Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Kaelan’s focus sharpened.
Bria felt it in him, the decision already made before he spoke.
“We do not lose it now.”
“Kaelan—”
He did not wait.
With a suddenness that stole her breath, he tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her forward.
Bria stumbled, her protest lost as the forest seemed to change around them, the air growing colder, heavier, the light dimming further as they crossed into shadows.
Into Driochmor.
Chapter Six
A Forest Like No Other
Where Steps Must be Watched
Bria stumbled as Kaelan pulled her forward, the ground beneath her feet changing almost at once.
The forest swallowed the light.
What little sunlight had managed to follow them through the trees seemed to vanish beyond the boundary of Driochmor, leaving only a dim gray haze that clung between the trunks like lingering smoke. The air grew colder with each hurried step, damp against her skin, carrying the scent of rot and wet earth so thick it settled heavily in her chest.
“Kaelan—slow down,” she pleaded, struggling to keep pace as he led her deeper through the twisted woodland.
He did not answer.
Branches snagged at her cloak as though trying to pull her back. Gnarled roots curled across the forest floor like skeletal fingers waiting to trip the unwary, and more than once Kaelan tightened his grip and steadied her before she could stumble.
Bria scarcely noticed, her attention darting everywhere at once.
The trees looked strange, not dead, nor living, somewhere between the two.
Their bark twisted in unnatural swirls, thick knots bulging from the trunks like misshapen faces caught in silent agony. Bare branches stretched overhead, long and crooked, scraping against one another with sharp, dry sounds that reminded her disturbingly of whispered voices.
A sudden rustling near her feet made her gasp softly.
Something pale and thin skittered across a fallen branch before disappearing beneath a mound of blackened leaves. She caught only the briefest glimpse of too many legs and a body that writhed more than crawled.
Her grip tightened painfully around Kaelan’s hand.
Ravens sat, scattered through the trees above them. Their dark eyes followed her every movement, heads turning in eerie unison as she passed beneath them. One gave a slow ruffle of its wings, the sound startlingly loud in the heavy stillness.
Bria tried not to look up again after that.
The deeper they went, the more the forest seemed to close around them.
Thick brush reached out near enough to brush her skirt. Low branches curved inward overhead as though trying to seal the path behind them. More than once, she thought she saw movement just beyond the trees, a shifting shadow, something slipping silently between the trunks only to vanish when she looked directly at it.
Fear settled steadily deeper inside her. Not the sharp fear brought by the beast. Something worse. Something ancient that lay in wait. Something that made her feel unwelcome and something that warned they did not belong here.
Then Kaelan stopped so abruptly she nearly stumbled but caught herself.
He lowered himself into a crouch, drawing her down beside him before she could question why. The damp earth soaked through the hem of her skirt at once, the smell of decay stronger here.
Bria watched uneasily as he swept aside rotted leaves and dark soil with his hand.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
Kaelan scooped up a handful of earth and lifted it toward his face. Then he inhaled.
Bria stared at him in disbelief. “You sniff the ground?”
“The tracks faded,” he said, his attention remaining fixed on the disturbed earth. “I hoped to catch the creature’s scent.”
“And did you?”
For the first time since entering Driochmor, uncertainty touched his expression.
“Nay.”
A chill slid through her.
“We need to leave,” she said quickly, her voice unsteady now despite her effort to control it. “Now. This is no place for us. We do not belong here.”
Kaelan released her hand briefly to brush the dirt from his hand before reaching once again for hers and stood.
Bria stood with him and turned at once, desperate to leave, to go home.
Her breath caught painfully in her throat and her brow knitted tightly. It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible. The forest behind them no longer looked the same.
The trees stood thicker now, packed so tightly together she could scarcely see between them. Tangled growth choked the ground where they had walked only moments before, thorned vines twisting over fallen branches as though no path had ever existed there at all.
“Nay…” she whispered, her pulse quickening. “We just came through there.”
Yet there was no sign of an opening. No break in the trees. No sign of the way they had entered. No trace of the world they left behind. Only the forest, watching, waiting, and holding them fast within it.
Bria could not stop staring at the wall of tangled growth behind them.
“We just came through there,” she said again, though the words sounded weaker this time, as though even she no longer believed them.