“Of course.” I grunted. “I took a trail that wound through a swampy area and up over hills, stumbling down the other side. I thought of reaching the mountains where I would climb a steep cliff. I’d find a cave. Light a fire and eat the bread and butter I'd stolen. Then I'd sleep in the cave and pretend I was a fierce warrior on a mission for the true king.”
“Your father.”
“I miss him. He was better than the rest.” Better than me in too many ways. “Night in the woods can be scary. Sounds are shaper. Each snap of a branch carved pathetic fear into my soul.”
“You were a boy. I'm sure you were scared with good reason. Creatures hunt the woods at night, especially beyond the wall.”
“Borgons, though they're not the only things to fear in the forest.”
A shiver ripped through her, and I tightened my arms around her as if I truly had the strength and ability to protect her from what was coming.
“Then I came to the hut,” I said. “It stood on the edge of a low marshy area speckled with tiny islands covered with moss. It was nestled among capressa trees with long vines draping across the roof. They made a mesh on the walls so tight it appeared almost skeletal.”
“Did you turn around or go closer?”
“I hid, stooping down among a cluster of thorny bushes, watching the thin trail of smoke coiling from the chimney, the dark windows with no light inside, the closed door carved with a shape of something I couldn't make out. I remained there, watching, though I didn't know why. Something…” I shook my head, trying to put words to the feeling, though I couldn't find them today any easier than I could back then. “That's when the door opened, and a slender figure emerged. They wore a deep red cloak pulled up to shadow their face.”
“You didn't turn and flee?”
“Fleeing invites pursuit.”
“But you didn't know who they were.”
“I sensed what they were.” And to this day, while I still couldn't name it, I knew that if they'd caught me back then, I would not be here now.
“Whatwerethey?”
I shook my head, unwilling to name it in case I was wrong. Words had power and this one… They had the most power of them all. Enough to crack the world wide open if they chose.
“They paused, and their head lifted as if they were sniffing the air. No, I could sense that they could taste me hiding nearby.”
“Power hungry, then.”
She was right in so many ways.
“Then their head snapped to face where I hid,” I said. “’Come closer, they said. Don't stand in the woods when you can approach and finally see’.”
“Finally see what?” she asked, frowning.
“I don't know. Back then, I didn't want to know.” Although, I did now. “I couldn't hold back. Their voice, low, commanding, yet coated with something oily and unnatural, wrapped around me like a noose. ‘Come closer,’ they said again. And I obeyed. I hated it. Fought it with everything I had. But I couldn’t stop. My breath came in gasps, my chest heaving as if I’d run for hours. My body screamed for me to turn and get away. All I could do was take one step after another, my feet dragging through the swamp before pressing through the deep, vine-ensnared moss. My legs weighed more and more as I moved. And my shadow slithered along beside me, almost stretching toward them.”
“Lore,” she breathed, her arm tightening around my back.
Did she realize what she'd called me? I'd noted that she'd used Lorant since that night when she discovered who and what I am. She told Merrick she didn’t know why but that Lore no longer felt right.
So intriguing.
“The air was colder there, though no wind stirred,” I said. “The world felt muted, the sounds of the forest swallowed whole, leaving only the rasp of my labored breathing behind. I gritted my teeth, my throat raw as if I’d been screaming. Sweat slicked my skin beneath my tunic, and I tasted salt and iron on my tongue. I wanted to be back at the castle, playing in my suite, runningthrough the corridors, doing anything but this. Anything but answering that voice’s command.”
“And your shadow?”
“It kept stretching out to them before snapping back to rejoin me.”
“Lured?”
I shrugged because I truly didn’t know, not even to this day. “The marshy area stretched longer with each of my steps. The vines clutching at my boots were alive and threatening to pull me down. Brambles snagged my clothing. My muscles trembled under the weight of something invisible, something terrible. And they said, ‘Don’t stop now’.” I pitched my voice high to match theirs. Even today, I could still hear them as if they spoke in my mind this instant. “Their voice growled through the night like the scrape of a blade against stone, rattling inside my skull and twisting tighter around my will. My feet obeyed, even as my mind rebelled, even as terror lanced through me with each dragging step. I hated how powerless I felt, how utterly undone this thing could make me with only words.”
“Tell me the rest,” she croaked.
