Page 18 of Demonic Affliction

Dravik

“Made new friends. Meet us near the ice tunnels south of the forest.”

I stare at the words carved into the ice, Rhune's handwriting uneven where he pressed too hard, scraping through it. A feeling of dread creeps down my spine as I read them over again.

Others were here. Others with unknown intentions.

And Nyx and Rhune thought it was a good idea to follow them to their lair.

My gaze sweeps the room, taking in the destruction they left in their wake. Deep gouges are carved into the walls and floor, with spiderweb cracks spreading across the domed ceiling. Splatters of dark blood cover every surface, and the scent of iron clings to the air.

Something terrible happened here.

I gaze down at the potted plant in my hand, my heart sinking. One of the first things Willow told me when she arrived in The Far Place was that she missed the colors of earth. So I scoured the forest for a rare flowering root called a Sweetfrost that lives at the base of Welwig trees. If you pot it and water it with Welwig sap, it will bloom within a cycle.

Mine bloomed two cycles ago. Every flower is filled with hundreds of iridescent petals, shifting pink in the sunlight. I've been carrying it with me the whole time we’ve been gone, keeping it safe and cared for until I could give it to Willow. I wanted to show her that this world has beauty and color—you just have to be willing to look hard enough for it.

Now, I’ve come home to find her gone. And not only that, but she’s gone away with strange males.

I clench my fists, a deep growl building in the pit of my chest. I can smell them. Their stench lingers in the air, and each ragged breath I take causes rage to pulse through me.

I have to find her. I have to make sure she is okay.

“We need to go, Cin. We have to find Willow and the other two,” I say.

It’s as if he doesn’t hear me. Cin stands at the mouth of the tunnel, looking toward the western forest. “You let her escape.”

“What?” I blow out a puff of air, fighting the urge to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze. “I didn’t do anything!”

He continues as if I hadn’t spoken. “Find her. Feast. Save. Before it's too late. Before it kills us all.”

Okay… that’s weird. I take a step toward him, watching him with wary eyes. “Cin? You okay?”

Still, it’s like he can’t hear me. “Unholy creature,” he says. “Abomination. Destroyer. Kill it. Kill it before it kills us.”

“Cin!”

Cin’s spine snaps straight, and he hauls in a ragged breath. “I’m… I’m sorry,” he says. “I must have… I lost myself for a moment.” He shakes his head slowly, turning in a circle to face me. “I’m okay now.”

“If you say so…” I fix him with a disbelieving look, but don’t press the issue. “So, as I said… we need to go find Willow.”

“Right, of course.” He slowly looks back toward the forest, and his eyes gloss over.

“Cin!”

“Huh?” He turns back to face me, his double-lidded eyes blinking rapidly. “Oh. Right. Let’s go.”

We launch into the sky together, wings beating hard against the whipping wind as he heads in the direction Rhune's note pointed us toward. I keep Cin in my periphery the whole way, watching for another break in his psyche, but he flies steady, jaw set, eyes forward, and utterly focused.

We're maybe halfway to our destination when the craws hit us.

It’s not an attack, but an ill-timed swarm of them tearing out of the Welwig forest, cutting across our path as they race toward the coast. I bank hard to avoid the worst of it, and hundreds of feathers brush past my shoulder as the air is filled with their high-pitched, panicked calls.

What are they running from? And where the hell do they think they're going?

I glance over my shoulder to confirm my suspicions, but I’m no less confused. It seems they really are headed toward the ocean. Craws hate water and prefer to roost inland in the Welwig forests, so this behavior is alarming.

I watch the last of them vanish over the ridge, a sick feeling settling in the pit of my stomach.