Page 40 of Daughter of the Darkened City

“We’ve been going in circles all day.”

Enid pointed to the boulders, and Avenay let out a quiet exclamation.

“You’re right.”

“It’s another enchantment.”

They were caught in a loop, but as they’d walked, it hadn’t felt that way until now. They weren’t in a vision. She could feel the difference.This was reality, but the image had to have shifted at some point to funnel them into a loop.

Could it be a shroud? The shadow shroud she did to hide herself was a constant redirection of reality. When she made a shroud, she thought about light and how she could bend it, manipulate what others saw surrounding her. That’s where most people tripped up when it came to a shadow shroud. They couldn’t envision the bending of light, the manipulation of reality. Enid had always had to do that. She’d hidden in the shadows for years, pushing the light away because of what it might expose of her. Fears grew in the shadows, feeding on the dark. If the light showed its face too clearly, she knew she might crumble.

She closed her eyes and placed a hand on the ground. It was a long shot, but if it was one, then she would be able to detect it. Something seemed to come up and meet her hand, brushing against her in familiarity.

She let out a gasp. Not only was it a shroud, but it was demonic in nature as well. She pressed against it,and it greeted her like a cat rubbing against her legs.

She reached out and out, letting her shadows probe and tangle with the enchantments over the forest. Her shadows twined like vines aboutthe roots of the forest shroud, gentle as a caress. But something twined back around hers as well, tightening, constricting. It was stronger and suddenly Enid’s power poured out of her, like a dam had burst and water flooded the area. She cried out but couldn’t pull back more.

“Enid!” Avenay screamed,and Enid was faintly aware of Avenay grabbing her arm.

She fought and pulled against the enchantments that tried to tangle her in the very forest itself. Images flashed before her eyes. Rotting flesh, broken wings, muffled screams. She could smell singed hair and burning wood.

Then something pushed inside her. A golden thread. Pushing, probing, wrapping around her. It was warm as the sun of summer and the images vanished. Her inner senses brushed against it, and she took the string, pushing it out with her shadows, using it to shift them, to bend the light that came. The forest stilled, no longer pushing against her, settling, loosening its grip. She used whatever that light was to cast her shadows covertly, twining once again around the enchantments.

She pulled the shadows back with everything she had in her. The force of the magic knocked her back, her feet sliding against the muddy ground. She plumed her wings out to catch herself and she stumbled gently to the ground. Breathing hard, she looked up at the forest. Theimage of it shifted and shimmered. The trees groaned and creaked like a moan. Then the enchantments fell, and the image shifted to an ordinary, dark wood, the path splitting now, a section going to the right that hadn’t been there before.

Avenay ran to her, cupping her face in her hands. “Are you okay?”

The worry made Enid’s heart swell and she would have kissed her right then if she hadn’t heard a familiar voice say, “Enid? Avenay?”

She looked around the seraphe to see Kaemon and Vasu on the new pathway.

“Kaemon!” She leapt to her feet and ran to him.

He engulfed her in a tight hug. “I was so worried about you.”

She pulled back and examined him, making sure it wasn’t another enchantment. There were his familiar black curls, the faint scar across his cheek from when they’d sparred with wooden swords as children, and a line of freckles on his nose. But beyond all that, she could sense and feel that it was him. Something kin to her, that magical tie of the colony, and she could have wept for that confirmation.

“Dryston?” she asked.

He shook his head, but Vasu stepped next to them. “I was able to put a tracking spell on him and Onora. It looks like they’re together, but we haven’t been able to find any of you. The forest kept looping usin circles until you did whatever you just did to remove the enchantment.”

“But they’re safe?” she asked, desperate.

Vasu nodded. “They should be. I can’t track anything that’s not alive. And since they’re together, that’s good news. It seems the enchantments want to make this difficult for us and make us leave, but don’t seem too keen on killing us. Which is a good sign.”

“It was a demonic shroud,” she said.

Vasu cocked his head to the side, confused.

Enid cleared her throat. “The loop was from a shadow shroud that redirects light and creates different images. And it was demonic. I could feel it.”

Vasu hummed. “That’s very interesting. I wonder if that’s why the enchantments don’t seem to affect demons as much as the rest of us.”

Enid shrugged. It wasn’t her area of expertise, but she could see Vasu’s wheels turning.

“Let’s keep going,” Kaemon said, gesturing for them to follow.

Chapter 16: Avenay

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