Page 14 of Unraveled
It glows with the same rhythm as my heartbeat.
I turn toward the distinct crunching of leaves, and my hair stands up as I feel something watching me. Crawling closer and hidden from view. Adrenaline dulls the ache in my body as I duck under a low-hanging branch and reach for the small dagger I strapped around my leg before I left the library.
My fingers are numb, but still, they tighten around the polished bone handle. I step forward and away from the noise, following the gentle pull of my amulet. Whatever is out there, lurking in the shadows, is waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
I keep my steps light over the wet, mushy ground. The longer I remain in the dark, the more my surroundings become clear to me. Something scurries right in front of me, and I barely hold back a scream. It looks like a small dog, but its weird spindly legs snap with jagged movements as it crawls over the ground like a spider.
I gasp, jumping back to get some distance from the beast in front of me. The red light of my amulet’s stone buzzes brighter, illuminating my surroundings.
The beast has a long, slender snout with patchy black hair. I hold my dagger high with a trembling hand as its red eyes pin me down. With a snarl, it opens its enormous jaws, showing me rows of jagged teeth dripping with venom.
It could be worse. This isn’t the biggest beast out here. I can handle him. I think those words again and again, but not even my inner voice sounds confident.
I take a backward step in the other direction, away, and hear a hiss from the side. And then another behind me. The hairs on my arms stand on end as I glance back to find another beast crawling from between tree trunks. They all look the same. I’m being hunted by a pack.
The beast in front of me takes one slow jerky step forward, and then it leaps. I duck, barely avoiding its snapping jaws. Sharp teeth rip through the layers of my cloak and graze the skin of my arm.
Pulling back with a cry, I kick at the beast’s head as it bites my boot. My ankle twists at a weird angle, and pain ricochets through me. Spinning around, I bury my dagger in the head of one of the beasts. It collapses, dead, its black blood splattering my fingers.
Retrieving my blade from the bone takes all my strength, but it hardly matters when the third beast jumps from the shadows and bites into my arm. I scream and drop my dagger to the darkened ground.
The beast’s rotten breath fans over my face as its sharp teeth dig deeper into my forearm, ripping through fabric and muscle. It smells like a decaying body, and bile rises in my throat. This is how I die. Devoured by animals—by monsters of nightmares.
I would’ve preferred the flying beast eat me than these creatures. At least he smelled nice. My delirious mind supplies the most useless information as I try to ignore my building despair.
No. I can’t die wishing for another beast to eat me instead. I have surely gone mad. My eyes blur with tears, exhaustion, and fear. I don’t know where one emotion begins and the other ends.
With my uninjured hand, I call for the fire spell to burn hotter. My skin blisters as the flames lick my fingers. The two small beasts that remain yelp, scurrying back into the shadows. Their muzzles ripple when they snarl at me.
I turn around and call off my spell. The amulet is scalding my chest, and I know without a doubt I have pushed it too far. I search for my blade in the darkness but can’t find it under the layers of fallen leaves and sticks, and my sense of urgency is making my movements jerky.
A massive shape barrels into my side, knocking the wind from my lungs. I hit the ground hard, and my world spins over me. A new, much larger beast’s fetid breath fans across my face.
“Get off me!” I snarl, and my magic scorches my veins, but nothing comes out of my hands. I’m bleeding so much, dark spots dance over my vision, though not so much that I can’t take in the creature’s form.
Its skin is gray like death, eyes hollow and milky with a white haze that barely obscures a red iris. It’s bald, its face looks almost human, but it lacks lips and its teeth jut out of bleeding gums.
I lose my breath. This one is heavy, and with my wounded arm, I can’t hold it off. I cry out, twisting my torso as I try to get away from underneath its armpit.
Its claws dig into my flesh, drawing lines of fire across my sides. Pain laces my scream, mingling with fury as I struggle beneath its weight.
I plead with the amulet to give me one last push, for magical objects like these—or the grimoires of the library—are living, with a power I don’t fully understand. But it has dimmed, its magic spent the same as my strength. The creature recoils at something howling in the trees, a scream perhaps?
I can’t tell. My ears are drumming with my pounding headache. Yet its grip doesn’t falter as it drags me deeper into the forest, where not even the moonlight reaches.
“Help...” I force the word through my torn vocal cords. My plea is lost in the void.
Mist swirls around my ankles as I’m hauled through the underbrush, my mind racing with the tales of those who ventured into the forest and barely escaped with their lives.
Panic gnaws at me as I push off the ground, ignoring my injuries, and strike out at the beast with my fist. I’m sure it hurts me more than it, but losing my dagger and spending my magic left me without any other defense.
The creature snarls in pain but only tightens its grip on me.
A shadow descends from above so fast it’s merely a blur until it crashes into the beast, forcing it to loosen its grasp on my leg. They intertwine in a mass of blackness, and I inch away, dragging myself over the ground, trying to put as much distance between them and me as humanly possible.
I need time to hide somewhere and recharge. I track the massive wings and black feathers, and I know who this is.
His magic is a storm of golden light that bathes the area with such intensity it burns my nostrils.
