Page 2 of A Dawn Of Blood

I get this urge to either cry or laugh. I look up at Lorcan and Raven instead. “Please,” I urge, “don’t stay on my account. Lorcan, you have your daughter to think about. Raven, it’s been a whole year since the last time Alaric saw you.”

Raven frowns. “We’re not leaving you all alone in these woods, Anna,” she says scoldingly. “We’re not in the nineteenth century anymore. You’re probably the most wanted person in the world at this point in time, and besides, you’re family as well. Isn’t that right, Lorcan?” she turns to him to demand with this warning in her voice.

But Lorcan is not looking at either her or me. It’s some spot behind our backs he’s staring at. “That’s all true, Raven, but…”

I follow his gaze, my wolf starting to sniff at the air as soon as I spot them — the fumes coming off the nearby trees.

What the…

“Those are not harmless,” my wolf states with concern.

At that exact same moment, I see the fumes make the leaves above rot to the point of falling down in the form of blackened mush.

“This looks too much like what Baldur’s reign is doing to Nature Magic,” I hear Lorcan say.

I turn to him and Raven just as she whispers, “That’s odd. France is supposed to be safe, isn’t it?”

I come to stand next to them, watching more trees start giving the fumes off.

And there’s this urge in me to say to hell with it, to hell with everything but finding some hole to crawl in and die.

“I know it’s hard, Anna” my wolf says gently, quietly. “After all, you’ve just had your entire world shattered, all over again. But I need you to get it together. We all do.”

Just as she says that, the trees closer to us start getting affected, making more blackened mush drop to the ground.

My mind flashes with an image of what the fumes would do with flesh.

“Alright,” I hear Lorcan command, “we need to get out of the woods, fast.”

Gritting my teeth, I make myself snap out of it and give a sharp nod.

We all shift, turn around and run until we’re out of the cover of the trees.

It’s on the edge of a hill that we stop, looking over our shoulders to make sure we’re safe from the trees. When I look ahead again, despite the dusk that’s quickly gathering, I make out a valley with a town nestled by a river.

My wolf zooms in on the town gate. My eyebrows pull down. “Could this be Troyes?”

“It should be,” Lorcan says, though there is a touch of hesitance in his voice.

“Why do they have guards posted at the entrance?” I ask.

He doesn’t get a chance to reply. This sound makes us all look over our shoulders, where we see the fumes starting to come off the grass as well.

“I think we better find shelter for the night,” Lorcan grits out.

My gaze darts to the darkness between the trees where I know the portal was. There’s such hesitance in me to move any farther away from it, feeling as if I’d forever be leaving him, which in turn makes me feel such abysmal sadness, I think I’m going to be sick.

“To the ends of the universe, that’s how much I love you, Anyi,” his words ring in my head. “Like I found you in your original timeline, like I found you in this one, I willalwaysfind you.”

Gritting my teeth so as not to start crying, I first take a deep breath to calm my nerves, then force myself to tear my eyes away from the spot where the portal was and turn them back onto Troyes.

It doesn’t matter how much I don’t like it. I know exactly what I need to do.

I need to keep going. I need to keep believing and one day, I’ll find him again, hopefully once and for all.

“That’s right,” my wolf says, obviously sad but pleased with my decision.

“Thank you for not pushing anything on me,” I whisper to her. “Thank you for always being on my side. I’m so happy to be reunited with you.”

---