Page 17 of Unleashed

Their proximity to the cave explained that pervasive smell until Vortok recalled that they’d been moving against the breeze on their way out. Even now, the air was blowing the direction of the cave’s mouth, which meant the scent should’ve been diminished even this close.

He turned toward the tunnel, and everything inside him froze. “Aduun.”

Seeing Vortok’s face, Nina turned as well and stumbled forward a couple steps. “What…”

“What is the matter?” Balir asked.

“The tunnel is gone,” Aduun replied.

They were surrounded entirely by thick forest. There was no tunnel behind them, no rock face, not even a mound of dirt. Just trees and undergrowth, gnarled roots and dangling vines.

Balir and Aduun moved to stand beside Vortok. The rock-scent lingered, and he could almostfeelsomething there; how could it have disappeared?

The glowing points on Balir’s neck pulsated with his clicks. “The tunnel is sealed, but there was no way out in that direction, anyway,” he said. “We must simply keep the cliffside at our back as a point of reference.”

“Thereisno cliffside, Balir,” Vortok said.

Balir frowned, tilting his head. “You have eyes, yet you cannot see?” He walked forward, passing Nina, and extended his hand. There was a soft slapping sound as his palm struck something unseen, and he halted. “This cliff.”

“There is nothing there,” Vortok insisted.

Nina moved beside Balir and tentatively reached out a hand. It pressed up flat against empty air. “It’s here.” She set her other hand next to the first and leaned forward, pushing. Her hands remained in place, but her feet slid backward over the ground, making small ruts in the leaves and dirt as though she were shoving against an immovable object. By the extreme angle of her body, she should have fallen.

Aduun stalked to a place beside them and touched the invisible wall. “More of Kelsharn’s tricks. We are still underground.”

“None of you can see the rock?” Balir asked.

Nina backed away and turned her gaze toward the canopy. “No.”

Vortok joined the other valos and reached forward. His hand was stopped abruptly by a hard, stony surface, but his eyes beheld only open air. Despite what he knew of Kelsharn’s magic, this was jarring; how could something so large and solid be made invisible?

“It’s a reflection,” Nina said.

The valos turned to look at her.

“This is stone,” Vortok said, frowning. “It is not like the surface of a lake. It cannot hold a reflection.”

“I know, but what I mean is that it’s like…a mirror image.” She moved to stand beside a boulder that was covered in large, purple leaves and fuzzy moss, with vibrant orange fungus growing down one side. “Do you see this? The same exact boulder is behind you.”

Furrowing his brow, Vortok twisted to look over his shoulder. It only took a moment to pick out the orange fungus amidst the other colors. He swung his gaze between the two boulders several times, searching for a detail that would prove she was wrong. A detail that would prove the tunnel hadn’t closed behind them and vanished, that they’d just walked farther than they realized…

But she was correct. Now that she’d pointed it out, he saw more mirroring around the boulder. Trees, undergrowth, roots; it was all the same, simply reversed. The only things that weren’t reflected were the valos and theirhoomin.

Vortok turned his attention to her, allowing himself to study her in the full light for the first time. Nina wasn’t built like one of his people. She was shorter, slighter, and softer, and lacked the bony protrusions on her face, elbows, and knuckles. Vortok’s people possessed no natural fur before Kelsharn changed them, but Nina had a mane of her own, long and shimmering despite its dishevelment, hanging halfway down her back. She was undoubtedly feminine. Something about her petite figure allured him, excited him, and triggered all his protective instincts.

“It does us no good to linger here,” Aduun said. He turned and walked away from the invisible rock face, drawing Vortok’s gaze away from Nina. “We must attempt to provision ourselves and move on. It would not be like Kelsharn to afford us peace for long.”

Vortok grunted his assent. “A fire and some roasted meat would go a long way in easing my beast.”

“Satisfying this hunger would be welcome,” Balir said, turning his face toward Vortok. “It has been some time sincemostof us ate.”

“I would have shared, were I able,” Vortok replied defensively. His gaze flicked to Nina. Her uncomfortable expression gave him pause, and only then did he think about how the scene must’ve appeared to her — a huge, furious rockfur tearing a shrieker to pieces and gorging itself on the bloody flesh. Had she not escaped the cell, it would have been her next.

Her blood staining his tusks, drying in his fur.

Their eyes met briefly before Nina looked away, her skin paler than a moment before. The change in her color made the cuts and smears of blood on her flesh stand out starkly.

She swallowed, wet her lips with her tongue, and turned toward Aduun and Balir. “How did you survive so long down there with no food or water?”

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