One month of this, and I’m convinced I’ve lost my fucking mind.
The bond at my wrist pulses. Faint. Steady. The only proof she’s still out there somewhere. Still breathing.
For a moment I swear I catch it. That wild green scent of hers, moss and thunderstorms and something underneath that was justher.
Gone before I can hold onto it.
The bond pulses again. Faint. Steady. Mocking.
I need to talk to Finnian. I miss the fool.
Hell, even Kieran is better than the whisp.
I walk through him.
“Hey,” he cries.
“You are a gnat!” I hiss because last time my yell attracted another forest dweller. And this time I’d like to get to our meeting place before I have to kill another one of these fucking creatures.
“I am a whisp.” This time he jumps through me.
Right through me.
I grab my ax and swing at his body. I aim for the neck.
He shoots straight up now, abandoning his young adult form and switching back to the little orb. “Flame lord tries to kill Whispen?” He frowns before hovering before my face again.
Guilt creeps up my neck, burning into shame. I try to rub it away. “I—I don’t know what to say for myself.”
“You missed,” he deadpans.
I close my eyes and take the deepest breath of my entire life. My head tilts back until I’m staring at the sky. “Dagda, grant me strength.”
“Ohhh, calling on daddy D?—”
“Don’t.” My eyes snap open. “Do not.”
He transforms back into an adult. “The tavern is around that bend.”
Nope, I am going to kill him. I take it all back. “How long were you sitting on that information?”
He just gives me one of his needle-sharp smiles.
Never mind. I walk around him, aiming for the path and the curve just ahead.
I remain silent, Whispen thankfully keeping his mouth shut this time.
The forest is quiet but alive. Crickets sing. Frogs croak. Only in the Dark Forest those creatures are anything but innocent.
That cricket song could be a creature mimicking one while it follows you. Yet there are no branches breaking or shifting movements.
And that frog croak?
Could easily eat you.
But I don’t worry about those creatures as much as the others.
Thankfully just ahead sits the borderlands tavern. Neutral territory between the Dark Forest and the Unseelie Court.
