," she muttered. "He's bleeding energy so strong it's like a flare in the dark."
Dante jogged a few paces behind her, his wiry frame tense with quiet urgency. His green eyes darted to every movement of shadow between the trees.
"He doesn't know what he's doing. He's just running," Dante said under his breath.
Jareth brought up the rear, his calm blue gaze fixed ahead, his muscular frame moving like a predator in the dark.
"That makes him more dangerous," he replied simply.
The three of them moved silently now, their earlier argument replaced by grim determination.
They had to reach him before Lilith.
Elsewhere, far above the forest floor, Lilith stood at the edge of a sheer cliff, the storm wind whipping through her dark hair.
Below her, thousands of acres of forest stretched black and endless.
Behind her, Victor Marek and Kaelen Stormpaw stood at attention, and Selene Voss drifted to her side.
Lilith's eyes glimmered with something sharp and ancient as she raised a hand, feeling the faint pulse of her grandson's mark.
"He runs," she murmured. "But not fast enough."
Her voice rose just slightly, the sound carried by the howling wind.
"Send everything," she commanded. "The wolves. The Nightborne. The carrion things in the dark. Bring me the boy. Or don't bother coming back."
The nobles bowed their heads in unison.
"Yes, Mother."
Lilith stared into the storm, her lips curving into the faintest smile.
"My sweet, lost little heir," she whispered into the dark. "Run while you can."