Gaige
The errant, bone-chilling howls rumbling through the dark woods weren’t enough to keep me from venturing deeper into the Kitska Forest. Nothing was as terrifying as returning to Hireath and seeing Kost again. Not when he didn’t understand. Not like he ever did. For someone so incredibly brilliant, he was also so terribly dense.
Scowling, I kicked aside a stray branch and kept going, ignoring the swirling, angry shadows that clung to my every move. I couldn’t get them to disperse. They were relentless, flanking my arms and legs and wrapping around my fingers. I hated their cool touch.
You didn’t before.
I bit back a wordless shriek of frustration. When Kost had summoned his shadows and sent one gently curling around my arm, my knees had gone weak. I’d longed to feel more. It’d felt so personal, as if I’d somehow been granted permission to see a private part of Kost’s life. There was nothing frightening about those dark tendrils. If anything, they’d excited me. They whispered of hope and possibility and even something deeper. Something I dared not name, especially now.
Funny how much could change in no time at all.
Brushing back a curtain of thorny vines, I continued aimlessly through the forest. Another eerie call crested in the distance, and I winced. I knew the monsters here were different from the beasts I’d lost, but I couldn’t stop myself from tracing my emblem. Even hidden from sight beneath my leather glove, the image of that lifeless, faded tree was burned into my mind. I’d never escape it.
Gone. They’re all gone. My chest heaved as heat pricked at the backs of my eyes.
I wished he’d never convinced them to raise me. He destroyed something with that decision, something I’m not sure he even realized was there—a possible future. Never mind that Yazmin killed me. Rationally, I knew that we couldn’t have had a future if I’d stayed dead. But logic couldn’t keep the anger, the feeling of betrayal, from festering in my heart. Because now I was trapped in this gods-awful world with too many reminders of what could’ve been. Of the life I was supposed to have with my beasts. Maybe even with him.
The shadows around me spiraled out of control, snaking through trees and severing branches in a violent display of power.
Before, I could’ve loved him. Now…
The darkness around me was suffocating, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t decipher my shadows from the all-consuming suffering of the Kitska Forest. I’d never noticed it before. But as I waded through the thicket of trees and underbrush, there was a hopelessness that tugged at my senses. It beckoned to me, to my shadows, and guided my feet deeper into the heart of the woods.
A shiver raced down my spine as another chilling howl scraped through the air, much closer than before. Coming to a halt, I peered around tree trunks and tried to determine the source of the sound. I knew little about the monsters that inhabited this forest. If the rumors were true, that they were the trapped souls of deceased beasts from the First War, then maybe they weren’t so different from me—undead and lost.
Undead. A dull ringing started in my ears as my breathing hitched, and I straightened my spine. What if…
When nothing revealed itself, I started up again. A strange sense of invigoration filled my limbs, and my pace quickened. There was no telling how many beasts had died that day. The loss was devastating enough for my kind to sequester themselves in Hireath. They never would’ve returned to a mass grave of beasts. They never would’ve thought that death didn’t have to be the end.
Zane. My mind rewound to the time I’d read one of Cruor’s more peculiar tomes, Zane and the Fallen Leaders. He’d become the first guild master of Cruor and established a home within the confines of the Kitska Forest. As the first of his kind, his power was unmatched—and no doubt as equally unsettling. I tracked the chaotic tendrils weaving around me. If he’d made his way through here with the power to raise the dead…
A desperate hope flickered to life in my chest. If the Kitska monsters were undead beasts, and I was an undead Charmer… Could I tame them? Did I want that?
Yes. Undoubtedly so. I wanted—no, needed—some connection to my former life. Some proof that there was a reason for me to endure.
Pulse climbing, I maneuvered around gnarled roots and vines until I came across a clearing. Moonlight bathed the grass in a pale glow, and I cautiously made my way to the center. The scent of moss and decay was heavy in the air. A breeze trickled through the pinesco pods, their unnerving pattern giving the impression of thousands of blinking eyes.
Gaze wary, I turned in place. My shadows furled outward, crawling across the forest floor without my command, and shooting off into the trees. They dispersed entirely after that, leaving me surprisingly vulnerable and bare. Gently, I rubbed my arms.
Following the sudden whoosh of my shadows, the woods fell silent. Minutes dragged by as I waited for, well, I wasn’t entirely sure. But the urge to keep trekking forward had disappeared, and so I stood.
Please. I scanned the forest line, but nothing happened. Please.
My shoulders drooped, and I sank to the ground. With trembling fingers, I pulled off my gloves. A phantom pain, stronger than anything I’d ever experienced in my life, throbbed from my emblem. I wasn’t sure if that ache would ever go away.
Pressing the symbol to my lips, I whispered, “I just need a reason to stay.” All I wanted was a sliver of my life back. And if I couldn’t have my beasts, and I couldn’t bring myself to even look at the man I’d yearned for, then maybe, just maybe, these monsters could save me.
A horrendous roar shook the trees, and suddenly my shadows reappeared. They surrounded me in a brutal maelstrom of darkness, and I snapped my gaze upward. There, on the edge of the forest, was the outline of a beast shrouded by trees. Burning red eyes stared back at me. The creature let out another guttural roar, and the pinesco pods above its head danced in a panicked frenzy.
As if preparing to charge, the creature dipped its head low.
Slowly, I stood. A strange, almost manic smile claimed my lips. I didn’t know if I would survive this encounter. This beast would end my life for the second time or I’d find a way to tame a Kitska monster—and either outcome suited me just fine.