I turn to Maven, already reaching for her, but her inscrutable mask slides on. She turns and takes off through the dark woods in the direction he indicated.
“Maven!” Silas shouts as we race after her.
Even Baelfire is struggling to keep up with our keeper’s pace as she dodges trees, leaps over fallen logs, and scours this part of the woods for Lillian. The light spell in her hands and Silas’s red glow from beside me cast a dim, disturbing glow all around. They’re just barely keeping the shadows at bay.
The darkness in these woods feels almost palpable as Maven veers suddenly to the right, tracking Gideon using her ability to sense fiends. Chills prickle over my entire body when I hear a hissing whisper somewhere in the dead trees surrounding us.
Maven goes perfectly still. The rest of us surround her in the quintet formation we were taught at Everbound, silent and scanning.
“I’ll stay and search for her,” Crypt tries, glancing at Maven. “But if you stay, it’s exactly what he wants. He’s after you, love. Baiting you.”
“I know. He can have me. Not Lillian,” she grits, her face lit ominously by the light in her hands.
“No,” I snap, glaring at her. “Crypt is right. We’re in the perfect place for him to attack. This asshole wants to feed on your fear, but if you leave?—”
“I’m not leaving until I find her.”
I want to protest again, but we all hear the slight tremble in Maven’s voice. It’s killing me to hear her like this.
But we’re not letting Gideon anywhere near her. The things he put me through inside my head in Alaska were fuckingsickening. I loathe that he was ever inside my keeper's mind at all. There's no way in hell any of us are letting him torment her ever again.
“Boo—” Baelfire begins, equally desperate to get her out of here.
But his words cut off as the shadows thicken and come alive around us within a split second. Darkness crashes over us like a wave of viscous black smoke, concealing everything from sight and snuffing out the light spells Maven and Silas were just holding.
Instinctively, I fling ice toward a shadow I see moving toward Maven, but Crypt shouts in pain instead. Fuck. Baelfire snarls, my keeper gasps, and then the most awfully sickening sound of flesh and ligaments ripping and tearing echoes around us?—
And then warm liquid splatters on my face.
I’ve been in battle on the front lines enough times to know by now that’s what a spray of someone else’s blood feels like.
Oh my gods. Oh my gods. No.
Maven.
I can’t even speak or focus enough to send it through the bond. I’m frozen in horror as blood drips down my face. But I didn’t feel the bond break. So what the hell just happened?
“Maven—” Silas starts to shout, just as alarmed and confused as I am.
“Sweet raven, sweeter fear, finder's keepers ends here,”whispers sing, echoing around the dark forest.“Never liked her liking you. Time to see the tears.”
Silas begins reciting another spell, but he cries out in pain just as something barbaric hooks into my skull, twisting and wrenching until it slides deeply into my brain.
I collapse as stomach-churning images flood my vision. A younger version of Maven, sobbing and thrashing helplessly on the floor of a gnarled forest a lot like this one as her nose bleeds.Gutted monsters hung up on display outside of large, foreboding gates made of onyx. Young teenagers fighting each other to the death inside a massive, ornate arena, blood pooling on the stone floor as grisly-looking spectators watch.
But unlike the last time this wraith got into my head, it only lasts a fraction of a second before Maven shouts in a language I don’t understand. A flash of holy magic light blinds me for a moment, extinguishes any darkness left in this section of Everbound Forest. I’m sure a flare of light this strong can be spotted all the way from the castle.
Her spell completely drives that sick asshole out of my head as the shadows completely retreat as a glow like midday light lingers in the forest. We’re left alone in this space so suddenly, it’s disorienting.
For a brief second, I'm grateful for Maven’s powerful magic.
And then my attention drops to the grisly scene that was just lit up to highlight every detail.
Oh my fucking gods.
My heart cracks when Maven's knees hit the forest floor as she numbly takes in this sickening scene.
Lillian is literally in pieces. Her blood drips from nearby tree trunks and is splattered all over mine and the rest of my quintet’s horrified faces. Gore and body parts are strewn around the forest floor.The human’s head is nearby, her blond curly hair stained with blood.
