Kaida finds herself running through a forest, the branches tug at her face and hair in their attempt to claw her back, but she keeps going.
She keeps going until her chest burns and she tastes the coppery tang of blood in the back of her throat.
Her legs ache but she refuses to listen to them.
Her brown eyes dart around frantically as she tries to find the correct path, everything glazed over with mud and sticks.
She is completely lost but she has to keep moving. Keep running.
Eventually, she stumbles out into an open space.
Kaida allows herself a moment of respite as she catches her breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
She discards of a stray green leaf clinging to a braid, letting it flutter to the ground.
When Kaida calms down, she is allowed to take in her surroundings and approaches the entrance to a small village.
An overhead sign announces her destination.
Something is off.
It is too eerily silent. There is no sign of life or activity and Kaida instantly becomes alert.
She inhales and smells the the heavy stench of smoke and the familiar smell of burnt wood.
She trudges into the village, past the initial cover of pine trees and gasps at what she sees.
Her eyes widen.
The village has been utterly desecrated, the settlements half-charred and collapsing in mounds of black ash.
Half-burnt bodies are scattered all over the place and there is no doubt Kaida walks on bones turned to dust.
The human remains sinking deep into the soil underneath.
She coughs and then proceeds to cover her mouth with her hand.
It reeks of cooked flesh.
She turns quickly when she spots what appears to be a family, huddled together but completely frozen, nothing remaining but black inky silhouettes, all of their flesh melted away.
The parents are covering the children as they awaited their impending doom.
Kaida does not want to inspect the details.
Her dread builds and she wants to get out of here, immediately.
Fresh smoke rises from the village, indicating it had been recently burnt but it is unnaturally cold.
Kaida shivers and wraps her arms around herself, her teeth slightly chattering together.
She spins and comes face to face with a middle-aged woman.
Her eyes are hauntingly misty and her light brown hair has been stained onyx.
Charcoal-like residue covers her cheeks and hands.
She grabs Kaida's shoulders in a vice like grip as her nails dig into skin.
"EVERYONE IS DEAD! Everyone is dead! HE KILLED EVERYONE!"
The woman begins to maniacally shake Kaida.
"Who? Who killed everyone? Who did this?"
Kaida questions but the smoke begins to tickle the back of her throat and she starts coughing uncontrollably.
The woman grows even more frantic.
"Have you seen my son?"
"No, I-"
YOU ARE READING
𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆'𝐒 𝐂𝐑𝐘
Romance[Completed - Book 2 of the Blood Court Series] ❝ You are mine. The thought of anyone else apart from me having access to you, it could drive me mad. You do not know the lengths I'll go to...
