Page 57 of A Fate so Wicked

The forest quietened.

There were no birds singing. No critters rustling in the bushes. Nothing but the sound of my own feet crunching leaves while I raided the forest ground, my shoulder weighing heavy with vine. The last thing I needed was another encounter with a drowler, especially when Talon wasn’t there to save me. Fear tickled my skin, or maybe it was the dried blood that coated my arms. Regardless, I was a sitting duck out there in the open—exposed.

So, I picked up my pace.

The whispers in the wind were drowned out by the blood rushing in my ears, my entire body on pins and needles and numb from the insults. Thoughts of the last conversation I had with my mother were on a repetitive loop, a harrowing reminder of how it could be the last one we ever had. Her warnings had fallen on deaf, ignorant ears.

The ‘what-ifs’ were, in fact, eating me alive.

Soon, a small cave just large enough to stand up in came into view, and I ducked inside, tossing the vine to the ground. I slid down the back wall, keeping my sight locked on the opening, and curled into myself.

Water dripped from somewhere inside, as did the patter of small paws, and a calmness settled over me, even though I knew the seconds were ticking away. There couldn’t have been more than two hours remaining, and I still hadn’t come across a stag, let alone begun setting up a trap.

Anxiety sat on my chest, suffocating me as I emptied my boots and combed the deepest parts of my mind for a way through this.

“Elowyn?” Calandra’s soft voice sounded before her head popped into view, glancing around the cave to see if I was the only one inside.

“Yeah, in here.”

She let out a sigh of relief as she entered, taking a spot next to me on the wall, and brought her knees to her chest. She was dirty and flustered, and her blonde hair was tied in a frayed bun on the top of her head. A vast difference from the long, smooth strands she began with. “Kelvin and Aeron took off north.” She caught her breath. “I barely made it up a tree in time to hide from them. They were circling you like vultures, so I screamed to distract them.”

“They’re going to kill everyone.”

She bumped me with her shoulder. “And then they’ll kill each other. So, they won’t get out of this alive either. Their egos won’t allow it.”

I laughed. She had a point.

“Let’s beat them at their own game, shall we?”

I couldn’t give up until I’d depleted every ounce of energy I had left, regardless of how uncertain the future felt. Anything could happen. Though the future felt uncertain, and I couldn’t imagine anything past this cave, I needed to win my freedom.

Calandra faced me. “What’s with all the vines? Didn’t you get any weapons?”

My shoulders slumped. “They’re to set up a trap to catch a stag. I had a pair of daggers, but a gnome ran off with them. What about you?”

She hummed her approval and pulled up her pant leg. “A couple of knives.” She lifted her shirt to show me the ones she had hidden there.

I shook my head—she was armed to the teeth. Ten times more than I was. Bitterness itched toward the surface.

“I also got these,” she continued, holding out her hand to show me a metal interlocking ring that covered her knuckles. “One punch wearing these would shatter someone’s jaw. Here.” Calandra slid them off and held them out for me to take. “You did better during the sparring assessment than I did. You should have them.”

The weight of them surprised me as I slid them onto my fingers, flexing them as I got used to them. “Are you sure?” Guilt riddled me. She didn’t need to help me, but for whatever reason, she was. It didn’t go unappreciated.

“Yeah, you’d put these to better use, anyway. I’m more of a long-distance fighter.” Calandra flicked her wrist, revealing another concealed knife she’d hidden under the cuff of her sleeve. Her words weren’t misplaced. She’d nailed every target during the knife-throwing portion of the assessment—no one came close to her accuracy.

“Thanks.” I pulled my now mud-free boots back on. “We should probably get going. Do you have any idea how much longer we have? I can’t endure much more of the whispers.” I stuffed the drenched wool socks into my back pocket as I stood and held out a hand to help Calandra up.

She placed a hand on her chest. “You heard them too? Oh, thank the stars, I thought I was going mad. I found if you hum, it’ll tune it out.” Heading toward the entrance of the cave, she fixed her bun. “You coming? I’m pretty sure I saw a stag just west of here from my vantage point in the tree. I can’t tame the thing by myself.” She flicked her chin toward the pile of vines.

I nodded, a mixture of relief and hesitancy stirring inside me as I lugged the spool onto my shoulder and followed her out of the cave. We couldn’t get too comfortable relying on each other, I knew that. Not when only one of us could win.

However, her kindness was helping me get through this. If only I were as heartless as Aeron and Kelvin. This would be so much easier.

With Calandra’s sense of direction, we navigated the landscape in no time. It was impressive how easily she guided us through thick, dense terrain. Not stopping or faltering once to recalculate where we were. And I thought I had a good sense of direction. We must’ve carved our way through a mile of tangled vines and climbed over fifty fallen trees, my forehead beading with sweat and my knee aching as we reached a small opening.

“Shh, get down,” Calandra hushed as we kneeled behind the base of a willow tree. “Over there, look…”

I craned my head around the wide trunk—my eyebrows meeting my hairline at the sight of the stag in front of us. It was stunning. Breathtaking. Its white fur shone like the moon, illuminating the grass it stood on as its bone-white antlers stretched high into the air above. I counted nine points on each side and determined—based on its relation to the trees—it had to have been twice as tall as Sugarfoot.

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