“Maybe they’re a day behind due to the waves.” Greer looks over at the steady lapping of the sea, nothing like the brutal tide on Alyssium.
“It could be many things, but I doubt the sea is one of them. We sent a boat to check for any problems. They didn’t come back either.”
My stomach sinks considering what he’s saying. The Guard should have been here by now. They never miss a rotation. What does it mean for Alyssium if they haven’t?
“The king won’t like this.” Greer’s face tightens.
General Balk doesn’t argue. If anything, the mention of the king fills his eyes with something akin to fear. But it’s gone in a flash as a sharp breeze cuts through the air. It slices like a torrent, ripping across the beach. The sudden rush knocks the air from my chest.
“What was that?” I clutch my stomach.
“Gods, can’t we have one quiet night?” Greer unsheathes her sword as screams start to crest at a distance.
Another blast rushes the camp, this time stronger. The strength of the vibration shakes me to my bones.
General Balk runs for his unit, yelling orders.
“Is it the rebels?” Heat drains from my cheeks.
“I wish,” Greer says, her sword glinting in the moonlight. “Not rebels. Ravagers.”
My throat tightens. “I thought they were rumors.”
Even after Callum and I talked about what is happening with Fae near the Well, I wanted to believe it hadn’t gotten that bad. Ravagers are Fae that drink down so much magic that it burns away who they are. It makes their minds run wild until they become something else entirely. They are no longer Fae. They are creatures that drink and drain, becoming as bad as the nightmares crawling out of the Well.
They’re also nearly impossible to kill since they only take physical form when they want to.
“Ravagers aren’t rumors.” Greer shakes her head. “Far from it. And worse than anything you have read. Their desperation from the Well draining has made them even more dangerous. They will not just kill you; they will drink the magic straight from your bones until you are nothing but an empty vessel.”
A blood-chilling scream cuts through the darkness as something dark explodes in the sky, blocking out all light. Greer unsheathes her only dagger, placing it in my hand.
“Run.”
Chapter 27
Elorie
Greer runs beside me,aiming for the trees at the edge of the forest.
“Don’t go too deep,” she warns, shoving me against a tree as another wave of magic bursts through the tree cover. “The last thing we need is to wake the whispers.”
My eyes meet the darkness, and I swear something twitches in the branches above. I’ve read about the bone spiders that inhabit the Ley Forest. The Fae they’ve trapped in their webs and fed on until they become a husk of their immortal self. No mind, only magic. By the time they break free, they are but a whisper of who they were, desperate for a drink of anything.
My back stiffens, and I don’t dare move. What lurks in that forest is nothing short of nightmares.
Gripping Greer’s dagger in my hand, I realize how reckless it was to come here unprepared. To leave the palace grounds without properly fitted clothes. No weapon. No plan. What was I thinking?
This dagger is larger than the ones I use at practice. It’s bulky in my small fingers, and the sweat on my palm makes thehandle slick.
Greer’s eyes shine silver in the night, cutting through the darkness as something surges in her aura. White light with the brightness of the full moon surrounds her as she stays in place, listening to the footsteps crunching fallen leaves on the forest floor. I thought we were trying to hide, but she’s a bright beacon, calling the ravagers to her.
Drawing them from the darkness.
Hushed voices travel on the breeze, and I smell them, even with my paled human senses. Something rotten and ripe. Death and decay. It’s overwhelming.
My grip tightens around the dagger, and I hold my breath, knowing they can smell me and that it’s only a matter of time before they slip through the gap in the trees, and this turns into a battle.
I start to shift, and Greer shakes her head.
