Page 167 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
A Spryte.
They were so much worse than the Dread-Nymphs. While the Imps preyed on your worst memories and the Nymphssurvived on your fears and nightmares, the Sprytes were different. They stalked your dreams. Your heart’s deepest desires. Your fears didn’t paralyze you with a Spryte. No, they made you believe you were achieving your goals and desires. She’d been standing here, a willing target for minutes conversing with an apparition the Spryte wanted her to see. She could have been attacked at any time, too enamored with seeing the one thing that had kept her surviving and fighting.
Eviana reached for the dagger she had secured to her thigh, her fingers wrapping around the cool hilt. It was only then she realized she was trembling. Not out of fear, but because for these last minutes, she’d thought she’d been conversing with her daughter, and it had been nothing but bait. That tremble was from anger.
“Bold of you to reveal yourself before you had me bleeding,” she sneered at the Spryte.
The Spryte only smiled, something just as sinister as the child’s features had twisted into.
“And stupid of you to reveal your strategy. There’s nothing left to lure me with,” Eviana continued.
The Spryte lifted a hand, gesturing behind her.
Eviana glanced over her shoulder, where the child was still standing, watching her with interest. “The apparition is nothing anymore,” she scoffed. “As I said, you foolishly gave up your element of surprise.”
“She doesn’t speak,” the child said. “None of them do. Not the Sprytes or the Nymphs or the Imps. Not the trees or the flowers.”
Then Eviana froze for an entirely different reason. Her blood went cold as she realized this truly was her, and she had…befriended the Dreamlock Woods? But why? And how?
The sound of leaves and twigs crunching had both the child and the Spryte spinning. The Spryte gestured once again tothe child, and she nodded, turning and running back in the direction of the Estate. When Eviana turned back, the Spryte had disappeared just as Lange and Corbin came into view.
“I told you to wait,” she snapped at the males.
“The children were all called inside,bellana,” Lange said, scanning their surroundings. “What have you been doing? I thought you were going to see a different angle.”
“I was. I mean, I am,” she retorted, looking back the way the girl had run.
If that had truly been her…
How was she ever going to convince the girl to come with her?
“We can’t just snatch a child off the Chaosphere field and drag her into the woods,” Corbin was arguing. “She’ll be terrified.”
“I don’t hear you offering any better ideas,” Lange retorted, popping some small berries they’d found into his mouth.
“And when she screams and cries? What’s the plan then, genius?” Corbin deadpanned.
Lange shrugged. “Maybe you should just shift into a giant kitty cat and let her cuddle you.”
“Shut up,” Corbin muttered, kicking at him with his foot.
They were all seated around a small fire, trying to come up with something—anything—to move forward. The longer they stayed here, the more likely they were to be discovered. Maybe they already were. Maybe the child had already reported their presence, and they were already fucked.
The only saving grace in this right now was that Valter wasn’t here yet. She’d know. Just like she’d known when he was close while they were in the back of the truck. Bond or no bond, she would know.
“We don’t even know what she looks like,” Corbin added, passing a piece of bread smeared with peanut butter to Eviana.
“True,” Lange answered.
“Not entirely,” she offered, taking the bread.
“That would have been helpful earlier,” Lange deadpanned.
“I didn’t know until this afternoon.”
They both paused, and it was Corbin who was rubbing at his brow when he said, “Something you need to share, nightmare?
“She has reddish hair. More red than brown. Her eyes match mine,” she answered, shifting where she sat. She hadn’t shared about the encounter, wanting to keep it to herself for a little while. Why? She had no idea. But it was something that was hers. Hers and her daughter’s. Theirs alone. Talking about it felt like she was letting too much in.
