Page 44 of Wraithwound

Lena cleared the small camp and kept running, suddenly energized by the terror coursing through her. The terrain changed gradually from damp earth and barren trees to a rocky slope, yet she did not slow, her labored breathing becoming heavier as she went on.

Could she travel far enough to prevent the wraith from going back, from killing the man she’d worked to save, in her current physical condition? She moved as fast as her body would allow. She would continue until her legs gave out, until she was sure the exhaustion, the breakdown of her muscles, was enough that if the wraith did take over, it wouldn’t have a working body to use.

Lena wasn’t sure how long she walked for, since she was doing her best to ignore her failing strength. When her legs trembled with effort and she felt close to falling unconscious, she knew it would be safe to stop.

After ascending a slant of grey stone, nearly on all fours, she found herself in an abandoned village. The exhaustion and ache she felt were almost indescribable, so she picked the nearest crumbling structure and made her way inside. Lena suspected it may have once been a hunting cabin, now long since abandoned. Finding a small cot towards the back, she was asleep before her head touched fabric.

Sleep didn’t keep Lena under for long. She was startled awake by a strange huffing noise. Clearing the sleep from her eyes with numb hands, Lena looked around. A red tinged dawn and the chill of snow greeted her as she rose.

Unease slithered into her gut when she realized that she’d only awoken to the huffing noise because it’d been deathly quiet when she arrived the night before.

She felt weak and sluggish, but she’d awoken in the same place she’d fallen asleep, and that realization brought with it a spark of joy the exhaustion and fear couldn’t dampen. Lena swung her legs over the edge of the cot, intent on finding a place to relieve herself when the earth beneath her feet shuddered; not a second later, a loud boom reverberated through the air.

Heart pounding, chest prickling faintly, Lena froze. Working up the courage to move, she stabilized the pack at her side and crept further back into the shack. Locating a window, she crawled toward it, careful to avoid the shards of glass from the missing pane. Not daring to breathe, she peeked out to see a towering figure standing in an empty field behind the shack.

A sword strapped to his back—no, not a sword. It was some sort of appendage that curled slightly over his head, a large black talon at its end. Lena couldn’t figure out what she was looking at as the man wandered through the snow-covered field and kicked at uneven mounds on the ground. The mounds shifted slightly as he kicked them, as if they absorbed the impact. And then horror struck. A vision of her own village, her friends and neighbors lying dead around her, momentarily replaced the image in front of her.

Bodies. Time seemed to slow as her vision narrowed and then widened, taking in the enormity of the field and how many people— how many corpse—lay there.

An otherworldly roar pierced the veil of memory, and she slammed back into her body. It was the roar that made her blood run cold as she realized this was the same creature she’d seen in Virdeen, but this one was male. Tall and thin, he had light brown hair and pale skin, but the features of his face gave him away. Just like she’d seen in the female, his face appeared twisted in rage.

Paralyzed with fear, Lena could only watch as the talon at the tip of its appendage unhooked from itself and split. Two black, membranous wings unfurled, revealing black veins woven throughout. He stretched them out, talons flexing, before he rolled his shoulders. A wave of magic rippled over them, and where black membranous wings had consumed the light, only white delicate feathers remained. The creature then sank onto its haunches and launched itself into the sky.

Lena’s legs shook as she stood. Her mind raced, and heart pounded as she exited the small stone structure. It was most likely why she didn’t realize she was walking right into the arms of a soulbound soldier.

Chapter

Thirty-Six

Before Lena could blink, he spun her around, slamming her body into his, and clamped his hand over her mouth. Slowly, he backed her under the sparse canopy of trees nearby. He must have felt that they were sufficiently hidden because just as quickly as he’d pulled her close, he released her.

Lena spun around simultaneously taking a large step backward and out of his reach. She recognized him immediately. He looked disheveled, shoulder-length hair unbound and a cut up tunic sticking to his sweat slicked body but so much better than he’d looked in his tent. The healer in Lena beamed at his recovery.

“Is this your village?” he asked, scanning the area behind her. “You can’t be out here. I tracked a wraith here . . .”

Fear spiked in her chest as she saw the recognition spark in his eyes.

“No,” he said, in disbelief. “It can’t be.”

Lena backed away. He was too close. His healthy, beating heart was too close. She whirled and set off across the field, doing her best to avoid the snow-covered corpses.

“Hey!” he shouted.

But Lena continued, she had to get away from here, away from this. From him.

“Stop!”

She could hear him coming after her. She turned again, to say what, she didn’t know, but when she did—he was standing so close. His blue eyes taking in every detail of her face.

She took a step back and tripped.

The soldier reached out as if to catch her, but he was too late. Worry creased his features as she fell. But instead of the frozen earth coming up to meet her, she landed on something soft, raised.

And then, a hand appeared from the snow, large and weathered. It seemed to reach for her before falling limp.

No.

Unable to deal with the sight before her, to relive the nightmare that had come to pass in Virdeen, Lena felt her consciousness leave her body. Once again, time slowed. She watched herself from above, like a neutral observer, as the remnants of a black aura disappeared around the snow-covered body. Then, a clear rippling mass began to form, slowly gathering above it.