1
The forest tore at us. Branches sliced my arms. The mud sucked at our feet. Mireth’s small hand clung to mine, slick with sweat. Eryx’s weight sagged against my chest.
“Mireth, run!” I dragged her forward. “We’re almost there!”
Behind us, hooves thundered. Twigs snapped.
Mireth’s breath hitched, teeth pressed into her lower lip, but she didn’t cry out. She just ran.
“I can’t,” she panted.
I squeezed her hand, not sure if I was steadying her or myself.
“I know.” My voice cracked. “Keep going.”
Ahead, the Veil shimmered—the boundary between Braerlith and Aethermire.
My husband’s final words echoed in my mind.If you don’t run, they’ll take them from us. Run, Isara.
But running had brought us to the one place that even monsters didn’t follow.
“Mama!” Mireth stumbled, her small legs buckling. I hoisted her up, muscles screaming under the burden of both of their weight. We were close now.
A piercing whistle split the air, followed by a barked command. Armour clinked, and blades hissed free. The air reeked of sweat and steel.
“Hold on, Mireth,” I said as we broke through the last line of trees.
Cold seeped from the Veil ahead, its strange energy humming through my veins.
Crossing meant stepping blind into a land whispered in warnings, a place from which no one truly returned.
At the edge, I hesitated.
I pressed my face to Mireth’s, her skin warm against mine. “Close your eyes.”
She did, scrunching her face as she buried it against my tunic. I shifted Eryx higher against my chest. He barely stirred, lost in sleep.
Then, I stepped forward.
The air imploded sharp and sudden, like lungs collapsing mid-breath. The ground convulsed beneath our feet, heaving upward in a sick, unnatural lurch. For a breathless instant, the forest peeled inside out.
Pressure roared in my skull. My body buckled, weightless and wrong. Time stretched, then snapped. My children tore from my arms.
The Veil was meant to be a threshold, not a living thing.
It wrapped around my limbs like silk and starlight, clinging, refusing to let go.
I had braced for pain, for heat or slicing light.
But it didn’t burn. Instead, it held me suspended, humming, the magic seeping into my skin and deeper still, into my bones. It pulsed, as if it had found a second heartbeat to echo.
A scream. High. Frantic. “Mama!”
My head snapped toward Mireth, already across, clutching Eryx tight. His jade-green eyes were wide, lips trembling. He whimpered, cheeks streaked with silent tears.
I lunged.
Then music—just a single note. Faint and far away, yet impossibly clear. Not a voice exactly, but close.
