I turned to look forward, watching in horror as the man at the front of the line pulled on the reins and halted his steed. He spun quickly, his head and shoulders twisting, to stare at the back of the line. That shock of white eyes aimed toward me, feeling for just a moment as if he not only saw me, but saw straight through me to the core of everything I’d become. The burning on my neck intensified, throbbing with the cold heat of a warning.
Spinning to lean my back into the earth once more, I pulled my cloak tightly around my head and neck and hoped to suppress the feeling that lit me aflame from the inside.
The thump of a man dismounting carried through the woods, the sound echoing off the trees around us. I pressed my hand tighter against my mouth and fought back the panicked breaths that filled my lungs, while my heart felt like it drummed against my chest.
I was so certain he could hear it, positive that the creature who trudged through the underbrush at his feet sensed the pounding blood in my veins.
I waited, counting the breaths between each footstep. There were too many, too long a pause between each scuff of his foot against the ground. Either he meant to torment his prey, or he genuinely wasn’t certain where we might be hiding. I didn’t dare to hope for the latter.
Already prepared to offer my cooperation for Brann’s life, I reached over to grasp his hand in mine. Desperate to feel the warmth of my brother’s hand against mine for one more moment before all else was lost, I hated the chill that had swept over his skin.
Another step came, bringing the spectral being closer, until I wasn’t certain he wasn’t a ghost sent from the underworld to punish me for attempting to flee.
The last step came directly above our heads, and the ground shifted with his weight. Clumps of dirt rained down, falling between the tree roots that concealed us until my cloak and hair filled with them.
We held perfectly still, waiting with bated breath for the moment he reached through the roots and tore us free from our hiding place.
I sucked in a breath of air, panic seizing my lungs as the image filled my head. Brann spun to stare at me, a silent reprimand for the too-loud noise, but the howl of a hound in the distance had covered the gasp I’d stolen at the worst possible moment.
The wind carried the sound of the hounds who’d found their prey, and guilt immediately claimed my body in a trembling embrace.
As the leader of the Wild Hunt mounted his horse and the entire group of them rode off into the distance, all I could feel was gratitude that it hadn’t been me the hounds scented out. That I would live to hide another day, even when it meant that someone else hadn’t been so fortunate.
9
I opened my eyes to light. Despite all my questions of whether or not our world had been plunged into eternal darkness, the sun rose in the morning. Illuminating the forest with sparkling light, it made the evergreen needles of the canopy around us glimmer.
I resisted the urge to rub the sleep out of my eyes, thanks to the dirt caking my hands. I felt far too tired after the long and arduous effort of falling back asleep after the near encounter with The Hunt.
Moving to my hands and knees, I kept my body low as I crept out of our hiding place beneath the tree roots. Careful not to disturb Brann while he slept, I pushed to my feet in the small clearing and looked around the woods. I hadn’t been able to see a thing the night before, but I’d crawled around in the very dirt beneath my feet. I’d plunged my hands beneath the leaves when looking for Brann and found nothing but decaying foliage and wood rot.
I climbed out of the alcove that had offered us refuge, looking around cautiously as I moved. My steps led me to the center of the meadow, spinning slowly as I looked at the fresh bloom of wildflowers growing from the trunk of the fallen tree we’d taken shelter under.
They couldn’t have existed the night before, with the chilly nights and frost on the horizon, and yet somehow here they were. A verdant trail dotted with marigold and lavender followed the path the Wild Hunt had walked, the new blooms opening for the first time and turning to face the sun while I watched. I tipped my face up to feel the heat on my skin, smiling bitterly at the realization that the Fae had somehow chased away the threat of winter with the rising sun. The frost that had felt so near in the days leading up to the end of the year harvest was gone, giving me hope that I’d be able to find some kind of shelter and warmer clothes before the snow came.
I turned slowly, taking in the beauty of the woods briefly before I turned my gaze back to Brann’s sleeping form. His chest rose and fell evenly, rhythmic and without a care in the world as he momentarily slept away his worries. I knew the instant he woke, he’d remember all that had happened and all that he’d given up for me.
My bottom lip trembled as I watched him for a beat, my breath shaking as it escaped my lungs, and I turned in the direction I thought we’d been running the night before.
When he woke up, he would hate me for what I’d done, but at least he would be alive.
I put one foot in front of the other, focusing on the only thing I could do when the future seemed impossible. When living was so far away from running and hiding in the woods until the day I died. That one, next step was the only thought in my head, even as the fall of tears wet the front of my cloak.
“You won’t last a day on your own,” he said behind me, making me spin in place to see him sitting up and alert, watching me with a disgruntled scowl as if I’d failed a test he’d presented me with. “For one, you’re going back the way we came. Second, you’re about as quiet as a rock troll.”
“Oh, shut it,” I said, my lungs wheezing with laughter as he pushed to his feet and approached.
He stopped in front of me, wrapping trembling arms around me and pulling me into his chest. I loosed a sigh, sinking into the comforting touch and sniffling back my tears. This felt like goodbye, like he understood there was little choice but to let me continue on my own.
When everything was stacked against me, and my odds of surviving and remaining free were practically nonexistent, the knowledge that maybe Brann and my mother could find a new semblance of normal with the Veil down gave me comfort. The Fae had no interest in them, and they wouldn’t join the ranks of fighters who would get in the Hunt’s way.
“I’m scared,” I admitted, lifting my hands to wrap around his upper arms.
He pulled back enough to nod at me in confirmation. Only a fool wouldn’t be terrified of death or the unknown, and everything we’d been familiar with up until yesterday was gone. Even the humans who hadn’t been marked would never be the same.
Not with the threat of the Fae walking among us.
“I’m afraid, too,” he admitted, giving me a bittersweet smile. “But whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”
“Brann,” I objected, shaking my head from side to side. His willingness to follow me was foolish at best, deadly at worst.