Page 8 of Of Withering Dreams
“Come near me, and I’ll claw your faces off!” she threatened, calling my attention back to her. The glow brightened with her exclamation.
I believed her.
“We mean you no harm. We were checking if you were still alive,” I said gently, backing away. My hands opened in front of me, palms facing her. One of her eyebrows arched, and she rose, eyes still tracking us. The red shimmer around her dwindled.
“All right then. You seem fairly harmless, and that one is easy on the eyes.” She nodded at Kaden with a smirk. Her accent was reminiscent of Magister Barden’s Pneumalian impression but cheekier.She must be from near the city in Southern Pneumali, I thought, tilting my head.
“I’ll put my claws away for now, but no funny business. I’m Breena Cadell; you can call me Breena. Unless you think of a marvelous nickname that I approve of.” She snapped her fingers for emphasis and put the other hand on her cocked hip.
“Uh, nice to meet you, Breena,” I replied, still bewildered, pushing one hand toward her. “I’m Seryn Vawn, and this is my sister Alette. My best friend, Kaden Larkin.”
At once, Breena shook my hand in a powerful grip. She grabbed Kaden’s hand but lingered, a sassy smile stretching her mouth wide. Kaden let loose an awkward chuckle, gulping. Somehow, he freed his hand from her grip, stepping closer to me as if for protection.
“Oh no, Kade. You aren’t using me as your shield,” I laughed, and so did Breena. Her grin brightened her pretty, heart-shaped face.
Kaden rolled his eyes to the skies, a lightning flash reflecting in them. “Anyway, shall we get moving again?”
“Yes, let’s,” Breena purred, clapping her hands together.
“How do you have so much energy? You were just passed out, and I feel like I’m made of cement,” Letti muttered, one side of her mouth tipping up.
“Must be the battle fever you all inspired within me … or my sparkling personality.” She smirked as a clap of thunder boomed. I chuckled, blowing out a small breath through my nose. Letti and Kaden smiled politely.Sparkling, indeed.
6
STYGIAN MURK
For what felt like days, we meandered through the landscape. It didn’t trouble us that we neither ate nor drank. We succumbed to the weighty, dismal burden of this place. Even Breena’ssparkling personalitywas fizzling. At times, we rested on the barren ground, chilled and numb. When it was time to move again, we dragged each other back from the depths of overwhelming despondency.
Along the way, we stumbled upon a few people in varying stages of defeat. Bodies were strewn across the broken earth, melding into the landscape. At best, they were incoherent; at worst, catatonic. We tried to help them, but they would not be moved. Eventually, we stopped trying. Or maybe we stopped seeing them, everything a shadow, an illusion. Our minds and bodies were drained of hope—of our will to go on.
We passed a man on our left, his form bent and unmoving. His body was a husk, desiccated skin stretching across a bony frame. Breena paused for a moment, staring at the withered body. “That’s how my grandmother looked …” Her bottom lip trembled, but she bit down on it.
“I’m not sure how long I was lying there before you found me or how much time passed after I left ‘er. Yesterday? Maybe days ago, I saw a light. Ran to it.” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “But she was gone. It was too late.”
I took her hand in mine, squeezing. “I’m so sorry, Breena.”
She squeezed back, releasing her hold. She waved her hand in the air. “Thank you. When it’s yer time, it’s yer time. I’ll see ‘er again one day.”
“Do you have anyone else you’re looking for?” I murmured.
“No. It was just me ‘n Gran.” She pinched her lips inward between her teeth and wandered a short distance ahead of us. I left her to her grief.
If she wanted to talk, it seemed like she was the type of person who would seek me out. Something about fear and sorrow had a way of binding people together like water droplets in a storm cloud.
Images of shadowy phantoms loomed in our peripherals, lurking behind every rocky mass. Each lightning strike erased the shadows around their forms. “What are those?” Letti’s voice was raspy, her raised hand limp.
“You can see those?” My eyebrows shot up, but my eyelids were still heavy with fatigue.
“Yeah, they’ve been following us for a long time,” she replied, her voice drifting away. Kaden and Breena’s heads bobbed in agreement.
“Ah, I thought I was hallucinating. I, um, think we need to move faster.”
Now that we knew we were all seeing these creatures, our situation was more alarming. Kaden winced, his eyes clearing while he looked deeper into the hidden spots surrounding us. “I think you’re right, Ser. They seem to be getting closer.”
Without further discussion, we all pushed forward. One specter was getting fairly bold, stalking closer than the others. It wasn’t bothering to hide within shadows any longer.
It was twice the size of an adult human. Glowing yellow eyes were the only things stable within its form. Undulating above the parched terrain, the creature’s figure was a dense mass of twisting, black smog. The very shadows around us had come alive, agitated and hungry for any light they could touch.
