The Siege of Shadows: Book one

A Dying World (29)

By the time the sun rose, I was already awake. My pack was packed, and my thoughts were a swirl of anxiety and dread. I hadn't slept much, my mind restless and my body more tired than it had been in days. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was that blinding white castle on the horizon, its pristine quartz stone gleaming like a jewel in the morning sun. I dreaded reaching it. There was no place I'd rather avoid.

The forest around us seemed even more oppressive this morning, the trees bending in unnatural ways, their branches reaching like claws. The air was thick with the scent of rot and decay, and the silence was suffocating. The wind didn't even dare to stir the leaves—everything felt still, as if the land itself was holding its breath. My heart beat faster with every step.

Kael moved ahead, silent as ever, his presence like a dark shadow in the overgrown woods. There was a distance between us, both physical and emotional, and I couldn't help but wonder how he could move so easily through all this darkness, so indifferent to the suffocating sense of unease. Maybe it didn't affect him the way it affected me. Maybe he had grown numb to it. But I felt every bit of it.

As we moved, the trees began to thin, and the shadows lifted, making way for pale sunlight that filtered through the branches. The oppressive silence of the forest seemed to break, and soon, I could see the village lying in the valley below us. It was nothing like I'd expected.

The village was like a ghost of what it had once been. Stone cottages, crumbling and decayed, their roofs sagging under the weight of years. The walls were covered in vines, their windows broken and empty, their once-beautiful structures now barely standing. There was a faint scent of smoke in the air, the kind of smoke that lingered but couldn't quite warm anything. It was like the place had been abandoned but never quite left behind—frozen in a moment of ruin.

My stomach twisted as I looked at it, my heart sinking. It felt wrong. Empty. And I couldn't understand why.

"Is that it?" I asked, my voice soft, not wanting to disturb the eerie quiet of the village. I didn't need to look at Kael to know the answer. I could feel it in the air.

He nodded, his expression dark. "The last village before the castle."

The words sent a chill down my spine. The last stop before the heart of this cursed land.

I followed him into the village, my steps slow and reluctant. The closer we got, the heavier the air seemed to grow. The weight of the place pressed down on me—something was deeply wrong here. The village was eerily silent, except for the occasional faint murmur from the fae who still lingered in the streets. Their movements were sluggish, as if the very act of walking had become too much for them. Those with wings bore twisted, broken appendages, the edges frayed and torn, while those without wings dragged themselves along, their once graceful steps now stiff and painful.

But it was the children—or rather, the lack of them—that caught my attention the most. I couldn't help but look for them, expectant of the laughter and noise of youth, but there was nothing. Not a single child in sight. It was as if life itself had drained out of the place, leaving only shadows behind.

My heart ached as I whispered, "Something's wrong."

Kael didn't say anything. He just kept walking, his face unreadable as he passed through the village, as though this was an everyday sight for him. I didn't understand how he could be so unaffected by it all.

And then, just when I thought I couldn't bear the weight of it any longer, I saw him. A familiar figure stepping from the shadows at the edge of the village. Ahren.

His auburn hair was darker than I remembered, his eyes still holding that mischievous spark, but there was no smile on his lips now. His expression was heavy, burdened. The weight of this place, this village, had taken something from him too.