Page 35 of Eboenia

“Of course,” he answered, as if it were obvious.

I swallowed hard, searching his face for any sign of mercy. “War, those trolls… they have a taste for flesh. Fairy flesh.” My wings trembled at the memory of stories I’d heard—fairies torn apart, their bones picked clean. “You really want me to fight them?”

He just smirked, his eyes cold. “I won’t be far behind. This is what you were always meant to do. I didn’t make that wand for nothing,” he said.

A part of me wanted to scream, to beg him to choose another way. But the other part—the part that remembered how it felt to be close to him, to feel wanted, even if it was twisted—kept my mouth shut. I nodded, even though my hands shook.

War suited up too, his clothes turning black as night. A mask covered the lower half of his face, and a heavy medallion glowed around his neck like some machine from his world. A portal opened behind us, swirling with dark energy. I followedhim through. It was starting to make sense, even if it was still confusing. Maybe, just maybe, I was where I belonged…

DRUID HILL PARK…

We stepped out of the portal and into the otherworld Druid Hill Park. Everything was darker here. A thick, gray fog hung in the air, making it hard to see. Through a cloudy wall, I spotted a white couple walking their dog on the real side of the park. They strolled by, laughing, unaware of us. We were like ghosts—close, but cut off from their world.

The air was heavy with awful smells. It stank of death, blood, and rotting meat. There was a sour odor too, like someone had left onions and garlic to rot in a pile of mushrooms. My stomach twisted.

“That stench is troll sweat,” War said.

A few steps away, a warlock lay on the ground. His guts spilled out, red and shiny. War knelt beside him and gently closed his eyes. The woods around us were thick with shadows, and I heard low growls and angry grunts echoing through the mist.

“War, what is this place?” I whispered, my voice shaky.

He stood up. “It’s a place we use to summon our deceased enemies for target practice,” he answered.

Suddenly, I heard a loud buzzing behind me, like a hundred angry bees. A scream cut through the air. I spun around and saw a monstrous looking fairy. She was naked, her skin the color of wet clay. Black wings beat the air behind her. Her teeth were sharp, her eyes huge and black, and her nails looked like claws.

She shot towards me, mouth open wide. My horns sprouted at the same time as my wand appeared in my hand. I pointed it at her, lightning burst out, hitting her square in the chest. She shrieked and melted into a puddle of black slime at my feet.

“What in the fuck was that?” I asked War.

“A tree nymph. Be careful with those—they can mimic voices, pretending to be someone you know to lure you deep into the forest. Their poison can decay your flesh instantly,” he replied.

The woods went quiet for a moment, but I could feel more eyes tracking us from the shadows. War blew two small, tiger-eye cubes into his palm, rattling them like dice before casting them onto the ground. Two enormous panthers materialized, their fur threaded with the whirring gears of War’s magic. Spiked bullhorns pierced their noses, and their canines glinted—razor-sharp and forged from swords. Their massive paws pressed deep into the earth. War muttered to them in his ancient tongue, and they melted into the forest, their black pelts dissolving into silhouettes.

War glanced down at me. “Stop being afraid, Eboenia. Your loud ass heartbeat is ringing dinner bells for everything out here,” he said.

“You’ve practically dropped me in hell. Am I supposed to be excited about this?” I whispered.

“You lived in Charmden. This forest might look spooky, but nothing here’s worse than that place. If you fuck this up, I’ll feed you to a troll myself,” he replied.

Suddenly, yelps echoed behind us, followed by a crack of thunder. A floating board appeared beneath War’s boots, lifting him into the air and zipping him through the trees like aspaceship. I soared after him, plunging into the mist as the forest thickened with fog. I nearly collided with a tree when I spotted an ten-foot, hulking one-eyed troll. His skin was a patchwork of bark and leaves, and his zits oozed like volcanoes. Nearby, a warlock lay bleeding from his midsection, sprawled just a few feet away from the funky beast. The troll was hideous—his nostrils exuded slime as he snatched the warlock by the leg.

War sprang into action, his chain lashing out and coiling tight around the troll’s neck, gears grinding as it squeezed.

“What should I do?” I panicked, eyes darting through the gloom for War’s summoned panthers.

The warlock on the ground flung a sphere of fire at the troll, but it fizzled, useless, against the monster’s bark-plated chest.

“I’m protected under Crane’s magic!” the troll bellowed, his voice rattling the canopy. War’s chain barely bit into the giant’s neck, struggling to saw through the living armor. The warlock was too weak to stand; the troll raised his four-toed, stone-thick foot—grass and moss tangled over his claws—ready to stomp him flat.

I didn’t think. I dove from the sky like a hawk, my wand morphing into a sword mid-flight. The troll howled when I sliced off his foot, his blood gushing out thick as gravy, drenching me in steaming, foul-smelling blood.

What the hell am I doing? I just saved a Hex13!

War zipped overhead, his chain still throttling the troll. I stabbed my sword into the earth. Cracks spiderwebbed through the ground, white light seeping up from below. Roots burst from the fissures, twisting like spiked anacondas, wrapping around the troll’s legs and torso. The barbed roots punched throughhis barky hide, pumping venom that turned his skin a sickly, glowing green.

“Urrrrgghhhhhhhhhh!” the troll roared, swinging a tree-trunk arm at War. War’s chain finally ripped through, tearing open the troll’s throat in a spray of black blood.

“Watch out!” the wounded warlock gasped. I spun around just as two of Hoax’s warriors charged me, faces twisted with anger.

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