He belonged with her. I was supposed to be dead anyway.
As the hours passed, wandering through the night that had come in the middle of the day, I grew more and more resolved to make Brann return home. There would be no one to protect our mother when the Fae crossed the mist and came to Nothrek once again. No one to stop them from cutting her down along with the rest of Mistfell in their hunt for the Fae Marked.
I’d need to do whatever it took to send him back to take care of her while I continued forward on my own, running until there was nowhere left to go.
“You have to go back,” I gasped. My lungs burned with the cold, heaving with exertion as we ran through the woods. Brann raced at my side, his longer legs keeping pace easier than mine, and I had to put everything I had into the deadly sprint to keep up with him. Pain tore through my side, the muscles cramping as everything inside me seized.
I hadn’t had a moment to rest or recover from the magic that had changed me as the Veil fell, not in the hours since we’d started running. There wasn’t time for such luxuries when my life was on the line.
Branches tore at my face when the path faded into nothing but the haunting shadows of darkness, and I couldn’t tell if the rustling leaves were the ones beneath my feet or if something else was in the woods with us.
All manner of animals lived in them, from the rabbits that had no doubt made a dash for their warrens, to the rock trolls that lurked in the caves during the day. Their heavy footfalls that shook the ground would have felt different from a rustle, but the arachne and snakes could have kept pace alongside us in the dark without ever being seen.
“I can’t,” Brann said, and even though I couldn’t see him, I could swear I felt him shake his head in denial. “Listen to me, Estrella. No matter what happens, you cannot let the Fae catch you. Do you understand?”
“I know that,” I wheezed, panting through the effort to keep up with him. How he wasn’t even the slightest bit winded, I would never understand. Brann had always been the fastest boy in our village. One of the strongest fighters, even though he had no interest in joining the Mist Guard.
Pain exploded across my forehead suddenly as something struck me, a flare of white spreading across my vision. I stumbled to the side and raised my arm to touch the thick branch that had knocked my head back. Falling to my knees, I touched the bleeding wound at my hairline and wiped the moisture on the cloak I couldn’t even see in the pitch black.
“Estrella!” Brann hissed in a whisper, and his booted foot touched my knee as he felt around for me. “Get up.”
He didn’t bother to check to see if I’d recover or ask what happened; only his urgency to put distance between us and the monsters that would follow drove him forward. “I can’t,” I said as my vision swam in a swirl of darkness and shadows.
A howl came through the trees on a blast of frosty wind, and everything inside me cramped with terror. “The Wild Hunt is coming,” I said, voice hollow.
The pounding of hoof beats echoed through the sky like thunder. My heart lurched, and, glancing into the darkness behind me, I couldn’t even see the trees we’d only just passed through. The darkness surrounding me only added to my rising fear, leaving me certain that something was watching us.
Something I couldn’t see.
“Get up,” Brann repeated. He fumbled for my arm, grasping my elbow and hauling me to my feet.
“You should leave me,” I warned, tugging at my elbow as he helped me through the woods. He slowed his pace, giving me time to catch my breath before quickening his steps when the heavens flashed with a plethora of colors that tore through the onyx sky.
“I will never leave you,” he said, even as he faltered, turning his face up to watch the black of night stained with watercolor pastels, which twirled and slithered through the clouds.
My mouth dropped open as I watched the colors writhe and twine, consumed by the unearthly beauty, which didn’t belong in the human realm. In the silence that followed as we stared at the sky in wonder, the burning of my lungs seemed to settle with a begrudging acceptance.
I would never be able to hide from beings who were strong enough to paint the sky. I’d never tasted true freedom, so consumed by the life laid out for me in Mistfell that I’d never thought to wonder what might be waiting for me further inland.
Now I never would.
Drawing a deep breath of frigid air into my lungs, I turned to stare at my brother’s face. Illuminated under the watercolor sky, his amber eyes reflected the light until the moment when he turned his face down to stare at me. He swallowed, the breath catching in his lungs when a flock of birds whipped over our heads and navigated through the trees, as if the risk of flying into a tree was far less than the danger that followed at their tails.
Another pair of amber eyes stared back at me: the only bird that didn’t flee in terror. The eerie eyes of the blight gleamed in the darkness before it took off into the sky and was lost to the night.
“We have to keep moving,” Brann said, pressing forward and dragging me along with him. My steps were slower, and dread settled over me for the day when I would need to say goodbye. Because the emotion I’d seen in his eyes only confirmed what I had already known in my heart.
We both knew parting would be inevitable.
His golden hair gleamed with the colors in the sky every time we came to an opening in the trees, and I tried to focus on him. On his strength beside me, pushing and pulling me to keep trying.
A scream pierced the air far behind us, drawing a shudder from him.
“We’ll never outrun them,” I said, knowing it would be pointless in the end. Even without knowing what kind of magic they had that would enable them to travel across the human lands, we were on foot. We were tired, and we were not used to walking long distances, let alone running. The arduous pace we’d set at the start of our journey hours ago wasn’t sustainable.
But even if it had been, it wouldn’t have been enough.
Brann nodded, seeming to accept the truth as I spoke it. We kept walking through the woods, staying as quiet as we could, as we both understood that any noise could be our downfall.
After what felt like an eternity of walking in silence, the colors in the sky disappeared in a slow wave of black that seemed to swallow the rest of the light from the world. My stomach clenched inside me, tightening as the black swirls on my arm felt as if they writhed in response to that eerie darkness.
“He’s here,” I whispered, turning to look for the brother I couldn’t see, as the woods were plunged into darkness once again.
“Who?” he asked, his voice so quiet that I knew instantly he already knew the answer.