“You’re really going to leave me alone with him?” I call out after Raef. “What if he tries to kill me? Again.” I add.
“I’m not going to kill you,” Daegan says evenly, pulling on his saddle to adjust it. My eyes catch on his bicep as he works to tighten the strap.
What is wrong with me? He’s a mean, angry dragon who hates me with a passion because I was born an elf. I avert my gaze, instead looking at the thick forest in the distance ahead. “Can’t blame me for not believing you,” I say on the breeze. It’s almost a whisper, but he hears me.
Stopping what he’s doing, he turns to look at me, crossing his arms. Why is he exposing so much of his arms when it’s this cold? The tight-fitting black shirt cuts off halfway up his bicep.
“No, I can’t.” He takes a deep breath, and it seems his next words almost pain him to say. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. It won’t happen again.”
“Misunderstanding?” I can’t help but chuckle.
“I was a fool for talking so openly, and I’m sorry I threatened you. You should have never been involved. But there’s a lot at stake. It’s not myself I’m protecting. It’s countless others.”
I tilt my head, assessing him. Unsure what to make of him.
One thing is for sure, though.
He’s still an asshole.
Yet somehow, I’ve found myself in the middle of the countryside with him and his dragon friend, accompanied by them on my quest. Again, I think how it might be nice to have someone, anyone, I can trust to help me on this journey. Someone who cares. “I’m not who you think I am,” I say softly.
His intense dark blue eyes bore into mine. I can see the conflict and the ire behind them, like a flickering flame in the darkness, but there’s something else there. He still doesn’t trust me. That’s obvious. And maybe I’m a fool, but I believe Raef does, and that’s something.
Raef returning with a clap startles me, and we both break eye contact to look his way. He saunters toward us with a grin on his face.
“You’re not dead,” he says, patting me on the back as he continues straight to his horse.
“No, I’m not.” I can’t help but laugh.
Daegan’s gaze shifts to mine for one more beat before he climbs onto his horse. He doesn’t speak again as we race off toward Wraithmere.
Chapter 15
A howling noise draws all of our attention deep into the woods as we stand at the edge where the dark trees become almost a solid wall of formidable onyx.
Wraithmere Forest.
Home of the living, trapped souls, and the witch that binds them. Maethrel.
The forest is a place people love to tell scary tales about, but most have never stepped foot in the dark woods. The trees are so tall and thick, it’s like an eternal night in there. It’s said that the wraiths the witch created—the old souls still tied to their long decaying bodies—haunt the woods. Their screeching can be heard from anywhere within. But that’s not all that lurks in there.
When I first heard the tales of Maethrel as a child, it terrified me to my core. I had nightmares about her for weeks. I pictured a female so pale, she was nearly translucent, and hair matted and black with a bent, distorted posture. She’d crawl or float toward me in an unnatural, predatory sweep, and I’d usually wake feeling utter terror.
She’s hundreds of years old. But not as old as the curse. I don’t know where she came from or if she has any familial ties to the witch that cast the curse, but she’s the only living one I know of. And the only seer that I know of.
“Well, it was nice knowing you,” Raef says to the both of us. I know he’s joking because he still holds himself with an almost cocky confidence as he rests his hand on the hilt of his sword that’s strapped to his back.
Daegan doesn’t laugh.
Looking at this massive, foreboding forest that stretches farther than my eyes can see on this particularly dark gray day, with Daegan and Raef suddenly taking on tense postures, weapons strapped across their bodies, I feel completely foolish. What was my plan when I decided to come here alone? Did I think I’d simply skip into the forest along a carved path, have some tea with the witch as she reveals every answer I seek, and be on my way?
Embarrassment washes through me, then gratitude that Raef and Daegan—who I’m assuming are trained fighters—insisted on following me.
“Which way?” Daegan asks.
I hesitate. “There are no clear directions from here… in the journal I found, it said that you just need to… wander… and if Maethrel decides you’re worthy enough to speak with, she’ll make her presence known… somehow.”
Raef runs his hands down the sides of his face, releasing a groan. “You’re telling me we’re just walking in there blindly, completely at some crazy witch’s mercy?”
