Page 14 of Moonmarked

Every instinct in my body demanded I start running back where I came from, where there were no structures or bones, only trees.

But trees were not going to feed me, and whatever this was, it meant that someone lived nearby. Someone who could have the food I needed, if I was going to keep moving, and not collapse from lack of energy. My limbs were already so, so tired. I needed food—now,so I kept on walking.

Another one of those structures was just a few minutes away, taller, shaped like a tree grown out of silver. Its limbs twisted unnaturally toward the sky and around its base. Coins had been pressed into the dirt around it in perfect lines. I had no idea what the hell they were, but Rune did say that the sorcerers made offerings. That they had their gods and their spirits that they made offerings to regularly through altars that they made themselves.

Maybe that’s what these structures were—altars. Offerings to whatever gods the sorcerers of Verenthia believed in.

There were more as I moved forward—some built ofstone, some carved from bone or bark or glass. One was nothing but floating lights in a perfect circle, their glow pulsing like a heartbeat.

All of them were empty, though. I didn’t go close to see details, but nobody was near any of the altars I passed, and I heard nothing no matter how many times I stopped and focused on my ears.

God, my legs were so heavy, getting heavier with each new step.

But those strange structures weren’t the only thing in the forest.

Next came what looked like a temple made out of dark grey stone, half covered by roots and vines, almost like it was trying to hide behind them. It had a doorway shaped like a mouth, its entrance jagged with obsidian fangs. Empty as far as I could see, but I didn’t look closely. I just continued ahead.

Another less than a mile away looked like a collapsed ruin from afar, until I got closer and realized the stones were shifting, reshaping themselves with every second. That would have to be the strangest thing I’d seen since I ran into this forest.

But after that, there were no more altars or temples or whatever the sorcerers called them around here. For a while, I was all alone to imagine, to fear, to despair.

Then I saw the first house, and a few more beyond it spread out in the forest.

They did not look like houses at all, more like huts built of sticks and hide. Crooked cabins with no windows, andI swearthe door of the first one I stared at for a little too longbled.It oozed thick red liquid from the fucking corners.

Naturally, I didn’t go anywhere near it. I went around it as far as I could, until I saw the second house.

It was a small building wrapped entirely in ivy—except the ivy pulsed, like it was alive and breathing. Pretty sure I’d seen pieces of that when I was in the tunnel with Rune. And the next house, empty, was surrounded by a low fence made of metal, every inch of yard around it with some kind of a plant in it—plants that swayed in the wind. Moved their leaves like arms.

Exactlylike those roots in the tunnel had done.

The realization hit me like a brick in the face.

My God, I didn’t need food. I didn’t need to find any way or ask anyone for anything—I could simply dig my way into the tunnel.Thetunnel where we’d come from, Rune and I, the one that led straight to Blackwater.

A burst of energy went through me, and I was running again—farther back from the house, but I stayed close because those plants could be the very same I’d seen the roots of when I was with Rune.

And when I was sure no building or person was anywhere near me, I fell on my knees and I started to dig.

With my fingers.

In the muddy soil.

It felt like I lost my mind for real, but I didn’t stop. God, I kept going like a fucking fool until every bit of strength left me, and I fell on my side in the mud, breathing like there wasn’t enough air left in the world.

I stayed there for a long time.

There wasno tunnel underneath me, and I found out when I gathered myself and continued on and found that most of those huts had gardens full of moving plants in them. Theones I’d seen with Rune could have been anywhere in Mysthaven. Anywhere at all.

My hope crashed and burned a brutal death.

I kept walking through the woods. Passed houses and huts and altars. Stayed far away and hid as well as I could behind trees while the magic sometimes made it hard for me to breathe and sometimes seemed to propel me forward, give me a boost of energy, a helping hand.

It was all in my head, anyway.

My head that was full of images of my family, of Rune, of the prince. My life the way it had been, the way it was never going to be again.

He’s dead.The prince who saved my life was dead, and I…wasn’t.

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