The forsaken is still stalking me. Branches snap around me as it circles.
My heart is thundering, and I might pee myself. But instead of looking around frantically, I close my eyes, trying to pick up on exactly where it is.
‘Steady,’the voice in my head warns.
The sound of the forsaken gets closer, but I don’t move.
I’m not sure if that’s due to the fear paralysis or Cassandra’s memories telling me not to budge.
Finally, a low growl comes, the sound right behind me. I don’t want to turn around.
Slowly, my eyes open, and I turn, trying to keep my movements as non-threatening as possible.
The forsaken clings to a branch above me, its weight pulling the branch low. Its neck is craned back, and it turns to look directly at me.
Don’t show fear.I remind myself.
This isn’t my first rodeo with broken spirits, but I can fully admit that the forsaken are much more terror-inducing than the faceless creatures back in my realm.
It really comes down to the teeth and the moving. The faceless from back home blinked closer and closerto you, and that was creepy, but I think I could have run from one.
The forsaken are built like they were meant to kill. The razor-sharp teeth of the one above me gleam in the moonlight.
I swallow.
It lets out a series of high-pitched screeches before dropping from the branch. It walks on all fours towards me like some sort of demon animal. Claws dig into the soil, and it circles me, edging closer until finally stopping directly before me.
Breathe, Vivian. No fear.
I try to will my body to relax.
The forsaken sniffs at my boot before standing back on two legs. Its hot breath and the stench of rotten meat wash over me. I try not to think about the fact that the smell is likely its own rotten flesh. Instead, I focus on trying to feel for the creature. On how it has been trapped here for who knows how long, and how Leon told me some souls were sent into slavery until they decayed into forsaken. This was just a person. They had a life, and now they’re stuck in a perpetual loop of suffering.
There’s so much wrong with this afterlife.
The forsaken doesn’t stay calm like the others did but instead grows more agitated as the silver light starts to extend from me. It chitters in alarm, letting out more high-pitched shrieks as the silver light circles around it.
I ignore the fact that the creature is letting all the other forsaken know precisely where we are as I stay fully engrossed in freeing the soul.
The light fully encloses it until finally dissipating. The spirit of a woman in metal armor remains.
I sag but don’t have a chance to appreciate my victory because the sounds of the outside world are quick to return. Branches are breaking, and multiple shrieks are approaching from different directions now.
This is bad.
I am beyond screwed.
I look to the spirit. “Will you help?” I ask pleadingly.
The spirit nods, her own eyes widening as she looks around the forest, picking up on the sounds.
“Go,” she mouths, pointing down the path.
I don’t need to be told twice.
The silvery light of the spirit follows behind me as we hustle down the path. The time for stealth is over. The forsaken know exactly where I am, and they’re coming for me.
Running now, hardly a breath passes before I see two shadows crawling impossibly fast through the branches above us.
