We kept riding.
No path. No markers. Just the sound of hooves cutting through dead air and the forest slowly thinning out into something worse. The trees didn't stop so much as they gave up, shrinking back like they didn't want to be responsible for what came next.Then we saw it.
The horses stopped on their own.I didn't tell mine to halt. Druhva didn't either. Even Adrian's horse stiffened like it had slammed into an invisible wall.Ahead of us stretched a field.Not grass. Not dirt.
Bodies.
Dozens. No—hundreds. Scattered like someone had taken a civilization and shaken it until all the people fell out. Elven bodies. Human bodies. Old, fresh, torn, intact, twisted at angles no living thing should ever wear. Some half-buried. Some stacked. Some face-down like they'd tried to crawl away and ran out of time.
My stomach turned before my brain could catch up.
I slid off the horse and hit the ground on my knees, bile tearing its way up my throat. I threw up hard, shaking, gasping, my hands pressed into the soil because I needed something solid or I was going to break apart completely.Druhva dismounted too. I heard her gag behind me, breath hitching, trying not to join me.
Adrian didn't move.He just stared. Straight ahead. Not blinking. Not breathing right. Like the horizon itself had offended him.
Then his voice cut through the air, sharp enough to draw blood.
"GET UP. DON'T TOUCH THE GROUND."I froze.
For half a second, I thought he was just being cruel. Again. Because apparently that's his favorite hobby.Then I felt it.The ground… shifted.
Not like loose dirt. Not like mud.It pulled.My fingers sank a fraction deeper, and the soil tightened around them, warm and wrong, like a mouth learning the shape of my hands.My breath vanished."Oh—no—no no no—"
I yanked my hands back as the earth clenched, the surface rippling in slow, sick waves, dragging bits of bone and cloth under like leftovers. The bodies weren't resting on the field.They were bait.
I scrambled backward, heart slamming, and Druhva grabbed my arm and hauled me upright in one clean motion before the ground could decide I was worth keeping."Move," Adrian snapped. "Now."
We didn't argue. We mounted and rode.Across the field.Over bodies.
I didn't look down. I couldn't. The sounds were enough—cracks, wet shifts, the faint sucking noise beneath the hooves as the ground tried and failed to take the horses too. I clenched my jaw until it hurt, nails digging into my palms, breathing shallow like if I breathed too deep I'd inhale death itself.The field watched us go.
I don't know how I knew that. I just did.When we finally cleared it, when the ground went still and normal again and the air stopped tasting like rot, Adrian raised a hand.We stopped.
"There," he said, pointing to a massive rock formation ahead, jagged and tall enough to block sight from most angles. "You two. Behind it. Don't move. Don't touch anything. If it breathes, if it glows, if it whispers—don't answer.""What are you doing?" I asked, my voice thinner than I liked.
"Hunting," he replied, already turning his horse. "Something followed us. I won't have it finding you first."He didn't wait for permission. Didn't wait for reassurance.
He rode off and disappeared into the dimming forest like he'd been swallowed whole.
Druhva and I crouched behind the rock, backs pressed to cold stone, the world suddenly too quiet.I hugged my arms around myself, trying to steady my breathing.He'd better come back.Fully intact.Because if this place took him too—
I didn't finish the thought.I just listened.And waited.And hoped the forest didn't decide we were worth collecting next.
I slid off the horse.Druhva looked down at me like she was about to protest, or warn me, or do that careful thing she does when she thinks I'm about to be stupid. She swallowed it."Get down already," I said, glancing up at her. "Let the horse rest for a bit. We might need it later. Badly."
She hesitated a second, then followed, dismounting smoothly. I scanned the area again. Nothing moved. Which somehow made it worse.I sat on the grass near the rock. Damp, but not soaked. Cold enough to creep through my clothes. I leaned back and rested my head against the stone, the rough surface pressing into my skull like it was reminding me I was still real."Why am I here…" I muttered. Not really asking her. Not really asking anyone. "Why did you guys follow me? You could've just… let me go."The words came out softer than I meant them to. Like I already knew the answer but hated it anyway.Druhva didn't respond right away.
I heard her move, the quiet clink of gear, the soft snort of the horse as she tied the reins around a nearby tree. She took her time. Then, without looking at me, she said,"We couldn't leave you to die. Not like that. And not agree to it so easily."
Simple. No drama. No excuses.
I looked at her for a long moment, studying her profile, the way her shoulders stayed tense even now, like she was braced for the forest to lunge at us again.
Then I leaned my head back against the rock and closed my eyes.
"Thank you," I whispered. Loud enough for her to hear. Quiet enough that it didn't feel like I was begging.From the corner of my eye, I saw her smile.
"Yeah," she said lightly. "No worries."I didn't reply.
I just sat there, staring at nothing, listening to the wind move through the trees, waiting for Adrian to come back…
and hoping the forest was too busy elsewhere to remember we existed.