than a murderer for hire, and you were the easiest mark he ever saw.” Wynn’s fingers fell to my chest, and he rested his palm against my heart. Searing fire spiderwebbed outward from his fingers, burning through my veins in an attempt to cleanse the very thought of love.
I was spinning. Or maybe that was the room. The ceiling and walls converged and separated.
Wynn moved his hands to cup my face. “Let go.”
Rivers spewed from my eyes, salt water crashing against the marble. Broken. I felt so broken.
“That’s it, Leena.”
I’m trying so hard, Noc. I want him to be wrong, but it just sounds so right. I’m lost. So lost.
“Leena. Let go.”
No.
Wynn’s light flared, and the smallest pricks of warmth ignited in the column of my spine. A glimmer of a world without this shattering, rupturing pain.
Wynn smiled, and darkness swam before my eyes as blood loss finally pitied me. Right before the room winked out of existence, I could’ve sworn I heard Noc bellow my name.
Twenty-nine
Noc
The Kitska Forest worked against us. Even with the shadows on our side, we couldn’t avoid the watchful eyes of untamable monsters. Their guttural howls were a haunting ballad that never ended; one screeching call grating along bone bled into another. A phantasmal mist hid thick vines crawling across the mossy earth. Thorns snagged our trousers, tearing through fabric and nicking flesh. No one complained, but it made progress slow. Darkness, which we normally welcomed, was steeped in danger. Only the occasional glimmer of moonlight sliced through the knit treetops, a dim and filtered glow.
The farther west we traveled from Cruor, the worse it got.
Kost flanked my right, and a strange chill clung to his breath. “Nothing yet.”
Nothing other than the terrors of the forest, and Leena’s pained face consuming me. I could’ve sworn I’d felt her earlier in the day. Nothing more than a twinge, a searing and sudden twist of agony, but it was there.
The connection vanished within a breath, and the startling lack of her presence had shattered my control. I’d torn deep into the woods and followed the low-pulsing heartbeat in the hope of finding her.
Hours later, we were lost. Twenty-five assassins strong, and we still couldn’t navigate the enchanted forest. I had contemplated bringing all fifty remaining members, but Kost advised I leave some behind in case Darrien returned. Or, in case we didn’t.
The dark wood had a heart and mind of its own. It was a perilous, endless maze, but it was the only way to Leena and the hidden city. Brushing aside a dead branch, I kept my voice level. “Hireath is northwest.”
Kost shot me a sidelong glance. “It would help to know more.”
Coils of shadows burst to life in front of us, and as one, our brigade came to a halt. Calem manifested from the dark, chest heaving and running his hands through his dampened locks, retying his bun. “I think I found something.”
Hope detonated in my chest. “What is it?”
Calem grimaced. “I’m not sure.” He extended one hand to show me a trail of receding red marks. “I ran into something.”
“Take me there.”
Calem turned on his heels, leading the way around monstrous boulders and dense trunks. He had more tears in his clothing than the rest of us, and lines of blood smeared along exposed portions of skin.
“It’s here.” He kept his voice low, as if that would somehow keep the lurking monsters from attacking. Pointing to nothing more than continued darkness and wood, he slowed to a careful stop. The space before us appeared no different, just a repeated scene of clambering trees, darkness, and vines. “Look at the mist.”
Dropping my gaze to the forest floor, I studied the swirling vapor at our ankles. Milky-white and thick with the scent of dirt. I stepped forward, and the mist lazily shifted with the momentum of my step, crawling over snarling roots until it curiously crashed into nothing.
I blinked. “A wall?” My assassins stirred, peeking around our shoulders to get a glimpse at nothing.
“Watch.” Flexing his hands, Calem shrouded one arm in shadows and left the other exposed. He rammed them forward and screwed his eyes shut. A sharp hissing trilled through the air, and I winced. When Calem pulled his hands back, both were covered in shiny red welts. “I was hoping we’d be able to sneak through.” He stared at the curling darkness clinging to his fingertips. “I was wrong.”
Kost picked up a twig and shoved it through the invisible wall. Nothing happened. “Curious.”