Then the next.
And the next.
More and more, until countless fiery gazes were turned in her direction.
Lunara spun and reached for the shield, pulling it to herself.
Brand hacked again and again,trying to cut through the shield.
When she’d passed through, the scent of misery had wafted by and torn his focus from the first body. Next he knew, Luna’s wall of power was snapping closed, dividing them, before he could stop her.
“Bloody rash fool,” he growled.
He couldn’t allow his mind to dwell on what they’d found, the sheer amount of dead. All he could do was get to her and get them both the fuck out of there.
“Luna, please!”
She finally snapped out of her frenzy and noticed what she’d done, and he slumped with relief.
Hewas the fool.
For the rest of his life, Brand wouldn’t be able to say whether time had slowed to nothing so he could absorb every horrific detail, or if it had sped by so quickly that he couldn’t even blink before his dreams disintegrated to nothing.
The bodies awoke around her, their crimson power spreading.
That’s when he sawit.
A Forgotten.
Its gangling body was like the branches and bark of the white, bony trees in the Ghostwood, and nearly as tall. Eyes like burning holes flared amidst the swirling smoke rising from its jagged skull and shoulders. Razor sharp claws nearly as long as its arms hung from gnarled fingers, and multi-jointed legs ended in taloned feet that would tear through the earth beneath as it walked.
The bizarre, woody flesh that was pulled too tight across the rest of its features had been completely ripped away from its mouth, leaving festering, black blood to seep from the permanently open wounds and exposed rows of needlepoint teeth.
It tore its head away from the dark fog above like it was breathing for the first time, and he realized…
These lost souls were being transformed.Madeinto Forgotten.
They’d always thought the monsters sprang from the Ghostwood along the chasm border of the Forgotten Lands,appearing from among the trunks. Slow as they wandered their dense, lifeless forest like vacant specters, almost unthreatening.
A clever deception.
When one decided it was hungry enough, it leapt across the chasm in a lightning-swift blur and whipped across the land searching for any living flesh to shred and devour. Thodeleborian legend claimed them as the reason for the Wolflords’ ability to shift—a gift from the Sisters, that they could be just as monstrous as the creature hunting their lands and livestock, their people.
Except, instead of being in the Ghostwood, there was an entire army of them growing in a Dread Chasm—enough to easily overrun the Westrealm.
It only took one to end his own life.
Luna spun, wholly unaware of what loomed behind as she dragged the shield towards her.
Brand was screaming, begging, the sound far away as he beat and clawed and pushed against the barrier.
Inches away. He’d been onlyinches awaywhen its claws were suddenly buried in her back, straight through her abdomen, her blood staining and dripping from their ivory lengths.
She didn’t make a sound. Didn’t cry out, didn’t gasp. Just turned sea-blue eyes on him, her brows scrunching, confused, before she ran shaking fingers over the spikes jutting from her.
The second the shield engulfed her and the Forgotten, a roar tore past his lips and he was jumping, greatsword singing through the air.
Brand didn’t give a fuck when its head tumbled to the ground. Didn’t pay attention to the bodies crowding in around him. He landed and was with her in an instant, catching Luna before she could crumple.
