Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

WREN

Wren dragged in a desperate breath and screamed.

The world around her shattered and she opened her eyes to the night, to Finn standing over her, staring at her in horror. His sword was drawn, the blade turned scarlet by the blazing fire.

She scrambled back, tangled in the blanket and her cloak.

‘Wren?' he said, but he sounded shaken. ‘Are you all right? Talk to me.'

The sword didn't move. It didn't even tremble. It just pointed straight at her as if she was the threat.

‘What is it?' she finally managed to gasp. ‘What—what are you doing?'

‘Don't move,' he told her curtly. ‘Whatever you do?—'

A growl rippled out of the night behind her. In spite of his command, she found herself turning.

Eyes like two blue flames stood out in the darkness between the trees. Eyes, but nothing natural had eyes like that.

Slowly, Wren pushed herself back towards Finn. He wasn't trying to hurt her, he was protecting her.

‘What is it?' she asked. She'd never seen anything like it in her life, not even in the depths of the darkwood.

‘Shadow kin,' he whispered, the word no more than a breath. As if in response to being named, the creature growled again, the tone more threatening. Wren felt it in the depths of her chest, like a reverberation that sent her heart skittering wildly.

‘But it… it has eyes…'

Shadow kin were just shadows. They could hurt the unwary, and trick people off the path. They could lure you over cliffs or into deep water. They made bargains and cheated. And sometimes… sometimes…

She thought of the men back on the road, of the darkness she had called up and what Finn had said was left behind. There hadn't been shadow kin this strong in years. Not here. Elodie wouldn't allow it.

But Elodie wasn't here.

‘They do have eyes,' he told her in a calm and patient whatever-you-do-don't-panic tone. ‘And teeth, and claws too no doubt. It's strong to have taken a shape. Probably to hunt us. It fed well, if you recall? How fast can you run?'

She'd managed to creep back to his legs and she wrapped her arms around one. She needed to touch him. She needed something to hold on to. Something real. ‘Not fast enough.'

‘You're going to have to try harder than that,' he told her. ‘I can't take them all on.'

‘All?' Her voice cracked and she looked around wildly. At the edge of the clearing, where the shadows between the trees were darkest, more glowing blue eyes were appearing. Surrounding them. Even if she could have found the strength to run, there was nowhere left to go.

‘We're going to back up to the fire,' Finn told her in a calm and reasonable voice. A voice she desperately wanted to believe. To trust. ‘Slowly, carefully.'

She could barely move, but somehow she did. The aura of pure threat emanating from the creatures made her keenly aware of her position here. Prey. She was prey, through and through. Finn was all she had to protect her. He was the one thing she could rely on here, the one thing not consumed with panic and terror. He was a rock in this waking nightmare.

‘How did they find us? They're drawn to magic. I didn't… I didn't do anything.' But she had been dreaming. And in her dreams… in the dream there had been the voice in the darkness. And part of her had welcomed it. No, she pushed the thought away. ‘It wasn't real.'

Her voice shook and she hated the way it sounded. She hated the way these things made her feel. In a moment the fear bled away and something else took its place.

How dare they? How dare they come here, surround them, target them? How dare these insubstantial remnants of a broken power attack her? Attack Finn?

The rush of rage took her completely by surprise. It came with something else, something dark and endless that made her eyesight sharpen.

She could see them amid the trees now, great hulking things, made of muscle and teeth. They were fierce, and hungry, but that didn't matter. The one in front tensed, recognising that she could see it now and made ready to attack. It bared its maw at her. Wren looked into the blue fire of its eyes and she felt the anger surge through her limbs.

She moved without thought, throwing herself backwards, towards the fire, just as Finn had instructed. Finn didn't move, standing between her and the monster, blade waiting even as the creature burst from cover. It was huge, dwarfing him, even though he was not a small man.

His sword whistled through the air, an arc of silver, slicing into the shadow kin and bringing it down. For a moment, elation filled her. But then another burst from his left.

He swivelled to face it, his expression grim. Even as he ducked and danced back from the sweep of its claws, Wren knew how this was going to go. Another one came from behind him, bearing down on him, even as he registered its presence and whirled around to take on both at once.

Wren's hand closed on a piece of wood jutting out of the fire. It was barely burning, only ashes and glowing embers now, but it was enough. It had to be enough.

She yanked the stick free and snarled as the darkness recoiled from her and flames burst up all along the piece of wood. She charged at the creatures, wielding it like Finn used his sword. It crashed against the nearest one and the creature screamed, the sound echoing brokenly through the night.

Finn ran another through, and turned, ready for the next.

But he missed it, somehow.

The biggest one of all, twice the size of the others, slammed into him, knocking his sword away.

And its teeth sank deep into his side.