think you’ll stay long?” Diana asked an hour later as they sat down to a simple dinner. The meat and bread had spoiled in her absence, but she’d found a few staples to put something filling together until she had the opportunity to hunt.
He shook his head as he took a bite of food. He grimaced at the fare but offered no complaint. “A day or two perhaps,” he grumbled. “It is best if I don’t stay too long. I suspect that if anyone notices my presence it won’t go well for you. I need to figure my own way from here.”
Diana’s lips pressed into a flat line, but she couldn’t disagree. No one in town would understand a troll among them, not after the horrors of the ravagers. They would immediately lump him together with them.
So it happened that, on the third day, Diana stood at her doorway in the wee hours of morning as Raskyuil, armed with what provisions she could find for him in town, threw the pack over his shoulder with a grim smile.
Sighing, she drew him down and gripped him close in a tight hug until his arms folded around her and returned the embrace. Pulling back, she blinked her eyes rapidly and smiled up at him.
“You’ll be okay, won’t you?”
His smile widened into a cocky grin. “Never doubt it, little ati.”
“I am not your ati,” she said, rolling her eyes. After everything that happened between her and Silvas, she felt uncomfortable with the title.
His smile fell. Leaning forward, his forehead nearly met hers as he peered into her eyes. “You will always be my ati. Even if I did initially offer to feed you to the strix. No matter where I am in this world, you have my loyalty.”
“Thank you, Raskyuil,” she whispered.
He gave her a slow nod, a friendly smile pulling at his lips as he straightened once more. She stood there in the doorway and watched as he walked away, passing through the garden gate. He stopped just at the other side and lifted his hand in farewell. She returned the gesture, her eyes stinging as he swung around and ambled away at a ground-eating pace. She didn’t move from her spot until he disappeared.
Her heart heavy, feeling lonelier than ever, Diana sighed and turned to go back in. A brush of a cool breeze made her pause, and her eyes searched the horizon. Was Silvas out there somewhere, or was he still hunting within the Eternal Forest?
Shaking her head, she let out her breath and stepped back inside. It was time to try to get on with her life. Her long, long, lonely life. Grimacing, she drew the door shut behind her, wishing she could just close the door to that entire time and forget.
Chapter 38
Months later
Selvans growled as he crouched down close to the damp ground, his nostrils flaring to catch any scent of taint. Nothing. His claws dug into the earth with frustration. For months, he had been tracking Cacus in the human world, following the telltale scent of foulness. He had been getting closer, but now it was as if the creature had disappeared altogether.
Sitting back on his heels, he squinted at the light sprinkle of trees growing amid the grassy stretches. Just a few feet away a beautiful stone fountain stood silently with a single drop of water falling from it. The entire town had long been abandoned, the stench of death still clinging to it from when the wulkwos broke through from the underworld and tore through every human city and settlement. Already many places were being taken over by beings of the other world. So far most kept to themselves, away from the humans, but he knew that wouldn’t last long. It was the nature of things.
This town was one that had yet to be resettled by any beings, nor did any take temporary shelter in its abandoned homes. Despair and forgotten memories echoed from every corner as the town lay silent, nature slowly overtaking the land once more. He could disguise himself to appear human enough when scouting around occupied towns or in any places where traces of humans still lingered, but he preferred to stay away from them as much as possible.
The flow of despair and forgotten memories was not an unfamiliar state for him, and he found lingering there to fit his current state of existence while he tried to work out what to do. The last of the autumn flowers were