The closer she got, the more glittering green illuminated the forest from the very ground – like the earth itself was glowing. Even as she freely passed through a transparent green dome with some kind of nautical star pattern on it, she didn’t stop.
There was nothing in the world that would have stopped Emerie from running right then. Not her pain, not her panicked and huffing breaths, not the burning muscles in her legs, nor the stitch in her side that told her she couldn’t maintain her pace for much longer without collapsing.
She was in the middle of the Veil, surrounded by monsters, and her absolute favourite one was back on her trail. In a few seconds, she was about to be dead.
Ahead of her, the trees opened up. A house came into view.
A lovely, freshly made log cabin home sat in the middle of a tiny clearing like a beacon of hope. Then again, she wondered how long it would take for Ingram to break down the very wall like a freaking boulder to smash his way through.
She wasn’t going to knock on the door, not when a monster could be inside it. What was the chance a human with the ability to stop a Duskwalker would be living there?
However, as she veered to the left to go around it, movement caught her eye, just as she caught theirs.
A woman, a human woman, gasped and dropped a ceramic container. With a shatter, blue paint gushed against the steps she’d been walking down.
Oh dear lord, Emerie had just doomed this woman.
All she could think to scream was... “Run!”
Where? Who fucking knew. Better than dying like a sacrificial lamb.
A bursting snarl behind her was the only warning either of them got before Ingram sprinted into the clearing.
She hooked a sharp left, hoping to lead Ingram away from the woman so she couldn’t get caught up in his bloodlust. Her Ghost wouldn’t be able to handle the shame if she was the reason this woman died.
“Magnar!” the woman screamed. “Help!”
No! Don’t call for help!
A panicked laugh bubbled to her lips when she saw a second Duskwalker heading straight for her from the right just as she was passing the house. A fenced garden came into view. What were the odds she’d head straight towards another Duskwalker when she was trying to flee from one?
Then again... the whole point of coming to the Veil was to find his brothers. She just hadn’t thought she’d be a bleeding piece of bait.
Both Duskwalkers leapt for Emerie at the same time.
She closed her eyes, tripped the fuck over from doing so, and landed on her face. She waited for the inevitable. For claws, fangs, and a beak to start chomping and slashing as they fought over her.
When nothing happened, although she heard the evidence of a struggle and the sharp clipping of a beak, she rotated to her arse. Leaning back on her hands, her chest heaving in and out with rapid, sawing breaths, her stark gaze grew riveted to the scene just beyond her parted thighs.
She frantically kicked as she backed up.
Above Ingram, who was clawing at the ground to get to her, the new Duskwalker had him pinned down by laying on him. His fox skull reared back to avoid being bashed by short goat horns. Somehow, he’d managed to thread one of Ingram’s arms between them to keep him down, while his knees had found a way to pin his tail and legs.
All that was free was one arm and his head.
She could feel the fox-skulled Duskwalker’s white orbs on her before they turned dark yellow in curiosity. However, a sharp backwards head-butt under his bony jaw had his orbs turning white again.
He lifted his skull back, parted his fangs, and let out a bellowing roar. It was loud, long, and unnatural – more like a signal rather than an emotional release.
The woman from before sprinted past them, running to the two Duskwalkers like a fool.
“Stay back!” the Duskwalker yelled, cutting his roar short.
Like she didn’t care about the very serious and threatening command, the woman ran to Emerie. All she could digest about her was that she had short black hair that came to her shoulders, tanned skin, a plump, round body, and she was wearing a lavender dress.
Emerie was too freaked out by what was going on to think about anything else, or what to do. How was this woman so calm with two Duskwalkers here? Especially since one of them was in a dangerous mental state and the other one was pinning him down.
The new Duskwalker’s antlers were imposing, and they seemed odd coming from his skull. He was also thicker than Ingram in body and had fewer bones protruding from his skin. At least, she assumed so, since he was wearing pants. His long and fluffy tail swayed side to side due to Ingram’s wiggling.
Suddenly the woman’s face was less than a foot from her own.
Comforting brown eyes were filled with worry, as were the crinkled lines of it in her lovely, rounded face. “We need to get you inside. Magnar has called for the others, but we need to get you away from the Duskwalker in case he gets free.”
The logic of that only broke through Emerie’s shock long enough to give her a reason to rise to her feet. With the woman grabbing her arm to steady her, she led Emerie like she was a horse.
“Delora,” the new Duskwalker warned. “We do not know her. She could be dangerous.”
“I don’t care. We can figure that out later, after you heal her. Right now, she needs to stop bleeding before she bleeds out and we can’t find out how or why she got here.” Then she pointed to Ingram. “Please be careful.”
Magnar... Delora... Emerie’s gaze slipped from the woman to the fox-skulled Duskwalker who was battling to keep Ingram down. They know each other.
“Oh my god, you know each other!” Emerie shouted as she ripped her arm from the woman.
Delora winced as she fought Emerie’s slapping hands to grab ahold of one again. Magnar growled behind them... at Emerie, for some reason.
“Please! I’ll explain later.” Delora tugged her along to the front of the house where there was a porch. “You’re really pale and look like you’re seconds from passing out.” She gestured to the stairs to make Emerie sit. “Please, stay here. I’ll only be a moment.”
Was she about to faint? Right now, her adrenaline was so high she thought she could take on a bear if she really wanted to. Yet, when her arse found the steps and she was forced to wait on them, her eyelids began to droop.
She didn’t even flinch when cloth was pressed against the multiple claw wounds down her back. Actually, they felt rather numb; she felt rather numb.
“I’m guessing you were travelling with that Duskwalker,” Delora mumbled behind her. “You couldn’t have picked a worse time to come here. The Demons have been running in packs, attacking us any chance they get when we’re alone. You should have stayed out of the Veil.”
Sight and sounds were growing muffled and dim, so Emerie couldn’t distinguish if the woman was being condescending or was just voicing her worries and concerns.
Regardless, Emerie weakly gave a thumbs up to her. “I’ll remember that next time I decide to come for a stroll.”