It wouldn't let me go. I stumbled, every bit of strength slithering from my body, as every aching muscle slammed into the ground and melted there.
I didn't bother searching for her. Knew that those three lesser tiers were just a diversion to make me weak. To ready me for the main course.
The creature pulled itself up and out of a long pile of leaves. Grunting and breathing heavily, its dark form heaving and twitching as if it wasn't used to wearing something so cumbersome. Like human skin.
It wiped its face clean. Stared down at me with motionless eyes that paired well with its jaw. Opening and closing as if it wanted to speak.
As if it wanted to..., "Maeva?"
More climbed. More pulled. All around me, the Black was alive with men yanking themselves from the cold embrace of the earth. Some sobbed, some questioned themselves, questioned everything; others made it their one goal to find me. Their final objective.
"Noel?" I could barely say his name. Barely get it right.
"What's—what's happening?" he scratched his neck like he wanted to rip away the skin. He tore at his hair and shuddered with stabbing breaths.
"You're alive," I answered. Stupidly. I dropped my head into the dirt and saw the rest. Ceadda stood at the far back, shaking. Shaking like he was caught in a blizzard with nothing but a chemise. Spider Stubble hugged himself tightly, scanning from right to left over and over. The one with walnut colored hair, one of Ceadda's buddies, heaved everything into the dirt until his belly was empty but still convulsing.
And her. Where was she? My heart leaped. Slammed itself against my innards. I stood and spun. Searching for her. Mentally peeling away brush and low branches.
But nothing. Nothing.
"Katell?" Noel whimpered. The others whipped their gazes toward him and trudged to me, "Katell—I don't—I don't feel so well."
None of them did, it seemed. Somehow, someway, she had...
You need to kill her. It's your duty. You swore!
But something else told me that they were more important. Somehow, they hadn't died. Not completely. And while it was possible for them to come back, they wouldn't have come back intact. Not like this.
They needed help. They needed to see a healer.
They were more important than her.
"Come on," I said to Noel and the others, "Let's go home."
YOU ARE READING
Winterskin (Book One of Wrath & Winter)
FantasyPromise the dead but protect the living. Until a promise to the dead forbids her from doing so. Katell Maeva has spent her entire life as a woodcutter. In the summer months she chops wood and in the winter she knocks out wolves. But when food become...
